We March for Glory!

As the title would suggest . . . I'm not much for titles. But fear thee not, the contents of this blog are not as frightening or ridiculous as my titles will be. So, don't sweat the small details and lets have some fun.

Fun: We were to record a minimum amount of sounds (I think 5...don't quote me on that) on an outing around the city and put them up on a blog. We were to also make a map for our journey. My first map, displayed in the images in this post, was done on the back of an envelope It was for personal reference so I could keep track of the sounds and where I found them. My second map can be viewed at this link: Google Map
It is probably easier on the eyes.

Anyway, I was warned that the walk around the city would take at least three hours but my naive disposition of being a student got the best of me. I was sure with all of my "talents" and "experience" I would be able to scrounge up all the sounds required for my Film 116 class within an hour. "No problem," I said to anyone who shared the slightest concern or disbelief in my efforts, "I have a bullet proof plan."

My plan was no more bullet proof than the broad side of a barn.

Now, you should know one thing about me. I'm the kind of guy who will commit himself fully to a plan that he knows will fail. Its a principle, it is a challenge. I throw myself into situations like this just to see if I will come out standing. Crawling is fine too but I don't like to mess up my clothes all that much. I only have so many pairs of pants.

*Cough* <---That is a sound.

So, back to what I was saying.
Sounds: I recorded sounds of natural events. I left the majority of them unaltered. Levels were adjusted but other than that and one sound manipulation I really just used the natural audio that I found.

Walk: Our walk was supposed to be designed uniquely. We were supposed to head out and view the world like a psycho-geographer would. It was almost like we were attempting to view the world like infants in the way that we would create a systematic way of walking that would force us to go different paths that we had never gone before, see things that we had never seen before. Everything was to feel like a new experience. The systematic path defined our journey. If we got mugged, well, in this way one could actually call it destiny. It almost makes you want to become a believer in fate . . . if you aren't already.

I chose the path Right, Left, Straight. 1 block right, 1 block left, and one block straight. Repeat.
I did this from a generic location on the east side with the intention of getting to the lake. This is how it went:

You Must Work for Your Sounds!

...And work I did. From my starting point at Maryland and Webster I walked two blocks recording every sound I heard. Farwell was an interesting enough street to find sound on but the problem was that none of the sound came out to well when I played it back on the Mini-Disk player. It wasn't a recording volume problem or anything. It was simply the fact that there were too many sounds on Farwell for the recordings to have any style. They just sounded so irrelevant and wrong that I couldn't force myself to put any of those recordings in this blog.

Here is what I heard all at once on Farwell:
-Birds chirping (I really wanted this recording alone)
-Five different sets of Roommates moving in/moving out (I tried this out but it was distorted)
-The hum of power lines (Made for a barely audible sound)
-Dog barking in the distance
-Airplanes in the sky.
....and the real kicker...
-"GUYS! ... GUYS!... I'm having a good time, how about...I love beer. Look! A car! WHOO! PARTY! I'm so fricken...party!" (It was 4:30 PM and a whole flat was already wasted. I could hear them from two blocks away. I was almost embarrassed to record a little bit of their conversations but I still did it. That however, will not be the first recording you hear on my blog. I'm pursuing a degree in art not the anthropological research of early cavemen...I almost wished that was me yelling at cars)...Just a sub-note before we leave this topic. I came back four hours later and they were kicking a soccer ball into a tree. Perhaps they were trying to extract some feline entity from said juniper. Don't get me wrong, I'm not in any way shape or form trying to put myself above their actions but I did have a good laugh and I thought it would be best to share this experience with you.

So, Immediately after this I took a left onto Prospect where I found myself in a neighborhood that reminded me of my childhood neighborhood. I sat down, switched on the mini-disk, and started recording.

East Side.

I enjoyed watching a child ride her bicycle back and forth trying to win her distracted father's attention. He was hammering on a piece of wood. For what purpose, I don't know. I can only wonder. Car noises came from the background as people pulled out of their driveways and headed of down the road in opposite directions. I think I also managed to capture the birds as well as I had wanted to in this recording.

The next sound came right as I was lifting myself off the ground. Right away I saw a running jogging down the street. I immediately wondered what the Doppler effect would be like on a runner and started recording again.

Runner.

I also found another area to do a recording of the street. I found some metal construction pipes that would work as amplifiers. They were lying on the street right across from where the girl and the father were. I put one mic in each pipe and hit record.

Amplified Pipes.

