Whose Silence Bothers You the Most?

The Day the Music Died?

A poster promoting Britain's "Day without Music" this year.

November 21st, the day before Thanksgiving in the United States was Britain's Day Without Music. Bill Drummond initiated the day three years ago as an extension of his own experiment with aural fasting. Here's a link to the official site, as well as a wonderful Salon.com article about the viability of escaping the incessant drone of of manipulative music in public spaces in America and learning how to listen again. What do you think?

http://www.nomusicday.com/

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/11/22/no_music_day/

Silent Movies

Love 'em? Hate 'em? Favorites? Why?
(FYI, the image above is from the gorgeous silent film, "The Passion of Joan of Arc". Click on the words "Silent Movies" for a wonderful database of silent cinema.)

What about the use of silence in the "modern" cinema? How about any scenes in which there is neither dialogue or music? Do you find the sound design of current popular cinema overwhelming or exciting? Why?

Hearing Aids

How has your relationship to sounds and silence changed as you have aged? Have you “heard” less or more as you’ve matured? How do you think this has affected people’s perception of you?

Youth and Silence

Below is a piece written by a young man at one of our "Conversations on Silence" held at a Public Library in Baltimore last night. If you are a young person, or interact with young people, or were at one of our library conversations, or have a piece of spoken word poetry, or have anything to say on this subject, please hit "comment" and add your voice to the dialogue.

"Free"
by Loverboy (aka., James Otis Thompson, Jr.)

I am Trapped in a cage sinking
Below the water

But I struggle to say
I can't Breathe

There are many fish in the sea
but I stand alone

But I struggle to say I
can't breathe

I've been shaped, re-placed
I've seen myself - so much I
wonder if I have the only face

i feel as though god gave me the
key and said let everyone be Free!!!

But I struggle to say
I can Breathe. . .

Free Speech?

The next question for comment: Is silence generally liberating or oppresive to you? Has this changed for you over time?

(Click on "comment" below to leave your story/thoughts.)

I Hear What You're Saying

This week's question: In what ways have you experienced communication without spoken language? What were these experiences like?

(In case you're interested, the images above are from the "typographic ballet" Body Language, in which a dancer contorts herself inside a specially-constructed spandex bag to create letters from the human form. Performed by: Amy Oldham)