It’s been with us now for 36 hours, a brash wind from the coast. It pulled down one of our potted bamboo trees, a goliath now on the ground with a broken pot. There will be a replanting today. In these 36 hours, doors have slammed throughout the complex, people have rushed to gather up their things that blew out of their hands, hats have been tossed. The sound of the wind is what stirs me most –air molecules zipping about causing a wispy sound somewhere in the range of 2kHz – 6kHz when it’s slight and then a deeper crashing tone when it pushes other debris in its wake.
The language of English can be odd sometimes as the word wind can be a noun or a verb and mean something quite different. Funny that.
Borrowed bits from our Dictionary.com friend, I found
noun:
1. air in natural motion, as that moving horizontally at any velocity along the earth’s surface
or my favorite:
2. air that is blown or forced to produce a musical sound in singing or playing an instrument as in “wind instrument“.
The word’s origin: before 900; Middle English (noun), Old English; cognate with Dutch, German Wind, Old Norse vindr, Gothicwinds, Latin ventus
Have you ever thought about the word “window”? Yes, it’s a portal through which to see but it’s also something to keep the wind out. (windowt…or maybe not if it’s open as mine is at the moment.)
ASIDE: And now from a bit of research, I found something most excellent: Thinkmap’s Visual Thesaurus! Of course, I subscribed right away. Being an educator and a writer, this will enhance many a class lecture and a few blog posts, I’m sure. Oh, happy Monday morning.
Breeze, now there’s a charming word. I tried it on my new visual thesaurus and a load of wonders appeared on my screen: it’s a light wind, yes, but can be used as a verb as well as in: “I breezed through that exam.” Or it can be a noun of a different meaning as in: “That exam was a breeze, a cinch, a piece of cake, a snap.” How I love language!
And then I remembered that my favorite story, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” written by L. Frank Baum in 1900 begins with, “Chapter 1. The Cyclone“. Now that’s DRAMA!
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About danaj33
I have been teaching in the Broadcast Electronic Media Art department at City College of San Francisco since 2001. I was a part-time faculty member until 2009 when I became full-time.
My career as an audio engineer spans 27 years since the first day I began to record and mix songs on my Tascam PortaStudio (cassetter 4-track) in the early 80's while attending college at UC Berkeley. I formed a couple of bands and sang lead (sometimes playing rhythm guitar) until 1988 when I discovered that the "behind-the-scenes" tech realm was much more to my liking. I love how an audio engineer controls the ENTIRE sound mix, and not just one's own instrument. I then began a career as a live sound engineer in earnest and have toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe as front-of-house sound engineer for a multitude of bands on various record labels (most notably "Medicine" on American Recordings) and have been a staff engineer at the venerable Bottom of the Hill nightclub since their inception in 1991. The club and its staff are like family.
I have maintained a live sound production company since 1989 called dcj Productions that has provided sound to the Bay Area community (mostly in the non-profit sector) in both large outdoor sound events as well as nightclubs and music halls.
In 1991, I started recording bands on an 8-track Tascam TSR-8 analog tape recorder and moved into the digital realm in 1993 to 16-tracks of Alesis ADAT connected to a Soundcraft Ghost console in my home studio.
In 1995, I advanced to Pro Tools and have been recording exclusively digital ever since, combining audio skills in sound for film as a location recordist as well as an engineer in post-production sound design and mixing. I remained "strictly analog" in my live sound mixing until just this past year (2012). Now that one can obtain a decent, live sound digital mixer at an affordable price, it was high time to check out digital for live. I now have a Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2 to work on with my students to give them much needed hands-on experience with a digital console.
I co-owned and ran APG Records & APG Studios, an SF record label and recording studio, from 1999 - 2004 which had a distribution deal through EMI. The company folded in 2004. I continue to record music and engineer live performances at many Bay Area venues in addition to full-time teaching at CCSF.
In 2001, I was hired to the part-time faculty at City College of San Francisco in the Broadcast Electronics Media Arts department where I have taught many of the classes including Digital Media Skills (BCST119), Basic Audio Production (BCST120), Digital Audio Production (BCST124), Sound Recording Studio (BCST125), Sound For Visual Media (BCST126), Advanced Sound Recording (BCST127), Sound Reinforcement (BCST128), Audio for the Web (BCST135), Video for the Web (BCST136), and Field Video Production (BCST145). I have also taught classes in sound design, audio for animation and games, music video, and computer applications at Art Institute of California-San Francisco, Globe Recording Institute, and Laney College in Oakland, CA.
A few CCSF Projects:
- Produced a promotional video for the Math
department Bridge Program titled "Quadratic Rap".
- Produced a new employee orientation video for
the Human Resources department at CCSF
- Coordinated audio for camera - SF Mayoral
Debate, Fall 2011
- Coordinator of Audio Industry Advisory Panel for
BEMA, Fall 2011
- Co-Coordinator of Video Industry Advisory Panel for
BEMA, Spring 2012
Outside Affiliations:
- past Vice President and Interim President Board of Directors -
Bay Area Girls Rock Camp
- past volunteer/contributor to Women's Audio Mission
- past member Bay Area Women in Media and Film
- current member of Audio Engineering Society
- current Board of Directors for Camp Reel Stories
Interesting post – I also thought of the saying, “taking the wind out of one’s sails”!