First Week in April

4/1 AM Mother Nature's Practical Joke
The weather played a great April Fools' joke. Last night, the ground was covered with white and it was wintry cold. This morning - all gone- completely replaced by yellow grass and the smell of growing things in the air. A miracle and a very nice prank by Mother Nature.
4/1 PM Wild Guessing
Ringing on the bus on the way to NY. It was really hard to tell when the sun was setting. First of all it drifted around the bus windows as we turned this way and that. Once we finally settled in a direction, we were going north so it was just about impossible to see the sun as it was almost directly behind the bus. So I just kept an eye out. Northern New Jersey has many hills so the sun would dip behind then appear again. I guessed and rang right before route 287 meets 78. My phone was dead as well so I didn’t know exactly what time it was either. However, according to the map, I figure I was near Clinton, NJ. The sunset for that area was predicted at 7:23, and we arrived in NY about 35 minutes later. So maybe that was a very good guess. There is a certain quality to the light that I am learning to observe. It’s brief and immediately followed by a quick fade out.
 
4/2 AM Brooklyn

Since I am a bit behind in editing and posting the movies, I decided to take a still photo of this morning’s offering. So here I am out front by the trash.


4/2 PM Ringing on the Runway

We were almost an hour late taking off from JFK which was bad for our travel time, but good for knowing when the sun was going down. Since we were on the runway, there was also no question about the time or place. The only sun to be seen however, was reflected in the terminal window. So when it was time, I asked the man sitting by the window in our row if he would mind filming and ringing bells. He said OK as long as it wasn’t too loud.


4/3/PM False Hope

Our neighbor was watering his lawn and came over while I was ringing the bell. I thought maybe he wanted to ring, too. But he just wanted to know about New York. He is going to visit his nephew next week and wanted directions from JFK airport to the upper west side. That other water sound you hear is the fish tank.


4/4 PM Neighbor from 2 doors down

As we were walking down the street towards the corner, we ran into one of our neighbors getting into his car. He was happy to join the ringing. Those cowbells have a nice sound and are plenty loud for small bells.


4/5 AM Another Puzzle

I didn’t realize what I was looking at when I turned the corner. I still don’t. It sure looks like the sun on the horizon, but there is no horizon there. Unless it’s a tricky perspective because of the bump in the road. There are buildings and hills between that corner and the horizon. Any ideas?


4/7 AM Morning Walkers

This is the view from the end of the block that doesn’t have the streetcar. This is a familiar view and since the sun is rising further to the North, it’s more colorful than the view from the other end of the block. When I got back home, I noticed someone was walking up the street behind me. I wonder if this time is a regular part of her routine and if she will be there tomorrow.

Bob's Ship's Bell

I have a new routine for just ringing around the neighborhood when I’m by myself and don’t want to go anywhere. Ever since I realized that the sound of even the pretty loud bells don’t carry very far I ring the ship’s bell more often. That bell belonged to my friend Bob who passed a few months ago. I like the sound of that bell and ringing it reminds me of Bob. So my routine with that bell is to ring it as I pass each doorway. If I walk a steady pace, the ringing is also regular and it sounds good. Very relaxing and a good way to close the day.

Olympic torch here today

This morning I decided to ring the ship’s bell. It’s louder than the bells I usually ring at sunrise. As the Olympic torch is due to pass down the Embarcadero later in the day, I wanted to start the day with my own voice raised. I live in a predominantly Chinese neighborhood and while I don’t want to antagonize my neighbors, I wanted to make more noise than usual. As it turned out, the bell wasn’t all that loud. The really big bell is in the back of my car which is in the repair shop. Hauling around big bells is having an adverse effect on the suspension- not mention the corrosion from the East Coast salty winters. Listen to my walk to the corner and back

Scary Crazy Person

Something that I have gradually noticed, and I am not especially proud of this - is that the story I would like to tell is not the same as what is really happening. My story is the one where little by little people notice the bell ringing activity and become curious about it. Once they find out what it’s about, they want to do it to. Gradually more and more people pay attention to the sunrise and sunset and feel part of a larger community as a result. And we all live happily ever after.

One of several problems with this (aside from operating under such a delusion) is that I have been trying to force other people to be in my story. Sometimes I scare them. Sometimes they think I am crazy. The more serious offense and result of my narrative overlay on any situation or person is that I ignore and minimize what is really happening. I don’t see or hear or learn anything. All people become characters and actors in my story and I don’t care what their stories are. For this, I apologize.

I have confused wanting something particular to happen with wanting something to happen in a particular way. I have replaced questions with a demonstration. There’s more, but I don’t see it yet. In doing this, I have eliminated any chance of discovery and pretty much squeezed the life out of the project.

