2008
Mar 
28

Cairo Soundtrack

11:24  
 

What’s in your ears?

I have noticed recently, as I ride the Metro nearly every day now, that people in Cairo are walking around with earphones in, listening to their iPods. This was not the case for a long time, even recently. I would often get on the Metro and have people look at me like I had just landed because I had earphones in my ears.

I suppose that I should also qualify this by reporting that it is indeed remarkably dangerous to wear earphones while walking around this city. It probably increases my risk of being run over by a car considerably. However, I have noticed that those who are relaxed enough to not pay attention to their surroundings here seem to have a very high daily survival rate. So, maybe not.

But I digress…

What I have been interested in recently is what other people are listening to in their earphones. I love having a soundtrack for the city. It makes me feel like I am a character in a movie. Not an actor playing a character in a movie, or even myself in a movie, but as though I accidentally woke up in a film, and here I am. It’s pretty cool.

Today my soundtrack was Elliot Smith, Joni Mitchell, Mika, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and then Herbie Hancock.

I like to imagine that everyone around me who is walking in time with my music can hear it also: as though they are also characters in the movie. They are better actors than the actor that acts my part, but he tries, I suppose.

I feel like I finally understand people in large cities in the United States. Most are not from there, many have earphones in whenever they are walking around. It helps to makes me feel as though I fully belong in the environment which surrounds me. I wonder if that is what the Chicagoans and New Yorkers feel like as well?

Does anyone else have a personal soundtrack? What is the credits music for your film?