chonny lives in manhattan apartment with three spirited roommates, and they enjoy, on occasion, knocking back a few glasses of wine for an impromptu roomie-bonding sing-a-long. “one night around 10, after a particularly taxing day, we decided to bring the vibe down with a little peter gabriel,” chonny says. “as we all belted out ‘in your eyes’ — with a couple of tears in ours — we heard a voice shout across the alleyway, “YOUR MUSIC SUCKS!”
the next day, one of our uptown girls found this note pasted to the callbox downstairs.
adds chonny: “what really upsets me is that the writer doesn’t know the difference between peter and billy. shall we move onto bon jovi?”
related: it was an ironic dance party, okay?; movin’ out (anthony’s song)
152 responses so far ↓
#1
stormind
Give the gal a break and quiet down.She needs her rest.
Jan 8, 2008 at 8:53 pm rating: +5
#2
unholyghost2003
Shutting the window isn’t too much to ask imho
Jan 8, 2008 at 8:59 pm rating: +4
#3
anglophile
John Cusack holding up a radio blasting out “In Your Eyes” outside your window at night: Romantic.
Drunk girls blasting out karaoke version of “In Your Eyes” outside your window at night: Annoying.
Jan 8, 2008 at 9:03 pm rating: +23
#4
jen
Yeah, I’m gonna have to hand this one to the prosecution.
Jan 8, 2008 at 9:05 pm rating: 0
#5
Tyler
I know I wouldn’t know the difference between Peter Gabriel and Billy Joel. And I would have loved to have been there for the random, “You music sucks.”
Jan 8, 2008 at 9:06 pm rating: +1
#6
melissa
I like that the prosecutor praises their talent
She’s trying to be nice but also ‘mentioning’ the fact that she’s a lawyer and could sue them for disorderly drunkenness.
Go Team Prosecutor!
Jan 8, 2008 at 9:11 pm rating: 0
#7
Wade
You May Be Right, Big Shot. I suppose a New York State of Mind can lead to Pressure, but in all Honesty, It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me.
Don’t Ask Me Why.
Jan 8, 2008 at 9:13 pm rating: +14
#8
PandoraWilde
Am I the only one who’s glad this “prosecuter” doesn’t work in my county’s courthouse? Or is it just me that thinks that’s an “e” instead of an “o”?
Jan 8, 2008 at 9:24 pm rating: 0
#9
Canthz_B
They have karaoke bars for that.
The prosecutor should have them charged with disturbing the peace and have a good night’s sleep.
Team Shut The Hell Up, I Live Here!
Jan 8, 2008 at 9:27 pm rating: +2
#10
EyeHeartA2
Not fond of lawyers, but this one has a compelling case. Go back to the dorm and play beer pong.
Jan 8, 2008 at 9:30 pm rating: +2
#11
Mishee
The only thing good about this note is that there is a link to “Movin’ Out” at the bottom..
Ahhhh, those were the days….
Jan 8, 2008 at 10:01 pm rating: +1
#12
Nick
I see this as just a polite note written to some very inconsiderate people. Nothing passive aggressive about it.
Jan 8, 2008 at 10:44 pm rating: +1
#13
Earfull
Oh, tell the prosecution to give it a rest! She lives in an apartment in MANHATTAN. If you can’t stand a little noise, move to the burbs.
Hint: My best friends are named Ear and Plugs.
My Grandma always said: “It’s easier to put on slippers than to carpet the world.”
Jan 8, 2008 at 10:49 pm rating: +2
#14
raiseyourglass
Don’t get me wrong.. I would be PO’d about the singing.
I would still be moved to do something. Since the note has given the address. I would HAVE to send giftwraped -a case of earplugs and box of sominex to the sleep deprived.
Jan 8, 2008 at 11:08 pm rating: +1
#15
Olivia
While Chonny seems fun & spunky, I’m going to have to side with Team Sleep. My neighbor upstairs drops things and moves things across the floor all night long. I’m a light sleeper (wish I wasn’t!) and it really gets on my nerves. He doesn’t even have a job.
Sorry, I feel better now. Maybe move your karaoke sessions to Friday night or just shut your window.
Jan 8, 2008 at 11:48 pm rating: +2
#16
KMax
Rudy Giuliani, is that you? Your glory days of noise reduction are over, and the people of Iowa and New Hampshire? Not impressed.
Thanks Terry.
Jan 9, 2008 at 12:05 am rating: +1
#17
Grimfool
Today’s entry starts off:
“chonny lives in manhattan apartment with three spirited roommates, and they enjoy, on occasion, knocking back a few glasses of wine for an impromptu roomie-bonding sing-a-long. “
Man, I thought I’d *accidentally* wandered onto a porn site (again). No lucky pizza delivery guy, though, merely a polite and justifiably upset “prosecuter” with a very nice note that even provides a return address. Sigh.
