is there some kind of universal headphone shortage which i've freakishly managed to avoid? or maybe it's that there's some virulent disease affecting the ears of a considerable numbers of youths on public transport.

otherwise, what else could explain their choice of playing music on their phones, out loud, on trains and buses?

the speakers on these contraptions are of a curious design which make all music sound like a des o'connor record being played in a tin box at the bottom of a lake, but with an amazingly penetrative tinny beat layed over the top thereof.

consequently, they can't really make out what the tune is - but maybe that doesn't matter to them, as all that RnB and hiphop shite sounds the same anyway. if one is really lucky then they "sing" along with it, thus making the experience complete.

And we all put up with it. at most, all the other passengers (yes, passengers, not bloody 'customers' - but that's another rant for another time) just give an occasional "harrumph" and direct a slightly peevish stare at the perpetrator, and then turn quickly away when the little shit(s) look in their direction.

i have, at great personal cost, invested in a spare set of headphones which i offer to lend to those deprived young people who seem to not be able to afford headphones after having paid outlandish sums of money for the phone/mp3-player which they're using.

however, my attempts at such kindly and benevolent gestures have mostly been met with threats of physical violence, and claims of snobbery [apparently, wanting to be able to appreciate the music to which you're listening and not wanting to inflict it upon one's fellow passengers is a sign of snobbery].

maybe there needs to be an advertising campaign aimed at educating these poor deluded souls in the fact that headphones have this amazing ability to improve the sound that one hears, without inflicting it upon anyone else.

they are selfish, ignorant twats and deserve to be summarily executed in front of a baying crowd of passengers - the execution taking the form of being strangled with a headphone cord ...

... and, what a coincidence, i just happen to have a spare set of headphones handy.

[sorry, rather a lengthy rant there, but it's just been another hour-long journey with two sets of phones playing r'n'b des o'connor, and i'm getting slightly narked]

LOL! There's nothing to add to that, except:

(a)
is there some kind of universal headphone shortage which i've freakishly managed to avoid?

Good opening sentence!

(b) Where have you been? You used to be around a lot more if I'm not mistaken.

(a) thank you, thank you [smirks in the style of that smug bastard in the Rover 700 series adverts]. without trying to brown-nose anyone, it's always nice to receive encomia from those dsi-ers whose own posts i have always enjoyed reading ... honestly, it's not me trying to be smarmily flattering.

(b) i was around, but had some time away from dsi when i saw a lot of postings (not in this superb forum, of course, but over dsi as a whole) which seemed to either become vicious attacks or self-important posturings with a kind of "state-of-the-nation" feel to them ...

[a bit like back at university when some "Third World First" group tried to get a motion through the student union, stating that "this Union condemns those who exploit the disadvantaged in the third world and indulge in evil sex tourism".
-> Like dedicated sex tourists are going to suddenly say "well, i was going to head off to thailand to sample some child prostitutes, but once i heard that Leeds University Union was against it, i decided to reform my evil ways and become a modern-day Gladstone".
of course, nowadays the only reason the chattering classes are against sex tourism is because of the carbon footprint - whoops, sorry another rant there on "fashionable causes"]

... so, not wanting to get involved in insult throwing (except against Andy Whitby) as i'm over-sensitive and realising that i was one of the pompous posting posse, i decided to just watch from the sidelines.

[sniporama of epic rant]

Well, I asked that question in the right group at least!

yes, sorry about that. i appear to be in rant mode, so you're probably wishing i hadn't "returned". my only excuse is that i had to listen to a bunch of people at dinner on thursday, talking about carbon footprints and buying friends a goat for christmas.

buying friends a goat for christmas.

Funny you say that, a mate of mine who is the most right on person you could imagine and has worked for nobody except public sector and charities since he started work, actually worked for one of these "buy a goat" people for Christmas.

He left after a few months - sounded a total nightmare, with a lot of money going all over the place (posh lunches delivered, excessively-sized offices in a VERY posh part of London) and several other dodgy practices (rudeness, unpleasantness to unpaid work experience volunteers) and some downright bizarre stuff (nothing that wasn't vegetarian and kosher to be eaten in the building in case anyone was offended).

He's just taken his first private sector job ;-)

had to ressurect this thread...


last weekend I was on the train back to London for a night out, and some Eastern Europeans (well they sounded like it - I would narrow it down to Latvian if I was surer) had one of their phones on playing LADY IN RED at full volume for everyone to hear...


...for the whole 25 minute journey - over and over!


Bearing in mind the train had come all the way from Norwich it could have been going for an hour and a half before i got on the train!!!



the old people in my town just moan at the chavs on our buses so nothing too much to worry about with those anymore!!