Sometimes there’s a certain groove that comes into your head and makes you bend and shake your hips to its will, and for me, that fine beat is the sound the printers at the library make in the midst of printing several pages. Oh yes.

Okay, so maybe you haven’t whistled that sound while walking down Middle Path like I have, (I’m not joking), but you know what I’m talking about. It’s that special whirring sound the printer makes over and over, until it gets into a strange and impossibly catchy kind of rhythm. Vrrr-err-eeeerrh. Vrrr-err-eeeerh. And if it’s double sided, oh-ho-ho-ho don’t get me started.

It’s masterful, truly. The first Vrrr establishes the mood. There’s a foundation, but it’s also forward-driving. You think the printer sound is just going to stay in that monotonous vrrr but hold up! What’s this? It’s cut off by a short err in a slightly lower tone, and now we’re being thrown for a loop, sent in a totally other direction, hold onto your hats everyone, this is no ordinary printer buzz.

And yet, it’s missing something isn’t it? It’s not quite there yet. It’s just a buzz, and not yet a full melody. But just when you think it’s over, and it’s just another printer, it comes in with the eeeerh, in the same tone as the vrrr, bringing the whole thing full circle, and creating the funkiest jam of 2017.  

Even right now, as I’m typing this article, I’m humming the printer sound and gyrating my entire willowy body back and forth in a manner that disturbs even those closest to me. I’ve tried to explain to others this earworm, this banger, but they’ve never understood. They look at me like I’m crazy. Haven’t they ever given the printer a listen? Haven’t they found themselves moved by the buzz? Have they honestly, honestly, never opened themselves up to the world, just long enough, just for a brief moment, to let this absolute jam into their lives? There is music everywhere. Give it a try. If you see me in Olin, I’ll be shaking it to the tone (ha) of a printing thirty page document.