This thunderstorm in Utah goes well with scented candles if you don't get blown off the side of a mountain by a billion volts of electricity.
Surrounded by bison
Early August is the height of the bison rut at the American Prairie Reserve in Montana. Yesterday, we found a group of about 70 bison that were pawing the earth and challenging each other for mates. APR's bison management specialist Scott Heidebrink helped me get close to the herd without getting stomped and I couldn't have made the recordings without his help. Thanks, Scott!
Toads of Trinity now on NPR
Here's my story about the toads that sang us into the atomic age. Listen to The Toads of Trinity: Witnesses To The Atomic Age on NPR's Here & Now.
This July 16, 1945 photo, shows the mushroom cloud of the first atomic explosion at Trinity Test Site, New Mexico. (AP Photo)
The Toads of Trinity
They were all there. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the bomb. Edward Teller, the original Dr. Strangelove. Enrico Fermi, creator of the first nuclear reactor, was taking bets on whether the blast would ignite the atmosphere and destroy the world. The scientists were waiting, nervously, for the morning to come.
Robert Oppenheimer’s brother Frank couldn’t sleep. He was listening to the strange sound coming from the edge of camp on July 15, 1945, the night before Trinity. The world was about to enter the atomic age and Frank Oppenheimer was thinking about frogs.
It had rained that night, and “All the frogs in that area,” he recalled “had gathered in a little pond by the camp and copulated and squawled all night long.”
You can hear more about the "frogs" (toads, technically) of Trinity in a story I am producing for NPR that airs next week. I visited Trinity Base Camp several times over two summers in a quest to find and record those toads. Here's what they sounded like on August 1st, 2017 — and possibly on July 15, 1945 just before the world changed forever.
Here's a 360 degree video that allows you to see Trinity Base Camp in all directions. Just click on the screen and move the image.
This video was recorded on August 1, 2017 by Jeff Rice for the Acoustic Atlas at Montana State University. Copyright Jeff Rice, 2018. All rights reserved. 2 MAR 2018 APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE, DISTRIBUTION IS UNLIMITED
Support for my recordings at Trinity Base Camp was provided by the Acoustic Atlas at Montana State University.
New recordings from Yellowstone
I am glad to be working with Yellowstone National Park to edit a series of recordings from their ongoing soundscape research. I just received a hard drive with hundreds of hours of remote recordings from locations around the park. I even had a chance to make a few recordings of my own last week near Pebble Creek Pond in the Lamar Valley. I'll post a few to my Soundcloud page soon. Meanwhile, check out our Yellowstone collection at the Acoustic Atlas.
Pebble Creek Pond in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley. Photo by Jeff Rice
Sounds part of national PBS promotion
A film using many of my desert recordings has become a popular pledge item at PBS stations nationally. Check out Desert Dreams by filmmaker Thomas Wiewandt and support your local PBS-affiliate. Ken Burns called it “A beautiful meditation on nature’s harmony in what is perhaps America’s most under-appreciated landscape.”
Get in the Truck — official trailer
I had some fun creating sounds for the new trailer for Neil Brookshire's short film Get in the Truck. The film is a short comedy that will premier at the Door Kinetic Arts Festival in June, 2018.
Rocky Mountain Front in 360
I'm experimenting with 360 degree videos. Click on the screen and move the image to change the point of view.
Yes, we have ringtones
The Wyoming Toad is probably the most endangered amphibian in the U.S. Image Rights: CC BY 2.0 USFWS Mountain-Prairie, credit Sara Armstrong
These are a few that I've recorded for my own phone. My favorite is the Pacific Chorus Frog, but the endangered Wyoming Toad is pretty good too. They're all free.
Joe Frank, 1938-2018
I just heard the news on AIRDaily. Turn down the lights and listen to one of the all-time greats: https://www.joefrank.com/. There's also a nice tribute on Hearing Voices.