07/18 - World Listening Day
~~ Girl Listening to a Shell
World Listening Day is somewhat recently invented with the intent that folks will take time to go listen to the world. According to Checkiday.com ( https://www.checkiday.com/fc1ba772b44badc8c64dca97d9c4971f/world-listeni... )
World Listening Day is an annual global event that was started in 2010 by the World Listening Project, a group "devoted to understanding the world and its natural environment, societies and cultures through practices of listening and field recording." The day celebrates the listening practices that occur around the world, as well as acoustic ecology—a discipline that studies the relationship between humans and the natural world in regards to sound.
That's all well and good if you are out in nature or some quiet old neighborhood in some quaint little village or town, but if you are in an urban environment you are likely to find yourself up to the ears in serious noise pollution. We are surrounded by what I call "aesthetic pollution" of all kinds and attacking all of our sensory pathways. Who knows, maybe if this movement catches on we will at some point attack that issue, trivial though it may be. Perhaps if we did we'd all be less stressed, anxious, ill at ease, angry, belligerant, and all that.
It is Nelson Mandela International Day I do no't feel competent to do justice to the man, his life, hardships and achievements, so I will just let Mama Africa say something. All I can possibly contribute is to note that he responsible for that brief period when the US at least tried to pretend that it opposed apartheid, at least in South Africa, and even joined in a boycott against it.
On this day in 1982, two hundred sixty-eight campesinos were slain in Ríos Montt's Plan de Sánchez massacre. Rios Montt was one of those darlings of the US government, a brutal, fascist dictator who received support from the CIA and assorted other agencies. He graduated from the US run School of Assassins in Panama (now rebranded as "WHINSEC" at Ft. Benning) and cut his teeth in the 1954 CIA organized coup d'etat against then Predident Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. We always enthrone or support horrible dictators like this SOB in our alleged pursuit of "global democracy". Perhaps the political classes need new dictionaries.
On this day in history:
0064 -- The Great Fire of Rome burned for six days, destroying half of the city.
1290 -- King Edward I of England issued the Edict of Expulsion, banishing the Jews
1870 -- The First Vatican Council decreed the dogma of papal infallibility
1925 -- Adolf Hitler published Mein Kampf.
1936 -- An army uprising started the Spanish Civil War.
1942 -- The Germans flew the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet aircraft.
1969 -- Chappaquiddick
1982 -- Ríos Montt's Plan de Sánchez massacre
1994 -- The Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of Gisenyi and NW Rwanda ending the genocide.
1995 -- The Soufrière Hills volcano on Montserrat erupted and over time pretty much destroyed the island.
1995 -- Selena's Dreaming of You was released posthumously & became the best-selling Latin album in the United States.
2013 -- The Government of Detroit filed for bankruptcy.
Some people who were born on this day:
If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us at least live so as to deserve it.
~~ Immanuel Hermann Fichte
1659 -- Hyacinthe Rigaud, painter
1670 -- Giovanni Bononcini, cellist and composer
1718 -- Saverio Bettinelli, poet, playwright, and critic
1797 -- Immanuel Hermann Fichte, philosopher and academic
1811 -- William Makepeace Thackeray, author and poet
1853 -- Hendrik Lorentz, physicist and academic
1895 -- Machine Gun Kelly, businessman,
1902 -- Jessamyn West, author
1903 -- Chill Wills, actor, singer, talking mule
1906 -- S. I. Hayakawa, academic, opponent of ethnic studies, and politician
1909 -- Harriet Nelson, singer and actress
1918 -- Nelson Mandela, lawyer and politician, 1st President of South Africa,
1921 -- John Glenn, colonel, astronaut, and politician
1922 -- Thomas Kuhn, physicist, historian, and philosopher
1929 -- Screamin' Jay Hawkins, singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1937 -- Hunter S. Thompson, journalist and author
1938 -- Ian Stewart, keyboard player and manager
1939 -- Brian Auger, keyboard player
1939 -- Dion DiMucci, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1941 -- Lonnie Mack, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1941 -- Martha Reeves, singer, actress, and politician
1950 -- Glenn Hughes, singer, dancer, and actor
1954 -- Ricky Skaggs, singer, songwriter, mandolin player, and producer
1955 -- Terry Chambers, drummer
1957 -- Keith Levene, guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1962 -- Jack Irons, drummer
Some people who died on this day:
What we committed in the Indies stands out among the most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and mankind and this trade [in Indian slaves] as one of the most unjust, evil, and cruel among them.
~~ Bartolomé de las Casas
1100 -- Godfrey of Bouillon, knight & Crusader.
1566 -- Bartolomé de las Casas, historian who chronicled atrocities against indigenous people
1610 -- Caravaggio, painter
1721 -- Jean-Antoine Watteau, painter
1792 -- John Paul Jones, Revolutionary War admiral, US diplomat, and Russian rear-admiral.
