Sunday, 23 May, 2004

al Ciqada I've been meaning to get a picture of one of these little demons for the past few days. You'd think that would be easy, there's only a few million of them out there. The squirrels have eaten most of the ones wandering around on the ground and their wings have dried so that they're flying now. Mostly they're up in the trees at this point. I went outside with a flashlight and this one flew down to me. The outside of my building is covered with cicadas as though with ivy. Maybe I'll get a picture of that tomorrow. The main impression they leave on me is the sound. Its been building for a week and a half now and the intensity and quality of the sound has changed subtly each day. The first few days it was a faint background noise intermittent and stuttering. It sounded like someone trying to start up a car with a dead battery. Gradually its been changing into a constant and universal and inescapable) sound. An omni-directional 60 hertz hum. Its a very strange sensation to be walking or biking outside and hear this sound that doesn't come from any particular distance, that doesn't get closer to you or further away as you move and no matter how you turn your head or your body around never seems to have a direction of origin. My friend Robert maintains that this background chirping has the quality of coming from a mid distance - as though it was coming to you from a constant fifty yards off. I thought that was apt, but to me it seemed to be further out. In the last day or so the sound has seemed to possess layers. Two inside the main one, one that raises and lowers in pitch periodically (which can startingly loud at times), and a positive buzzing close at hand that still isn't coming from any of the little buggers you can see. 11:47:45 PM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2004 Paul Bushmiller. Last update: 6/08/04; 09:40:04.