"Virtual (Sur)Reality"

I have a long-running joke to any student complaining about my dad rock in the art studio that involves threatening them with a road-trip and a mix-tape of my favorite Toto tunes. But the reality as of late is that I've pretty much stopped listening to cassettes in the antique Subie, and since reception is so bad, the radio also. Honestly though the overwhelming, vast majority of voices - above and beyond the incessant ads - on the airwaves are so simply fucking annoying to physically hear, especially what with all the fake enthusiasm, yelling, crosstalking etc. Then there was the gradual realization that it's actually the sound of another human being's voice that is what's actually annoying. This is also born out whenever camped out at a cafe with the omnipresent sketchbook: when the background noise gradually amps up and is no longer ambient white noise but an actual distraction then it becomes torture. So nowadays I'm alone with my own thoughts during the commutes to class, which means I can at times certainly empathize with a recent meme about how only sociopaths can sit in silence while driving. In all actuality this can be one of the most fertile moments of the day to get ideas (see Koestler's theory of "bisociation") as the stream-of-consciousness thought process is visually mirrored in the constantly changing parade of different views outside the windows. Sometimes I quip in response to the common query "where do you get your ideas" that I "just take notes." And so this doodled page knits together two observed phenomena, one of how many folks are on their phones (not talking or reading a map mind you, nor even texting, but actual surfing the internet) while operating a vehicle, and some random dude down at the laundromat - another frequent oasis of artistic innovation... ranked only slightly below a bar when it comes to fomenting & fermenting creative juices. And after sketching out the scenario it occurred to me that, far from being condescending commentary on how comparatively simple-minded the fellow was watching the world go round & round, there's no small irony in that someone else was in turn spending time literally drawing inspiration from it all.