1817 -- Jane Austen, novelist
1890 -- Lydia Becker, journalist, author, and activist, co-founded the Women's Suffrage Journal
1899 -- Horatio Alger, Jr., American fantasy novelist and journalist
1938 -- Marie of Romania, punchline for Dotty:
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song, A medley of extemporanea; And love is a thing that can never go wrong; And I am Marie of Romania. -- Dorothy Parker
1954 -- Machine Gun Kelly, businessman
1966 -- Bobby Fuller, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1969 -- Mary Jo Kopechne, educator and secretary
2001 -- Mimi Fariña, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Constitution Day (Uruguay)
World Listening Day
Nelson Mandela International Day
Today's Tunes
For Nelson Mandela
Montserrat
Selena
Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Ian Stewart
Brian Auger
Dion DiMucci
Lonnie Mack
Martha Reeves
Glenn Hughes
Ricky Skaggs
Terry Chambers
Keith Levene
Jack Irons
Bobby Fuller
Mimi Fariña
Hmmmm, Memphis, eh?
Just for grins
I won't be around when this posts
Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?
Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
Comments
Good morning folks ~
Off performing familial obligations on Long Island. Soon time to be catching the ferry back
home. Can't wait to get out of this overpopulated mess. Hot, humid and overcast. The
drivers are extremely aggressive here. Why is everyone in such a hurry?
Oh, well. Perhaps the gathering storm will break the oppression.
question everything
Belated good morning QMS. Hope
all went well on the way home. Who is in such a hurry on LonGisland, the locals or their lackeys?
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
our soundscape is a big influence...
on our overall mood and stress level. I'm lucky, our main noise pollution is air traffic far overhead. Mostly it is insect chirps and bird song, wind in the trees or rain.
10 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S3yJkGWM4E]
We enjoy playing music too. It draws in birds who like to listen.
Good luck with your chores today and thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Belated good morning LO. Must be wonderful having
your soundscape. When we're lucky, birds make up a lot of ours, but much is loud vehicles and motorcycles and aircraft, gas powered landscape equipment, paving destruction and repair equipment, window shaking vehicle speakers, and, of course, sirens.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Hi all
Hi EL! Hope all is well yer way. Some great ones... Screamin' Jay was awesome. Ian Stewart was the Sixth Stone the critical first fifteen years. Never got his due. Lonnie Mack was was one of the greatest players there ever was. Some great listening to be had there bro!
Like people look but they don't see, many hear but do not listen. Listening is an art most are not very good or practiced at, but which can be learned. Other than doing actual research and studies, generally one only learns when listening, and never when talking. I would always rather be the dumbest guy in the room and not say anything because there is too much to learn from listening to the real brainiacs.
Seems more others would rather be great pontificators, regardless of actual knowledge of value. The best salesman is the best listener, not the best talker. He will listen and hear what he needs to make the sale. As I taught in my tie years, they will tell you how to sell them, if you will just listen.
I am nuts about the sounds of nature, and not to brag but am zen master listener. Learning the sounds of nature has to be the best thing there could be to teach one how to listen. I might call out loud 'midas fly' because I heard one shoot by. And so on. Most flies you cannot call to group by flight sound, but some you can. Once I was at some UV night lights in Madera Cyn. AZ and Dr. Von Bloeker was there, beetle wings buzzed 50 yards away, he went crashing off through the forest in the dark shouting Pleusiotis, Pleusiotis! And came back with the dang thing! These were my teen idols.
Over 25 years ago when I first publicly claimed to be able to tell Rufous and Allen's Hummingbird apart by their wing whistles and calls, I was scoffed at by hummer experts. Now it is published in the latest works that the calls and wing whistle are indeed different. Nat. Geo. guide 6th Ed. still says "identical".
I used to have some of those 'Environments' records in the 70's. LP's with outdoor usually nature sounds. I think first wifey must have taken them. I loved the rainforest one, the heartbeat was interesting, the side of the sailboat at sea was really great. I have always had bird call records of course and they are great listening. Now I listen to my own birdsong recordings, and for other stuff there is: http://www.xeno-canto.org
Great listening to all!
Trigger warning: WWII song
ME262 - Blue Oyster Cult - and yeah I can play it.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Belated good morning dysto.
A good soundscape can be great. Congrats for being able to differentiate the selasphorus by ear - quite a feat. I have a very limited and annually diminishing number of boids I can call by ear.
I recall those old rekkids myself, but don't think I ever had any.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I spend a lot of time each day outside.
The intrusion of human noise is the occasional car driving by, including those stupid extra-loud trucks young tough guys drive. When the international airport in Houston was operating at full tilt, during certain times a day, I would hear planes in the distance.
Otherwise, it is a constant sound of insects, birds, cattle, burros, frogs, coyotes, and my neighbor's dogs.
One dog in particular, a border collie, rides in the bed of his owner's truck. He barks in spurts. He saves up his vocal chords for that time he is at the stop sign at the front corner of my property. The number of barks depends on how long the truck is stopped. Might be 10. Might be 30. Once the truck gets on the highway into town, he barks anywhere from 1/4 mile, to 2 miles, coming right to the center of town. From stop sign to the red light on main street is anywhere from 80 to 100 barks. I have a habit of counting them, reporting the number of barks, then have a discussion on his health, whether he is too hot, too cold, if his barks aren't loud and rapid. Of course, my husband gave him a nickname.
"Barkie".
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Belated good morning otc.
It's good that you get to be outside a lot, Barkie notwithstanding. I should spend more time outside myself, but something always draws me back indoors. I've been devising plans to be outside more of each day, but rarely move past the planning stage.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Go stand outside for a few minutes, breathe
in some fresh air, and a few minutes can give you a boost, my friend.
Thanks so much for for your OT and that beautiful picture.
Take it easy!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981