Waking to a new soundscape
This morning in Champaign-Urbana, a few hundred freshmen are waking to an unfamiliar and unpleasant reality. For the first time in their lives, there's a new soundscape to their living environment.
They've never noticed sound before. They've never known what it's like to live between reverberating walls, bordering long hallways of clattering linoleum floors, below someone else.
For the first time in their lives, they sleep within spitting distance of a busy street, or actual country music.
| The most dangerous job in America
Were I to take the time to print out a curriculum vitae (I'm a little amazed that my spell checker didn't flag that), it would use up an entire ink cartridge. Those things aren't cheap either. Yes, my resume is a colossal mess, a sprawling autobiography filled with intrigue, sex, red herrings, suspense, and a cast of thousands. I should have been a Russian novel.
Filling out job applications is a bit like the task of writing War and Peace. I feel as though I am chained somewhere in a gulag, scrawling upon contraband toilet paper with a half-sharpened pencil, trying to list all the jobs and schools and bosses and phone numbers of my life.
I like to work, but I cannot stand applying for jobs, and that probably puts me in crowded and good company these days of double-digit unemployment.
I know that it's not even Labor Day yet, but I cannot stress how much I am looking forward to the fall season. There is just something majestic and supernal about the fall here. I hate to be morose, but when things start to die, I feel more alive. I recently was a pallbearer in a funeral, so forgive me for being a little melancholy. On a lighter note, even though things do die, from death springs new life. I'm …
By now, everyone has their favorite analogy for Park 51, the not-Mosque being planned at not-Ground Zero. "It's like putting a KKK headquarters next to an MLK memorial!" "No, it isn't. It's like putting a Catholic church next to a playground!" "No, it's a Japanese cultural center next Pearl Harbor." "It's a church next to a civil rights bombing site." "It's an NRA rally after Columbine." "You don't believe in religious freedom!" "You're an apologist for terrorists!" "You're a moron!" …
Suddenly, there is this moment of clarity, one of the rare, lifting glimpses. You never expect it. Out of the blur of busyness, it just shows up, and even though you didn’t directly invite it because you were preoccupied with the constant stream of minutia, you have to 1) believe it exists, 2) be ready to receive it, and 3) take it on. Maybe you are reading the paper. Maybe you are using the ATM. Maybe you are looking for …
One of the freedom struggles of our time is undoubtedly the quest to obtain equal rights for Gay Americans. This week (August 16–20, 2010) will witness two landmarks of progress in this struggle. The first landmark will occur at 5:00 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, when (barring the intervention of a higher court ruling), same-sex couples in California will finally be allowed to legally marry. The importance of the overturning of Proposition 8 cannot be overstated. Because of the heroic ruling …
Well, since everyone else is discussing the JetBlue employee, Steven Slater, and his yet-to-be-determined hero status, I might as well join in the debate. For those who are not up-to-date on Slater, here is a brief rundown of what happened on Monday, August 9, at JFK International Airport: After the JetBlue flight landed, one passenger chose to ignore Slater's announcement to stay seated. The anonymous passenger stood up, opened the overhead compartment, and accidentally hit Slater in the head with …
To beat the rush, I submit my Christopher Hitchens obituary prematurely. It's no big deal for either of us. Hitchens and I have both been asked, by serious editors of serious news organizations, to write obits of living people. I did it for NPR. He did it for The New Statesman. He divulges this assignment in Hitch-22, which opens and closes with Hitchens' tale of the first premature report of his death. Seeing his visage captioned "the late Christopher Hitchens" …
A few weeks ago, driving through Tolono on a census enumeration mission, I tuned in the popular WDWS talk radio program, Penny for your Thoughts. The host, Jim Turpin, took a call from a Champaign resident with familiar townie whines. First, the caller complained about the liberalism of Urbana residents. He then continued to express astonishment that he'd heard some lecturer or speaker refer to the Champaign population as "unfriendly." "What?" exclaimed Turpin, incensed. "We are the friendliest place in …
Despite the somewhat recent increase in parking rates, the extension of parking patrol hours and the colossal underachievement of the new parking garage, most days when I fork over my buck-fifty in parking fare so I can spend a few hours drinking coffee and reflecting on my increasingly bourgeois existence, I'm actually pretty okay with paying the extra money. I mean, I chose to pay for my parking. I could have just as easily hopped on my bike, or God …
Most Recent Opinion Comments
Curtis Orchard is always good for an hour or three, especially if you have rugrats.
eugh….I remember that sex ed class and i’m pretty sure I know the teacher you’re referring to. that place was hell.
