Just a reminder the next DCLL meeting will be Tuesday March 7th at 7:30pm. More info on that soon. 

Also- thanks again to all the artists that put forward incredibly creative proposals for consideration of inclusion in Sound Scene 2017. 
The Sound Scene planning team has been discussing proposals and moving towards decisions but we have not finalized our program yet. We are looking forward to being in touch with all artists as soon as we can. Thank you for your patience. We haven't forgotten you!

Sincerely,
DCLL

The next DC Listening Lounge is March 7th at AC's in Petworth. Mark you calendars. We'll send additional details as the date approaches.
Next Sound Scene planning meeting Feb 13 (email for details)
Highlights from DCLL Feb 6, 2017 Listening Lounge
We kicked off the night with a go-round about the most memorable/best food you've eaten (not the most "sonic" opener but we definitely got a sense of storytelling styles in the room).
Bond- sushi Shady Maple (?) in Silver Spring “amazing how many things go well with avocado.”
James- “The best thing I ever ate, was probably the placenta of my little brother...just kidding” Christmas in Patagonia, thick Argentinian beef, red wine. Etc.
Teague- donut connoisseur, donut quest. NY donut tour with a rating system. Doughnut Plant (before it was on TV, he claims he was a fan), basic is less sweet, complex dough, puts up a little resistance without being too chewy, and seasonal glaze, fresh blueberries.
Jocelyn- I haven't been but I hope to one day, maybe check out Kobo's- vegan tasting menu – it was just reviewed in the Washington Post Magazine and looked beautiful aesthetically and flavorful
Slammer- just returned from chapatis in Kenya. Thick similar to tortillas, bready with delicious home cooked stew
Steve- jalebi, looks like a day-glo orange pretzel, Jalebi wala- Jalebi “Man” has been there almost 250 yrs. Deep fried in butter and dipped in sugar syrup. (don't try this in the US)
Melissa- wanted to learn Italian better, an olive farm in Tuscany during harvest time, and organic farm, a little more labor intensive, and at the end of the first day, took 700 kilo to pressing plant, ancient place, and next day pick up florescent green fresh pressed olive oil. And the woman of the house made steamed vegetables and toasted bread , scratch with raw garlic clove and dump olive oil all over it. Cloudy olive oil is better flavored. Local recommendation. California Olive Ranch- picture of guy on tractor holding a huge olive or something. Its pretty darn good.
Amy- Italian favorite meal based on where I was as much as the food. Trastevere neighborhood in Rome, courtyard, playing violin next to us, gnocchi, in a broth 4-6 kinds of fresh mushrooms,
Tyler- goat herder volunteer in Israel, goats milk not properly pasteurized made him sick, hadn't eaten anything but white rice for 2.5 weeks, and had falafel that was the best I ever had, and then threw up a few hours later but it was totally worth it.
Jimmy- first job after grad school was installing security gates, Monday walking to car in Seattle away from shop, friend went fishing this weekend, reach into truck and grabbed salmon caught yesterday and, smoked that day- mouth lit up, not even salmon to me- its a whole other thing.
Brandon-Roatan island off Honduras, visiting godfather at his house there, neighbor took him out fishing- starts at 5am, catch the bait first casting a net, held partially in teeth, only caught 2, but the first fish he caught was a yellow finn tuna, breakfast at 10am of the tuna, incredibly fresh and special.
Shawna- in the Dominican Republic. In LasTerrenas, small town known for kite sailing, we were the only people there, just expats running a little bnb. Crabs walking by our feet.
Audio part of the night:
Melissa- kicked off the night with something, not serious, she said, the opposite. Balmy, comforting.
As she was waiting to set up – the donut advice continued. Priorities...creme brule at Astros, canoli filled at DistrictDonut  (this link leads to a DCLL-worthy audio piece!) and in Baltimore some solid choices as well.
Back to the audio: A local publication in Baltimore, J-More, newly launched, monthly mag with daily web updates. A written profile of 5 couples how they met and how they keep their marriage together, what is the glue? Melissa also produced short audio portraits/slide shows. One couple married for 60 yrs, played tonight.
Barry and Sandy Lever-
Reminded some of the group of the Storycorpslove story of the couple who were together for ages, and recorded through the husbands death (not sure if we got that link right).
The music Melissa used was gathered with help from the AIRlistserv
Take-away advice from another couple Melissa interviewed: “marriage is a game where no one knows the rules and they keep changing.”
Bond- wanted to play a song that he noted was titled “Pure Comedy” by Father John Misty, sarcastic, out-there. Bond says “if I ever had kids, which I don't plan, I'd share this music as a bit of insight into my life,” and musical tastes.
Sounds like some homage to Billy Joel and Rufus Wainright.
Father John was a drummer with Fleet Foxes before.
Jimmy- working with Rebecca, and also a visual artist and a programmer shared a brand new (one day old) application that they are creating that allows a visual artist's work to be interpreted and experienced sonically. (We all swooned and had lots of thoughts and feedback by request...and some not by request). This “translation tool” used sounds gathered from 7 different sound collections,
and it uses “edge detection” triggering different sounds
We loved the ideas of collaborative performance art, live drawing and multiple layers of experience.
Discussions of the sonicification of visual art- the color organ and vibration as a possible additional element.
Amy- shared audio from “The gnocchi experience” an audio representation of a very special meal. Dinner on the street corner in Italy.
And the AirBnB – recorder held out the window featuring street side accordion

