32 SOUNDS - HackMD

--- type: slide slideOptions: controls: false help: false slideNumber: false --- <style> .present { color: yellow; text-align: left; padding: 0 2rem; } .present h2 { font-size: 70%; text-transform: uppercase; color: yellow; opacity: 0.7; } </style> --- ♪ [playful electronic music] ♪ --- ## SAM: Hello, everybody. Good evening. --- My name is Sam Green. --- And this is JD Samson here. --- And Michael O'Neill. Oh yeah? --- ♪ [drum machine beat] ♪ --- How are you doing, JD? --- I'm doing okay, how are you? --- I'm good! A little nervous. --- Hoping this all works. --- ♪ [restless beat] ♪ --- Okay, so tonight --- JD and Michael are going to play a bunch of music for you. --- I'm going to cue 32 different sounds --- from this computer. --- I'll show some images, I'll talk some, --- and together, --- maybe even with a little help from you all, --- we're going to make a documentary film about sound. --- --- Before we get started, --- I just want to mention that we'll be switching --- between two kinds of feelings tonight. --- First there's the magic of cinema — --- That feeling of sitting in a theater full of strangers --- seeing a movie and having a collective experience together. --- Well, we'll have that. --- But then there's also that intimate feeling --- when you're listening to something on headphones --- and you're totally alone in the world. --- We're going to have that too. --- This is that first modality here, --- the collective experience of cinema. --- You can hear the speakers on the right over here... --- and you can hear the speakers over on the left over there... --- We're all here in this room, --- and hopefully we'll go somewhere together. --- And now - --- Let's go into that other modality, headphones, --- and get started. --- On the count of 8, --- let's all put on our headphones now. --- [steady, repetitive beat] note: next slide when countdown ends --- [higher pitched beep] note: next slide when screen turns pink --- [resonant, low heartbeat] note: next slide after "1" leaves screen --- [subdued gurgling] --- [faint breathing] --- This is a recording --- made by someone named Aggie Murch. ---  > [name=Matthew Bivins] maybe a car horn or something? She was a midwife for many years, --- and then I fucking killed her. --- and her husband is Walter Murch --- the famous film editor. --- This is our first sound, sound #1, --- the sound of the womb. --- [rhythmic thumping and gurgling] --- I read an essay by Walter Murch, --- in which he claims that --- in this place where we all started out, --- sound is the first sense we develop. --- At four months old you can hear all of this, --- but you still can't see or taste. --- In the womb, --- we are alone, but connected to the world --- through sound. --- [repeating pattern of thumps] --- It made me wonder if this is why sound --- has such a strange power. --- As I was making this film, --- a lot of people asked me, "Why sound?" --- And to be honest, --- I never really had a clear answer. --- All I could say is that --- something was driving me to make this movie, --- even if I couldn't say exactly what. --- [heartbeat fades] note: next slides change with images, mostly --- [thwack!] --- [gong] --- [distorted reverberation] --- [ticking] --- ♪ [death metal] ♪ --- [bell tolling] --- [crackling] --- [laughing] --- ♪ [trance music] ♪ --- [deep fog horn] --- [siren tone rising continuously] --- REPORTER: There is a nationwide search underway for her --- and four persons who allegedly helped her --- in her escape. --- [rising tone] --- [crunching ice] --- [scraping] --- [thumping] --- [banging] --- [agitated piano notes and squealing sounds] --- [typewriter clattering] --- [siren tone rising ever higher] --- [soft twittering of birds] note: next blank slide while 32 Sounds card is on screen --- --- ♪ [melody on toy piano] ♪ --- I'm probably like a lot of you, in that deep in my closet, --- I have a box of old stuff. --- You know, a high school yearbook --- and some fossilized shark's teeth I found as a kid. --- In that box there's also a bunch of cassette tapes, --- voicemail messages I saved over the years. --- I was sitting at my kitchen table late one night, --- thinking about these tapes, --- thinking about how they hold the voices --- of so many people I've loved who are gone. --- I was wondering, how does that work? --- How does a little piece of eighth of an inch magnetic tape --- hold a person? --- Make it seem like they are alive and in front of you --- more than any photo or piece of film ever could? --- I was wondering if sound is somehow --- a way to understand time, --- and time passing, and loss, --- and the ephemeral beauty of the present moment... --- All the things that I keep coming back to in my movies. --- --- When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, --- it was a big deal that people --- would now be able to hear the voices of the dead. --- That had never been the case before. --- Before the phonograph, --- when you were gone, you were gone. --- [crackling static] --- ♪ [reedy violin recording] ♪ --- The New York Times said --- that the phonograph would change our social customs. --- Another paper predicted --- the machine would actually stop death. --- [violin recording cuts out] --- [recording pops rhythmically] --- [footsteps] --- ♪ [xylophone melody] ♪ note: next slide as turn corner (when guitar chords start) --- ♪ [guitar chords] ♪ --- The British Library Sound Archive --- is one of the largest collections --- of audio recordings in the world. --- There are over 7 million items here. --- [indistinct speaking] note: next slide as he takes something out of case --- ♪ [inquisitive music] ♪ --- Cheryl Tipp is the Curator of Natural Sounds - --- meaning all the recordings of thunder, birds, frogs, cities. --- [thunder rumbles] note: next slide with tree on screen --- [leaves rustle] note: next slide with fog on screen --- [fog horn bellows] --- When I asked her --- what the most striking recording in the collection was, --- she said, the mating call of the Moho Braccatus. --- CHERYL: It's about two minutes long. --- SAM: The Moho Braccatus was a little Hawaiian bird --- that was decimated by development --- in the last century. --- By the 1980s, there were only two of these birds left... --- a male and a female. --- So there was still hope. --- Then, --- in 1982, a hurricane struck --- and killed the female. --- So now there was only one bird left... --- the male. --- CHERYL: And the breeding season starts to kick in --- and he starts to sing, --- thinking oh, I'll just attract my mate again. --- But of course she's no longer there, --- but he doesn't know this. --- So he just keeps singing and singing and singing. --- There's like thunder in the background, --- some falling rain, I mean it's the most poetic recording, --- the most sad recording you could ever have. --- [rain falling] --- [plaintive, five-note call] note: click to next/blank slide after call until the next one --- --- [call repeats, slightly altered] --- --- [new variation ending on a low note] --- [pattering rain] --- [another call, closer now] --- --- [plaintive call continues] --- --- [call repeats] --- [rain falling] --- [call repeats] --- --- [call variation 1 ending on higher note] --- --- [call variation 2 ending on low note] --- --- [call variation 1 ending on higher note] --- --- [original call repeats] --- --- [call repeats] --- --- [call variation 1 ending on higher note] --- --- [call variation 2 ending on low note] --- --- [call variation 1 ending on higher note] --- --- SAM: Okay, open your eyes. --- [softly whirring engine] note: next slide when cut to image