Portland Saturday Market
I love the soundtrack of a city. It is a hodgepodge of sounds. Sometimes harmonious. Sometimes just noise.
The above photo was taken at Portland’s Saturday Market. On the left is a street preacher. On the right is a street musician.
The musician
The preacher
The audio clip above was recorded and not mixed. Give a listen. At first I thought these two were at odds, trying to drown each other out. But the more I listened, the more they seemed to fit together–as if the musician was providing the urban soundtrack to the sermon. You also get an AMTRAK train and a street drummer across the street into the mix. Harmony? Noise? You decide. It is all part of the eclectic sounds of the city.
I’m going to steal your idea and take an audio recorder with me next trip. I started to think about this when I was riding the new Canada Line in Vancouver early this month. There is an interesting sound there to capture. Portland also had sounds I wanted to save. The sound of the trains, the cyclists’ warnings as they passed, the violin played on the street corner. I may skip the roar of the I-5 beside the Eastside Esplanade.