". . . Bernie Krause records nature sounds for television and film. Let me try to explain it to you like this – "Dancing with Wolves", a great movie – it would lose its mystique if all of a sudden in the middle of the movie you'd hear a 747 buzzing overhead. So in order to get natural sound this guy takes his gear into the woods, and he records natural sound and then edits it into pure natural sounds. No airplanes, no cars, no gunshots, no bells, no whistles, just the sound of natural undefiled, and then he sells that to those who do films and movies. And it was really an intriguing article. He said in 1968 that in order to get one hour of undefiled natural sound, it took him 15 hours of recording. So, this guy goes into the woods and sits there for 15 hours and records, takes those 15 hours backs to his studio, and cuts, and pastes, and splices, to get one hour of pure, undefiled sound. Miserable job if you ask me. I mean he's literally listening to 15 hours of crickets and wind. I guarantee you he has a coffee problem, alright? I mean it. Now, in 1968, it took him 15 hours. This article was written in 2003, and in that year, he said to get that same one hour of undefiled sound, it took him 2000 hours of recording. Can you say "lonely"? "I'll be home next month baby." Two-thousand hours. Wading through 2000 hours of nature to get one. And I wish the article was longer because I don't fully understand the process. I mean, if you have your tape from 1968, why are you trying to make a new one since nature always sounds like nature. It sounds like a good consultant could save this guy a lot of trouble, right? I'd tell him, "Use the '68 tape man" but apparently they were going for the '03 version, and it took him 2000 hours of recording.
"The article was really about noise, about how much noise we're subjected to in our culture and in our day. And the article said that everyday, 183 million people are exposed to what the EPA (The Environmental Protection Agency) would deem as excessive or harmful. In fact, we just did it to you a few minutes ago with the music, didn't we? We just did it. Everyday, 183 million people are around noise levels that the EPA would call excessive if not dangerous. And so I started trying to think through, really how noisy life is. Let's just do this. How many of you have cell phones? Let's do it this way. How many of you are over the age of twelve and don't have a cell phone? Out of 2200 adults here, that brings the grand total of you to 11 who don't have cell phones. And the funny thing is that statistically that's the same number as those in the nursery. Even kids have cell phones today. It's amazing. Ok, so we all have cell phones. And the big question is – which one of yours will ring while I'm preaching? They always do. How many of you have emails addresses? Two email addresses? Anyone have that third one, just in case? Yeah! And we could keep going. How many of you have wireless internet on your computer? Of course you do! You have to check your email when you're driving since you have three accounts. When else are you going to check them? Right there in the car – you have to. MP3 players? Ipods? Ok, watch this one. How about televisions? Two televisions? Television in the bathroom? Come on! Don't defile the most sacred of hours. Give yourself a moment of peace! TIVO, get TIVO. I don't even get it. It's just weird to me. TV in the car for the kids? Yup. At work or while you're studying – music always going on in the background or the radio?" (Source: "Rhythm: Part 2", The Village Church, 10-09-2005, Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor)
In a recent discussion, I overheard someone suggest that they believed themselves to be audibly gluttonous, as they seemed to always have some source of sound on around them all the time (playing radio while driving car, iTunes at work, television at home). My question goes a little deeper: Are we all audibly gluttonous or are we just incredibly lonely?
I know that for me, l too drive with a radio or iPod playing, work while listening to either sermons or podcasts (again, via iPod) and drive home with the radio, and either playing the radio or listening to the television or watching forensic dramas (like CSI's) once I arrive home. When I get home, there is no one there to greet me. I have no wife or roommate, so most of the time, its just me, God, and my music or television. So, is that gluttony or just plain 'ole lonelness? Whatdayathink?
(Originally posted on www.myspace.com/jkirton2 on November 11, 2006)
