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Alarming Songs
Tue, 07/12/2005 - 08:46 — deadprogrammer
A few weeks ago I walked around Brooklyn and heard a loud bird singing in a tree. Something seemed peculiar about the song pattern, and it took me a couple of minutes of listening to it to understand what. The bird went "cheeerp - cheeuuuu, cheeeerp - cheeuuuu, chirp - chirp -chirp - chirp" - emulating the complicated sounds of those "Cheap-ass go off every ten minutes car alarmsTM" that emit tones of 4 or 5 different sirens. I really wish I had a voice recorder of some kind there with me. Apparently it's nothing new - apparently starlings and mocking birds are known to imitate just about anything, car alarms included. Some Brooklyn "artist" even created a car alarm that emits bird songs instead of sirens, thus completing the circle of mimicry. Running Themes100 Views of the Empire State Building
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Comments
There used to pet parrot on N 7th street in Williamsburg that would shriek car alarm noises at me every evening as I walked home from the subway. Haven't seen/heard it in a while, though.
Parrots are always cool. Arrr.
Notice how the loudest, most often heard car alarms in your neighbourhood are usually installed on cars that no one would ever want to steal?
It's only a matter of time before mockingbirds start singing the most popular ringtones.
Well, it's because it is usually the cheapest. Or the oldest.
I bet.
When you can start your car with a screwdriver, it's time for it to retire... :-)
They already singing ring tones.
I must be the only person who finds these bird calls amusing. A mocking bird near my home once sang as a car alarm...After a few weeks the neighbors got annoyed and shot the poor creature.
Ah, too bad that does not happen much to offending cars.
I recall one time practicing some jazz tune on my piano when a woodpecker decided he was going to accompany me.
Also, there's a wonderful scene in The Bear Comes Home (great book, btw, especially for you jazz fans out there) in which one of the characters teaches a bird to sing "Well You Needn't". The author swears this is a true story.
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