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Weekly Residuum 155 -June 2003 A
© photo and text Koen Nieuwendijk




Had I have had to define it at the time, I'd never have thought of calling it education, but now that I have succeeded in getting my daughter to resign, for the time being, to the edict that she's not yet old enough to have her own mobile phone, the way in which we have used the ring tones appeals all the more to the imagination. I had always considered ring tones to be completely useless, although I have to admit to having frequently found myself and many others within hearing distance launch a simultaneous yet fruitless search of our pockets and bags at the sound of one of the more popular ring tones, which collective rummaging around duly came to a simultaneous stop as soon as someone started speaking out loud.

Two minuscule compositions came out on top as me and my daughter's favourites, and so we danced time and again, heads stylishly tilted, arms dramatically extended, to the Bolero, the Dying Swan and My Fair Lady all jumbled up and compressed to fit the length of the sample tune, which was under ten seconds. The point was that we abruptly ended in an unfinished gesture almost more precisely than the ring tone itself, going from unbridled expression to motionless lack of same, which we found quite hilarious. It's things such as this that make progress quite palatable.

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