life in MONO

i've had an ear infection for almost a full week now. i haven't been able to hear out of my right ear at all. it's as interesting as it is frustrating. obviously i have no aural disparity (or would it be "cochlear disparity"? i don't know what the proper terminology would be here), so the origin of sounds completely eludes me. except for the fact that logic & reasoning aid a whole lot more than i ever would have assumed. for example: i hear muffled dialogue, which i know is a family member on the phone in the other room, so i know where the sound is coming from, because i know what room the telephone is in.

the brain clearly does more post-processing of sounds than what i used to be aware of. an odd phenomenon is when i go to bed at night. i'll sleep on my good ear, as to not put unnecessary pressure on my bad one. but sound waves, from sources such as the frequent passing of a nearby train, will vibrate my mattress. so it'll sound like i have a train inside my mattress. hearing through an object like my mattress seems to compress the amplitude of everything, so everything that happens inside this peculiar mattress world is just about the same exact volume. it's not much of a problem when it comes to the sound of a train, i can easily tell what that is. things stop making sense however with random bumps and clanks that i can't tell what begot them.

a similar thing happens with music. things manage to cut through the mix that actually startle me. parts that i've heard & registered subconsciously now jump out, and i'm frequently mistaking them for sounds that aren't coming out of my stereo. obviously i haven't been listening to a lot of music recently, but when i do it really puts it into a different perspective. the first album i listened to after going mono was a Bear vs. Shark record. it honestly took me at least 90 seconds to register what was going on. the organized chaos had been flattened into a single dimension. without any depth it's pretty easy to get confused. so i find myself gravitating towards albums of my youth, that i haven't listened to in years, but once knew like the back of my hand. the fun part is when i listen to an album where the depth of everything is still discernible in mono. although it may just me getting better at listening to things so flatly.

as educational as this experience has been, i sure as hell wont miss it.