Last Week of March

3/25
I walked around the block- the usual routine. I like doing this. Years ago I taught at a Cazadero Music Camp and every morning a small group of people would be responsible for waking up the rest of the camp. The group changed each day and so did the style of wakeup. My favorites were the quiet gentle ones that first entered your dream, subtly changing the action so that it incorporated the sounds. Gradually I’d realize that the sounds were real and coming from outside the tent. It was a wonderful way to wake up. As I was walking around the block this morning, I thought about that.

On the plane. I don’t know where we were, but I think we nailed the sunset. It was happening behind us. Since I had an aisle seat, I had to rely on my seatmates to keep an eye and to check periodically. At one point, I noticed that there was no one in the galley. (They guard that little window back there. Nobody is supposed to go near it- federal regulations). Anyway, I hopped up and ran back to look and it seemed about right. So I returned to my seat and the woman by the window said, I think the sun is setting. So I offered her a little bell, She was shy about ringing it and asked for how log. I said about about 15 seconds- a symbolic ring. So we did.
It was a 4 1/2 hour flight and we were 1 1/2 hours from NY. So, my best guess is that we were somewhere over Kentucky or Indiana. Anyone have any better ideas?

3/26 PM Spring in Brooklyn


3/27 PM God Bless America (plus bells)

My Dad can’t help himself. When he bursts into song, it usually has something to do with God or country. In this case he hit both at once. Thank you Charlotte and Linda for the steady accompaniment.

3/28 PM Sonic Fragments

Sonic Fragments: Narrative and Mediation in Sound Art. End of day one of the 2 day festival and symposium at Princeton University. After the first panel finished everyone who was interested walked over to Blair Arch on campus. We rang bells on the way over and continued ringing under the reverberant stone archway.

3/29 AM
THE LARGEST ASSEMBLY FOR THE SUNRISE SO FAR...

This was an exciting morning! Walking into the lobby of the hotel at 6:40AM I saw a few scrunched up faces peering in through the door. Then, “Here she is”. Right on time, too, I might add. Three people from the Sonic Fragments Symposium had come to ring in the morning. It was very cold and we couldn’t get a clear view of the lower sky so we just walked a few feet away from the hotel entrance and started ringing. A minute later we hear some quiet jangling coming up the path and 4 more sleepy people were walking our way shaking keys. So I ran up, passed out some bells for those who preferred them to keys, and 8 of us rang the little bells together. A new record for the morning ringing! Thank you all so much. This was a fabulous symposium. Anyone interested in hearing the audio works featured over the weekend can download them from the sonic fragments site.

3/29 PM The Ringing of Lot 21

The Sonic Fragments conference ended quite a while before the sun was due to set so we went to fetch the car from a distant location at the edge of the campus in lot 21. And we rang from there.

3/30 PM Grand Gorge
Pit Stop for Gas, Nuts and Bells


3/31 PM Dinner Break

Third week of March

Somewhere between March 16th and March 17th was equal time for light and dark. Some alternate universe, maybe. Yesterday it was dark for one minute longer than it was light, and today it is light one minute longer than it was dark. However, this is not the same as the Equinox. The Equinox is when the center of the sun crosses directly over the equator, and it’s equal light and dark there. It makes sense that everyone would experience the equal amounts of light and darkness at different times. I had just not thought about it before. The common misunderstanding is that the Equinox means that the day and night will be of equal length.

3/17 AM Ringing with Bacon

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. This morning was my first foray into another part of the city with the bells at this hour. I ended up at the McDonalds in the Haight at around 7AM. There were several men already waiting at the door for the McDonalds to open. They said it usually opened late and that there were only two people who worked there at that hour.

While we were waiting, I told them about watching the sun rise and set everyday. As soon as I said it, I realized that since most of them lived outside in the park across the street that they saw the sun rise and set everyday and it was not an option for them. Except for one man, they all drifted away at that point and went to wait for the place to open around the back. Bacon stayed. He was from Colorado and had been in San Francisco for 5 months. When I asked him if he would like a cup of coffee, he declined saying that he’d already had about 5 cups at Starbucks. I said they had much better coffee than McDonalds anyway.

So Bacon, Norman and I went around the back of McDonalds where all the little tables and chairs are and we ran in the St. Patrick’s Day sun. We were looking at the radio tower at Twin Peaks and talking about its various manifestations as a boat. Thanks guys.

Here’s a photo of the Sutro Tower on a clear day. It look most like a boat when the fog has rolled over Twin Peaks and comes all the way up to the part with the 3 “masts”.


