To 11

Sometimes you just can’t get the music loud enough. You put on the headphones. The closed-ear ones which keep all the sound where it belongs. Queue ’em up in the SlimServer. You know just the thing, what’ll scratch your itch. Point Beep at the URL and hit ‘play.’

Turn it up. No, that’s not enough. More. Still not doing it. You’re not melting yet. Your eyes aren’t vibrating with the bass. Thoughts are still able to coexist with music. You’re not completely filled with nothing but the song. You’re still standing. Much more and you’re going to damage something, either the hardware or the fleshy software inside which makes it all go. Do you dare? Is it worth it? Hurting yourself for that transient cathartic pseudo-religious moment of complete immersion?

Yes. Yes, it is.

But then again, no. It’s probably not.

Unfulfilled, you turn the volume down.