jwilzewske

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

02 Jan 08

Happy New Year!

I've been in London for three days. My sister, Karen, had a New Year's Eve party at her flat. About twenty people showed up. We watched the fireworks over London, and sipped champagne into the small hours.

On New Year's Day, in an attempt to shake off our hangovers, Karen, her husband and I walked along the Thames Pathway. There wasn't much river to look at, just plenty of mud, moored boats and seagulls. We stopped at The Dove, an old-fashioned pub. The thought of alcohol made me feel ill, so I drank sparkling water.
"My New Year's resolution," Karen said,"is not to drink alcohol for one month. But I don't know if it is possible as the longest I've ever gone before was three days."

I'm returning home on the train tomorrow. I intend to post some prison blogs including an update on most of the inmates I've covered in this blog.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Miking a Violin

B asic technique:
1. Place a mic slightly above and about 2 meters in front of the violin;
2. Place a ribbon mic over the player’s [right] shoulder;
3. Position a mic [5 cm to 15 cm] underneath the violin;
4. Position a mic behind the violinist so that the head and body of the violinist are partially obstructing the direct path between the mic and the instrument.”
— Owsinski, p. 150.

To this, consider adding #5: a ‘near-coincident’ pair—two cardioid-pattern mics spaced about 15 cm apart horizontally (about as far apart as your ears) and with their axes angling away from each other at about 120 degrees—can improve depth and phasing without adding reverb confusion. You can set this up on a normal mic stand or mic boom with a Sabra Som ST4 Mic Bar or equivalent. Depending on the orientation of the two mics with respect to the instrument, the physical (acoustic) time-delay associated with the 15 cm between them (i.e., between the centers of the two mics’ cardioids) will be as much as 0.5 msec for normal chamber music concert hall sound velocities, room temperatures and humidity levels.

Some might think that adding more mics like this is too complex, too many degrees-of-freedom, too many choices in mixing, too much bother.

But I think it’s not overly complex. And there’s physiology and acoustics underlying a rationale for doing it. The results can be worth the effort if you’ve got the time to do it. In fact, in comparison to so many other aspects of sound engineering that have changed dramatically over the decades, it’s a bit surprising that miking practice has changed so little.

To figure out how ‘near-coincident mic pair’ and other mic array techniques work, it’s useful to consider binaural physiology of hearing—specifically, the psychoacoustical phenomenon known as the ‘precedence effect’. The precedence effect is when reflected signals are neurologically ‘inhibited’ for a period ranging from hundreds of microseconds to a few milliseconds after a direct signal is received by a human listener in a reverberant room.

Multi-microphone digital processing schemes have of course been used for years in connection with adaptive noise canceling (ANC) and other sound engineering techniques to remove noise and reverberation distortion. The individual microphone signals are divided into frequency bands whose corresponding outputs are co-phased (delayed differences are compensated) and summed. The gain of each band is set according to the degree of correlation between microphone signals in that band. ANC operations are equivalent to a time-varying linear filter whose properties depend on the short-term spectra of the two (or more) input channels. This approach can help improve coloration (early echoes that contribute spectral distortion) and reverberant tails (late echoes). But ANC isn’t what I’m talking about.

Human binaural hearing’s ability to localize a sound when there are delayed reflections of the original sound that interfere with the localization process has been termed the ‘precedence effect’ or the ‘first wavefront’ effect. The precedence effect is how human binaural hearing tends to base the judgments of localization and pitch predominantly on inter-aural cues carried by earlier, direct sound—and it contributes quite a bit to our perception of the depth and timbre of stringed instruments’ sounds. In general, the precedence effect affects pairs of coherent acoustic wavefronts that differ in arrival time at the ear by from less than 1 millisecond up to about 10 milliseconds. Conventional wisdom is that the precedence effect arises because of both ipsilateral (same-side) and contralateral (opposite-sides) neural inhibition in the conduction pathways for each ear. Colburn and Durlach (1978) gave a good, early summary of this.

Sayers and Cherry (1957) were among the first to quantitatively describe binaural hearing directly in terms of interaural correlation in terms of a running crosscorrelation function:

where x_l and x_r are the left and right signals respectively and τ is the time delay between the signals at time t.

Lindemann also used a model of binaural hearing based on a running crosscorrelation function. Lindemann’s model, which provides a quantitative basis for the precendence effect, proposed two different criteria that are associated with accurately perceiving the lateral displacement of auditory events: location of the centroid, and location of the maximum. These criteria both relied on the information in the running inhibited crosscorrelation function Ψ.

