Thursday, May 03, 2007
MECHANICAL AND MUSICAL MUSINGS.......
When I said that some things had changed at work since my trucking inspired hiatus, I didn't exactly specify the extent of the differences I had encountered.
I work in a car dealership service department, which of course has a large contingent of mechanics and apprentices.
Like all people, they appreciate some things more than others.
Show them a beautifully built rally car and they will appreciate the attention to detail involved in every facet of the preparation, from the smallest things like the stowage of the safety triangles to the quality of the design and welding of the roll cage, or the individually engineered custom made components designed for increased reliability and decreased weight.
Play them a piece of music by Chopin, Coltrane or Nine Inch Nails and you are met with the kind of looks usually reserved for those moments when one of your shoes becomes intimate with the evicted contents of you some incontinent pooch's bowels.
When I first started working for this company about four years ago I was managing the predelivery department.
This had nothing to do with pregnant women, but was where we prepared brand new cars for customers.
We made sure all the accessories were fitted and that the vehicles were in better than showroom condition and ready for the new owners to pick up on the due date.
I took it upon myself to broaden my workmates' musical exposure by running compulsory music education / appreciation sessions.
It was a time for them all to turn off their radios and whether they liked it or not, endure some of the selections from my broad and varied taste in music.
I endeavoured to place the music in some sort of greater world context and therefore give them a little history lesson as well.
Since I work in a different department and location now, without the authority to enforce my cultural tastes upon my colleagues, I have been forced to simply grin and bear their musical ignorance.
Your average garden variety mechanics have often been regarded as a rough and tumble boisterous bunch, with scarred arms and skinned knuckles form being bitten by vehicular components, grease in their hair, under their fingernails and a limited vocabulary.
I have been fortunate enough in the past to have worked with some amazing mechanics who were smart, articulate and possessed acute diagnostic abilities along with ingenious and resourceful solutions to complex problems.
Some of the mechanics I work with now are like that, but for the most part the rest of them are a whole new breed.
The grease in the hair has been replaced by 'product', to the point that on a walk through the workshop one can gaze upon a display of fastidiously sculpted and maintained coiffure, which would be more appropriate atop some vacuous gallah roaming Chapel Street than in a service department.
The vocabulary is still limited and the majority of adjectives start with the letter f*** and the nouns with s*** or c***.
One thing I noticed that really threw me was that for a bunch of macho, pigeon chested blokes who regularly indulge in toe to toe altercations, their previously dubious musical preferences now defy all cognitive explanations.
The choice of radio station in the workshop now ( and it plays all day! ) is Joy FM.
No joke.
( I just noticed the ad for a 'Personality Gym' on their website. What the heck is a personality gym? Maybe it's something those Chapel Street gallahs need. )
I'm not prejudiced or anything, I just hate the station for the crap music it plays.
For all intents and purposes, my service department now looks and sounds like a gay nightclub!!
Still on the musical bent, I just purchased a flute!!!
I have a music degree in contemporary music on bass guitar, have had classical training on piano and play some guitar as well, but I really wanted an instrument which doesn't require an electric power source, is portable and a little more connected to the body / voice.
I'd been wanting to get one for a while and finally found one which I think will do the job rather nicely on this website.
.
I work in a car dealership service department, which of course has a large contingent of mechanics and apprentices.
Like all people, they appreciate some things more than others.
Show them a beautifully built rally car and they will appreciate the attention to detail involved in every facet of the preparation, from the smallest things like the stowage of the safety triangles to the quality of the design and welding of the roll cage, or the individually engineered custom made components designed for increased reliability and decreased weight.
Play them a piece of music by Chopin, Coltrane or Nine Inch Nails and you are met with the kind of looks usually reserved for those moments when one of your shoes becomes intimate with the evicted contents of you some incontinent pooch's bowels.
When I first started working for this company about four years ago I was managing the predelivery department.
This had nothing to do with pregnant women, but was where we prepared brand new cars for customers.
We made sure all the accessories were fitted and that the vehicles were in better than showroom condition and ready for the new owners to pick up on the due date.
I took it upon myself to broaden my workmates' musical exposure by running compulsory music education / appreciation sessions.
It was a time for them all to turn off their radios and whether they liked it or not, endure some of the selections from my broad and varied taste in music.
I endeavoured to place the music in some sort of greater world context and therefore give them a little history lesson as well.
Since I work in a different department and location now, without the authority to enforce my cultural tastes upon my colleagues, I have been forced to simply grin and bear their musical ignorance.
Your average garden variety mechanics have often been regarded as a rough and tumble boisterous bunch, with scarred arms and skinned knuckles form being bitten by vehicular components, grease in their hair, under their fingernails and a limited vocabulary.
I have been fortunate enough in the past to have worked with some amazing mechanics who were smart, articulate and possessed acute diagnostic abilities along with ingenious and resourceful solutions to complex problems.
Some of the mechanics I work with now are like that, but for the most part the rest of them are a whole new breed.
The grease in the hair has been replaced by 'product', to the point that on a walk through the workshop one can gaze upon a display of fastidiously sculpted and maintained coiffure, which would be more appropriate atop some vacuous gallah roaming Chapel Street than in a service department.
The vocabulary is still limited and the majority of adjectives start with the letter f*** and the nouns with s*** or c***.
One thing I noticed that really threw me was that for a bunch of macho, pigeon chested blokes who regularly indulge in toe to toe altercations, their previously dubious musical preferences now defy all cognitive explanations.
The choice of radio station in the workshop now ( and it plays all day! ) is Joy FM.
No joke.
( I just noticed the ad for a 'Personality Gym' on their website. What the heck is a personality gym? Maybe it's something those Chapel Street gallahs need. )
I'm not prejudiced or anything, I just hate the station for the crap music it plays.
For all intents and purposes, my service department now looks and sounds like a gay nightclub!!
Still on the musical bent, I just purchased a flute!!!
I have a music degree in contemporary music on bass guitar, have had classical training on piano and play some guitar as well, but I really wanted an instrument which doesn't require an electric power source, is portable and a little more connected to the body / voice.
I'd been wanting to get one for a while and finally found one which I think will do the job rather nicely on this website.
.
