Sunday late morning, from getting brunch to
running errands all over the neighborhood, I realized how diverse my
neighborhood is in sound. Walking to the café, I can hear the noisy and
excruciating train coming to a stop at my station overhead. I can hear the
train approaching from far but when it starts to slow down, the screeching
noise drills through my ears, making me regret taking the shortcut for that few
seconds. Without looking up I can tell when the train is pulling out of the
station because it makes this sound like a big industrial fan starting to spin.
On the ground, impatient drivers start honking at the first sight of green
light. The typical car with all windows down with deafening loud music coming
out of raspy speakers passes by, tickling my feet to start dancing. Usually I
would never dance in the middle of the street but this car was playing EDM music
instead of the regular R&B. What beat that car that day was the out of
place three Harley Davidson riders in my hipster neighborhood. What I don’t
understand is how they can make such a loud noise, yet it looks like they
haven’t traveled that far for that amount of loudness. I am used to the sound
of Royal Enfield bullets, they sound like loud fart noise but those Harley
Davidson bikes are like super amplified and annoying bullet sound. When the
bikers turned to long straight, almost empty, street, they tapped down to first
or second gear with his toes to speed through the street. The hyped fart sound
became crisp and consistent, making me think about how clean the silencer must
be to deliver that kind of sharp blast, something bike enthusiasts would
consider beautiful.
