17 October 2006

Lay off the horn

Someone downstairs - someone 8 floors below me - someone 8 floors below me and across an intersection - is annoyed by someone else. So he's laying on the horn. For half a minute at a time.

Which means he is annoyed by the guy in front of him. And everyone within the sound of his horn is annoyed with him. It's impressive how loud a horn still sounds from a distance of an intersection and 8 floors. Admittedly, our windows aren't well soundproofed, but even so. And car horns, like unhappy-small-babies-that-you-don't-personally-know-but-who-are-on-your-plane-with-you, are really hard not to hear. Kind of piercing sounds, really, and for about the same reason: to let everyone nearby know that there is something wrong or something about to be wrong so that - with luck - the right person, the person who can do something about it, will also hear the sound and be motivated to act.

Well, I'm motivated to act right now, but not in a good way. I'm motivated to get Mr. Noisy Horn's tag information, track him to his lair, and key his vehicle.

I'm not actually going to do it, of course, but I'd like to.

3 comments:

Hjalti said...

How about an Amen to that.

Anonymous said...

hi, im in an art-rock radiohead-esque band and i read this blog and was inspired to write a song, once recorded and published we will include a footnote about this site but tell me what you think, imagine it with flange type bass, electric drum loops and lots of crazy sounds, a little bit like 'the national anthem' by radiohead, enjoy (comments: moses_duncan@hotmail.com)



Someone,
8 floors below me
Is laying on the horn
For half a minute at a time

Inside
Inside of ear-shot
The sound-proof isn’t working
And all the crying babies

[And I want to act
Motivated to act
Get his information
Track him to his lair]

And somehow
the 8 floor intersection
is simply not enough
to keep him quiet

quiet,
all I want is quiet
some of us have jobs
and need all the rest we can get

[And im not going to say
he’ll soon tire out
I’m not going to say
but I want to]

I want to

(interlude)

‘Come on
hurry it along, sir,
we have to keep it moving
we all want to get home’

beep
beep goes the horn
make noise for the sake of it
and still, he’s laying on the horn

half a minute
half a minute
half a minute at a time

Leta said...

That is so neat! I've never in my life before had a song written about any aspect of my life, and now you're written one based on my incohent ramblings.