They are actually very good! In this photo they are whispering something secret to each other. I met the Songwriting students from the University of the West today, who seem a lively and interesting group, and I am taking them on a mystery field trip next Thursday. They are very curious about it, but I won't tell them where we're going.
The headphones know, which is why they are whispering.
One of the students told me that out of 80 undergraduate students on the course this year, only six are female.
My colleagues used to treat me like a... well... can't say the word.... Feminist when I used to point out that their student gender balance left a lot to be desired, and actually things evened up a bit for a while, even though if they'd put their hands over their ears and yelled 'I'M NOT LISTENING!!!' they could hardly have seemed less interested.
But now I've left, and nobody's watching, and it's gone back to the good old days of the unfair sex ruling the roost.
Harumph!
And there was a member of aforesaid gender, a student with a microphone, yes, that's right, a
MICROPHONE,
SHOUTING,
'YEAH! COME ON! UUH!YEAH!'.
How interesting! In some respects microphones are the worst invention in the world, because they lead some people to equate volume with value, and to believe that their voices and what they are shouting (a microphone is supposed to mean you don't need to shout) are very interesting, just because people turn round to look at the source of (an)noise.
Shears, shears, next time, one big snip of the microphone lead and silence will reign!
One of the studio stories from last week involved a grumpy college lecturer fed up with a student's endless widdling on the electric guitar.
After several attempts to ask him to shut up, he went to his car, removed a large pair of wire clippers from the boot, went back to his room and cut the strings of the guy's guitar with a satisfying snap!
If only sometimes I had the courage to do the equivalent of the guitar string snipping!! I'm often tempted to take peoples' mobile phones and turn them off, when they are conducting loud conversations in inappropriate places.....
ReplyDeleteAha! well the solution to the mobile phone problem is to join in!
ReplyDeleteConduct the other side of the conversation. I tried it once- it's hilarious when the person realises what you are doing, because they are utterly baffled!
Janine Butcher relates to that snipping story, doesn't she.
ReplyDeleteThe mobile phone solution works with really loud ipods on buses as well, you have a discussion with your friend, equally loudly, in which you try to guess the track the ipod person is listening to... me and one of my ex supervisors at work did it on the way home from work to a guy listening to Kylie very loudly, he got very freaked out...
ReplyDelete