Cell Phone Assholery & The Art of The Cat Factory
Sorry I've been in such a good mood lately with no rants to share, but I've been saving up all my bile and hatred, like an infected zit ready to pop.
I am tired of you and your fucking cell phone. You nearly run me over on the street every day, not looking where you are going. You interrupt person-to-person conversations by answering your fucking phone in the middle of it all. You're loud, you're obnoxious, and most of all, terribly boring.
Speaking of assholes, the owner of the now-infamous Cat Factory (previous entry), at 1819 10th St., NW now has to contend with removing grafitti, as well has cleaning up the neighborhood junk from his yard:
While the artwork is interesting, the property has been a local haven for illegal dumping, and the car to the right has its window smashed open. Derelict housing attracts crime, and is kind of a shame when there's people out there who would like to own a home, when others let good property decay and serve as a neighborhood hemorrhoid. The tag in black to the right of the 'PEAR' tag says: "Inca Ocho Amen '07" - not as cute as the Swann Street Spook, however.
Here's a picture of me wondering why America is so obsessed with blonde women in peril. Why do the paternity results of a dead bimbo and her plastic surgery tragedy of a trick constitute headline news?
I put a 'housing wanted' ad on Craigslist and was pleasantly surprised to get about 4 responses in 24 hours. Much more efficient than scanning newspaper ads. But beware, one of the responses was a scam!
Geek makes City of Heroes online version of each of his friends.
There are some good things in the world, however. Like when a mama tiger loses her cubs, but still loves her adopted piglets. But it makes me wonder what tiger milk-fed pork tastes like.
Or the Xanadu sing-a-long at the P-Town Film Festival this year on June 13-17. I'll gladly pimp the event if I get housing sponsorship. It's going to be a busy year for me, with the Buffy sing-a-long, Night of a Thousand Stevies, and now this. Who said being an obsessed stalker was easy?
A special shout-out to John at Continuity.nu for getting me the Kylie Minogue fashion exhibition coffee table book "Kylie - The Exhibition" BEST. BOOK. EVAH. Will somebody in DC please sponsor this travelling exhibition? I am begging you.
It's not the phones, it's the people. When I was in Paris last year I was surrounded by people on cell phones using normal voices and not being annoying. There are right and wrong ways to do these things.
I'm not sure why a bus is some kind of sacred space where you shouldn't hear someone else's voice. But I do think that the voice shouldn't be any louder than someone talking to a person sitting next to them.
My peeve is people who won't stop talking when they need to interact with the physical world - for example, in line at a store, when they don't even treat the person behind the counter as a human being.
Not because it's a phone. Because it's rude no matter why they're doing it.
Hurray for your photos of assholes on phones. Maybe we should all start taking and posting photos of these morons...yeah, I'm gonna start too.
That woman on the bus looks like a sweet, NPR-ish type. We don't have many of those up here in New York. She was probably talking to someone about recycling.
I think our cell-phone users are much, much worse.
Jimbo,
I've seen the Kylie exhibition in both Sydney and London and all I can say is: Oh. My. God. So much fabulousness in one space makes my eyes hurt.
page 23 guy is cute.
At least they're not using the walkie-talkie feature.
What really gets me about cellphone users are the ones that use them as they drive! Zod knows how many near-accidents I've seen out here by people not paying attention while driving.
I work in a college library and even though we have signs posted around the building that state cell use is restricted to only two designated areas in the building, nobody obeys this rule - including faculty and staff. Interestingly, last month there was an afternoon when we had four students report the theft of their phones within a two hour period. Campus security asked each of them when was the last time they used their phones, and it was while they were in the library. My theory: a ticked-off cell phone vigilante decided to send a message.
As much I would like to take this Tigress-piglet story at face value and say "awwwww," I checked my fave myth-busting web site Snopes.com and found this
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/tigerpig.asp
I HATE public cell phone use too. It is so annoying- particularly in an enclosed space!! or when my father in law does it and I feel like I can't say anything to him about it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
On another note- Jim did you see the article in the LaX Trib about the county extending benefits to domestic partners? SHOCKING!!! and wonderful.
I agree with John. Using the phone on public transport is not bad perse. It's when you speak loudly. I don't see any difference between having a convo on your cell and talking with a friend on the bus. Just don't be loud and obnoxious.
Cell phones are here...they're the future...Just don't drive, don't talk on them when your at dinner with someone, and don't use the FUCKING walkie talkie thing. THOSE people should be shamed.
Thanks for checking up on that, Will! However, the photos unto themselves are still cute.
The sad thing about cell phone use on public transport is that their conversations ARE always louder than a typical conversation. I just don't want to hear that crap on my commute. I'm on the Green Line, and I might experience that particular behavior more than most, perhaps.
True Story, I think people yesterday morning thought I was an asshole on the nyc underground subway. I take the train two stops from 42nd street to 23rd street. while at 34 (the first stop)...I guess somehow undergroun a signal made it through during the morning rush hour. On this quite train in underground manhattan...someone called me, just as the train started to move. it was so loud...only I had my ipod going...so someone rudly tapped me on the shoulder. i was horrified. I hope they never put signals underground...it's the last quite in NYC.
I look forward to the new Cell Phone Assholery photos. Great idea.
Cool cards to hand out to rude-ass cell phone yakkers:
http://www.coudal.com/shhhcards.pdf
being on the road, i've had a chance to see more and more cell phone use while driving....some people find it hilarious....much like someone sitting next to a cold homeless dude on the bus while screaming -- to make a point -- about all of her grant assistance that she just acquired. presumably, she's not in your neighborhood picking up garbage -- nor perhaps bypassing litter on the beach. it's no wonder -- with plenty of examples as such -- that recent foundation awards don't overly excite me in their tar-pit kind of way. amusing post. cell phones make me laugh at this point. i've seen so many near wrecks -- conscious of the fact that people find it amusing....kind of like crusing the amazon doesn't make sense, yet, it's not your backyard that's being disrupted.
ok, the expression on that woman's face with the phone cracked me up. I hope to see more cell phone talkers on here. :)
Is it any cellphone conversation on public transport that annoys you, or just annoyingly loud cellphone conversations?
I'm assuming you'd have no problem with two people having a normal conversation on a bus, right? What's the difference between that and somebody having a (normal tone/volumed) conversation on a cell?
They might make you look dorky, but I've found that people with bluetooth earpieces generally do a better job of regulating their noise level.