James- stories of himself and friends, collected over time will be collected and organized as a “Life in three chapters” beginning, middle end. We listened together to the
chapter transition from middle to last act...and discussions about frequency ranges, clarity, music balances, sound effects, and general design followed.
Jocelyn shared an excerpt from an interview with Evelyn Glennie describing how to listen with more than your ears and digest sound like “a pea or carrot.” discussions about laughter, host engagement, striking the balance. 
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DC Listening Lounge began in the fall of 2004 by like-minded audio enthusiasts as an informal place to listen, experiment and learn more about the art and craft of sound. We continue to meet once a month in DC living rooms to share and listen to one another's latest audio finds- and to continue an ongoing conversation about sound and creative storytelling.
We always welcome curious visitors, eager listeners, and sound enthusiasts of all stripes and types. To join our mailing list or learn more about our monthly meetings, email us at [email protected]

Come on out for a night of listening
DCLL's February Listening Lounge
When: Feb 6th, 7:30pm
Where: Amy's Place
(email for details)
How: Petworth metro is closest
What do I bring? : Yourself. Also feel free to bring food, drinks or friends to share. If you'd like to bring audio - we'd love it. Please limit clips/excerpts to 6 minutes or shorter. 
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January Lounge Highlights Need extra motivation to attend February's lounge? Check out the notes from last month's lounge courtesy of James.
Attendees introduced themselves and described one sound that they found particularly loathsome.

• Rene – first timer at DCLL. Whining sounds of a car that always goes up hill outside his house. AND when a smoke alarm is about to die 
• Simon – first timer at DCLL. Whole food’s outdoor noise from a broken speaker
• Kate – first timer. Fire alarm in her apartment building
• Ian –  Locks on the door to his house.
• Steve – was in Chicago right across from Trump Tower on election night. In celebration, they sent two helicopters up in the air that hovered there all night.
• Anna – first timer. Kelly Anne Conway
• Liz – first timer. Broken doors to a CVS in Toronto. She even has it on her phone, which she played for us later. (It was truly horrible)
• Teague – birds nesting in the eve of his house outside his window w SIX starlings
• Anne – 2nd timer. Beeping sound at work from an unknown source that never seems to stop.
• Suzanne – glass scratching across earthen ware or ceramics
• Deb – her 2 year old son’s sound when he is denied somethin .
• Colleen – sirens in DC, echoing off all the buildings
• Mickey – Donald Trump’s voice which he actually has to pull sometimes into his podcast
• James – the words “President Trump”.

Listening:

• Liz: works in sculpture and incorporating sound into her work. She played …
  • Sound from a mountain top in Spain. Herd of large cows w bells around their neck. 
  • Day of the Dead
    • An LED storefront in Mexico w bits of USA pop music overlaid w store music
    • Street band celebrating dead people
  • And then… The infamous Toronto CVS Doors: truly a horrible sound. Like dolphins being slaughtered* (*author's note).
• Mickey: His nephew talking on tape but being drowned out by his uncle. Punctuations of chewy toys. This sparked much talk of secret recordings of family members. Including Deb being tricked into saying Banana B--ch over and over to her older sister. As well as Rene accidentally recording himself by pocket dialing a friend for 4 minutes
• Coleen: an EDM song’s loop w multi layers. “She Just Likes to Fight” by Four Tet. Emotional piece with different loops trying to overcome each other. Steve notes: but it’s more like a love song. And this to him did not sound like real EDM because you could hear the instruments. Ian: Fore Tet is a founder of Detroit House and so the fact that it sounds so harmonious is a nice aspect. 
• Ian: Was happy that this time we’re playing sounds so that he can play sounds, (versus earlier lounges where more stories were shared). These are seals from Antarctica and called Weddell Seals, which are 6 feet long and “broadcast across the bay”. This actually stuns their prey when hunting. It was very haunting and other-worldy.
• Deb: At U St market, where her friend sells pies! A sound scape of the transactions w happy customers. As well as sidewalk bands providing ambience. Deb says it was good practice even for interviewing people on the street as well as narrating. Mickey noted: enjoyed how it zoomed out and exposed more of the world around the pies. 
• This sparked an interesting debate about how allowed or proper it is to surreptitiously record people. 
• James: played a short called “$%#^'ing Matt Dillon”, a drunken story from a friend at a party who recounted how she had… yes, made sweet sweet love with Matt Dillon once.
• Simon: played a traveling orchestral harpist. Deb: “What type of party was that?” It was one where there were comedians and musicians but a definite mix of genres. Consensus was this was a very unusual type of sensual versus tactile type of harp playing. Many shouts out to the harpist at the Willard.

Other discussion points:

• Musician Jeremy Messersmith – “Paper Moon” was made so that anyone can use it in their pieces!!!
  • Ian points out that many Sound Cloud users/composers (his friends!!) WANT to score podcasts. So reach out and ask.
  • Girl Talk albums – can use their music for free
• Question about interviewing people from Deb as she has to do interviews w vets for an upcoming project. Schwartzing was discussed – the technique where you lie down w eyes closed in the dark. What ways do we know about to get good interviews?
  • Steve: start off w easy stuff – e.g., what did you do today?
  • James: using improve techniques (channeling Lizzie’s advice)
  • Rene: standing shoulder to shoulder versus face-to-face, a la what umpires do in baseball!
  • Mickey: Transom’s website has lots of practical advice!
  • Suzanne: purposely incorrectly summarizing the other person so that they then correct you but very succinctly
  • Steve: asking simple questions that break down things into how they sounded, smelled, etc.
• Question from Rene about interviewing. How do you transition from the everyday informal interview to an official interview?
  • Mickey: some people start recording as soon as they walk in and tell the person later. This way there’s no transition.(e.g. Reply All and RadioLab)
    • Studs Terkel would pretend to not know how to work the recorder. Would that work today?