SUNSET 2/9/08

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks Convergence

I was heading home when I realized I could be at Twin Peaks for sunset. About 35 people stood on top of the highest hill above the parking lot. They were already silhouettes so I grabbed my bag of bells and ran as fast as I could up the hill.

Everyone there was waiting for the sun to go down and it was so beautiful today. Warm and clear and sunny. It was easy to ask people who are already watching the sunset to accompany the sight with bells. I walked around and offered people their choice of bells and said they could start whenever they wanted and to keep going until the sun was below the horizon.

A few people wanted to know why. Some didn’t. And before long, the top of the hill was quietly tinkling. Every once in a while, the man who had chosen the ship’s bell would clang it. If falling dust had a sound, that’s what the top of that hillside sounded like for a moment.

SUNRISE 2/9/08

Stare Down This Cat



What you see is an excerpt. This cat never moved from the fence and she stared at the camera most of the time. I rang little bells in my yard several doors down and she just sat an listened.

SUNSET 2/8/08

Sunset at Java Beach

Stray Thoughts

I can hardly remember this morning. Oh yeah. I set the camera up to look down at the backyard and brought out the new little Indian bells from Chinatown. I just walked around the yard a few times and rang the little bells. Clockwise. Once slowly. The second time, I ran. The grass was wet. When I finished running in circles, I went back into the house, shut off the camera and went back to bed.

Compared to this morning, the end of the day was rushed. Since it was sunny, I decided to run down to the beach and see who was hanging out at the coffee shop across the street. It seems that people who hang out in coffee shops are pretty amenable to ringing the bells at sunset. It’s very nice and friendly. Often, it’s so uncomfortable for me to ask people on the street to ring bells with me. So it’s a pleasant change to approach people who are on a relaxed agenda.

SUNRISE 2/8/08

Tiny Bells in the Yard



Joined by my morning crow buddies.

SUNSET 2/7/08

More Bells for the Rat



Ringing in the New Year with Kazimir's mom. She has a really beautiful bell. Happy New Year Everyone!

Scratch Out the Sounds

Chinese New Year today. Happy Year of the Earth Rat!

I watched my friend struggle to hold onto a pen today. She was drawing a line across a piece of paper. The pen was shaking because her hands shake and she was holding on with all of her fingers. Keeping the pen in contact with the page. Very quietly. Very calmly.

As long as she was in contact with the paper, she could scratch out the sounds of bells. Backwards. Forwards. Many little bells. One big bell. She was playing the same bells I play everyday.

SUNRISE 2/7/08

The New Bells



These are the new bells we got in Chinatown yesterday. Tiny little bells to ring in the new year.

SUNSET 2/6/08

North Beach Ringing with Léonie and a Passerby



A little hectic. We had just gone to the Clarion Music Store in Chinatown where I bought some new little bells. All made in India. I will ring them tomorrow. So pretty and tinkly.

SUNRISE 2/6/08

Hummingbird Feeder?



This object hangs from the clothesline in the backyard several doors down. Norman says it's a hummingbird feeder. I say it's to hold clothes pins. What do you think it's for? Anyway, I played a nice bell serenade for it this morning.

Fat Tuesday Sunset 2/5/08

Same place as this morning.



A few more people showed up to ring bells at the beach at sunset. The guys in the neighboring car had just come to watch the sun go down, but they joined in as long as they could remain in their car. It was cold and windy as usual. Thanks!

Primary SUNRISE/SUNSET

Vesta and her bells

Vesta was the only person who came this morning to ring with Norman and I.

It was such a clear morning but cold (for these parts). While we waited for the sun to come up, Vesta and I were talking about ringing the bell everyday and she showed me her two little bells. The ringing at sunrise by the ocean was nice, but cold. After we finished ringing with the sunrise, Vesta noticed that one of her bells was silent and that the little clapper was missing. We routed around in the parking lot and I was thinking how bad I felt when Vesta found what we were looking for. I couldn’t believe it. Those dingers are so small.

Anyway, that was it for the morning.

FAT TUESDAY SUNRISE 2/5/08

By the ocean in San Francisco.



There were only 3 of us that showed up there this morning. We made a lot of racket.

Sunrise in Cassis 2/5/08

Thank you Ione and Pauline.

SUNSET 2/4/08

How Fast Does The Earth Turn?



Berkeley is about 14 miles east of San Francisco. At this latitude the earth turns about 700 -- 900 miles per hour.

So. The sun sets a minute earlier in Berkeley than it does in San Francisco. From now on I will include the name of the city where we are observing the sun and ringing the bells.

Slower Than A Speeding Bullet

I hadn't realized that even a few miles make such a difference in terms of when the sun rises and sets. At this latitude the earth turns between 700 and 900 miles per hour.