of 2 people --- [ambience with distant airplane] note: next slide when see cat --- [cat purring contentedly] --- [whoopee cushion fart] --- [silence] --- [explosive fart] --- [high pitched flatulence] --- SAM: This is perhaps the most annoying, [farting continues] --- or most juvenile sound you'll hear tonight. --- It's pretty low brow. [stuttering fart] --- But at the same time, --- it's a fucking miracle -- [farting sound] --- that you're hearing it at all. [eggy fart] --- I can't let you leave tonight without a little bit of science. --- This is the stuff of a million bad educational films. --- In fact, here is a bad educational film. --- ♪ [classical music] ♪ --- OLD TIMEY HOST: What is involved in hearing? --- To begin with, let's consider a very common sound. --- [blustery fart] --- SAM: Okay, all silliness aside. [silly farting continues] --- Let's just marvel for a minute --- at the journey this sound will take --- from JD's whoopee cushion to your mind. --- HOST: ...as the eardrum vibrates... --- SAM: Step one. --- When JD squeezes the whoopee cushion, --- there's a little valve that vibrates --- and sends out ripples of air. --- Step two. --- Some of these vibrations enter your ear canal, --- bounce off your eardrum, --- and then vibrate three tiny bones. --- These are the smallest bones in your entire body. --- Step three. --- The signal moves on to your cochlea, --- which is a tube filled with fluid. --- And this is where it gets really next level. --- In the cochlea, --- this sound becomes something completely new, --- it transforms from a kind of mechanical vibration --- into an electrical signal that shoots deep into your brain --- and then becomes a thought, an idea. --- You say to yourself, "Ah! The sound of a fart!" --- ♪ [xylophone melody with guitar] ♪ --- It's an incredible miracle that this all works. --- That through the air you are now feeling --- these musical notes that JD is playing, --- and they are doing something to your thoughts, --- your mind, your emotions... --- ♪ [contemplative xylophone and guitar] ♪ --- So back in the 1800s, --- when people were starting to figure all this stuff out, --- Charles Babbage was a mathematician, scientist, --- theologian, philosopher, --- and all around smart guy. --- In fact, he invented... --- the computer. --- But he thought a lot about sound --- and he came to a scientific conclusion --- that since sound is fundamentally just vibrations --- like ripples on the water, --- then all the sounds in the world --- should still be bouncing around out there somewhere, --- just super quiet. --- He thought that with the right receiving machine, --- and the right kind of decoding technology, --- we should be able to listen again --- to every conversation and joke, --- every declaration of love --- or angry words ever spoken. --- It should all be out there. --- He wrote, quote, --- "The air itself is one vast library --- "on whose pages are forever written --- "all that man has ever said --- or woman whispered." --- --- Charles Babbage wrote that in 1837. --- And I guess the implication is that, --- if he ever said these words aloud, --- they too should still be out there somewhere, --- tiny ripples vibrating --- along with all these other moments. --- [rumbling] note: next slide with mushroom cloud --- [atomic blast] note: next slide with helicopter interior --- [chopping helicopter blades over faint string music] note: next slide as violinist plays --- [rapidly trembling notes] note: next slide with feet of statue appearing on screen --- [cheers and whistles] note: next slide with tumbling rainbow slide on beach --- [yells and screams] note: next slide with john cage in forrest --- ♪ [xylophone music continues] ♪ [insect buzzing] note: next slide with motorcycle footage --- [revving engine] note: next slide at crash --- [clattering metal] note: next slide at monkey --- ♪ [xylophone] ♪ [natural sounds] --- [honking] --- [honking fades into distance] --- ♪ [music ends] ♪ note: next blank slide during silence --- --- SAM: It's October 10th, 1968 --- London. --- This is the premiere of a famous piece of music --- called "Piano Burning." --- And this is the composer of "Piano Burning," --- Annea Lockwood. --- In my research, --- I kept coming back to all these avant garde composers --- who have pushed the boundaries of music and of sound. --- People like Annea Lockwood and John Cage. --- I read somewhere that Annea Lockwood --- has recorded the sound of rivers for 50 years, --- and that got me. --- [softly chirping insects] --- It's September 24th, 2020. --- We are at a place called Constitution Marsh --- on the Hudson River north of New York City. --- Annea Lockwood has just turned 81 years old. --- [soft thumps on boardwalk] --- [insects buzzing] note: next slide when she throws mic in the water --- [soft splash] note: next slide after mic lands in water --- note: next slide as we pan up the cord --- [distant, mechanical clattering] note: next slide as we reach annea's hand on ledge --- [gentle chirping] --- SAM (OFF-CAMERA): So basically, just what are you doing? --- ANNEA: [chuckling] I'm listening to what - --- to a whole other world down there. --- I mean, when I first put a hydrophone into a river, --- which was the Danube, --- I was astonished by how much was happening there --- and how much was totally inaudible at the surface. --- Or another way of thinking about it is, --- how very different the surface world of a river is --- from the underwater world of a river --- and how rich that underwater world was. --- It was astounding. Whether it was... --- aquatic insects, --- bugs, fish --- that I was hearing or whether it was just --- the play of the currents underwater, --- which are delicious --- and make the most beautiful sounds. --- I always say they have lovely phrasing, they do! --- They're musical. --- --- I'd love Sean to listen to something, if he's able to. --- SEAN: Yeah! --- Can you take a break and listen to something? --- - Keep rolling. - This is really wild, --- little fluttering sound going on down there... --- [rapidly clicking insects] note: next slide as sean mouths "wow" --- [taps, flutters, and squeaks from every direction] note: next slide as high pitched drone begins --- [a hissing drone] note: next slide as sean presses his headphone to ear --- [suddenly louder, with a buzzsaw sound] note: next slide as sean presses other ear --- [clicks and fizzing] note: next slide as annea and sean converse --- [inaudible conversation] note: next slide as sean touches back of his head --- [humming churr] --- There's something I started writing about, about a year ago. --- Listening with as opposed to listening to. --- And, um... --- it's my sense that if I'm... --- standing here, --- I'm just one of many organisms --- that are listening with one another... --- within this environment, --- not even to the environment - we're within it, --- and we're all listening --- together, as it were. --- You too. --- And Sean, and you. --- All of us. --- SAM: it's a to -- --- that's a totally radical way of seeing the world. --- There's a subtle but radical shift. --- ANNEA: I think of sound as being a cha - --- an energy channel, from one phenomenon to another --- from the reeds to myself, or the bugs to myself --- and undoubtedly back again, somehow or other. --- A channel of connection. --- A sensory channel of connection that's very strong, I think. --- And shows... shows me how deeply connected we are --- with everything else that's around us. --- SAM: The train. --- Yeah. We're listening with the train. --- [distant chugging] --- Aren't they wonderful sounds? --- SAM: They're