a few days ago we went to saint vincent near aosta in the italian alps. we parked our car and decided to take a walk in this prestine mountain village. as we approached the main strip, so to speak (= the small main road, where all the shops are), we noticed fairly loud music blaring towards us. it’s probably some outdoors concert, we thought. but then we noticed, that the music came from a system of loudspeakers installed all along the street on the walls above the stores.
here we were in a supposedly “quiet” mountain village, that had been transformed into an open-air shopping mall, elevator musak blasting over the village P.A. included.
needless to say, that they played really horrible music; genre piano instrumentals of famous pop-songs played by richard klaydermann or someone equally horrible. in the short time we were able to take this, we heard “we are the world” “let it be” and “unica donna” …. *barf*
seems to me most people go to the mountains to enjoy some quiet … so what were they thinking when they installed this? i can only imagine the meeting where the city planners decided this nonsense. some young dynamic architect probably sold it to the others by saying how modern and hip saint vincent would be with this feature.
now that such things are technologically possible, one can only fear what else well-meaning people like these will come up with…