uncommon ambience thereelray

Uncommon Ambience: At the Movies; Field of Dreams (1989) ambience — Field of Dreams fits in well with the other weird baseball fantasies we love. Casey at the Bat, the figment of Doubleday field, and the wonderfully strange the Natural. The book version has zero redemption by way of smashed outfield lights. Just a baseball Superman shackled by fate, circumstance, and stupidity. Only, Roy Hobbs strikes out. And then he punches a dude.



Field of Dreams is baseball magic and forced Americana (hot dogs, small-town book banning, farming, failed finance) — what's not to love? Aside from the most grating-ass whisper in all of cinema. 



The movie wants to be great. 



It is occasionally silly, as when Ray asks Terence what he wants. Forcing Terence into his own mind to search for an answer amongst his pain and dead civil rights leaders. "…I want my privacy." 



The film then cuts to the two standing before a concession stand. Ray wants to know Terence's snack order. "Oh, a dog and a beer," says Terence, bemused. 



It's a cute scene, but also, rimshot. The joke is on us future people, where the "seven bucks" in the movie is the total for two orders of "a dog and a beer." 



Whatever — Ray and Terence sit in the stands and watch a pedestrian putout — and then Ray starts hearing the annoying whisper; "Go the distance." Ray freezes, and the scoreboard chyron starts flickering. Fortunately, Ray was bored enough with the game to keep score in his program. So his pencil was ready to write down a name from the haywire Jumbotron; "Moonlight Graham."



Did the ghost force an illusion or hack the Jumbotron?



Who cares... we need to ignore the movie's narrative from here on out. This podcast episode focuses on the uninspiring game at Fenway, not the fever dream that follows. 



We'll let Ray and Terence leave early in search of Moonlight Graham. Who astral projects his younger self on a highway with his thumb outstretched to hitch a ride. Weird stuff.



In this podcast, we will chill, at this boring baseball game where the Red Sox host the Oakland Athletics. 



PS: While I feel baseball has been fantasized and weirded out in American fiction better than any other sport — I would suggest checking out Vanilla Dunk, a short story by Jonathan Lethem. It is exciting and so weird.

Birds and backyard ambience — as spring descends upon the Piedmont, so do the birds. And they were chatty this morning, so I stuck my microphone out the window.



That's about all there is to say — Oh, stay away from Jimmy Connors tennis on the Atari Lynx. I found it cheap on eBay and decided what the heck.



Watching Jimmy Connors in the early 90s at the US Open was fun. I thought that maybe his namesake handheld lynx game might that all over the tennis court rackets blazing fun? It doesn't.



In the game, it is impossible to serve the ball, and when you return a serve, the computer effortlessly lobs it back. A blinking yellow square tells you where you need to position your player to return, so you run to it. There's like a second delay from button press to avatar swing, and you miss.



Jimmy Connors was Mr. Volley. The game is death volley. Ooph — look the only reason to buy Jimmy Connors Tennis is to hear the voice of Jimmy Connors and crude lip movements as the legend welcomes you to the hardest ****** tennis game of all time.

Uncommon Ambience: At the Movies—Blade Runner outdoor noodle establishment ambience. Eight hours of sound inspired by the scene where Rick Deckard gets something to eat before being "arrested" by Gaff.



The Ritz at the Bourse, my favorite movie theater in Philadelphia, showed a rerelease of the 1982 film while my fiancé was in town. This was about 14 years ago—and it was either the Final Final Cut or the Pre-Final Cut before the Final Final Cut. I'm not sure. Either way, there were scenes I had never seen before, and I was excited to bring my future Mrs to share my love of Blade Runner in the subterranean movie theater I also loved. 



"It was boring," she remarked after the film, "how is 'run' in the title when no one in the movie runs anywhere?"



What the hell does she know. 

Uncommon Ambience: At the Movies—Vintage newsroom ambience. 

 

I've worked in large newsrooms, though none had operating typewriters. There were relics in our office, all of which were reduced to desk tchotchkes. The owners wanted to remind us that they wielded them for producing news, not like us fancy laptop people with quiet plastic keys. 

 

Anyway, this movie-flavored ambience episode reproduces⁠ the newsroom scene⁠ where both Woodward (played by Robert Redford) and Bernstein (played by Dustin Hoffman) declare that they "don't want to fight" while smoking a lot of cigarettes.

 

In my news days, I had a bunch of obscure anime figures decorating my desk. And I wasn't allowed to smoke.

Uncommon Ambience: At the Movies, we are adding a new type of ambience this week. Themed ambience, based on the ⁠opening scenes of the 1983 film Wargames⁠. 

 

This is a recreation of the hours preceding the Snyder and Phelps shift that ended quickly with a gun over a key-turn. I watched the film on the Home Box Office in 1984 (40 years ago) — and holy ****, the open still messes with me.

 

But not to worry there isn't angst in this episode. This is the Tucker/ Bevan shift, and Bevan is a "prince."

Bowling Ambience — This was recorded near the ball return of the dark lane on a decently attended Wednesday.



And I don't know about you, but I keep getting fed bowling memes on social media. There is always some dude staring in a direction, then a bowling mishap plays, the dude reacts in a banal sorta' way before looking to a new place, and then we get a new ****** bowling mishap. This **** has been done—feed me more videos of bulldogs screaming.



In any case... We're in the bowling alley today, way over on the dark side, where a lone light blinks. The bowling ghosts hide here.