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Tonight I baked cauliflower and potatoes in the stove. And the smoke alarm went off. I waved a towel up to it (it's mounted on the ceiling) and the shrieking alarm would stop. Then it would start again. Shriek! Shriek! Shriek! This is a sound any person living in the modern world hears almost every day. On a truck backing up, on a car that's been jostled, setting of its alarm, and in their home, when a baked potatoe gives off a little bit of smoke. What an annoyance. I know it's meant to keep us safe. But sometimes it's just a pain in the ass.

Staten Island's New Year's celebration was announced by the muffled sounds of fireworks set off from somewhere else, with a cottony "thrump-thrump-thrumpety-thrump" sound. Then a smattering of hoots and hollers could be heard up and down Hamilton Avenue. I imagined bottles of sparkling drinks being popped, though I heard none. Bob and I clinked plastic glasses of water and white wine. On TV, the black-and-white sounds of the French Resistance, caught in the rough staccato of French actors performing in a 1960's film.

One sound I totally ignore but hear all the time is my computer mouse. And my keyboard. The muffled tapping of soft fingers on cushioned keys. How many sounds do I not hear every day? How much of the world do all of us miss because we have tuned out our immediate surroundings? Perhaps it is natural for the "normal" sounds to fade, so unusual sounds can catch our attention and raise the alarm. Then again, the sounds we hear everyday are actually quite dominant, even if we are not aware of it. They mask other sounds. Consider central air conditioning.

I count three kinds of crickets outside tonight. One group is rubbing their legs in a very predictable, double quick-time. Another group has an arrhythmic pattern that repeats, rhythmically. A third group of crickets (cicadas? grasshoppers?) has a slow, lazy two-note that is spaced out by silences. It is a challenge to listen closely enough to separate out each group's sound. They mix so well with each other, creating a complex and layered sonic experience. I can also hear a distant rumble of traffic—it's an odd soundscape for a borough of NYC.

Sounds carry historical and political significance even if they are intended for pure entertainment.Animals, birds, celebration, commerce