Comments on: Listening ahead to 2009

By: Jon Roberts

Jon Roberts — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:07:06 +0000

Well said Paul. I remember some commentator making a similar comment in the album notes for one of the Miles Davis/Gil Evans records. Someone asked him to explain why jazz was important, and he said it was like romance. If you don’t enjoy it in the first place, you won’t be convinced by arguments.

By: Paul Adams

Paul Adams — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:40:06 +0000

I guess a taste for quiet is like a taste for fine wine, honesty, and kindness: difficult to explain to those who do not have it.

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:16:52 +0000

Geez, Dan, there’s just so much you don’t get. First, Hempton’s not trying to stop anyone from flying, just adjusting the trajectory. What’s selfish is your (apparent) unwillingness to consider the effect you have on anyone else. And the silence he’s (we’re) seeking isn’t the absence of sound, but the absence of the unnecessary intrusions of human-made sound over pristine national lands, part of the heritage that belongs to us all and that can’t be preserved with a set of bloody earplugs. Again, very selfish of you to not even consider it; to hold everyone else in slavery to the noise you produce. Besides, it’s hardly a “whim,” but a deeply held passion for the protection of a national treasure that, like countless species in the Amazon rain forest, is highly endangered before people even realize what they are losing. Stop…for just a moment. Turn the engines off so you can hear yourself think…just for a moment…or two…or three. Listen…the silence just might have something to teach you.

By: Dan Abbott

Dan Abbott — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:06:03 +0000

Don’t you think it’s a bit selfish to try to stop airplanes from flying in the big blue sky when silence can be obtained with an inexpensive set of earplugs? Put to yourself in a pilot’s seat and try to keep up with all the regulations that are out there already. Is this the land of the free or is it the land of slavery to everyone’s whims?

By: Alan Gregory

Alan Gregory — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:39:15 +0000

I couldn’t help but purchase a copy of your book the moment I saw it. The “nature silence” day I remember the most at present is the first Saturday after 9/11. I was on active duty at the time at Langley Air Force Base in southeastern Virginia and knew quite well by the afternoon of the disaster that regular commercial airline traffic was grounded for at least another week. After three nights of working the night shift, I managed to gain enough free off-duty time to visit a favorite natural area of mine, the 1115,000-acre Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge two hours away from Norfolk, Va. I remember well my morning hike that day along the 4.5-mile Washington Ditch trail to Lake Drummond, one of only two natural lakes in all of Va. By this time in my Air Force career, I knew quite well that the refuge was under the approach and takeoff patterns for the Norfolk airport as well as Oceana Naval Air Station. But on this day, not a single aircraft, military or civilian, flew over. It was a wonderful sound, not having to hear the “noise” of jet aircraft climbing to cruise altitude while passing overhead. The only sounds I heard that day were wild, free-living sounds — of songbirds, an barred owl, and tundra swans on the surface of the 3,000-acre lake. Ironic that a tragedy spurred this new-found silence.

By: ed spargo

ed spargo — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:06:08 +0000

gordon: the faa probably routed those flights over olympic just to show who’s boss. they can take our silence away anytime, anyplace. crestone, colo residents told me that several years ago, the airforce made a point of using the local ridge for low altitude training, when dozens of uninhabited sites existed, to “teach those dirty hippies&spaced out gurus a lesson”

doug grinberg: are you coloradan? im in denver. is there a colo org for this cause? if not, lets start one!

By: Keith L. Becker

Keith L. Becker — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:45:15 +0000

Greetings.
Nay though I say, tis not silence. It’s that delicious quiet of the sort of place where, if a shrew some feet away russles some duff, you’ll hear it. If a cone falls some many yards away, you’ll hear it brush the bowes along its way to meet the forest floor.
It has made my morning, and perhaps my day to hear Gordon on Carl’s mightyfine Portland Oregon radio show, that now I know some one is on about some thing that I’ve thought about and wished I could do for years.
We should have acoustic equivalents of the International Dark Sky Association.
Now some memories (Death Vally night) are geting in here, so, lest I diggress egriegiously (never mind my spelling skills, ya’ll) I’ll key off.
Thank You Gordon, and all your associates, for all that you’re doing.
K.

By: Dennis Paul Hastings

Dennis Paul Hastings — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:55:41 +0000

No comments. Amazing. I think that one of the greatest problems with our modern world is the fact that we cannot get away from noises that are mechanical and/or industrial in nature. I am an ardent outdoorsman and one of my greatest loves are the sounds of nature, and even the silence of nature. I know a couple of places around Mt. Adams that are perfectly silent at times. Some people, I have found, are unsettled by this, but I have been known to hike in the wilderness by myself, for days, and I find this activity enthralling.

It is a sad testament to our helplessness to all of the noise that one of my favorite ‘must have’ items is a small bag of hi-tech earplugs. If I won the lottery I would give generously to this foundation, guaranteed. thankyou for your efforts and for the artistic expose of that one thing that is almost gone from the modern world… silence.

By: Doug Grinbergs

Doug Grinbergs — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:58:40 +0000

April 29 is 14th Annual International Noise Awareness Day. People who care about aviation noise in the national parks could take the opportunity to make a fuss with the new Secretary of the Interior Kan Salazar, as well as the FAA and DOT. We can also help raise awareness of the NPS Natural Sounds Program and its activities (in Colorado).

By: Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:35:48 +0000

Just bought your book today (March 29 2009) and read it all the way through nonstop. Very informative and inspiring. It is wonderful to “hear” through the ears of someone who notices subtle details that city people like myself overlook. I will literally never hear my environment the same.

Like you, I grew up around Washington. I lived for a while in Rosslyn, directly under National Airport’s flight path. That was something else! It is disheartening to hear about your walk along the C&O Canal, and how the intruding sounds increased as you got closer to Washington.

Is there an acoustic equivalent to the International Dark Sky Association?