Last week of August - Mornings

I observed the sunrise near my house every morning this week. These are simple quiet mornings.

8/24 AM

A walk around the foggy yard in my pajamas.

8/25 AM
Looking left, straight back and to the right- this is the view from my back porch in the early morning fog.

8/26 AM
Norman and I walked up to the corner to have a look at the sunrise and the streetcar stop. No big doings at this hour. Except for the moon.

8/27 AM
Clear skies and warm days are coming to the San Francisco Bay area. This is my favorite time of year here.

8/30 AM
Back to the foggy summer mornings (audio). Until it’s really cooled down in the Sacramento Valley, we will have these foggy days in San Francisco. In a few weeks, the temperatures inland and on the coast will be much more similar and the conditions that create this cold, dreary summer fog will cease to exist. I can’t wait.

8/31 AM
Red umbrella. Clear morning. Still. And still no crows. As much as I dislike the crows because of their possible involvement in the disappearance of the songbirds, it’s very sad to think that some of them are mourning the killing of that little newborn crow. On the other hand, all of a sudden there are many more new birds singing (audio) this morning. Pretty new songs.

Hawking Bells

8/28 PM
Before the concert began, I was outside on the sidewalk ringing some bells and announcing the sunset. All the while, I was offering and trying to give away the little bells. I felt like I was hawking bells. It’s a tough crowd out there. Most people cannot hear or see. They already know what’s going on or they just don’t want to know. I realize this part of town is a big and constant hustle and that panhandlers are everywhere. However, this situation is not just on this spot, on this block. This turning away from strangers on the street is common in America. It has been my experience with the big bell, with the piano and with this public sun watching. I think this is a good spot- here on Market at 6th Street, and that I would like to return here one or two nights a week for a while and see what happens.

I didn't realize how much I was truly hawking bells until I played back the video from the evening of 8/28. "They're free!" I had been so excited to have found a way to engage with people and to get them to stop for an instant that I had momentarily lost my mind. I am so easily distracted and forget why and what I am doing at those moments. I will try harder to concentrate on observing the moment of the sunrise and sunset and pay less attention to trying to get others to join me. See how that works for a change.

ABOUT THE GALLERY AND PERFORMANCES:
Thea Farhadian, Katrina Wreede and Iron Dog performed at the Luggage Store this evening. It’s a very noisy space, especially when the audience faces the street. But it worked this evening. Sometimes you couldn’t tell what was happening outside and what was being performed, and the experience was really lovely.

The artwork in the gallery is by Ana Teresa Fernandez

End of August - Evenings

8/24 PM
We brought my friend Barbara who was visiting from Barcelona down to the beach to see the sunset. Once there, we inevitably encountered others who were there to do the same. They gladly took some of the little bells and joined us. After a few minutes, the woman from the tie-dye bus came over as well. She and her living companions have been parked in this same parking lot since we met them last winter. At that time, they planned to continue to move up or down the coast for the summer (I can’t remember which direction). However, the price of gas might have had something to do with their continuing presence here at Ocean Beach. It’s nice to see them, and they are very familiar with the bell ringing tradition by now.

8/25 PM
The never-to-ripen peaches are falling on the ground. We’ve brought many of them into the house and put them in paper bags. Then we keep them until they get moldy so we can throw them in the compost. Does anyone have a recipe for hard, yellow unripe peaches? They smell really good.

8/26 PM
Just a few minutes into our Tuesday night sitting, I crept outside and quietly rang the bells in the Church garden. The weather is beginning to turn warm enough these days so that people leave their windows open into the evening. I hope they enjoyed the little sunset serenade.

8/27 PM
Just as we were running out the door to go to the corner for the sunset, our neighbor Jerry came home and he joined us. It was so windy out on the street that I set up the microphone near the house and we stood by the curb to ring. We rang long enough (audio) for a plane to pass by and then I started to pack up. Jerry liked my microphone and wanted to borrow it. He swore he would bring it back after work tomorrow.

8/29 PM
The sun set just before dinner. Marlita rang the gong my sister had given me. I have been ringing this gong all week for my friend Warren Burt who nearly died in a New York hospital this week. He had suddenly begun to fail and no one knew what was wrong with him until very recently. Without going into personal details, it has been suggested that he has been experiencing complications from West Nile Virus. His hospital bills have hit an astronomical amount of money, and now that Warren is in stable condition, he is being flown back to his home in Australia for further care. Since Warren is especially fond of gongs, I have been playing this gong several times a day and will continue to do so until he is on the mend. Anyone else who has a gong to ring, please do.

8/30 PM
Happy Birthday Judy! This was Judy’s 60th Birthday celebration and there were 100’s of people there. The party was held at Annie’s Hall, which is one of those Easter egg kinds of places. From the street you would never know this labyrinthine, expansive place existed. It’s a similar experience to the first time you look through a little hole and peer into one of those Easter eggs that has a huge and intricate scene painted on the inside. A delightful loss of perspective and the perfect place to celebrate 60 years on this earth.

8/31 PM
The last time we went to the movies, it was so noisy and action filled, I missed the sunset entirely. This time I kept a close watch on the time and planned to ring the bells in my seat during the film. I thought it would be so noisy that no one would notice and the theater was nearly empty anyway. However, when it was time for the sunset, the movie was pretty quiet. So I dug around in the dark and found the quietest little bells I had, and we rang them instead of the larger ones I had planned to ring. It worked out OK. It wasn't until I replayed the video that I realized I had missed a crucial part of the plot...