While researching this little fact, I encountered some other interesting sites related to the rotation of the Earth and the speed of some other speedy things. Here are a number of FAQ's about the Earth's rotation answered by Dr. Sten Odenwald. If you want to know something not on that list, you can ask an astrophysicist another question. Find out what's "faster than a speeding bullet".

SUNRISE 2/4/08

Bag of Bells



I just thought I would bring out all of my quiet bells and ring them for my bird audience.

SUNSET 2/3/08

End of the Road

Chasing Rainbows

Windy. And rainy. I saw three rainbows today. One ended right by the side of the highway. I had always believed the end of the rainbow was a myth, an illusion that you could never reach. That was the beauty of the pot of gold. It was always safe and pure. A secure little nest egg for someone else’s future. A holy grail.

Until today, I had thought that nobody could actually stand at the end of the rainbow. Yet there I was.

SUNRISE 2/3/08

These wineglasses made perfect bells. They bounced off each other and played themselves. Try this at home!

Primary Reminder

Tuesday, February 5. First PUBLIC BELL RINGING EVENT
Come down to the parking lot on the Great Highway in San Francisco (across from the Beach Chalet) near the end of Fulton Street.
7:00 - 7:30 AM (sun rises at 7:11)
5:15 - 5:45 PM (sun sets at 5:36)
Bring bells if you have them.

SUNSET 2/2/08

Still no sun for the groundhogs, but a pretty color blue at the end of the day.

SUNRISE 2/2/08

Too cold to go out so Norman and I play a duet near the window. We didn't see any groundhogs.

End of the Day. Business as Usual



Some days we just stop what we are doing, run out to the car, ring the bell and go back to work. Odd addition to the routine.

SUNRISE 2/1/08

Nothing Special



A few little birds and a trolley car. That's about it.

SUNSET 1/31/08

Late

Forgot To Remember

I missed the sunset by 2 minutes this evening. At first I kicked myself for not remembering to set the alarm I have been using to give myself a 10-minute warning for the sunrise and sunsets each day. Then I realized that I had been using bells to remind me to ring bells so that I would pay attention to the present. It makes some sense that I to do that in the morning when I am unconscious before the alarm goes off. However, in the evening I am awake. Since the point is to pay attention to a very specific moment in time, it seems odd that I use an alarm to remind myself.

So I was happy to only miss the sunset by 2 minutes. It could have been dark before I noticed. I'm a little afraid to rely on my ability to pay attention and be aware of the sunset each day, but maybe I'll be brave and do that from now on.

SUNRISE 1/31/08

This is For The Birds.

SUNSET 1/30/08

Me and My Cowbell

Caution Brain at Work

I got it. Tahis mrning ehne the alarms went off my eyes were stuck together and I could hardly open one of them. The left one. I thought , now what. What can I possibl y do that ;s different than nythin g I’vee done so far. We’ve seen all the eastern views. I have rung all the bells in various combinations. I am so tired I can hardly think

So I went out back and looked up and sae that line across the sky. Then I saw that tiny moon just above it. And I thought that would be something to look at while I rang a freew of my favorite bells.

After I packed up and wne tback inside, I finally realized that I don’t havr to plan anything. O just have to get up and see what’s there.

What a relief.

SUNRISE 1/30/08

One Eye Open

SUNSET 1/29/PM

Kazimir's First Sunset

Welcome to the world!

Welcome Kazimir Bobrowski Wang. Born this morning at 3:51 AM. Wow. So perfect. What a blessing. Congratulations to the very proud and happy parents. I love you and am happy for all of us.. Yippeeeee!

He could have been an earth rat, but he arrived as a golden pig instead.

SUNRISE 1/29/08

True Birthday!

Congratulations!!

SUNSET 1/28/PM

Sunset over Home Depot


We wanted to go to the Taco Bell we saw from the freeway but it was already in shadow and there was no view of the sun. So we rang bells in the Home Depot parking lot instead.

Better watch out if you go anywhere with me and you think we might be out around sundown. (Thank you, Stephen).

SUNRISE 1/28/08

Early. Wet. Cold.

EQUINOX INVITATION

Let's observe the sunrise and sunset on March 20th with as many people as possible. Equinox Astronomy

SUNSET 1/27/08

This evening, friends from out of town were visiting when the sun was going down . So we drove to the parking lot next to the Golden Gate Bridge and rang from there.

SUNRISE 1/27/08 AM

Listen to the morning serenade ... This is Malcolm

SUNSET 1/26/08

We join our neighbors-in-noise as sundown approaches.

What are your mornings like?

