Some of you may have noticed that my bloggage updatingness has been rather absent / out to lunch / postponed cos I got stuck under something heavy on the sparse-ish side for the last bunch of months.

Sorry about that.

I’ve been occupied with life stuff and haven’t been able to blog. So this is just a friendly advisory to say Hello readership homies! I’m still here! wave and to tell you that your regularly scheduled blogfestingness will resume just as soon as I can, y’know, resume it.

So please hold whilst I sharpen my pencil / stay tuned stand by, and thank you for tuning in / eyeballing my pixels reading. I totally appreciate your continuing audientship!

Troofax. :)

To coin a worn out overused I mean classic catchphrase …

Nature was noisy.   We had wind, lots and lots of wind.   We also had rain, thunder, and birds getting into some serious competitive oratorio.

We also had helicopters.   Oy, did we have helicopters.

In March there was a shooting incident at the monthly Smithfield Horse Market, and helicopters have been hovering around here since then.

In May the helicopters escalated their hoverage.

Now, I strictly avoid all mass media for the simple reason that The News is  waaaayyyy  too depressing.   If something important happens and I don’t stumble across it myself, somebody else will usually mention it to me.

On this occasion the traffic noise, sirens, roadblocks and helicopter escalation all reminded me over and over and over again that Queen Elizabeth II and Barack Obama were both visiting.   And these visiting dignitaries supplemented our local noise by bringing their own noisy security arrangements.

These included more helicopters.   Oy, the helicopters.

So all of May was pretty noisy in general, but from Sunday 15 to Tuesday 24 May, what with all the security, traffic diversions, helicopter hoverage and sirens everywhere, Dublin was not only especially bonus extra noisy, but it was also a fucking pain in the hole to get around.  

If there were such a thing as a sound museum, May 2011 in Dublin and especially the week of 17 – 24 May would definitely qualify as an epic noise exhibit.  

Here is some representative audio I recorded  as evidence to support my bitching about the noise  to remember these moments for all posterity.

All media in this post is work safe.   :)
 

Media Sharefest

At the beginning of March this year there was a shooting and other violence at the nearby monthly Smithfield Horse Market.   I often go there to record equine sounds, but I happened to miss this one, thankfully.   A year ago on 7 March I was there on an equine foley gathering expedition, and kvetch filmed me.  

The film is 09:57 long.
 

 
So that’s the kind of noise we get from Smithfield Horse Market once a month.
 

Oy, The Helicopters

The helicopters hanging out after this year’s March fair were kicking up a hell of a racket, and during the past two months I got a lot of helicopter foley.   When it escalated in May I got lots more.  

Nonstop noisy shit day  and  night really gets to me after awhile.   I don’t know about you but I find those kind of noise levels really demoralising.

Here’s a representative sample including sirens, which I recorded at 15:14 on 17 May.   This audio clip is 2:20 long, and there’s bucketloads more where that came from, let me tell you.
 

Blackbirds

Early on the Monday morning of 09 May, the wind had died down, the helicopters and sirens were taking a break, and both road and air traffic were exceptionally calm.

It seemed like the noise was easing off.
 
OR WAS IT.
 
Well, it  would  have been easing off  -  except there were these birds, you see.

I guess they were excited to be able to sing without the usual competition from the National Helicopter Choir.

Here is some fairly spectacular audio I captured at 05:03 on 09 May of blackbirds yammering their heads off.   This audio clip is 01:13 long.
 

Note:   Pictures are from 27 May.   The birds were in full voice then too, but the audio from 09 May was way better.   And I didn’t take pictures that morning, so mix and match.   :)

Rain and Thunder

May also had lots of wind, rain and some thunder.   Here’s some audio I captured of it on the afternoon of Friday 13 May.   I had the record levels quite low because the thunder peaks easily, but even so you can still hear the ever prevalent helicopter whining away in the distance.   This audio clip is 01:03 long.
 

Cat Audio

When I record stuff my cat often has a tendency to want to jump right in and get some extemporised vocals included in my recordings.   She has a talent for inevitably and unerringly jumping in during the very best-sounding bits, especially when I’m trying to get something really specific and random like a weather event, such as thunder or rain or something.  

Kitty vocal contributions usually mean I’ll have to wait ages for another chance to record something equivalent.   Which also means that kitty vocal contributions stop being cute real fast when she jumps into hard-to-get audio moments I was waiting ages to get and which are only usable  without  kitty participation.  

MOMMEE U R SO MEEN 2 ME.

Nooooooooo,  crisis!!  

