Next Listening Lounge: Oct 21, 7:30pm ET (ZOOM)
September Lounge Highlights:
Neal welcomed Loungers that trickled in from near and far. The night’s ice-breaker was "what memorable sound did you hear today?”
Neal, from AR & DC
the negative sound (aka - quiet) of not hearing the normal drone of the AC.
Jennifer, DC
the discomforting sound of an overhead helicopter with "silver missiles," eliciting a somewhat of a “Pavlovian” conditioned fear response.
Tanya - Walkersville, MD
a neighbor, normally quiet, but picking today for his annual ritual of cutting loose with a super-loud motorcycle. He does this sometimes too with a super-loud camper truck.
Denée - Columbia, MD
the pleasant sound of voices in the street having a variety of languages, consistent with Columbia’s nurturing of diversity. Also the meditative voice of hearing Ibram X. Kendi reading from his book “How to be an Antiracist.”
Matthew - Denver, CO
actually let us hear what he heard, the sonorous “POP” of uncapping a medicine bottle.
Jocelyn – Petoskey, MI
the building up of wind that was so intense that it was surprisingly discovered to actually be hail.
Ana Maria - Alexandria, VA
the potentially embarrassing, rhythmic creek of the floor boards as she did her exercises, conjuring up the 1991 French Film Delicatessen ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVL5_I4CvTc )
Jay - Ashville, NC
As an ethnomusicology/experimental audio professor at Georgetown, he had lined up Atlanta-based hip hop producer Renegade El Ray for a zoom lecture but had concern how it would come off – turned out it was amazing. Jocelyn expressed what most were thinking “hmm, what’s Georgetown’s policy on auditing courses?”
Barry – Gaithersburg, MD
Living in a townhome he had the pleasure of hearing his neighbor refinish their floor, but from the sound of it, very badly. Erratic drilling tempos and timbres being dead give-aways.
Ben – Annapolis, MD
Venturing outdoors he witnessed the grunts and slaps of a football hitting the hands of mask-less teens evoking feelings of both envy and anxiety.
[We later welcomed: Nina (DC), Ian (Pittsburgh- sound: Kanye’s metronomic sonic pallet), Ann (DC- sound: baby sounds), Brandon]
WE LISTENED TOGETHER:
Neal – shared Sound Collage #8, where pandemic lock-downed participants agree to add 30 sec of creative audio to a forwarded file, exquisite corpse style. As a “contrarian,” Neal’s contribution soothed out the preceding 8ish contributions. Guidance to participants included “you should surrender to it…make it exciting…don’t be precious.”
Jocelyn – was moved to contemplation of our times by the sound of a creature of the night; a cricket. The cricket sounds reminded her of Steve Reich’s 1968 piece “Come Out” where the tape moves out of phase much like the crickets. In “Come Out” the voice of a man beaten by police is heard to say that the only way he could get hospitalized was to open up one of his bruises – flowing blood being the entry criterion. Although the crickets were peaceful, the reminder was disconcerting. It ultimately left her with determination to “stay on causes that I care about,” and not just relax into the peacefulness she was privileged to enjoy.
https://pitchfork.com/features/article/9886-blood-and-echoes-the-story-of-come-out-steve-reichs-civil-rights-era-masterpiece/
Jennifer – took last month’s prompt – “ask someone about their first, best friend” – and ran with it. Erik Johnson, a UPS driver became her subject and shared that his first best friend was actually “a mob of us” wandering around the Rock Creek/old Walter Reed property with nicknames including “Catfish”…”Smokey”…”Peanut”…”Fat Steve.” His nickname? He and his brothers were the collective “Johnson Boys.” The rain on the in-truck interview added a nice ambiance to Jennifer’s remarkable first interview sound piece.
Barry – shared a field recording that didn’t require him to trek into the wilderness as he saw a “storm a comin” so stuck his LOM Uzi PRO omnis on his window sill. This turned out to be an immersive, mysteriously air-traffic-sound-free, and perfectly timed to catch the entire storm symphony concluding with a rain-drenched finale. Some side discussion included Barry saying he had to perform an “audio biopsy” on tape since he “kept hearing voices.” Why? – “some sound software algorithms favor the vocal range.”
https://store.lom.audio/collections/microphones-accessories
Brandon – got a cabin in the Shenandoah which offered a great opportunity to use his Wildtronics Pro Mini Parabolic Stereo Microphone hooked up to his Zoom H4N. The crystal clear, peaceful track revealed multiple bird species identified as: a red-bellied woodpecker, multiple blue jays, Carolina wren, and downy woodpecker (thanks to Neal - DCLL’s resident bird expert).
https://www.wildtronics.com/stparabolic.html#.X38vjZNKjFo
Ben – shared a clip from a January trip to Vieques Island where he and a friend went to the Human Society to check on a dog that they had previously rescued. The walk through the kennel, stepping around dog bowls and tools, inspired an impromptu salsa dance lesson given by one of the staff.
Tanya – as a sound artist and composer was coaxed to share one of her compositions “Terrestrial Sounds for the not Terrestrial.” When asked a little on her process, she cagily described it as “I hunt and farm” but clarified everything by revealing it was “hard-disk based.”
CONCLUDING WORDS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, AND SHOUT-OUTS:
Denée announced information on the Comeback Champion Summit which promotes positive work habits and enhanced productivity.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/comeback-champion-summit-tickets-118911039119?aff=erelexpmlt
Ana Maria announced she is conceptualizing an Environmental Art Project involving plastic pollution and was seeking input on how to add a sound component. QR codes and sonic delivery hardware were suggested.
Ben announced that the Transom podcast “How Sound” is really good and helpful for sound enthusiasts and creators.
https://transom.org/topics/howsound/
And we adjourned.