Baby Crow Story

This is a 3 part story that I will tell as it unfolded itself to me.
(Try playing the movie to listen to the soundtrack while you read)

Part 1: 8/28 AM
A new bird! A sound I have never noticed here before. Or anywhere else, for that matter. It’s the only one like it. At the end of the sunrise, you can actually also hear a few songbirds. Maybe the change in birds has something to so with the change of season. It’s the warm weather here in San Francisco now. It was 105 degrees in Marin yesterday and over 100 elsewhere inland. However, it’s heaven here. I would have recorded the sound this morning but Jerry still has my microphone. Tomorrow. I hope that new bird is still here.

Part 2: Later in the day, I heard a terrible racket out in the backyard. Many crows screeching. When I finally went out to look, the noise had calmed down a bit, but Norman had been watching and he said there had been a terrible battle. Two crows had locked their feet together and were fighting on the telephone wires. Other birds were screeching and flying in and out of that huge tree. The brand new bird voice this morning must have been a baby crow. I don’t understand birds, but we were watching a fierce battle. Some of the crows were attacking the spot where the little voice was. And other crows were defending it. I seemed to catch them at a moment where they were catching their breaths.
Part 3: 8/29 AM
A terrible silence.

Dreaming of Plants and Poison

8/23 AM
Ringing out back by the Williamsburg Bridge. Those are Penelope’s tomato plants in the foreground. I always said that I would never eat anything that grew in such proximity to those fumes and exhaust. I had a dream many years ago after riding on a bus through Newark, NJ. When I was a child as we approached North Jersey in a car, the air would become brown and opaque. We couldn’t roll the windows up fast enough. The sun vanished; the air was so thick you could taste it, and so caustic that it burned your eyes. I would bury my nose in whatever clothing was thickest and nearest to my face and try to filter out the particulate matter as well as the smell. It was a living nightmare.

Years later, as I was riding the bus on the New Jersey Turnpike and we approached Newark, everything had been cleaned up. It was remarkable. The air was clear and didn’t smell bad. The marshlands had come back to replace some of the industrial wasted landscape. It seemed to good to be true. In my dream I was riding in an elevator and when the doors opened I was standing before a lush green rural scene. It was sunny and felt festive. People were walking around enjoying the weather and the greenness. Apparently, this was a newly opened area that had recently been determined to be safe after some kind of apocalypse. The elevator was the conveyance to this world and until that point, we had all been living inside. Long tables were set up and people were serving and eating all kinds of food. At one table someone was preparing a salad and was chopping and slicing a scallion. As the white part of the scallion was sliced into thin, round slivers, the pieces fell over onto their sides. When I looked closely at the sliced rings, I noticed that each ring was like a band, and the band was rotating. Each band was slowly turning in the opposite direction from the one next to it. The head of the scallion was alive in a way that no vegetable should be alive. I decided to pass on the salad, but there was a Chinese man in the line in front of me and he ate the salad. After the picnic was over, I returned to the elevator to go home and prepared to get off at the 4th floor. When the door opened, there was the Chinese man, lying dead on the ground.

When I woke from the dream, it was clear to me for the first time that toxicity in the environment could mutate plants so they could and probably did contain poison and contaminants long after they looked “normal” and restored to health. That it was no longer possible to trust our eyes when it came to the food we grow. That the air and soil could poison our food in ways that was invisible to us. This was an old dream and it seems to be even more prophetic now in regards to genetic engineering. Pollution seems almost benign by comparison.

However, I couldn’t refuse when Penelope offered some of her homemade pesto and fresh tomatoes from those vines. And it was delicious. Maybe if I ate them everyday, I would develop an extra appendage, but once in a while, it’s really amazing to eat something growing within ten feet of that massive air putrifier.

Third week of August- PUBLIC

8/16 AM Sleepover Sunrise
A short story of a very long night- in the wrong airport. For now here’s a list of what I remember: the skateboard guys, the kind woman who held my bag, Doritos dinner from the vending machine at 3AM, the very nice steward who returned to the empty plane to get some salt (and pepper) for my contact lenses, the woman with dog who tried to rescue the stuck puppy in the conveyor belt (it only sounded like a squealing puppy), sleeping on 2 seats with my neck brace and head resting on my computer pillow, the wild insomniac child running the length of the terminal at 3:30 AM, his non-insomniac parents following him around, the lies (oops, I mean reasons) that we ended up spending the night in the Syracuse airport instead on landing in JFK, the piece of paper circulating on the final leg of the journey gathering names and email addresses for a class action suit, the disappearance of said list, the recirculation of a piece of paper during the 1 1/ 2 hour wait for our luggage at the baggage carousel, the kindness of strangers and incredible patience and good humor for the 24 hour journey from LA to JFK.

We could have gone to India

8/16 PM Sunset at C-Town
Delta Flight #204 finally arrived in New York! Yay. The weather is perfect. Not too hot. A nice breeze. After taking a shower, unpacking and brushing my teeth about 5 times, I called my neighbor Penelope. She hadn’t called because she thought I would be sleeping in after my flight. Ha! She and I went grocery shopping at C-Town. It was the most intensely pink sunset I have seen in a while. Oh I am so glad to be here.

8/17 PM The Trouble With Santa
So much for the wonderful magic of the “free” word. It didn’t work here in NY outside of Macy’s at sunset. In fact, I felt a bit like an out of season Santa the moment I started ringing the bells. The association with the Salvation Army Santa and Macy’s at Christmas time is so strong it was disorienting and palpable. People looked at me as if I was crazy. And it was even worse when I offered the free bells. Hand extended, “They’re free. Take one.” You’d think I was passing out bullets from the looks of horror I got. People couldn’t get away fast enough. So maybe I can’t generalize about the universal wonder of “free”. Or maybe I shouldn’t generalize about the “New York” reaction. Perhaps it was just the proximity to Macy’s. I hate to think it’s just me so I’ll try somewhere else later this week and see how that goes.

