Water Moving Small Sheets of Ice at Bradford Beach.

The long stretch of Lincoln Memorial Drive between Water Tower Road and Kenwood Blvd. has no left turns, so instead of sticking to the sidewalk, I decided to walk along the shoreline. The water had formed large outcroppings of ice along the entire beach. At the south end of the beach, a particularly large outcropping had formed a small cove where thin sheets of perfectly clear ice had formed and broken into innumerable small pieces that bumped into one another with the light waves.

For this recording, the mics were hanging about a foot above the water against the ice and were about a foot apart.

Click here for the clip.

Six Kids Sledding at Water Tower Hill

As I walked through the neighborhood that comprises the area east of Brady and south of North avenue, there wasn't a lot to record besides traffic noise on a Saturday afternoon. I actually spotted the sledders before I heard them, as I was coming up to Water Tower Road, the next right of my algorithm.

One of the sledders was attempting to stand on the little plastic sled he was using to go down the hill. The, "no!" in the recording is him falling off his sled, and the sled snapping in half.

I stood at the bottom of the hill, the sledders were passing by about ten feet in front of me.

Click here for the clip.

Birds In a Bush on Prospect Avenue

Once I had restarted my algorithm, ignoring the bike path, the first thing that caught my attention was a large number of birds inside a bush. I couldn't see them, but they made quite a bit of noise as they were all singing at once.

I stood facing the bush, approximately five to ten feet away from it.

Click here for the clip.

Flight For Life Helicopter Over McKinley Marina

As I was walking back to Brady and Prospect, a very low flying helicopter passed by. It was maybe 75 feet off the ground and about 50 feet away from me. It was heading North over the marina.

I was standing facing west parallel to the helicopter as it passed.

Click here for the clip.

Milwaukee County Sailing Club Dry Dock

If you follow the streets, technically the first right after Brady on Prospect is Kane. However, realistically, the first right is the bike path that leads down to the Brady St. footbridge. I walked down this way first. However, due to the lure of the lake, I gave up on my algorithm for a little while and walked around McKinley Marina. I ended up at the Milwaukee County Sailing Club.

All of the boats at the Milwaukee County Sailing Club are currently in dry dock. The light wind was ringing all the mast bells.

In this case the mics were clipped to the top of the chain link fence that marks the boarder of the MCSC. They were about six inches apart.

Click here for the clip.

Drift Strategy for 2-16-08

I chose the intersection of Brady and Prospect as my starting point for this drift. My intention was to walk algorithmically through the city. My algorithm was as follows; 1st Right, 2nd Left, 1st Right.

I used a set of handmade microphones, and for most of these recordings they were clipped to the shoulders of my coat. This gave me a very nice stereo field, and created very realistically spaced soundscapes.





Click on the map for an interactive Googlemap of my drift.