Recordings

Violinist
Violinist on Moszkva square 2 00 8.01.29. in the morning.
Location:
Budapest, Hungary
Recorded by:
Laszlo
My First Danish Christmas
This was my first Christmas with my Danish girlfriend - spent with her family in a summer-house tucked behind the sand-dunes on a wind-swept, rain-drenched, barely-above-sea-level spit of land jutting out into the North Sea. Christmas in Denmark is a bit different from the English one I'm used to (apart from the wind and the rain of course). Not horribly or disturbingly different, but different in a cosy and easy-to-adjust-to kind of way. For a start, the big day is December 24th, which means i got my presents 12 hours earlier than normal :-) Like Christmas in lots of countries, it starts with the kids watching cartoons on TV - every year they run a Disney show with the famous songs and skits from all our favourites. I recognised all the characters and the tunes - but of course all the songs were sung in Danish, so I could only hum spiritedly along. There was plenty more TV, and lots of cooking sounds - shame I couldn't capture the smell too: duck and pork and loads of roasted veggies. And potatoes roasted in sugar - almost, but not quite, the potato-based dessert i've been seeking for some years now. But that's another story. The actual dessert was rice pudding, which had been left out overnight for the "nisse" (Santa's little helpers") and in which was secreted 4 whole almonds. The person who finds an almond in their mouth gets a special present. I got two! Anyhoo, after lots of eating and drinking and conversing and festively stoking up the log-fire, the big event begins: everyone links hands and dances around the Christmas tree singing Christmas songs. As a special concession to the Englishman, we started of with a limited version of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" (it was too much to expect the Danes to know the "now bring us some figgy pudding" verses), before moving onto some traditional Danish songs and a version of "Jul på Vesterbro" - the seasonal Christmas comedy-rap hit in Denmark. Anyhoo, after lots of dizziness inducing circumnavigations of the Christmas tree (similar in most respects to all the other Christmas trees I've seen, but liberally festooned with Danish flags) we settled down to excitedly open our gifts and wishes.... at which point, my mp3 recorder ran out of space, much to your undoubted relief :-) Cast and crew: Antony - me Gitte - my girlfriend / aka "Moster Gitte" or "Aunty Gitte" Joan - Gitte's Mom aka "Bedste" or "Grandma" Helle - Gitte's Sister aka "Mor" or "Mom" Simon - Helle's son Zia - Simon's younger sister
Location:
Årgab, Denmark
Recorded by:
Antony
stir-fry
i was on my way to the kitchen to make a quick dinner when i received the announcement text message, about 9:30pm london time. no one else was in the house, so i began recording immediately - a quick stir-fry with courgette and mushroom, a dash of sesame oil, soy sauce and sake...
Location:
31 nevill road, london
Recorded by:
patrick
Waiting for the bus
I waited for the bus with a family (two parents, young daughter, and infant). The little girl was excited: "we're taking the bus to see Santa!"
Location:
NE 42nd and NE Prescott
Recorded by:
Adam
Laurelhurst Theater lobby
People hanging out in the lobby before a movie, or standing in line to get pizza and beer. This is better than the normal theater of the 2000s and has to be one of the reasons that Portland is great.
Location:
2735 E Burnside St
Recorded by:
Adam
advertisement: Best Buy
As annoying as ads are, they are surely to change in baby's lifetime. Not sure if they'll be more intrusive or more tailored to the person. But probably both. This is an ad for Best Buy near Christmastime. A teenager is complaining to her friend that her parents won't let her get a piercing. Then she notices out the window that her parents went shopping at Best Buy and she decides they're okay after all. Baby: Don't be her!
Location:
NE 37th and NE Prescott
Recorded by:
Adam
Advertisement: Bank of America
As annoying as ads are, they are surely to change in baby's lifetime. Not sure if they'll be more intrusive or more tailored to the person. But probably both. Here's an ad for Bank of America online banking (is there any other kind?).
Location:
NE 37th and NE Prescott
Recorded by:
Adam
Making tea, doing the dishes
I put a kettle on the burner for tea and did some dishes while I waited. Ends with the money shot of hot water being poured into a mug.
Location:
NE 37th and NE Prescott
Recorded by:
Adam
Bus Ride on the 75
Lots of great sounds on a crowded evening bus ride down 39th Avenue.
Location:
NE 39th Avenue, Portland, OR
Recorded by:
Adam
Aydan Vs Rocky
6 month 18lb baby vs 2 year old 10lb Pommeranian in a battle of slober.
Location:
Placentia, California
Recorded by:
Thai
A Day Off
This was the first day I'd had in months to relax at home, play some video games, and take care of things I'd been putting off.
  • Begin: 12:53 pm
  • 00:00 -- Playing Nintendo DS
  • 01:03 -- Stepping out on front porch
  • 02:44 -- Doing dishes
  • 07:40 -- Playing 'Teddy Tavern' on computer
  • 11:43 -- Playing 'TRON 2.0' on computer
  • 19:23 -- Putting away laundry
  • 20:35 -- Watching TV (Univision/infomercials/etc.)