Wow. Since it’s been raining everyday and it’s about the same bleakness morning and night, I thought I would just do some audio recording this morning. As much as I like the convenience of the little movie camera, it really doesn’t sound great and I miss paying attention to the sound. The other morning I was so preoccupied with getting a nice image that I just jangles the bells to fill the space and it sounded exactly like that- mindless noise making.

So this morning I was all prepared to sit and just ring 2 of my favorite little bells for a while. Sound recording only. I thought it would make a nice change and I expected more of the same kind of cold rainy landscape when I woke up.

When my alarm went off, I was stunned. This was the first morning this year that the sky was as intensely colored as any of the few really pretty sunsets we’ve had so far. I was so excited. Yellow! I don’t remember any yellow in the mornings yet this year.

I’ll save the audio recordings for other days this week. It turns out that today was a short reprieve from the storms. Rain is expected all next week.

How about people in other parts of the country? What are your mornings like?

COLORS!!!!! SUNRISE 1/26/08

Most Colorful Sunrise So Far!

SUNSET 1/25/08 Still Raining

What are you doing?

I know I said I would stop documenting the daily ringing, but I can’t. Not yet anyway. I am compelled to do it, so I will continue until the time comes that it doesn’t feel necessary.

HELLO MERIDIAN INTERNS!!! Finally some media besides mine. Check out their youtubes

Come on- let’s hear from you other ringers out there! Don’t be shy. Words, images, movies, sounds, links to anything you think is relevant.

SUNRISE 1/25/08 Rain

Another rainy morning. What's it like at sunrise where you live? Send links to your movies.

SUNSET 1/24/08

Bell Clubs Anyone?

I know there are at least a few people out there who have joined this project and are ringing bells at least once a day. What if you asked a friend or two to join you? Publicly. Maybe just once a week. Regularly. And that friend could invite one of their friends and pretty soon maybe you could have a small group of people who got together once a week at sunrise or sunset and rang some bells together.

It could be very nice. See how it goes. Send a photo or a description or a sound file and I’ll post it on the blog. Or send a link to your own address.
Little clusters of bell ringers. How about it?

SUNRISE 1/24/08

SUNSET 1/23/08

Meridian Interns

Meridian Interns Program

The Meridian Gallery Interns rang the bells at sunset this evening. “The Meridian Interns Program (MIP) is a paid internship for low-income teens from all over San Francisco in which Artist Instructors integrate art-making workshops with training in job-related skills”. I have worked on and off with this program for the past few years, and I love it. I was invited to come by the gallery this evening and tell the interns about the dailybell2008 project and to invite them to participate.

Watching the sun rise or set is not a typical urban activity, especially for teenagers, so this could be fun. MIP finishes at 6:00 PM so eventually the sun will set after they leave for the day. In the meantime, the interns have agreed to ring bells at sundown everyday at the Meridian Gallery (or a nearby location in the neighborhood) until it’s no longer possible. This should happen around the end of February.

CLICKHERE TO WATCH THE MERIDIAN INTERNS' SUNSET VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE!!!!!

SUNRISE 1/23/08

Cowbell Facing East

SUNSET 1/22/08

SUNRISE 1/22/08

It’s been so cold and rainy here. (I know people who live in the East and Midwest would laugh at the notion of cold here). However, it is a little nasty first thing in the morning. Today I barely made it to the bell in my car where I had parked it across the street from the streetcar stop. I was too cranky to ask people to ring with me, so I just ran to the car, opened the hatch, quickly snapped off the bungees and rang the bell a few times. People were waiting across the street where they are every morning- watching. So when I finished closing up the car, I waved good morning and just went home.

SUNRISE, SUNSET 1/21/08

As the year progresses, it would be interesting to follow the movement of the sun as it travels North and South. Since it’s only possible to actually see the horizon in the West as the sun sets, I’ll find a fixed point to periodically take photos of the setting sun. Then we can watch it travel through the seasons this year.

SUNSET

This old compass is also an ashtray that Norman has had for decades. Good combo- compass/ashtray.

SUNRISE

SUNSET 1/20/08

THE SHOW MUST GO ON

Reflection and Request

Ringing the bell everyday has become a regular part of my life. Much of the morning bell ringing has been in solitude with a few exceptions. Maybe the Monday trough Friday crowd at the streetcar stop will join me. Maybe not.

The evening ringing has been a bit more social. In any event, it’s much easier as I am awake and usually in the middle of doing something. It’s always a surprise and I look forward to it each evening.

Documenting and posting to the blog each day has become a very time consuming activity. Maybe unnecessarily so. I have established a rhythm, both for myself and in terms of “reporting”. Many of the mornings, I ring the bell by myself somewhere around my house or I try to engage the people waiting on the corner. I will continue to do so. However, as far as posting these activities to the blog is concerned, I will only post things that are unusual or deviate from this normal activity. Perhaps I will simply post the audio for a while. Either way, you can use your imagination.

