Public transport, accents, and music
Oct. 27th, 2004 12:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmolinguistWe were only going two stops, but that was still enough for the tram to have some interesting Technical Difficulties.
"Why are we stopped?" Andrew asked.
"It happens sometimes," I said confidently, and explained about how there are sets of tracks that mesh together before Victoria and so the trams have to work out a way for them all not to crash into each other there. Andrew was bemused. This is how you can tell which of us reads books and which looks at things when on public transport.
I ended up being wrong anyway, though, as the pause in our journey wasn't just for a moment but lasted enough that, for the next few conversational lulls, I noticed that we still weren't moving. Then the driver made an announcement. I can only understand about one word in three in tram announcements (real ones, not just the ones that say obvious things like "Piccadilly service, next stop Market Street"; I've finally gotten good at deciphering those now that I already know what they're going to say) but I caught something about a signal failure and emergency brakes and I knew that at the end he'd said, "ask all passengers to hold on tight." That made me laugh.
The emergency brakes weren't very exciting, though, especially as my seat was facing backward w.r.t. the direction the tram was moving, so I was just pushed into it a little, in a disappointingly gentle manner.
"Now that's a proper Manc accent," Andrew said as we were sitting in Victoria station (having tickets for our destination ...).
I'd just been thinking that I had no idea what the announcement had been. I forget sometimes what people in Manchester actually sound like. But then, I don't talk to people from Manchester much. Talking to Andrew lulls me into a false sense of comprehensibility, as his accent's not very strong and not really Mancunian. He says it's definitely from the northwest, but probably more Scouse than anything. "People who live somewhere else usually guess Liverpool," he told me last night. "People in the northwest can't even guess. I was made fun of at school for sounding like a posh Scouse."
It's a decent guess, but he doesn't really sound like he's from Liverpool either. This was made clear by the time we were about halfway there on the train. Since it's the kind of train that stops every five minutes to let people off or on, the people who got on started to sound very strange to me as they chatted amongst themselves. "Could you imagine such variation over 20 miles in the US?" Andrew asked me. I shook my head.
Soon he asked "Lee Green?" That was the name of the current station, according to the authoritative sans-serif of the sign outside our window. "I've never heard of that before. And I thought I knew all the places between Manchester and Liverpool. These aren't real stops."
I didn't hear anybody from Liverpool talk while I was in Liverpool. I heard Andrew say that he was never quite sure how to find the Cavern from the train station but not to worry because he always managed it. I heard the Beatles singing "She Loves You" when we walked in, and I heard an American introduce the next guy, who was also from the States.
His name is Mike something, and he had glasses and interesting hair. He sounded like Ben Folds with a guitar rather than a piano. He asked if anyone had been to Des Moines and I cheered. I bet he didn't believe me. He talked about how the girls there are beautiful despite being inbred. He had a CD called Acrimony and Cheese.
After his set, Andrew's sister, her boyfriend and I went to get me some food, as I'd not eaten all day. As we were leaving, I heard the next guy's introduction: "He's written songs for Celine Dion, Taylor Dayne ..." "Oh, I'm real sorry to be missing that," I mumbled.
But when we got back, Andrew told me that the guy had opened his set with a song he'd written for Rufus Wainwright called "Instant Pleasure." I was halfway to thinking, Aw, that's a shame, I like lots of Rufus Wainwright songs and— before the last bit sunk in.
The impression that "Instant Pleasure" has left in my head is of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mllesarah singing, "I don't want somebody to love me / Just give me sex whenever I want it / Cause all I ask for instant pleasure / instant pleasure, instant pleasure!" When Andrew found that I liked that song he spent the rest of the night mocking me for missing it. I don't think he's stopped yet, actually ... He also told me that the guy writes books about baseball, and that his website is seth.com, which seems impressive. Andrew pointed him out to me as "the one in the blue shirt who looks like George Harrison."
Also, when I was gone, Andrew had told the Mike guy that I was going to buy his CD, so I had to then.