If you were wondering about what the girl says near the end of the recording. She says "Look Daddy, I'm flying," as she flies past him on her little pink bike. Brings tears to my eyes.

Dog Attack

I finished up on Prospect and took a right on Locust where I found more construction materials. I immediately dove in. I found one thing of particular interest. A plastic pipe. I stuck both microphones in and started tapping on the tube with my pen. It made an interesting sound that allows for a lot of funky edits in Audacity.

Plastic Pipe.

After I get my film degree I think I will start a band.

I continued on down Locust where I was forced to take an immediate left down an alley. That was okay, I didn't want to be on the busy street anymore. Midway down the alley I started recording people getting into cars and driving away but none of the recordings were too interesting. That is, until I heard this.

Dog Attack.

I'll call him "Dog with personality." He sounds like he is trying to talk when he growls. The foot steps you hear are mine as I step away from him. He was showing teeth and I had to protect my Mini-Disk player at all costs...I can't afford to replace that thing.

The alleyway takes me directly behind Zelazo. I saw some air ducts there and decided to stick my microphones in them to see if anything was going on inside them. It turns out the more interesting sounds came from the outside.

Sirens.

I caught a good amount of sirens but I didn't know what they were for until...

Water Puts Out Fires...Right?

FIRE ALARM!

My path took me right past Mitchell Hall next. I could hear the alarm from across the street so I ran to catch this sound. I ignored the police and fire fighters parked out front and went into the building and turned my Mini-Disk on. I was relieved to have made it in time to catch as much of the fire alarm as I did. I switched off the Mini-Disk and turned around. On my way out a police officer approached me wondering why I was still in the building. It was all for art, I had no excuses. I was shown out the door and I headed on my way down my path again.

The next thing that made noise that I came to was the water fountain outside the library. I passed it without giving it much of a glance. It didn't deserve my attention... So many pictures and videos are taken of that thing. "Come to our school and see our fountain," they'd all say on High school tours. I like the fountain, don't get me wrong...I just felt as though it had been done over and over and over again. There was no way I was going to record sound of the fountain.

You Know...

and then of course I had to prove the Matrix was actually real a documentary by digitizing the sound.

You Know...2

After I finished recording the fountain I headed out towards the bus stop. There was absolutely no way I was going to record a bus. Everyone does that.

I Did It Creatively, I Promise...It Is Unique

All the other recordings of buses were too distorted because buses are very tricky to record just right. At times they are too quite to pick up, at other times they are off the scale. I found a way to record the bus by allowing sound to bounce off a building first before coming into the microphones. I place them behind a mailbox and I pointed one at the bus and one at a house.

Menlo?! NO!

As I continue on my way through Shorewood I stop for a moment and look at my recorder. Something is bothering me...And there it is. Audibly I am not picking up anything interesting in this neighborhood. In fact, I'm not really picking up anything at all.

The Vacuum, but Not the Interesting Kind of Vacuum.

I tried to record wind chimes but they didn't work either. Nothing was giving off a decent level of sound in Shorewood. I even checked for storm drains to make my own sounds but no dice, they were all clogged up.
Finally I reached N. Lake Dr. The lake was just over...this...row of houses. I was forced to make a right using my system of directions instead of being able to go up to the lake park on Capitol. I was going to follow these directions to the end. I came to my next available right which would have followed the directions I had given myself. Menlo. If I took a right now I would start down a path away from the lake and cover the same path I did to get here. That was not going to happen. I would follow these directions only so far. I was going to see my lake. I modded my direction plan to take the next left I could. Left was the lake and that is where I wanted to be.

Construction Work

I came across a construction crew fixing the side walk of one of the gigantic houses on the lake. It was across the street and the area didn't look to safe to get close to. There was a high pressure hose going and different machinery running. If I've learned something from living all these years its that you don't bother the man with the hose.

I continued walking after getting this recording. I ended up running into a couple of dead ends but I got some interesting recordings out of it. I just continued on my path until I found my next sounds.

Fanciful Fences and Cantankerous Cars

The next thing I ran into was a wooden fence. It could be played like an instrument if I ran my pen over it. So I did, and I recorded it.

The Fence

At the moment I heard it I turned. I heard a song that I recognized but I still can't place it. It was coming from a distant car heading this way. So, if you can take a shot at recognizing it...it would be much appreciated. Please?

Kenwood Car

I think by far this was one of the most interesting recording made in the day.

Now, for one last and final recording....