Since last February I’ve been working out at a local gym, to disguise its identity, I’ll call it Planet Fatness. I can jokingly call it that as I am overweight myself. I go about 3-4 times a week and enjoy it, some days more than others. The staff is friendly and attentive. The ten TVs are tuned into local news and other channels such as ESPN and USA etc. You won’t find CNN or Fox News on any of them. I guess this is to avoid fist fights over politics. I prefer to watch reruns of Law and Order SVU with my old fashioned, wired Sony headphones.
A couple of observations.
- When I work out on the weight machines, the music played over the speaker system is 100% Hip Hop. This has to be the cheapest produced, most unimaginative music I’ve ever heard. The beat is always the same, Boom, Boom, Boom. Lyrics are indecipherable, the background music (if you can call it that) is all electronic, AI noise. There are no instruments being played. Remember the great bands we grew up with? Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Billy Joel, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Marshall Tucker Band, Elvin Bishop, Lynyrd Skynyrd. You can actually hear the brass, strings, piano, woodwind, percussion instruments being played. I’ll grudgingly relinquish my tolerance for the younger generation.
- Many of the members working out there bring their cell phones into the building, I don’t. Most of them are courteous and use their cell phones to play their favorite tunes (mostly to avoid listening to the Hip Hop overhead I imagine). The problem is members who sit on a machine and text friends or workmates, read the news etc. and hog the machine. If you want to use the machine, use it then get the hell off. It’s not a couch in your living room or a chair at your desk at work. You know who you are!
- I’ve noticed that many members do not like to make eye contact, even when passing someone directly in the parking lot. We have become a society that doesn’t know how to interface with other humans as technology has replaced this, and that’s a shame. Have a great Thanksgiving and Christmas everyone, hug the ones you love.