Also- how about anybody else out there who is ringing a bell? Please send a photo or text or soundfile. I would love to post other experiences than my own. COME ON!!!

We’ll see how it goes in the evenings. I expect to handle the documentation in much the same way, as I will for the sunrise ringing. And if I manage to entice others to ring with me, I will post that movie to the blog. Otherwise, I may simply post the audio or a photo of something in my field of view.

Hopefully this will free up some of my time to devote to other aspects of the project. I would like to organize some large bell ringing events to coincide with the upcoming Equinox and Solstice. I would like to find out about any eclipses that are happening this year. This is a leap year and February 29th would also be a good occasion.

But as my friend Taylor reminded me, it’s really the ordinary days that are the most important ones to notice and to honor. We have so many more of them.

SUNRISE 1/20/08

EVEN THE BIRDS ARE ASLEEP

SUNSET 1/19/08

Well, blow me down...


The fence nearly blew down in that last big storm we had. So Norman spent all day today fixing it. Because the original owners of this house were unable to walk, neighbors put up this fence many, many years ago. It needs more work but we hope it will make it through the rest of the winter.

SUNRISE 1/19/08

All By Myself


I forgot it was Saturday morning. Nobody that was here yesterday was back today. I don't know whether or not they would ring bells again, but nobody was interested this morning.

SUNSET 1/18/08

Moonrise. Sunset.

Printed Invitation/Business Cards

I spent today making a card to hand out. As more people are starting to ring bells with me, I realize that it might be a good idea for them to have something with “dailybell2008” written on it. It’s too long to remember, especially first thing in the morning. Also the encounters with strangers are very quick, so it will be nice to give them something to take away or hold onto while they consider whether or not they want to participate.

SUNRISE 1/18/08

A Good Sport or Two

SUNSET 1/17/08

WE NEED MORE BELLS

Bells with your coffee?

We played at Starbucks today. That’s where we were when the sun was setting. I could see it coming so I went around to the people at nearby tables and told them the sun was about to set and invited them to ring bells with us. Only one person turned us down. She said she was OK.

We need more bells.

SUNRISE 1/17/08

After all of those mornings ringing the bell by myself, I had the impression that the early morning was very quiet and sparsely populated. Imagine my surprise when I walked up to the corner and saw other people on the street; jogging, talking and waiting for the streetcar. I wasn’t prepared for that so I just took the still photos I had intended to take.

However, I am excited to go back there with my bag of bells tomorrow morning and see who will join in.

SUNSET 1/16/08

DEEP RINGING...

MEGAN's SUNSET

Ringing at the Headlands. Thanks, Megan. Better late than never!

End of the Meeting. End of the Day

It might not sound like much, but this evening’s offering is an ensemble via conference call. All bell ringers except for me are on the East coast and they are playing on the phone. This is the end of a Deep Listening board meeting.

Sounds messy, but what fun! Thank you all.

SUNRISE 1/16/08

SUNRISE QUIETLY OBSERVED

SUNSET 1/15/08

Singing Bowls

I was at the hospital with a dear friend this afternoon. She is quite ill and needed to go in for an infusion and some blood-work. We stayed there much longer than I had anticipated so that by the time we left, I needed to hurry to get to an appointment across the bay. There wasn’t time to get my car or any of my bells so I took public transportation and figured I would do something when the time came to ring the bells. When someone you love is fighting for her life, nothing else seems very important so I wasn’t too concerned. I figured as the very least, I had some jewelry to jingle.

As it turned out, my friend Krys, lived nearby and as she’s also a musician, I knew she would have some bells. I had forgotten that she has one really large, beautiful singing bowl.

SUNRISE 1/15/08

You can hear foghorns in the background.

FIRST PUBLIC RINGING EVENT

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2008

It’s time to plan some public bell ringing events. How about Feb. 5? If you live in San Francisco, come to Ocean Beach on the Great Highway near the end of Fulton Street. I’ll be there at sunrise and sunset. Bring some bells and let’s ring.

If you don't live in San Francisco, why not plan a little bell ringing where you live? If you do, please share your information here. It would be a great way to start and end such a day.

SUNSET 1/14/08

I was literally running out door to ring the bell this evening when the phone also rang at 5:12PM. In retrospect I should have answered it and included it in this evening’s documentation. Sorry. The day got away from me.

OK. So what's with the red hair?

First of all- vanity. I didn’t like that my hair looked so grey. Second- Lucille Ball.

The last time I kept company with a large bell, I had also dyed my hair red. That was an accident that I came to appreciate. This time, I did it on purpose.

It is my hope that other people will also associate red hair with funny women and with playfulness. And while they are still in that frame of mind, I will already be offering them some bells to ring.