Methinks Chonny and her three spirited roommates should share the unitard, if Ralphy’s removed it from his love doll by now. And, if their listeners can’t tell the difference between Billy Joel and Peter Gabriel, perhaps their singing isn’t really that “talented” and the notewriter is, indeed, slightly PA!
Jan 9, 2008 at 1:23 am rating: +8
#18
secondsout
Now, see, if this were me, I would send this note, wrapped around a brick, through the window.
Jan 9, 2008 at 2:16 am rating: +3
#19
secondsout
Any speculation as to whether the prosecutor would have been OK if the choice of music hadn’t sucked? Maybe if the drunken trio did an a cappella version of “Ave Maria?”
Jan 9, 2008 at 2:18 am rating: +1
#20
Canthz_B
Just one verse to the tune of “Mr. Bojangles:
Across the way,
There are some girls,
Who sing at night.
Way out of tune.
Do I dare,
Take a chance,
Shout aloud…
“Are you howling at the moon?”
I can get no sleep.
I can get no sleep.
That wine must have them quite high.
Roommate ensemble,
Roommate ensemble,
Roommate ensemble,
Hush!
Jan 9, 2008 at 2:29 am rating: +2
#21
Gez
I would hate to live next to a gaggle of unbearable show-off, performing arts students.
Team STFU on a school night.
Jan 9, 2008 at 4:55 am rating: +2
#22
Joe Sorry
i had a similar note (id put it up if i had a scanner) from the lady in the flat downstairs to me.. who said “Love the Shakespeare but keep the noise down” – and, you guessed it, it wasn’t Shakespeare but Sweeney Todd the Musical.
Jan 9, 2008 at 8:26 am rating: +1
#23
Lurker
10:00 is a ridiculous hour to have drunken singlaongs in an apartment (my building doesn’t even allow laundry after 10). It is also ridiculous that she is surprised to have received complaints, both written and oral. The fact that she sent this note to PAN has me shaking my head in disbelief. Where’s the embarrassment she should be feeling at having made such a public arse of herself?
Team Grow Up, and Team Your Music Sucks.
Jan 9, 2008 at 9:01 am rating: +4
#24
Katzndogz
Chonny seems to have the same level of remorse that Michelle did for eating the fucking delicious Outback bread.
Jan 9, 2008 at 9:46 am rating: +2
#25
Ralphy
OK Chonny-Put your big boy pants on and get over it. Take the singing out side and annoy the squirrels.
No Grim, I didn’t have to remove the unitard. I woke up yesterday and the damn thing had morphed into a uniturd. Had to bury them both. Gone forever!!
Jan 9, 2008 at 9:53 am rating: +2
#26
GhostWriter
The Top Ten similar-sounding Billy Joel and Peter Gabriel tunes…
10- “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and “Steam” (both include white-guy-trying-to-rap sections)
9 – “Pressure” and “Digging in the Dirt” (both psycho/anxiety songs)
8- “Don’t Ask Me Why” and “I Have the Touch” (well, their titles have the same word count and syllables, and Billy’s piano interlude between verses matches the beat of Peter’s into…)
7- “She’s Got a Way” and “In Your Eyes” (love songs, but boy, Peter outshines Billy, huh?)
6- “You May Be Right” and “Family Snapshot” (huh? let me explain: Billy sings, “I may be crazy…” and Peter sings about a mental patient planning an imaginary assassination)
5-” Big Man on Mulberry Street” and “Solsbury Hill” (really, the only link between the songs are the title words, Mulberry and Solsbury, but this is where Billy probably most sounds like Peter)
4- “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and “And Through the Wire” (Billy covers the Beatles hit as Glasnost in Russia, and Peter sings, “…we get so strange across the border.”
3- ummm… well, I’m spent! Who can help me out?
Jan 9, 2008 at 10:02 am rating: +5
#27
Cactus_Stan
Is it possible that there could have been two complaining neighbors? The voice “YOUR MUSIC SUCKS” is quite a contrast to the polite note complimenting their music. On the other hand, the prosecutor could have had an initial emotional reaction, followed by a more reasoned plea in the morning.
Jan 9, 2008 at 10:15 am rating: +1
#28
Lurker
#27 – Cactus_Stan, that’s what I’m thinking, too.
It pleases me to imagine them as roommates, or even a couple. The lawyer is the Felix Unger of the pair, and the shouter is the Oscar Madison.