While violin and other string sounds contain continuous excitations, they aren’t flute-like; they aren’t uniform excitation of pure sinusoids—which is why somewhat esoteric miking techniques might be helpful for strings but offer no noticeable advantage for other instruments.

Basically, I suggest that the natural correlation and inhibition mechanism can be profitably leveraged by thoughtfully placing ‘near-coincident’ dual mics, to supplement the more conventional schemes described in the blockquote above. Use your normal mics just as you routinely do. But add a ‘near-coincident’ dual-mic pair as well. For recording, the dual-mic signals should ideally be sampled at high KHz rates, to be consistent with capturing the sub-millisecond precedence effect.

(In terms of post-processing and mixing, a set of parallel independent delay lines with a 0.5 millisec-or-better resolution of delay times may be helpful to tweak the high-bandwidth-sampled multi-mic signals—but I have not experimented with that myself.)

Just a thought… Try it and see what you think. Happy New Year.

Boll S, Pulsipher D. Suppression of acoustic noise in speech using two-microphone adaptive noise cancellation. IEEE Trans Acoust Speech Signal Proc 1980; 28: 752-3.
Colburn H, Durlach N. Models of Binaural Interaction, in Carterette E and Friedman M, eds., Handbook of Perception, Vol. 4, pp. 467-518, Academic, 1978.
Everest F. Critical Listening Skills for Audio Professionals. ArtistPro, 2006.
Grantham D, Wightman F. Detectability of varying interaural temporal differences, J Acoust Soc Am 1978; 63: 511-23.
Jeffress L. A place theory of sound localization. J Comp Physiol Psych 1948 41; 35-9.
Lindemann W. Extension of binaural cross-correlation model by contralateral inhibition. I. Simulation of lateralization for stationary signals. J Acoust Soc Am 1986; 80; 1608-22.
Lindemann W. Extension of binaural cross-correlation model by contralateral inhibition. II. The law of the first wave front. J Acoust Soc Am 1986; 80: 1623-30.
Owsinski B. Recording Engineer's Handbook. ArtistPro, 2004.
Sayers B, Cherry E. Mechanism of binaural fusion in the hearing of speech. J Acoust Soc Am 1957; 36:923-6.
Stern R, Bachorski S. Dynamic Cues in Binaural Perception, in Klinke R and Hartmann R, eds., Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Hearing: Physiologica Bases & Psychophysics. Springer, 1983.
Wallach H, Newman E, Rosenzweig M. The precedence effect in sound localization. Am J Psychol 1949; 57: 315-36.
White P. Creative Recording 2: Microphones. Sanctuary, 2004.
Yost W, Gourevitch G, eds. Directional Hearing. Springer, 1987.
Zurek P. Measurements of binaural echo suppression. J Acoust Soc Am 1979; 66:1750-7.
Zurek P. The precedence effect and its possible role in the avoidance of interaural ambiguities. J Acoust Soc Am 1980; 67:952-64.
Acoustical Society of America website
’Recording a Violin’ thread on forums at Recording.org
DSM. Chiara String Quartet: Club Scene at TheBrick. CMT, 16-MAR-2007.

Weber: New Year’s Invitation to a Pensive Dance

I t was wonderful [just as you played it], but you should speed up at the end... [because doing so would make for— ] good ‘box-office’.”
— Vladimir Horowitz, responding to Keene’s query about the rationale for his suggestion concerning Keene’s interpretation of Rachmaninov’s Prelude in E flat minor.

Charm, wit, optimism, comedy, and grace are what music for celebrating the New Year needs. And, for some, maybe this means Blue Danube and other waltzes, polkas, galopps, quadrilles and marches, csárdáses, mazurkas—Eduard Strauss, Josef Strauss, Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II. Not my thing.

So, for a New Year’s get-together with friends, how about Weber’s Sonata No. 2—just the Menuetto and Rondo movements of it? It’s not an easy piece to carry off successfully—there is tremendous risk that self-conscious, mannered or inappropriate nuances could wreck it. But, overall, the movements of this Sonata have a range of qualities that make them interesting as encores—or as short ‘character pieces’ for an informal gathering.

They’re sparkling and not necessarily virtuosic—and they have an impromptu, almost improvisatory sense to them. But, more than this, they are not oblivious to the reality that there are serious problems in the world.

