There are some people out there with fantastic voices. They sing so well, you wonder why they don't have a record deal.
Then there are others who can't sing to save their souls, some of whom don't seem to realize this. Furthermore, these same folks don't seem to realize that nobody wants to hear them sing. This is a common occurrence while riding the El to and from work.
Tuesday night, I stepped onto the El at 2nd Street to make my way home. Two other gentlemen boarded through the same door as I. I made my way to a seat, they decided to stand towards the front of the car.
As we exit the tunnel heading north towards Frankford Terminal, the gentlemen decide to break out into song. Everyone in the El car was treated to songs by Usher and N*SYNC. You couldn't hear one of the guys very well, but the other guy was singing horribly off key...perhaps he was tone deaf. This continued all the way to Margaret-Orthodox station, which is the 2nd-to-last stop on the El. Total length of performance--about 15 minutes.
After they got off the El, the performance was reviewed by several "critics," who bitched about said performance until we stepped off the El at the Terminal.
Here is my own "review":
--Why does this always seem to happen on the subways, but not on a bus? Perhaps b/c a subway car is more open than a bus?
--Look, if you like singing, that's cool. But in an enclosed space, you need to be a little more respectful of others around you. I could understand if you had a walkman or something and started singing, oblivious to those around you. I do that on occasion. But in the end, you should keep your singing to a lower volume, or to a space where it is more accepted, like a car or your own home.
--Having said all this, I don't get too pressed about shit like this. I'd rather put up with shitty singing than some smelly motherfucker sitting next to me. And it couldn't have pissed people off too much--if it did, they could have easily notified the train operator.
One of these days, I'm going to use one of my favorite smart-ass remarks:
syc: "Hey, who sings that song?"
singer: "Oh, it's Usher."
syc: "Good! Let's keep it that way, okay?"
