uncommon ambience thereelray

Belize Zoo/ Birds ambience — Strap in for 30 minutes of chattering Central American Parrots et al.



This recording is from the heart of the Belize Zoo near the parrots. It was captured by my biologist sister, Dr. April Blakeslee, an instructor for Miami University’s Project Dragonfly, which works with the Belize Zoo. The program promotes “environmental stewardship” while working “across diverse ecological and social settings.”  

Vehicle interior thunderstorm ambience. Oh, look, another minisode! And in today’s minisode, we idle in a parking lot, waiting out a passing thunderstorm.



There are a lot of good reasons for letting a storm pass. 



Man, one year, my commute, which usually took 30-45 minutes, took eight ****** hours. I was stupidly piloting my Smart car through an epic 2-inch-an-hour snowfall. You may have heard of the storm Carmaggedon [air horn].  



I joined everyone else on the highway who didn’t wait out the snow, and it became the biggest, iciest traffic jam of my life. At one point, nature forced me out onto the traffic-snarled highway; I had to go. And as I went, lighting flashed and then rumbles of thunder.



I was geeked. I had always heard of thunder-snow but had never actually seen it. It was quite something.



So, it is always better to wait out a storm — well, unless you’re Noah. If that dude waited the storm out he could've drowned.



And then for all-time we may have known the parable as “Japheth’s Ark.” And if you say that too quickly, it might come across as “Jeff’s fart.” 

Enjoy a contented cat, a clock, and a cacophony of weather.  A storm is coming, and the wind is already kicking up outside, but Tuna Fry (the cat) doesn’t care; she has the house to herself, which means joy and slumber.

You will hear heavy to moderate rain on a metal roof in a tropical dry forest. At first, it will sound like a waterfall, but it quickly tapers off to less rain and more local birds—and a chicken! I recognized one bird!



So, yesterday, I got a text message from my brother-in-law. He recorded some rain in Belize and sent a picture of a table surrounded by screened walls under a metal roof. Did I want that audio?



“You bet your sweet Asperecreme,” I said.



I didn’t say that, but that was my general feeling about having audio of a rainstorm in a country nearer to the Equator than I have ever been. Thank you for capturing and sharing the audio, Mike!



I know I just released a long episode yesterday and should wait to post (for my own sake), but honestly, I would like to get this out before Beryl. This is a perfectly normal Belizean heavy rain storm that isn’t related to Beryl. Also, my thoughts are with everyone in the path of that storm.



This strikes me as a minisode. People do that in the podcast world, right?

Discovery One Interior ambience — hey, we're back at the movies and inside everyone's favorite Jupiter-bound phallus rocket.



This episode is mainly based on a composite of the internal Discovery-1 scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is primarily based on the circuit tests (about an hour and thirteen minutes) with some orchestra elements.



Hal’s not in this ambience, by the way. That bot creeps me out.



My parents forced me to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey on the Home Box Office in the 1980s. I know how much everyone loves the Space Odyssey, but I was utterly coerced. “It’s in space, like Star Wars.”



“Is it actually like Star Wars?” My parents played that same “it’s like Star Wars” sh!t with John Carpenter’s the Thing, and I had spider-head nightmares for years.

Midnight harbor and light rain ambience. Spend an early morning in a Martha's Vineyard harbor. Recorded near the sands of a beach motel — you will get a mix of nature and machine noise (ACs, exhaust, maritime, etc).



Speaking of sand... Was Mort Garson talking about getting drug-high in "Big Sur"? His trippy 1968 musical number where he addresses a Mrs. Sanberg throughout about a song he learned "while high on Big Sur."



And yes, I am for sure thick but I can still spot an ode to drugs.



Look, I know that getting high has been a human aspiration forever. Early humans didn't have smartphones. I imagine staring at a tree rather than watching Netflix could be boring. "The same thing is on the sky today... what's on rock? Pass the opium."



There was probably a lot of early PTSD as well — what with unconquered nature. Of course, our early ancestors self-medicated.



So I'm sure Garson is referring to getting drug high on Big Sur. Yet, for argument's sake, Garson could be talking elevation. The cliffs of Big Sur are just under a mile high. And for an East Coaster/ Appalachian fanboy, that is pretty high.



Maybe there was a vagabond with a guitar and a campfire perching the cliffs of Big Sur. "I will now teach you a song. Tell Mrs. Sanberg."



By the way, was Mrs. Sandberg on Big Sur as well? Did the conversation about the learned song happen just after Garson learned the song?



Did Garson pick up trash and discover it was balled-up sheet music? "Holy crap a song. I am going to learn this song. And then I am going to teach it to Mrs. Sanberg."



And who the hell is Mrs. Sanberg?