In this respect they’re unlike Weber’s Aufforderung zum Tanz (Invitation to the Dance), which is too self-absorbed and coy. Aufforderung is about wooing. The suitor declares his passionate love for the woman, the couple exchange parting words, and then part ways. It is full of evasiveness, flirting, uncertainty, ambition. And, yes, it’s sometimes performed for New Year’s. But, by contrast, Sonata No.2 feels pensive—as though we are dancing while guardedly mindful of other, more important events.

A rt perhaps begins with the animal—with the animal at least who carves a territory.”
— Gilles Deleuze, in What is Philosophy?, p. 183

Character pieces like this require projection—decent acting ability and a good sense for the part—maybe as much so as more serious pieces. Performing a character piece with the intention of trivializing it would be inappropriate—life is too short. In immersing myself in this Sonata over the past several weeks, I revisited some well-known recordings of it. I especially admire Contance Keene’s and Mariaclara Monetti von Slawik’s. I think of Keene’s performance of this Sonata as a biographical sketch of Weber. Every ‘person’ she mentions gets a quick, sharp, devastatingly exact sketch.

And, in Keene’s hands, the Rondo is clearly ‘about’ the audience not the performer. Admittedly, mine is an aberrant notion of ‘biography’, embracing not merely the conventional conceit of a life in book form but also less formal forms that life stories now take in movies, plays, and on the Internet and in music. Is the purpose of biography to celebrate the lives of the famous and notable and to provide exemplars for the rest of us, or to reduce them to their mere humanity and to comfort us in the knowledge that the too are imperfect? Keene’s account of this Sonata is no hagiography—no worshipful biography of Weber as a saint. It’s a tale of Weber and his likely views of the society in which he lived.

May auld acquaintance be not forgot!

Carl Maria von Weber composed the No. 2 Sonata in A flat major at age 30, with a 30 year old’s aspirations. The Menuetto capriccioso is fast and enthusiastic, the Rondo is lyrical and full of aspiration. I wonder whether Pavel Haas, Hans Krása, Viktor Ullman, Gideon Klein, or others imprisoned at Terezin ever wrote quite this way. I doubt it.

A fter the Holocaust there can be no Art... experiences [are] superficial and unworthy of expression.”
— Joseph Amato, Victims and Values, p. 183.

In a Nazi propaganda documentary film about Terezin, Haas takes a bow after the performance of his Study for Strings. The propaganda project concluded, and Haas was shipped off along with 18,000 other prisoners—to Auschwitz where he was murdered in the gas chamber on 17-OCT-1944.

Producing complex but beautiful music under duress was (and is) a defiant and meaningful thing, in context. Music is emancipatory and powerful—much in the way that Cy Twombly’s abstract paintings are powerful and historical and contextual. Music is a valuable response to these times—better than any propaganda. And character pieces are needed now because they can be a force for humanity and sensitivity, against the lies and violence of our time.

T he traditions of avante-garde art must be seen as responding to an unwanted and intolerable burden of autonomy through gestures that seek to either collapse the distinction between the institution of art and the world outside or to directly bring the political and moral concerns of social life into the center of the work of art itself... Conversely, each attempt to establish the social meaningfulness of art has been met with an equally pointed artistic critique that seeks to demonstrate that the value of aesthetic objects cannot be derived from their moral and political content.”
— J. M. Bernstein, in Kemal & Gaskell, Politics & Aesthetics in the Arts, p.53

By learning ‘balance’ in the face of everything inside and outside, we develop a healthy detachment. This detachment isn’t escapism or indifference to the problems of the world. It is a sort of zen-like meditation. That’s what this Weber Sonata enables. That is why I think it makes an especially fitting New Year’s piece, to help us transcend the banal capitalistic world and give a wider vision of an ethics and politics that is inclusive of private spiritual and humanistic themes in each of us.

Weber, Sonata No. 2, Op. 39, Menuetto, mm. 1 - 8

[50-sec clip, Keene, Weber Sonata No. 2, Op. 39, Mvt. 3, Menuetto Capricciosa Presto Assai, 1.2MB MP3]

Weber, Sonata No. 2, Op. 39, Rondo, mm. 1 - 9

[50-sec clip, Keene, Weber Sonata No. 2, Op. 39, Mvt. 4, Rondo, 1.2MB MP3]

I was flabbergasted by the fantastic color, sweep and imagination, and last but not least, by the incredible technique ... I cannot imagine anybody, including Rachmaninoff, playing the piano so beautifully.”
— Artur Rubinstein, remarking on Keene’s playing.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

28 Dec 07

Christmas 2007

In the afternoon, Mum had us put on funny Christmas hats. In the living room, we opened our gifts. Lots of chocolates, clothing and wine. I received some books, educational tapes, and cash. ( Thank you, Bill, for the CDs, and Sue, for various gifts including the silky Japanese-style robe.)

