Saturday, December 11, 2004

Singing In the Streets -- A Social Experiment

On thursday night while I was waiting for my old school friend, E (who I have known since I was 13) , to show up at our meeting point in Shibuya, there came a homeless man on a shitty, half broken bike, which had all his worldly possessions strapped to it by a piece of elastic, and sat next to me.

He probably suffers from one form of menal illness, or another, for as soon as he set his bike and sat down he started to talk to himself (OK, he also has an inner voice that is "out" -- and gets classified as a nutter, whereas Nutts is "in" so she does not get caught, and I'm not locked up or homeless).

The homeless guy was explaining to his inner voice in detail on how to avoid traffic while on a push bike, and everyone seemed to ignore him.

COOL! He's free to be himself!! I want to let Nutts out too and become invisible like him!! (one of these days...)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Friday was another warm sunny winter's day. I had my usual long "lunch breaks"; I remembered the mumbling old man and how Missy loves to sing. On my way back I was feeling jovial, and therefore a bit more brave than usual, so I decided to sing and be invisible for a little while just as the "outed" inner voice guy was invisible (apart from to me).

I sang Stings's "Englishman in New York", but I changed the lyrics so as to not violate coppyright laws:

I don't eat eat green tea icecream, no my dear,
I like my fish cooked thoroughly,
I'm ignored when I speak 'bout injustices,
I'm a Ramblin' Wench in Tokyo.

Oh, I'm invisible.
I'm really invisible,
I'm the Ramblin' Wench in Tokyo!!

La la la la la la...

I sang and skipped on my 10min journey back to my office. I even passed a police box, waved at the three cops (why are there 3 cops in a business district? They give out directions to lost people.... say no more), passed at least 30 people, but no one even saw me or looked my way, for once again I was invisible!!

Fan-fucking-tastic!

Sometimes, dear readers, it's fun to become invisible. La la la la...

2 comments:

Ouija27 said...

Wait a second DWR, you said...

"I even passed a police box, waved at the three cops (why are there 3 cops in a business district? They give out directions to lost people.... say no more)"

So what is a police box?
Why should police not be in a business district?
What is there job? (is it really only to give out directions to lost people? if so how odd, what about writing tickets and funding city government?)

The last question is kind of another post in and of it self really. I am not sure how the cops operate in Japan, but here all they do is try to do one of three things:
1. Slack (eat donoughts, or chill in a parking lot and talk to other cops)
2. Continue to uphold the ideas of segeration. This is done by racial profling drivers and pullig over any non-whites. (in the case of a white cop, which is all I ever see in my area of Wisconsin. It is a very sheltered area... too bad too. A lot of ignorance)
3. Direct traffic

The majority of cops in my neck of the woods do 1. when they do decide to pull someone over it is for reasons stated in 2. When a parade is happening or a traffic light gets taken out by a local drunk, they are forced to do 3.
A good friend of mine just got an Apt. in the downtown area in a city in Wisconsin. The city is just a little shy of 50,000 so it is not all that big. But all that aside, she happens to live on one of, if not the busiest intersections in town. She has a cornor Apt. that over looks the interseciton, and across the street is a parking lot where cops like to hang out. The other two corners are the Hospis, and a strip club. So it is fun to sit and watch all the movement. But I saw two cops in the parking lot talking for over 2 hours. They did not pull over 1 person, and I counted about 6 people that I would have pulled over if I was sitting where they were. Some did not stop, some ran a red light, and some were speeding in excess. The cops did not care, they were talking and busy with other things. Well that is all well and good but make the city some fucking money. I mean one guy just ran a red light and your too wrapped up in conversation to do your job? Odd right?! I think so.

I will say I am not a big fan of the police for the simple fact that arrested many of my boys for buds, or selling, or pariph. or what ever. That sucks, so i do not like to deal with them in any situation, and besides I am sure they could be doing something better than harassing me and my friends for somknig a plant. Aside form the pot issue that eats away at me and only pisses me off; these cops really could make huge money for the city if they would enforce the law. It is all a grey area, on one hand I do not like them or what they do, but on the other hand I do not think they should be wasting our money by sitting there talking when right in front of them, clear as day, some redneck in a pick up-truck (with a rebel flag on the antina, and country music blasting out that rattle trap, and an epty gun rack on the back window) just ran a red light. Remember this folks, it was just after bar time about 3 am (bars closed at 2:30 am) and he was probably drunk... PULL THAT REDNECK OVER! So yeah i do not like cops, the do little to decreas the crime rate, and they waste our money by sitting in the subway parking lot talking to eachother - excanging porno probably...lazy fuckers... yes I hate them all.... ALL. If your a cop I do not like you. I am very biased in that way. Yes one or two of you have done me good in my life, but looking at it on a whole, you have caused me more greif than I think was necessary. And I have talked to some of you as friends or smoking partners (I work under the city parol office and chit chat with parol offericers on my smoke breaks from time to time.) yall are unethical and very prejudice, and your bold about it too. That is fucking rude, I am sure that there are a few good hardworking caring cops out there but for one I never met her/him and two the ones I have met have ruined it for the rest of yall. Sorry but you are really no use to me. Even when something gets stole and we turn to you for help, or some one is killed and we turn to you for help, what do you do, go and get a coffee.
In closing I want to tell you an intersting thing. Paul Harvey a fairly well known raido newscaster throughout the US stated about 2 or 3 years ago that if you ever wanted to commit a murder, Manitowoc Wi is the place to do it. (this is where I live for all practical purposes). Why go to my town you ask? The police here have never solved a murder case. Well how many have there been? Dozens, I could not pin down a correct number, but there were many. Not hundreds or anything like that; but not one was ever solved. Well big deal right? Nope, one guy actually confessed to the police, he said he did it... what did the Manitowoc police do... They said we do not believe you and let him go. That murder is still unsolved. However since that news broad cast the police have solved 2 murders. One was about a few months after that news cast, where a police officer was shot. His partner saw a 17 year old boy do it, and arrested him. The other case was: an old man shot his wife for being a 'bitch.' He was 75+ mind you, and when the police asked him if he did it he replied... I did and I would do it again if she was still alive. They believed him and locked him up.

Drunken Wench Rambler said...

LOL -- must admit it's difficult to x-plain a police box without showing you the real thing so that you can see the 3 glorified map readers who sit in this box during the weekdays earning US$3500/month.

BTW, have you ever seen Dr. Who? it's similar to that... if not I shall take a photo and explain the story behind it in a while... Just got several books on modern Japanese History, etc, so that I can blog about it -- and that includes the cop-shop! But alas, I need time... and the christmas season is taking too much of it.

I shall try to write all the political pieces before the end of the year, but in the meantime pls feel free to smoke some good orange bud, or some skunk, in my ramblings to keep you "sane" -- or at least happy -- and not too bothered 'bout the crappy shite going on around you.

Peace, and merry spliffin'!!

DWR