You are listening to Los Angeles

March 7, 2011 11:45 AM

Police scanner + Ambient instrumental music = You are listening to Los Angeles [via mefi projects]
posted by carsonb (108 comments total)

How delightfully weird.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:48 AM on March 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

This is awesome. Previously.
posted by Sticherbeast at 11:48 AM on March 7, 2011

Soundtracks to future David Kelly movies.
posted by The Whelk at 11:50 AM on March 7, 2011

Terrific!
posted by dobbs at 11:50 AM on March 7, 2011

Ingenious combination.
posted by kuanes at 11:57 AM on March 7, 2011

There's something about the distortion you get with this type of radio communication that works very well with psychadelic music. I can recall Pink Floyd, Orb, Orbital songs all make use of this.

I think this would work just as well with a feed from the ISS or shuttle mission.
posted by chemoboy at 12:00 PM on March 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

I love this.
posted by box at 12:02 PM on March 7, 2011

I love this and look forward to listening to it all through my workdays.

Chemoboy: Space Station on SomaFM
posted by knile at 12:03 PM on March 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

Very cool. Here are the incident codes, in case anyone's interested.
posted by jbickers at 12:03 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yes, I had this on all last night and it was heavenly.
posted by mykescipark at 12:04 PM on March 7, 2011

Whoa, somebody cross-posted this from mefi projects? Thanks carsonb!! Anyway, glad you guys are liking it. And yes, Scanner & the SomaFM streams were definitely influences... ¬¬ Keep the comments & suggestions coming and I'll take them all under advisement. =)
posted by idontlikewords at 12:06 PM on March 7, 2011 [3 favorites]

excellent.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:07 PM on March 7, 2011

Hey idontlikewords - great stuff! Any chance you'd be willing to share the code for it, so people could roll their own version for their home town?
posted by jbickers at 12:09 PM on March 7, 2011

Perfect for listening to at 5 am.
posted by foldedfish at 12:09 PM on March 7, 2011 [4 favorites]

I lived in Los Angeles for 44 years and moved 180 miles up the coast to stop listening to it. (But ironically I'm now closer to Hwy101 than I was when I was growing up in the San Fernando Valley) Still, I can't listen to this site without expecting to hear "One-Adam-Twelve, One-Adam-Twelve" in a semi-soothing female voice.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:10 PM on March 7, 2011

This is fantastic.
posted by Bookhouse at 12:13 PM on March 7, 2011

And there's also Mission Control at SOMA FM
posted by Relay at 12:14 PM on March 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

Whoa, somebody cross-posted this from mefi projects?

Heck yeah, this is rad! jbickers is on to something, I'm pretty sure just about any city would eat this up. Think of the mood improvement possibilities for every news journo on earth! Good on ya' idontlikewords, and thanks!
posted by carsonb at 12:14 PM on March 7, 2011

I love it and I want a phone app so I can listen in bed.
posted by yerfatma at 12:17 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Reminds me a lot of Twine, in a very good way.
posted by everichon at 12:20 PM on March 7, 2011

Didn't somebody do something similar with the BBC Shipping Forecast?
posted by schmod at 12:33 PM on March 7, 2011

Oh, wow. How very.
posted by the painkiller at 12:34 PM on March 7, 2011

@jbickers the code is pretty much all available through view-source since the page is a static HTML file and all the magic happens via JavaScript. Anyway I totally agree on the multi-city idea. I'm thinking I might add something like that to the site itself but I certainly wouldn't mind other people running with it as well. So I guess what I really need to do is just post an open-source license or something like that. I'll look into it ASAP!
posted by idontlikewords at 12:37 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is great! And I'm sure the site's title eludes to this, which I have in my head now. And that's a good thing.
posted by Hey Dean Yeager! at 12:38 PM on March 7, 2011

@Hey Dean Yeager! Definitely Screenwriter's Blues. Definitely. In fact I'm not even from LA but I chose to start there b/c I thought the title worked so well! (And also b/c their police chatter is pretty interesting 24/7...)
posted by idontlikewords at 12:42 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

I created a similar project a few years ago using several live and recorded audio feeds. I haven't checked in a long time, but I suspect some of the feeds might be dead now. I also used embedded Windows Media players, which might not have been the best route to take.
posted by davebush at 12:42 PM on March 7, 2011

The name is a Soul Coughing reference, yes?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:54 PM on March 7, 2011 [3 favorites]

Is this live, random music and a live radio feed, or is it somehow curated beforehand?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:55 PM on March 7, 2011

Reminds me of Lebanon, where the antagonist is never seen, just heard through the radio. I wonder if I could do something like this with some Philip Glass movies and fuck with my dreams even more.
posted by jsavimbi at 12:58 PM on March 7, 2011

Definitely needs more Soul Coughing.
posted by wierdo at 1:00 PM on March 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

Mmmm, menacing.