8/18 PM Couldn't Wait
I just couldn’t wait for the sunset. The buildings and bridge were on fire! So beautiful. I rang and filmed about 15 minutes early in order to capture that incredible light. After I went inside, Mary and I rang the bells over the phone together again. I have added the audio from that recording to the mix of the blazing buildings- sort of a time lapse, time collapse.

8/19 PM Asian Bells at Sunset in Manhattan
After several recent long distance ringings over the phone where only one of us can actually experience the sunset at a time, Mary and I were in the same place at the same time. Our friend Betty Sue joined us and rang assorted bells from the Buchens’ collection of bells from several Asian countries. Conjuring cows and goats, they played the bells for Mary’s dog, Mr. Singh and me. Beautiful bells. Thanks!

8/22 PM Going to the Walk-In Movies
Penelope and I were on our way to the 6B community garden at 6th street and Ave B when the sun set. There were still a few minutes to go until the sunset as we rode over the Williamsburg Bridge on the bus. However, it looked so beautiful outside the bus windows that I snapped a photo through the windshield just before we got off the bus. We were going to transfer to the subway and then realized that it was quicker and more direct to walk. So we rang a few bells on the way to the garden where Richard Sandler was showing his film, “Brave New York”. It was packed. I love going to events at the 6B Garden and sitting outside watching movies with everyone from the neighborhood. It’s like a drive in - only better.

8/23 PM Chasing the Sunset at 30,000 feet
Riding on the plane from New York to California during an extended sunset, we rang the bells and celebrated 4 times. Each time, we thought, “This is it”. The first time was over Missouri. The man by the window said he thought the sun wouldn’t be setting for half and hour, but I didn’t believe him. And since we couldn’t actually see the sun, we had to guess from the what the man could see of the shadows on the wing and of the sun on the ground and clouds below. The second time we rang the bells was over Kansas. When we rang for the third time while flying over Colorado, we definitely thought that was it. A little while later, the sun was blasting a beautiful clear orange light through the window into the plane so we rang for the final time. Then the sun really was gone for the day. Even though it’s not possible, it felt like we were keeping up with the sun or at least playing tag. Even at 500 miles per hour, we finally fell behind and when we landed in San Francisco, it was dark.

Ringing While Dining

8/20 PM Los 3 Padrillos, Brooklyn This evening, all of the participants from the AIR Sounds Elemental workshop at Harvestworks went on a field trip to Michael Schumacher’s gallery, Diapason, in Brooklyn. On our way there, most of us ended up eating together at Los 3 Padrillos. The food was good and the portions were so big we weren’t even close to finishing in time for our appointment at Diapason, let alone in time for the sunset. Most, but not all of us rang the bells at sunset, and we were joined by the gracious staff at the restaurant. Thank you everyone!

8/21 PM Ray's Restaurant, Manhattan

Since I am in New York for just this week, I spend most of my time working, sleeping and traveling from home to work and back. There is not much time left over to visit with my friends so I eat most of my meals out and with friends, as it‘s a convenient and New York efficient way to spend time with the people I want to see. As the sunset approached this evening, I was finishing my meal in yet another restaurant (Ray's Restaurant on Prince Street), this time with my friend Jenneth. We were ringing an assortment of little bells when someone form across the restaurant yelled, "What’s going on!?” Since everyone was looking at us anyway, I hollered back across the room “The sun is going down!” And then I got up and went around offering bells to the other diners and passing out my dailybell cards. Quite a few other people rang the bells. I gave away all of the little bells and our waitress kept one of the Buchens’ bells. She liked it so much and continued to ring it even after the sun was down, I didn’t have the heart ask her to return it. I love those bells and they are Norman’s favorites. Of three bells 2, have almost the same pitch and one is slightly lower, Fortunately, the waitress kept one of the duplicates, so I don’t’ mind so much. It was definitely worth it to think that she might ring that bell in the restaurant every now and then. A family sat at the table nearest ours. The woman really like the bell and the idea of ringing the bells. And her husband wryly thanked me for providing his wife with a little bell to wake him so early in the morning.

Third Week of August- PRIVATE

8/17 AM Sunday Faithful
Every bone and muscle creaked to life this morning as I went out to visit the sunrise. It’s still lovely and warm even at this early hour. Noisy, too (audio). Subways crossing in both directions, faithful to their schedule even though they are almost completely empty this Sunday morning.

8/18 AM Hanging Out (the Window)
Even though there was not much human activity yesterday morning, the subways are usually so noisy that human presence isn’t much of a factor when it comes to density of the sound environment. This morning, I thought I would see what was happening out front for a change. While there’s still not much in the way of human life, there is also not much in the way of noise, either. What caught most of my attention was the building across the street. I remember ringing and filming out this window sometime this past winter. It was cold and the building was dreary looked abandoned and burned out. Big change. Not only has the old building been fixed up, but an additional 2 floors and an elevator shaft have been added. Pretty fast work. I wonder how long it will be before people start coming and going and moving about inside.

8/19 AM Can You See the Sunrise From Any Of Your Windows?
Because the windows in my apartment face north and south, it’s not possible to see the sunrise from either place. Even when I go outside, I can only point in the general direction of the sunrise. As long as you can’t see the actual place where the sun rises, it doesn’t matter very much whether I ring in the back or the front. So instead of choosing one arbitrary place over the other, I sampled both.

