I love music. As I explained earlier, when charged with the simplest, least time consuming task I can not (will not), begin, until I have decided what music to listen to.
Sometimes this is a good thing - given the right MP3 play list, I can ignore the rest of the office, knuckle down and churn out reams of quality code. I haven't missed a deadline all year.
On other occasions it's not such a good thing - resisting the urge to get your groove on while zooming down the N7 on a motorbike, a touch over the speed limit, listening to The Commitments' Mustang Sally is nigh on impossible. (Such was the extent of my arse wiggling, I'm sure the man behind was convinced the campest biker the world has ever known was coming on to him at 70mph).
As it happens, Mustang Sally was being played by GW who was guest presenting Ian Dempsey's breakfast show. A few moments later, having just nipped into the bus lane* , a motorbike cop motioned for me to pull in. Convinced I would soon be the proud new owner of 2 shiny penalty points I came to a stop but, luckily, it transpired he just wanted to ask a few questions about the bike.
As we were chatting, I was fervently hoping the headphone lead running from my jacket pocket into the crash helmet would escape his attention (a bit of a hazy area this). Of course, just like a bad dream, a few seconds later he paused, made a sweeping gesture in the general direction of the offending wire, raised an eyebrow and asked....
'Are you listening to the radio?'
'I am - but it's turned down very low. I can still hear the traffic. It's just to block out wind noise **. Sure, I wouldn't be able to have this conversation with you if it was too loud'. ***
'Well there's not really any law against it... but I wouldn't do it personally.'
Fair enough! Neither would I to be honest but its not every day your best mate presents Ian Dempsey's breakfast show.
<pause>
Well... if your best mate is Ian Dempsey....
Good point. Well made.
*... Motorbikes aren't allowed in bus lanes but most gardaí turn a blind eye to it.
**.. Wind whistling through a helmet at just 30mph will, eventually, damage your hearing.
***. As you can probably tell. I was desperately trying to talk my way out of it.
Friday 11 January 2008
Wired for Sound
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I discovered Last.fm some months ago and had two or three very happy days at work until I was told that using headphones "isolated me" from the rest of the office (that was the idea) and I wasn't to do it any more. So I get to listen to the girl across the way chew gum very loudly all day long (except for when she's munching crackers).
I never listened to the radio on the Vespa because singing along would fog up my visor.
Ha ha! I'm a demon for singing away inside the crash helmet - even when not wearing headphones!
I haven't got a note in my head at the best of times so it's the only time I can belt out a few bars of 'Unforgettable' without contravening the Geneva Convention in some way.
Post a Comment