Monthly
Statement:
January 2006
My project is about to undergo a major transformation. I've
decided I'm no longer traveling to Peru in March, so those
6 months with recordings of public transportation from Lima
will be no more.
As a consequence, now I'm even more unclear of how I'm going
to present my sound. So I've decided, just in case, to change
radically the way I'm accumulating. Before, I was recording
at least 1 minute for every day I used the subway. That system
had yielded more than 3 hours (nearly 200 minutes) for the
first three months (91 days). Now I'm accumulating simply
as much as I can.
I had a problem during most of January and ended up without
a recording device until a friend lent me a mini-disc recorder
(thank you!). In 10 days of recording during this month, I've
accumulated 2h, 30m, 06s. Which means that, in 10 days, I
recorded what before took me two and a half months. For the
next month, I want the quantity of recorded minutes to look
completely insane.
This new way of recording has taught me a lesson: the more
I wander around in the trains with the mere purpose of recording,
the more likely I'm to record unusual stuff (obviously).
Take, for example, the drunk man in Union Square Station.
There was a drummer playing by himself, a big crowd around
him, and to his side one unconditional fan, pretty drunk,
moaning and punching his own belly to the infectious beat
of the drummer. He was so drunk, that at one point he unfolded
a Food Emporium weekly offers paper, and showed it to people
standing next to the drums and pointing enthusiastically at
a picture of asparagus and then at the musician. It was hilarious.
What he was trying to say will remain a mystery and, to the
people who saw him, a brutal example of why we should never
drink THAT much.
Another great, albeit sad, recording I captured took place
in Times Square Station, where two policemen stopped this
brass ensemble named Hypnotic, from Chicago. The guy selling
their cds had to start making up a story:
- The cds are free, you can have 'em
- You can't do that
- You can't pass out free cds?
But the policemen were determined to send them home:
- We understand you're trying to make a dollar here, but my
boss is coming down on me, i gotta come down on you.
Sad, but true. It happens. Support subway musicians!
Process:
I'm accumulating sounds from public transportation systems
in New York City (6 months) and Lima-Peru (6 months) with
a minidisc digital recorder.
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