Something More Weekly

#18 Low frequencies

Tom rarely went to school. He sometimes turned up at registration in the morning to announce to his classmates how much he'd spent on beer that weekend and that he was heading out for a run or to get a tan. It's important to show face. The great thing about being in sixth form was that we were permitted to fill out our own registration forms, even by proxy. As a result, the records show that Tom had a rough couple of years. At least between all the suspensions, rare and in some cases completely unique new illnesses and personal days, he had the opportunity to discover himself spiritually by partaking in numerous religious experiences, which sometimes lasted months at a time.

One benefit of not having to go to school is that you have more time to work and Tom spent a fair amount of cash on his car, including its sound system. On the occasions that Tom dropped by the school to say hi to his friends, we would sometimes ride around, tailgating the other drivers at speed whilst listening to incredibly loud music out of custom made speakers. To see Tom's Ford Escort was to hear it first.

My father always had large speakers. If you're going to get speakers, why wouldn't you get big ones? I've liked trance and house since my mid teens. It's an easy way of achieving uniqueness without really having to do much. Unless you're from Manchester. Everyone in Manchester likes electronic dance music. I grew up in a detached house with liberal parents. Shortly before attending university, I discovered Digitally Imported.com, which provided the constant steaming beat by which I lived for three years and led to the discovery of many of the tunes I would listen and run to over the course of the next decade. The website is still going strong.

I'd wanted a subwoofer for a long time. Perhaps because I had extraordinarily little else going on in my life at that moment, I finally decided last week that I should have one. It came on Wednesday. Why would postal services deliver things during the day? People are at work during the day. Anyway, they left it with our neighbor who, in her retirement has involuntarily turned her house into a post depot. You don't really want your neighbors to know that next door just got a sub but there's a chance she wouldn't really know what it was so maybe we'll get away with it.

If I ever had to get arrested for something, I would choose loud music.