This Sunday was the African-American day parade so sounds were in abundance. I chose to walk around Harlem; I started at 135th and Lenox Avenue (Malcolm X Blvd), and walked to 113th and 7th Avenue and back to 135th and 5th Avenue. I noticed cars, trucks, and bus engines, as well as the sound of children screaming, and Females heels clinking while they walk down the cement block. As weird as it may be in 2011 I heard a house phone ring and it sounded like the generic "brrriinngg-brrriinng"; I heard this while hearing a front door to a brownstone open- it screeched. In the distant, I could hear marching bands drums beating and symbols chiming, and static music that seemed to be protruding out of an old speaker. In my immediate sound path an older gentlemen was soliciting gold for cash. Walking down Lenox Avenue I heard the usual car horns honking and sirens of all kinds e.g. police, firefighter, and ambulance.
As I approached 125th street there was a mixture of West Indian, Caribbean, African, and Jamaican music they were all on the corner so it was hard to enjoy any of them because of their close proximity and extreme volume. 7th Avenue was closed for the parade so there was a traffic jam going up and down Lenox Ave which consisted of many sounds: brakes that needed to be changed, exhaust pipes dragging, people yelling outside of the windows, a variety of music from every car, and everybody's favorite: crying/screaming babies. In the babies defense the ice cream truck drove by and the song was playing (I even got excited- it's the kid in me) however, because of the traffic jam the car could not pull over- which elevated the babies vocal cords.
I decided to walk towards 7th Avenue to get a glimpse of the parade and in route I heard a police radio with the dispatcher stating, "What is the address?" I heard many excerpts of peoples’ conversation many were laughing or asking the person on the other end of the phone to speak up; I gathered that assumption from the constant "huh's" I heard. I saw many birds fly by and I thought I would be able to hear their wings flap but I did not. However, I did hear baby birds chirping. During my walk I only heard four different languages- Spanish, French, Arabic, and some mixture of English and the Jamaican language. I heard the wind constantly because it was very windy. Other sounds I heard: keys moving, glasses touching at a restaurant, the chain on a bike, feet stomping, pom pom shaking, whistles blowing, and the hooves of horses. Amongst all the other sounds were the constant "aye yo miss" from guys. The cutest attempt for my attention I received today were from three boys ranging from 7-11; they stopped right in front of me and sang the chorus from Chris Browns song "YO". That was the perfect ending for my sound walk. :-)
