Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Day29.Ciudad Juarez.

Listen
one bell, one honk



We sailed over the bridge into Juarez as we look across the road at the bumper-to-bumper traffic headed towards the US and thought about how we’d have to deal with that later.

In the meantime, Krys had brought her audio recorder and binaural mics and we were excited. We drove all over the place, ringing the bell as we drove the congested streets, adding to the already sound saturated air. Music blasting from speakers on the sidewalk, people walking around singing to themselves, cars, shouting- it felt very different than where we had come from.

Listen
In an alleyway: an arc welder being used to fix a vending cart, music and voices spilling from the doorways, the bell




People were in the streets- moving, sitting, standing. All very close by and moving at a human pace, not fast. So we could talk to people as we passed, and they could talk back or jus walk behind the car and ring the bell. People were curious about the bell. Some pointed. Many smiled. Others gave a thumbs’-up. And lots of people rang the bell.



Listen
the bell playing on the upbeat




It was very hot but we stayed for a long time, bumping along some very rough streets until we decided to leave. By then we were so disoriented that we didn’t know which way to go. So we stopped and asked someone how to get to El Paso. The tallest building in the town was the Cathedral and the only instruction on the map was a fairly detailed drawing of that structure (including the cross) and some well-placed arrows. And a single reassuring little indication of our destination: “TX.”



Listen
around the cathedral of Juarez for the third time: trucks, drumming and bell




The line back to El Paso was very, very long. Vendors sold fruit, water, candy apples, nuts. Someone had a statue of an eagle on a rock in one hand and a painting of “Mary Queen of Heaven” in the other. That was all he had to sell. We moved very slowly and rang the bell upon request by slamming on the brakes now and then to get the bell moving quickly. Once we saw a woman looking all around as she tried to locate the source of the bell, and when she saw it, she seemed really happy and pleased to ring the bell. And we passed out the postcards to everyone. By the time we got to the checkpoint, we’d had enough of the bell for the day, but the border guard was curious and so she was the last one to ring it and wish us well.




Then we set off to La Cruces. Krys rang the bell once more in the parking lot at Best Buy where we got the audio cable we needed so we could start posting the sounds of the day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great project. When i first saw your question as to why people may not have wanted to ring the bell, I thought of bells in history. Bells for weddings, bells for time, bells for warning disaster, bells for war, funerals, weddings, and even to call to school. Perhaps people were reluctant to ring a 'society' tool for personal use. I wondered if there was a goal to one of the early signs: ring the bell for a dollar--fund raiser for blank or blank, or ring the bell for a loved one...and a cause of a need of a group? Would people steeped in the use of bell have responded, or chimed in (pun intended) differently? Nevertheless, the bell sound waves diminish as sound energy waves can be measured diminishing; however, can the waves of peoples' experience of this bell going on and on, as unmeasurable maybe as the human heart, be measured? I wonder how, as you are wondering: how are people feeling of the bell? ahh, will wonders never cease.
thanks for the good carry through of a long haul of many images, sounds of tire and bell and scenes of simple life, peoples, of the trip. wow, i can go back again and again for more.
sincerely, david

Anonymous said...

What a great project. When i first saw your question as to why people may not have wanted to ring the bell, I thought of bells in history. Bells for weddings, bells for time, bells for warning disaster, bells for war, funerals, weddings, and even to call to school. Perhaps people were reluctant to ring a 'society' tool for personal use. I wondered if there was a goal to one of the early signs: ring the bell for a dollar--fund raiser for blank or blank, or ring the bell for a loved one...and a cause of a need of a group? Would people steeped in the use of bell have responded, or chimed in (pun intended) differently? Nevertheless, the bell sound waves diminish as sound energy waves can be measured diminishing; however, can the waves of peoples' experience of this bell going on and on, as unmeasurable maybe as the human heart, be measured? I wonder how, as you are wondering: how are people feeling of the bell? ahh, will wonders never cease.
thanks for the good carry through of a long haul of many images, sounds of tire and bell and scenes of simple life, peoples, of the trip. wow, i can go back again and again for more.
sincerely, david