The night kicked off with a go-round of folks introducing themselves, where they were connecting from, and sharing one sound they enjoyed/noticed or found memorable over the past week.
Neal, based between: Arkansas and Takoma MD
interesting sound- skunks snuffling around
Nina- DC based, summer insects' sounds
Matthew- Denver, Colorado, last Friday a lone cicada
Genise- Fairfax, VA. Her 2 yr old nephew's joyful squeal
Jocelyn, Minneapolis, MN, Refreshed by her own shouting boldly into the remote wilderness
Shea, Montreal, Quebec, over the last couple of months- forgetting his headphones were on from working all day and then taking them off and that sound of reuniting with the sounds of the local micro-environment.
Jennifer Bethesda MD, was recently painting a mural and heard the summery sounds of young children playing and a nonsensical singsongy 10 min adventure
Ben, Annapolis MD has recently obsessed on little things like the quest for making clear ice cubes (through directional freezing) and has delighted in the sound of that perfect cube dropping into a leaded double old fashioned glass.
Henry, Arlington VA. Their regular haunt is a bench off near the Westover public library, where cars go up Washington Street and recently traffic and regular morning sounds were busted into by a helicopter overhead and that sound of the morning fading back up and dissipating the rest was memorable this week.
Mina, Toronto, Toronto sounds are unpleasant says Mina but biting into this Rye cracker <holds up> is a sensational delight-- the biting in and chewing of it!
Barry, Maryland. Relished the opportunity to overhear the rare sound of one tree becoming 2! Barry heard trees split during the recent storm, and it seemed to take almost 40 seconds for that split to happen... the sound of rending wood was unearthly almost.
Erin, in their mother's attic in Niagara Falls Canada, normally Philly based, Recently thought they heard rain and heard almost “sparks” but it was millions of bugs, not rain, but brown flies with longer wings hitting the windows and roof.
Ted, DC area. Recently thinking fondly on the sound from X-Files, that chirpy tinkling sounds that came up as alien noises, and recently moving groceries, putting rubber bands on eggs- realized it would/could sample very similarly!
Brandon, DC (plus the company of a Zoom backdrop of active goats). The sounds of dusk, katydids, and car breaks
Virginia, NYC. Feels ears sharpening during the pandemic... heard in a park in the distance drumming and clapping and bike bells, and discovered a march was coming through, in honor of John Lewis, with speeches all moving across the bridge. Immediately after riding her bike home, started pouring and sheltered under the metal roof. She was appreciating the quick combo of human, constructed and natural world in NYC.
Sam, Raleigh NC heard mewing and rustling in the leaves, two deer walked right up!
Ian, Boston based but joining currently from Pittsburg. Night in the Woods video game, story game with no dialogue, is all sound track driven and Ian was appreciating how it established everything from eerie to serene with a humming transforming into distortion, making it grow with your experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc6f9llfs0w
AND WE LISTENED TOGETHER:
Jennifer shared audio from WVA, biking / paddling near the Green Briar River trail. About an 80 mile journey -barred owls and chickens in the early morning hours
Henry- balalaika and electric alto and chalumeau https://youtu.be/mAPxRd6k4e0
Barry- A forest winds stereo mix https://soundcloud.com/hovercraft-dc/forest-winds
Break for Announcements:
Erin: airmedia.org/jobs , great webinars almost 2 per week. You can email for more info: [email protected], or visit airmedia.org/jobs to sign up for free webinar trainings or virtual hangouts. They have a new 'opportunities board,' an archive of Freelancer Tools, brand new AIR community forums for connecting with other members and the Talent Directory for finding - or showcasing - your talent.
Genise: Fairfax Public Access is open again! My first broadcast is Thursday (Aug 20) at 7 PM, World Reggae Party!! Goddess Genise DJ'ing
Denee:
An event/ music performance (voice and instrumental) at the Joseph Isaacs Music Matters Showcase Zoomcase email [email protected] for more info about future events! folk, rock, blues, jazz, etc. 3 set of musicians take turns in the Zoom
Barry:
Playing in a streaming electronic music show with the theme of water this Sat Aug 22 at Noon ET. Artists from us and Europe https://www.twitch.tv/lines_community
Ben:
Suggested listening: David Weinberg, podcast called Welcome to LA, relaying the story of being in a Tesla.
BACK TO AUDIO
Nina: In her first podcast production foray she's learning to love making all the mistakes and learning as you go. The first mistake: 3 hr taping for a 1 hr episode. Second lesson, self awareness of talking in paragraphs and learning to shorten/break it up.
- Looking for feedback to have this chopped up and if in talky podcasts listeners want more going on behind the sounds of the voices.
Podcast about queer readings of apocalyptic video game
Queers at the End of the World
Jocelyn and Matthew shared a clip from Lemonada's newly released pod series: The Untold Story: Policing
Neal – digging spectrograms from Cornel Ornithology Lab and being able to combine ears and sight to identify sounds of birds and identify them,
Has been using Audio Moth w/ 3 AA batteries will record for 35 hrs. in a waterproof case to record dawn chorus and evening bugs/bats
https://www.openacousticdevices.info
A discussion followed about how silence shapes the music around it, with references to Claude Debussy and Miles Davis – music is what happens between the notes
Henry:
Olivier Messiaen https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olivier-Messiaen- would notate the bird songs, and wrote a quartet for the end of time
shout outs to the sounds of :
stylus on a twig
- radio expeditions sonic discoveries
millipedes mating in Shenandoah
Brandon- shared poetry of Folger Shakespeare Theater
https://soundcloud.com/folgershakespearelibrary/sets/not-just-another-day-off-2019
it is not light that is needed but fire, we need the earthquake, the conscience of the nation roused. Words of the founders and testimonies of the movement.
The next DC Listening Lounge (again via Zoom) will be <drum roll>
Wed. Sept 30th, 7:30pm ET.
SEPT AUDIO CHALLENGE: Press record: ask someone about their first best friend (could be a telemarketer, campaign worker or other socially distanced stranger!) and bring that audio (clips or edited to be under 6 mins) to the September Listening Lounge!