The Soul Coughing reference is Screenwriter's Blues. The lyrics are pretty great.

and you are going to Reseda
we are all in some way or another going to Reseda someday to die
and the radioman laughs because
the radioman fucks a model too

posted by Nelson at 1:04 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is this live, random music and a live radio feed, or is it somehow curated beforehand?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:55 PM on March

I was wondering that very same thing. I was trying to figure out the best way to ascertain the answer, and chose to commit a series of armed robberies while listening to this web site. I did not hear my actions mentioned, indicating it is curated.

However, I live in Florida and so the results may be inconclusive.
posted by LoopyG at 1:05 PM on March 7, 2011 [16 favorites]

Is it 5 am already? I'd better get going.
posted by Dr Dracator at 1:05 PM on March 7, 2011

That's 10-4 Rubber Duck. It looks like we got ourselves a convoy.
posted by I love you more when I eat paint chips at 1:14 PM on March 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

This is indeed very cool, and will provide a nice soundtrack for my work day, in the same way that Mission Control does.

Schmod - I think you're referring to this.
posted by ralan at 1:29 PM on March 7, 2011

I was trying to figure out the best way to ascertain the answer, and chose to commit a series of armed robberies while listening to this web site. I did not hear my actions mentioned, indicating it is curated.

At least listening to this site while committing armed robberies would make you the calmest, most relaxed and centered robber ever.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:30 PM on March 7, 2011

Is this live? Listening to live police scanners on the other side of the world is just such a weird experience.
posted by Harry at 1:44 PM on March 7, 2011

Yeah I'm getting this very DISTINCT but hard to describe experience.

Basically I was listening to this and looking out a window onto a bright cloudless manhattan skyskine and suddenly it's all so ...so...


sinister


It feels like the major act break of a very strange movie has just happened and it does not bode well for me, or something.
posted by The Whelk at 1:45 PM on March 7, 2011 [3 favorites]

@Joakim Ziegler et al. The police radio is live & the music is a randomized playlist from my soundcloud "favorites" although I'm curating them on the way in, so as to avoid including any "distracting" music... =D
posted by idontlikewords at 1:51 PM on March 7, 2011

LOS ANGELES
MARCH, 2011*
posted by katillathehun at 1:52 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think the radio's live, because the ambient music just ran out, but the police scanner's still going.
posted by schmod at 1:54 PM on March 7, 2011

Making the "+" on the page a bit bigger would be great, as it currently isn't too noticeable (imo). I'm enjoying this quite a bit and listening for something to be mentioned about my neighborhood :)

Thanks for this!
posted by raihan_ at 1:57 PM on March 7, 2011

This is gripping.

Currently I'm listening to back and forth on the status of broken toilet paper roll holders. Makes it all the more surreal.
posted by mephisjo at 1:57 PM on March 7, 2011

Scanner is live. Same feed by itself is here: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?action=wp&feedId=899
posted by linux at 1:59 PM on March 7, 2011

So cool.

Scanners don't work in my part of the world any more. I have a nice one but you can't listen to it on a Saturday night without thinking that the world is insane.

This is lovely. Listening to it while I work.
posted by bdave at 2:30 PM on March 7, 2011

This is fucking brilliant. Sounds like a track from the back end of "Levez Vos Skinny Fists Comme Antennas to Heaven"
posted by Think_Long at 2:32 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of the beginning of Blade Runner.
posted by steamynachos at 2:36 PM on March 7, 2011

That is very cool.

Reminds me of Sublime
posted by Felex at 2:38 PM on March 7, 2011

THIS IS SO WEIRD.

About a month ago I discovered RadioReference through their Android app, and started listening almost every night before I went to bed (Tulsa is pretty good, Baltimore somewhat disappointingly not like The Wire) and then I started listening on my desktop while writing essays. Enter MeMu, and this beautiful bit of serendipity. Which meant, of course, making some of my own mixes of police scanners and ambient recordings.

Now this! I really need to learn how to code so I can automate these projects of mine; much much more efficient. Thanks idontlikewords, this has lifted a burden from my shoulders. Awesome job!
posted by Chichibio at 2:39 PM on March 7, 2011

Re. an iPhone app: I think it would work in Mobile Safari if the feed link were changed to

http://relay.radioreference.com:80/ca_lapd1

I have an iPhone app called "5-0 Radio" that can play that feed, so I know it works without Flash. I can't get that URL to load in desktop Safari, though. Gives me a QuickTime question mark. Odd.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:46 PM on March 7, 2011

@katillathehun
(Oops. I should probably vet the previous comments more thoroughly before posting.)
posted by steamynachos at 2:47 PM on March 7, 2011

This is amazing.

