When I think of the Hill District, I think of crime. I don’t think of the rich history of Jazz and “happenins”, but I think, “well to get to the Strip District, I have to go through this boarded up community that I wouldn’t send my cop-uncle through alone at night.” Type the Hill District into google News, and you you’ll find mixed articles about arrests and celebrating the culture of the Hill district, when it was the vibrant place it was, today. What our group discussed was “revamping the Hill District,” which in itself is an extremely broad idea. The first step to making a place desirable to go to though, is it make it safe. Our team has decided that we would like to build a campaign to ramp up safety in the hill district, starting with safety kiosks. These are just like the one you see in South Oakland, which can be pressed to alert authorities you need help if you feel unsafe. We aim to build a website for this as well as make a video or soundscape, something that drives patrons to the website to feel the need to contribute to this cause. We would use the old artistic appeal of the Hill District, mostly its Jazz scene, as a goal to move towards. But with the modern age, comes modern twists. Maybe the Hill district isn’t a Jazz scene, but the next Hip-Hop, soul, house music, or movie hub. The Hill District has the historic appeal, and I think it could sell itself in that regard, it just needs to be made safe first.

The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo certainly induced some tension for me. Mostly the music of the “monster”, or whatever the heck happened, was  what got me. I easily was able to put myself into the character’s shoes I was playing as since I played Pokemon, had sleep overs, and never had my own game console but had friends that had multiple ones. Way too relatable! Anyway, I was starting to get annoyed with the all the choices in the den as the game kept pushing me back into the den. I kept thinking there was one of the options that would just move me forward, but it was just as if you were watching your selfish friend play video games, you get annoyed and try to occupy yourself as the time finally passes. I didn’t realize this until the next time I replayed the game. Also, I wish I hadn’t played as if I were myself, because I ran to the bathroom and everything escalated so quickly, by the time it ended I was like WTH? However, playing it through again I quickly learned the whole idea behind the plot, and I thought the game to be really well played out. I liked that the possible endings were shown at the end so I could pick my choices while replaying and end up at that ending. I also did like how the game put the thoughts in the text as options, “you look blah blah blah, but you decide not to,” but if you click the blah blah blah that’s your actual answer.

I thought the first game had just enough text to not feel like it would drag on and it induced anxiety which demanded focus. I went through every other game available and didn’t like how much text it started off with. I couldn’t focus after the first game. So I finally landed on The Girl in the Haunted House, which escalated way too quickly…

In my recent soundscape I recorded a speech using my voice and aimed to replicate the sounds of a 1940s radio broadcast as if I were in the home of a listener. To start you will need your raw voice recording as well as the sound of vinyl static, as can be found here. Assuming you know how to upload and cut clips to size, your vinyl static should be cut or extended (by using copy paste) to match the length of your recording as I have here:

The next step is to use the selector tool to select your entire voice recording. Then, go to the effects tab and click the effect option “Equalizer”. You should have a flat line such as this:

If not, go ahead and hit the “Flatten” button on the bottom of the window. Your next move will be to click on the intersection of 12dB and 1,000HZ, and then next click on the intersection of -12dB and 10,000HZ. Your graph should look like this:

After hitting “OK”, you will be taken back to the editing window and you will notice that your voice recording will have increased in dB rating on both ends like this:

We need to fix this so the sound does not sound like the speaks are going to blow out. Select your voice entire recording again and go to the Effects tab and select “Normalize”. You will want to put your inputs to the following settings (Check yes to “Remove DC offset”, then normalize maximum amplitude to -1.0dB, and do not check the last box):

Hit “OK” and you are done! Go ahead and play with the volume on the vinyl static track to make sure it isn’t overpowering. This is a subjective quality, but in my opinion the recording I provided for the vinyl static is a tiny bit too loud. Enjoy!

There’s a student shuffling papers on a desk as a teacher groans on lecturing in a stuffy room of disinterested students. Coughs sprinkle the time and a restless leg shuffles moment to moment against the linoleum floor. The student closest to the listener opens a bottle of Snapple, with a pop giving the name justice as the cap twists with a quick press and a slow release, just so not to spill. After a few gulps the student rests his bottle and clicks the cap as the lecture drones. The clicks are few but unmissed by the teacher as she drags her heels slightly, walking across the faux-floor room. A ruler smacks a nearby desk, and a chair creeks in shock before the heels shuffle back to the front. A slow crescendo of accusations builds into the background bringing discontent to the teacher once more. “Hush!”  The scene is silent, forcing the listener to become aware of his own adjacent sounds outside of the headphones, just as the students are doing themselves in the midst of silence within the scene. A bell rings and the hurried stampede of back pack zippers, shutting binders, and chairs scratching the plastic floor flood into the right spectrum of hearing. A serious tone is heard on the left asking that “Travis come see me.” The lid is gripped to the lip of the bottle with a twist followed by footsteps in the immediate of the listener that slowly fade as the student walks away and the scene ends.

Snapple caps are passively occupying to the immediate mind, but actively distracting to the vicinity.