Our book:
Defensive Design for the Web: How To Improve Error Messages, Help, Forms, and Other Crisis Points
Available Now ($16.99)
Most Popular (last 15 days)
Looking for old posts?
37signals Mailing List
37signals Services
Syndicate
The iPod People
19 Feb 2004 by Matthew Linderman
The World at Ears’ Length (NY Times) discusses iPod people and asks, “Could the iPod…be turning the vibrant sidewalks of New York into the pedestrian equivalent of the soulless freeway?”
Whatever. As an avid iPod pedestrian, I’m siding with this Billy Collins poem instead.
Man Listening To Disc
This is not bad —
ambling along 44th Street
with Sonny Rollins for company,
his music flowing through the soft calipers
of these earphones,
as if he were right beside me
on this clear day in March,
the pavement sparkling with sunlight,
pigeons fluttering off the curb,
nodding over a profusion of bread crumbs.
In fact, I would say
my delight at being suffused
with phrases from his saxophone —
some like honey, some like vinegar —
is surpassed only by my gratitude
to Tommy Potter for taking the time
to join us on this breezy afternoon
with his most unwieldy bass
and to the esteemed Arthur Taylor
who is somehow managing to navigate
this crowd with his cumbersome drums.
And I bow deeply to Thelonious Monk
for figuring out a way
to motorize — or whatever — his huge piano
so he could be with us today.
This music is loud yet so confidential.
I cannot help feeling even more
like the center of the universe
than usual as I walk along to a rapid
little version of “The Way You Look Tonight,”
and all I can say to my fellow pedestrians,
to the woman in the white sweater,
the man in the tan raincoat and the heavy glasses,
who mistake themselves for the center of the universe —
all I can say is watch your step,
because the five of us, instruments and all,
are about to angle over
to the south side of the street
and then, in our own tightly knit way,
turn the corner at Sixth Avenue.
And if any of you are curious
about where this aggregation,
this whole battery-powered crew,
is headed, let us just say
that the real center of the universe,
the only true point of view,
is full of hope that he,
the hub of the cosmos
with his hair blown sideways,
will eventually make it all the way downtown.
17 comments so far (Post a Comment)
20 Feb 2004 | Trisignia said...
True. (snap snap)
Unfortunately, my tinybut great-soundingShure earbuds block me off completely from ambient noise. Great on the plane, but when the undercover cop was running toward me with his gun drawn, it was hard to tell if shots had been fired.
20 Feb 2004 | Brad Hurley said...
I just became one of these people...after a few years of resistance, I finally bought a 20-gig iPod. It arrived last week, the first one I'd actually seen. They're pretty rare in Montreal, at least where I live, and none of my friends had ever seen one either.
I do like using it on the subway and while I'm on my rowing machine, and it'll come in real handy on long airplane journeys, but as something to listen to while walking on the street it just feels a little too surreal, like I'm walking through a movie with a soundtrack.
One practical question: carrying this thing in winter is no problem as it fits nicely into my coat pocket. But in summer I just can't imagine myself walking around the city with an iPod exposed at my hip...it just seems like mugger bait.
How do you carry your iPod around in summer? I've been eying this new bag from Tom Bihn, which has a pocket for an iPod in the strap, but it might be overkill.
20 Feb 2004 | Jon Gales said...
I walk around with mine in my pants pocket... No special bag needed. It works great.
20 Feb 2004 | ryan said...
really, what's the social difference between walking around the city with an ipod, a walkman, a cd player or a minidisc player?
people have been doing this for decades.
20 Feb 2004 | pek said...
Just something for someone to write about...
21 Feb 2004 | Noah said...
Yeah, there's MD/cassette/CD "zombies" walking New York also. But more to the point: the social difference is the headphones. Some people continue to use the white headphones because they want to be noticed as iPod users for fashion's sake.
Not that the author hit on that at all... just saying there is a difference.
21 Feb 2004 | Ben Scofield said...
And on the 'iPods bring people closer together' side, here's an article from Wired News back in November on iPod sharing...
21 Feb 2004 | jkottke said...
Cell phones have already done this...the iPod is just contributing to it.
23 Feb 2004 | Gilbert Lee said...
I thought everybody owned a messenger bag. Summer, fall, winter, spring - that is the place for everything.
23 Feb 2004 | jerel said...
I'd take an iPod/MD/CD person over a cell phone person walking next to me on the street.
23 Feb 2004 | Don Schenck said...
What's the difference between the person next to you talking to a person or talking on a cell phone?
I don't get why it bothers people.
Okay, I *do* get it; WHY do people on cell phones think they have to talk so loud?
23 Feb 2004 | Mr. Nosuch said...
Some days I feel like listening to my iPod on the way to work, some days I don't. I notice I tend to listen to it more on the way in than on the way home.
Be it walkmans, iPods, malt liquor, cellphones, gameboys or crack, there's always a percentage of people on the street who are tuned out. Good for them. Do what you gotta do.
But the sidewalks are getting soulless? Please. Just the other day I saw an eccentric woman in her 60s bopping and swaying to her music on her headphones while waiting for the light to change. She was adding to "soul of the street".
Made me chuckle anyway.
New Yorkers love to have choices, and variety is good.
01 Mar 2004 | but that's just me said...
What's the difference between the person next to you talking to a person or talking on a cell phone? I don't get why it bothers people.
There are only two things that bother me about cell phones (and to stick to the original topic, nothing bothers me about iPods)...
1) I get tricked every time by people in the store talking on their cell with one of those little ear pieces that you don't see right away...my first thought is always to the effect of, "Hmm...look at that crazy person in produce talking to himself."
2. What is up with people talking on their cell phones while they're relieving themselves (or at least women, since I only frequent ladies' restrooms)? I can't imagine being on the other end of the phone. "Um...Mary...did I just hear a toilet flush?"
I mean, isn't there some sort of cell phone etiquette we should adhere to?
02 Mar 2004 | Don Schenck said...
Crazy people don't bother me. Hmmmm ... I wonder why?
02 Mar 2004 | but that's just me said...
That is a good question to ask yourself. But what bothers me is not that they're crazy (well, they could be...), but that they appear to be crazy and talking to themselves, peaking my interest, and then it just ends up that they're talking on the phone. Takes all the fun out of it.
02 Mar 2004 | Don Schenck said...
What humors me is the fact that people will talk way too loud on their mobile phone, and at the same time include us in things we don't need or want to hear.
"HUH? YEAH, WE TRIED THE VIAGRA AND MEL IS *STILL* IMPOTENT! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?"
*sigh*
02 Mar 2004 | but that's just me said...
I think it's a similar affliction to people picking their nose in the car thinking that no one can see them. They think they're invisible behind the windows. People on cell phones tend to forget that they're not encased in a phone booth.
