TURN IT UP

With every new gadget that comes on the market, its if often said that there is a tragic side effect which often goes unnoticed. As much as cell phones keep us connected, we are also isolated from the people around us who we ignore while on our phones.

Lately, it seems like everyone is buying an IPOD or MP3 player of some sort. I find that IPODs provide you with a continuous soundtrack for your life as you go about your daily business, riding the subways, and walking along the streets. IPODs are truly freeing because people will leave you alone when they see those chords in your ears. It's the same reason why we don't try and talk to deaf people.

Along with this wonderful invention however, many will argue that IPODs, like cell phones, cause a lack of real human interaction. So I made a short list of the some of the situations that IPODs are forcing humanity to miss out on.

10.) Bum's begging for change
9.) People asking for directions
8.) Street vendors attempting to sell you things (Prada bags?)
7.)Chants and whistles from teenage boys
6.)People asking to bum a cig
5.) The safety speech on the plane
4.)The wedding vows (sit in the back)
3.) The Eulogy(sit in the front)
2.)Subway music (the accordion in particular...)

AND THE NUMBER ONE IS.....
1.) SALVATION ARMY BELLS

That's when you turn the volume all the way up.

NEW YORK VS. JAMAICA

"New York reminds me of Jamaica," my room mate Lynn said as we walked down busy streets today. And she was right, it did.

I've been to Jamaica once, and it changed my life. I can still see it when I close my eyes, the white sands and gentle sounds of the waves. The sun warming my skin and the faint ever present smell of marijauna lingering the in air.

If you visit Negril, you cannot walk along the road without at least twenty different cab drivers stopping to ask, "You need taxi?" It seems the total opposite of New York where I've had to beg drivers to take me from Manhattan to Brooklyn. In Jamaica, as you walk along the sandy beaches the locals will follow you and try to sell you every drug under the sun. Lynn and I and our friend Paul walked along the beaches in Jamaica one day, when we heard the common salesmen speech.

"Hey mon, come here mon," He says to Paul, as he pulls out bags and bags of drugs. "You need anything?"

"No, man we're good."

"I got the mushroom tea, the ganja tea, the cokes the smokes....."

"No thanks man," said Paul as we continued to walk. The man then leaned closer, and attempting to whisper replied:

"Roofies for the ladies?" We couldn't stop laughing. It is an ongoing joke even today, when Lynn and I were strolling along the streets of Manhattan, with its smog and skyscrapers, cars and concrete. It was a far cry from palm trees and endless crystal clear water.

"Excuse me, ladies?" a black man stops us.

"Yes?"

He leans closer and whispers, "Would you like to buy a bag?" We pause, stunned for a moment. And then, the familiar chant:

"I got the Prada bags, Gabanna bags, the Gucci, the Fendi......"