We had to wait for the first train back to Manchester in the morning, and then we had to wait around Piccadilly until we could get a tram home. So we spent about an hour there listening to annoying music and train announcements and talking about both. After listening to the preternaturally calm female voice finish a long list of places a train was stopping on its way to London or Leeds or whatever, Andrew said, "She's just making up half those, isn't she? There aren't really towns called that!" I giggled. "Well, wouldn't you if you were a train announcer?" he asked. " 'This train stops at Liverpool, Chester, Great Stockington ...' " I giggled.
So we slept all day, and when I got up this evening, I had a million mailing-list e-mails all mentioning the same guy. "Who is John Peel?" I asked Andrew, in the next room.
"He's a DJ," he replied. "Why?"
I must've been a bit ahead of him on logging on. "He's dead," I told him.
"Oh, shit," he said softly.
Now I'm beginning to understand why he said that, thanks to him and practically all of my British LJ friends who've written anything today, because almost all of them have mentioned him. Much of the music I like would not exist if it weren't for him, even though I hadn't heard of him until today, even though some of those musicians I like so much may be equally ignorant of him ... they were probably influenced by someone who has a story involving John Peel.
In his own account of last night, Andrew said, "I saw a bloke in the audience who was the absolute spitting image of John Peel (who I'd previously seen at a couple of London gigs, so I recognise him on sight). After this morning's news, if I was a superstitious man I'd say his ghost had come back to Liverpool, but I'm not, so I'll just say it was a spooky coincidence. RIP John."
(Crosslink:j4 says music is her first love.)
"Why are we stopped?" Andrew asked.
"It happens sometimes," I said confidently, and explained about how there are sets of tracks that mesh together before Victoria and so the trams have to work out a way for them all not to crash into each other there. Andrew was bemused. This is how you can tell which of us reads books and which looks at things when on public transport.
I ended up being wrong anyway, though, as the pause in our journey wasn't just for a moment but lasted enough that, for the next few conversational lulls, I noticed that we still weren't moving. Then the driver made an announcement. I can only understand about one word in three in tram announcements (real ones, not just the ones that say obvious things like "Piccadilly service, next stop Market Street"; I've finally gotten good at deciphering those now that I already know what they're going to say) but I caught something about a signal failure and emergency brakes and I knew that at the end he'd said, "ask all passengers to hold on tight." That made me laugh.
The emergency brakes weren't very exciting, though, especially as my seat was facing backward w.r.t. the direction the tram was moving, so I was just pushed into it a little, in a disappointingly gentle manner.
"Now that's a proper Manc accent," Andrew said as we were sitting in Victoria station (having tickets for our destination ...).
I'd just been thinking that I had no idea what the announcement had been. I forget sometimes what people in Manchester actually sound like. But then, I don't talk to people from Manchester much. Talking to Andrew lulls me into a false sense of comprehensibility, as his accent's not very strong and not really Mancunian. He says it's definitely from the northwest, but probably more Scouse than anything. "People who live somewhere else usually guess Liverpool," he told me last night. "People in the northwest can't even guess. I was made fun of at school for sounding like a posh Scouse."
It's a decent guess, but he doesn't really sound like he's from Liverpool either. This was made clear by the time we were about halfway there on the train. Since it's the kind of train that stops every five minutes to let people off or on, the people who got on started to sound very strange to me as they chatted amongst themselves. "Could you imagine such variation over 20 miles in the US?" Andrew asked me. I shook my head.
Soon he asked "Lee Green?" That was the name of the current station, according to the authoritative sans-serif of the sign outside our window. "I've never heard of that before. And I thought I knew all the places between Manchester and Liverpool. These aren't real stops."
I didn't hear anybody from Liverpool talk while I was in Liverpool. I heard Andrew say that he was never quite sure how to find the Cavern from the train station but not to worry because he always managed it. I heard the Beatles singing "She Loves You" when we walked in, and I heard an American introduce the next guy, who was also from the States.
His name is Mike something, and he had glasses and interesting hair. He sounded like Ben Folds with a guitar rather than a piano. He asked if anyone had been to Des Moines and I cheered. I bet he didn't believe me. He talked about how the girls there are beautiful despite being inbred. He had a CD called Acrimony and Cheese.
After his set, Andrew's sister, her boyfriend and I went to get me some food, as I'd not eaten all day. As we were leaving, I heard the next guy's introduction: "He's written songs for Celine Dion, Taylor Dayne ..." "Oh, I'm real sorry to be missing that," I mumbled.