Well, you know cats.   If a door is closed, that represents a major,  major  tragedy which must be addressed  at once.   Obviously.

So here are some examples of kitty audio contributions I recorded this month.   Note how she has jumped in during the most interesting-sounding moments.

On 13 May whilst I was recording the thunder, kitty chimed in during what would have been an exceptionally good rumble.   This audio clip is 00:16 long.
 

Queen of the Duvet reclaiming her throne.

Trains

iPod Nano 5G, approximate actual size. The 6G has no camera.

Take special note of the trees and their vigorous interpretive wind dance.   That angsty limb flingage is representative of how windy it’s been all month.  

The audio quality in these conditions is is a testament to the effectiveness of my homemade magic foam windscreen, it shielded the mic from wind noise excellently!  

The Nano’s video-mic turned out to be terribly susceptible to wind noise, and the audio from it was unusable.   This film is 03:38 long.
 

Thank you for listening.   :)

ps:   The helicopters are still whining around here.
 

Geeky Technicalness

This is the stuff what I used to capture the audio and video with.

Sony DCR-HC90E

1. Smithfield Horse Market  -  09:57 of horses clomping at 09:00 on Sunday 07 March 2010  -  Sony ECM-HQP1 surround condenser microphone with included grey fluffball mounted on the hot shoe of a Sony DCR-HC90E MiniDV video camera.
2. Helicopter  -  02:20 of doing my head in at 15:14 on Tuesday 17 May 2011  -  Audio Technica AT-8010 omnidirectional condenser microphone with foam windscreen and homemade purple fluffball mounted on boom mic stand poking out my bedroom window


AT-8010

3. Blackbirds  -  01:13 of competitively singing their heads off at 05:03 on Monday 09 May 2011  -  Audio Technica AT-8010 omnidirectional condenser microphone with foam windscreen and homemade purple fluffball mounted on boom mic stand poking out my bedroom window
4. Rain and thunder  -  01:03 of splattering on my balcony at 16:13 and 16:58 on Friday 13 May 2011  -  Audio Technica AT-8010 omnidirectional condenser microphone with foam windscreen and homemade purple fluffball, wrapped in magic foam resting on the floor pressed between sliding door and door frame  
     -  (I cheated a little by mixing loud thunder from 16:13 with rain and quieter thunder from 16:58 to make the audio sound more like my ears heard it – and to accommodate the cat bitching audio issues)

 




AT-899 & AT-8537

5. Thunder with cat  -  00:16 of weather and bitching at 16:13 on Friday 13 May 2011  -  Audio Technica AT-8010 omnidirectional condenser microphone with foam windscreen and homemade purple fluffball, wrapped in magic foam resting on the floor pressed between sliding door and door frame
   

6. Rain drumming and cat  -  00:55 of raining and bitching at 21:40 on Saturday 07 May 2011  -  Audio Technica AT-8010 omnidirectional condenser microphone mounted close to the ceiling on boom mic stand perched on top of a chair

 




AT-899 with magic foam windscreen clip mounted on gear bag

7. Cat bitching  -  00:23 of kitty bitching  (again)  at 18:18 on Monday 23 May 2011  -  Stereo pair of omnidirectional condenser microphones built in to the Zoom H4n resting on a piece of magic foam
8. Train  -  03:58 of whooshy clacking at 15:31 on Wednesday 18 May 2011  -  Audio Technica AT-899 omindirectional lavalier condenser microphone with AT-8537 power module and homemade magic foam windscreen, clip-mounted on gear bag

Samson Zoom H4n

Smithfield Horse Market video footage shot with Sony DCR-HC90E MiniDV video camera, audio captured on DV tape, recorded with Sony ECM-HQP1 surround condenser microphone with included grey fluffball mounted on the camera’s hot shoe

iPod Nano 5G camera & mic

My original intention was to get some tree leaves rustling, and the wind conditions were absolutely perfect!   As soon as I looked out the window I could see trees swaying gently in a breeze with gusts strong enough to make a good sound.   So I grabbed my gear and went out to see what I could get.

I left kvetch snoring away quietly to himself, all comfy-like under the duvet.   :)

As so often happens with audio recording, my original intentions and the ultimate result ended up a bit of a mismatch.   But sometimes original intentions gone kablooey can come with the wonderful and unexpected.   :)
 

The Good News  -  Recording-leaves-rustling wind conditions were perfect!
The Bad News  -  Yammering birds made tree leaves effort a bit of a bust.  
The Other Good News  -  At 05:48 a bird happily perched in my tree for a short while and serenaded me until some seagulls chased it away.

