July 31, 2007

• Cicadas and traffic and distant thunder. Clanks and conversation from three men across the street, working on their cars.
• The rumble of shopping carts as the bums homeless people wheel on by as they weave their way to the metal recycling place up the street
• Well, I used to hear frogs, those very frogs, as I made made of those recordings. Many of them made in wetlands that surrounded the house were I lived. I really miss that.
• ah! the dulcet sounds of summer....let's see. the booming blast of passing gangsta subwoofers, the persistent barking of the neighbors annoying dogs & the lovely lullaby of police helicopters whacking away over head.
• I haven't heard a cricket in years. That's probably due to the pesticides that the local farmers spray on their crops.
• crickets, the occasional "brraaaap, brraaap" of a spadefoot toad, coyotes--especially tonight with the full moon, the horses shifting and snorting out in the pen, the dog snoring Dammit, I just noticed that someone didn't turn the faucet off all the way in the bathroom sink. There's a drip every 2 minutes or so.
• The hum of my computer, the noise from my celing fans, the occasional police heliocopter as Medusa mentions and drunken 20 somethings talking far too loud as they toddle to their cars after partying at "Dolce", a hip restaurant just up the block.
• These days, the rain tap-tapping the window panes and later dripping off the garden vines. Maybe a lone cricket at night. Some days, I marvel at waking up in the middle of the night and, despite living near a major avenue and a few kilometers from the main city airport, being enveloped in a soothing silence; maybe just a far away cargo truck, a siren car. Of course, other days, neighbours are less quiet. Used to be lot of cat and dogs barked at nighttime; not so many anymore. Also, a chorus of roosters celebrating daybreak was common. In this past week, I saw the sun come up twice and no roosters could be detected.
• Corona discharge, depending on the temperature and humidity; crickets and crickets and crickets.
• Airplanes. I live less than a mile from Oakland International Airport.
• Traffic, helicopters, and my Rite-Aid fan. If anyone in the boondocks has money and needs a cook, please holler.
• Goats.
• Interesting timing. Here in Japan the sound most associated with summer are the cicadas. In fact they use it a lot on TV to portray an atmosphere of summer. This year however it's been very quiet. We've had some very hot days - but spread amongst cooler weather and a lot of rain and storms. This seems to have messed up the cicadas a bit and the summer so far has been quiet.
• It's this time of year that I miss living in the woods. Nighttime was crickets and bats, but then as soon as the sun started to come up it was a symphony of every kind of bird.
• Crop circles being made.
• Interesting topic, given that this summer I noticed that in spite of the heat I didn't hear cricket one until a week ago. Anybody remember the "Environments" recordings that were produced a few decades back? I had 'em all but my favorite was "Dusk and Dawn in New Hope, PA" which had wonderful summer-night sounds. Our current evening soundtrack includes cicadas (hot nights), katydids and crickets. Mornings include much birdsong as referenced by TUM. These sounds always put me into a dreamy reverie... sadly, not conducive to leaving for work which is what I had to do today. *curses life of servitude, gazes wistfully at sunlight barely visible through blinds*
• When I sleep, I have a rather powerful fan running. Someone could land a plane in my backyard and I wouldn't hear it. When I am out on my porch, it is fairly quiet but for traffic. I watch the squirrels, but they aren't particularly noisy.
• Ah yes- the summer nights in my neck of the woods are characterised by the sound of AC cranking, the idiots with the car/boombox combos at the 7/11 that somehow manage to rattle my windows despite being over a block away, and of course, the sound of my own sobbing as I nightly contemplate the failed wreckage of my life. It's a magical soundscape indeed!
• Absolutely nothing and it puzzles me, not to mention bums me out. I grew up in Ohio suburbs where the crickets & cicadas sang me to sleep all summer long. But the entire 17 years I've lived in Seattle (and now northern Seattle), I've heard nothing. This area seems void of most insect life in general. Harumph.
• I forgot to mention the bum-birds in the evening. Now that the 2 pair have hatched, and the word has gotten around, we have...ummm, about.... *points, tries to count about 12. Those little shits fight and twitter constantly. They start dawn right outside my window. If they weren't so magical otherwise, I'd kick their twittery little butts down the road.