But when we got back, Andrew told me that the guy had opened his set with a song he'd written for Rufus Wainwright called "Instant Pleasure." I was halfway to thinking, Aw, that's a shame, I like lots of Rufus Wainwright songs and— before the last bit sunk in.
The impression that "Instant Pleasure" has left in my head is of
mllesarah singing, "I don't want somebody to love me / Just give me sex whenever I want it / Cause all I ask for instant pleasure / instant pleasure, instant pleasure!" When Andrew found that I liked that song he spent the rest of the night mocking me for missing it. I don't think he's stopped yet, actually ... He also told me that the guy writes books about baseball, and that his website is seth.com, which seems impressive. Andrew pointed him out to me as "the one in the blue shirt who looks like George Harrison."Also, when I was gone, Andrew had told the Mike guy that I was going to buy his CD, so I had to then.
We had to wait for the first train back to Manchester in the morning, and then we had to wait around Piccadilly until we could get a tram home. So we spent about an hour there listening to annoying music and train announcements and talking about both. After listening to the preternaturally calm female voice finish a long list of places a train was stopping on its way to London or Leeds or whatever, Andrew said, "She's just making up half those, isn't she? There aren't really towns called that!" I giggled. "Well, wouldn't you if you were a train announcer?" he asked. " 'This train stops at Liverpool, Chester, Great Stockington ...' " I giggled.
So we slept all day, and when I got up this evening, I had a million mailing-list e-mails all mentioning the same guy. "Who is John Peel?" I asked Andrew, in the next room.
"He's a DJ," he replied. "Why?"
I must've been a bit ahead of him on logging on. "He's dead," I told him.
"Oh, shit," he said softly.
Now I'm beginning to understand why he said that, thanks to him and practically all of my British LJ friends who've written anything today, because almost all of them have mentioned him. Much of the music I like would not exist if it weren't for him, even though I hadn't heard of him until today, even though some of those musicians I like so much may be equally ignorant of him ... they were probably influenced by someone who has a story involving John Peel.
In his own account of last night, Andrew said, "I saw a bloke in the audience who was the absolute spitting image of John Peel (who I'd previously seen at a couple of London gigs, so I recognise him on sight). After this morning's news, if I was a superstitious man I'd say his ghost had come back to Liverpool, but I'm not, so I'll just say it was a spooky coincidence. RIP John."
(Crosslink:
j4 says music is her first love.)![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-26 04:25 pm (UTC)There is a reason for this ;)
There is a reason for this
Date: 2004-10-26 04:32 pm (UTC)Re: There is a reason for this
Date: 2004-10-26 04:34 pm (UTC)Maybe not the most *accurate* way, mind you...
Accurate?
Date: 2004-10-26 04:36 pm (UTC)PS
Date: 2004-10-26 04:43 pm (UTC)Re: PS
Date: 2004-10-26 05:05 pm (UTC)The guy named Mike...
Date: 2004-12-22 05:10 pm (UTC)Re: The guy named Mike...
Date: 2004-12-22 05:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-26 04:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-26 04:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-26 05:02 pm (UTC)I tend to be on the side of those who think I sound Scouse, as almost no-one can tell my voice from my dad's on the phone, and he's from Kirkby, but you could be right...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-26 06:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-26 09:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-26 09:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-27 05:51 am (UTC)Well, they like rich things that make them money, though ...
Stupid sports owners.
So....
Date: 2004-10-27 06:35 am (UTC)Aw, somebody noticed that
Date: 2004-10-27 06:57 am (UTC)Anyway, I'm absolutely torn between being excited to see my friends and family and being torn apart at the mere thought of leaving Andrew and the UK.
I'm leaving in a couple weeks, anyway; I'm sure you'll hear more about it then, like it or not. :-)
Re: Aw, somebody noticed that
Date: 2004-10-27 07:10 am (UTC)Do you think you'll be back?
Oh, and by the way, I think it's a lovely picture of yourself....
Blessings & Safe Travels!!!!
I could sing something else for you, if you want ... :-)
Date: 2004-10-27 07:17 am (UTC)And thank you, both for the compliments of my photo and the good wishes.