Tuesday, July 18, 2006

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Last month I linked to an article about a community in Sydney, Australia, having trouble with "hoons" in one of their parks. Their solution? Play Barry Manilow songs on loudspeakers during the park's heavy-hoon-usage times.

Now it's time for a follow-up.

The Daily Telegraph reported yesterday that Barry's music is working on the hoons. But the "Residents can't Copa" with it.

As a hoon-reduction strategy it appears to be working but the nightly weekend performances are causing sleep depravation among the neighbours.

"I don't know how I will cope," Moya Dunn said .

"I just can't sleep when it's on and to think there is going to be another six months of this."

Mrs Dunn and her husband John said the same music every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9pm to midnight has invaded their house.

The city has turned the volume down a little, but it doesn't seem to be enough.

You'd think there'd be enough variety of "daggy" music to scare away the hoons, but give the residents a little more variety. Say, bring in some Frank Sinatra (not the cool songs, but the dreary ones like "My Way") and Andy Williams and Rosemary Clooney and Steve Lawrence and Edie Gormet.

I realize Barry Manilow tops the Annoyance Charts, but there's got to be a way to save the sanity of the residents. Rockdale Deputy Mayor Bill Saravinovski said they're reviewing the music selection, so there might be hope. Still, it's hard to argue with success.

"Barry's our secret weapon. It seems to be working," [Saravinovski] said.

2 comments:

Christina said...

I've got an even better solution to drive those "hoons" away for good, though it would be even worse for the residents...Chinese opera. It positively does not get any worse than that. Barry Manilow couldn't hold a candle to it. Period.

Hey, maybe we should try that when breaking terrorist detainees...oh wait, I'm sure that would be "torture."

Malott said...

Great ideas, Christina.

How about mixing in "The Carpenters" and "Partridge Family" and perhaps children singing Christian songs?