SUNRISE 1/14/08

Norman hates how he looks, but I love that he did this. Thank you, Norm.

SUNSET 1/13/08

WALKING IN CIRCLES



For the first time this year, it was sunny all day long. I can hardly remember ringing the bell this morning, but this evening, my friend Vangie joined me. She had her own bells and we walked over to a park near where she lives and rang them. It’s so nice having company.

SUNRISE 1/13/08

This is not fun

SUNSET 1/12/08

Welcome back, Liz!!! You can't see her, but Liz is ringing the bell in the back of the car. Liz helped drive the really big bell through the devastated Gulf region and eastern Texas in the fall of 2006.

Caution Bell Onboard...

It’s very convenient having the bell in the back of the car. The bell itself is prevented from swinging by being wedged in the back and tied with bungee cords. However, it’s too hard to remove and replace the clapper each time I want to ring the bell, so it just dangles and moves freely. As a result, the bell is the ultimate backseat driver. If I move too suddenly or break too hard, the bell RINGS really f---ing LOUD and scares the hell out of me. So I am being a much more careful driver.

The other advantage of having the bell in the back of the car is that no matter where I am at sundown, I just pull over, stop the car and get out. If there are people around, I quickly approach them to see if they want to ring a bell. Because there is usually not much time before the sun is due to set, there is not a lot of time for questions. I say “The sun is setting in 3 minutes and I am ringing bells everyday when the sun rises and sets. I have some bells with me. Would you like to join me?” Most people will postpone asking questions until we are already ringing. So knowing why is no longer a prerequisite to participating. It’s great!

SUNRISE 1/12/08

SUNSET 1/11/08

Among the tie-dyed shirts neatly hanging in rows all over the surface of the bus was a sign that read:
leave it broke.com

Gophers never sleep

With all this rain we have been having, the weeds in the yard are very tall. It looks lush, but it’s very wet and uncomfortable to walk in first thing in the morning. We also have gophers in the backyard and while it looks very pretty and green, the ground is full of potholes- just the right size to grab a foot and hold onto it until you fall over. This morning I was lucky.

SUNRISE 1/11/08

SUNSET 1/10/08

Today when sundown approached and I was nowhere near either my car or my bells, I invited my friends to ring down the sun from their home. We looked around the house and found several bells that we gathered together and rang for several minutes. Very quietly, looking out onto the garden.

Dear Anne and Claire,

This is in response to your comment on 1/8/08 when you ask me about "life with a bell". It surprises me that I even have a "life with the bell" since I have never been especially attracted to bells. I've always had a few little bells around that I liked- delicate sounds and nice objects. However, it wasn't until that last trip with a very large bell that I became attached to such a large inanimate object. It was very comforting somehow to look into the rearview mirror and always know that the bell would be right there behind the car.

The bell I am driving around at the moment is a different bell than the one I traveled with during the Bell Project. I was really sad to give that one away at the end of 5 weeks, but it was promised to The Exploratorium and destined for a particular job in the museum. This bell I am using now belongs to my husband and I, and it’s nice to finally put it to work after letting it sit in the yard for almost a decade. As a cast iron school bell manufactured during a time when these types bells were so mass produced as to even be sloppily made, it was made to simply do a job.

So my “life with bells” is really something I am discovering as it goes along. On the one hand, I am realizing that each bell is special and has a unique presence (I don’t want to say personality) and of course, it’s own sound. These cast iron bells don’t have a pretty sound- especially up close. They are LOUD and harsh. But they were engineered to transmit the distinctive sound as far as possible so that people could communicate at great distances. The message had to be very simple, but it was effective. I am just beginning to discover the potential of this kind of non-specific, effective alerting and delivery system.

I am attracted to the big bell because it is so loud and can get the attention of people who are not immediately nearby. Because the sound of the large bell carries so well, it can function as an attractor and gather people together. This gathering together can either be in real physical proximity or in terms of communal awareness of a single moment in time. I am very attracted to idea of a community of people united in awareness, even if it’s momentarily. Don’t you think that’s potentially very powerful? And empowering?

This kind of ritualized observation and celebration of nature and of a very basic cycle that is common to all of humanity has been practiced by many cultures and religions since the dawn of time. We here in the United States, don’t have much general awareness of this kind of practice these days. When I drove that other bell around, most people saw it as a symbol of something long before they ever really thought of it as a large sound-making object. They wanted to know why I was driving it around and what it meant. Was this a protest? Something to do with “freedom”? I stood between people and the bell and people wanted me to supply a satisfactory answer or reason in order for them to participate. Often my answer was a prerequisite for their willingness to ring the bell.

