Saturday, July 11, 2009

Round Robin: Silenced

This week's Round Robin topic is "Silence," as suggested by Monica of Shutterly Happy. It's tricky to depict an auditory experience in a visual medium, let alone the lack of sound, and for a long time I had no clue how to handle it. My eventual solution was to photograph something that clearly produced sound in the past, but has now clearly been silenced. Here we go!

From Round Robin Photo Challenges

The pictures above decorate the former upper-story windows of the venerable Chicago Music Store (founded 1919) in downtown Tucson. I'm honestly not sure whether the guy with the guitar is supposed to depict Jerry Garcia or someone else (Willie Nelson?), but the person in the next window over is Jimi Hendrix, whose music was silenced decades ago. Yes, we can still hear it, but not coming from him - and certainly not coming from that painted window!



Same story with Janis Joplin at the other end. And although two of the Beatles are still alive, their collective voice as a group was silenced in 1970, breaking through again only briefly when Anthology came out.



I've written a couple of times this week about a power failure we had on Tuesday, which drove me out of the silent house. On Friday evening the power went out again! One second Rachel Maddow was coming on - the next, the tv screen went dark and silent, and so did the air conditioner above the tv to the right.



This time the power was only off for a few minutes, but the noise of our electric appliances didn't exactly roar into life right away. When I turned the tv back on, I had to turn on the cable box too. It promptly displayed this screen, silently, until I fiddled with it to try to get an actual station again.

I may be able to come up with something more, later today, but that will have to do for now. Meanwhile, have a look at everyone else's silent photos!

Linking List

Monica - Posted!
Shutterly Happy
http://monica-frameofmind.blogspot.com


Steven - Posted!
(sometimes)photoblog
http://www.sometimesphotoblog.com/

Suzanne R - Posted!
SuzyQ421's Photo Blog
http://suzyq421sphotoblog.blogspot.com/

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Terri
Ways I See the World
http://teelgeephotos.blogspot.com/

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Sherrie - Posted!
Sherrie's Stuff
http://sherrie-plummer.blogspot.com/

Joanna
Up on Haliburton Hill
http://uponhaliburtonhill.blogspot.com

Molly Mavis - Posted!
Visual Dialogues
http://visualdialogues.wordpress.com

Meg - Posted! (New Blog Name) - Carly
Free From The Pit
http://www.inquestoffreedom.com/2009/07/round-robin-challenge-silence.html

Linda - Posted!
Linda's Window
http://www.lindaswindow.blogspot.com/

Sandra - Posted!
A Cappuccino A Day
http://www.Acappuccinoaday.blogspot.com

Alexa - Posted!
Imagination Pounces
http://imaginationpounces.blogspot.com

Chrissie - Posted!
Chrissea's Corner
http://chrisseascorner.wordpress.com

ellen b - Posted!
The Happy Wonderer
http://happywonderer.wordpress.com/

Martha - Posted!
Menagerie
http://meandering-martha.blogspot.com/

Kara **Welcome, new member!**
Hip Chick's Home
http://hipchickshome.blogspot.com/

Kelly **Welcome, new member!** - Posted!
A Goddess Rising
http://agoddessrising.blogspot.com/

betty - Posted!
A Corgi in Southern California
http://acorgiinsoutherncalifornia.blogspot.com/2009/07/sound-of-silence.html

Linda (OC’s Mom) **Welcome New Member** Posted!
Country Corgis
http://countrycorgis.blogspot.com/

Peggy - Posted!
Holmespunfun Memes and Themes
http://holmespunfunmemesandthemes.blogspot.com

Annie **Welcome New Member** - Posted!
Annie's Home
http://
shopannies.blogspot.com/2009/07/one-of-my-favorite-peaceful-places.html

Betty**Welcome New Member** - Posted!
A Glimpse into Midlife
http://glimpseintomidlife.blogspot.com

Vicki - Posted!
Beach Bum
http://2babb.blogspot.com


Ruth**Welcome New Member** - Posted!
The Scrabble Queen, Knits Too

http://scrabblequeen.wordpress.com


And please check out my other entries below if you get a chance. Thanks!

Karen

10 comments:

betty said...

sorry about the power outage; those are never fun to deal with. We lost our internet the other day except I didn't realize it at the time, I thought it was my computer only until I started checking other ones (2 hours later) and realized internet was down (duh)

loved the pictures depicting silence. Very clever about the music that was silenced

enjoy the day

betty

Sherrie said...

Hi!
Love your photos of music legends that are now silenced. Very good art work! Mine is posted. Have a great day!

Sherrie
http://sherrie-plummer.blogspot.com/2009/07/saturday-memes.html

ellen b said...

Great shots for the theme Karen!! Have a good weekend...

Anonymous said...

Very clever indeed.
Love those paintings of the musicians, great photos!

I'm grinning ear to ear! Well done and smart!

Carly said...

Hi Karen

I love the top photos of the music store. Gosh, it's not easy to find music stores anymore, it's seems more and more are closing. I would love to see the whole building, it looks like a really interesting place. Does it have any sort of rich history behind it?

-Carly

Suzanne R said...

Your music store photos were so cleverly and nicely done. Such a neat idea! You and I had the same thought about the TV being off, except mine didn't go off involuntarily, which is always maddening. Great post!

Anonymous said...

Karen,
What a brilliant idea. Something that made noise in the past, but is now silenced (in more ways than one)
Excellent photo's at that music store and I'd love to check that out someday!

Monica said...

I love how you approached this and showed the musicians that are now silenced. The store also looked like an interesting place to explore.

As for the loss of electricity where you live, ouch, I'd be very cranky without air conditioning. The TV wouldn't bother me.

Margaret said...

A power outage would cause some serious silence at my house!! Loved the originality of the paintings. Great choices.

Mary Kontrary said...

I think ~ you have a very cool blog! I always enjoy coming here and seeing what you are up to. :) I've given you a Kreativ Blogger Award; check it out: http://justonemorepageblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/this-award-was-given-to-me-by-missy-at.html