Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Neighborhood Color

What I love about living on Iowa City's north side is the neighborhood color. (Screennames redacted, from an actual AIM conversation):

Friend (1:56:27 PM): there was a reeeeeally talkative guy at the laundromat
Friend (1:56:39 PM): he was likeAWESOME YOU ARE KNITTING THAT IS SO MEDITATIVE
Me (1:56:55 PM): was it the one by pagliai's?
Friend (1:57:00 PM): and then proceeded to talk for like 20 minutes. therefore negating all meditative effects
Friend (1:57:02 PM): yup
Me (1:57:08 PM): wait was he older?
Friend (1:57:27 PM): i sound really crabby about it, really i am not but i kinda want alone time when i am laundromat-ing
Me (1:57:30 PM): i just had a totally annoying guy who lives in a house by my friends on linn st. talk to me for like 20 minutes at real records last week
Friend (1:57:32 PM): yeah, like 50ish?
Me (1:57:36 PM): what did he look like?!
Friend (1:57:49 PM): dark really short hair, kinda tall
Friend (1:57:57 PM): average weight, etc
Me (1:57:58 PM): this guy was obsessed with neil young and lives in the neighborhood and evidently very very talkative
Friend (1:58:03 PM): haha
Friend (1:58:09 PM): he never brought up neil young
Me (1:58:22 PM): the harmonica?
Friend (1:58:48 PM): YES
Friend (1:58:59 PM): haha i bet it's the same guy
Friend (1:59:35 PM): he was nice enough, but not really taking the social cues of "i'd like some quiet time"
Me (1:59:33 PM): I told you, and he's making a sitar thing
Friend (1:59:40 PM): hahah
Me (2:00:08 PM): OMG he is the annoying guy in the neighborhood, he did the same thing with me! I was looking for CDs for my mom and brother and he said "It looks like you know exactly what you want"
Friend (2:00:29 PM): ahhh now am i going to run into him everywhere??!
Me (2:00:30 PM): and then told me like five times "You know, I'll play like Bach on my harmonica, it's just intonation, not meantone"
Friend (2:00:44 PM): YES he totally talked about bach on the harmonica
Friend (2:01:19 PM): oh talkative laundromat guy
Me (2:01:28 PM): this is the sign we live in a small neighborhood
Friend (2:01:43 PM): hahah totally
Friend (2:01:57 PM): i seriously enjoy the anonymity of big cities
Me (2:02:40 PM): wow, this was such a funny story. If i change your name, would you mind if I blogged about this?
Friend (2:02:51 PM): i feel like people are like "omg it is a sign of america going downhill, people shut themselves in little boxes listening to their iopds and never interacting with other people"
Friend (2:02:59 PM): MAYBE WE JUST DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU HUH?!
Friend (2:03:12 PM): haha not at all

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Hello Peter,

I went to your M.A. recital with my friend last Friday, and it was a great concert! :) congratulations~
Actually I was one of Dr.Cain's students in last fall's Great Musicians(025:014) class, but I'm not in your session~ Anyway, I love that course very much!
I also recommended the classes in the School of Music to my friend, and she's now taking Western Music(025:013) this semester~
Hope you have a great semester~~~
(well, don't ask me how do i get the way to your blog...hahaha, long story=_=|||)

Michelle

Peter G said...

Thanks so much, it's really rewarding to hear! Keep on checking out music in town: http://at-lamp.its.uiowa.edu/recitals/