 
The audio is 1 minute 41 seconds long, and is perfectly work safe.   Enjoy!

Audio Geekery

• Date, Time, Place  -  Saturday 23 April 2011, 05:48, central Dublin
• Microphone  -  Audio-Technica AT8010 omnidirectional condenser
• Windscreen  -  Included foam and homemade purple fluffball
• Mount  -  Boom mic stand at tallest setting on picnic table under small tree
• Recording device  -  Zoom H4n

 
For geeky information about some of my more general recording techniques, the audio geeks amongst you can geek out on my Audio Field Recording Guide.
 

It’s hard for me to believe I’ve even been blogging for that long, but aside from a few minor tweaky updates for the new theme last year, I notice that I’ve had the same header image for three and a half years.  

Gosh.

So if you hadn’t already guessed, I’m about to change my default header image!   Tah daaaah!
 

(I just suck at keeping secrets long enough for suspense purposes)

 
I’ve made a new one which I think is much better, and I hope you like it too.   Now, you might be feeling just a smidge confused, because you might be looking up at my header right now and thinking  ‘Hey, that looks just like the old one!   What’s up with that?   Is my browser broken?’

No no, you can relax, you’re browser is just fine.   See, I found this nifty feature in this new theme, and it allows me to set a specific header image for a particular post or page and still have the default header image everywhere else on my blog.   Which I think is just coolio.   :)

So for the first time on this blog I’m using that feature in this post.   I’ve got my long-standing header set as the featured image, and that way you can come back to it and check it out next to the new one.  

Compare, contrast, discuss.   :p
 

Just A Bit More

If you’re interested, you can carry on to the next page for a brief history of the header images and themes on this blog.  
 

General Recipe Stuff

Preparation time  -  Approximately 25 minutes
Serves  -  1 very hungry adult, or 2 as a goodly-sized snack
 

Ingredients

Method

1. Boil pasta shapes until cooked  (I find this usually takes 15-20 minutes)
2. Whilst the pasta is cooking, open and drain the tuna, empty into a large bowl and mush with a fork until it’s in tiny bits
3. Dice the gherkin and pepper and add to the bowl
4. Add a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise  -  enough to cover tuna, diced pickle and pepper, and future pasta addingness
5. Mix well til everything’s all gloopy
6. If using, add a gludge of ketchup, a goodly slosh or two of Worcestershire sauce, and a dash or three of Tabasco sauce to taste
7. Mix til well blended  (I like just enough ketchup to make the mayonnaise ever-so-slightly pink, about a rounded teaspoon’s worth)
8. When the pasta is done, drain and rinse well with cold water until cool
9. Add to the bowl and mix well  (if you’ve been having a bad day, a vigorous stirfest can feel cathartic at this point)
10. Add more mayonnaise if needed and stir some more til desired gloop quotient is reached
11. Eat!   :)

Creative Variativeness

Fennel (sort of anise-tasting celery)

• Fennel
• Celery
• Parsnip
• Sliced stoned olives  (black and green are both equally good)
• Fresh or roasted peppers of any colour


Daikon (a sort of mild radish)

• Jalapeño peppers  (pickled or not)
• Blanched broccoli, carrots
• Tinned or cooked-from-frozen sweetcorn
• Tinned or cooked-from-frozen peas
• Bits of cooked bacon  (I prefer the smoky kind but unsmoked is good too – cheap ends of cooking bacon are perfect for this)
• Thinly shredded daikon or radishes

This recipe is extremely versatile and can easily be modified anywhere from slightly to radically according to preference.   The ingredients are cheap enough to experiment with, so feel free to try stuff out and be creative!
 

Pretty Picturefest

Good morning, Dublin.   :)
 

 

The Weather Report 
for Tuesday, 15 February, 2011.

Since kvetch wasn’t drinking, I had two.   Yummy!   :)

Later that day some of my pixel pals on FetLife and I have been discussing whether it’s possible to be our own primary partner.   My contribution was to tell them about this as a support for the super sekrit affair I was having with myself on the side.

So I had a drink with myself right in front of kvetch and he never suspected a thing.   :p

I commemorated the moment by photographing my pretty Mojitos.   You can see kvetch in the back on the right with the zip flap of his jacket showing up as a vertical yellow stripe.   I know you can’t possibly experience the same slurpfest I did just by looking at them, but hey, it’s a pretty picture.   :p

And here they are!   Enjoy.   :)