Free In Pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik Page B

abuse everything.”
    And would the strict new antinoise ordinances that had just been introduced in nearby Sarasota affect the attitude of police toward boom cars around Tampa?
    “You know, it changes everything once you have the law looking at you.” He glanced over at me. “Especially when you’re breaking the law.”
    I nodded thoughtfully. He glanced at me again. “Anytime you want me to turn it on, let me know.”
    “Crank it up,” I said. After all, the sound itself was why I was here.
    MP3 Pimp bent forward and began pushing buttons in the lunar panel. Numbers and words lit up and disappeared.

    For the first few seconds of music, I felt very pleased with myself. It was loud, but I could take it, and I enjoyed the rap bass line. I got it. It was fun. MP3 Pimp was still fiddling with buttons. And then, suddenly, the entire system turned on. I felt as if I had been launched in thunder and fire from an ejector seat—only the seat hadn’t ejected and I remained inside the thunder and fire. I felt my organs collapsing. I didn’t hear sound. I just experienced my bones and heart bursting apart through my skin. My hands slammed to the sides of my head and I bent forward, vaguelyaware of MP3 Pimp’s finger pulsing a button by my temple; the sound declined.
    “I don’t want to cause you pain,” he said.
    “Thank you,” I managed.
    Recalling the sober audiologist who had recently told me that a single exposure to 140 decibels can cause permanent hearing loss, I straightened back into my seat. “How loud was that?” I finally asked.
    “Oh it gets a lot louder than that,” MP3 Pimp chuckled.
    “How loud?”
    “I don’t know exactly. The loudest I ever heard it is 158.6, and that’s on average, over 50 seconds. What you heard right then is 141, 142. It’s definitely loud. But it gets louder.”
    Some perspective on those numbers: a pneumatic riveter at a distance of four feet produces 125 decibels. The decibel system is logarithmic, with every increase of 10 decibels signifying a tenfold increase in sound. If you are 3 feet away from a rifle when it fires, the sound you hear is approximately 140 decibels. If you are 75 feet away from a jet at takeoff, you are exposed to 150 decibels. Standing 30 feet from a jet at takeoff you hear 160 decibels. The explosion of Krakatoa from 100 miles up in the air or a jet engine heard from one foot away is 180 decibels.
    “What do you think of the groups that say all boom cars are evil?” I blurted out.
    “I’ve never looked at one of the forums before, to be honest. I’ve read some e-mails that I guess a guy from one of them was sending out, and it’s kind of funny because they have no idea what they’re attacking,” he said. “They don’t even know whothey’re trying to be at war with.” I asked him what he meant. “Just because somebody has a gun—like a hunter, say—doesn’t mean they’re going to shoot at people. And just because I have a stereo in my car doesn’t mean I’m going to drive by your house every night and bother you. It’s like saying that all people who listen to rap are thugs. But I look on it as a sport. Not an athletic sport obviously, but it’s a hobby that became a sport. It keeps me entertained and busy when I’m not working or with my family.”
    We waited for another FloridaSPL forum member to join us in a truck stop while the single headlight of a police helicopter beamed down over us, the chopping of its blades drowning out the highway. “They’re looking for somebody,” MP3 Pimp said. “They’re looking for
somebody
.” He sighed. “While we’re waiting I can show you the car.”
    He pointed at the inside of the door. “Took the stock panels and turned them into something they’re not. Took fiberglass and molded it. Cut out the rear deck with an angle grinder. We use like spray foam everywhere, and whatnot. You want to seal off everything as much as you can to keep all the pressure up front. And then …” We