Friday, August 18, 2006

Talking Loud, Saying Nothing

Still no time to blog, been spending too much time in my (rather fetching) chef's uniform. Also been spending too much time on buses lately, and what the fuck is wrong with people and their mobile phones on public transport? Buses used to be quiet, meditative places. A little capsule you could sit in, gaze out the window and think about stuff. Or you could pull out a book and indulge in the luxury of a bit of a read. And not just newspapers but fiction. Don't know when reading fiction started being a luxury for me, but it is.

Now you get on a bus and every fucker is talking into their phone, and I've yet to sit in on a conversation that can't wait until said fucker gets the fuck off the bus. Currently I am really getting into Jeff Noon's Vurt, and there is always some oyster brain telling their phone about their job or what they plan to do for the weekend or how funny some movie is... FUCK OFF!

Tomorrow, I rebel. For tomorrow, I read Jeff Noon's Vurt... out loud.

Busy week, but wrote this, for anyone interested in a very good play showing at a cool little theatre in Sydney.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I so dare you to read out loud on the train. You'd probably get some dirty looks and more than one idiot asking you to pipe down because he's on the phone. Damn, that'd be classic. Please please do it.

Anonymous said...

Or bus, actually. Sorry. Not train.

Lee Bemrose said...

That's the perefect scene I have running through my mind: I'm reading quite contentedly, they take a call and start blathering, I start reading aloud and they cup their hand over their phone and say "Do you mind? I'm on the phone." And I reply "Yes, and I'm trying to read."

In a certain mood, I do this sort of thing.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Oh PLEASE PLEASE read out loud on the bus. I dare you.

Lee Bemrose said...

Dare me, do you GG? Ok. This is feeling like a project.

Anonymous said...

Yes! See? I dare you too! PLEASE, PLEASE, take mine and guyana-gyal's dares and READ ALOUD ON THE FUCKING BUS FOR CRISSAKES!!!

And take pictures.

And maybe a video?

;)

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

If not videos or tapes, tell us what happens.

Lee Bemrose said...

This is so funny - I'm being dared to do something pretty silly by someone in Guyana and someone else in America, neither of whom I've ever met.

I have to write my Grumpy column today, and I think it's going to be a call to arms, bit like the scene in Network when Peter Finch gets everyone to throw open their windows and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm noy going to take it anymore!"

I'm going to urge everyone to always travel with reading material, and whenever someone has a public transport phone conversation that steps outside certain guidelines of etiquette, they must start reading at the same level as the telephone offender.

I'll post the column when it's finished. And I suppose I should lead by example...