hahaha, Patrick... Yes, very dangerous work, this capturing of voices on the fly.
I don't have a cell phone, but that was the first thing my 3 children bought when they got their first paychecks. Suddenly these things were made to seem a necessity... Phones with gadgetry and cameras and speaker-phone features. I guess that is what the London mobile phone was equipped with, too? Does everyone everywhere have all these gadgets now? I'm always amazed by it--still not used to people walking around on campus here talking into their cell phones that have invisible tiny ear pieces: they sound like I should be answering them somehow, or that they are talking to themselves. Students phones ringing out of their bookbags in the middle of class (I have to have a policy statement about it in my syllabus otherwise they bring the phones into class and just don't realize it is not the place for a phone: how do they get like that?--grrrr: advertising has them snowed I guess). All this stuff is certainly changing how people think about and respond to notions of "voi!
ce" and "voices." I'm an admirer of Eric Havelock's ideas in _The Muse Learns to Write_, his essay-chapter about the rhetorical and political influence of radio as mediated voice akin to ancient orality (in terms of delivery of speech). Later he ties those thoughts in with something about Marshall McCluhan's stuff. Well, it's mostly very dated material now, but some of it really echoes with interesting critiques around orality and new technologies. If Havelock were around today he would have lots of fun with all this phone stuff, I think.
On this snapshot, mostly these voices were (resonant, or so I thought at the moment) snippets overheard in a crowded cafe and jotted in a notebook (whereupon the waitstaff started to act like I might be the health inspector since, unlike other cities I've lived in, almost no one here in suburbia-Dallas/Fort Worth writes or reads anything while sitting in a restaurant--it might just be here in Arlington: I do know of some more chatty-readerly/writerly places in downtown Dallas). Well anyway, later on in the evening I collaged the snippets with some underheard (low-level undertone) bits from the radio news. I had the volume turned down while a friend was talking about her job selling quilting materials in an arts & crafts store, and then some odd stuff out of a television detective show. I tinkered around with it and came up with this. Then, funny thing, but I wondered after I sent it to the list if the title wasn't kind of over the top (much ado about overhearing as if I !
were running around jotting down conversations or something), which is why I had a laugh when you remarked on it here. *You nailed it down* as they say around here.
Thank you for commenting.
Best Wishes,
Chris Murray
http://texfiles.blogspot.com
http://e-po.blogspot.com
http://uta.edu/english/znine
-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, 19 May 2005 15:44:43 +0100
Subject: Re: snapshot --of voicings under/overheard today--chris murray
Enjoyed these but does Chris creep up behind people with a notepad- sounds
very dangerous
I remember sitting on a bus when two guys behind me were discussing about
the 'church roof job' lead valuable easy to sell material
In London we have new friendly police arrests policy -one guy had his mobile
phone on record while being arrested ----what a record of abuse 18?
Swear/abuse words by the officer!!
Better get myself one of these newfangled things pronto
Cheers Patrick
Re
chris murray, snapshot of voices under/overheard today
wednesday 18 May 05, Dallas TX
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