Holiday Pics

I recently read something about soundscape and music - that the work of composers is firmly grounded in place. This thing that I read (I forgot where) claims that the sounds that punctuate a composer's everyday life show up in her compositions. They leave an imprint on her, whether or not she is aware.

I was thinking about the every day sounds I have lived in and what they might have imprinted in me... not that I am a musician or anything, just that I was a-quarter-to-vacation and trying to think about things that are as far away from my work as possible. The question was on my mind just before I visited New York two weeks ago, which was great because I can't think of a richer soundscape than that city. For whatever reason, I have very vivid memories of sound in New York: Subway trains constantly base-drumming underground, Bachata blaring from apartment windows in Washington Heights, snow plows scraping the west side highway, snippets of conversation in languages from around the world.

So I went around recording snippets of sound, like photographs, in different parts of the city. I wasn't very disciplined so most of the time I forgot to make recordings. I was occasionally reminded of my task when I heard beautiful music, like a distant wailing I heard in the cavernous subway station on the A line at 180th street, or an electric guitar crooning "both sides now" while I was waiting for the Staten Island Ferry.

I am sharing some of what I got here.

Staten Island Ferry Building - 3:00pm 10 Dec 2015

Waiting for the ferry back to Manhattan from Staten Island. 

A Train Platform - 180th Street - 11am Manhattan 11 Dec 2015

Walking towards the music in the underground A train station at 180th street. 

A Restaurant - Brooklyn - 5:00pm 12 Dec 2015

A waiter intones the specials to us in a restaurant in Brooklyn. 

The Same Restaurant - Brooklyn 5:30 12 Dec 2015

Hanging out with my Zim family.

Melville, Johannesburg - 5:30 pm 21 Dec 2015

Finally back home in Melville.