3/17 PM The Bus Stop

A few blocks down the road is a bus stop and there were 2 people sitting there. I was already ringing the little Year of the Rat bell and approached them. Once I sat down and we all had little bells we started to talk. The man asked me if I had ever heard of “sun yoga” I thought I had but when he began to describe it, I knew that I’d never heard of anything like it. He said that he’d heard that if you looked straight at the sun as it was setting and just after it had risen not only wouldn’t it hurt your eyes, it would also provide all nourishment so you wouldn’t have to eat. He’d heard about some man in India who’d been doing that for 200 days. It actually did not take very long to find a description of such a person on the Internet. Here is a description of Sunyogi Umasankar.
http://www.sunyoga.info/discovery.html

We rang the little bells until we saw the bus coming. When I tried to take a photo, the camera said to change the battery pack so I collected the bells and prepared to leave. AT the last minute as the man and woman were getting onto the bus, I fired up the camera and snapped a quick blurry image of them paying. Thank you guys. What a pleasant surprise.


3/18 PM Terrorizing the Bus Stop

Today I felt like a hunter- out looking for a target. I walked over to the bus stop where I met those people yesterday and there were several people waiting for the bus. However, they were all Asian, and generally the Asian people in my neighborhood either don’t speak English or avoid strangers. One woman was talking to herself on a cell phone that I couldn’t see. The rest were determined to mind their business.

Then I spotted someone standing at the bus stop across the street. I can’t see too well, so I waited for the light, then crossed. She was a teenage girl on her way to school. She looked nervous when I approach. Maybe it was because I was ringing a bell as I approached. It was only a small bell. Anyway, I explained that the sun would be up any minute and would she like to ring bells with me. I gave her a card so she could look up the times in the future and to reassure her in some way that I was doing something legitimate. She said OK but that her bus was coming soon. I offered her the bag of bells and she chose a small one and we rang for a moment before the bus came. We managed to do it while the sun was coming up, although you couldn’t see it. She never stopped being nervous and didn’t want me to take her picture.

I felt bad for putting her through that experience. It made me realize that people waiting for a bus are in a difficult position. They can’t leave so they have to stay there and listen to whoever comes up. If they are not interested in whatever or whomever it is, too bad. I don’t think I will go to bus stops anymore and I apologize to that girl I met this morning.

3/20 PM Equinox at the Exploratorium


3/21 AM Looking East. Looking West


3/21 PM Looking West. Looking East.


3/23 PM Easter Evening with Friends

Second Week of March

I had the flu all week, so most of the mornings I made "Flu Shots" out my back window. If you want to see them, they are on my youtube site March 10 -15. Click on the little boxes and they will play the movie at a reasonable size.There is a narrative for each movie there as well.

Here are ringings with other people from last week.Click on the little boxes and they will automatically play the movie from the youtube site at a reasonable size. There is also a narrative for each movie on the youtube site as well.


3/9 AM Ring Around the Table


3/10 AM Time Lapse Sunrise

This is a solo ringing, but the sunrise contradicts just about everything I speculated about in the "Dawn's Early Light".

3/11 PM Crossing the Street


3/12 PM Caterers at Exploratorium


3/15 PM Ringing for our Neighbors


3/16 PM Birthday Bells at Ocean Beach

Home

SUNSET March 8

Sherri stayed at our house and watched our cat while we were gone. This is her hand with the cowbell.

First week of March

I am generating many little bits of media with this project. As it progresses and new people find out about it, the amount of material on the blog is a bit daunting. In an effort to make it easier to check on the progress and to weed out a lot of redundancy, I will post only those events where there is at least one other person involved. No more morning solo meditations. So here is a weekly sample.

If you select a tiny movie image, it will blow up to a normal size screen for viewing.

March 2 Sunset. Tel Aviv


March 4 Sunset. Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem
I realize that I’ve turned Norman and now his sister Miriam into human lawn ornaments. The bell ringers in every exotic shot. I’m sorry you guys. That was certainly not my intention although it has been very convenient. Thank you. I need to work harder however and ask some other people.


March 5 Sunrise. Dead Sea at Ein Gedi, Israel


March 5 Sunset. Jersalem


March 6 Sunrise. Miriam's Garden in Tel Aviv

Some observations

Dawn's Early Light
Since starting this project, I have become conscious of the obvious: the sunrise, like the sunset takes a while. It doesn’t just suddenly get light or dark at the moment the sun crosses the horizon. I have also noticed something interesting and a little less obvious about the moment when the sun crosses the horizon in either direction.

