Of Airsoft and Hi-Fi

By:Vanessa Uy

If there is one thing I’ve learned in involving myself in lunatic fringe hobbies like hi-fi and airsoft is that these hobbies require one thing in abundance:money. Yep a Php 28,000 CD player and an airsoft replica gun of similar cost have more in common other than snob factor. A good ( re : expensive ) CD player is supposed to emotionally involve us by replicating the sound of a musical performance -albeit classical , rock, jazz or Islamic qawali- faithfully in your listening room ( or a cramped bed room or whatever ).Imagine Avril Lavigne,Lunachicks or Jimmi Henrix in your room. Just close your eyes and reach out. Pretty scarry isn’t it? Pricey airsoft guns vie for our emotional involvement by looking eerily like the real thing. A friend of mine using an airsoft kalashnikov once chased away those Hezbollah-esque Fraternity types armed with a real 9 mm berreta. But remember, these imitation assault rifles can’t cause your human targets ribs to stick out their backs after firing short bursts at less than 15 feet away. Come to think of it , am I comparing like with like? Of course not . But one thing I can conclude on my hands on involvement in both hobbies is that hi-fi is a personal endevour ,an enjoy yourself kind of undertaking.While airsoft breeds commoroderie.Some players may prefer one type of gun to another even though they all use 6mm plastic BB pellets .In hi-fi one persons preferred tonal balance is another ones sonic poison. Also music preferrence come into play .My tastes are as diverse as the latest softcore- porn- teen- rock-chick genre to Islamic devotional music , something the evangelical powers-that –be are trying hard to wipe out!Hi-fi is a 99% Nietzschean self-absorption par excellence,while airsoft is about networking to older men about guns and politics. They’re the kind that don’t pigeonhole me as some anglo-saxon paedopelia craze. In my opinion these two hobbies don’t make sense because they are designed to make magic!Isn’t the Newtonian physics involved to run these things seem magical?Except hi-fi though. I think some obscure quantum-mechanical principles may be involved. Does Professors Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking own kick-ass audio systems?