Following remotely from a train as our friends Brian, Keira, Grant bring us from Quebec via ds106 radio not only the sounds of the student protests but the wise words of Harry:
@ds106radio "Freedom is fun." Harry. Amen little bro. #ds106radio
— GNA Garcia (@DrGarcia) June 22, 2012
The scene there shared by Grant:
We managed to be on the wrong street every night while in Montreal to witness the student protests, in fact, we just saw photos from Sherbrooke and University today’s activity where we walked this morning to the train station. There was a woman last night in the convenience store on Duluth who relayed a conversation of some people lamenting the repetition of it all, while the store owner’s only lament was losing a pan. There seems to be a veiled discomfort, even a tinge of embarrassment, or worse, apathy like “What the F**** are they complaining about?”
Just like the occupy movement last year, I feel on the curious periphery, and have this river of joy that where-ever you sit on an issue, you should sit somewhere. The mere fact that people are exercising a democratic right to voice disagreement is something to celebrate, not get our shorts in an uproar. Has society gotten so far from our roots of disagreement that is it all discomfortable?
Anyhow, what rung with me is that simple statement, “Freedom is Fun” – should we not have joy in this freedom? I’m sitting on a train trying to figure what to do with this message. Brian asked me to plug it into Google Translate, which on first pass came out with the horrible
“la liberté est un plaisir”
which thankfully Bryan Jackson jumped in with the more audiophonic:
@brlamb @cogdog "Liberte est amusant!" #ds106radio
— Bryan Jackson (@bryanjack) June 22, 2012
(I am playing with the new WordPress auto embed o twitter statuses…)
I took this version into Google and had it speak it aloud, which I was able to record in WireTapPro tp have as an audio file
I began mixing it with some audio I had collected in the StoryBox, one track of some kids in Hobart Tasmania chanting in a park, and anther of some kids and a plane overhead that i recorded… somewhere. I don;t know what this means with the mechanical french voice floating by. This is not even a ds106 assignment, but something about working with the media and thinking about this situation resonates, and at least keeps me from just rushing past this event like the passerby I am.
If anything working on this may have me pronouncing one French expression this week that I did not butcher horribly.
That’s awesome! Pulled together on the fly, no less. Cool audio result, as well.
I’ve been sitting in my English office today finishing up report card marks before heading into the woods tonight to party with Megan’s school friends… the sunny sounds of Montreal and, yes, Freedom, are calling.
Nice to be on the periphery witcha.
Bryan
On ne badine pas avec l’amour mais apparently la liberté is fair game. Good seeing you in Montréal.