“Dawn’s early light” is only the beginning of the prelude to the actual event where the sun comes into view. That early grey morning light that so gradually reanimates our surroundings is just the beginning. What the darkness made still and unfamiliar, that early light instills with color once again. Color. It’s suddenly day and not night, but it’s still early. When that grey becomes rosy, it looks similar to late in the day.

Since starting this practice, the first time I saw brilliant color in the sky, I thought I had already missed the sunrise. The sky was blazing with bright pink and orange clouds, but according to the schedule, it was a few minutes before the predicted time. I immediately thought of something someone said about bird watchers. On “If there is a discrepancy between the bird and the bird book, believe the bird”. So I thought, well the chart is off.

Upon subsequent examinations, however, I saw that the quality of the light changed very noticeably at the time when the sun was closest to the horizon. As the sun breeched the horizon, much of the color in the clouds and the sky briefly faded to grey and was replaced by a sort of sky-neutral blue. Once the sun crossed the threshold of the horizon, the pink and gold crept back in and softly spread across the sky. The sky was less spectacular than before, but suddenly everything began to brighten. Within a few minutes, it was not early anymore.

It occurred to me then that this was much like the sunset in reverse. Not so much the actual colors, but the timing and transformation of the light in the sky and on the surface of the earth. The sunrise took about as long to fill the world with light and color and it did for the sunset to drain it.

The rotation of the earth is a constant. The speed of rotation is also steady. We may notice the changing length or position of shadows. Or note the path and direction of the sun or moon as it travels across the sky. Of we concentrate we can sometimes actually see these things change. But the changes are usually gradual. And it’s much easier to track the changes if we have a point of reference. There have been times when I’ve fallen asleep outside in the sun. It’s so nice and warm, and the shade from the nearest tree seems far, far away. Gradually my hand or foot will fall into the shade while the rest of my arm or leg is still in the sun, and chill will spread through me as the shade continues to cover the ground where I am resting.

The horizon is one of the most dramatic points of reference that we use to gage the movement of the earth. The progression towards and away from that line is constant and inevitable. But our perception of the changes immediately before and after the horizon passes the sun is accelerated. And once crossed there is no going back. Everything changes dramatically and irrevocably. The finality of crossing a line that marks the end of one thing and the beginning of something else at exactly the same time is elemental. The Hindu goddess Kali embodies that moment of creation and destruction. Let there be light. Birth and Death. Unlike the line between birth and death, we can experience the line between night and day on a daily basis.

I don’t quite know how to describe that precise moment where the sun crosses the horizon and how it’s different from what came before and what cones after. It’s not just another point along a gradually changing continuum. The gathering color momentarily fades when the sun touches the horizon, only to reappear once the sun no longer directly shines on the ground. Depending on the direction of the day, the light doesn’t merely fade out and become replaced with darkness. Nor does it simply grow brighter. The light continues to change color as it appears or disappears and illuminates different parts of the sky depending on whether it is below or above the horizon. I’ve noticed the most intense pink colors appear when the sun is below the horizon. Those pink clouds all over the sky appear either just before the sun rises or just after the sun sets. But the actual moment the sun crosses the line- the color often fades and the timing accelerates.

Aurelia Ringing

dear brenda,
this wasn't at sunrise or sunset, but with babies you know it's hard to keep to a schedule.
happy ringing,
cynthia and Aurelia

Sunset in the Sunset

From Sherri Wood
mantratrailer.com

So Long Meridian Interns (for now)

The Meridian Gallery Interns joined the dailybell2008 project back in January. They rang bells every evening Monday through Friday until February 28th. Since the interns go home at 6PM, the 28th was the last day the sunset occurred during their time at work. Many thanks to all of you guys.

Check out all of their other videos.
Looking forward to hearing from you again at the beginning of November once we are back to Standard Time.
And many thanks to Adria.

SUNSET 3/1/08

Men at Work

Due to powerful wind in Frankfurt, all flights were delayed. A lot. Some people had been waiting in lines for 5 hours to rebook a cancelled flight. When the sunset was just a few minutes away, we found a window in a hallway between terminals where we could look outside. Several men were seated in front of the window, and there were 2 men asleep nearby. The departure board conveniently displayed the time so when there were 5 minutes to go, I approached the men seated by the windows. I asked if they spoke English and when they said they did, I explained that the sun was going down in a few minutes and that I was ringing bells everyday at sunrise and sunset. They asked me to repeat what I had said and then asked why. I explained that I had made a vow to do this all year and that I believed that it was a good thing to do. I said I liked that it was a fact that the sun rose and set and that because of that it was something we all had in common.

So they said OK they would ring with Norman and I. I said I would start the movie by focusing on the time on the board down the hall and then wheel my cart back toward them. It was so wonderful to hear those tiny little bells and I realized as I got closer to the men that while I was down looking at the clock, the sleeping men had woken up and they were also standing there ringing. It was pretty wonderful.

