We still have a few spaces open.  Hope to see you there.

Regards;

Jim

I’m thinking one such sound fell into my lap, as it were,  a few weeks ago, and then, like in a fish story,  got away.  I was in Cambridge, Mass, staying at a B&B near Harvard Square, when I heard it:  Sitting quietly in the room, you’d almost think someone was there with you, breathing.  It was the sound of the radiator, rhythmic – almost human.  And as soon as I reached for the recorder, it was gone and not to be repeated while I was there.  So I wondered if it qualified as a signature sound – and at least for me, it was.  In my sound memory album, it will represent that space – a subtle whisper of identity, albeit ephemeral.

More on sig sounds as we try to weave together a program or two with your material.

All Best;

Jim

All the Best;

Jim

All the Best;

Jim

Dream #1: There’s some kind of competition; you have to get from point A to point B, and there are lawn sprinklers along the way –  the kind of sprinklers that spritz in a circle one way and then turn back and circle the other way.  They’re all timed slightly differently.  The competition is to get from the start to the finish without getting wet and you have to study the sprinklers, which have a definite tempo, to figure that out.  OK, it’s not a belly laugh, but the idea that there was a musicality, a rhythm to finding the solution had me smiling in the dream.

Dream #2: I’m at an event, a symposium that is quite unique: a panel of remarkable older women are speaking about their lives.  I’m trying to record it or make sure the PA is working, when I realize no one is photographing this event. So I duck down and head to the front of the room and ask anybody for a camera and someone in the aisle sends down a device that’s about two feet long and maybe a few inches high and deep.  It’s covered with switches, buttons,  levers and knobs and resembles, if anything, the instrument panel of a stealth bomber.  It bears no relationship to what I would call a camera.  I ask for another camera and get something smaller but equally arcane and inscrutable; a third camera? more of the same.  My dream was scripted by Woody Allen in collaboration with Franz Kafka, and however incongruous, it was funny – at least to the dreamer.

So here’s  my question: is anybody else laughing in their sleep?  Friends, radio listeners, countrymen and women: lend me your dreams, the funny ones.

Jim

There are many libraries of sound effects, most of the sounds being of phenomena (door slam, barking dog), not places. It begs the question: are sounds generic or specific?  Is a recording a unique moment in time, or can it be treated as a rote, generic icon?  True, we can sell and buy generic sounds like hamburgers, but are we missing the subtle reality that a fine recording can convey?  That tree frog  was telling us something about the conditions where it was recorded: there being a relationship between the number of croaks/second and the ambient temperature.  No doubt there are other messages hidden in the recording as well.  Perhaps  every recording carries levels of information and meaning, waiting to be decoded.

To Participate In The Survey, Please Click Here.

In case anybody thought I was making up the story about Steve Jacobs’ (aka Wizard IV) staff – see my last post; here it is.  Each of the wizards  (Farraday, Alyea, Herbert, Jacobs) have contributed an object embedded in the staff – a crystal, a fossil, a shark’s tooth….

Don Herbert - Mister Wizard

Well, it turns out that Don was following in the footsteps of Michael Faraday.  Faraday, along with his engineering and science accomplishments, was much beloved in England as a science ambassador to children and the world at large.  He was dubbed a “wizard” in Queen Victoria’s time and he had, believe or not, a “Wizard’s staff”.  That staff was passed down to Herbert and then to Herbert’s protege, Steve (Jake) Jacobs, aka Wizard IV.

Steve (Jake) Jacobs - Wizard IV

Steve, Chief Scientist from Faraday Studios,  is – among other things – the science consultant for MythBusters on Discovery Channel, and a board member and judge for our Kids’ Science Challenge competition – which launches its latest season tomorrow!

I’ve seen Jake in action, working his science magic with kids and adults – it’s fun and ingenious – lots of smoke, no mirrors! Many of the experiments he does – like the air cannon – date back to Faraday’s demonstrations.  And he’s got Faraday’s wizard staff, too!

Jake and Astronaut Michael Massimino preparing to blow something up for a science demonstration.

Check out http://www.kidsciencechallenge.com where you’ll with some videos which feature Jake and our latest group of scientists.

At the same time,  overgrown forests have been thinned, many  of the sick or dead trees  taken down, watersheds flushed out (be interesting to see what effects the flood has had on PCB levels in the Hudson).

And on the human side of  the equation, it was an opportunity to see how dependent I/we are to electricity in general,  and specifically – to computers, smart phones and texting.  The Monday after the storm, local refugees flocked to a cafe that had coffee, breakfast food, electricity and wireless internet.  Business was brisk.  One day without iPhones and it was Cold Turkey time.  To see the avidity with which the patrons scrambled for the few available outlets (no one had thought – yet – to bring extension cords), the passion on the faces of those retrieving their emails, the despair of those who couldn’t get online;  it was clear we’re addicted to more than the coffee.

Finally, a word on the rhythm of the hurricane itself – the way each of us got fooled by the Eye – the relative calm after  torrents or rain, thinking the storm was over, only to get blind-sided by the gale force winds that followed on the trailing edge of Irene’s spiral.  Although the storm was weakening, those winds were powerful enough to inspire awe in witnessing the forces of nature.

And then, the calm that could have followed the storm – broken by the inevitable generators.  Silence is scarce, even in the wake of a record-breaking hurricane.