University High School, Milwaukee, 5:14pm

Recording Rights to Buzzing Lights

(LISTEN)

My first stop, a school, was actually just the place that looked most likely to be less saturated with the sounds of broken mufflers and screeching tires that the first few blocks of my trek had to offer.

I was immediately intrigued as I entered the lobby of the building. Not by the obnoxious buzzing that seemed to be emitting from the lights above, but by the fact that there were people occupying this space, seemingly completely unbothered by it.

I perched myself on a bench just under the loudest light, as pictured in the above map. I got a good couple of minutes of this grinding, vibrating hum before I was approached by a custodian. After explaining to him my intentions, he informed me that I needed to obtain some sort of rights to record sound on this property, and politely asked me to leave.

Before leaving I asked him how it was working in a building that constantly buzzed so loudly. He replied, "What buzz?".

Park on Bartlet St., Milwaukee, 7:18pm

On-a-Octagon

(LISTEN)

Walking through a park, it was tough to decide which was the best place to position myself for sound-harvesting.

Before I had the chance to think hard about it, I was struck by a strangely-shaped box near the pathway I was walking. With closer inspection, I discovered it to be a wooden stage of sorts, in the shape of a stop-sign. I planted myself in the center of it, and opened my ears to a jam session of children, sirens, and late-night traffic.

Oakland Ave. and Riverside, Milwaukee, 8:01pm

Alley Between House and Riverside Automotive

(LISTEN)

Approaching a residential area of Oakland Avenue, My eyes were quickly drawn to a dark, creepy alley between two buildings. The kind of alley where two-bit criminals hang out in 1970's cop shows.

I couldn't resist tiptoeing into the darkness to hear what the crooks hear during their mid-night rendezvous.

Murray St., Milwaukee, 8:45pm

Inside Parkside Beer and Grocery, Freezer

(LISTEN)

Between blabbering clerks, 15-year-old girls deciding which energy drinks to buy, and an advertisement for "square-dance nights" at Hooters, the freezer in the front corner of the store was the closest thing I could find to peace and quiet.

Before I could get more than two minutes of soothing refrigerator ambiance, I was asked politely to "Get out that freezer please."


Behind Murray Park Quick Wash

(LISTEN)

Leaving the Convenience store, I was drawn to a warbling ambient tone, coming from somewhere behind the building. It turned out to actually be coming from the neighboring establishment, a neighborhood laundromat. Luckily there was no cashier out here to stop me from harvesting this beautiful hum.