The guys were from Manilla and were returning from working on ships. They had been in Texas before crossing the Panama Canal and stopping in the Bay Area. They were glad to be going home.

SUNRISE 3/1/08

Cowlick and Antenna

Everyone was sound asleep this morning when it was time to ring. So I crept upstairs to the roof and found the sun. Today is our last day in Barcelona and the first day of visible sun in the morning. It was so nice to see the color.

SUNSET 2/29/08

3rd leap year in the leap century

We rang once and rang again. (I forgot to turn on the camera the first time).
This is the 3rd leap year of this leap century. This is how we make up for the limitations of our calendar. Leap centuries occur every 400 years. We are so lucky.

SUNRISE 2/29/08

Let's Leap!


We thought we were finished with our quiet leap year morning bell ringing when we heard a sudden burst of percussion coming from the house. Nil had just finished taking a shower when he heard us playing downstairs. Afraid that he would miss out, he hopped out of the shower, grabbed some bells and started playing. Thank you again, Nil for a wonderful leap year surprise.

SUNSET 2/28/08

Up On The Roof

Thank you Nil, for shooting this evening's video segment. Nil is my friend Barbara's son and he invited us up to his room to ring the sun down.

SUNRISE 2/28/08

Next to Cleanliness

Every morning at Las Hermanitas de los Pobres.

SUNSET 2/27/08

Our Familia

The Sagrada Familia looked so eerie in the fog. So we focused the camera on it and then five of us walked around Barbara’s apartment with the loudest bells we could find. Her son, Nil is studying percussion and he had a really nice cowbell. I got so excited running around with the bells that I didn’t think until after we were finished that it might have been nice to see everybody playing their bells. Next time...

SUNRISE 2/27/08

Sky Line

We have been staying all week with my friend Barbara. She is originally from Minnesota and she went to a powwow in Leech, MN about 4 years ago. Most of the people participating in the dances had these little bells attached to their clothes. They are made from rolled up snuff box tops. They are very lightweight and make the most delicate sound so far for the morning ringing.

SUNSET 2/26/08

Norman Under Fire

That’s Norman sitting in the memorial plaza outside of the Santa Maria del Mar. The plaza, called Fossar de les Moreres, is built over a cemetery and the flame at the top of the long steel arch is an eternal flame commemorating the Catalonians who were killed in the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714. The poem written on the wall is by Frederic Soler and is called “El Fossar de les Moreres”.

SUNRISE 2/26/08

Moon on a Wire

This is the third time we've seen the moon at sunrise so far this year. I love this one.

SUNSET 2/25/08

Cowbells on the Corner

If you listen carefully you can hear us on the street ringing the cowbells. We certainly bothered a dog somewhere. The view is from the 9th floor and eventually we made our way down to the corner.

SUNRISE 2/25/08

Little Bells on the Balcony

Rainy but not depressing. We ring from the balcony. Sleepy but enthusiastic, we notice one of the neighbors on a balcony nearby. Maybe they will be there tomorrow.

SUNSET 2/24/08

Barcelona from a Balcony

We arrived in Barcelona this evening. It's warmer here and there are bells in the air. Las Hermanitas de los Pobres (http://www.camineo.info/news/142/ARTICLE/2914/2007-05-16.html) is the name of the convent across the street, and they toll bells every half hour. On the hour, they ring the number of hours for the time. On the half hour there is just one little dong.It's a wonderful way to keep track of the time.

SUNRISE 2/24/08

Goodbye Grey

I couldn't believe it when I was scanning the landscape from the hotel window this morning. First there was the moon, hiding in the trees. Then a glow on the ground that when I zoomed in to see what it was- it was the "Auf Wiedersehen" sign. Goodbye to me, too.

SUNSET 2/23/08

Leaving the Station


There were so many policemen all around the museum and the train station. When we walked through the tunnel underground to get to our track there were black uniformed men lining both sides of the tunnel. There was even a single policeman standing in front of us at the end of the tunnel. At least a dozen men in all. Above the ground they were everywhere- little green cars all over the place, and we couldn't figure out why. While we were standing on the platform waiting for the train we asked another person who was also waiting is she knew why there were so many police. She looked mildly disgusted and said they were there because of the local soccer game in Wolfsburg. Her disgust was not with the police presence but with the fact that there was a need for them at all. She said she couldn't understand why the fans were so rowdy. Except for the alcohol.

Anyway, when the train came we got on and the three of us rang the tiny bells as the train pulled out of the station and we got underway.