  • 24:29 -- Turning on bath
  • 26:03 -- 'Rock Band' drumming to Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation" (in Hard
  • Mode - badly)
  • 32:24 -- Working on computer (listening to Jade Valerie's "Show Me")
  • 35:39 -- Working on computer (listening to Haujobb's "Renegades of Noize")
  • 39:35 -- Watching 'Pushing Daisies' while working on computer
  • End: 1:46 pm
Location:
Harbor Ave SW & Fairmount Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98126
Recorded by:
Matty
The frying sizzle of egg nog french toast
Laura and I prepare a delicious batch of egg nog french toast in the morning before heading to the coast for our holiday break later that day.
Location:
522 ne thompson, portland, or
Recorded by:
philip
Grandma's birthday too
At my folks house in Davis CA. We called my grandma because it was her birthday too! She was born in 1921. Make sure your birthday gift doesn't end up under the Christmas tree like hers.
Location:
Davis, ca
Recorded by:
Jenny
Leaving New Seasons
Mostly just the background hiss of humanity, but in the middle there, at about the 8 second mark, there's the satisfying hisss-snick! of a set of proximity-activated automatic sliding doors opening for me as I head for the parking lot. Maybe there's the high-altitude hum of an airplane towards the end of the clip, but it could just as easily be noise rising-up from Interstate 5 a couple of blocks to the east of this location. Not a particularly significant recording, as these things go, but you've got to admit that there's something about the sound of doors opening up for you.
Location:
6400 N Interstate Ave. Portland, OR 97217
Recorded by:
caton
Checking Out
I've collected my 32 oz. container of Biokleen brand phosphate and chlorine-free automatic dish powder with natural oxygen bleach (3x More Concentrated) and box of 10 foil-wrapped Alka-Seltzer Plus® Cold Medicine (Sparking Original Flavor) fizzing tablets. Now to the checkout line. That beeping sound you hear is the cashier's computer, acknowledging that the laser beam (red) embedded in the countertop has successfully passed across the product's one-dimensional barcode, read it, and found a corresponding SKU in the inventory database. I mention this in passing since barcodes have only come into commercial use in my lifetime, and really have only approached universality since the mid 80's. By the time 2027 comes along I very much doubt that the same technology will be in use. RFID chips are still tres exotique in this, your year of birth, and the jury's still out on whether they will usher-in a panopticon era of crystalline supply-chains and streamlined product flow, or an age of Total Orwellian Oversight in which everything and everyone is microscopically tagged and tracked (or at least taggable and trackable). Or maybe they're not worth the effort and we stick with barcodes. Barcodes being much less likely to erode those truths that we hold self-evident. So what happens, Unnamed Moore Girl? How does the battle for barcode supremacy shape the society of your youth and my late middle age? What kinds of metadata are you sloughing off in your daily interaction with the ecosystem of embedded electronics? Somewhere, over your head (likely both figuratively and literally, since he'd be in his hot air balloon) a paunchy Cory Doctorow is blogging about it and weeping into his cowl.
Location:
6400 N Interstate Ave. Portland, OR 97217
Recorded by:
caton
Waking up to some very good news
This is me, about fifteen minutes after rolling out of bed to see why my cellphone was making a persistent beeping noise. Turned out it was your dad, heralding via SMS text message that you had finally, at long last, after much anticipation—and with no small amount of effort on your mom's part— ARRIVED! 
It's a girl! 7.3lb 22in. Mama and baby are doing great. 9:59am 12/23/07
Unfortunately, as depicted in this tightly-plotted microdrama, I was also nursing a heckuva head cold. And I hadn't had any coffee yet. So, I'm not saying smart things, but that's le cinéma vérité for you. Doesn't mean I wasn't absolutely suffused with joy. I know, it's hard to tell, but behind those congested sniffles I really am quite thoroughly suffused.
Location:
NE Cleveland Ave. and NE Alberta St. Portland, OR
Recorded by:
caton
On the front porch
You were born on a rainy, rainy day. I stood on the porch for awhile, thinking about you and your folks, listening to water beating on my new steel gutters and traffic swooshing by on East Burnside St. I felt calm. And a little damp.
Location:
15 NE 69th Ave, Portland OR
Recorded by:
Melissa
The Tin Man gets his heart
In one of the final scenes of "The Wizard of Oz," the Wizard gives the Tin Man the heart he wants so badly, explaining that being a kind person and earning the love of others gives a heart it's true value. The film was playing in the background while I was baking Candy Cane Cookies for my friends and family.
Location:
15 NE 69th Ave, Portland, OR
Recorded by:
Melissa
The sound of that day...
Lying in bed and listening.
Location:
1620 NE Dekum Street Portland Or, 97211
Recorded by:
Matthew
The Drone of Dairy
Walking down the Dairy Aisle of New Seasons, a relatively recently-founded local chain of grocery stores, brought to you by the folks who founded Natures before it was bought out by GNC and renamed Wild Oats before it was gobbled-up by the yuptastic Whole Foods Markets. I wonder how many wheels within wheels of agretail will have turned fierily around by the time you come of age, Unnamed Moore Girl. There's a persistent hum in the background, probably attributable to the refrigerated open-fronted dairy cases we're passing on the left as we walk towards the butchery at the back. Happy people going about their shopping make muffled comments to one another, and some employee calls out with Good Day wishes over the PA.