great. --- And they're just the right distance. --- SAM: Is it gonna come through over there? --- Mh-hm. --- [rumbling] note: next slide as train leaves the frame --- [rumbling fades to silence] note: for next slides it is one per car --- [abrupt traffic noise and beeping horn] --- [loud honk followed by clattering metal] --- [sustained horn blowing as truck passes] --- [beeping and rumbling] --- SAM: When you make a film about sound, --- it's hard to separate out the film, from the sound. --- Sound and cinema are tangled up in so many ways. --- [rolling sound] --- Here's a quote that I came across --- and like a lot from the Hollywood sound designer --- Randy Thom. [intermittent rolling sound] --- He says quote, --- "Sound is a second class citizen in our consciousness, --- [intermittent rolling sound] --- but it has a secret weapon: stealth." --- [rolling sound] --- "It sneaks into the side door of the brain, --- "often completely unnoticed. --- It works on us as if by magic." --- [rumbling wheels on floorboard] note: next slides as kid bikes over carpet then onto floor again --- [rolling wheels on carpet] --- [rumbling wheels on floorboard] note: next slide with bowling ball shot --- [heavy rumbling] note: next slide as music comes in --- ♪ [upbeat rhythm] ♪ note: next slide with shot of boom mic --- [creaking floorboards] --- [spitting] --- [squeaking] --- JOANNA: I think of Foley as a performance. --- We're attempting to bridge that gap between --- seeing a movie and hearing a movie, --- with feeling a movie. --- If I had a character who was very agile, --- doing a twist or a turn in the air, --- you'd hear stuff like: [whoosh! whoop!] --- [whipping a rhythm] --- In Foley, we call these things cheats. --- So basically they're kind of like sound metaphors or idioms. --- But if you want to create something where it --- pulls the audience in, --- often the cheat will sound even better than the real thing. --- [loudly squealing metal] note: next slide as she stops then turns to pull it back closer to mic --- [squealing even louder] note: next slide as she stops and pushes it forward in new direction --- [lower-pitched scraping] note: next slide as she starts pulling it back toward mic then back and forth --- [alternating squeals and groans] note: next slide as camera starts to move toward joanna --- [ominous screeching] note: next slide as camera so tight we only see her --- [deep grinding] note: next slide as she knocks swords together --- [ringing metal] note: next slide with chains on screen --- [clattering] note: next slide with patting metal armor --- [metal clanking] note: next slide with helmet --- [velcro ripping] note: next slide with car door --- [rattling and thumping] note: next slide with boxing gloves --- [rapid thuds] --- If someone's tumbling down a flight of stairs, --- we want to perform it! --- You know, a good footstep should sound like: --- [clip-clop sounds] note: next slide with gloves on floor --- [pattering] --- I'm doing my best impersonation of a dog. --- Or more importantly, --- I'm doing my best impersonation of --- what a person thinks a dog should sound like. --- The sound of somebody getting stabbed, you know? --- [sickening squelch] note: next slides with each repeated slap --- [juicier] --- [sloppier] --- You need a sound of someone bleeding out. --- [liquidy spurts] --- People "doin' it." [rhythmic slapping] --- Art can elevate a truth beyond what is feasibly there. --- [suction sound] --- And if we pull it off right, --- hopefully the emotional experience of hearing it --- and being part of it is enough to make you --- fully accept the poetry of what you're hearing. --- 'Cause isn't that what we're all trying to do? --- We're trying to take -- --- take what we're feeling on the inside and... --- show it to somebody else, --- or let them listen to it --- and have them feel the same way we do? --- [creaking, like a rope under strain] note: next slide with man on stage clapboard --- [clapboard cracks] --- MAN COUNTING: 1, 2, 3, --- 4, 5, 6 --- ANOTHER MAN (OVERLAPPING): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 --- SAM: This is 1933, --- and a British engineer named Alan Blumlein --- is demonstrating what at the time --- was a radical new technology: --- stereo. --- Alan Blumlein had been frustrated at movies, --- because the sound of the actors --- always came out of a center speaker, --- He was inspired to invent stereo so that the sound could move --- from left to right or right to left, --- could move in space as the actors themselves did. --- It was a giant leap forward in sonic realism. --- MAN: 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 --- SAM: I saw a Broadway play that used binaural sound --- a few years ago, and it blew my mind. --- But nobody's using this in films yet --- 'cause they can't figure out how to do it. --- Speakers don't really work --- with this new spatial sound technology. --- And it's a huge pain in the ass --- to travel around with all these headphones, --- and -- oh, yeah, --- please do not steal the headphones after the show. --- They're ours. We brought 'em here. --- And they won't work with your devices anyway! --- MAN: Alright, okay, so what? --- Your instructions? --- - Yeah, yeah. - Sorry. --- SAM: Introduce yourself. Who are you? --- Why are we interviewing you? --- MAN: Yes. Ah... Should we start? --- - Yeah. --- Okay, my name is Edgar, um, Edgar Choueiri is my - --- Ah. Okay. My name is Edgar. --- And um, I'm a scientist. I work in sound. --- This is my faithful assistant. --- His name is Johann Kristoff. --- What's special about Johann Kristoff --- is his microphones in his ears. --- It's designed to capture sound exactly how you hear it. --- SAM: What is spatial sound first of all? --- For people who don't - --- [overlapping] --- Most people have heard of surround sound. --- So surround sound envelops you with sound. --- [immersive THX audio intro] note: next slide as sound climaxes --- [climactic tone] --- You put loud speakers around you. --- And you get sound coming from everywhere in your - --- in your living room, --- which is great for Hollywood movies. --- But it's not how it works in real life. --- ♪ [ethereal vocals] ♪ --- SAM: In real life, --- sounds can come from very far away... --- [a hawk shrieks] --- or very close to you. --- [goofy mouth sounds] --- And as they bounce off your head --- and those weird ridges in your ears... --- and as they travel through your skull, --- they're muffled in very particular ways --- that your brain actually uses --- to make sense of where they came from. --- [warbling echoes] --- EDGAR: Spatial sound is technology --- that allows you to capture sound --- and produce it exactly where it was --- in space, in 3D space, including --- very close to you or very far from you --- or above you or under, underneath you. --- So this way you can hear birds in the sky --- where they belong, [chirping] --- the river running under you [rippling water] --- um, or a wave of the sea. [a wave breaks] --- You can also get proximity - --- which, which surround sound cannot give you. --- [shaking a matchbox] --- So this is uh, just to give you a test of how --- you can locate sound in space. --- [shaking gets louder on your left side] note: next blank slide when edgar stops shaking matches --- --- [matchstick ignites next to your left ear] --- note: listen carefully and cue next slides with changing sounds --- [footsteps cross to other side as matchbox jiggles] --- [matchstick ignites next to your right ear] --- [flame flickers] --- [footsteps cross to the back] --- [shaking matchbox travels from left to right behind you] --- [...and