The exceptions to this reaction were in the Gulf region (Hurricane Katrina had destroyed much of the coastal area only a year before) as well as in the border towns in Mexico. Many of the people we encountered in Mississippi and New Orleans didn’t need to ask for a reason to ring the bell. Whether it was symbolic or not, the bell fulfilled some very basic function that people intuitively understood. People grabbed hold of the bell when we were stopped in traffic and rang it.

The same thing happened when we were in Mexico. There were many churches in the towns we drove through. These little towns had Churches with real bells that were rung regularly. And it was very noisy on the streets. Yelling, singing, a loud radio, sparks from welding, car horns - such a cacophony of noises from daily living. You need the sound of big bells to cut through the basic ambience on the street. People needed no invitation to ring the bell there either. We’d be stopped in congested traffic and suddenly feel a powerful tug at the back of the car as someone grabbed the wheel and swung it. Then- the really loud bong that followed. It was such a different and much more joyful experience than what we had experienced all along the East Coast where it was like pulling teeth to get people to even stop long enough to talk about the bell.

Anyway, for this project, I am not wedded to any particular bell. In fact, I usually ring little tiny bells in the mornings because I don’t want to wake up my neighbors. At least not everyday. Now and then, I ring the large bell a few times (very few) because it really does have a more ceremonial quality to it that I also like.

So, that’s my first attempt to describe what “life with a bell” is like so far.

How about you?

SUNRISE 1/10/08

SUNSET 1/9/08

Racing the train

Today when I went out to the corner at sundown, I looked up the street and saw someone waiting for the streetcar. Looking down the street I wasn’t sure if I could see a train coming or not.

So, I approached the man who was waiting and asked him if that was a train in the distance and he said, “Yes. Three minutes”. Well, that would be a few minutes before the sunset, but I thought I’d ask him anyway. He didn’t want to do ring any bells, but he was curious about why I was doing it. I told him what I’ve been telling other people- that I had been to India and that whole towns of people greeted the sun everyday with bells and music. I loved that and wanted to do it here. He laughed but still didn’t want to ring the bell. Neither did the woman who had just come to wait.

The train came at exactly 5:05 just as it had the other day. So I rang the bell by myself.

SUNRISE 1/9/08

SUNSET 1/8/08

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

My pledge to ring a bell twice daily for a year is a very small nod to long and well-established traditions so many people already observe and practice. I have chosen to tie my activity to the rising and setting sun.

Who else ringing bells out there? And why?

SUNRISE 1/8/08

SUNSET 1/7/08

THERE GOES THE SUN

The bell is not important OR You can't argue with the sun

After so much buildup about the bell and ringing it everyday, it seems a little odd to say that the bell is not important. But it’s true in the sense that the bell is a convenient and effective way to experience something else. I think that “something else” has to do with shared experience of some universal truth.

First of all, you can’t argue with the movement of the earth.
Secondly, the sunrise and sunset may be a matter of perspective but not a matter of opinion.
Finally, in the same way that we can rely on our breathing, we can rely on the rising and setting of the sun.

Like our breathing, the rotation of the earth is ongoing. Obviously both happen without our will or intervention. Yet unlike our breathing, the rising and setting sun are large, observable spectacles that can be experienced by so many people at the same instant in time. Each day, these moments have the potential to unite human awareness if we focus on them.

The bell is a good sound-maker for this application because it’s easy to do, and it’s potentially loud enough to attract attention. A deliberate sound like a ringing bell or a wailing siren helps to focus and draw attention to the moment we hear the sound. Whether we are making sound or listening, everyone who hears the sound is united in the moment of hearing. The thought of and reality of so many ears vibrating together is very exciting.

SUNRISE 1/7/08

I'M AWAKE. REALLY.

SUNSET 1/6/08

THE 5:05 RIGHT ON TIME

SUNRISE 1/6/08

PRETTY IN PINK

SUNSET 1/5/08

BY THE SEA BY THE SEA

Enough with the clock, already…

I am approaching the end of this type of literal documentation for a while. While establishing a routine for ringing the bell, I thought I would document each time I rang the bell at sunrise and sunset. In lieu of seeing the actual sun (rain, rain, rain, rain), it was also important to display the time in order to establish a certain kind of credibility and trust.

After the first week, while I will continue to ring a bell daily at sunrise and sunset, I will not necessarily post daily photos or movies to the blog. Ringing a bell every day provides the underlying rhythm and foundation for anything else that might occur around or because of this activity. So from now on, I would like to both assure and assume that the daily ritual is established and being honored.

So now let’s think ahead and plan other activities that could build on this basic attunement with a daily rhythm in relation to the sun. In addition to the personal and private observation of this ritual, I would like to plan and encourage more public, communal bell ringing events. Perhaps we could establish a certain day each month where we could gather with our friends and neighbors and observe the sunrise or sunset together. Or certain holidays. Leap Year? The Solstice? How about February 5?

