[Trombone-l] Cicada Sounds

[Bill Dinwiddie]

Want to hear the cicadas? Perhaps you've already heard enough of them. If 
you live where I do, you haven't heard any cicadas yet. Cicadas are the big 
thing in Chicago this year. The 17-year variety have emerged from the ground 
and are humming up a storm. Some places in the Chicago area are experiencing 
very loud levels of the little guys' mating calls. Other areas, like where I 
live, are not experiencing any sound at all. I have yet to hear or see one 
of these creatures. Thankfully, Peter Gena of Glenview, IL has made a 
digital, real time audio stream of the little beasties and it is available 
for you to listen if you so desire.

Go to this site:

http://www.nujus.net/~locusonus/site/streams/mapcreacast.php

You will see a blurry world map. Click on the lowest box by Chicago. It will 
be colored orange if the audio stream is on. (Have patience: it takes a 
while for this stuff to load on your computer, even if you have cable). The 
male cicadas only vibrate their tiny internal drums between roughtly 6 AM 
and 6 PM, and usually only on warm days. When the new box appears, click 
start. (Actually, the sound just started up without this step on my 
computer.) Have your volume turned down a little as the sound is actually 
quite loud. You can turn it up later.

Peter Gena says: "The sound begins each morning with this incredible din of 
thousands of insect bodies vibrating all at once. It's like a warble and a 
rumble all at the same time, like nothing you've ever heard. Then you hear 
the sounds closer by, filled with these wonderful subtleties of beats, 
volume, all kinds of acoustical phenomena. If it weren't so loud - it's 
getting close to deafening by now - it would be music suitable for 
meditation."

Thanks to John Van Rhein's Tribune article for the details.

Enjoy,

Bill Dinwiddie
billdin at comcast.net