August turned into a hot month and as a result I had to keep the windows open all night. Even though we are on the fifth floor, we live on a street with fairly high apartment buildings on each side and a narrowish street. As a result, any noise on the road below echoes like in a canyon.
There are laws in the city that cafes have to close their outside sitting areas by 10pm in the evening if they are in residential areas. Noise ordinances. I wanted to petition the government to make a law forbidding talking on the street after 10pm too. I know I know, it`s ridiculous and it makes me sound like some sort of old, nasty, geezer grandpa complaining, but people should know I hear every word of their conversations five floors below on the street. And you cant say to me, "get a life, why are you listening?" Because I have a life and that life involves sleeping which I am trying to do, but they keep me from this valued commodity which I can`t get enough of. In fact I would have a better life if I didnt have to listen to their conversations. But I do.
What is worse, and now I finally come back to my original theory, is that its not just conversations, but it seems that every male, and quite a few females to boot, once they have a certain level of alcohol in their blood, seem to think they are Luciano Pavarotti and it is their deepest wish to sing at the top of their lungs at 3am whilst walking up my residential street. Inhibition is gone and there they are singing Three blind Mice or the like at volume 11. They need to sing. And loudly. Now where did that come from?
I ll tell you. It comes straight from childhood.
Now it is school time again and my daughter gets up at 6.50am. Ten minutes later she is in full swing with energy and is singing the aria from "Grandma bought some Apples at the grocery store" or some such operetta ... at the top of her lungs. We try to tell her "sh sh, your sister is still sleeping" or "the next door neighbor is still sleeping" She has an apartment literally adjoining ours and we can hear everything. An aside, I am just being polite, but really I couldnt give a figs eye about our neighbor as she is usually coming home at 5am and discussing matters in the hallway with some boyfriend or other and what comes next I really dont want to hear, but I have to because I am a light sleeper and well, we have very thin walls... So fiddlesticks to her. But out of good neighborliness I tell my daughter, "sh sh" at least be quiet before 7am".
Now, you`d think my daughter would get the rule and stay quiet, but, noooooo. A couple days later its, "Grandma bought some apples at the grocery store" at high volume all over again. Look I dont want to discourage her from doing what she likes and maybe developing a talent, but there has to be some rules, and singing Three Blind Mice, Grandma bought Some Apples, How much is that doggy in the Window, or ANY such title at 7am in an apartment building has to be NOT ALLOWED. ES IST VERBOTEN. Konec, finished.
And so the rule gets laid down and they are told not to be loud and they become inhibited about singing in general and are quiet and polite in public.
Until 15 years later they are walking up the street and they have several pints or liters of beer in them and they are twenty one years old and they have lost all inhibitions and all the layers of rules and regulations suddenly get stripped off and they say, "Goddamnit, I want to sing. I want to sing at the top of my lungs. I used to like to sing and I am going to sing now and everyone will hear that I am a good singer and that I love to sing!!" And it is 3am and yours truly has his window open because it is August and hot and ... I cant sleep because, well, you were told not to sing when you were 8 or 6 or 4, but now you are free to sing because, well you have a high level of alcohol in you and the memory comes back that you loved to sing when you were a kid.
Basically, I cant stop the natural need of humans to be loud and communicate through song, even at 3am. It was there when we were a small kid and it comes back when the inhibitions are gone. That is why I think Freud got it wrong. There isnt a latent sexual urge in kids. There is a latent singing urge IN ADULTS. Because what kid didnt like to sing when he was 4 through 8.? And how many were told, "SHUT UP"? in more or lesser polite ways? And then how many of them suddenly start singing when they are tanked up? The answer is ... All of them.
I listened to this while writing, an altogether downtempo, relaxed orchestral music:
Jherek Bischoff