Location:
6400 N Interstate Ave. Portland, OR 97217
Recorded by:
caton
Further Sounds of Lunch at Monsoon Thai
Continued eavesdropping on the nearby tables. These people are enjoying Thai food at Monsoon Thai, on the EXPLODINGLY HOT Mississippi Ave, heart of Little Southern NoPo!
Location:
4236 N Mississippi Ave Portland, OR 97217
Recorded by:
caton
Lunch at Monsoon Thai
Monsoon Thai, a restaurant along the EXPLODINGLY HOT Mississippi Avenue, heart of Little Southern NoPo. In recent memory it was a combination restaurant-laundromat named Soup and Suds, but the times they are a ch-ch-ch-ch-changin', and in keeping with Portland's love affair with all things Thai, the soup had to go. In its defense, Monsoon Thai is all kinds of deliciousness. This is the sound of that restaurant.
Location:
4236 N Mississippi Ave Portland, OR 97217
Recorded by:
caton
Wipers on Mississippi
Ultraviolet radiation, freezing temperatures, and general exposure have a tendency to degrade the elastic properties of rubber, yielding a much less supple material over time. These are old windshield wipers, making horrible squeaky noises as they transit the front window of a 1989 Isuzu Trooper. While it is driving down the EXPLODINGLY HOT Mississippi Ave., the heart of Little Southern NoPo, a kernel of urban renewal and hipster ingress that Portland historians of your day will likely pinpoint as having put the nail in the coffin of close-in affordability.
Location:
N Mississippi Ave. and N Shaver St. Portland, OR
Recorded by:
caton
Rain on Steel
The sound of rain impacting the roof of a parked 1989 Isuzu Trooper (4cyl). Back in the day when our cars didn't fly, and they ran on gasoline. This car probably gets about 15 mpg, and is partially responsible for destroying the planet you are inheriting, Unnamed Moore Girl. Ask your dad about Grampa sometime ;)
Location:
NE Cleveland Ave. and NE Alberta St. Portland, OR
Recorded by:
caton
i will leave food behind
distressed old dishwasher
Location:
1504 NE 17th Ave, Portland, OR 97212
Recorded by:
Erica
Driving Down Alberta
Heading home after some last minute Christmas shopping. The radio is tuned to 91.5 FM, KOPB, our local public broadcasting station (I wonder if that URI will be valid in 20 years), and I have no idea what's playing. Sounds like something palmwine-related.
Location:
NE Alberta St. and NE Williams Ave. Portland, OR
Recorded by:
caton
Introduction
"Hello! It's a rainy day in Portland on your day of birth...*sniff* Really, it's not a nice time to be out. Mumble mumble mumble mumble. Mumble mumble."
Location:
NE Cleveland Ave. and NE Alberta St. Portland, OR
Recorded by:
caton
About a Girl
Learned to play a little Nirvana, with an appropriate title :)
Location:
Vancouver, WA
Recorded by:
Kam
French TV
This is a year end recap of the rugby season for 2007 on LCI French News Channel.
Location:
6 rue du Parc 59100 Roubaix France
Recorded by:
Chris
Sun Beetles
A very hot christmas season near the tip of Africa in a small fishing resort an hour from our home in Cape Town. Around midday, these sun worshiping beetles wake up and go beserk. I put my recorder under a bush and walked away for a while, then came back... duh! which bush?? But eventually found it.
Location:
Cape Town, South Africa
Recorded by:
Brendon
Hulk Smash!
Sound coming from a used video game system I purchased from Jaden.
Location:
1165 NE 72nd Ave, Portland OR 97213
Recorded by:
Patrick
Waiter at Denny's
At Denny's we had a very "excited" waiter. We asked him if he had anything to offer a young one on her first day on Earth and here is what he had to say.
Location:
10428 S.E. STARK PORTLAND,OR 97216
Recorded by:
Patrick
Sound of a Denny's
Neither one of us were tired so we decided to search for a late night food option. The only thing open that late and close to us was a Denny's near Mall 205.
Location:
10428 S.E. STARK PORTLAND,OR 97216
Recorded by:
Patrick
Cicero Drinking
Our dog Cicero is still sick. He has been taking steroids to help him get better. They do however, make him very thirsty. Check this out. I started this recording about 30 seconds after he started.
Location:
1165 NE 72nd Ave, Portland OR. 97213
Recorded by:
Cara
Prancing
My parents' dog like to hide gloves whenever coming in from outside. It takes her a bit to find the perfect location though, during which time she runs back and forth through the house.
Location:
Medford, Wisconsin, 54451
Recorded by:
Paul
Snowblower
About a foot of new snow. Two stroke engines are rad. Shoveling is not.
Location:
Medford, WI, 54451
Recorded by:
Paul
Today In New Jersey
Rebecca wrote a short verse about our day, then recorded it live into the Zoom H4 while playing the Wurlitzer Funmaker.
Location:
07081
Recorded by:
Rebecca