Eight Listening Lounge producers gathered on the frigid Mall in the nation’s capital last Saturday. The mission: to record one minute of sound. The 60 seconds are strung together here for your enjoyment. It’s not quite 8 minutes flat, but it’s close enough. The producers are listed here in order of the sound clip: Jocelyn Frank, Selena Simmons-Duffin, Tina Tennessen, Ben Pagac, Melati Keye, Dan Poppy, Teague Lyons, and Ben Bloom.

2010 Recording Spree #1: The Mall

You’re Hot played at the 2009 Sound Scene installation — here is dj bent’s artist statement: This piece by dj bent documents the first visit to a gun range by her 14 year old god daughter. Guns are controversial, but they exist, and knowledge of their use will be crucial to survive the coming/present apocalypse, whether it includes zombies or not; dj bent and her goddaughter are set on survival. Guns that we shot included two rifles (Savage Arms 64F and Yugo SKS), five semi automatic hand guns (Ruger MK II, Walther P1, Makarov, CZ52 and Colt 1911), and one fully automatic machine gun (NFA HK 416) to cap off the day at Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Virginia, where they even have zombie posters for target practice. With thanks to our teacher Dexter and help from dj mothersheister and dj rAt.

>Listen to You’re Hot by dj bent (3:02)

Credit: dj bent

This is a recording of the call to prayer and rush hour at sunset in July 2007, recorded by DC Listening Lounge member Maureen Loughran. She writes,”This picture was taken by my sister Kate. It is a view of the mosques across the Nile at sunset, when the recording was done. The squiggly lines in the sky are kites that were flown at this time of day everyday, while the call to prayer was happening.”

> Listen to Cairo by Maureen Loughran (4:20)

There was much recent hubbub over Obama’s first 100 days but nothing compares to the first. Listen to a collection of inaugural sounds, from the festive to the entrepreneurial, with a celebrity appearance by Denzel Washington, and more…all for only $40.99.

>Listen to Ohhh-ba-ma! by Ben Bloom (8:53)

In this audio piece, DC Listening Lounge member Vige Millington stumbles across a story of summer love and icy fruit flavors. It was recorded at an elusive snow cone stand in Northwest DC.

>Listen to Ice by Vige Millington (1:40)

This audio piece comes from DC’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, recorded by DC Listening Lounge members Ben Bloom and Tina Tennessen. “Beer and milk were never more convenient than the three years we had a grocery store in our basement. In that time we struck up a friendship with the store owner, Shital Patel. Every once in a while, we’d find him in a deep slumber behind the counter – but that’s excusable; the man works harder than anyone we know. In this recording we discover his musical tastes.”

> Listen to Lincoln Park Market (2:08), by Ben Bloom and Tina Tennessen

In this audio piece by DC Listening Lounge member Ginger Moored, hear the “behind the scenes” story of Metro’s popular peeps YouTube video. Ginger writes, “In general I’m interested in all-things-Metro because I used to work for the District Dept. of Transportation’s Mass Transit branch. The peeps You-Tube video caught my attention in particular because: 1) I thought it was hilarious; and 2) I was surprised something so out-of-the-ordinary came out of an institution where simply changing the colors of the Metrorail seat cushions was a huge ordeal. I wanted to know who came up with the peeps video idea, how the idea evolved, and how the video will change the way Metro does outreach in the future. Plus, I figured any conversation centered on peeps would be entertaining.”

> Listen to Peep Peep by Ginger Moored (4:28)

Image from Metro’s peeps video

Here is another piece from the audio map, this one by DC Listening Lounge member DJ Bent. It was one of the few recordings on the map from DC’s SW quadrant. DJ Bent writes, “This audio comes from January and February 2006, in and around the clubs at Half and O streets SW shortly before they were closed to make way for the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium. LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) businesses had been concentrated in that area for over thirty years and were displaced, largely without anywhere else to go, when the city used eminent domain to seize the land for the publicly funded stadium. Many community members who frequented the area – which included dance clubs, drag performances, numerous exotic dance venues (male and female) and more – bemoaned the loss of the area and the unique culture developed there. RIP – Ziegfield’s, Secrets, Glorious Health and Amusements, La Cage, Follies, HEAT, Edge/Wet, Club 55/Waaay Off Broadway, Nation, and the Half & O scene.”

>Listen to Half and O by DJ Bent (3:42)

DJ Bent is a reporter, audio gatherer, activist and co-host of “radio hybrid presents: gender apocalypse” with DJ Mothersheister on Radio CPR 97.5fm. She believes that exotic dance clubs, drag shows, prostitution strolls, cruising areas and public sex venues are all important parts of society and that meateaters should slaughter, clean and render their own animals for eating.

Here is another piece from the audio map, this one is recorded in Annandale, Virginia by DC Listening Lounge member Kat Shiffer. It is one of the pieces that made up the DC suburbs portion of the map. Says Kat, “This is a very ‘radio-y’ piece I created to play the role of the reporter. The story, the ambient sound, the car-like waves, and the blunt words (sometimes best left un-translated) made this a story I could’ve left as a more abstract piece - but I wanted to make this accessible to public radio ears. I don’t think reporting on the subject would’ve been possible - walking up to strangers standing along the highway - without a connection to the organizers at the Virginia Justice Center, who’ve forged some deep relationships with the workers and their families.”

>Listen to ESL Popular by Kat Shiffer (4:47)

Kat is a freelance journalist living in DC. Originally from the Midwestern hinterlands, she is interested in storytelling, growing food, and maybe even the confluence of both (!) check out ‘Garden Cycles’ on the inter-web for more. She’s done some other storytelling about workers in the past; documenting unions of unemployed workers in Argentina, and producing a documentary film about the changing identity of the worker in Bolivia.

We aim to start using this blog to showcase new audio pieces by DC Listening Lounge members — in the coming weeks will be posting audio pieces that were part of our audio map, featured at our Sound Scene II: Cartographies and Confessionals event in March 2008, in Mt. Pleasant.

“Hunger” by Jocelyn Frank was recorded along the main neighborhood arteries of Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights, Washington D.C. It was made possible through the help of the D.C Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The piece was featured on the audio map, as part of the group of pieces representing the city’s Northwest quadrant.

> Listen to Hunger by Jocelyn Frank (3:14)

Jocelyn Frank is an audio artist originally from West Bloomfield, Michigan. Her ears grew up strong on a on a steady diet of music; from singing in the car with mom to studying Oboe Performance at the University of Michigan School of Music, to travel around the world from Australia to Uganda. Such soundscapes combined with her professional work as a producer with National Public Radio inform and inspire her audio art.