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Friday, March 19, 2010

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November 17, 2001

Noise Pollution

This morning I went to my favorite local coffee shop for a bagel and some (okay, a lot of) coffee. I was distressed to find this newly posted sign in the seating area:
Seeking musicians, bands, ect [sic], for the XXXX cafe’s mall lounge in the mini-mall beside XXXX café. Interested parties should drop off a demo and contact info for XXXXXX at the cafe.
I love music, possibly more than anything else in the world, and I always have. But I hate music in places I go to with the purpose of either (a) talking to friends over coffee or (b) reading alone while drinking coffee. What purpose – might I ask – would some crappy jazz trio serve in such an environment? Or, even worse, a singer-songwriter? The only people who ever go to a coffee shop to see a musician or a band are the people who are friends with said musicians, and who were asked to show up.

Music is a wonderful thing, it’s a wonderful thing to create and to absorb. But music is, almost always, a bad idea.

Especially jazz.

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Go Climb a Tree

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Alberto Manguel writes about his first love.

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