September Lounge Highlights:
Neal welcomed Loungers that trickled in from near and far. The night’s ice-breaker was "what memorable sound did you hear today?”
Neal, from AR & DC
the negative sound (aka - quiet) of not hearing the normal drone of the AC.
Jennifer, DC
the discomforting sound of an overhead helicopter with "silver missiles," eliciting a somewhat of a “Pavlovian” conditioned fear response.
Tanya - Walkersville, MD
a neighbor, normally quiet, but picking today for his annual ritual of cutting loose with a super-loud motorcycle. He does this sometimes too with a super-loud camper truck.
Denée - Columbia, MD
the pleasant sound of voices in the street having a variety of languages, consistent with Columbia’s nurturing of diversity. Also the meditative voice of hearing Ibram X. Kendi reading from his book “How to be an Antiracist.”
Matthew - Denver, CO
actually let us hear what he heard, the sonorous “POP” of uncapping a medicine bottle.
Jocelyn – Petoskey, MI
the building up of wind that was so intense that it was surprisingly discovered to actually be hail.
Ana Maria - Alexandria, VA
the potentially embarrassing, rhythmic creek of the floor boards as she did her exercises, conjuring up the 1991 French Film Delicatessen ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVL5_I4CvTc )
Jay - Ashville, NC
As an ethnomusicology/experimental audio professor at Georgetown, he had lined up Atlanta-based hip hop producer Renegade El Ray for a zoom lecture but had concern how it would come off – turned out it was amazing. Jocelyn expressed what most were thinking “hmm, what’s Georgetown’s policy on auditing courses?”
Barry – Gaithersburg, MD
Living in a townhome he had the pleasure of hearing his neighbor refinish their floor, but from the sound of it, very badly. Erratic drilling tempos and timbres being dead give-aways.
Ben – Annapolis, MD
Venturing outdoors he witnessed the grunts and slaps of a football hitting the hands of mask-less teens evoking feelings of both envy and anxiety.
[We later welcomed: Nina (DC), Ian (Pittsburgh- sound: Kanye’s metronomic sonic pallet), Ann (DC- sound: baby sounds), Brandon]
WE LISTENED TOGETHER:
Neal – shared Sound Collage #8, where pandemic lock-downed participants agree to add 30 sec of creative audio to a forwarded file, exquisite corpse style. As a “contrarian,” Neal’s contribution soothed out the preceding 8ish contributions. Guidance to participants included “you should surrender to it…make it exciting…don’t be precious.”
Jocelyn – was moved to contemplation of our times by the sound of a creature of the night; a cricket. The cricket sounds reminded her of Steve Reich’s 1968 piece “Come Out” where the tape moves out of phase much like the crickets. In “Come Out” the voice of a man beaten by police is heard to say that the only way he could get hospitalized was to open up one of his bruises – flowing blood being the entry criterion. Although the crickets were peaceful, the reminder was disconcerting. It ultimately left her with determination to “stay on causes that I care about,” and not just relax into the peacefulness she was privileged to enjoy.
https://pitchfork.com/features/article/9886-blood-and-echoes-the-story-of-come-out-steve-reichs-civil-rights-era-masterpiece/
Jennifer – took last month’s prompt – “ask someone about their first, best friend” – and ran with it. Erik Johnson, a UPS driver became her subject and shared that his first best friend was actually “a mob of us” wandering around the Rock Creek/old Walter Reed property with nicknames including “Catfish”…”Smokey”…”Peanut”…”Fat Steve.” His nickname? He and his brothers were the collective “Johnson Boys.” The rain on the in-truck interview added a nice ambiance to Jennifer’s remarkable first interview sound piece.
Barry – shared a field recording that didn’t require him to trek into the wilderness as he saw a “storm a comin” so stuck his LOM Uzi PRO omnis on his window sill. This turned out to be an immersive, mysteriously air-traffic-sound-free, and perfectly timed to catch the entire storm symphony concluding with a rain-drenched finale. Some side discussion included Barry saying he had to perform an “audio biopsy” on tape since he “kept hearing voices.” Why? – “some sound software algorithms favor the vocal range.”
https://store.lom.audio/collections/microphones-accessories
Brandon – got a cabin in the Shenandoah which offered a great opportunity to use his Wildtronics Pro Mini Parabolic Stereo Microphone hooked up to his Zoom H4N. The crystal clear, peaceful track revealed multiple bird species identified as: a red-bellied woodpecker, multiple blue jays, Carolina wren, and downy woodpecker (thanks to Neal - DCLL’s resident bird expert).
https://www.wildtronics.com/stparabolic.html#.X38vjZNKjFo
Ben – shared a clip from a January trip to Vieques Island where he and a friend went to the Human Society to check on a dog that they had previously rescued. The walk through the kennel, stepping around dog bowls and tools, inspired an impromptu salsa dance lesson given by one of the staff.
Tanya – as a sound artist and composer was coaxed to share one of her compositions “Terrestrial Sounds for the not Terrestrial.” When asked a little on her process, she cagily described it as “I hunt and farm” but clarified everything by revealing it was “hard-disk based.”
CONCLUDING WORDS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, AND SHOUT-OUTS:
Denée announced information on the Comeback Champion Summit which promotes positive work habits and enhanced productivity.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/comeback-champion-summit-tickets-118911039119?aff=erelexpmlt
Ana Maria announced she is conceptualizing an Environmental Art Project involving plastic pollution and was seeking input on how to add a sound component. QR codes and sonic delivery hardware were suggested.
Ben announced that the Transom podcast “How Sound” is really good and helpful for sound enthusiasts and creators.
https://transom.org/topics/howsound/
And we adjourned.
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