Tag Archives: soundscape

Response 3: Public Event and Location

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GSU: ENGL 4320

February 21, 2015

For my busy schedule I don’t get to go to many events. So, for my event I decided to go out with my mom for dinner at Maguire’s Pub down the street from my house, because they normally have live music. This is a usual meeting place for everyone in town for this reason. Also, I believe at any point when you can get a free meal that’s an event.

Maguire’s Pub has larger than what most people would expect as they descend down the new, but rustic stairway. There is a heavy, mahogany door with iron work handles that belongs more on a large house than it does as a restaurant opening. Through the door there is a counter on the left side where a teen-aged waiter will show your group to a table. The area has dim, orange lighting that makes the atmosphere inviting to sit down and talk over pretzel sticks and mustard sauce.

The sounds I heard from our table were mainly background noises, and at the time nothing really stood out to me aside from the high-pitch reverberation from the speakers being setup. That came up a little at the beginning and ending of my recording so TURN THE VOLUME DOWN. You have been warned. The reverb wasn’t as loud in the restaurant, but it was very loud in the recording.

Within my recording the sound is a lot more claustrophobic than my real experience. It was a very peaceful dinner with several people having chats between one another. There was one man on the recording that was louder than the children who were playing at the far end of the pub. Yes, this is a “family friendly” pub. Who says you can’t have a beer or wine with dinner when your kids are around?

The sound of all of the talking, the kids playing, the waitress asking if everything was okay, and, yes, even the reverberation every now and then I found very relaxing. It became a steady hum in the background. I really enjoy going to this pub with friends and family when we just want a place to sit and have drink over dinner. It reminds me of group events I would go on with friends and family. There would be food and a slight hustle and bustle.

It’s odd, because when I was younger, well before my time at college, I wouldn’t be comfortable in situations like this: too many people, doing to many things, and not being able to hear what was being asked of me because of all of the background noise. These things would make me feel too smothered and would send my senses into overdrive.

Now it reminds me of dinner my first year of college. Everyone on campus would come together and get food. There would be talking over the table, and across the room. There would be people going to and from different areas of the dinning hall as music would be pumped in through the speakers. Maybe that is why I really enjoy Maguire’s Pub. It has become a meeting place of the town to hear and talk between people.

Response 2: Soundscape

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GSU: ENGL 4320

February 15, 2015

The soundscape I responded best to was the sounds that surround me every day. I ever realized that I am surrounded by so many sounds especially at different times of the day. During this morning and early afternoon I had heard birds chirping and dogs barking. For the assignment I decided to record some of that sound from a different part of my yard and picked up several different sounds. Take a listen:

I stood in the doorway at the front of my house and had the recorder going. I mainly heard the humming of late afternoon street traffic. It’s a comforting humming of engines and light, though high, squeaking of the brakes. That is until a huge truck, the size of which no one really needs to drive or can pay the ungodly cost of the gas to fuel the beast, came roaring by. Once that monster revs up the hill that is right beside my house there are chirping birds again with the light humming of the other smaller cars zipping by.

There are a couple more layers of my recording. By the eight second mark there is a clanging sound of me locking the front porch door, because my dog decided to follow me around. At one point my voice can be heard telling my dog to stop biting at my shoes as I stood there around the twenty-two second mark. There is the mumbling sound of people going by, but I didn’t see anyone walking by.  Being our town there are people walking about everywhere so they could have been on the other side of the adjoining street and my mic picked it up.

The main sound that I responded to the most is the revving engine. I am a person who really hates that sound when I’m at home. There is a time and a place for everything and in a tiny town there is no need for a land yank to be revving up the hill. It covered up the nice chirping of the birds, and destroyed the nice humming of the other cars.

It is that loud disruption, the non sequitur if you will, of the situation that just irks me. However it is the sounds of the chirping birds that bring me back into the peace of mind of being home. I promise I’m not a neoclassical critic that believes that the unities of plays should be applied to life as well, but jeez do I hate the noise.

However, once the noise has settled I am able to relax both physically and mentally to the song of our finches and the steady humming of the little cars. It’s a reminder that no matter how annoying or bad something is that it will always pass just like everything else in life. It may not be pleasant at first and it may not pass as quickly as an obnoxious truck, but all will be better in due time.