After hours of shopping at the San Francisco Westfield Mall, we had pasta and a gigantic salad from the gourmet food court. The decor is pretty retro hip, but the tile floors emphasize every little sound, from people chatting to chairs sliding to silverware clinking to heels clomping… creating an interesting mélange.
By the way, [...]

I tried on two occasions to record my scooter while I was zipping around the city, but the mic’s foam windscreen let too much wind noise through. That and the frequent stop-and-go city traffic made for a jarring listening experience. So in the interest of “white noise” over realism, I recorded a few minutes of [...]

At either end of the Golden Gate Bridge, there are ribbed joints in the surface of the roadway. I don’t think they’re expansion joints, I think they simply connect the surface of the approach to the surface of the bridge itself. Since they’re about two feet wide, the ribs add traction to the metal surface [...]

One of San Francisco’s characteristic charms is the cable car. Mostly ridden by tourists, it is still one of the locals’ chosen commute methods.
What is striking about the cable car is that, well, it’s pulled by cables… still blows my mind! The cables run continuously under the street, sometimes making a ringing sound. 10pm [...]