uncommon ambience

Doomed fishing boat cabin ambience — We’re back at the movies this week, spending an entire night searching for a great white on the Orca. The engine idles, the waves splut and gurgle, a tracking buoy bleeps in the waters just outside… (Ambience was inspired by the cabin conversation about scars and past traumas ). That’s right, we are off the coast of Amity Island and smack in the middle of the N...

Vermont’s Mad River… Ambience. Mad river Ambience, and you read that right. Vermont has a Mad River. It flows North toward payback and revenge . And it’s a great place to swim. Spend an evening on the rocky bank listening to a small angry river gush by.

Small (and maybe the wrong waterfall) waterfall ambience — Okay, so this is my first waterfall, and I’m not psyched about misnaming my first waterfall ambience. But here’s the deal. My buddy, Ed, was like, “Yo, you have to check out Moss Glen Falls. They make Warren Falls look like some ****.” So I consulted Google and was served this . “Yeah, that does makes Warren Falls look like some ****.” So...

Overnight Vermont Route 100... Ambience Late night rural road and gushing water ambience. So, I have a favorite road, Route 100, in Vermont (especially from around Pico to Waterbury). And obviously, this isn't a trade secret. Route 100 needs no hype, judging by the traffic we wreak in rural Vermont. The road delivers miles of Vermont quaintness: New England churches, cute light festivals , tow...

Late-night laundry — No one likes laundry, but I have some fond memories of the sights and sounds. The flickers of evening traffic flashing by the windows in yellows and reds. The crisp autumn air waiting to cleanse you of the steamy confines. When I lived at the top of Winter Hill, I frequented a laundromat at the confluence of Broadway and Main. You could look south from there and see Boston tow...

Otherworldly office ambience — we are back at the Movies this week for ambience inspired by the original ⁠ Beetlejuice ⁠ . The paranormal office the Maitlands enter after waiting months in the Neitherworld waiting room ( ⁠see it here⁠ ). Skeletons typing, paper rustling, a gongy drone, a PA directing souls, et al. BTW based on the ⁠upcoming sequel's⁠ title, I assume the Beetlejuice franchise w...

And as the title suggests, this is a minisode of a precocious little thunderstorm that came and went (even knocked our power out for a spell). And there must be situations in your life that are perfect for a ten-minute boomer. Dental appointments are totally ten-minutes in length.

A Dying Summer’s Suburban Slumber… Ambience (pt1) Late August, overnight insects, and highway sounds; suburban ambience.  The children are back to school, and Halloween has taken over entire sections of local department stores. But the pools are still open, and Labor Day is a week out. Suburbanites don’t know whether to high-five a lifeguard or put a ***** pumpkin on the front stoop. Was that a fo...

The Karate Kid, South Seas Maintenance Shop... Ambience Hanging with Mr Miyagi at the Office… Ambience. This is workplace ambience, if your workplace was a maintenance shop in the South Seas Apartment complex in Reseda and you spent your working hours trying to catch a fly with some chopsticks. In this episode, we're back at the movies and visiting the omphalos of white folks' aspirational...

Inside a Bouncy House... Ambience Inflatable bounce house ambience — it's another fantastic fan episode. Eight hours of a fan inflating a bouncy house. I dropped the mic into the air chamber and fired the ******* up. It's white noise, and that's it. Oh, I was making our regular Sunday fish dinner for my wife the other day, and I spilled a bit of sauce on the side of her plate. So I wip...

Inside Car recording Debby Tropical Remnants. Debby did a destructive dance among the southern states, looping over Florida and spinning into Charleston before drenching the Carolinas.  For my car it was mostly wind and rain. Get in. Episode Cover Photo from Valeriia Miller

Oh, this is Cicada Night, oh what a Night... Ambience After living inside the Earth for nearly a score, I feel like any creature should be given the space to air out one’s feelings.  So here are three hours of bug feelings as heard from a charming Bed and Breakfast I spent the night at in Leesburg, Virginia. I know nothing about our friends who live in the Earth for 17 years and then pop out mid-s...

Overnight In the Woods with Summertime Bugs... Ambience Bugs, babbling brook, overnight in the woods ambience. Quiet y'all, the summertime bugs have something to say. This recording begins just before midnight and continues until about 4 a.m. (I wanted to get in the less-trafficked hours because there was a US Highway a few miles away and a dirt road close by. You will hear some occasional tra...

