Violator Day

The car I drove today had a CD player. I played Violator by Depeche Mode all day long. Several people commented on it.

The middle-aged carpenter with frizzy hair said

"Nice music. It reminds me of Burning Man."

"Oh yeah? Did you go this year?"

"Yep."

"I did too."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I was there."

"Where?"

"Near Center Camp with Pinhole Camp."

"Nice."


The quirky thirty-or-forty-something-year-old woman who was wearing my favorite perfume Angel sang along to a song and said

"This is the best music I have heard in a cab in a looooooong time."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. It's not elevator music."

"Elevator music? Is that what other cab drivers play?"

"Yeah, it's like this really slow jazz that's not even really jazz. It's elevator music."

"That is whack."

"Yeah. Or some of them just listen to the dispatcher all day."

"Ah yes. Sometimes I do that too but I turn him down almost all the way when I have a customer."

"And there is this one guy in the mornings who just yells at everybody all day."

"A dispatcher? Yep, I know who you mean."

"I'm really sensitive to yelling."

"I think it's interesting that one of our customers is noticing that one of our dispatchers yells at everybody all day. Very interesting."


I said to the homeless-looking woman with the two trash bags

"Do you know this music?"

"Yeah."

"Depeche Mode? Do you like it?"

"Yeah. I like rock'n'roll."

"All right."

"I don't really like rap."

"You don't like rap?"

"No, not really. It's disrespectful."

"Yeah, especially to women, right?"

"You bet."

"Yeah, I think rap usually sounds really good, but when you actually listen to what they're saying, it can be quite appalling."

"Yeah, it makes me wonder what we're teaching our kids."


An Indian-looking guy flagged me down on Geary and said

"What's your name?"

"Vera. What's yours?"

"You can call me Suki."

"Suki?"

"Yeah, Suki."

"That sounds nice."

"Sounds Japanese, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. But you're not Japanese."

"No, I am not. I am Indian actually."

"But you have a British accent."

"Yeah. I'm Indian but I live in England."

"Yeah, I have heard of that."

"Yeah, there are a few of us."

Several blocks and many words exchanged later, he said

"Ah, Depeche Mode - nice tune, eh?"

"Yep."

"I used to listen to that way back."

"Yeah, I did that too. But I still listen to it now too."