soundwalk

   I started my sound walk in a diner.  There is something really comforting about the orchestral music that is created by the combination of classic diner sounds.  My neighborhood is Bushwick and this diner is located right on the corner of Flushing Avenue, a high traffic four lane street.  Bushwick is still a neighborhood occupied by a lot of factories, so the sound of trucks is a constant back-drop sound during the day, and was quite loud even when inside the diner.  It made you feel like you were on a road trip somewhere in the middle of the country at a truck stop.  All diners tend to make me feel like I am a Thelma or Louise...far from my house but very much at home.  I realized the sounds that come out of a diner never seem to change no matter how many decades past.  I always feel like there is a mutual nostalgia being experienced by all of the patrons in a diner, or maybe it’s all in my head and just me feeling such a comfort amongst strangers.  The sounds that resonate the most are the sound of cutlery hitting the plate or the inside of a coffee mug, this sound is morning music to my ears. Then the sound of the register opening and closing and all the coins clanking inside.  The sound of the metal spatula scraping the eggs off the hot plate, and of course the different conversations being kept at a respectable volume.  What was interesting about being in this diner was a new sound that I had never acknowledged or recognized before, it was the constant thumping, the sound of cell phones hitting the table, being picked up and then hitting the table again.  This sound was a slice of the new generation, however no matter how progressive a place may be or feel, a diner is and will forever be a place frozen in time.