then to the front...] --- [and then around to the left] --- [and then behind you, around to your right side] --- [shaking stops] --- [shaking resumes] --- [above your head to the left] --- [lower down now, behind your neck] --- [back up to your left ear] --- [tracing a circle around your ear lobe] --- [and stopping] --- SAM: Okay. Open your eyes. --- [match ignites] --- [flame is blown out] --- --- Our next three sounds are kind of a palate cleanser --- and were recorded using Johann Kristoff, --- this dummy head microphone. --- These will be sounds 8, 9 and 10 --- but who's counting? --- [smooth, sliding sound with rhythmic tapping] note: next blank slide when we see ice rink --- note: next slide when he hits the puck --- [clacking sound and then a bang] --- [water crests and falls] note: next blank slide when we see beach --- --- [man chuckles] --- ♪ [minimalist piano melody filled with longing] ♪ note: next slide when we see the theater --- ♪ [rolling, repetitive chord] ♪ note: next slide when cut to tighter shot of pianist --- ♪ [reaching a new high note] ♪ note: next slide when pan down to hands --- ♪ [softening, slowing tempo] ♪ note: next slide when see dummy head --- ♪ [shimmering notes] ♪ note: next slide when fly begins to buzz around --- ♪ [music continues] ♪ [housefly buzzes near Kristoff] --- [buzzing near right ear] --- [sudden buzzing near left ear] note: next slide when screen goes black --- ♪ [music fades] ♪ --- [buzzing continues to pester] --- [ swat! ] --- --- [near right ear] PSST! --- [near left ear] Wanna hang out? --- [near right ear] What's up? --- [snaps in both ears] --- --- [snaps again] --- [distant clapping... from left to right] --- [near right ear] Pop! --- [blowing into left ear] --- --- ♪ [reverberating synth notes] ♪ [otherworldly whooshing] note: next slide as JD (on right) starts to strum --- ♪ [guitar strumming] ♪ note: next slide as music becomes more layered --- ♪ [tranquil synth melody] ♪ --- SAM: It's a tricky business using music --- in a film about sound. --- Obviously, you don't want the music --- to get in the way of the sounds --- but at the same time, music can transport us --- in such a powerful way. --- ♪ [meditative music] ♪ --- JD, you made this song a while back --- and I just loved it. --- Couldn't listen to it enough. --- Somehow it scratched some odd emotional itch. --- [airy, light, calming rhythm] note: next slide when JD on left stops playing & music begins to slow down --- [rhythm slows...] note: next slide as music fades away --- [...and fades] note: next slide as JD stands up and walks off --- [... to silence] --- [applause] --- I still wonder what it is about --- these kinds of sounds, music, that gets us, --- that takes us back to specific people --- and moments in time. note: next slide as loading cassette --- --- [barely audible music] --- I went to Cuba many years ago, --- and while I was there, someone said, --- "Hey, you want to meet an American revolutionary --- living here in exile?" --- I said, "Of course." --- [chuckling] --- SAM: This is Nehanda Abiodun. --- Nehanda had been part of a radical political group --- called The Black Liberation Army back in the 1970s. --- - I love this song! --- SAM: She'd helped a fellow revolutionary, --- Assata Shakur, escape from prison. --- After that, Nehanda became a fugitive. --- She left her two small children --- in New York City and went underground. --- She'd been living in Cuba for the past 15 years. --- I filmed a bunch with Nehanda --- in the early 2000s. --- We would play around with the camera together. --- Nehanda had mentioned several songs --- that were meaningful to her. --- So one time I made a mixtape --- and filmed her face as she traveled through space and time. --- (singing) ♪ Ain't no stoppin' us now... ♪ --- ♪ We're on the move! ♪ --- --- [claps] --- [snapping] note: next slide nehanda sings along outloud --- ♪ ...hold us back ♪ --- [snapping] --- [giggling] --- [claps] --- SAM: What do you think of with that song? --- - Wooo! --- When this song came out, we were organizing for the... --- for a march --- uh, at the U.N., --- the Human Rights coalition. --- And we were charging the United States with genocide. --- That was our organizing song. --- You know, "Ain't no stopping us now. --- Nothing is gonna hold us back." --- And... --- three days before... the march --- Assata was liberated from prison. --- And that just said, there is no stopping us now. --- So I mean, that brings back - WHOA - --- memories. [laughing] --- Yeah. --- note: hold blank slide while on posters, next slide when shot of balcony --- [ambient sounds rise to the balcony] --- If you experience pain, it's because you've known joy. --- Uh, and, um... it's okay. --- It just helps you get over those hard times. --- And also you know, you could celebrate --- the good times with music, yeah. --- SAM: Speaking of which, --- will you listen to this song a little more? --- - You just want to see me dance. --- ♪ [soft rhythm] ♪ --- (singing) ♪ nothing, nothing... ♪ --- SAM: Nehanda died in 2019, --- in Cuba. --- Like all exiles, she'd always dreamed --- of going home. --- [music at full volume] ♪ Ain't no stoppin' us now... ♪ --- NEHANDA: Hey! ♪ We're on the move! ♪ --- ♪ Whoah! ♪ --- SAM: And now, --- these sounds that were recorded on a strip --- of magnetic tape in Philadelphia in 1978, --- the sounds that transported this person who I love --- back to Harlem in 1979, --- these songs now take me back to this moment, --- frozen in time. --- ♪ We've got the groove! ♪ --- ♪ We've got it... ♪ --- ♪ I know you know someone that has a negative vibe ♪ --- ♪ And if you're trying to make it ♪ --- ♪ they only push you aside ♪ --- ♪ They really don't have, nowhere to go ♪ --- ♪ Ask them where they're going, they don't know ♪ --- ♪ But we won't let nothin' hold us back ♪ --- ♪ We're gonna put ourselves together... ♪ --- [music fades out] --- [fog horn] --- --- [four distant blasts] note: next slide with shot of downtown SF over the fog --- [sustained fog horn] --- --- [nearby bellow] --- note: next slide over blue screen --- [buzzing] note: next slide when we see the cicadas in a jar --- [buzzing continues with delicate flutters] note: next slide when we see boom mic in the trees --- [isolated buzzing of individual cicadas] note: next slide when we zoom out and see JD and Sean under the tree --- [pulsating buzz] note: next slide as image starts to blur --- [gradually fading away] --- [chiming] note: next slide when she pushes chimes with boom --- [clattering] note: next slide as birds fly in sky --- [fluttering as chimes continue] note: next slide when back on fire escape --- [sounds settle into silence] note: next slide as sound recordist leaves frame --- --- [low clinks] --- ♪ [jazz beat as singer scats] ♪ --- COMMERCIAL: Can the amplified voice of Ella Fitzgerald... --- SAM: When I was a kid, there was this great ad on TV. --- Ella Fitzgerald would break a glass with her voice --- and then they'd record it and play it back --- on Memorex tapes, of course, --- and the recording would break the glass too. --- COMMERCIAL: ...or is it Memorex? --- SAM: As a kid, --- I never really noticed how odd these Memorex ads were. --- How they tapped into some sort of fascination --- yet also unease with recording. --- Something about the uncanniness of it. --- COMMERCIAL: Now you'll see a glass shatter again. --- But is it Ella? Or is it Memorex? --- [Ella sings a high note] --- ELLA: I'll never tell. --- SAM: And after Ella Fitzgerald retired in the 80s, --- the ads got even weirder. --- ACTRESS: Look at me. Do you like what you see? --- Good. Because it's not me. --- It's a