daily.billtron.org

The terminology for the two types of popular cycles varies, but the distinction is an important one among motorcyclists. On one side are the cruisers, more traditional cycles in the Harley-Davidson mode — bigger, slower and louder. On the other are smaller, faster, often Japanese cycles like the Kawasaki Ninja. Riders generally stick to one type or the other — each has its own appeal — and there isn’t a lot of mingling between the two sides going on.

Until, that is, motorcycle riders began recently to mobilize against a proposed city law aimed at reducing motorcycle noise by making cycles with the loudest types of exhaust systems illegal to park on city streets. Working together against the law, bikers who were involved say, the two factions developed a burgeoning respect for each other that many of their members hope lasts awhile.

The talk by Sumanth Gopinath (who wrote “Ringtones, or the auditory logic of globalisation”) and Jason Stanyeck “Digital Auditory Cultures and the Problem of ‘Mobile Music’” gave a very detailed analysis of mobile music, using the Nike+ range as a case study. They talked about the fundamentally complex experiences of mobile music. Hardt, Negri, and Harraway served as a background to discuss bioregulation and self-regulation in relation to exercising and mobile technology.

Shaw was troubled by addiction as well as medical problems in his later years. Stricken with retinitis pigmentosa, Shaw was declared legally blind by 1989. In a tragic accident in Brooklyn, New York, Shaw’s left arm was severed after he fell onto a subway track. He died soon after on May 10th, 1989, at the age of forty-four.

In 1905 my maternal grandparents, Fannie Schwager and Edward Wolff, were married in the then famous red room of the Willoughby Mansion at 667 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn. That same year they moved from Hall Street into a newly purchased brown-stone house at 347 Eastern Parkway, near Franklin Avenue.

Eastern Parkway, before it was broken up to make way for the IRT subway, was undoubtedly the loveliest street in Brooklyn.

As the long break stretches on and on, a few members of the public have stopped by to note my blogging. Diane Aronson just stopped by to talk about how this public hearing should be “declared null and void.” She argues that since up until around 7:45, people were barred from entering and that until the break, the backroom had no speakers, this isn’t really a public hearing. “How can you have a public hearing if the public isn’t there?” she asked. More from her later.

Volume is a subtle thing. Many people listen to music too loudly. Just imagine the guy in his Honda Civic with the bass cranked up to 11. Or the person who is listening to music so loudly on headphones that you can hear it. On the subway. So these remarks are prefaced by the notion that volume, while good, should not be extreme.

Here’s the nut: if you want to really enjoy your music and feel that kind of connection that only music brings, turn up the volume a notch or two and see what you think. Sometimes in modern life there is a tendency to keep music at a low volume. Some people like to have background music. But with the volume so low, the music is the equivalent of white noise.