June 23, 2006

Moving iPod Advertisement

It’s funny- there are advertisements pasted all over America; silhouettes of skinny people attatched to iPods, captured in an instant of rawking out… it’s Apple’s depiction of someone really digging their product. Most people I see who have them walk through crowds, oblivous of what’s around them, or lose themselves in their music on the train, sometimes multi-tasking with a book for the paper. Their personal space aura is clearly demarcated by the white earbuds and the subtle bobbing of head.

But when you actually bust out and dance to the music playing on your iPod in the train station, people get really distracted. I was commented at by no less than eight people while shuffling around to some Saint Germain and Count Basie tonight. One dude even tried to sort of dance near me. I asked if he danced and he said, “no… not really.” But he kept on anyways.

I was hanging out in a corner of the station that didn’t have too many people waiting, not really into putting on a performance. But I had twenty minutes to wait for the train and just sitting there seemed really boring, especially when I had just come from a pretty good two hour practice session with my dance buddies. So if people walked by and saw me, I wasn’t gonna stop and act like I wasn’t dancing, because what is wrong with dancing after all? So I just kept it up, feeling kinda goofy, but prefering to wiggle around than to just stand there looking all affected and cool.

I felt a little bit like one of those train station musicians… people walked by and smiled, the way I always do when a guitarist or saxophone player adds a little bit to the ambiance of a public space. Maybe next time I’ll put a hat out. Haw haw. THAT would be funny.