We’re re-printing Teresa’s post from yesterday, along with the sounds that she was kind enough to send along.  Listen to the MP3’s below and follow Teresa’s links for explanations.  Teresa: I didn’t find a description for the “Frisbee Wakestone” Sound. Can you explain it?

Comment:
Is there a sound particular to your neighborhood?   Would love to not only hear from you but to hear some of your signature sounds.

Funny you should ask, Jim! Through my public art project, Locally Toned, I’ve been asking a similar question of folks (”What does Pittsburgh sound like?”). Then I’ve collaborated with interested parties to turn the sounds important to them into ringtones (or tiny regional audio documentaries distributed virally that play back on cell phones at unexpected times, in unexpected places). The tones/audio files are shared with the broader public for free (Creative Commons licensing). We’ve got a prison whistle (that I recorded with a former federal offender who served time in the former Western Penitentiary), Coqui ringtones (from a professor who studies them at a university here), Serinette music box tones from the Bayernhof (mechanical musical instrument) Museum, a sugar glider (flying squirrel) waking up–you can (almost) name it and the sound is in the project.

And I’m just back from Berlin, Germany where I recorded the birds in the bushes near the Reichstag, sounds at a Turkish market, and where I did some underground train recordings with another audio artist. Your post above with the sounds you mention reads like a starter menu for my audio distribution site and Blog.

BTW, the Blog is where I tell the stories of the sounds and their audio collaborators and/or contributors.

I’ll email some sounds from the project.

Kind regards,

T. (for Teresa) Foley

OK, HERE ARE TERESA’S SOUNDS & LINKS:

rareboxbirdsingstone

frisbeewakestone

western-pen-whistle

finalcoquitone

reichstag-vogelgesang

-these link to the stories about the sounds

COQUI
http://locallytoned.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/elinsons-coqui-tones/

WESTERN PEN
http://locallytoned.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/western-pen-whistle/

SERINETTE
http://locallytoned.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/serinette-bayernhof2/

SUGAR GLIDER
http://locallytoned.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/sugar-glider-tones/

REICHSTAG BIRDS (near bottom of post)
http://locallytoned.wordpress.com/2010/08/01/post-card-tones-berlin/

Regards,

Teresa

If an alien sentient being descended to earth and “monitored our news broadcasts” before being taken to our leaders, what would they make of us?  Does the News truly represent the essence and aspirations of humanity?  How can we reconcile them with the principles of “if it bleeds, it leads” - with the fact that headlines are typically made of violence, power and greed?

Twenty-two years ago, I created the Pulse of the Planet radio series to buck this trend, if only in a small way.  The idea was create a daily alternative to the news, which increasingly has become the arrhythmic tachycardia of the planet.  Presenting material that is timely and relevant, often following the rhythms of nature, culture and science, could we reach beneath the surface of the waves of disaster and doom and search for a deeper tempo - a real pulse of the planet?

For example,in August and September we offer a number of programs on katydids.  Now there’s a seasonal vibration for you.  Did you know that you can determine the temperature by counting the number of Katydid chirps in a minute?  Check out our September 2nd program for more information on this.  Basically, the hotter it gets, the faster they chirp.

Now here’s an overlap, where a “pulse” story has the possibility of morphing into “news”:   Do you think that we could compare the repetition rate of archival katydid calls with current calls, to see if it provides evidence of global warming?  Grad students, take note and please post your results here.

The katydid programs are typical of the kinds of stories we regularly feature, reminders that there is indeed a rhythm of life, that there is, as Lord Byron said, “music in all things - if we but knew how to listen to it.”

Jim Metzne

Thanks again to all those who have posted on  interviews - a subject we’ll continue to explore.  A new question:

Is there a sound particular to your neighborhood?   Would love to not only hear from you but to hear some of your signature sounds.  If you have any, let us know and we’ll make it possible for you to post your sound to the blog.

Jim

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO HEAR THE COMMENTARY:

Signature Sounds

Thanks to everyone who’s responded - an auspicious beginning! Hope more of you will join in the conversation. Here’s a subject that effects virtually everyone one of us - the mystery and power of listening.

Jim

100620_listening

Here’s an experiment.  This post is the first step in an unscripted conversation between me and you allegedly rabid fans of Pulse of the Planet. The subject is interviews - what makes them magical?  Have a listen to the audio file and post your comments, so that this can be a real conversation.

Magic of Interviews 1

Jim Metzner

When I first started the Pulse of the Planet in 1989 it was an attempt to find an alternative to “The News”, which seems  to focus on whatever the disaster or debacle of the moment is. Our premise was that beneath the “arrhythmic tachycardia” of the planet, there is a deeper rhythm. So we focused on the natural, often seasonal rhythms of our world - the pulse of the planet.

Yet, we couldn’t turn a blind eye to the many environmental challenges we face, and so at an early stage, along with bird migrations and lunar holidays, we were doing programs on global warming, the thinning of the ozone layer and yes, oil spills. That is, of course, the big story of the moment, driven by the unprecedented scale of the disaster in the Gulf.

We’ve just posted a suite of stories, both new and archival, on oil spills and one of the most striking things about these stories is that they’re all relevant: the interview we just did with microbiologist Terry Hazen at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, and the stories that ran twenty years ago with John Farrington of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Chuck Kennicut of Texas A&M. All of these stories sound as though they could have been recorded last week. As Chuck Kennicut said two decades ago, “there needs to be a national policy as well as a national readiness to react to these types of spills in a timely manner.” Perhaps now we will have such a policy, because we see the dire consequences, again, of not having one.

I promise that we will continue to feature programming that focuses on the rhythms of nature, but for now, welcome your comments on this latest “shock to the planetary system”. Have a listen to our oil programs on the Pulse Picks section of our website and let us know your thoughts. Solutions, suggestions, laments – I’d like to hear from you.

Jim Metzner, Producer

The Pulse of the Planet