Morning campfire
It was below freezing on the last morning of our trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park, so I immediately started building a fire after emerging from the tent. The embers from the previous night were still hot underneath the ash, so I was able to get things going with only a few balls of newspaper and some fresh logs. The dry logs, donated to us by our next-door neighbors, immediately began snapping and popping. In the background you can hear the woodland birds and the nearby campers getting up.
Listen to: Morning campfire
This post originally appeared on White Noise Lounge.
Sound check
Ok, this is not exactly white noise, nor is it really “noise” at all. Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to catch one of my favorite bands, Two Gallants, do a sound check over at the Independent in San Francisco. I was there to assist my friend (and now co-worker) Leona Laurie interview them for Crowdfire, an interactive media event Federated Media (our employer) is putting on at the Outside Lands Festival this weekend.
Now I wish I’d recorded more of their ambient sound check goodness, but I was concerned with conserving battery life for the interview to follow. I eventually turned on the microphone to catch them playing one song. What I got was a nice combination of 3 minutes of sound check, followed by 3 minutes of Adam and Tyson playing an apparently unreleased song.
Listen to: Sound check
This post originally appeared on White Noise Lounge.
A/C gone wild
Today was my first day working in a “real” office in the “big” city. Which means the internet was slow and the air conditioning was always on. I spent half the day sitting in this white noise cone of silence before it grew into the infernal screeching you’re about to experience. After which I moved to a new desk and the HVAC guys came around and got the situation under control. But I couldn’t help myself from recording the aural experience of my first day in the new office.
Listen to: A/C gone wild
This post originally appeared on White Noise Lounge.
Gurgling mountain stream
Somewhere around Avalanche Lake in Desolation Wilderness, MC Soleil and I stopped to record a stream running over some rocks. Unlike the pure white noise of Glacial melt, this sound has a pleasant depth to it. Like a constantly flushing toilet or an impossibly full bladder. Do not press play if you don’t have easy access to a restroom.
Listen to: Gurgling mountain stream
This post originally appeared on White Noise Lounge.
Hair dryer
Everyone has their own technique to dry their hair. Whether it’s towel dry, natural dry or hair dryer dry, to each our own. I like to par-dry my hair with the dryer and then let it finish naturally. I flip my head down and kind of wiggle the dryer to separate the hair strands, which creates an uneven sound that wakes me up. Then I progressively tilt my head upright, letting the hair fall back bit by bit guiding the whole process with my other hand’s shaping fingers. The final touch are the bangs, making sure they are blown in both directions.
—written by MC Soleil
Listen to: Hair dryer
This post originally appeared on White Noise Lounge.
Sizzling bacon
Bacon is tasty, but it is not photogenic. Least of all bacon sputtering in a pan of fat. But it sounds good! This recording was inspired by a link Andy sent me earlier this week to Sleep Phones—soft head-band-phones you can plug into your mp3 player and wear as you drift off to sleep. On their site they have some specially engineered sound samples to download, one of which, Breakfast Sizzle, caught my eye. In that vein, here’s a little taste of the BLT+Avocado I cooked up for dinner tonight.
Listen to: Sizzling bacon
This post originally appeared on White Noise Lounge.
Glacial melt
Over our 4th of July Seattle escapade, we had the privilege to approach the majestic Mt Rainier. We entered the park’s north-eastern corner and parked at the White River campground. Our plan was to hike up the trail for a mile and take the left fork to see Emmons Glacier, the largest glacier in the lower 48 states. It turned out the trail was “obliterated by floods last fall” which made it adventurous and diverse, but impossible to cross the river. Instead of taking the fork (which we never found), we continued the glacier basin trail to it’s official end (in the snow). All along our trek, we were accompanied by the rushing and sometime intimidating sounds of White River. Memorable.
—written by MC Soleil
Listen to: Glacial melt
This post originally appeared on White Noise Lounge.
City street
I enjoy living in the city. I enjoy having two big bay windows that look out over Pine Street and let in copious amounts of light. But there is a downside: street noise. We’re lucky. We live on the downhill slope of a one-way street in a fairly residential neighborhood. There’s not much people noise, but when the light turns green at the crest of the hill before our block, a peloton of cars whooshes by, intermingled with the occasional squeal of a cab’s brakes. There’s also the twice weekly garbage collection that sounds like a wrecking crew and the hospital deliveries next door that block off a lane of traffic, creating a chain reaction of sudden lane changes and honking cars. It’s a symphony really. It’s also why I wear earplugs to sleep.
Listen to: City street
This post originally appeared on White Noise Lounge.
