uncommon ambience

White Castle steam-griddle station... ambience. The perspective of this week’s episode is near the burger steaming station (if you’re curious how that operation goes, let Double Dare’s Marc Summers walk you through it). And not to worry — you can sleep at this steaming station; no one is worried about what you’re doing.And BTW, this isn’t sanctioned or intended to be an ad. I’m just a fan and would love to imagine myself within arm’s length of those steamy sliders. I have a bit of a White Castle problem: I have the White Castle Pumas, I’m usually a sack of ten and a Cherry Coke (no fries) — if I were hungry enough to add fries at any other fast-food spot, I’m spending that hunger on another sack of ten.And as a programming note: if the White Castle Corporation sends me a cease-and-desist, this description will instead be geared toward the oddly shaped meatloaf burgers my father would make, stuffed with Bac-Os, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, and onions. The patties were so oddly shaped, if they were in orbit they would be confused with Saturn's moon, Hyperion.One of the most notorious of these family “burger nights” ended with us watching a VHS of my mother at work in the cath lab. Had to wait until the end because she said something funny. Aside from the occasional flying streams of blood, it was hella boring.Until then — we are boosting the Castle for free. And I have to think that the oft-trod subject of “Where the hell are they?” adds to their nostalgic appeal — at least for those of us who know there are a bunch in New Jersey, but we’re not quite sure where. I swear the White Castles of New Jersey operate in the Doctor Who universe. White Castles only ever appear like, “Surprise *****! I’m in Ledgewood now!” And then maybe it’s not there next time because… TARDIS perception filter.And I haven’t seen the Dude, Where’s My White Castle? movie, so I could just be describing the plot of that. It’s a thread that runs through all of us. No matter where we as a species go — like, we could be going into space — we still somehow need to drive through New Jersey first (and hopefully near a food exit with a Castle logo).I was on a road trip with a buddy in ’09, and White Castle was the “food exit” around Perth Amboy. I nudged him: “White Castle, man — let’s go.”“Nah, man,” he said. “There’ll be one up there. Don’t worry.” My buddy never liked leaving the highways in NJ for local roads. I suspected the lack of legal left turns spited him somehow.But I countered with a pre-I-told-you-so — like, “If you see a White Castle, even if you’re not hungry, you go. It doesn’t matter how New Jersey you think that New Jersey town is — you can’t count on White Castle being there.”Parsippany burned us, and we ate Burger King or some ****.

Tonight we have a Christmas-themed triple feature of public-domain movies as heard from the projection booth: The Star of Bethlehem (1950), Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1948), and Scrooge (1935).We’ll also be running trailers from three really bad Christmas movies: Die Hard 2, Santa Conquers the Martians, and Santa Claus (1985). Plus one trailer for a really good Christmas movie, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. Rounding things out will be favorite 1980s-ish Christmas commercials and other vintage theater messaging (and a random appliance warehouse ad bc I want it stuck in everyone else's head too).So — The Star of Bethlehem was the only work I was familiar with before beginning this week’s episode. It’s inclusion is a shout-out to my late father, for his insistence that we make it to the midnight service to hear this story told again and again and again. Miss you, Dad.Religiosity aside, it’s an astonishingly beautiful work. I have a computer, and I couldn’t dream of producing something this wonderful. If you gave me a time machine to the 1950s, my MacBook, and pitted me against the creative team of Lotte Reiniger and Carl Koch, I would lose every time.Reiniger created articulated paper figures from spare cardboard and other materials, and the team animated them on glass over painted backgrounds. (Preservationists studying her paper figures believe they can tell what she was eating during production, based on what material ended up in the dolls.) One of their rigs also looked like the best bunk bed ever — photo on wiki. Honestly, give me a time machine just so I can hang out with this crew, they seem cool.Rudolph (1948) feels lower-budget by comparison. This is not Rankin/Bass Rudolph, man. It’s based on Robert L. May’s 1939 story, not the song. And to steal an internet meme: this is Zack Snyder Rudolph. Hard times — you can feel them oozing out of that steely, cold color palette. Which makes sense: World War II had just ended when production began.Going further back in time brings us to our feature film Scrooge (1935). The acting is solid and includes an Ebenezer expert (Seymour Hicks) as the lead. Variety, literally said Hicks could play Ebenezer upside down in its December 11, 1935 issue. And that Hicks played Scrooge for more than a quarter century both onstage and in two films including a silent Scrooge in 1913.As for trailers:Die Hard 2 — which is just Die Hard with the melodrama turned all the way up and relocated to an airport. Also, I’m positive the airplane-eject scene for John McClane was later pilfered by the GoldenEye folks… and it’s nowhere near as cool.Santa Conquers the Martians, which I briefly toyed with making the feature; is awful.And Santa Claus (1985)... Last year my family stumbled onto a smart tv Christmas-movie list, and I saw Santa ’85 and said, “Hon, I have a movie that will blow your ****** mind. It’s like Superman meets Kris Kringle and is still earnest. Everyone is acting out of their brains. It’s like Shakespeare. Like if Frank Miller did Shakespeare doing Superman.”And then I hit play like I was firing a heat-seeking photon torpedo at General Chang.Three minutes later, we’re watching Santa drown in snow. A few minutes after that: bizarre McDonald’s product placement. A scene of people merrily eating Quarter Pounders while, through the window, an unhoused and hungry child stares lustfully at the food consumption. His face framed by the Golden Arches.The movie is bad. But awesome bad. See it for John Lithgow, as an evil toymaker who excels at selling extremely dangerous **** to children. And Dudley Moore is a charming mutinous elf that tries to outdo Santa by creating candy canes that make children float. Definitely see it.And happy holidays, y'all.PS: If you’re looking for an uncommon ambience episode with a more modern Scrooge, check out last year's ⁠The Night the Reindeer Died⁠: Christmas Workshop Ambience. "Yule love it."