SUNRISE 1/5/08

SUNSET 1/4/08

A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS



The first public appearance for the bell. AND- the first sunset of the year that wasn't just gray.

Crawling on the ground

Before the sun was up this morning, I was on my hands and knees sliding the 100 lb. bell on its new steel stand across the concrete floor towards the opening of the garage. As I approached the opening, I happened to glance up and saw a person walking past my house. His coat was undone and it was whipping around him. He was holding onto his hat and bent so far forward into the wind that he was nearly parallel to the ground. As he passed in front of my house, he happened to look over to see me crawling on the ground with the bell. I wondered what he thought I was doing. But he was in such a hurry and it was early and raining very hard. So he didn’t stop to find out. I wonder if he told anyone about what he saw on his way to wherever he was going.

SUNRISE 1/4/08

55 MILE PER HOUR WINDS



It was pouring, too.

SUNSET 1/3/08

TA DA!

The stand is finished and ready to go into the car. (I hope). The bell moves so smoothly. It’s still a little crooked somehow, but it doesn’t wobble. It looks good and sounds like something I could grow to love.

SUNRISE 1/3/08

I can't believe I said I would do this every morning for a year.

SUNSET 1/2/08

IT STILL SOUNDS LIKE A BELL

Boltless

I was in the back yard this afternoon and I heard “Oh SHIT!” coming from the garage. Loud and angry. Then I heard the rest. “I cracked the bell”. oh. oh.

Earlier in the day, we had decided that it would be better to fix the wobbly yoke before installing the bell into the car. It really was impossible to swing the bell and Norman wanted to fix it “once and for all”.

The big bolt that held the yoke to the bell and held the clapper inside was rusted and stuck to the bell. The other day, Norman had successfully used the acetylene torch to loosen the bolt that held the handle to the yoke. Apparently the torch is not too hot for steel, but it’s not too good for the iron. So…

As it turns out, the crack is very small, and it’s up near the top of the bell. It’s still as loud and unpleasant as it was before, so I am going ahead with it.

The best way to ring it at the moment is hit the upside down bell with the clapper.

On a positive note, the bolt is out.

SUNRISE 1/2/08

Got Bells?

Wouldn’t it be great to wake up and hear bells ringing all over the place? Big bells, little bells? Next door and way down the street? Something you could do with your friends or by yourself? Wherever you happened to be at the time. Everyday. Sun up and sun down.



I don’t really collect bells. But when I went around my house looking for them, I found them hanging all over the place. So, this is my bell supply, and I will make sure I have one of these with me wherever I go. Just in case.

Do you know where your bells are?

SUNSET 1/1/08

looking for a date

So back to the drawing board. Norman thought that it would be easier, lighter and faster to make a steel stand to support the bell. It is much more spare and elegant than the wooden one would have been. I rang the bell as it was hanging from the new stand this morning and it works really well.

Tomorrow we should be able to put it into the car. Yahooooo! I will have to change the message on the side of the car. It still reads “thebellproject.blogspot.com” as it has for the last year.

DAWN 1/1/08

Just in time

NEW YEAR'S EVE

The plan was to get the bell into the back of the car by sundown and ring it from there. Well, that hasn't happened yet. However, we got the bell out from the back of the house where it was covered in lint from the dryer. It weighs nearly 100 lbs. so I couldn't lift it. Norman lugged it around all day and said it got heavier as the day wore on.

We needed to remove the part of the bell that was used to swing it because it was too big for my car. There's not room in the back of the car to swing the bell anyway. The problem with removing anything from the bell was that everything was rusted together for the last 100 years. Nothing was coming apart so fast.

Once the bell was cleaned and ready to put into the car, we needed to make some kind of stand in order to support the bell so that it can vibrate freely. There is room in the back of my car, but it's a hatchback and the window slants down. The height of the bell stand is limited by the glass. So it turns out that there will be 8 inches of clearance between the bottom of the bell and the floor of the car. Enough to get my hand in there and swing that clanger.

Norman thought it would be nice to make the stand out of wood. So that's where it stands. On the drawing table. We managed to get the bell up onto cinder blocks in order to ring it at 4:59PM. It's pretty loud and not such a pleasant sound. But it carries. Right now it's kind of clunky to ring because the yoke is loose and the bell is all wobbly. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Photo of Ben Tuck's Farm bell

the beginning

BACKGROUND

My bell is sitting in the backyard at the moment. It's all rusty. Tomorrow my husband, Norman Tuck and I will clean it up and figure out how to mount it in the back of my little Honda. I figure if it's in my car, I can ring it no matter where I am at sundown each day. Sad, but true.

