Neurotic City

Where I work is a spacious loft style office shared by a graphic design company and a multimedia company. Its open plan save for the nominal demarcation from one company to the other. Everyone communicates using iChat/ICQ/Proteus all the goddamned day. It seems eeriy locked down and quiet if you're not used to it. We even have the ringers turned off our phones in an effort to reduce stress. People are buzzing away in their own little worlds with headphones on, listening to music, chatting with each other occasionally getting up to pee or to eat. Sometimes people even talk to each other, face-to-face.

A work mate walked past and I gave him a smile. Not one of these: :) - a real one. Remember those? He walked back to his desk and promptly accused me (unjustly, I thought), via iChat of having "funny business eyes" i.e. being up to no good. What funny business could I possibly be up to when both hands are where you can see them in an open plan office, surrounded by accounting detritus???


Him: what kind of trouble are you up too !?! that was a trouble glance !!
Oblivia: ....nuthin'......you know, i'm always trouble...today is nothing new
H: heh
O: you are so suspicious of me....jeez
H: if i had no reason not to be. i wouldn't be .. but ...........
O: what reasons do you have to suspect me of funny bizness????
H: the funny business eyes !!
O: oh please, YOU don't get to see those eyes
H: LOL


Online communication has its merits and has its place in my life. But, a moment like this would have been impossible without good old fashioned co-presence. And, ironically, such a confrontation would probably also have been impossible without iChat. He might have come over to my desk and indiscreetly asked what was on my mind for everyone else to hear, but I doubt it.

So, at the intersection of mediated and immediated communication, I had a yet another realisation. The "funny business eyes" were brought on not by anything I was doing so much as what I was listening to. To paraphrase Frequent Visitor, Cow, for a second, perhaps I don't have the API for food or even romance (heh heh). But I think I may have it for MUSIC. If you're wondering, as guy above was, what I was listening to click on the link above.

If you see me in a club making "funny business" eyes don't be afraid. I'm just enjoying the music. In fact, come a little closer. I don't bite.

P.S. The "funny business eyes" might even come out tomorrow night at Totally Tuesdays, Bar Korova (above the Copacabana) from about 11 or so.