Noise.

 

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a podcast I had listened to and a link to it. I hope someone has had the chance to listen to it and enjoy it like I did. However, I must admit, in the days since I first listened to it, I have returned a number of times and listened again. Weirdly, it gets better every time I hear it, even though I know exactly what is coming. I would love some of you to take the time and spend 17 minutes somewhere to play it for yourself. But for those who don’t want to, aren’t interested or just don’t care about this type of thing I will explain what it's about, and why I like it so much. 

It will contain a spoiler, that means you cant ‘discover’ it as you would without knowing the secret. 

Imagine, the movie ‘Sixth Sense’. Everyone who has seen the movie wants so badly to tell those that haven’t,  the secret about Bruce Willis’ character. But if you do, you know you are spoiling the movie for anyone who doesn’t know the secret. That’s how I feel about this podcast episode. I really want to tell everyone, but I want more for people to hear it blind like I did and then have the big ‘wow’ moment when it becomes apparent what's happening.

If I have your attention now or you are just curious, I really urge you to stop reading this. Go somewhere where you are unlikely to get disturbed, take a friend if you like. But sit and listen to the podcast now. Then come back here and see if what you heard is what I heard. Hopefully, you will enjoy it as much as me.

Here's the link...

https://thememorypalace.us/the-silent-room/

This is your last chance.

I am going to explain what happens in the next few paragraphs.

This is REALLY your last chance now. Go listen to it, before its too late.

Stop reading this and GO LISTEN.

Are you still here?

Are you sure you want to know?

Ok, it's too late to turn back.

Here we go……

The Podcast is called The Memory Palace and the episode is called The silent room. You can find it wherever you find good podcasts and some crap ones too.

The Memory palace is made of up short, true stories about things that have happened in the past. Some important and other not so. Stories about people, places and things that may have been forgotten or just never thought about. Small, short, succinct stories that make you think, laugh, cry or just stop and wonder. It’s a great podcast.

The Episode ‘The Silent Room’, tells two stories – One about a John Cage, a composer and one about Puccini, who wrote operas. The John Cage story is quite well known – 

In the first part of the 1900’s, he visited a military establishment where a room had been built that was supposed to be completely silent. The room, about 50ft on all sides, was lined with the weirdly shaped cones that prevent echos and was therefore completely silent once someone was locked into it. 

John Cage, however, once inside, heard two noises – One high pitched and one low hum. He thought the room was not working somehow, but when he asked a technician about the noises, he was told he was listening to his own central nervous system (The high pitched sound) and his blood flowing through his veins – (The hum) This fascinated him as you would expect. So there was no such thing as silence. He decided to write a piece of music that showed this and called it 4.33. This music, he explained could be played by anyone, on any instrument at any time. Because this music was just 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. A famous piano player actually played it once, by sitting at a piano and opening and closing the piano lid a couple of times over the duration of the piece. Nothing more.

The 2nd story about Puccini, who I believe wrote Madam Butterfly among other operas explained how he was so famous on a visit to New York that the local newspapers reported on his every move. This included when he was introduced to the music of black Americans. He apparently loved it and his next opera, about the Wild West included the ‘Cakewalk’, taken from the music he had heard. The story goes on to explain about because the musicians he had listened to were of black origins, their names or history were never recorded and even though, one of the most famous people in the world had used their ideas and passion for music in an opera, no one would ever know who they were. We cannot recover their names and raise up their music because we can never hear that silent room.

The podcast then goes silent.

I was listening to this in the car and after a few seconds of silence, silence I looked at the display and realised the podcast was still playing. Then BOOM. I realised that they were playing 4.33. The silent music. Then everything changed. I heard a rattle that I had never noticed before. My sunvisor was quietly banging against the roof. I reached up to stop it and heard the shirt sleeve, move against my arm as I moved it. I swallowed and listened as my throat opened and closed and the spit from my mouth travelled downwards. 

My knee was touching the door, I heard it tap quietly against the door as I drove over small bumps in the road. The motor in the door whined as I pressed the button lightly to lower the window and the air rushing in at 80km an hour blew around my ears.