Nine of us gathered for dinner at a table with many Christmas crackers and gifts on it. Dad, near to tears, toasted my return home. We drank champagne and discussed how bad prisoners have it at this time of the year. The meateaters had roast turkey, topside of beef, and chipolata sausages wrapped in bacon. The vegetarians had nut roast and vegetarian sausages. We all shared roast potatoes, gravy, sprouts, carrots and turnips. After eating two platefuls, I could barely move.

On Boxing Day, my sister and her husband left to go and visit some of his relatives in the south. At night we went to my aunt Sue’s house expecting a party only to find out it had been cancelled because my uncle had the flu.

The next night I got ready to go to the Odeon in Warrington to watch I am Legend.
“Don’t be snogging in the back row,” Mum said, referring to the lady who had agreed to see the movie with me.
“I intend to be a perfect gentleman,” I said.
My companion was a linguist, an Englishwoman who works in Geneva. Hearing her talk in German impressed me.

I woke up thinking I had the flu. I wondered how long England would remain so cold. I stayed home, ate lots of fruit, and resisted going to the Ring O’ Bells with Hammy, who said, “A couple o’ pints ‘ll pick you up.” It seems I caught a cold.

Being in England is fun but also strange. I imagine that many prisoners arrested in America serve their time and then go back to their homes in America. I miss my apartment in Scottsdale. I miss my fiancee. I miss not being able to jump into my SUV and to go and spend money wherever I want to. My parents are as kind as can be, but it’s weird living where I grew up. It’s times like these I think of Solzhenitsyn, just out of prison, living in an old couple’s kitchen. I’m living in luxury compared to him – and Russia is much colder.

For New Year’s Eve I’m going to my sister’s flat in London. She’s having a small party and she’s going to introduce me to some of her friends.

Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below

Copyright © 2006-2007 Shaun P. Attwood

Friday, December 28, 2007

Humidity and Performance Venue Timbre

How might chamber music presenters adjust their HVAC systems to optimize the acoustics of the performance hall?

This question occurred to me when I attended an ‘early music’ concert in Minneapolis. The humidity in the church was very low, probably because of the wintry air temperature outside—and the fact that the church heating plant and thermostats were set so as to conserve energy. Too, there probably was no humidifier in the airflow ducting of the furnace, although I don’t know for certain whether this was the case or not. Within 10 minutes of taking my seat, my eyes felt dry. The performance was delayed because of snowy road conditions (much like the situation on 13-DEC-2007 in Boston). Within 40 minutes, still waiting for the performance to begin, the inside of my nose was crispy and sore. The room was like the Sahara, maybe 5% to 10% relative humidity!

But eventually the concert started. And, oh, the acoustics! The acoustics were unusually crisp. Scintillating! The extraordinary timbre of the room was all the more noticeable because I was seated about 30 meters from the performers—far enough away for the reverberation and acoustic absorption properties of the arid air between the performers and my ears to have a big effect on the sound waves.

By contrast, Boston and Kansas City and New York are temperate cities and always fairly humid (40% to 100% relative humidity outdoors, and 30% to 70% humidity indoors). The altitudes of all of the cities where I’ve ever attended performances or played are low, so I think we can safely exclude barometric pressure differences as the source of the differences I’m referring to.

Chamber music performance venues in these humid cities all sound warm and ‘liquid-ey’. There’s a high-frequency ‘roll-off’ on everything—starting, I think, at about 1 KHz (C6) and dropping maybe 3 dB per octave above that.

The warming, fluid effect at increased humidities that I’m referring to is not a pan-spectrum ‘deadening’ of the sound. (The effect of new-fallen snow, like we have in K.C. today, is deadening—a severe attenuation across all frequencies; no distinct low-pass cut-off frequency or ‘shoulder’—and that’s not what I’m talking about at all. ) The high-humidity timbre is just sweet and warm.

Reverberation is actually enhanced in humid environments. The reflected sounds are louder. And this enhanced sound pressure level of the reflected sounds seems to be what is mostly responsible for the warmer sound in a humid environment.