8/20 AM Surrogate Ears
Instead of leaning out the window and looking up and down the street while ringing my little bells, I thought I’d literally follow my gaze for a change. Walking around, crossing the street, wandering back and forth in front of the window, I rang the bells (audio) for my ears waiting on the windowsill.

8/21 AM Surrogate Self
Alone in the morning, one morning after another, I am witness to the sunrise, bell ringer and documentation committee. Also, I am not awake. In fact, I try not to fully wake up so that I can go back to sleep for another hour or two before really starting the day. In light of the number of things I am trying to accomplish while trying to remain asleep, and the fact that I have already passed the 200 day mark, it’s no wonder I have run out of ideas of “things to do” in the mornings. Yesterday, I put the microphone on the windowsill and carefully walked down a flight of stairs out onto the street to ring the bells with the rising sun. By the end of the day, however, I had forgotten exactly what I had done in the morning. When I went to download the media from the morning’s activity into my computer, I rewound the camera and was dismayed to see that I had recorded over yesterday morning. Then I looked at the still images in the camera and saw a photo of the microphone on the windowsill and remembered that I had only made an audio recording. The reason for the longwinded and detailed retelling of a basically boring story of no consequence is that when I woke up this morning, I thought about the movie I thought I had made yesterday. So I set the camera on the ledge below the window and did the same thing as I did yesterday- wander around out front. Only this morning, I walked in front of a bus on my way back across the street. That’s the end of the story. No point, No punch line.


8/22 AM MISSED AGAIN!
I missed this morning’s sunrise. My alarm is my cellphone, and the ringer was set to silent. It felt really good to sleep a full, uninterrupted 8 hours. It felt so good, in fact, that I am not really sorry about missing the sunrise today.

Second week of August- PUBLIC

8/9 PM Reflection Play
Norman really likes the sound of the Buchens’ bells and wanted to ring them again this evening. After such a wet and foggy start to the day, the sun came out late this afternoon and was still visible at sunset. The sun didn’t “come out”, of course. The brisk wind that came up off the ocean blew the fog inland. That same wind was still blowing at sunset and would have interfered with the recording. Since we wanted to hear the bells and make a decent recording, we decided to ring them in the shelter of our porch. The reflection in the window faces west, by the way and makes a nice backdrop for the shadow play. We even had an audience. When we finished, we looked down the bottom of the stairs, and a woman and her sweet white dog were watching us. They enjoyed our little show.

8/11 PM Norman's Birthday Season

We celebrated a pre-birthday dinner for Norman at Carl and Sue’s in Oakland. After dinner, we watched the first of a three-part series of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long-Blog which finished just two minutes before sunset.
It’s much warmer in Oakland and we could actually see the sunlight for a change. Someone said that in Beijing because of air pollution, a “blue-sky day” didn’t necessarily mean a day in which you could see blue sky. It simply meant it was a day when you could see your shadow. So maybe we have many more blue-sky days in San Francisco despite the fog if we go along with the Chinese definition.

8/12 PM Can't Tell Which End Is Up?
Bell ringing over the phone with Mary and Norman was not very successful as multi-location ensemble experiences go. Especially since the sound technician failed to fully comprehend whether to receive or broadcast and which end of the phone would do the job. Anyway, while it’s not readily apparent that someone is on the phone ringing bells, Mary was there ringing in the darkness of NYC to accompany us here on the west coast. Thank you Mary. I was calling to find out about the bells, which Norman has come to favor lately. They were a gift from Bill and Mary Buchen, and I wanted to find out more about them. Also to be continued…

8/13 PM Norman's Birthday Burger
Celebrating Norman's BD a day early at Mel's with Budd.

8/14 PM Happy Birthday To YooooooOOou!
It’s still Norman’s birthday. All day. Sunrise and Sunset.

8/15 PM DELTA FL. 240 (the first 15 hours)
Sunset somewhere over Indiana. Just around 8:45 EST. The fellow who had the window seat filmed while we rang and then handed me the camera. I immediately reversed the record and stop functions and stopped filming. I restarted shooting in time to catch my tray table and a tiny bit of the TV when I thought I was shutting down. Everyone in our row rang the bells, but I managed to turn the camera off for that part. And it remained off while I filmed the little monitor in the seat back in front of me. After we rang the bells, my fellow ringers kept their tiny little bells and we continued onward to what we thought was our final destination that we thought we would reach in 90 minutes. Ha… Oh to be so young and innocent.
Delta fl. # 240- Hold that thought.
to be continued next week…

Second week of August - PRIVATE

8/9 AM April Showers Bring May Flowers. What does the Summer Fog Bring?
You can hear how wet it is outside (audio). Dripping and foghorns. That’s not rain. It’s dripping. From the big tree two doors down. The tree you can see from google earth. Good for the flowers. Bad for those peaches. However, they look pretty good so I’ll wait until they fall on the ground and see if they are tasty at all. To be continued…

8/10 AM Avoiding the Wind
This morning looked much like so many other mornings these past few weeks that I almost didn’t bother to take a photo. When I woke up and looked outside, I was just disgusted. But then I reminded myself that each day was not like any other day. Even if it looked like one, felt like one, started like one. Tired and gray. At least I thought I would avoid the wind and make a quiet recording. It may be boring, but at least there’s no wind noise for a change (audio).

8/10 PM
It cleared up again this evening. Like yesterday. Maybe this is the beginning of a new weather pattern. Late summer, perhaps? The moon is up, too.


