from our fortress on the hill
san francisco, CA
originally written april 24, 2001
it is our job to watch over the city
we hear everything.
a fog horn, a boat in the bay.
gunshots.
the j church line, rattling down the tracks.
sounds make their way up through the cold air:
white noise of
thousands of cpu fans
washing machines
car engines
humming street lights
people breathing in their sleep
from our perch we are audio experts
documenting the noises of a living city
on the insides of our heads,
to each other out loud
"did you hear that?" we will say, at 3am, after a striking noise
"what was that?" we will say, decide, and file it...
the conversation went like this:
"Yeah, I'm in Manhattan, on Lex. Order a lot of coal. I'm gonna need it in four days. They're all bad here this year. Some Grinch stole my iPhone and I'm calling you on a public...