Belize Zoo/ Birds ambience — Strap in for 30 minutes of chattering Central American Parrots et al. This recording is from the heart of the Belize Zoo near the parrots. It was captured by my biologist sister, Dr. April Blakeslee , an instructor for Miami University’s Project Dragonfly , which works with the Belize Zoo. The program promotes “environmental stewardship” while working “across diverse e...

Vehicle interior thunderstorm ambience. Oh, look, another minisode! And in today’s minisode, we idle in a parking lot, waiting out a passing thunderstorm. There are a lot of good reasons for letting a storm pass.  Man, one year, my commute, which usually took 30-45 minutes, took eight ****** hours. I was stupidly piloting my Smart car through an epic 2-inch-an-hour snowfall. You may have heard of...

The Cat, the Clock, and Some Weather… Ambience Enjoy a contented cat, a clock, and a cacophony of weather.  A storm is coming, and the wind is already kicking up outside, but Tuna Fry (the cat) doesn’t care; she has the house to herself, which means joy and slumber.

Rain on a Metal Roof in Belize… Ambience You will hear heavy to moderate rain on a metal roof in a tropical dry forest. At first, it will sound like a waterfall, but it quickly tapers off to less rain and more local birds—and a chicken! I recognized one bird! So, yesterday, I got a text message from my brother-in-law. He recorded some rain in Belize and sent a picture of a table surrounded by scre...

2001: a Space Odyssey; Discovery One... Ambience Discovery One Interior ambience — hey, we're back at the movies and inside everyone's favorite Jupiter-bound phallus rocket. This episode is mainly based on a composite of the internal Discovery-1 scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey . It is primarily based on the circuit tests (about an hour and thirteen minutes) with some orchestra elements....

Midnight harbor and light rain ambience. Spend an early morning in a Martha's Vineyard harbor. Recorded near the sands of a beach motel — you will get a mix of nature and machine noise (ACs, exhaust, maritime, etc). Speaking of sand... Was Mort Garson talking about getting drug-high in  "Big Sur"? His trippy 1968 musical number where he addresses a Mrs. Sanberg throughout about a song he learned "...

June Mid-Atlantic Thunderstorm Ambience — Rain and thunder; the best. As far as the description goes, it's a thunderstorm.  I've been thinking of Olive Loaf lately. As a kid, I enjoyed this peculiar cold cut. It was distinct from the bologna sandwiches our parents forced us to eat (every day).  The cold cut section of the grocery stores had two options: bologna and off-brand bologna. Oh, a...

Uncommon Ambience: At the Movies, Caddyshack . Country club early morning ambience. You are amongst the well-kept grounds, and here is the sun peaking over the area flora. Water is hurling spastically. The birds are turbo-charged. Off in the distance, someone is tending to the greens of Hole 6. This week’s episode focuses on the first forty-five seconds of Caddyshack . Before the mayhem and the go...

Chill commercial flight and Game Boy ambience—Gen X kids were often left home alone — we were also occasionally thrust unattended onto planes to navigate Laguardia or Atlanta alone.  Back in my day, we didn't have the whole internet in hand for a commercial flight. The most exciting things to do were staring out the window for a few hours, possibly picking up the Airfone , and hoping a friend...

The corner of a t-shirt shop where a cat sleeps and an oscillating fan blows around warm spring air.  The kind of t-shirts in this shop are what humans buy while on vacation but don't wear while on vacation. You wouldn't wear an Edgartown shirt while in Edgartown, after all. Or a Vermont shirt while in the Green Mountain State. I never see anyone wearing "visit historic Leesburg"...

May Thunderstorm:  So this is a thunderstorm that just traveled over our neighborhood. As I have said before, it doesn't matter what sounds I plan to do for the week. If there is a thunderstorm, I drop everything, grab the mic, and cross my fingers for a good record.  Last year, I tried to document the entire sounds of the tropical storm that passed through our area. There were hours and hours of...

Uncommon Ambience: At the Movies, Back to the Future 2. This episode takes place in an alternate timeline: Biff 1985. Where we will enjoy the sullen symphony of carnage, lust, and poor life choices just outside the Biff Tannen Pleasure Paradise Hotel And Casino.  It's a doozy. Minus Sammy Hagar. Also, minus bullets and explosions. There were plenty in Biff 1985; there's also plenty in our...