The bell comes from my father-in-law's farm in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. His name was Ben Tuck and he had collected cast iron bells. Lots of them. His goal was to collect 48 bells- one for each state at the time. After he died, the bells sat on the farm for many years until most of the collection was sold at auction in the 1990's. We saved one of the bells, and it has sat around for almost a decade. Unrung.

THE BELL PROJECT
For 5 weeks last year, I attached another bell to a small trailer on the back of my Honda and towed it 8100 miles around the country. I rang it and invited everyone I met to ring it. I learned how to ring the bell while driving by pressing and releasing the accelerator in time with the natural resonance of the swinging bell. At the end of the journey, I gave the bell to the Exploratorium in San Francisco where the Explainers ring it everyday to announce closing time.

During the Bell Project, I became very attached to the company of the 250 lb bell I was hauling around. I looked forward to ringing it each day and was comforted by the sight of the bell in my rear view mirror. When I delivered the bell to the Exploratorium, I felt untethered. Since that time, I have been searching for a way to incorporate the bell into my daily life. I have wanted to find a way to spark a connection that a tolling bell can awaken among the people who hear it.

INSPIRATION

VARANASI, INDIA
In February of 2007, Norman and I went to India to hear the winter teachings of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. At the end of the teachings, it was early March and we descended from the mountains and went to the Ganges River in Varanasi. Every morning at dawn and every evening at sunset thousands of people gathered on the bank of the river. In the predawn darkness, slowly and very quietly, monks began to chant and softly ring small bells. Gradually the chanting got louder and more people joined in to chant or listen. Chanting voices and ringing bells greeted the sunrise every morning. Every morning.

In the evening, the farewell to the sun was much more elaborate. Again thousands of people lined the banks of the Ganges River: monks, pilgrims, tourists, and residents of Varanasi. This time the chanting was much louder and there were many, many bells. And fire. In some places the chanting was electronically amplified. Further along, there were no chanting voices, but small orchestras accompanied other choruses. People were talking and laughing and singing. And ringing hundreds of bells. The bells were mounted atop very tall poles with their ropes dangling to the ground. Anyone in the proximity of a bell pulled the string and rang the bell for as long as they could. This singing and ringing went on for at least an hour. And it happened every single night. And it had been going on for a very, very long time.

HOME
It was an amazing experience and I wondered what it would be like to greet the sun and bid it farewell everyday once we returned home. As a culture, it seems we reserve our bell ringing for special occasions like weddings, funerals, sacred ceremonies and commemorations. People are not used to ringing or hearing bells in their daily lives. Furthermore, our bell ringing is not often associated with the time of day as it once was.

I have a large clock in my house that chimes every 15 minutes. The chiming pattern for each quarter hour is distinctive so that I can tell what time it is by listening. Listening to time pass is a very different experience than looking at a clock. Punctuating intervals of time with sound accentuates the passing of time and the accumulation of memory and experience. When listening to the chiming of a clock in order to know the time, one must stop and wait and think. For a brief moment, one suspends what one is doing to become aware of something else. That something else is constant and ongoing. And timeless. Through that moment of awareness perhaps we can connect with the rest of the world. Or at least our immediate worlds.

JOYA NO KANE
Japanese New Year's Bell Ringing Ceremony.
I attended The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco's version of this bell ringing ceremony today. The museum has a large Japanese Temple Bell in their collection that they bring out each year for this occasion. The public is invited to participate in a version of the Joya No Kane ceremony that traditionally takes place in a temple on the first day of the year beginning at midnight. The bell is rung 108 times.

The Joya No Kane ceremony provided the final piece of inspiration and clarity. There were 1000 people present in the room. When the chairs were full, people sat on the floor. The bell was at one end of the room and it was framed by a large, open window. After the initial blessing, people were invited in groups of 6 to approach the bell, stand on either side of a long wooden pole and gently swing the pole into the bell. Watching and waiting and listening with so many people wove a delicate connection among those present. I would like to inspire and participate in an activity that extends that connection day by day.

INVITATION

Ringing a bell everyday at a particular time is a commitment. I don’t know if I am capable of it, but I would like to try. Please help. Find a bell that you like. Look up the time of the sunrise and sunset in your area. One of the things I am looking forward to is being directly in touch with the cycle of sunrise and sunset as it changes throughout the year. Please join me.

PLEDGE

Beginning on Monday evening December 31, 2007, at 4:59 PST, I will attempt to ring a bell everyday at sunrise and sunset for the entire year of 2008. I invite others to join me wherever you are and post to the blog if you wish. On some occasions, I will announce ahead of time where I will be and people can join me at a particular location.

There is a link at the top of the page that connects to a calendar listing the daily times for the rising and setting times of the sun and the moon.