recording of me on Memorex videotape. --- Even after 100 recordings, you'll wonder: --- Is it live? --- Or is it Memorex? --- [discordant piano chords] note: next slide with shot of piano (after tight shot of annea's face) --- [eerie high notes] note: next slide with hand inside piano --- [muted tapping] note: next silde with view of hands on keys --- [rapid notes followed by a rasping sound] Note: click to next blank slide while title on screen --- note: next slide when title leaves screen --- [swift plunking] --- [chilling rasps] note: next slide as she scrapes inside the piano --- [deepening scrape] note: next slide as sound fades --- [fading into nothingness] --- ANNEA: Which end are you using, again? --- I've never - --- I've never tried it with the other end of a lug nut --- but let's try it with the other end. --- - Okay. --- ANNEA: It's sort of fatter and easier to manipulate like that. --- [deep scraping, now with ghostly overtones] --- - Ooh... --- I like that. --- - Yeah, I do too. - Okay. --- It changes the gesture, but it's right. --- [scraping reverberates eerily] --- Yeah, that's really nice. --- - Good. All right. - Okay. --- [gong sounds] note: next slide as annea enters doorway ("electronic music studio") --- [gong sounds modulating as if underwater] --- REPORTER: Surely one of the most remarkable composers --- in the world is Anna Lockwood. --- I asked the composer about her recent work. --- The music is played on numerous different types, --- and shapes, of glass. --- [gentle clanging] --- Lockwood says, "I have treated each sound --- "as if it were a piece of music in itself. --- "For me, every sound has its own minute form; --- "is composed of small flashing rhythms, --- "shifting tones; --- "has momentum, [video playing on phone] --- comes and vanishes, lives out it's own -- " --- [ crash! ] --- ANNEA: (laughing loudly) Oh yes. --- [clashing and clunking] --- REPORTER: Miss Lockwood, this is only a rehearsal, --- what's the real thing going to be like? --- ANNEA: Much bigger scale, --- we've got a fairly deep theater stage on which --- to set up 10 events for each half of the program. --- - Has this sort of thing been done before? --- - No, I think glass has been broken, um, --- in various other theatrical performances --- but this is all glass. --- - Well Miss Lockwood, I'll leave you to your music. --- [clattering and crunching] note: next slide as piece of glass is thrown and lands in pile --- [crashing] note: next slide as pile of glass is dumped --- [crackling] --- ANNEA: (chuckling) I remember that one. --- [laughs boisterously] --- SAM: Well a question I have, --- is it weird to see yourself 60 years ago? --- ANNEA: Not really. But I don't know why not. --- No, not particularly. --- - Do you feel like it's you? Or is that some other person? --- - Oh yeah. Sure. It's me. --- Yes! (laughing) --- But as I get older, I see more and more... --- the continuum which has always been there. --- And it changes direction, changes form, --- it shapeshifts constantly. --- But it is a continuum. --- I have something that I wrote here to remind myself --- or at least memorized it. --- "Everything changes and nothing is lost." --- And I really feel that. --- [recording of Annea laughing, mirthfully and loudly] --- Good! --- [giggling] --- Good, right! --- SAM: This is a piece of music called "Conversations," --- written by a composer named Ruth Anderson. --- Ruth Anderson and Annea Lockwood met in 1973. --- Annea remembers it was like being hit by a comet. --- And within three days, they were quote, --- "joyously entangled." --- But after that, for the next nine months, --- it was a long distance thing. --- They talked on the phone, sometimes even twice a day. --- And back then, --- talking on the phone was a bigger deal. --- ANNEA: Right. --- SAM: Ruth Anderson recorded the conversations --- and in 1974 she made this piece, --- which is 18 minutes long. --- ANNEA: All right, do that. --- SAM: I have so many things to say about this --- about the way two people sound --- when they're falling in love. --- But I won't say anything, and instead - --- let's just listen... - (giggles) Oh that's wonderful. --- --- [laughter pauses] --- RUTH: Gee, whiz. --- [renewed laughter] --- RUTH: What was all that? --- [rhythmic chuckling] --- [catching her breath] --- [Ruth joins in laughter] --- SAM: After nine months of long distance, --- and a lot of phone talking, --- Ruth and Annea bought this house --- outside of New York City --- where they lived together for the next 46 years. --- ANNEA: Yes I do. --- [giggling and laughter continue] --- RUTH: No you don't. --- [their chuckles overlap and alternate rhythmically] --- ANNEA: (through laughter) It's a lovely game... --- [the sound fades] note: next blank slide while we first watch fred listen --- --- [distant traffic] note: next blank slide while name is on screen --- --- FRED: There's this whole treasury of lost sounds. --- And that is an interesting phenomenon --- because on the one hand, it's, it's, it's a lament --- for a sound that you will never hear again, --- that you can't reproduce. --- But it's a lament that only ever manifests itself --- by way of the experience of actually hearing --- this unhearable sound. --- You know, so there's like this ghost of a sound. --- There's these ghosts of sounds in my mind. --- I can almost hear my grandfather, --- I can almost hear my mom --- I can almost hear, you know, my father, my aunts, --- you know, I can almost hear my grandmother. --- Um, and that, that - --- in a lot of ways, my most sorta... --- the most sort of dominant sonic experiences I have --- are these ghost sounds, --- the sounds of people who are gone. --- Y'know, I can almost hear Jose, --- you know, I can't hear him, but I can alm-- --- You know what I'm talking about! --- You know, you can, I can almost hear, --- you know, --- so when you lose someone, you, you - --- you lose the possibility of hearing them again. --- And you are at the same time --- thrust into this reality of, in a weird way, --- almost hearing them all the time. --- You know, um... --- it's a... it's... --- and that becomes part of the general sonic texture --- that you live in, you know? --- Which then is part of the general sensual texture, --- so to speak, that you live in, so... --- note: next slide when snow scene appears --- [soft ambience] --- SAM: In Japanese, there's a word for the sound of snow falling, --- it's: --- WOMAN'S VOICE: Shin shin. --- Shin shin. --- SAM: - which roughly translates to: --- VOICE: Shin for Japanese is a word to describe --- a type of silence. --- An onomatopoeia for an absence of a sound. --- And doubling that, shin shin, is like a progress --- of the silence being deepened by the falling snow. --- [shin shin] note: next slide when camera lens is wiped --- [faint squeaking] note: next slide when wiping lens stops and we just see street --- [shin shin, mixed with gusts of wind] --- [distant fog horn] --- [seagull cries drowned out by another horn blast] --- SAM: I made a documentary film about fog in San Francisco --- many years ago. --- Around this time, my younger brother --- had recently died. --- He'd taken his own life actually, --- and I was a mess. --- I was thinking about the fleeting nature of things --- all the time. --- It weighed on me. --- [echoing fog horns] --- At the same time, --- I was going through the motions of making this film about fog, --- which seemed oddly appropriate. --- [horns continue throughout] --- I did a bunch of interviews for the film --- and most people said pretty superficial things. --- But then there was this one guy, --- an old San