Sound Blog

I decided to ‘listen’ to my surroundings whilst walking home from work one night. I live and work in the same neighborhood, but the distance between my apartment and job is about 20 minutes when walking. Since I work on Third Avenue, it’s always unfailingly noisy. The first thing I heard after exiting the store was the unfailing siren of an ambulance, which is a given since I work basically in eyesight of Lenox Hill Hospital. It happened to be a very windy night, so I could catch the whistling sound from the gusts of overpowering wind sporadically. I could hear the noises of my own phone periodically going off in my pocket, having ignored its obtrusiveness. As I continued to walk down Third I heard the ‘swooshing’ sound of cars and taxis driving past, with their drivers regularly beeping at each other, which can easily become unobtrusive to some one who lives in Manhattan. I heard the noise of my shoes hitting the sidewalk, of other people’s footsteps. I overheard bits and glimpses of people’s conversations and laughs as we walked past each other. I could hear the echoes of people talking loudly from the restaurants I was walking past, their voices collectively making their way outside to the sidewalk as one loud voice. I could hear the music blaring from some people’s headphones or from cars driving past with their windows open. I could hear the sounds of the Uptown Bus’ doors opening and closing. Hearing all the noise made me miss the quietness of my hometown.