I realised that the sound of a big truck passing in the opposite direction has a high pitched noise compared to the smaller cars that followed it and thought its probably because the engine is larger and noisier than the cars, so I hear that before the tire noise. Cars are remarkably quiet and I sat driving my car, hearing the sound of the wind and the wheels hitting bumps drown out the low hum of my own engine.

I looked down at the display again and I had been listening to ‘silence’ for just over a minute, but it seemed like hours had passed.

Everything to do with my hearing was super sharp – somehow the podcast or the ‘silence’ had made me subconsciously super aware of sounds everywhere and it was magnificent. I loved it.

After 4 minutes and 33 seconds the music ended with a gentle jingle starting to signify the end of the episode. I had a huge smile on my face and felt like one of those born again Christians who had just talked to god for the first time……and got a reply.

I immediately turned the radio off and sat there driving, listening to the world around me.

A short while later, I looked at the clock and it was nearing the hour so I turned the radio on to listen to the news. The radio blared out really loudly and I remembered that at the start of the podcast I had had to turn the volume up just to hear it. It had been recorded very quietly and I think that was done on purpose. Somehow, the turning up of the volume knob had made the silence louder. The sounds that I heard when the silence was playing, was LOUDER, than if I had left it low. Or am I just going crazy?

That was my first listen to the podcast but not my last. I have listened to it 3 or 4 times since and it's still great. I wait with anticipation for the story to get to its conclusion and for the silence to begin. It's truly amazing.

Since I first heard it, I am able to sit and just watch and listen to the world in a different way. I notice, not only sounds I never listened to before, but I am looking at things differently too. The shimmering sun, reflecting off the lake took up a good hour of the 3 hours I sat, no phone, no book, so other people, just watching and listening. I listened to the boats passing on the lake and can clearly hear the distinction between the engine and the waves hitting the boat. 

I'm at the cabin and I sit here now hearing the tap of my fingers on the keyboard, the quite peaceful jangle of windchimes, the leaves blowing the trees outside, someone downstairs moving things around under the cabin, a boat in the distance. A hummingbird feeding just outside the window. My own shallow breathing. The gentle tap of the paddles on the wall behind me as they move slightly in the breeze. I will be brutally honest – I wasn’t unhappy with life before I heard this podcast and discovered silence, but since I heard it, things seem different. When I get pissed off or tired, all it seems to take is a few seconds to stop and listen, or to look at something I have seen a thousand times and see something new or different about it. It feels like I am discovering a new world that has always been there. 

It sounds like utter bollocks, I know. But I feel great. My mind seems altered, clearer and fresh.

Now I don’t expect anyone else to have the same kind of revelation as me, but I hope you enjoyed the podcast if you listened to it. All the other episodes I have heard have also been great so if you like podcasts, give it a try.

Now I think its time for me to just sit for a minute. To sit, listen and relax.

Have a great day! 

There you go - That was and is my podcast story. I hope I didn't spoil the experience for you  - If anyone did actually listen to it, I would love to hear what you thought.

Back in normal life, the summer is coming to an end. The usual things are happening - Buffy is still pregnant for now. Hannah is growing so fast it unbelievable - She learns multiple things every day and in the evenings seems like a different person than she was when she woke in the morning. New words coming from her mouth. Full sentences and conversations are possible. She understands the concepts of now, later and tomorrow and completely rules the house. I can't wait for her to have her little brother or sister to play with. 

Heres a few highlights from her last few weeks...

   

Lastly - have you ever been to a dentist and wondered what happens to your spit when it gets sucked out of your mouth during a procedure?

Well, I often work in dentists putting in new phones and last week working in a basement where the spit sucking machines are located. It's not pleasant..... I had a headache all data after working there!

September is here and that means its 10 years since this blog started with my 18 month epic journey around the little planet we all stand on while it hurtles around space. A lot has changed in that 10 years, but I am still here, bad back, bad shoulder, bad knee, bad wrist, still talking bollocks and typing badly and I will still be here in a week or two talking more. Ill see you then!!