Zen Fidget Board… Ambience — As of late I’ve been hoping to create an audio space that has several things going on at once (that behave, hopefully). I see this space as a listener drifting into a Matrix-ish Construct room (load room), yet instead of rushing racks of rifles or Morpheus alongside a small-market TV executive’s desk, we drift inside the gelatinous mass of a lesser-defined composition of sounds.I usually have better sleep success with envelopes of sound that have smaller things going on. And as the episode title and cover implies, there are several things in here to follow while the envelope takes over.My favorite episode for this is the basketball episode—I love the engulfing fans with the small bounces and squeaks of play. I should make that episode longer, as I’m waking up in the test-taking episode that stresses me out (I went to Military School). Some folks like dry sounds—I won’t knock it.Also give us a follow on your pod-player!

A small New England college nestled in the Green Mountains during snowfall, ambience. It’s the holidays, 1968; the chorus of Norwich University and Vermont College readies for their performance of Winter Songs. And you are invited. Well somewhat invited — obviously the 60’s are long gone, man. And the perspective for this performance will play outside of Plumley Armory pattering with falling snow.Passing traffic on snowy South Main — yes I’m being an ****** on purpose it’s Christmas — into charming (blue collar AF and I say that with admiration) Northfield, Vermont.  I hope everyone enjoys the holidays this year, whether you celebrate or not. Seriously, enjoy the holidays; now go away. I don’t want to give up too much on how the sausage is made for the folks who just read a few lines and bounce. Just a couple more sentences and those people will disappear. What did y’all think of the Steam cube? OK, I feel like we’ve shaken off the normies — I found an obscure vinyl recording of a 1968 choral performance (no background sounds those were added) by Norwich University and Vermont College. I’m not entirely sure what part of the year this recording coincided. With several invocations of the Devine I assumed the original recording must be Christmas. And I definitely wanted to imagine there was snow coming down for this performance (which could have been Spring, it snows like hell some Springs up there). I’m positive divinity and salvation were pretty evergreen in 1968 for military college students on the precipice of graduation and probably the Vietnam War soon after.I have to think more than one voice in this recording will be silenced by that war. Not to dampen spirits, I think we could hold on to that in a world ravaged by basic human instincts. There’s a lot of “that” to hold on to this holiday season. Maybe that’s why we sing?

Rainy thanksgiving drive ambience! Buckle up for a chilly November Eastern Seaboard Highway tour as we audibly make our way North. The only heat provided by an obscure cassette of 1970s dancehall music. We'll do the driving you just relax. Mic perspective from the backseat.Thanksgiving, the forced pilgrimage to see family. Cramped, perpetually seated and needing to pee — which… we can have wifi in our cars but not a catheter? The weird limited edition Mountain Dew only making matters worse. The Swedish Fish nearly gone after the first traffic light.“Hopefully traffic is ok” the oft uttered intention that goes kaput once outside of the neighborhood. I live in the DMV and the folks that traverse this unique area are the absolute worst drivers on the planet.The Baltimore tunnels will be a mess. And stay away from any rest area crab cake sandwiches unless you want to add three more unplanned stops to your trip. And **** you, Delaware. If we get hit by a meteor I hope it first hits that Newark toll centered on that tiny bit of I95 that can back up traffic to the breakaway point coming from Baltimore.Also don’t forget to gas up before New Jersey — I got yelled at near Carney’s Point once for trying to fill my own gas tank, “you know you could mess **** up.” Frankly just stay out of New Jersey, backups can be expected any place that skirts the heliopause of NYC traffic.And happy Turkey day (to our international listeners I hope y’all have a happy Thursday). Oh and my threat of ambience from my sister’s chicken coupe still stands for the folks out there who are regulars that are not subscribed. Subscribe before I unleash a fussy fowl firestorm on this channel. We love you, love us back, or else. Also postscript — if you noticed I totally ripped off the New Jersey Drive poster (IE: you recognize it) welcome fellow traveller, can we chat about how fantastic the soundtracks are? “Suweeeeee, either want a Benz or a Beamer”