8/11 AM Chamber Orchestra in the Yard
Out back many birds are singing with the fog horns and humming ubiquitous drones to create a lovely chamber orchestra piece (audio). Gets me thinking about more ways to document these daily observances. Several mornings lately have been so overtly musical that I am inspired to “play along”. Any requests? I would like to write a few little ensembles pieces to accompany, transform or otherwise respond to these already incredibly musical performances.

8/12 AM Why Birds Shouldn't Go To Music School
A new noisy bird soloist. Why only soloists? This one has a song that reminds me of a tired and overused rhythmic motif used way too many times in contemporary music.
___ ___ ___ ___ __ __ _ _ _ _ - Although he is a new voice on this block. The other fellow is gone by now. Is there only room for one bird at a time around here?

8/13 AM Mark Twain's Summer
More wandering around- this time out front for a change. I will be so glad when the fog dries up in a few weeks as the Sacramento Valley cools off. And I won’t be alone. So many tourists come here in the summer expecting sunny southern California and are rewarded with having to shell out extra special prices for not so tastefully designed sweatshirts, hats and long pants. You can easily recognize the tourists not only because of the places they amass to visit but because of the dazzling newness of their outer garments layered over more comfortable and stylish traveling clothes. Here's a concise description that explains why it’s so foggy here in the summer when it so warm everywhere else. Tourists take note. The sunny, warm months in San Francisco are coming. Hallelujah!

8/14 AM Happy Birthday first-thing-in-the-morning To Norman
Happy Birthday, Norman! This is a familiar scene. Norman hates the way he looks in this situation because he thinks he looks like an old infirm person rather than a tired person ringing bells to support his wife’s project. I love you, Norm. At the risk of repeating ourselves, here is the other movie from early on that bears a remarkable resemblance to this one.

8/15 AM Leaving on a Jet Plane, eventually...
It was very good timing this morning- the sun was rising just as I was leaving for the airport. Although it is hard to tell much about the sun by looking at the day. It’s also hard to believe that it will most likely be hot in New York – that it’s hot there even now. So maybe I can complain about that all week.

First week of August- PUBLIC

I decided to break up the postings into private and public observances. Most, but not all of the public events occured at sunset. And v.v.

8/2 PM Sunset in the Last Row
We were listening to the beginning of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem when the sun went down. At just the precise moment, the chimes in the orchestra started to play and we very quietly added some little bells from our seats in the last row. This performance presented by the San Francisco Choral Society was wonderful. They were joined by the California Chamber Symphony and The Piedmont Boys and Girls Choirs.
Other links:
Poet Wilfred Owen
Concert Review

8/3 PM Out In the Street
We spent the day in Oakland visiting with family from out of town. (See entry July 20, Third week in July). Eliott carried a small bag of bells around in the pocket of his cargo pants all day just in case we didn’t make it back to the house in time for the sunset. As it turned out we had plenty of time. We were getting ready to return across the Bay a few minutes before the sun was due to set. The bell in the back of my car had belonged to Norman’s father and had come from Lebanon, PA in the 19th century. Eliott is Norman’s nephew, and he was interested in seeing it before we drove off. There’s not much point in just looking at a bell so I untethered it, gave Eliott the hearing protection and invited him to ring it. Which he did- several times. Enough times to draw some attention from the neighbors. There were several children pressed up against the screen door looking at my car that was parked in front of their house. I asked them if they would like to ring the bell and they said yes. Their mother told them to wait a minute so that she could put pajamas on one of the children, and then they all came outside and took turns ringing the big bell. It was very exciting. As we finished ringing the bell several minutes before the sun actually set, I offered the children some of the tiny bells I had just acquired so that they could ring them again when the sun went down- officially.

8/4 PM Vorticella and the Sunset
Our improvisation ensemble, Vorticella rehearsed at Karen’s house this evening. She has a pretty little horse named Coby who she can watch from that big window where we sat to watch the sun go down. The window faces east, but the light changes color as it sends the darkness up the hills. For our last improvisation of the evening, we rang the bells for the 20 odd horses, goats, chickens and cats who were meandering around outside the window while the sun set.

8/5 AM Garbage Day

I ventured out front today just in time to keep company with the garbage collectors.

8/5 PM Sunset on the 63rd Anniversary of the Bombing of Hiroshima
I put the signboard up in front of the Asian Art Museum and Norman and I chimed the bells for 10 minutes at sundown. Half of the people walking by read the signboard, which announced the 63rd anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on one side and the sunset time on the other. I also discovered that “free” is a magic word. Contrary to what your parents might have told you, it’s much more powerful than “please” or “thank you”. It was easy and fun, and everyone was happy. As I extended a handful of tiny bells to each person that passed by, everything would momentarily stop. “It’s free. Please take one”. Nothing ambiguous. Easy. With each bell, I also offered a card with the dailybell2008 project description and blog address. There was even time to inform the person that I did this every sunrise and sunset and that he or she could now do the same. Only one person said no, thanks. It was a wonderful feeling.

8/6 PM MISSED!!!
I had the bells. I had the camera. I set the alarm. And I still missed the sunset. Amir, Norman and I went to see Hellboy II at our favorite Century 20 Theater in Daly City. It must have been those incredibly loud and vibrating special effects that masked the tiny vibration of the cell phone in my pocket. By the time I thought of the sunset, I had missed it by 40 minutes. So we just waited until we went outside to take a picture of the dark. Is this the first sunset I’ve missed?

Who Cares About How Things End?

