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Showing posts from January, 2015

Silent Moving: A Soundtrack Real

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January 2015 A fair chunk of what I write about in this blog are the upstream thoughts the break loose and float silently into view as I ride my bike along the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton. I keep a Go Pro on my handlebars to preserve the scenes. And, then, typically, I add music as I edit the video, falsifying it all. Falsifying it toward a kind of truth, for sure. The music does stand in for feeling of the ride, music suggested by the sky or the light or the joy of it all. But the truth is that the rides are very quiet. No car radio. No bass line. No iPod. No screens emitting sounds of any kinds. But there are things to hear. Below are seven short pieces in real-time flows of a morning commute earlier this month. Together, they make a silent case for why I talk so much about riding a bicycle. Chapter One (38 seconds): Cars Cars Cars Cars Cars Then No Cars On days like this, as I pedal north on the 142 St. service road, the red-eyed, segmented, million-ton