Oscartype: Your music sucks!! *pulls head in, closes bedroom window*
Felixtype: Oh, Oscartype, you’ll never get anywhere by just shouting out the window. They might not have even heard you.
Oscartyoe: Yeah? Well, maybe I better try again. Or I could go over there an’…
Felixtype: You’ll do no such thing. Now, what we need to do first is calm down…
oscartype: I AM CALM, YOU JERK!
Felixtype: *eyeroll* All right, all right. What we need to do is sit down and write a nice, polite letter. Their singing wasn’t bad, you know, if it was just a weensy skosh softer. Sure, they’re no Anonymous 4, but…
Oscartype: The only letter I’m givin’ them is F.
Felixtype: Oscartype, Oscartype, Oscartype. Whatever am I going to do with you? Now give me a kiss and let’s go to sleep. I have that big murder case to argue tomorrow.
Oscartype: *muttering* You’ll have two moider cases if I don’t get some damn sleep.
Jan 9, 2008 at 10:40 am rating: +8
#29
Mary
Prosecutors don’t get sleep anyway! I think he/she is just jealous that they are having fun while ’said prosecutor’ is (or should be) reviewing case files and deposition material.
Jan 9, 2008 at 10:48 am rating: 0
#30
chonny
Haha…and alas, the debate ensues.
Living in such close quarters in a city where noise abounds, we were the only definitive noise makers. Unfortunately, nothing could be done about the “Late night Marital Spat Apartment,” “2am Furniture Moving Apartment” or “TV on Full Sound Until Morning Flat Next Door,” so we did our part to stop the noise pollution.
We try to be considerate neighbors and have curtailed our singing sessions to weekends only since receiving it. I get up at 5:30 every morning for work too, so honestly, I think Cristina did us all a favor in the long run. I felt compelled to send it in the note considering it was very well written and actually, a great example of passive aggression getting things done…not to mention its admission of our “talents.” It’s a refrigerator drawing for grownups.
Rock on guys…(before 8pm.)
Jan 9, 2008 at 11:14 am rating: +6
#31
chonny
Haha…genius Ralphy!
Jan 9, 2008 at 12:49 pm rating: 0
#32
Erica C
Probably because I’m a lawyer, but I’m with the note-writer on this one. Sounds like she let it go for night one and then took action on night two. She could’ve just as easily called the police.
Jan 9, 2008 at 12:58 pm rating: +1
#33
Locke
I love how the prosecutor goes to SUCH effort to make sure the singers don’t get offended by saying how talented they are!
Lurker- I love your little skit there, classic.
Anglophile- You should be ‘Lurker’ from the looks of every post I’ve read so far.
WP- What’s with you and unitards?
Jan 9, 2008 at 2:40 pm rating: +1
#34
goose
Team note-leaver.
STFU, or at the very least STF window!
Jan 9, 2008 at 9:20 pm rating: +1
#35
AC
Team Not Chonny.
Jan 9, 2008 at 11:30 pm rating: +1
#36
aaa
I think humanity would be better off if everyone didn’t know the difference between Peter Gabriel and Billy Joel.
Jan 10, 2008 at 12:37 am rating: +1
#37
S.S.
That’s a perfectly nice and reasonable note!
Nothing passive and nothing aggressive about it!
Keep your damn music and singing down, or close your window. If you like to perform so much, I’d suggest the subway or city buses.
Jan 10, 2008 at 12:29 pm rating: 0
#38
Siobhan
This is totally the start to a romantic comedy. Maybe he’s cute!
Jan 10, 2008 at 12:59 pm rating: +1
#39
unholyghost2003
Right! But show of hands … Who has seen kissing Jessica Stein I think we need a new one, maybe with America’s sweetheart Meg Ryan … a little replay of that How Harry Met Sally action?
Jan 10, 2008 at 3:02 pm rating: +1
#40
Quite Contrary
Frankly, I would take hearing bad singing over hearing bad sex any day. And I’ve lived next door to both.
Jan 10, 2008 at 4:57 pm rating: +1
#41
Set To Evil
What if they sang Lullabies? Would that help?
Jan 11, 2008 at 7:13 pm rating: 0
#42
fuhuck
Outlaw roommates.
If you can’t afford the place on one salary like a grown up, then go to hell.
Too bad she couldn’t take a shotgun to these yowling tomcats and their paper-hat-employment entitlement mentality.
Sep 3, 2008 at 6:00 pm rating: 0
#43
steph
One of my neighbors once wrote a huge “shut up” on my front door in crayon. I wish i knew about this website before i washed it off.
Jan 29, 2009 at 7:19 pm rating: 0
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