Shriek on You Crazy Computer

As I pulled into the Philadelphia International Airport the other day, I had the radio cranked to the local awesome rock station WMMR, who happened to be in the middle of a block of Pink Floyd.  And as I drove slowly down the Departing Flights avenue, chock full of people getting out of cabs and checking luggage, the song “One Slip” came on.  It’s a rather obscure Floyd song, though I of course knew it, having gone through a lengthy (yet somehow completely drug free) Floydian phase in college.  The song, like a lot of Floyd creations, begins with a series of sound effects which I guess are supposed to evoke the image of a factory switchboard or mission control or something.  Basically you hear a series of beeps and boops like the sound of  a computer monitoring something.   Then, without warning the machines just go  absolutely apeshit and alarms start sounding before a heavy drum cuts them off and the song begins.

Well I just so happened to be driving past a big crowd of people when said machines shit said apes and as you can imagine, the sound of any kind of alarm in or near an airport situation is enough to make people turn and look and wondering just what the heck is going on.  I was just thankful that no cops were around or I might have gotten pulled over for some terror suspect questioning and missed my flight.

Actually, the radio wasn’t even all that loud and nobody so much as turned their head in my direction when it happened.  But it would have been pretty funny if they had.