I have a longstanding tradition of recording a sampling of the soundscape each year on Independence Day. It originated years ago when I was recording all the time with a little handheld recorder. For years my dad ran a fireworks stand and I often helped out. Recording the sounds of all the whizz BANGS! Snaps! & Shreeee-POPs! seemed like a natural fit for my phonological hobby. As for what has happened to all those recordings I do not know. They are spread over various mediums – cassette, minidisk, dv tape (who knows, maybe even an 8track). Perhaps this post will help motivate me to log some old recordings and post them for the world. Perhaps…
Anyway, this recording is very different form the rest. As has often been the case in recent years I didn’t remember my annual recording until the last minute. So late last Saturday night I grabbed my little MicroTrack 24/96 and walked down the street (current domestic activities keep me from straying far from home). There were only a few fireworks going off in our quiet little neighborhood. In the distance could be heard the big display(s) from closer into town. The keynote sound though, quite surprising in a desert, were these unbelievably loud frogs. We are in the monsoon season and had indeed received some heavy rains recently. I hadn’t noticed but the rains had collected in a small drainage area at the end of the block. As I got closer and closer to the small pond (pool really) the sounds of the frogs grew deafening. Every once in a while some firecrackers could be heard or else a larger mortar would explode and illuminate the sky above me. The frogs seemed hardly bothered, although they’re syncopation did alter a bit after each one. As I stood there listening I noticed how much louder and more relevent the frogs sounds were compared to all the incendiary hoopla of the fourth of july celebrations.
The most curious thing though is that these frogs exist at all. I’m told they can live underground for long periods of time (as long as 7 months). before coming up when they sense a rain storm. Amazing. This also reminded me of another fortean phenomena related to frogs that I had read about in an old issue of Fortean Times Magazine. I’m referring to quarymen who had found live frogs inside of rocks they had just broken open. Frogs falling from the skies and now coming up from the earth. What next?
Recording of July 4th, 2009 in Santa Fe, NM
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