Talking To Strangers

However, I've met some rather nice people by striking up conversations brought about by coincidence and the events at hand (usually in my college classes; NEVER at a concert). If I tried chatting up folks @ a bar, I'd probably come off as such an interesting person that my sober persona would seem as a crashing bore. Or else I'd act like a drunk asshole. For the sake of my self-esteem, I'll assume the drunk asshole hypothesis.

So, my final vote is Undecided. Democracy rulez!

Then we shook hands and I walked off, still refusing to take one of his shabby little books.

To answer the question: no, I never deliberately talk to strangers, for fear of bothering them.

It's far less awkward if you're with a bunch of friends. Or if you're going to be DJing in one of them -- like I will be doing in the near future... heh heh heh

I generally don't strike up conversations with people. If one talks to me, though, I'll try and be voluble, though if I'm in a bad mood I try to project that so I am left alone. ;-) Last stranger I talked to was the new bus driver last Tuesday, and you can guess what the subject was. :-/

Playing rock with female vocals is a winner

• Girls in bars like hearing rock music with female vocals... especially if it's everything from Suzi Quatro to Bjork to Bonnie St. Clair to Shonen Knife.
• Guys like bars with lots of girls in them
• Guys pack bars with lots of girls in them, which are packing the bar themselves..
• DJs like DJing at bars that give them a percentage of the bar profits

Most of the time, people who start conversations with me seem kinda creepy, though I'm not sure if it's them or if I just think it's weird that this stranger is talking to me.

Starting conversations with perfect strangers on the bus or in a bar generally seems totally contrived and useless. I think I've been missing the point.

I love grocery store clerks who get defensive about having to card me for beer.

Joke abt TJ (= Talitha): When aliens land, and say their classic line, it is their accent misleading us. Actually they are saying "Take us to Talitha," who they met at a private view three years ago.

On the net no prob.

On the talking issue, I find the first moment of contact with strangers exhilarating, but running into them again gets more and more awkward as your relationship descends into what symbolic interactionists call 'phatic' grunts: 'How ya doin'?' etc. You realise that your friends are, by and large, friends for a reason: that you have something in common with them beyond two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth.

is that a good idea? i think its kinda cute....

Today as we were leaving for a drive some woman came over to the drivers side of the car and said the following to me:

Excuse me I've noticed lately a lot of women driving men around and I don't know why that is. Why are you driving and not him? and I was just like . . . . um . . . Then she said, see I'm in my 50s and I'm used to seeing the men drive their ladies around so I don't understand this trend of women driving instead of the men and I said well actually - he doesn't even drive so in this situation there's no option besides I LOVE driving. She then said, oh well don't make a habit of it.

SO STRANGE.

should have rolled down your window and yelled HES BRITISHES ITS A OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD THING and then sped off

LOL Yeah probably but I was too intrigued and sorta stunned at the time.

Thing is it's not a British thing - he just doesn't drive. That would probably have BLOWN HER MIND.

"Don't make a habit of it."

weird

"this trend"

x-post Yeah, the "don't make a habit of it" was my favorite part.

and she was 50 not 95 I mean really, WTF?

it really comes down to what Abbott re-posted. what the fuck.

Last night, a guy at the Wighnomy Bros. gig bought me a drink out of nowhere, but the thing was was that he was a totally inept conversationalist. I tried to give him the standard, open-ended questions, even did some that I haven't used in a while. It was the first time in a while that something like that had happened to me.

Generally, though, I talk to strangers all the time, and most of the time enjoy myself immensely.

i was talking to an old boy on the train on Thursday and he greatly exaggerated the amount of traffic he'd encountered getting in to Glasgow on the bus that day (said he was in a traffic jam for 4 hours).

It took eight years for this thread to be revived for some reason. I guess people were kickin it on other threads.

Last night, a guy at the Wighnomy Bros. gig bought me a drink out of nowhere, but the thing was was that he was a totally inept conversationalist. I tried to give him the standard, open-ended questions, even did some that I haven't used in a while. It was the first time in a while that something like that had happened to me.

This guy at Wighnomy Bros. (nice job at having an unpronouncable name) is how I act 80% of the time.

Coming to think that enjoying this vs not enjoying it is a pretty defining personality divide.

I would talk to more strangers if I could be sure I could also end the conversation forever when I wanted

don't make a habit of it

We stayed in a guest house this weekend and it occurred to me that I generally enjoyed chatting with the husband and wife owner, as did the husband owner, whereas both my wife and the female owner seem to more avoid the chatting (which is not to say it's a male/female divide -- my mom talks to random people more than anyone I know).