Monday, September 01, 2008

Sounds of the City

It is amazing how listening to a portable music player creates a whole new surrounding for the listener making him or her detached from the real world. While enjoying the music being played in the device, it makes that person miss out on the noise and sounds of the true environment. Based on my personal experience, it is a mix almost being run over by a reckless driver and partly losing my hearing because the volume was inadvertently set to max a couple of times! My honey has also complained that this is why I keep missing his calls.


There are days I didn't have my device on because of my forgetfullness to always recharge, recharge, recharge. If it is any consolation, I had a wonderful, sometimes life-changing, experience listening to the sound the city reverberates and also the conversations I didn't fail to overhear.


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How nice it is to hear the clacking sound of shoes against the concrete city sidewalks.


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(Overheard inside a high-end store in Union Square between a Sales Associate and a shopper).
SA: Is someone already helping you?
Customer: No, not really.
SA: Do you have any questions?
Customer: Uhm, I'm just looking around to see the things that I can live without!


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(Overheard inside the city's SPCA - Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).
SPCA: Do you already have a pet?
Visitor: No, we don't
. Oh, actually, we do. (The adult looking down at the kids next to him.)
Kids: (Giggles and then laughter)


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The chic violinist and her hipnotic piece on the corner of Geary and Stockton in front of Neimann Marcus.


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(A group of friends inside a newly-opened Filipino restaurant in the Castro district).
This is what I call a 'dressed-up' traditional Filipino cuisine.


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(Overheard while walking down Market street between a young man and a young woman).
YW: Do you like older women?
YM: No, not really.
YW: It's just that I've always seen you with older women, that's why.
YM: I like them all.


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(Adult with a little kid while getting out of a subway station. In Spanish!)
No lo sale.
(It won't come out - referring to the ticket).


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(Overheard inside the J-train. A guy talking on his cell phone).
I'm on the J. I'll be there in half an hour (pause)
I have a movie called The Scandal. IT sounds good (pause)
Sorry I don't have anything to eat at my apartment and I just had brunch with friends (pause)
I only have ice cubes (pause)
Bring yourself something to eat like a snack.


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(Overheard while waiting in line for a movie at the Metreon. A guy talking to another guy.)
Oh my god! I'm so busy. If I'm not working long hours, I go to the gym. Work, gym, work, gym, work, gym or I sleep-in.


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~ral

(This photo was taken at the SF Museum of Modern Art on a Thursday evening.)