SUNRISE 2/23/08

I just walked around the hotel where we had been staying all week and took pictures of each place I had rung bells. This was one of the few mornings that weren’t completely grey.

SUNSET 2/22/08

Opening at phaeno

PhatasieMechanik Opening

This evening was the opening of the PhantasieMechanik at phaeno, the science museum in Wolfsburg. We found one visitor just hanging around the entrance when it was time to ring the bells and he was happy to participate.
We've been here at phaeno all week setting up for the show. It's a great show. Norman has several pieces in it. There is an incredible collection of small mechanical sculptures from Great Britain called the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre. Arthur Gansonhas selections from his work, and there is a wonderfully romantic and theatrical installation from Russian artists living in Glasgow called Sharmanka Theatre. Sculptor Eduard Bersudsky and theatre maker Tatyana Jakovskaya established Sharmanka in 1988. They were joined by lighting designer and technical director Sergey Jakovsky in 1992.

Anyone near Wolfsburg, Germany between now and the end of June should come to phaeno. It's a great interactive museum and it's right across from the AutoStadt and giant Volkswagen factory.

SUNRISE 2/22/08

Rush Hour With Bells

Mornings and evenings look about the same here in Wolfsburg. Pretty dreary. It’s good to have the bells to break up the day.

SUNSET 2/21/08

All Around the Town

At 6PM after the evening bell ringing, I was walking down the street and suddenly the air was filled with bells. Big bells. Many bells. It was hard to tell which direction they were coming from. I was surrounded. It was wonderful and I walked for several blocks before they stopped ringing. It was getting dark and the bells were somewhat muted. Perfect.

SUNRISE 2/21/08

Hall and Stairs

I jumped out of bed to another grey morning. This is a very perfunctory greeting to the sunrise. The most exciting part was getting from the 3rd floor of the hotel to the parking lot outside in under one minute.

SUNSET 2/20/08

We Are Not Hare Krishnas


We are standing on the bridge over the canal that runs between the Volkswagen factory and Autostadt on one side and phaeno science museum on the other. A few of the artists currently setting up their installation as part of the show at phaeno took a break to watch the sunset this evening. We were joined by a family returning from the Autostadt. They said they felt like Hare Krishnas.

Hitler's Sketch

This is a sketch by Adolf Hitler that he presented to Ferdinand Porsche when he met with him in 1933 to discuss Hitler's idea for the volkswagen.

Brief background information from Westminster College Website:
“The idea behind the Volkswagen was to stimulate the German economy into the modern era by putting as many Germans as possible behind the wheels of automobiles on the new Autobahn, something the US didn't get around to until the 1950's. The Volkswagen, originally known as the KDF car (Kraft-Durch-Freude or Strength Through Joy), was designed to be affordable to the average consumer, and so was the financing.

Literally, the word "volkswagen" means "people's car." In Germany, the idea of a people's car wasn't exactly a new one. Before the 1930's, there had been many efforts to create simple cars that everyone could afford, but none met with profound success. Almost all cars before 1930, even if they were designed to be simple enough for the average person, ended up costing more than the average worker's yearly wage.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler met with Ferdinand Porsche to discuss Hitler's idea of a volkswagen. Hitler proposed a people's car that could carry 5 people, cruise up to 62mph, return 33mpg, and cost only 1000 Reich Marks. This was an opportunity for Porsche to push his idea of a small car forward, as was it to help Hitler get a real people's car for the citizens of Germany.”

SUNRISE 2/20/08

Strength Through Joy Car

Sunrise looking at the smokestacks of the Volkswagen Factory in Wolfsburg. This is the factory that has been making Volkswagens since 1939. The car was originally conceived by Adolph Hitler to be an affordable car for the average German. Volkswagen means “people’s car”, but at first it was known as the KDF car “Kraft- Durch- Freude or Strength Through Joy”.

SUNSET 2/19/08

Volkswagens Born Here


The Volkswagen factory dominates the town of Wolfsburg. Or maybe it is the town. In the time before the Iron Curtain came down, this area was at the edge of West Germany. It took hours to get here and was not a destination for any visitors. Now, because of the Volkswagen factory, people come here. If you buy a Volkswagen, you can come here and pick up your car right from the factory as it comes off the line. It's personal.

Many, many new Volkswagens from long ago

Historic photo

Background of VW- from German Propaganda Archive.
This is an interesting site. It contains photos and drawings pertaining to the Volkswagen. There are also descriptions of the factory town that was planned to grow up around the factory. It's interesting to compare that to present day Wolfsburg which is still dominated by the Volkswagen factory. However, today the Autostadt Museum stands right next to the factory. It is billed as a museum/amusement theme park all about cars. In addition to the one hour tour of the factory itself, there are several pavilions dedicated to other cars as well (i.e. Lamborghini, Audi, Bentley). Ironically, Porshe is currently (2008) attempting to buy Volkswagen.

