Soundwalk
WHAT I HEAR The loudest sounds I hear just a few blocks away from Hunter college is the traffic. For instance, the rattling of a truck as it passes over small potholes and the high pitched squeaks it makes as it suddenly breaks for a red light. There is a faint honk off in the distant from a car coming behind me, but not as faint from behind is the rolling of the skinny rubber wheels of a bicycle on pavement. This bike has a conjunction of sounds: the peddling sounds like a slight, rhythmic, buzzing noise and the switching of gears, which the biker does, make a muted clanking noise. When it reaches me just behind me, I hear a sound signal, which is the ringing of the bike’s bell, similar to the bell used by the receptionist at hotels. I notice different kinds of shoes and different gaits produce different sounds. One that stood out was a man’s Timberlands boots scraping the cement floor — the rubber from the heel of the boots scratching, the pa...