Today, I changed several of my playlists (Classical Music, Books, Fleur-de-Lis, Dark Ambience, Poetry, General Relaxing Ambience, Authors, and Plays) from private to public on my YouTube channel @philslattery1241. The subjects of each are obvious, with the exception of Fleur-de-Lis, which is a soundtrack I am developing for inspiration as I finish up a novella set in February 1986.
Tag: ambience
Creepy Cabin in the Woods
As you may know, I live in house in the remote backwoods of Arkansas on what was once a civil war battlefield. A few thousand probably died here and my house is probably very near where the Union commanding officer stood while directing the fight, which was only a hundred yards or so away.
Being so solitary and the woods are often filled with strange noises, especially at night, this can be a spooky place to be at times, particularly at night when foxes scream searching for a mates while barn owls scream at nothing in particular. Both of these sound very much like human screams. Once when both were going on together, stepping out the back door was like listening to the screams from a not too distant torture chamber. Thankfully this doesn’t happen too often.
As you may also know, I am into ambience videos which run for hours on end and aim at setting a certain mood. There are some that set a happy or light mood or a fantasy mood like you might find in The Lord of the Rings or set in some idyllic medieval world or even on another planet. I like spooky ones or dark and mysterious one. There are a few that emulate the atmosphere of Blade Runner, which I have found recently and which I really enjoy.
I found this video today while searching for ones that set a “werewolf ambience” to play while I continue writing Lycanthrope.
Right now, it’s almost 5:00 p.m. and overcast and wet following a few days of rain. The temperature is near 60 (Fahrenheit). Twilight is coming soon. I stepped out the front door just now to check the outdoor temperature on our outdoor thermometer and I heard birds singing not too far off. There’s a slight wind blowing. Although gray and dreary, it’s rather pleasant.
If the wind picks up, as twilight encroaches, the atmosphere around my house (which is quite modern as opposed to the rundown one seen in this video) will be a lot like that in this video. I don’t hear the insects now as in this video, but they will come out as summer approaches. I hear owls like this often. There is an eerie, ghostly waver I hear in this that I don’t hear (of course) out here. Nonetheless, this video captures the spirit of what the woods around my house will be like in an hour or two. And it’s now February, not Halloween.
Enjoy.
Autumn Cozy on YouTube: Pub Ambience
I found this tonight while looking for something to play in the background while working on Shadows and Stars. This is exactly the kind of place where I love to write, usually with some coffee or tea in a cheap spiral notebook and a simple, but quality pen. I have tried writing while drinking and it usually doesn’t work out for me if I drink anything other than wine. Wine, though, seems a comfortable drink to have while scribbling down whatever drifts into my consciousness and having a small, good quality cigar. Since I don’t drink anymore, I have only fond memories of these places.
In fact, I enjoyed this type of place so much and am so comfortable in that environment, that I will probably be playing this video a LOT at night while I write. Night is the best time to play this video, particularly with the light downs to match those in the pub. When I play an ambience video like this, I like to make my surroundings as close as possible resemble the scene in the video, so that I can almost feel being in that place. In the daytime, I like to play videos that show a woods in the daytime, as that is what I see out my window next to where I write on my laptop.
On the other hand, I would be perfectly at home in this setting with friends, new found friends or old friends, just smoking and joking (as they say in the Navy) and getting slowly wasted, but not so wasted that I couldn’t make it out the door to a cab.
If you read my previous post, you know this is the kind of place I would love to gather a small circle of friends to discuss book reviews like Clifford Sargeant does on Better than Food.
I intend to write up some of my experiences of those bygone days, though they will be changed enough to be classified as fiction and people’s names will be changed to protect the guilty.
This video is three hours long, but if you watch the first minute you will get the idea. Try watching it sometime on a rainy night with the lights out while enjoying your favorite adult beverage or smoke.
Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 