Here's a story we can all sympathise with. The only real surprise is why it has taken this long to become an issue. Shop workers in Austria are demanding recompense for the mental damage they claim they suffer from listening to endless Christmas muzak. It is, they say, a form or "psychological terrorism" having to listen to repetitive festive tunes, and it's difficult not to agree. Extrapolate that thinking further and all muzak falls in the same category - irregardless of season. Why compensation though? Get rid of the damn stuff altogether.
Posted by Joe at December 4, 2003 07:24 PMCouldn't agree more, particularly here in Tokyo where the damn restaurants are noisy enough already (think: 100 people in a rectangular prism; doesn't take an acoustic genius to figure out what's wrong) and then the music is even louder.
In fact, just today my son complained about the Christmas carols at the restaurant and I made two observations:
1. The quality of the particular carols to which we were subjected was far above average.
2. It's three weeks until Christmas, so compared to the US I'd say we've enjoyed a one-week respite.
Posted by: DJ at December 4, 2003 10:07 PMIt reminds me of the exquisite scene in the Swiss restaurant in The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Posted by: martin at December 6, 2003 02:07 PM