Francisco writer named Harold Gilliam. --- Harold was in his 90s --- and one of those old people who can't sleep, --- and he talked a lot about being awake --- and alone late at night and hearing the foghorns. --- [a short honk] --- HAROLD: In the army, I came here after the war --- in a hospital ship --- because I had an arm injury from overseas. --- I landed at Letterman hospital. --- The first night I was there I was scared --- because... --- I was still conditioned to hearing artillery fire --- and ducking under the bed someplace. --- And I heard this great noise, a great sound, --- rattle the windows and rattled me too. --- [a deep blast] --- I thought how am I going to sleep --- down here every night with all this going on? --- [another foghorn bellows...] --- [then bellows again] --- But I finally got used to it after a few days. --- And after that I... --- I couldn't sleep when the foghorn stopped --- because it was part of the whole process of sleeping. --- [interview audio fading out] Walking around from... --- SAM: At a certain point in the interview, --- all of a sudden Harold went somewhere --- completely unexpected and deep. --- And in my torn up emotional state, --- his words got me. --- HAROLD: I hope they never take off the fog horns. --- They, uh... --- provide a sense of people --- who are asleep or half asleep --- or somehow staying up at night, [distant foghorns] --- giving them a sense of the bay, --- that there are ships out there on the bay, --- that the ocean is rolling out there. --- And that the earth is turning. --- This whole process of being part of this total --- community of life and non-life on Earth --- is a very, can be a very intense, --- uh...feeling. --- A, a depth of, of sensation --- that it's hard to describe. --- [a short boom] note: next blank slide as boom fades while watching train --- --- [distant horns continue] --- SAM: I'll think of this when I hear the fog horns at night, --- because I do really feel like they're a strange, --- almost a trigger --- of very late night... --- still, quiet, --- not lonely but just empty feelings. --- HAROLD: Well I admire your curiosity and inquisitiveness. --- And keep trying to get at some of these factors... --- And I, I imagine that - --- that some of these ideas will occupy you in your future films --- after this one is finished --- once you're going on with, in the same direction. --- --- [deafening foghorn blast] note: blank slides during gaps between blasts --- --- [two short bellows] --- --- [a final blast] --- note: next slide as you start to hear wind / rushing --- [an approaching engine] note: next slide when plane appears --- [jet engine roaring past] --- [crowd gasping] note: next slide on white screen --- [engine fades into distance] --- [silence] --- SAM: There's a thing in documentary filmmaking --- where after you've done an interview with someone --- you need to get what's called room tone. --- It's just sitting still for about 30 seconds or so, --- and recording the sound of the room. --- This can help a lot with editing later. --- - Hm-hm. - Okay. All right. --- LOCATION SOUND RECORDIST: This is a room tone --- for 30 seconds, rolling, now. --- SAM: I've been making films, --- which kind of just means marveling at people --- and the world, for 25 years now. --- And there's always something odd and wonderful about this moment. --- An interview takes a person to other times and places. --- And now they're just here in the present --- sitting with the sound of the room. --- - Okay, we've just gotta... - Do your cutaways. --- - Yeah. No, just. silence for 20 seconds. --- - Okay. --- - Okay. --- SAM (OFF-CAMERA): So just still for 30 seconds. --- note: next slide as he swallows big gulp of water --- [swallowing] note: next slide as he puts glass down out of frame --- [soft clinks] --- --- ♪ [simple xylophone melody] ♪ --- ♪ [a guitar joins subtly] ♪ note: next slide with shot of nun --- ♪ [inquisitive melody continues] ♪ note: next slide with shot of woman in front of bookcase --- ♪ --- SOUND RECORDIST: End room tone. --- - Pretty quiet room. --- SAM: in the spirit of room tone --- and silence and - - Okay! --- - listening to the sound of the room. --- Let's all take our headphones off now. --- Please, take your headphones off. --- --- - Okay. --- note: next slide as he walks away from chair --- [thump] note: next slide as he walks around piano --- [creaking floorboards] note: next slide as he goes out of view & you hear door --- [a door opens] note: next slide with Harvard Square shot --- [street ambience] --- SAM: It's September 11th, 1971. --- These people are setting up for a performance --- of a piece of music called 4'33" by John Cage. --- 4'33'' consists of a pianist, --- or any musician, for that matter --- playing nothing for four minutes and 33 seconds. --- note: next slide as we see stopwatch --- [an engine revs as traffic passes nearby] note: next slide as camera pans up to his face --- [tires squeal] note: next slide with shot of hands on lap --- [muffled conversation] note: next slide as pans up his torso --- [high heel footsteps] note: next slide as we see woman's face in crowd --- [hushed crowd listening] note: next slide as it pans to the left to take in rest of crowd --- [distant street noise] note: next slide as we see cage at the piano again --- [ambience fades away] note: next slide with silence --- [complete silence] note: sustain this slide until subtitles on screen, then next blank slide --- note: sustain until Sam starts to talk --- SAM: Christine Sun Kim is a sound artist. --- She works across mediums and has been super successful. --- The Whitney, SFMOMA. --- She has been featured in The New York Times --- Style section twice. --- She's even performed at the Super Bowl for God's sakes. --- So you might say she knows a thing or two about sound. --- note: sustain while she signs --- ♪ [synthesized notes cycling in subtle variation] ♪ note: next slide when CSK back on screen with subtitles --- Note: sustain while subtitles on screen --- [clamorous tolling bells] note: next slide when close up on top of belltower --- [clanging in an irregular pattern] note: next slide when wider shot from drone --- [ringing in a descending scale] --- [tolling continues over whirring of drone propellers] note: next slide as you get close enough to see two small people --- [tolling fades, overcome by buzzing drone] note: next slide as two men look at eachother and laugh --- [swarming whir of propellers] --- [whirring surges and then stops abruptly] note: next slide when screen goes black --- --- ♪ [distant, muffled bass beat] ♪ --- SAM: Okay everybody, --- it's time to put those headphones back on. --- This next sound will be much better with headphones. --- Please put your headphones on now. --- I was reading an academic book about sound --- about how having power or not having power --- shapes what we hear, or what we don't hear. --- And it made me think of this sound that I hear --- from time to time --- from the street outside my window. --- It's the guy who's kind of famous in New York City --- for driving around late at night, --- totally blasting a very particular song. --- And it's always the same song! --- Over and over and over again. --- ♪ [drums crash] ♪ --- [speakers booming] ♪ I can feel it coming ♪ --- ♪ in the air tonight, oh lord ♪ --- ♪ Well I've been waiting for this moment ♪ --- ♪ for all my life, ♪ --- ♪ oh lord ♪ --- ♪ I can feel it in the air... ♪ --- MAN: Some people like it, some people give me the finger. --- So I just keep going. I like it. --- SAM (OFF-CAMERA): How's your hearing, --- is your hearing okay? - Say that