SUNRISE 2/19/08

Rear Entrance


We took a little walk behind the hotel this morning, past the porta-potty, down the lane and back. Our bell-ringing stroll began and ended at the back door to the hotel. This is the entrance for the workers carrying those heavy buckets while the men in suits enter and leave by the front door. Same old. Same old.

LION ALERT

My friend Jamie sent this to me.

SUNSET 2/18/08

Fluffy Gloves

The Glove Got in the Way

The evening looked about the same as the morning- same shade of uniform grey. So I thought "How perfect. I will go out to the same spot and shoot the same images again. Only this time with different bells". It was magical.

Imagine this. This time, there is an infestation of birds and they are just sitting in those trees. The trees are bare and the branches black. The birds are black and silent and large. It is "The Birds". There are hundreds of them motionless in the tops of those trees. Huddling. Songless silhouettes.

Suddenly - the voices of children running in the distance and en masse the birds fly into the air. They fly around overhead in several factions. Soon they are like specks of ash swirling. I was so thrilled. I couldn't believe I was actually filming at that precise moment. It turns out, I wasn't.

SUNRISE 2/18/08

Guten Morgen Wolfsburg Crows

Only grey this morning. Grey sky. Grey air. Cold and wet. Under the general wash of light, it was hard to orient to any direction. So I stepped just outside the back entrance of the hotel and looked around. There must have been some kind of dump nearby, or maybe it was the canal. There were many black birds flying around together and making a lot of noise. I felt right at home. Just the birds and I making noise together. Until the workmen showed up lugging some heavy looking buckets. We performed a nice little concert for them.

SUNSET 2/17/08

Standing outside of the Hotel Global Inn. Wolfsburg, Germany

Sunrise Stills

Well, it was more difficult to tell when the sun was rising at 35, 000 ft. than it was to tell when it was setting. So I took lots of still pictures thinking that it was the right time only to wait a few minutes and figure out that the sun had not if fact made an appearance. It was a little tricky snapping pictures through the window with the best view of the sun activity from my seat. The window was located by the head of the man sleeping in the seat in front of me. I slipped the camera between the seat and the window and very quietly depressed the button on the camera that was very close to his ear. He never woke up and I took a bunch of still photos and several movies before during and after we rang the bells in the row behind him. It was a long flight.

So now, here’s a little problem. Can anyone figure out what time it was when the sun came up and over what part of the earth was the plane located? All of the information I have comes from the screen at the front of the airplane. It showed our location and trajectory and the time at our destination. The problem is it only showed this information about an hour before the sunrise and 1/2 hour after. Is this a fun problem? Anyone want to try and figure out where we were and what time it was when the sun came up?
We were an hour past Iceland when the sun rose and we still had 45 minutes before we flew over Liverpool. We were traveling about 535 mph. The time information we had was that it was 8:30 AM in Germany when the sun rose. Can anyone figure out what time it was and where we were (other than somewhere between Iceland and Liverpool) when the sun rose?

SUNRISE 2/17/08

Heeeeeeeeeere Comes the Sun


I wasn't trying to be artsy with the camera orientation in the second part of the movie. I was just so tired that I forgot that I was shooting a movie and not holding a still camera. It was hard to tell when the sun was passing the horizon, so I started to guess when the sky first began to show color. As different bands of color began to form and the sky continued to lighten ever so gradually, I began to realize that that first movie wasn't the sunrise at all. Maybe that was "dawn's early light". Anyway, that's when I decided to shoot another little movie and by that time I was bleary eyed and fuzzy headed from the all night plane ride and continually watching and trying to decide if it was sunrise yet. Hence the sideways view.

SUNSET 2/16/08

Sunset Serenade for Security at JFK

This couple was returning to Dublin. We had the good fortune to be standing in line with them when the sun went down. Many thanks!

Sunset Serenade for Security at JFK

It was a race. Was the sun going down before we reached the security checkpoint in line, or not? Norman said it was the first time he wished the line would move more slowly, and I agreed. I was a little nervous about ringing bells while waiting in the line to go through security. There’s no argument about the timing for the bell ringing so if it’s inconvenient (i.e. approaching the part where you are required to remove your shoes) then we would have had to leave the line, ring the bells and return. There’s nothing suspicious about that kind of behavior.