I retrieved the papers by Harris and Bohn, extracted the data contained in them, and performed log-normal statistical regressions on the data. (The data are for ‘direct’ reception of ‘flat’ wavefront sound propagating horizontally from a single localized sound source to a receiver at the same elevation above the floor as the source. In other words, the data—and my regressions—do not consider any reflections/reverberation, do not take into account the height difference between the performers and the listener, and do not make any assumptions about hall dimensions, geometry, wall-coverings, etc.) For your interest, I’m making the results of the regressions available in the following spreadsheet.

Spreadsheet to Calculate Sound Pressure Loss Spectrum as a Function of Relative Humidity

If you download the spreadsheet and play with it (adjust the relative humidity and your distance from the performers with the scroll-bar control sliders), you’ll find that the low-pass shoulder frequency shifts to the right (to higher frequencies) as the humidity increases. You’ll find that the slope of the sound pressure level (SPL) roll-off in dB/octave is maximum around RH=25%. You’ll find that the slope is about 2 dB/octave at very low and very high humidities, but can be 7 dB/octave or more (for listeners seated far from the stage in a typical-size chamber music concert hall) when RH is between 20% and 30%.

What this suggests to me is that, to optimize the listening experience for as many concert-goers as possible, presenters should try to avoid humidities in the 20% to 30% range—tough to do in wintertime in climates with outdoor ambient temperatures below –10 ºC.

Hypothetically, it would be wonderful to perform in very low-humidity air—say, chamber music festivals in the mountains at 4,000 meters or higher; or venues (Arizona? New Mexico? inland California? Alberta?) having peculiarly dry air like what I encountered in Minneapolis. Or, conversely, the timbre could be similarly sweet at low altitudes, in air that has been conditioned to between 55% and 70% relative humidity.

(For humans, relative humidity less than 25% feels too dry. The normal recommended comfort range is 25% to 65%. Above 65% many people feel clammy or uncomfortably moist. Many concert halls and other public buildings are conditioned so as to stay close to 45% relative humidity.)

An unexpected surprise from my statistical modeling and analysis is that tropical locations with relative humidity in the 70% to 90% range should have even sweeter, more lively timbres. Yes, such high humidity levels would have some adverse effects on tuning for stringed instruments and pianos, but the liveliness of the sound might be pretty interesting—noticeably warmer than usual, especially for listeners 20 meters or more away from the stage. And, of course, choral and wind instrument performance—no problem at all at such high humidities.

I’d be grateful to hear from you regarding your own acoustical experiences in unusually dry or unusually humid indoor performance venues. If you live or perform in equatorial locations, your impressions would be especially interesting. Any chamber music presenters or organizers of festivals in warm, humid locations out there with comments to share? Do any architects out there reading this blog post have advice based on your concert hall design projects?

With global warming, I suppose the future for most of us will tend to be more humid on average, compared to conditions to which we’ve been accustomed…

Bohn D. Environmental effects on the speed of sound. J Audio Eng Soc 1988; 36:223–31.
Harris C. Absorption of sound in air versus humidity and temperature. J Acoust Soc Am 1966; 40: 148-59.
NOAA National Climatic Data Center, Relative Humidity by U.S. City by Month table [(M)-morning; (A)-afternoon]
NOAA National Climate Data Center mean annual humidity [1MB pdf, source of Fig. shown below]
ASHRAE website
Steinway & Sons. Caring for Your Steinway. [references a recommended range of relative humidity between 45% and 65%]
Hardy-Holzman-Pfeiffer LLC; Fisher & Marantz, Inc.; Jaffe Acoustics, Inc. Design Guide: Music and Drama Centers, Ch. 3. U.S. Army, Office of Chief of Engineers, 1981. [1MB pdf]
McQuay Air Conditioning Acoustics Manual, 2006. [1MB pdf]

28 Dec 07

Two Tonys on Jesus Christ (Part 1)

I asked Two Tonys to comment, with an emphasis on prison life, on some quotes of Jesus Christ.

