Light observations

I went for a walk today. One last walk in my old neighborhood. It will no longer belong to me after Sunday. I will have a new home again, and another after that. And then there will be another house. Until the end. Although that is not what this is about. The truth of it is that there will always be light, so there is no reason to be sad I keep telling myself, but why are you? It is nice today, the weather is considerably agreeable with you, and all you can think about is traveling. how selfish of you. I never though that 21 would be such a mindsweeper. Ok so my walk was nice. There are many trees that loom over the road on Bonham Ave. They are almost haunting, although when the afternoon light breaks through them it creates quite the spectacle on the road. The sun-speckled dinosaur patterns on the road do not make me sick to my stomach like the accumulation of old sofas and refrigerators that people have abandoned and strewn all down the side of my road. I keep thinking as long as I look to the sun gods there shall be light.

35 mm shoot

I took the school's camera out around 6:30 or 7:00. because i wanted to catch the sun at a good time of the day. It was a nice day for a bike ride so my boyfriend and I went for a ride on our road bikes. It was nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air, while taking some photos. We went to one of our secret spots, where we like to go and sit. There is a bridge with a stream running underneath of it. This is a really neat spot because it is back in the woods on a little trail. I got one or two photos here that were underexposed because of the lighting. There was a lot of shade from the trees. We found baby frogs and lots of neat plants with berries as well. I took a photo of this giant fungus that we thought was a big slab of meat, but it wasn't. I was really relieved about that. We then rode over to this retention pond with a million turtles poking thier heads out. I tryed a lot of different shutter speeds, moving the camera around to blur a particular image, and changing the f stops. I also took some photos through this wire of the sun going down. I hope they come out well. Overall, it was a successful mission. We got to see some beautiful things, a bike ride, and interesting photos for the assignment. Can't wait to see what everyone else does.

Still Photographs

Here are some photos of some of my favorite photographers for now until I can get a chance to scan and post my own.

Bruce Monk and Mary Ellen Mark

you can have any colour as long as it's black

This is the name of our sound recording project, and it turned out to be just that. Me and my partner Stephen went through the class tapes to try and find the creepiest and darkest sounds possible. I don't want to spoil our project. I will just say that we found some pretty interesting sounds and used them to convey our theme. We wondered what we could do to make the sounds sound more dark and eery. We decided that it would be a good idea to slow the sounds down so that they sounded almost warped in a way. We also used the pen to manipulate the levels of the sound, making them go up and down or back and forth. It was fun to make some of the noises rather repetitive. I was really amazed at how cool the three tracks sound when edited together. I found this project to be a puzzle. It was a matter of finding and mixing the right sounds together. I really enjoyed this assignment. We were a little scared when we were recording onto the master tape, because we thought that we were going to record over someone else's project, but we figured out where we were at when we actually listened to the tape. I can't wait to hear what the other groups interpeted with their theme.

Observer

Sound recording makes me so very happy. I walked outside my apartment at night and captured the dark sounds, and then I walked out the next day and captured the light sounds. That is night and day sounds. All of them were pleasant to my ears. I walked and then ran. I found that I was able to close my eyes and escape through the sounds of the bugs for a few seconds. I feel like I spend the majority of my time trying to escape from something that I am unaware of. I have always been a restless soul with a desire to constantly keep moving around the earth. I become melancholy when I am forced to keep my feet in the same spot. As a child, I remember begging my mother to take me to the travel agency so that we could look at the different travel packages. The night I recorded sounds, the bugs got under my feet. I decided I would keep moving, even though I felt like a piece of stale bread in the toaster. You may wonder what the hell I am talking about? I guess what it boils down to is that sounds add a bit of pandora to my box of paranoia.

Tangerine Clash

I'm all lost in the supermarket, where I can listen happily. The scanners are all chiming in 3/4 time, singing a far better tune than the trendy new-age yoga mother music that gently plays overhead. Help is summoned over an intercom. I can tell by the urgency in the cashiers voice that there must be a real problem at hand. As I scan the refrigerated cooler in search of tangerine juice I can hear ripe produce crashing to the bottom of a new plastic bag. My mind drifts into the thoughts of my hectic day, just as a compressor kicks on in the cooler and reminds me that I am here to shop. All around people are chatting about property management, soccer sign-ups and so many other things I hope to never be concerned with. In the distance I hear talk of a stand up bass being played somewhere the night before. That is something I could stand to hear. I finally find the tangerine juice I've been looking for and head for the door (after paying, of course). I never knew buying juice would create such a symphony.

Cat Scratch Fever

Where can I possibly go to be alone with my sounds?

So.....I sat alone in my apartment with my two cats as they made all the noises in the room. So I found out what they do all day when I am away. Not only do they like to purr, grunt, lick their fur, move their poop around in their litter box, scamper across the tile floors, they are also considerably good at rolling their R's when they want to eat food. And boy do they like to eat food. I have never heard an animal make so many various and obscure sounds. These two black felines named Hinka and Havolina are in to everything. I know your thinking what kind of names are those? Well Hinka is an Indian term and Havolina means wild boar in Spanish. Hinka likes to go to extreme measures to eat the same foods that I do, therefore I listened to her rummage through the garbage for five minutes looking for potential leftovers. I also listened for the sound of Havolina running her claws across my salmon-colored chair. hmmmm maybe she likes it because it reminds her of a big fish? After a little while, I heard both of them scattering across the floor and fighting with their tiny marshmallow paws. I just bought them these stupid little mice with bells on their tails, because they like the way that sounds when I am trying to sleep. Cat noises are rather therapeutic to me. I read in a magazine that a cat's purr carries the same sound wave frequencies as the tool that doctor's use to strengthen human bones. Scoundrels!

Evening Spells

Sitting alone outside on my porch. Dusk has swept the over the ground, as I reflect in my grandmother's wicker rocker. With my eyelids closed and my eyes anxiously awaiting the sounds of vibrant life around me, I have learned to listen to the night creatures as they speak to me in song. I have much to learn from them. I ask myself, where do their secrets go? Will I ever know? Do their sounds amplify up and out into the universe and become tiny stars? As I sat listening that night I recorded this beautiful ambiance in to my brain. I could hear the echoes of my childhood reminding me to laugh at time games and to never feel old. With all the global warming, the cicadas still buzz, the crickets out-cry the drone of the city. And I wait for something, maybe a mosquito that will chat quietly without razorblades in its mouth. I sleep. A poem for you:

An Ode.....

To the music that I hear
Between the spaces in my head.
I have heard it.
Come and go.
Although it stays awhile
To let me know
It still haunts me.
Rhythm
``````Beats
Against
my
Brain.
An Ode
to the
Music
that makes me
SANE!