["Alina's Place" by Fredrik]
- Studs: What has happened to the human voice?
Vox humana?
Hollering, shouting, quiet talking, buzz.
I was leaving the airport, this is in Atlanta.
Y'know, you leave the gate, you take a train
that took you to a concourse of your choice.
And I get into this train, dead silence.
A few people are seated or standing.
Up above, you hear a voice that once was a human voice,
but no longer.
Now it talks like a machine.
"Concourse 1, Fort Worth/Dallas, Lubbock," that kinda voice.
Just when the doors were about to close, pneumatic doors,
when a young couple rush in and push open the doors and get in.
Without missing a beat, that voice above says,
"Because of late entry, we're delayed 30 seconds."
The people looked at that couple
as if that couple just committed mass murder, y'know?
And the couple shrank up like this, y'know?
Now, I'm known for my talking.
I'm gabby.
And so I say, "George Orwell, your time has come and gone!"
I expect a laugh.
Dead silence.
And now they look at me.
And I'm with the couple, the three of us,
at the hill of Calvary on Good Friday.
And then I say, "My God, where's the human voice?"
And just then a little baby,
maybe the baby's about a year old or something,
and I say, "Sir or madam," to the baby,
"What is your opinion of the human species?"
Well, what does the baby do?
The baby starts giggling.
I said, "Thank God!"
The sound of a human voice.
[gentle acoustic guitar music]