OCTOBER MEETING NOTES IN FULL (courtesy of Nikki- thank you Nikki!)
Meeting opened with a Halloween themed ice breaker:

Ellen was Joan Jett last year and is considering being an appliance this year, like an oven, because it's fun to open doors.

Sven was an ambigious 19th century man with a mustache last year and is still contemplating this year's costume.

Ben skipped dressing up last year as he believes he was at Third Coast. He is also contemplating a costume for this year but whatever it is he would like it to be as successful as his friend's who went as a drive-in movie last year.

Hans went as Mr. Rogers last year, King Friday included. He is undecided for this year.


Teague also abstained from costumes last year but regaled us with his memories of his long-haired days when he dressed up as a "Sketchy Guy"

A new member to the group, John, didn't dress up last year, but also had long hair two years ago which he incorporated into a very succesful Kenny G costume.

Alex hasn't dressed up for years, but shared a story of showing up in a full Lawrence of Arabia-esque costume to a Finnish Halloween party only to find out there had been something lost in translation and it was actually a party long on Finns and short on Halloween.

Nate was in the process of moving last Halloween. He once dressed up as a theremin and is currently mulling over utilizing dryer lint for a Sexy Dryer costume.

Jocelyn was a zombie last year but to her recollection the costume that most entertained her was seeing a girl in Georgetown dressed as a Deviled Egg.

Nikki was working a show in Chicago last Halloween wearing a Roman Holiday-esque 50's dress with heels. She's contemplating an Edward Gorey inspiration for this year. 

AUDIO Highlights:
Nate shared a piece he has been developing for the Nov. DC Soundscapes Hear Now event. The piece was a "fractured field recording" of Mount Pleasant where guitar parts were repeatedly recorded on decaying analog cassettes in different areas of the neighborhood.

Hans shared a "happy accident" piece that he put together while working on a project about the DC's first R&B DJ. As he was looking for people who'd listened to the DJ he came across a man named Harold Bell. A quick interview later left him with amazing stories about Harold's youthful experiences caddying for Richard Nixon.

Jocelyn shared a phone recorded piece chronicling the evolution of The Pancake Song written by her friend Josh from NY. A live performance of said song then took place in a fancy restaurant in Michigan featuring Jocelyn & friends to the enthusiastic rejoicing of other restaurant patrons. She also shared a different audio number from the DCLL vault about what people in DC hunger for. 

John shared a composition he improvised two years ago for keyboard and digital beats. He usually doesn't play his own compositions in public/for strangers but jumped right into the mix with us. We're all happy to have him in the group.

The meeting wrapped with an audio prompt exercise (as mentioned above) where all present wrote down a noun, a verb and an adjective on separate slips of paper. These were then put into a hat and each person pulled one of each to use as a starting point for an audio piece. 

 prompts:
Teague's prompt:  frown - to drink - joyful
Alex's: park -to build- colorful
Jocelyn's: twilight - falling- fresh
Nate's:  space - to die- compassionate
Nikki's: butterfly - meander -shine
Ellen's:  pasta - dissect - empty
Sven's: organism - to trim - writhing
Hans's:  home - to change- gooey
Ben's:  picture frame - putter - un-elective (?)

Announcements/Agenda items:

DCLL website: anyone excited about re-designing and re-launching the DCLL website? its down for a bit...holler if this stuff gets you fired up.

DCLL Hear Now Event: Come out November 19th! Goethe Institute. 7pm sharp! Soundscapes of DC with Marika Partridge and your very own DCLL

NPR Space:  DCLL had a conversation during the Oct. gathering on potential for an NPR field trip? Did we want to pursue using space(s) there in the future for special events? Would we prefer to do more outreach to local radio stations like WAMU, CPR, & Takoma??
feel free to share your thoughts at the November meeting or at dclisteninglounge@gmail.com

Audio peeps- the last DCLL of 2014 will be next week! (then we'll have more meetings in 2015). Hope you can join (isn't that everyone's favorite end of the year trope?).
WHEN: Wednesday Dec 17
TIME: 7:30pm-10pm
WHERE:  15th street NE. Brookland. 
10 minutes from Brookland metro. 
QUESTIONS: call Tatyana
(For people with allergies you should know that there's a cat in the house.)
WHAT ? ---Please bring any combination of food, drinks, audio (under 6 minutes) and friends to share (or all of the above)---
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Here are some highlights from the November meeting. Thanks for hosting Ellen. Notes courtesy of Lauren:
11/17/14
The meeting opened with several ice-breaker questions: The sounds you've been hearing now that it's cold, ghost stories, or your totem color.

Ellen shared a ghost story from home when her friends left her near a former insane asylum near Al Capone's vacation home. 
Lauren: sound of jingle bells around town.
Laura: Ghost story about a co-worker's dad who's family's underwear went missing one year and years later the dad found all the family's underwear balled up in a tiny space in the attic. 
Elisa: She normally bikes to work, but because of the cold she's been taking the bus more and taking note of what people talk about on public transit. 
Ginger: The sound of wind blowing through leaves and the Salvation Army bells

Teague: Bikes to work year round but he's recently noticed the swishy sound his cold-weather biking pants make. He also shared a spooky story about playing Sorry with his cousin and simultaneously they both thought of "Okra Winfrey."

Dorthea: The sound of water boiling for tea

Amy: The sound of leaves and seagulls swarming.
Ben: His totem color is yellow and he's been noticing the sound the florescent light emits in the cold because he has one near his shed.
Jocelyn: The sound lakes make when their ice has begun melting and re-freezing at the edges. Her totem color is gold because of her (perceived) sun deficiencies, or maybe teal? 

---Audio---

Elisa shared a piece she produced about a music collective in Seattle: a musician talks about how connected the group is and how everyone he knows he's met through music. It's the first installment of her production, "The House Show Show" 

We brainstormed ideas for how she can make the show happen/expand the reach: 
Localore

New WAMU program: Bandwidth 

Ben: Introduced the show Serial for the few who still haven't heard it and shared his favorite 30 second clip. We listened to the Serial theme song + Miley Cryus mashup and Jocelyn also shared a Mac secret to eliminate the quack sound when adjusting the volume: shift + volume keys. 

Ellen shared the story of a guy's experience at a very strange funeral which was told at a Speakeasy DC event. Ellen volunteered to refurbish their now-defunct podcast so we brainstormed some possible shapes and themes to jump start the audio. 

Elisa also shared a story of a haunting at the Embassy of Indonesia.

---More audio adventures next week! Looking forward to listening with you.---