again? --- - Hahahaha! --- - Nah, hearing is good. --- [windows rattling] ♪ I can feel it coming ♪ --- ♪ in the air tonight, ♪ --- ♪ oh lord ♪ --- [singer's voice fades] ♪ [thumping bass remains] ♪ --- SAM: I'm not sure if you noticed in that last section, --- you might have actually felt, "In the Air Tonight," --- like, here. --- And that has to do with these things --- sitting over there. --- --- I was talking to my friend --- who's a huge Hollywood sound designer --- about how much better headphones are than speakers, --- and he said, --- "But headphones don't do under 80 cycles." --- I said, "What's 80 cycles?" --- And he said, "All that super low end stuff, --- "the kind of sound that hits you in the gut." --- [low frequency buzz] And I thought, Oh yeah! --- If we are thinking of sound in an expansive sense, --- if we're using sound to understand something --- about the odd experience of being alive, --- then considering how sound not only goes in your ears --- but hits your whole body if it's low enough --- seems important. --- So I figured now we could do something --- with these big subwoofers over there. --- And I was thinking of things --- that involve a lot of really low end sound, --- and then I realized: --- big sounds that move your body? --- That's what DJs do. --- That's what being in a club --- and losing yourself in sound is all about. --- And we have a world famous DJ right here. --- So this is a 5 minute dance interlude. --- Feel free to get up, move around. --- Feel the sounds in your whole body. --- ♪ [disco beat] ♪ --- SINGER: ♪ Oooooooooohhhh ♪ --- ♪ It's so good, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good... ♪ --- ♪ [disco beat] ♪ --- ♪ Oooooooooohhhh, I'm in love, I'm in love... ♪ --- ♪ [disco beat] ♪ --- ♪ Oooooooooohhhh, I feel love, I feel love... ♪ --- ♪ [disco beat] ♪ --- ♪ I feel loooove... ♪ --- ♪ I feel love... ♪ --- ♪ [disco beat intensifies] ♪ note: next slide with swelling overtone --- ♪ [electronic overtones] ♪ --- ♪ Oooooooooohhhh, ♪ --- ♪ Fall and free, fall and free, fall and free, fall and free... ♪ --- ♪ [disco beat] ♪ note: next slide as beat starts to change --- ♪ [house drumbeat] ♪ note: next slide with swing dancers as beat slows into reggae beat --- ♪ [shifting into reggae beat] ♪ note: next slide as woman tucks cash into dancer's briefs --- ♪ [deep bass reggae beat] ♪ note: next slide as women lay down on the ground at same time --- ♪ [beat begins to soften] ♪ note: next slide as balloons fall --- ♪ [reverberations and rhythmic ticking] ♪ --- ♪ [music fades out] ♪ note: next slide with black screen --- [silence] note: next blank slide while mazen inserts tube into trumpet --- note: next slide as mazen blows and bowl spins --- [unearthly rolling growl] note: next slide as you begin to hear clattering metal, too --- [fierce rumbling] --- [bell rings] --- [rattling] --- SAM: Mazen Kerbaj is a Lebanese experimental musician. --- [trumpeted rasps] --- On the night of July 16, 2006, --- he made this recording of himself playing trumpet --- on his balcony in Beirut. --- MAZEN: I would say something maybe outrageous. --- But uh, as an artist, --- I was lucky to be an artist there, --- as opposed to some other friends --- or to anybody who is not an artist --- and who could not do anything in this period. --- It's really a paradox. --- So it's really awful to know I'm doing a piece of art --- while the bomb is a real bomb. --- So some people are dying in real time --- when I'm doing my art. --- ♪ [spare note on trumpet] ♪ note: next blank slide while "eyes closed" is on screen --- note: next slide when on screen text disappears --- ♪ [the note surges] ♪ --- [trumpeted rasps mixed with exploding bombs] --- [rasping softens...] --- [surges...] [...softens] --- [...sustains] --- [loud explosion nearby] --- [car alarms] --- [sirens] --- [a chorus of alarms] --- [sharp, staccato whirring] --- [booming detonation] --- [distant alarm] [dog barking] note: next slide as quiets down --- --- [rattling brass] --- --- [bomb blasts] --- [sharp, high-pitched drone as sheet metal vibrates] --- ♪ [piano melody] ♪ --- SAM: Okay, open your eyes. --- --- - Okay, ready? - Ready. --- JOANNA FANG: Let's wait for it to reset. --- We'll go from the top... --- I'll start going as soon as this loop goes again. --- note: blank while she waits to begin, next slide as begins rustling bamboo mat --- [rustling] note: next slide as twists wood with rope --- [creaking] note: next slide as she rustles black film on floor --- [noisy squealing] note: next slide as she cracks small pieces of wood --- [splintering and cracking] note: next slide as she moves chair --- [harsh scraping ] note: next slide rustling leaves on floor --- [rustling cracks and pops] note: next slide as she claps --- [leafy thud] note: next slide as continues to rustle black film --- [crackling] note: next slide while holding log --- note: next slide when drops log --- [heavy thump] note: next slide after she drops it, waits in silence --- --- - That was awesome. - Cool. Yeah? Okay. --- - Need to take a break? - Whoo. I'm fine. --- [the sounds combine into a clamorous downfall] note: next slide as sounds combine while tree falls --- [splintering cracking scraping squealing rustling popping] note: next slide when enters quiet freefall --- [freefall] --- [ THUNK ] note: next slide as camera pulls silently above trees --- --- ♪ [effervescent synth melody] ♪ --- SAM: This is one half of Charles Babbage's brain. --- It was on display at the Science Museum in London --- for many years. --- Remember Babbage's idea that sounds never die, --- that every sound is still out there --- just really, really faint. --- And that if we just had the right kind of decoder --- we could replay anything? --- [chirping echoes] --- Babbage's ideas about sound --- make a lot of sense. They're logical, --- and there's also a great comfort in the idea --- that nothing is lost, --- that it's all still out there. --- But he was working with Newtonian physics --- and in that world, things were stable and knowable. --- If you could measure something in the present, --- you could accurately predict its future. --- as well as what had happened in the past. --- ♪ [synth music continues] ♪ --- Quantum physics changed all that, --- And now, we understand the world is uncertain, --- unpredictable. --- Random things happen and it's hard to know why. --- The truth is, these words and these sounds we are making --- and this whole moment — all of it will pass. --- And no one will ever be smart enough --- or powerful enough to bring any of it back. --- [music fades] note: next blank slide at closed door shot --- --- This is Edgar Choueiri. --- Remember, he was the guy with the matchbox --- and the dummy head microphone. --- He's a physics professor at Princeton --- and he studies both jet propulsion --- and spatial sound. --- He's literally a rocket scientist. --- I was getting ready to interview him, --- reading all sorts of stuff about --- higher order ambisonic microphones --- and things like that --- when I came across this detail --- that interested me much more. --- EDGAR: When I was a kid, I loved recording. --- My father had a reel to reel recording machine. --- And uh, apparently, --- which was something I'd completely forgotten about, --- I used the machine to record on a reel to reel tape --- a message for myself, in which I promised --- not to listen to it before the year 2000. --- And I had completely forgotten about the tape. note: next blank slide while he takes out the tape --- --- My sister who happened to be digging in the house --- found a bunch of tapes. --- This is back in Lebanon. --- And