Celebrating 10 years of Only A Blockhead with a selection of past posts
In Japan, as the skies clear and the heat builds at the end of July, wherever there are trees, the daylight hours are accompanied by a loud, high-pitched background hiss, urgent and relentless. The constant hot buzz is punctuated by harsh, strident miii miii miiiiiiiis that lasts for several seconds, tone gradually falling before beginning again. This manic scream, this avalanche of sound, is the soundtrack of high summer.
The buzz of cicadas is towering cumulus clouds. It is sweat running. You can't hear cicadas when you are in an air-conditioned building, and you don't need to because you have turned your back on summer. Still, the din tugs at the hearts of city folk when they go outside and walk past a park or playground or an old grove of trees around a shrine. Or when they are sitting in a chilly living room watching a TV drama about summer in the country.
noonday cicadas
liquid hiss
aural heat
In the evening, as shadows lengthen and the heat subsides, the miii miiis fall silent, and another cicada comes into play, overlaying the continuing high-pitched hiss with gentle bursts of ululant trilling. This sound is cooling, melodic, refreshing, accompanying you on your way home as evening falls.
--Julian
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