hum · 2006-01-15 22:04

The window’s open, I can hear London going about its Sunday night. I hear the hum.

It’s the sound of cities. Low pitched, relentless, punctuated and added to by doors slamming, sirens, laughter, cars, skateboards, air conditioners.

I remember when I first noticed it – a long time ago, in some Holiday Inn hotel towerblock, with some French city beneath us. Watching Jeux Sans Frontieres on the tv, being broadcast from a stadium we could see out of the window. Cheers in disjointed stereo. And hum. Hum all night.

Hum is the monotonous banal anti-heartbeat of the city, the sound that intoxicated me, made me urban, made me want to hear it all day, all night, forever. It’s the sound that sends me to sleep, reassures me the world is still there.

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