Okay - I was on the train yesterday coming home from town after a successful shopping trip (yay! I found a super cheap CD shop and went a little overboard), and this guy gets on, looking like he's trying to be an Australian Rastafarian/hermit/swagman/hippie/free spirit, with his bike and a guitar. He leans his bike up against the wall, and starts strumming away loudly. Now I'm listening (very happily) to my ipod, and I happen to really, really enjoy catching the train because it gives me half an hour or more to listen to my favourite music and generally zone myself out, so this really pisses me off. Then he comes and sits down across from me and looks at me like I'm a closet imperialist/yuppie/sweatshop manager, sitting there with my ipod, sunnies and leather handbag, and plays louder, as if it's necessary to make me listen to him and in so doing enlarge my tiny imprisoned mind. At one point, to give him the benefit of the doubt, I turned off my ipod and listened, but his guitar sounded like it was about to snap in half and the strings like they were made of elastic bands. Back on goes the ipod.
The one moment of satisfaction I got from the whole share-your-free-spirit-with-the-whole-train thing was when, right at the start, he started playing and his bike fell over with a huge crash, so he had to go rearrange it. I must have a cruel sense of humour but it was the funniest thing that happened all day.
So who is more sadistic - he or me? And which is better - an unoriginal ipod-generation yuppie, or an annoying Rasta hippie who wants to share his freedom with a whole trainload of people?
When I am a tyrannical dictator, this is an issue I will have to address.
Edit: Oh, and by the way, you may remember my post on choosing a destination to visit in Western Australia, and the poll I asked you to vote on. Monkey Mia came first by one vote, then the backpacker bus trip, then third equal Ningaloo and Kalgoorlie. Well - thank you for your input. I have made my decision, and on Sunday I am going on holiday for a few days. I will tell you where and how and everything else when I get back. :)
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4 comments:
It never ceases to amaze me how free spirits try to push their "freedom" on everyone else. Even they are trying to make the world around them look exactly like themselves.
Your story reminded me of the town troubadour on Gilmore Girls, I can't remember if you watch Gilmore Girls or not. Have an excellent trip!
I might be remembering my Literature of Dissent a bit off here, but isn't the whole gist of Martin Luther King Jr that your rights only extend until they step on someone else's rights? The man is clearly an ass and needs a good slap upside the head by ME. A musician that would NEVER ever EVER subject unsuspecting strangers to my music unless they entered the clearly marked venue in which I was playing.
That man is a moron. My judgement is final.
Next?
What an idiot. Seriously. Making you listen to his stuff--I hate annoying people like that.
Darn hippies!
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