August 1st
Total Eclipse, Rhythm and Sunrise
We went to the Exploratorium to see the total solar eclipse that occurred at (6:09 PM) in Xingjian Uygur Autonomous Region in northwestern China. Totality was reached at 4:09 AM (PST).

It was around 3:00 AM when we arrived at the museum. There were hundreds of people sleeping on the floor, milling around looking at exhibits or watching the webcast. At 3:30 AM, the live signal from China came through and we were able to watch the progress of the eclipse. Everyone was very attentive during the time leading up to the point where the moon covered the sun. We watched the progress through 3 different telescopes as well as through a camera focused on the people and landscape on location.

At the moment the corona appeared, everyone cheered. And then, it was as if the eclipse was over. It didn’t matter that it would take another 40 minutes for the earth and moon to finish moving so that the sun was completely revealed once again. Forty minutes- the same amount of time it took the moon to cover the sun just moments before. Why is it that we consider the beginning and lead up to a special moment the most worthy of our attention?

This privileging of lead ups and beginnings also happens with rhythm and music. I remember the first time a music teacher pointed out that the end of the note mattered as much as the beginning. Simply starting the note on time was only part of the proper performance of rhythm. When we first begin playing an instrument and learn about note values, we are taught to focus on starting each note on time. In order to do this we simply count the interval of time from the onset of the note and wait the correct amount of time to begin the next note. The way we proceed from note to note is to initiate the sound and then wait. It’s a big revelation and completely different feeling to attend to the note for it’s entire value.

To listen to how a note changes and to work with it until it’s turn is over requires active attention. It’s no longer about waiting. It’s not so much about executing a series of tasks as it is about honoring the integrity and totality of each individual moment. It’s about continuity and not quantization. We are no longer dividing time into units and much as were are staying aware of the passing of time. Once we learn to remain with a note and not abandon it as soon as we have initiated it, time shifts. Somehow because our attention is involved and maintained, our sense of duration changes to include our own physicality.

So it was very familiar, if not a bit surprising after that moment of total eclipse, when everyone scattered. Many people got up and left the museum even though the Exploratorium was staying open for 2 more hours. The unified attention and silence during the moments leading to the eclipse splintered as everyone began talking to each other and stopped looking at the screen. The webcast continued but there was no more commentary from the staff at the museum. Because I wanted to ring bells with people at the museum at sunrise, I decided to wait for 2 more hours. However, I didn’t watch the eclipse as the moon retreated from the sun either. I lay down on the floor and slept until they rang the big bell 90 minutes later to alert the stragglers that it was time to leave. (They rang the bell I donated to the museum, by the way). It was a lovely way to wake up and I was very surprised that I was among only about a dozen or so non-staff people at the museum. Since there was nobody left to ring with, Norman and I left to go home. Fortunately we had to stop and get some gas, so we pumped gas and rang bells at sunrise. I even managed to convince a stray cyclist to join us.
After working at the Exploratorium running her film program for the past 13 hours, Liz rang a bell for the sunrise just before passing out at home for a few hours.

First Week of August- PRIVATE

Here are the private, more low key events. Most of these entries include audio recordings.

8/1 PM The Evening After the Eclipse
After staying up most of the night, we were pretty exhausted. When the sunset arrived, we did the easiest thing. The car is usually parked in front of the house and the big bell is in there. I love that bell and we can only ring it at night without disturbing the neighbors. So Norman went out front and rang the bell as I watched from upstairs. It was a clear evening for a change. Color!

8/2 AM A Fog Horn Choir
There were so many foghorns this morning. I don’t know the last time I heard four different tones all going at such a rapid rate. I thought it would be a treat to listen them so I rang the tiniest of bells to accompany those huge and lovely bass horns and recorded everything (audio).

8/3 AM Naked Ladies in Full Bloom!

Listen to the music they grow to (audio).

8/4 AM Everyone Was There
I love these little tiny bells and am equally enamored of those 2 naked ladies in the back. My little bird soloist friend was out there this morning. Despite the cold foggy gray, this morning’s sunrise was a delight. (I couldn’t find my jacket this morning).

8/6 and 8/7 AM Gray Day Look Alikes.
Another gray day (8/6). Again. Again. Again. Even the birds don’t bother coming out. Malcolm and I looked around for a moment and then we went back inside. While this morning (8/7) looks remarkably much the same as yesterday, it does sound a bit different (audio). For one thing that loud little bird was back. I caught the tail end of his song. It seems as if his song begins and ends about the same time each day. With the sun rising later each day, we are passing through his singing time. Sadly. Although he doesn’t keep a very strict schedule, otherwise we would no longer hear him at all since he’s been silent these past few sunrises. Maybe he doesn’t stop singing. Perhaps he just moves to a different venue at a certain time. More like a moving train schedule than a punch-the-clock type. Whichever it is, I hope there are still a few days left to hear him around here. There aren’t many other birds. Except for the crows.
(FYI: The photo on the right is 8/6, the left is 8/7)

8/7 PM Sunset From the Hallway
The documentation of the eclipse on August 1st has thrown me as far as editing and documenting the media for the blog. As I fall further behind, I am reluctant to either generate anything too time consuming to edit or to take much time out of the day for the actual event. I realize this compromises the intention of the project but I take some refuge in the fact that it’s a temporary condition. So this evening, I set up the camera in the house, and we rang the bells from our places in front of our computers. Sad, but true.

