Sounds of the City

Cities. Towns. Villages. Bunches of people and buildings.

Settlements are a common part of humanity. Whether it's a forest of buildings like New York, a small encampment in the Amazon or just a couple of mostly abandoned houses in the middle of Canada, everyone knows what they are.

In ancient days they were the heads of government. Powerful city states that would also offer protection and leadership to those around. One could argue that we need to move closer to this. Maybe less taxes to the Federal and provincial governments and more to the cities, but everything comes with its own problems.

Your current city is always something you have to be proud of. When I lived in Weyburn, you always made fun of Estevan and thumbed your nose at the surrounding towns. In Regina, I cheered for the Pats and hoped Saskatoon would always loose. Now that I live in the Saskatoon area, I cheer for the Blades now and hide all my Pats merch. 

Another thing is to have the city flag. Warmans is just the text "City of Warman" on it at really sucks. At least it's not too complicated though so I'm not going to bash it too much. I feel like it was a "We need to put something on a flagpole but we don't want to design anything" kind of choice.

Regina has a pretty decent flag. Top two thirds(ish) blue, bottom third(ish) yellow and an icon of the crown in the top left. Simple enough for a kid to draw the general idea. Saskatoons isn't that great. Left third is green and the right two thirds (ish) is white with yellow strips. Sitting where the green changes to the stripes is the coat of arms and the the left of that is some Saskatoon berries. All seems a little forced. Honestly, if they just removed the coat of arms, I'd be happy with it.

But this post isn't about flags. It's about sounds. Every city has it's own sound. Ways that the industry and people have grown that affects how it lies. Warman has the train horns. Regina has the explosions from the refinery. Estevan has people dying of Black Lung.

So I propose we make it official, for those among us that are blind. What is the official sound of each city? I propose 10 seconds maximum time with no minimum. The sound should also be something that can be recorded in the city. Note, when I say city, I mean any settlement.

Here is a list of my proposals so far.

Regina, SK - Beavis and Butthead laughing.

Saskatoon, SK - Someone eating a Saskatoon pie.

Weyburn, SK - Just a dribble of water.

Estevan, SK - Someone hacking up a lung.

Moose Jaw, SK - A Moose call.

Swift Current, SK - A fast river.

The Battlefords, SK - two armies battling as they try to ford a river.

Yorkton, SK - An English guy getting crushed by a 1 ton weight.

Meath, SK - a guy that's drunk on mead and high on Meth.

Love, SK - Sex.

Rosetown, SK - Just someone smelling flowers.

Davidson, SK - A small baby crying. His mother yells to his father, David, to stop the baby from crying.

Hamilton, ON - The sound of metal clashing.

Vancouver, BC - Either the sound of a drug addict or a guy rolling down a hill.

Calgary, AB - A dude yelling "YEEHAW" and then smashing his head on the ground after the bull throws him off.

New York - A car horn.

Amsterdam - Some of the weirdest sex sounds you've ever heard.

Tokyo - Techno

Berlin - The sound of Putin looking sternly at the recording equipment.

Pyongyang - An army marching in PERFECT lock step. One march steps out of line and you just hear a gunshot.

Dubai - The sound of Scrooge McDuck swimming through his coins.

Paris - Kissing.

Vatican City - Holy chanting.

This is just a starting list and I am open to suggestions n any of these. I also think we'll need to allow duplicates as all places in Russia are probably going to be Putin based. And Bangkok could have the same sound as Regina.

Do you have any ideas for city sounds?