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Sounds of My City: Sounds of My City: Fellowship Project Round-Up »

soundsofmycity:

(This is a long post, so bear with me!)

Hey everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great day/week, and are looking forward to the long weekend (for those of you who have one)! I will be spending mine with family & friends, in Toronto and up north in Aurora (where my parents live).

Today’s post will…

Check out this great blog post by Katie, who wraps up her great Community Fellowship project Sounds Of My City. Click!

Reblogged 1 year ago from soundsofmycity

soundsofmycity:

Tickets Cheap at Massey Hall - Submitted by Mr. Tunes

Hello all! I hope you’re having a great week so far. Yesterday I moved out of my Toronto apartment back up north to Aurora (an interim stop on my upcoming journey to Berlin) - it was a busy busy day! 

Today we have a quick sound bite taken by Mr. Tunes (Elliott), who previously shared his sounds from Bathurst Station. This one was taken at Massey Hall back in February when the Wayne Shorter Quartet was playing. A familiar sound at any concert, this captures a scalper heckling the passers-by. As Elliott says, “that guys is relentless!”

He totally is. Can’t stop won’t stop selling tickets cheap! Oh man! This totally reminds me of the time in first year university (so, basically almost exactly 6 years to the day…holy crap) and I went down to Massey Hall to try and scalp Sigur Ros tickets. It was a successful mission, and the guy sold it to us at face value! What a great concert. 

Thanks for sharing, Elliott! I hope to hear more of your sounds soon!!!

Have a great Wednesday everyone! Remember to keep your recorders handy and send any fun captures my way! Submit HERE or HERE! 

Reblogged 1 year ago from soundsofmycity

soundsofmycity:

Thunderstorm on Strathcona Ave, 1984 - Submitted by Colman Jones

Happy Friday, all! I hope you’ve had a great week, and are all ready for the weekend. Kind of sad that it’s the last summer weekend :(

Today’s sounds come from Colman Jones, who I featured last week, back with more vintage Toronto audio! Lucky for Colman, he has also won one of my follower appreciation swag-bags! Congrats!!! Check your SoundCloud inbox for more info, Colman :)

So, along the same vein as yesterday’s storm sounds, today we’ll listen to a great quality, 11 minute recording of a thunderstorm taken on Strathcona Ave (just off the Danforth in the east end) in 1984.

Colman says, “Wednesday night’s storm in Toronto was unbelievable, and brought to mind another storm decades ago, recorded from the front porch of a house on Strathcona Avenue, in full stereo!”

So wicked! These vintage recordings are the coolest thing! I love listening to storms. Let’s consider this one today’s Moment of Zen, shall we?

Fun fact: This audio was used in one of Colman’s compositions called In the Rain. Listen to it here (click through this post to stream the audio):

In the Rain by Colman Jones

Thanks again for sharing, Colman! And congrats on your win! Expect your swag-bag in the mail very soon :)

I hope you all have a great weekend! I am having a huge birthday party tonight (at Swiss Chalet woop woop!) and then a nice weekend of packing up my apartment and trying to get out as much as I can. There are a lot of great events happening this weekend like BuskerFest, FanExpo and the CNE! Click here for a listing!

I have one more swag-bag left! I hope to hear some submissions this weekend so I can give it away on Monday! So keep your recorders handy, people! Submit your sounds HERE or HERE to win!

Reblogged 1 year ago from soundsofmycity

soundsofmycity:

Sounds from last night’s storm - Wednesday, August 24

My fellow Torontonians/Southern Ontarians will agree - last night’s storm was crazy! So much thunder and insane lightning! It was definitely a great show, but it got a bit dicey at some points, so my roommates and I would flee indoors.

This captures one of those instances. You can hear us marveling at the crazy lightning, and then freaking out and running inside. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I stopped the recording before a HUGE lightning struck and we all screamed realllly loud and hid for a while. That would have been a fun recording.

Anyways! Here is my take on last night’s crazy storm via audio. I tried my hardest to get a photo, but to no avail. Here is a great photo that picturenarrative took and uploaded to BlogTO’s Flickr pool.

And, if you’re interested - here is blogTO’s great roundup of pictures from the storm!

FYI - 2 more swag bags left to give away! Send me your city sounds by Sunday to be considered for a prize! Submit your sounds HERE and/or HERE.

Reblogged 1 year ago from soundsofmycity

soundsofmycity:

Fun Buskers on Bloor St - Submitted by lumbercath

Happy Tuesday, people! Today’s sounds come from my girl Catherine (responsible for the beautiful layout of the blog). We went for sushi the other night and these awesome buskers were playing on Bloor St. in the Annex. It was a lovely accompaniment to our dinner, but unfortunately they finished before I was able to get out and record them. Catherine, however, had been there early and was able to capture the end of one song!

She says, “While waiting for my friends to join me for sushi, I came across these awesome buskers (who we’ve seen before at Ward’s Island). I only caught the tail end of this song, but it’s definitely a different sound than usual”

There was a clarinet, a sousaphone and an accordion! Earlier this summer when we went to Ward’s Island (I shared some beach sounds from that trip with you guys), these buskers were playing at the most beautiful wedding reception! I’m glad we got to hear them again!

Thanks so much for sharing, Catherine! You’re the best.

You can find Catherine on Tumblr here, and on Twitter @lumbercath.