Love the story about sex ed at the middle school. That’s what I do every day for my job—it’s so exciting to see students engaged in material many adults and parents assume is above their understanding or maturity level. Thanks for sharing! Oh, and if you…
“Rag Doll” by Aerosmith is a great accompanying song when you are throwing a tennis ball onto the floor to bother the people below you.
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/agriculture/2010-09-01/south-farms-taking-aim-birds-noise.html If U of I did any research into repelling birds, they would use a very silent but effective high output LASER instead of adding noise pollution to the already olfactory polluted area http://www.allpestco.com/2009/06/laser-bird-deterrent-or-laser-gun-vs-birds/
“I have some reading to catch up on, poolside.“ Classic.
What sticks in my neck is that most noise (unwanted sound) is a violation of the law. So why is it often so difficult to get the authorities to address the issue? Why are the anti-social elements so protected? These lowlife induviduals now seem to have the…
Spirit echoes - http://www.iainandjane.com/work/silentsound/index.shtml
People are entitled to peace and quiet. That gift has been lost and once lost is hard to regain. Anti-noise activitists fight for everyone’s right to have peace and quiet. Thanks to those that fight for our right to peace and quiet.
Most Recent Comments
Illinois has simply had no luck at all in these Mizzou games. None. I think maybe we’re do for a couple of bounces to go our way. If we get one or two (or sever or eight) breaks, I think it’s a win.
Jason, Savoy could easily join the CPL tax district, which is probably closer to most Savoy residents than the Tolono library is. But my impression is that Savoy residents as a whole don’t want to pay the cost of the CPL (Tolono’s library taxes are cheaper), even…
Sorry, but I am lagging behind on updates to the map. Also, some construction projects were delayed from their original start date. On a more positive note, I am putting together a map of haunted houses in Central Illinois. I have a few plotted already, and I…
I’ve never gotten the privilege of all the services CPL cardholders get. I just want to be able to go out of my way to drive to the CPL to check out books, pay fines, maybe buy some coffee, and enjoy the library. None of those activities…
These days, there is more to using a library than checking out books. At one time, paying into the Lincoln Trails system probably would cover the expenses incurred by other libraries in the system. Now, with Internet, videos, coffee shops, wireless Internet hubs, etc., I suspect the…
(speaking as a Savoy resident) By paying taxes to support a member of the LTLS, we are paying our “fair share” to use any LTLS library—Tolono, Champaign, Urbana, etc. This is how library systems work. The 6% of CPL’s circulation represented by Tolono users is NOT significant…
I read Timbo’s argument. I think the key word is “speculating.“
I would be interested to hear more about the “word on the street”—how are individual hauling companies fulfilling their promise to recycle?
Timbo makes a smart, sound argument. Reread it.
I joined on 09-09-09 after living here over a year, and having to listen to my dad tell me how his best friend is, like, #27 or something crazy like that, and how said friend never lived further than 50 feet from the Illini Inn while going…
And, I might add, no one is being prevented from using the Champaign library. They are just being asked to pay their fair share if they are going to use it as their primary library.
The equation is pretty simple here. If you want social services, then pay the taxes required to run those social services. These things only work if everyone puts in their fair share. As a heavy user of the Champaign Library, I say bravo to this new policy.
Curtis Orchard is always good for an hour or three, especially if you have rugrats.
What is the increased marginal cost of serving a resident of Savoy or Mahomet? I suspect negligible. What is the increased revenue to be realized by this new policy? I suspect very little. Aside from these financial aspects, what are the most probable results from this new…
Looks like you are also all members of the killer sideburns club.
Thanks for the article, Ben. I was not familiar with this band until now and even though I won’t be able to attend the show on Friday they are now on my radar. A *good* jam band is hard to find, and these folks appear to fill…
Nice article, love the Dead quote in the beginning. If they can get down here to Central FL I’ll definitely be heading out to the show. Some of my friends have finally stopped wincing when I say “jam band.“ I’ve now tried my best at more descriptive…
@Annie: Yeah, my bad. That was the best part! Drinking + memory exercises = fun @Rob: According to Ask the English Teacher, “My dictionary says ‘drunk’ is an archaic past tense of ‘drink.‘“ We’re all about the new grammar around here.
Katie, have the residents of Savoy and Tolono thought about having their taxes raised a little to help their public library expand? That’s a possibility for them. And then everybody wins.
good call on that Herring recording, Josh. Love that version of Exit Music….here’s a clip of the Cinco de Mayo show (from about six months prior). As I recall, this Shakedown went on for roughly a half hour, while getting into the Trampled Underfoot jam in the…
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Sorry, but I am lagging behind on updates to the map. Also, some construction projects were delayed from their original start date. On a more positive note, I am putting together a map of haunted houses in Central Illinois. I have a few plotted already, and I…