8/8 AM The Voluntary Peach Tree
Of all the things growing (or not growing) in the backyard, this tree has been thriving and pressing itself into the side of the house ever since we arrived here. We have cut and sawn branches and gathered up the hard rotted fruit year after year. The peaches always look so beautiful and inviting but their beauty is truly only skin deep. Because it’s so foggy and cold out here all summer, the peaches never get ripe. They grow and change color and eventually fall off the tree onto the blackberry brambles below. Last year I gathered about 30 of the unripe peaches from the ground and boiled them with lots of sugar, hoping to make something edible from them. The concoction was definitely peachy but disappointing. Even though it’s been so foggy and cold for the last 6 weeks, there were a few very hot days earlier in the summer and I am hoping that will make a difference in the peaches this year. Perhaps they will be delicious and juicy. I actually don’t even like peaches, but having a tree in the yard changes the way I feel about them. They are my peaches and I would love to be able to eat them. We’ll see. As far as the birds go, there were more songs then usual this morning. This is a good time of day.

8/8 PM Prairie Bells Will Travel
Sometimes, I look forward to ringing the bells. Just walking around the neighborhood, ringing as we go. Some combinations of bells sound really pretty and it’s a pleasure to ring them together. This evening, I had the small brass cymbal chimes. They are heavy and attached to each other by a piece of leather string. One way to play them is to swing them towards each other and knock their edges into one another. It’s hard to aim and get them to hit just right. But when they do, they ring for a long time and you can swing them past each other as they decay. Because they are slightly out of tune from each other, when they swing near each other, they produce a slight flutter. It’s shimmery and quiet.
Norman was playing 3 of the bells that Bill and Mary Buchen gave us. Sometimes, I look forward to ringing the bells. Just walking around the neighborhood, ringing as we go. Some combinations of bells sound really pretty and it’s a pleasure to ring them together. This evening, I had the small brass cymbal chimes. They are heavy and attached to each other by a piece of leather string. One way to play them is to swing them towards each other and knock their edges into one another. It’s hard to aim and get them to hit just right. But when they do, they ring for a long time and you can swing them past each other as they decay. Because they are slightly out of tune from each other, when they swing near each other, they produce a slight flutter. It’s shimmery and quiet. Norman was playing 3 of the bells that Bill and Mary Buchen gave us. The Buchens (aka Sonic Architecture) imported these bells from Thailand for their public art project called “Prairie Bells” they have recently installed in Frisco, Texas.

Last Week of July

7/26 AM
I stumbled out onto the back porch and was greeted by some colored light. Not very clear, but at least it wasn’t foggy, wet and gray.

7/26 PM Sunset at Treasure Island
My friend, Sherri invited us to a BBQ at her studio on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. Treasure Island is a decommissioned Naval Base, and like the Presidio (also a decommissioned military post) it is located on some of the most beautiful land in the city. While the development of the Presidio is much further along in its new life, Treasure Island is just beginning. There are some civilians living there, but for now, mostly large tour buses, the occasional cyclists and the lost or curious driver visits the island. There is a panoramic view of San Francisco and the Bay from Sherri’s roof, and that’s where we watched the sun go down. Thank you Sherri and David.

7/27 AM Wet Fence in The Morning

Dripping again (audio). Wet and depressing.

7/27 PM Double Take
It has stopped dripping, but it looks and feels about the same as it did this morning. So I returned to the same spot and recorded (audio) from there and photographed the same bit of fence. At least the fence has dried out.

7/28 AM Same Old Same Old
Same as yesterday. Foggy and wet. I didn’t even bother to take a photo. You can listen to the sounds of today and look at yesterday's photo. (Either one).

7/28 PM A Different View
It’s been a while since I rang the big bell and since there’s not much to see- just more gray, dreary gray- I thought a view from inside the car would make a nice change. Also, I made another mistake with my hair today and decided the best way to fix it was to shave it all off. Again.

7/29 AM Where Oh Where Has that Little Bird Gone?
A gray, quiet morning, but not foggy. When I first woke up, I didn’t hear that one little bird who is a regular part of the morning. So I brought out many of the little bells (audio) to fill in the space. I wonder where he went.

7/29 PM WALL-E at Sunset
It was Amir’s 17th birthday today so we went out to dinner and a movie. We saw WALL-E and got up in the middle to run out to the lobby and ring bells for the sunset. Then we ran back inside. It was very festive.

7/30 AM That Old Pink Magic
Usually as soon as I crack open the door to go out at sunrise, Malcolm shoots out onto the porch and dives through the bars as he leaps from the porch to land onto the sand below. I hate it when he does that because there are no stairs going down to the yard. In order to get him to come back inside, I have to go back through the house, down the stairs, open the back door and try to entice him with cat food to come back inside. I don’t mind so much at other times of the day, but at sunrise, it’s too much activity. Anyway, for whatever reason, he didn’t do that. He walked over to the edge of the porch and then just decided to take in the view and hang out while I rang the bell. We noticed the pink lady in full bloom. Maybe she cast a spell…

7/30 PM Good Jumper
I finally decided to buy a bunch of little bells so that I would have some to give away whenever I encounter people who join me at sunrise or sunset. These bells are much tinier than I thought they would be and much quieter, But they are very cute. So I grabbed a handful at sunset this evening and Norman and I walked around the block. In an effort to get some volume out of them, I shook a handful of them as if they were coins. They felt and sounded more like coins than bells when handled that way. So I accept their tiny little bell sound and will ring them accordingly from now on. Apparently they were loud enough to bother a nearby dog, although when we got close enough for him to see us, he was quite excited and curious. And quite a good little jumper.

7/31 AM Ringing Bell Rings
These tin bells arrived yesterday along with the teeny bells. The tin bells are much louder, and I love that I can attach them to my fingers and ring so many at once. Today looks like we might have some sunshine. What a treat.