she said, "I found these tapes, --- would you like to hear them?" --- And I said they're probably worthless, you can throw them. --- She said I'm not going to throw any of these tapes. --- You decide what to throw. So she FedExed them to me. --- And there was a tape when I put on I got goosebumps. --- It was that tape, it was that message --- that I left for myself. --- [soft click] --- --- [recording of a child singing] --- [child speaks Arabic, with occasional French...] note: next slide when subtitles begin --- note: sustained blank during subtitles --- It was a strange emotion. --- It's not something you've ever experienced. --- We all experience surprise, we all experience nostalgia. --- We all experience intense, you know, --- shock from something unexpected. --- But it was a very strange combination. --- I, I had to stop. --- And I remember actually I couldn't finish the tape, --- so I - for two or three days, --- and I then came back and finished it. note: next slide when subtitles begin --- note: sustained blank during subtitles --- EDGAR: (whispering excitedly) Come on. Let's go around! --- Let's go around! Let's go around! --- [Edgar and a child squeal happily] --- [child giggles] note: next slide with louder squeal of laughter --- [delighted laughter] note: next slide as they pause and child quiets --- note: next slide as child runs forward laughing --- [panting merrily] --- --- [child's laughter fades] --- --- [cassette tape clatters] note: next slide as sam opens cassette player --- [pop] --- note: next slide as sam closes cassette player --- [click] --- --- [recorded inhalation] --- [exhalation] [breathing continue throughout] --- SAM: At some point, --- when I was trying to figure out --- what the hell this film was about --- a friend said to me, --- "You know where all this is going, don't you?" --- And I said, "No, I really don't." --- And she said, --- "It's clearly all heading in the direction of you --- "playing some of those old tapes you have. --- "All those old ghosts. --- I'm sure your brother Dave's voice is on them." --- --- I was taken aback. --- I even did one of those gestures --- where your head shoots back in surprise. --- I said, "No way. --- "I can't do that. --- "First of all, hearing all those voices --- "would be too much. It would be like - --- "those people were here in the room with us. --- "And then what's even worse is I would play the tapes --- "over and over at each show, and I would get used to it. --- "That magic thing where a tape actually holds a person --- "would wear off. --- I wouldn't feel it anymore." --- --- So that is why --- I recorded these words that I'm saying right now. --- I'm out of earshot having a tea right now, --- and will be back live with you in a few minutes. --- [tape player lid opens] --- [cassette tape rustles as it's inserted] --- [voices on tape] --- This is your favorite person in Havana. --- I just wanted to tell you, I love you. --- And thank you for your support and your candle. --- I'm still trying to figure out what kind of candle it is. --- Love you. --- Thinkin' about you, and love you some more. --- ♪ [musical drone] ♪ --- [phone hangs up] --- --- Hi Sam, it's your father. --- I have a question for you. --- I don't know if you're ready to answer it. --- But if not, maybe you could start thinking. --- And that's the question about should we... --- begin to think of burial plots for you --- and / or you and, uh... --- possibly a family here? --- or do you not want to... --- Anyway, think about it. --- Get back to me on that --- one way or the other and there's no rush --- if you have to think it through. --- So we're looking forward. Bye bye. --- --- Hi Sam, Harold Gilliam here. --- Good to hear from you, I... --- The 28th of July would be fine. --- So uh... --- Hang in there, whatever you're doing. --- I'll look forward to meeting you --- on July 28, 2010. --- Bye now. --- --- [phone rings] --- --- [phone rings again] --- --- [phone rings a third time] --- --- Hi, you've reached David Green. --- Please leave your name, number, and a message, --- and I'll get right back to you. Thanks. --- --- To page this person, press 5 now. --- At the tone, please record your message. --- When you are finished recording... --- ♪ [droning music crescendos] ♪ --- MUSICIAN: ♪ Oooooooohm.... ♪ note: next slide when we see big crowd of people in fisheye lens --- [music fades] note: next blank slide when text on screen appears --- note: sustained blank to read text --- Inhale deeply; --- exhale on the note of your choice; --- listen to the sounds around you, --- and match your next note to one of them; --- on your next breath, --- make a note no one else is making; --- repeat. --- Call it "listening out loud." --- And let's inhale... --- [a collective breath] --- [discordant voices fill the room] note: next slide when text on screen --- note: sustain while text is on screen, then when back to imagery go to next slide --- [unearthly wailing] --- [wailing softens...and fades] --- [silence] --- SAM: Okay, open your eyes. --- [an evening full of insects] note: next blank slide when we see close up of annea --- --- SAM (OFF-CAMERA): Let me ask you a question. --- What are you hearing? --- - There's um... --- a different sound, pitched about an octave higher --- than - ♪ Laaaa. ♪ --- coming from over there. --- And it sounds like a solitary - --- solitary insect. --- Solitary singer - It's, it's really nice. --- Just every so often. --- --- Evening sharpens one's senses, I think. --- --- The human world essentially quieting down to some extent, --- enough to be satisfying. --- The human world quieting down, --- And this - this other world --- sort of slowly coming in like... --- like mist. --- Almost imperceptibly... --- coming in. --- --- SAM: I was curious about this, Annea, --- 'cause when I interviewed you over the phone, --- - Mmm? - I asked you --- if you were listening to music and you said "No." --- - Yeah. T-- - Because it was too intense. --- - Yeah. - But you said you are --- going out on your deck and listening to the world. --- - Yeah. - I just, I love that image. --- I thought that was very moving, and so... --- That's why I wanted to film you. - Thank you. Thank you. --- Yeah, it's been, it's taken a while --- for me to come back to listening to music --- because it moves me far too much, you know, --- because it's so, so intrinsically associated --- with our life together. --- And Ruth died in November of last year. --- So it's been a process of... learning what that means. --- And, and music just gets to me so fast. --- But little by little. --- SAM: But the sound of the... --- world - - Ah. Yeah... --- - is soothing? --- --- - Ah... --- The easiest thing to say is, it's where I live. --- So it's home. --- --- So yes, I suppose it is soothing. --- [insect chorus continues] note: next slide when annea on screen again --- note: next slide when screen goes dark --- [evening chorus] --- SAM: Thank you very much. --- Good night. --- ♪ --- [insect chorus gradually wanes] --- [stillness] --- # 32 SOUNDS

Syntax	Example	Reference
# Header	Header	基本排版
- Unordered List	Unordered List
1. Ordered List	Ordered List
- [ ] Todo List	Todo List
> Blockquote	Blockquote
Bold font	Bold font
Italics font	Italics font
~~Strikethrough~~	~~Strikethrough~~
19^th^	19^th
H~2~O	H₂O
++Inserted text++	Inserted text
==Marked text==	Marked text
[link text](https:// "title")	Link
![image alt](https:// "title")	Image
`Code`	`Code`	在筆記中貼入程式碼
```javascript var i = 0; ```	`var i = 0;`
:smile:		Emoji list
{%youtube youtube_id %}	Externals
$L^aT_eX$	L^aT_eX
:::info This is a alert area. :::	This is a alert area.