And remember! I have 3 more swag-bags to give away! Submit your city sounds (HERE on the blog or HERE in the SoundCloud group) for a chance to win some awesome SoundCloud swag! August 28th is the deadline!!! Hope to hear from you guys soon :)

Reblogged 1 year ago from soundsofmycity

soundsofmycity:

It’s giveaway announcement day!

Listen to the recording for all the info you need! But, basically…I’m holding a little follower appreciation giveaway/contest/submission thing. Submit sounds of your city (anywhere in the world) - good, bad, your favourites…anything…and you could win one of 4 super cool SoundCloud/Toronto-themed swag bags! (Look at all that cool stuff!)

Submit your sounds HERE or HERE. Tag them #SoMCsubmission, make sure you give them a unique title, include a description so I can post them on the blog!

Deadline for all submissions is Sunday, August 28th! If I receive any submissions by Monday (Aug. 22), I’ll announce our first winner then!

Looking forward to hearing your sounds!!

Thank you so much for following :)

Reblogged 1 year ago from soundsofmycity

soundsofmycity:

Talking to Himself at Eglinton Station, 1980s - Submitted by Colman Jones
(Warning, there’s some harsh words…)

I’m really really excited about today’s sounds, people. We’re breaking new ground here - vintage Toronto! This amazing 7 minute recording of a Globe & Mail newspaper vendor was captured by Colman Jones, an accomplished writer, radio broadcaster, producer (for the CBC!), journalist, musician and composer. Needless to say, I’m totally thrilled he decided to share these sounds (and a few more I’ll share in the coming weeks!) with me.

According to Colman, the story goes like this:

“This recording was made back in the 1980s by myself and Janet Wilson, after we noticed a rather odd newspaper salesperson in Toronto’s Eglinton subway station loudly talking to himself in between selling papers.

Wanting to capture the spontaneous nature of his rantings, we set down a JVC stereo cassette boombox we happened to have with us down on the floor nearby, and discreetly pressed the record button. What you hear is the result. Lots of good stereo ambiance of the subway station, with the sound of people walking by from right to left. It’s best listened to on headphones.

There is no further information, however, on all the movies this vendor says he made… no one has ever been able to track him down since.”

Incredible! Such great quality for a tape recording, too. This is a really cool look (well, listen) back to what was probably a familiar sight and sound back in the day. Just sellin’ papers, chatting with himself, smoking on the subway. “Paper, paper!”  I wonder what happened to this guy… Such a cool recording!

Thank you SO much for sharing this, Colman! I’m really looking forward to posting more of your sounds (they are really cool, people! Stay tuned) over the next couple weeks.

To listen to more sounds from Colman on SoundCloud, click here (for his great music) and here (for more of his vintage Toronto recordings and other soundscapes). You can also find his music on CBC Radio 3, follow him on Tumblr, on Twitter @colmanjones, and on his personal website.

Oh yay, wasn’t that fun?! I hope you enjoy today’s foray into the past, stay tuned for more, and check in with me tomorrow when I announce a little giveaway contest/submission/sound scavenger hunt where you can win free swag! Woo hoo!

Happy Thursday, all!

Reblogged 1 year ago from soundsofmycity

soundsofmycity:

Awesome Annex Busker(s), pt. 3 - Sunday, August 14

Theyyyyy’re back! Well, he’s back - the violinist, I mean. My favourite busker in Toronto! Making beautiful music in his usual spot at the corner of Walmer & Bloor, I stopped to record him after grabbing my groceries on Sunday evening.

He was playing Bach Cello Sonata, Partita no. 3. He started playing something else (equally lovely) but then stopped for a bit to “hide his fortune” under the cloth in his violin case! Haha, sneaky busker.

In short, I love him. He’s my absolute favourite busker - and so talented too! He’s got a whole catalogue of amazing music memorized (as many violinists do), and has become a wonderful summer staple for the Annex.

Enjoy!

PS: Listen to previous recordings of the AABs (Awesome Annex Buskers) here:

Awesome Annex Buskers by katieneeds

Awesome Annex Buskers pt. 2 by katieneeds

PPS: I’d like you guys to start thinking about some ubiquitous city sounds - buskers, maybe? Or transit sounds, or maybe sirens? Things that can be found in most cities. And then maybe think about recording them? Because maybe I have a fun giveaway planned… Stay tuned!

Reblogged 1 year ago from soundsofmycity

soundsofmycity:

Greedy Little Chipmunk - Sunday, August 8th

So, this past weekend I went to the cottage my boyfriend’s family rents every summer for the last 22 summers. I suppose over these years the chipmunks up there have become borderline domesticated. They have no trouble walking right up to you and eating a peanut out of your hand, or off your shoulder, and they even let you hold and pet them! They’re pretty cute, but they know it and use it to their advantage, and get to gouge on peanuts that we happily feed them…over and over and over. By the end of the trip I wasn’t having any of it - they were climbing all over me while I was trying to read, crawling into my pockets looking for my peanut stash. Greedy!

After I came back from a leisurely canoe ride, one of the little buggers crawled right up to me and sat on my knee, giving me his chipmunk eyes, and so my boyfriend’s Oma (who is the chipmunks’ best friend) gave it a peanut. You can hear it crunching away. And then my boyfriend’s brother, “He’s a greedy little shit, isn’t he”. Indeed he was.

I must say, though, it was pretty cool to get so close to an otherwise timid animal. They were extremely adorable, and so soft! I have some pictures at home that I’ll include later this afternoon.

This is a pretty quiet recording, so you might want to turn the volume up a bit to hear everything.

Reblogged 1 year ago from soundsofmycity