Industrial Music

Moving into a northern climate has been a little odd for a guy raised in the dustbowl of California. For the past week, there has been a crew of guys outside my window trimming brush with chainsaws. It seemed like overkill to me, given that most of the brush had stalks less than an inch in diameter. The trees have barely begun to bud and are still dry and brown—and seem to have survived the onslaught of the chainsaw crew who have their sights set on smaller prey.

The noise proceeds for hours, and just when you think it is over, they fire up the wood chippers. The bass tones cause the foundation of the building to vibrate. After three days of this, I thought it might be peaceful.

Then, this morning I heard a different sound I couldn’t quite identify. Going to the window, it turned out to be leaf blowers. Five of them, to be exact. People marched along the path cut by the chainsaw brigade, creating the strangest chords. Each blower had a slightly different note, and they were modulating in such a way to provide a unique sort of industrial music. Then, a lawn mower so large that it required a trailer to cart the grass came around to provide a melody to match the blower rhythm—neatly hacking off the first half inch of grass to grow this year.

The sick thing is that the landscape only lost its coating of snow about two weeks ago, and it is still brown. But the weather is nice and the skies are blue; it will be green soon, and hopefully the industrial drone will subside.

April 16, 2005 12:53 AM