Stability Through Motion

Intrigued by the sounds heard on Werner Herzog’s wonderful ‘Encounters at the End of the World‘, I finally remembered to surf (does anyone still surf the web?) for soundclips of the Weddell seals. Listen to the ethereal, sci-fi sounds of these amazing creatures at the University of Rhode Island website, or listen to one of their MP3 files directly here. You can here more clips on the Australian Antarctic Division’s web site.

Photo by J. Smith
© Commonwealth of Australia

I’ve just spent a fantastic hour in the Tawharanui Regional Park, New Zealand courtesy of Grant Finlay. I really recommend you put headphones on and listen to the following podcast, especially if you’re not leaving the country this year for your hols.

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Peacocks are beautiful creatures, but sometimes you know, you’ve just had enough…

Lazy country birds. I’m sure they start up at around 4am here in the town, but last night I stayed up and drove to Dry Sandford Pit at 3.30am, as you do, and sat for an hour waiting for my first tweet. I couldn’t get the dratted pre-mixer to work in stereo with the Edirol, so lugged the video camera out with me and walked round the woods with two Sennheisers in tow. Nothing but owls and disturbed crows until about 4.50am, then as the sky lightened the birds really awoke. An amazing experience, surrounded by song and only the occasional rumble of traffic from the A420, or airplane. I’m still searching for that elusive quiet woodland in Oxfordshire, where you can’t hear a road.

As always, headphones will provide the best listening experience, but steady yourself for a shock near the start – don’t keep a cup of tea near the keyboard.

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I dislike national identifications, but I’d have to admit that the sounds uploaded today were recorded in England, and do have more than a hint of England-ness to them. They would certainly not be out of place on a hideous union-jack covered CD called ‘Sounds of England’, with a Beefeater, the Queen, David Beckham, the sounds of cricket, frying chips and ‘My Ole’ Man’s a Dustman’. The list is endless, and it’s an audio trap I’m ever keen to avoid when compiling sounds for Transporter Mix. Nothing wrong with some lovely church bells however . . . enjoy!

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And on the running front – I’ve finally finished off the Ridgeway! A beautiful run out and back from Avebury almost to the Barbury Hill Fort completes the route now, well, apart from the very summit of Ivinghoe Beacon. Does this mean I’m now ready to run the whole route, start to finish, in one go? Every summer several hundred runners do achieve this 85 mile feat. Mad, mad, mad, but maybe in 2010?

Another outing for Transporter Mix yesterday, in the Quiet & Relaxation Room at the Becoming Ordinary conference at the Town Hall in Oxford. This was organised by RESTORE, Oxford, a charity that ‘supports people with mental health problems do things that they want to do‘. About thirty people  took off their socks and shoes and stepped onto the platforms provided to listen to the sounds of the seashore, woodlands and parks of the UK.

I must learn to make this experience more relaxing for myself, as by the end of the day I was completely exhausted!

Here’s one particularly sweet comment:

Absolutely blown away by this experience. Love the idea of textured boxes under my feet. Sounds were very relaxing and de-stressing.

Sunday was F’s birthday, so, naturally enough, we ran in a 10 km race together. This was F’s first ever 10k, and the furthest she’s ever run. Despite the unseasonable heat and sunshine at Eastleigh, we came in under our target at 1:09, so I’m really, really proud of her. Thanks so much to all the crowd supporters who helped make it a great event.

I can’t quite believe that this is my first race since October last year. Next on the agenda is the Stratford Half Marathon. I’ve crept up to 30 – 35 miles per week again now, so might still race the Half, but think I’ll just see how I feel closer to the time. However, I’m definitely doing the Oxford Town and Gown 10k on May 17th. And, all being well, that will be a PB (personal best) attempt. Gulp.

The Beetle - Penguin editions

Just finished reading The Beetle by Richard Marsh. I purchased it for the beautiful cover as much as anything, but it does fall into line with one strand of my reading at the moment – late 19th/early 20th century horror literature. It drags on a bit, especially in the detective-style last section, but there are some wonderful phrases in it, not least my favourite line:

“I am not proficient in the modus operandi of the hankey-pankey man”

Meanwhile, here’s a typical morning with the sound kit:

1. Awake at 4am to drive off to Cothill nature reserve to catch dawn chorus
2. Insert two Sennheiser ME66 mics into their respective zeppelins and cover with fluffy jackets (for the wind you see)
3. Locate and insert two XLR cables
4. Pick self up from floor after tripping over said cables
5. Strap Edirol R-09 recorder to Sound Devices MixPre pre-mixer
6. Find two batteries for pre-mixer and test power
7. Find bl**dy adaptor for headphones for pre-mixer
8. Insert XLR cables from mics into pre-mixer
9. Locate PC line-in cable (the green ones) and link from Edirol Line-In to pre-mixer Tape Out
10. Find another one and link from Edirol headphone socket to pre-mixer Tape Return
11. Have a cup of tea
12. Test microphones outside the back door – premixer/Edirol combo slung over shoulder, microphones on tripods on the balcony, headphones on ears and ACTION!
13. Batteries run out – all replacements are found to be discharged
14. Get back indoors, stick batteries on charge for the next 20 hours and read a book until it’s a decent hour of the morning

Yes yes, there’s a moral – get everything ready the night before you go out idiot.

Back in 1762 meantime:

“Intended to have given Mrs Rock an airing but She declin’d going as Mrs Harcourt had been lately troubled with a Fit.”

Last weekend was spent with oodles of cable, cameras and microphones, and at last some of the results are emerging. You’ll need a pretty recent version of the Flash Player to view this video below [technical details follow]

H.264 encoded for Flash from HD quality footage. I haven’t seen it at HD resolution myself yet – pending purchase of an HDTV or monitor! My brain is a mush of resolutions, camcorder settings, microphone inputs, codecs and javascript right now.

Meanwhile I ran another 7 miles around the University Parks this morning – crocuses all over the shop, quite stunning.

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Thanks to OFVM, who’ve granted me their Midas award, I’ve been out and about this weekend filming and recording with some quite nice gear. Most of the weekend was spent figuring out what bit of cable went where and carting it around the shop – from Brighton beach to Burnham Beeches. I hope to put some results up soon, when I can get the swanky camera to talk to Vista 64bit.

I’m seriously impressed by the combination of two Sennheiser ME66 microphones, a Sound Devices MixPre pre-mixer/amplifier, and my trusty half-broken Edirol R-09. My last attempt at recording the sea was rubbish, though I’m thinking that might be more to do with the much more subtle sounds the sea makes on sand – shingle is just so instantly evocative and powerful.

The award will culminate with some kind of public art installation in June/July. So with that and the Art in the Arboretum project in July, I’m going to be kept pretty busy. Next week I’m performing Transporter Mix again, in its original format – three transportable trays filled with earth/turf/shingle/leaves.

And, most important of all, I’m finally back running again. After my longest break from running since I started, my orthotics turned up in the post and I ran along the cliffs from Peacehaven. After five weeks of indoors gym, it was such a relief to be outdoors once more.

It’s not spring quite I know, but the blackbirds have arrived and the morning noise is escalating.

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Meanwhile, I’ve been to the Plant Sciences Library, a small oasis of calm in the Science block at the University, overlooking the forbidding Biomedical Sciences Building. I took notes, by hand, how quaint, from the 1999 Catalogue of Plants growing in the University of Oxford Botanic Gardens & Harcourt Arboretum. I was searching for a handy guide to the age of some of the trees at Harcourt, but unfortunately, nothing is dated prior to 1964, when the University took over the Arboretum. I’m sure the gardeners will know, so that’s the obvious next step.