Anyway, when the time came I turned to the people in line behind us and invited them to join us in observing the sunset (even though we couldn’t see it) by ringing some bells. They were a young couple from Dublin, Ireland and they were so sweet to ring the little bells with us. So there we were at 5:29 PM standing in the Delta Airline security line at JFK airport, jingling away.

It was fun to ring with strangers who so obviously enjoyed it, Thank you guys, and I hope you try more of this at home. This is a very good project for a Jr. High school Math class, by the way.

SUNRISE 2/16/08

Cold Bells by the Williamsburg Bridge

It's pretty cold here to jump right out of bed and go stand by the bridge to ring a few little bells. Norman is a good sport and excellent bell ringer. Thanks, Norm.

SUNSET 2/15/08

Cowbells on Broadway in Brooklyn


Here we are in the evening on Broadway in Brooklyn. Again- right next to the Williamsburg Bridge. Cowbell time!

As the World Turns

The day begins and ends about 15 minutes earlier here. New York is the first of several places in the next few weeks we can begin to track the effect of longitude on the length of the day and the timing of the sunrise and sunset. Any guesses?
Next stop Frankfort. Then Barcelona. Then Tel Aviv.
Predictions? Explanations?

SUNRISE 2/15/08

Bells in Brooklyn by the Bridge


First day in New York. Williamsburg Bridge in the AM. Mostly jet lagged and tired. It’s so much noisier here. It’s nice to ring those loud little bells and hardly make a dent.

SUNSET? 2/14/08

Happy Valentine's Day from 35,000 feet



My row mate kept an eye on the sun and gave progress reports every once in a while. Our best guess for the time of the sunset was around 5:30. As it turned out, we were flying over Minnesota. My row mate was born there and he recognized it on the seatback map.

Ringing in the Plane #1

Today's flight was the first of about 1/2 dozen plane flights I plan to take over the next few weeks. By the end of the series of flights, my dream is to have everybody on the plane ringing bells at either sunrise or sunset.
Have you ever tried to figure out the exact time and place at any given moment when you are in an airplane? Try it. It's easier to judge when the sun is going down than it is to tell the time.


First we tried to take pictures out the window. Those photos captured a nice image of the wing of the plane, but you can't tell much about the position of the sun. So then I ran to the back of the plane where the flight attendants gather, hoping to get a shot from one of those little side windows. Big mistake. The attendants pounced on me, yelling "Get away from the window! You can't go near the window!"
So then I ran back to our row because time had run out. We watched the map channel on the seat TV and rang our bells. The quiet ones. Some people noticed but in the end it was less of a celebration than a job neatly and efficiently done.

SUNRISE 2/14/08

Malcolm's Girlfriend



Look very quickly in the beginning at the distant fence. She's hard to see, but there she is again. Same place as before. That stare down kitty. She is my cat's sweetheart.

SUNSET 2/13/08

Strangers in the Dream



Saying goodbye to the day and my friend with the quiet little song.

SUNRISE 2/13/08

Bird and a Wire



This is a pretty fair representation of what's happening both in my head and in the yard at this moment in the earliness.

SUNSET 2/12/08

Te Quiero Siempre



Bell Lullabye

SUNRISE 2/12/08

Stare Down This Cow



We are looking at the new cowbell while I am ringing the old one. Doesn't this scene feel familiar? Looking at that cow face reminds me of that little cat from the other day who just sat there and didn't move either.

SUNSET 2/11/08

Cowbell in the Fog

My Lucky Day and Foggy Night

I can't multi-task. On the way home I stopped to pick up some dinner I had ordered. While I was sitting in my car waiting for my food to be ready, I was talking on the cell phone. While chatting away, I put my keys away in my purse, got out of the car, locked the door and started to cross the street before I realized I had left my purse on the car seat. My bag of bells was also on the seat.

Fortunately I had my wallet in my pocket so after I picked up my dinner and called AAA I decided to try to find a bell to ring. Just in case. It was nearing sundown and I had no idea how long it would take the AAA guy to come. Again, I was lucky enough to be parked in front of a hardware store so I went inside and asked if they had any bells. They didn't have much of a selection, but they did have a cowbell. With a picture of a cow on it.

This must have been my lucky day, because the AAA man came and got my car open in time for me to grab the camera and run to the corner. So that's the new cowbell ringing in the fog this evening.

SUNRISE 2/11/08

A Typically Lovely Morning



Listen...

SUNSET 2/10/08

Bouncing Off the Window



Shooting at a neighbor's window, catching the last bit of color from the sun.

SUNRISE 2/10/08

Pat and Brenda Ring in the Morning



The mornings are picking up! Pat is the third guest so far this year to join me in the sunrise ringing. It's nice to have company. So who else is out there ringing the sun up?

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.