Silence Hunting

* A few days ago I published the most recent Icebreaker as a stand-alone post to encourage responses. And ineed the responses are amazing. Check it out. * Reminder: The Savor of the Month theme for August is NUMBERS. Details here; Supporters can share their findings in the thread here. Check it out!Thinking about listening for silence, for shades of quiet, the same way we might focus on specific soundsLiteral silence is, of course, nearly impossible to find. But we still try to find it, or the closest thing to it, from time to time. If we can’t get silence, then at least we might discover some quiet. The New York Times recently published a short video about a “sound walk” through the city. The reporter was led by Jacek Smolicki, an artist and sound expert, who brought along specialized microphones and other equipment. This gear allows us to zero in on specific sounds — a hot dog cart’s generator, a steam stack on Fifth Avenue, a tiny waterfall in Central Park. But what it really does,…