7/31 PM Mini Convergence at Marnee Thai
It turned out to be such a nice day; Thea and I met at the beach early this evening and walked by the water. I haven’t experienced the pure joy of movement for a while, and it feels good to simply take a walk for the pleasure of walking. Afterwards, we went up the street for dinner and stepped outside for a moment at sunset to ring the bells.

Upcoming Events

Full Solar Eclipse in China
If you are interested in watching the eclipse this Friday morning, August 1st at 4:00 AM PST, The Exploratorium is opening it's doors on Thursday night, July 31. You are invited to stay up all night and watch a live web cam of the event as it happens in China. I expect a lot of people will come. Bring a sleeping bag and check out the Exploratorium website for more information. The sun will rise in San Francisco at 6:14 AM on Friday morning. So if you are still at the Exploratorium, please join us for the sunrise bell ringing. Bring bells if you have them. We will also be ringing the Exploratorium's bell which I donated at the end of thebellproject in October 2006. The Exploratorium will also host a viewing area in second life.

63rd Anniversary of the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
At 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945 Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki 3 days later. In Hiroshima, each year on the anniversary of the bombing, the Peace Bell is rung in Peace Park. Everyone throughout the world is invited to form a peace bridge by ringing bells at the same moment wherever one happens to be. (In San Francisco, the corresponding time will be at 4:15 PM on August 5th). I am dedicating the sunset observance and bell ringing on Tuesday, August 5th to commemorate all of the lives affected by those events. Let's gather in front of the Asian Art Museum at 8:00 PM and ring bells at sunset (8:13PM PST). Location, directions and transportation info available here.

Fourth Week of July

7/20 AM A Little Help From My Friend...
Another typical summer day dawns in San Francisco- which means- fog. This morning we also had a little extra drizzle. None of that deterred Malcolm who is always so anxious to help supervise any activity (audio).

7/20 PM Trees in Common
It was already pretty dark and dreary outside just before sundown. This, after a long, sunless day. I figured our little tree could use some excitement, so I rang some small bells for it while Norman rang the big one for all the others. I’m running out of ideas for things to do around the house. Our bell ringing has become such standard behavior on our street now, our neighbors take it in stride. It would be even nicer if they would join us sometime instead of just waving to us. But it’s a start.

7/21 AM Naked Ladies on the Way
While walking around the yard (audio) during this morning’s sunrise, I spotted a single naked lady pushing up through the sand. She’s brand new and not yet blooming. Ann had given me a half dozen of those naked lady bulbs several years ago in an effort to help beautify my yard. Those flowers are still the only thing growing out there besides the super aggressive blackberries and the tall grasses that now form the straw mat on the surface of the sand. That one little flower is the first to arrive this year, and will be the first to bloom since Ann died. Hello, Ann and thank you, again.

7/21 PM Coaxing the Ladies
At sundown, we walked back to where the first naked lady has appeared and saw another one just coming up. We just stood there and rang the bells for the flowers.


7/22 AM Hello from the Crow

In terms of the light, time and weather, there’s not much to distinguish this morning from yesterday. However, from time to time, the huge tree that takes root two doors down provides a platform for some local crows. Loud mouth crows. And one of them just happened by this morning at sunrise. He’s hidden deep among the branches, but his voice is plenty audible. You can see that tree from google earth. It’s really big.

7/22 PM Laid Out
This was my first time back at meditation since the accident. During the break, Norman and I went out to the garden and quietly rang the bells. We had placed them on a bench and looking at them like that reminded me of a tiny, old cemetery.

7/23 PM Tintinnare Tom Bickley @ Meridian Gallery
Sunset occurred this evening during the third part of Tom Bickley’s interactive bell exploration and performance of Tintinnare. Tintinnare means “to ring a bell” and that’s what everyone who attended the performance at Meridian Gallery did for almost an hour and a half. In the first section of the piece we were invited to explore a variety of bells, chimes and gongs that had been placed around the gallery. At all times we were asked to ring and listen with care. Next we slowly walked up to the 3rd floor with the bells of our choosing, letting our motion activate them. The sound and movement reminded me of animals, only instead of walking in a line along the ground, we moved vertically through the space. We arrived on the 3rd floor to find the bell sculptures of Bruce Hasson displayed around the space. Once seated among the sculptures, the audience listened as Tom rang a single Japanese bowl gong. As he slowly and steadily played the gong, he captured, multiplied, layered and changed it’s pitch so that it sounded like many different bells- some large: some small. It was during this section of the piece that the sun set. A few minutes later an alarm sounded, and all hell broke loose as everyone rang his or her bells simultaneously. The piece ended with a long slow section where each person sounded their bell every few breaths for as long as Tom struck the gong. By structuring the piece as he did, Tom guided us through a careful exploration and immersive experience with the bells while gently calling our attention to the ways in which bells have been traditionally used. Thank you, Tom, for a really beautiful evening.


7/24 PM No Need to Plug it in
Someone threw out a couple of televisions up the block. They have been sitting on the sidewalk for a few days and nobody wants them. As we walked by we noticed the western sky reflected in one of the dead screens. So we stopped there and rang in front of the abandoned TVs for a few moments.

7/25 PM Why Bother?
We decided to go see the new Batman movie at the last minute. As we slammed the front door and were running down the steps to the car, I realized that I didn’t have bells or a camera with me. Go back or be late? As we sped to the theater, I shook my keys in the truck for a minute or so as the sun was setting. Not that the movie needs any promotion, but if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a link to the trailer.