The Driver’s Perspective II

The story I shared last week is my favorite Uber experience so far. But I do have plenty of others. A lot of those stories are short encounters with certain characters or conversations that intrigue me in one way or another. Since they are less significant than a $300 tip or almost witnessing a domestic, those stories usually blend into one another. For example last night I picked up a rider at Cal State San Marcos who, within the first 20 seconds of the ride, made a comment about listening to death metal. This is a common conversation starter riders give me when they look at my hair dangling lower than my shoulders and have some form of a musical opinion, giving them the assumption that I am a ‘metal-head’. The reason I mention the musical opinion is after I correct their assumption, we start down the ‘music conversation’. This conversation can vary from person to person, some of the riders play their preferred sounds through my car’s speakers, other riders tell me about documentaries or concerts I should watch. The rider from last night told me about a radio show in Los Angeles hosted by the famous Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones. It is called Jonesy’s Jukebox and Steve invites different music artists onto the show and interviews them without a piece of paper in front of him with questions written ahead of time. I don’t listen to radio shows, but the concept this rider gave me of the show interests me. Other riders play me artists I’ve never heard of or sometimes their own recorded work off of their phone. These little encounters may not be the most exciting stories, but they can make those long, dull nights better.