Unsilent Night

On the 19th I attended Unsilent Night for the second year in a row. It is a unique seasonal event, an ambient music piece for an infinate number of boomboxes. Here's how it works. A group of people assemble with boomboxes, and the organizers distribute cassettes with the same ambient sound piece, using generic seasonal sounds such as bells etc. Then we all press play at the same time and march through the city, a block long stereo system. The event started in New York - where they are now getting hundreds of participants - but has spread throughout the world, including San Francisco and Vancouver. Last year there were about 20 participants in the Vancouver event, and this year the number was 30 or so. Hopefully the numbers will continue to increase, because it gets cooler the more people participate. It is fun to see the confused looks on some people's faces as we walk by. I was also pleased to see that there were a number of small children in our group, who enjoyed it immensely. My friend Cheryl brought her six year old Maddie, who loved it.