• At the new place, the sound of the white trash neighbours' air conditioning unit. Evidently far more important than curtains instead of a tacked-on bedsheet, or a garbage can to clean up the shit in the backyard, but whatever. Beyond that, light traffic. At the old place, it was the sound of the ground-floor store's air conditioning unit and heavy traffic. At my parents' place, it was usually crickets, but only in August. They seem to be coming earlier now. Last week camping, it was one very eager cricket, red squirrels playing in the underbrush, wind in the trees, and the sound of the waves coming from over the dunes. But also, one night last week, I successfully called an owl. First try. I am now a caller of Great Horned Owls. It is my intention to make bernockle a very poor man.
• What did you call him? *giggles madly, hides under blanket with box of Fiddle Faddle*
• I was one of the first homes in this end of the neighborhood, and my property abuts a dry creekbed, and there were 3-4 coyotes that lived down there, with an equal number of big feral cats, and they would chase each other and squall from about midnight to four every night. I'd go out the back, and it was PITCH dark, and the night would be alive with their caterwauling. Both frightening and enrapturing at the same time. Cap'n! TUM's in perfect position for a retaliatory dutch ovening! here's some cotto salami and cole slaw - go, boy!
• *PPPFFfmmmmmmmMMMMMMnnnnNNNmmMmNmmmmmNNNNNNmmmmmmphtp!*
• Nighttime was crickets and bats You can hear their ultrasonic sonar, TUM? Or their leathery wings flapping... One of my fondest vacation memories is how, for a week, we could see, really high in the sky, a big flock of bats returning into the coast on sundown, while laying on a beach on the Yucatán peninsula. I've returned to that place several times but no more bats ever since.
• I assumed it was bats 'cause that's what I saw whehn I head the squeaking. Maybe it was really owls or coons or something.
• New Zealand has a shortage of interesting mammals, so the summers are mostly birdcalls. Out in the Sounds we are always woken by the tui (someone's youtube of the sound), and when we drink coffee on the porch there is a resident wood pigeon (that one's at a zoo) who swoops down the gully every morning on patrol. It's winter now though and it's slowly getting lighter, so there are a few non-native birds starting to make themselves heard here in the suburbs.
• The relentless rumble of the goddamned mother-fucking son-of-a-bitch garbage trucks. The high-pitched squeal of bus brakes in dire need of servicing - every 15 minutes. The drunken melees! Maurice meorrwing for attention from 3:00 am through 6:00 am. My only solace is the occasional sound of thunder rolling in the distance...
• Not too much to hear apart from the city noises where I live at the moment, I'm afraid. I did just come back from Princeton New Jersey. Once you get out of town there are crickets, toads, and several species of frog that I couldn't identify. Deer are so common they're a hazard, and I counted about ten species of birds around the feeder. Almost all the farms are gone now and the town is really just a suburb of New York these days, but the wildlife does seem to be doing pretty well.
• Ralph, I look forward to settling in your backyard even more...
• Flagpole: TUM is very probably right about hearing bats. Not all of the bats sounds are in the ultrasonic range - I have heard bats emit chirping noises many times´, not only here in Scandinavia, but also in Germany and in France. Maybe Continental bats are more noisy than the American varieties?? ;-) As for the sounds here in Copenhagen, they are the same as in most other Capitols - noise from trafic, drunken revellers, police sirens and so on. At the moment I have a construction site going on 25 meters outside my windows, so I thank the powers that be for my soundproofed windows. On the other hand - I can go out in my enclosed Atrium garden - on all sides protected by the block itself. There I can enjoy the song of blackbirds, bluebirds and finches as well as the somewhat less enjoyable hoarse cries of seagulls and machinegun like chatter of housejays. The hustle and bustle of Copenhagen is reduced to a faint hum, occationally marred by the racket of a passing helicopter.
• Mexican freetail bats make a lot of noise that you can hear.
• They also piss all over you if you're below a (flock?swarm?cloud?).
• Cloud. :)
• I visited a friend in West Virginia who had a tree full of bats in the yard. You could definitely hear them. I also miss living in the country, and the sound of birds. I mostly now hear airplanes landing in my backyard, lots of traffic, and the fans.
• I have a lot of kids that play in the street. I like that. Also cicadas, bats. I am on one of the outbound flight plans of Atlanta Hartsfield Airport so when the weather is right I get to see, but just barely hear, the planes going north. Also, Elwood yodels at the train. Fair amount of trains, they come past so often that you don't even notice...
• Elephant Shoes and farting. I live next to a Mexican Restaurant for Pachyderms. Seriously, As a child, crickets. Now? My A/C and traffic helicopters starting at 5 AM. Anyone know where I can get a SAM unit with 4-5 Sidewinders? Anyone? I need them for.... research.