But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

So if a torpedo shanks me in the right kidney, am I to offer the motherfucker my left? C’mon now! For use in prison, this scripture is a complete fuckin’ joke. There’s a lotta weak ones or weakies who can’t fight, who won’t fight, who hide behind their Bibles when confronted. They claim they walk with Christ – which we all know is bullshit. I’m talkin’ about fucks who rape, steal, molest, lie, testify, and as soon as they hit the county jail they grab a Bible and look for a good plea deal. I feel if there’s a beef and I slap a fool and he turns the other cheek I’m gonna knock the shit outta him. And he’s losin’ my respect. But if he fights back and shows heart – win or lose – he’s earned my respect, and everyone else’s respect. You have to stick up for numero uno in prison or else you’re perceived as weak – and then you’re a goner, they’ll be on you like wolves. I’ve personally taken severe ass-kickin’s, but I still fought.

Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

That would be fuckin’ nice but it’s just not practical in prison. Imagine an army of mooches knowin' that you’ll give shit up upon request – fuhgeddaboutit! That’s not even practical on the streets. Whothafuck does that? A guy in here would never have any coffee, zoo-zoos or wham-whams. There’d be a line of mooches at your cell.

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

You hafta worry. You hafta contemplate your situation. Worry is good to the extent it can keep you alive. But you’ve gotta worry about the real shit, not if the laundry workers put too much starch in your underwear, or if it’s five minutes past rec and your cell door isn’t open. But if some fool wants you X’d out in the chow hall, or if some motherfucker who owes you money is tryin’ to blindside you, then worryin’ may keep you on your toes in those situations.

What do you think about Two Tonys comments?

Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below

Copyright © 2006-2007 Shaun P. Attwood

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

25 Dec 07

Christmas 2006

Holidays such as Christmas are the loneliest times of the year for prisoners.

Here’s a piece I wrote about Christmas last year.

Shortly after 6am came the first announcement: “Standby for chow, Yard 1. You’re getting breakfast first.”
It was a cold morning. Below a pink and blue sky, prisoners drifted toward the chow hall. Most seemed miserable. But a few swapped gang handshakes and greetings.
“Wassup, dawg!”
“Merry Christmas, homey!”
“Happy Hanukkah, you sarcastic motherfucker.”
“Happy Kwanzaa, dawg!”
“Felice Navidad, ese.”
Prisoners lined up in the chow hall. As quickly as they could be made, orange trays containing pancakes, scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls, biscuits, cereal, and apples were shoved through a hole in the wall.
A guard with a clipboard checked off our names, and joked about how hung over he was.
After grabbing their trays, prisoners joined their own races at picnic tables, where they traded food and ate.
“You gonna eat your cereal, dawg?”
“Nah, you gonna use your sugar?”
The sunlight in the chow hall illuminated the dust motes, which danced over our food.
Soon the chow hall was empty except for a few guards who seemed to be meditating on the mandala of tables strewn with spilt milk, corn flakes, and apples that had been stabbed to discourage the brewing of hooch.
As if the prisoners had been infected by a winter virus, a sad silence spread across the yard.
Walking past Building B, Officer Stewart yelled, “Put away your hypodermic needles. Don’t let me catch anyone drinking hooch.”
It was sunny and sixty-eight degrees when the swing-shift guards arrived. In a slow sarcastic voice Officer Lewalski made an announcement: “We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas and to thank you for providing us with such a wonderful 2006 - ”
The yard briefly came alive with obscenities and threats on Officer Lewalski’s life.
“ – and you’ll all be pleased to know that we fully intend to keep up the time-honoured Christmas tradition of shaking your houses down.”
Officer Lewalski and her co-worker, a guard known as the “Fruit Nazi” (a Mexican who ransacks our cells with the zeal of Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor) had been on the rampage all week confiscating extra food, thwarting hooch brewing, and doling out tickets.
The bright spot of the day was a surprise. The Gatekeepers, a young and high-spirited choir of missionaries carolled us through the perimeter fence. Briefly we weren’t prisoners any more. We were someone’s son, brother, father – we were human again.
At dinnertime, the measly portions of roast beef, mashed potatoes, and broccoli caused the prisoners to gripe
Outside of the chow hall a demolition team of pigeons pecked the cling film from some trays abandoned by the guards – until a group of ravens descended from a burst of blowing dust and appropriated the spoils.
Watching the ravens seemed to be the only entertainment available for the prisoners standing in line to use phones that barely worked. Written on their faces were the usual concerns. Would their loved ones be home? If so, would they accept expensive collect calls? Many of them walked away from the phones, cursing life.
The last announcement came at 7:55pm: “Yard 1, rec is over. Take it in and lock down.”

Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below

Copyright © 2006-2007 Shaun P. Attwood