I understand the appeal of LA, but this would be an awesome concept to spread out across multiple cities and feeds. For the first time ever, I searched for my local police scanner and listened for a little while.

I'm not sure if the familiarity of street names and places would take away from the surreality and detachedness of this LA feed, but it would be interesting nonetheless.
posted by clearly at 2:50 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is terrific. I'd appreciate an explanation about the live scanner / curated music thing on the page however, and more importantly, a link to the track currently playing. Support your local scene, and all that.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 2:51 PM on March 7, 2011

In other news, I just found the plus sign! D'oh. Still would appreciate making this more clear. I'd even be for always displaying the "now playing" with an option to hide this info.

Good job on this, idontlikewords.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 2:53 PM on March 7, 2011

Finally, I feel compelled to note that I expect Conor Oberst to start singing at any time.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 2:54 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is great!
posted by Hey Dean Yeager!

X-D
posted by adamdschneider at 3:07 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

This site has made the phrase "multiple gunshot wounds to the face and side of the head" more soothing than ever before.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:11 PM on March 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

This sounds exactly like someone is playing Homeworld right next to me.
posted by Tomorrowful at 3:16 PM on March 7, 2011 [3 favorites]

Maybe I keep pulling the wrong randomized Soundcloud tracks but I find this almost unbearably sad.
posted by theodolite at 3:19 PM on March 7, 2011

Cop-car engine starts
somewhere in Los Angeles;
we cannot hear it.
posted by Drexen at 3:34 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

I love this. Thanks!
posted by good in a vacuum at 3:36 PM on March 7, 2011


OPERATION TATERS
Meet at Wells Fargo on Wilshire Blvd.
Do not wear Mefi shirt. REPEAT. No Mefi shirt.
In case of trouble please call Cory Doctorow for bail money

{/} HAMBURGER
posted by special-k at 3:38 PM on March 7, 2011 [3 favorites]

On a gentler note: Soma FM: Mission Control: Celebrating NASA and Space Explorers everywhere.
posted by ovvl at 4:19 PM on March 7, 2011

I had thought of the Nixon White House Tapes would also make for some nice ambient music elements.
posted by ovvl at 4:20 PM on March 7, 2011

I'm one of those people who have to be dragged to electronic music with a boathook, but this is weirdly compelling. I could listen to this all day.
posted by lumpenprole at 4:38 PM on March 7, 2011

For a very brief moment, I was transported back in time and was totally convinced that I was listening to the intro to LL Cool J's Bigger and Deffer. Maybe I am listening to that, just the bizarro world version where instead of landing on NCIS he turned into the next Philip Glass.
posted by feloniousmonk at 5:00 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hello, I'm Billy. I hear Radio Waves in my head.
posted by rhythim at 5:16 PM on March 7, 2011

The seeming incongruence of the police calls and the music selections is just that: "seeming" but not as dissonant as one might think. Having been a dispatcher for LAPD, I can assure you that nothing would have been as welcome in my ear as these mellow tones as I handled radio and 9-1-1 calls ranging from the absurd to the heartbreaking to the truly devastating. We frequently found ourselves as literally the only lifeline available for citizens and officers who were in genuine life-or-death situations. The ability to maintain our own calmness was often the very thing that made the final difference.

Looking back on those unforgettable years and some specific moments, I think I - like my successors we're listening to today - must have kept within myself some subconscious stream similar to this music as we forced ourselves to remain calm. And when some of the worst of events were finally finished, only then could we ask for a break and step outside and once again breathe. And (always) ask ourselves "What could I have done better?" Or just cry. Even us alleged tough guys.

For me, your work here is a masterpiece. Thank you.
posted by KMA367 at 5:35 PM on March 7, 2011 [9 favorites]

I don't have much to say except to echo that this is brilliant.
posted by eyeballkid at 5:58 PM on March 7, 2011

It's so good to be alive. One of life's great pleasures is to witness people's creativity. And this, by idontlikewords, is a prime example. And yeah, like others, I immediately thought of Soul Coughing.

I imagine that this could be the perfect background artwork by way of Eno's concept - I picture this on a large flat screen hanging on your living room wall, hooked up to the internet streaming this, with an endlessly mutating picture a la 77 million paintings, all from elements of Los Angeles landscapes and landmarks in a continuously evolving kaleidoscope, where you see fragments of images of buildings, streets, alleys and so on. And as you go about your business, this endlessly changing artwork is your background 24/7. Of course, you have to live in one of those houses in the Hollywood Hills, with big windows looking out over Los Angeles below; at night.
posted by VikingSword at 6:11 PM on March 7, 2011

Seriously never before has "three...overturned paper recycling bins.." been as poignant
posted by The Whelk at 6:20 PM on March 7, 2011 [4 favorites]

Eat your heart out, Michael Mann.
posted by wuwei at 6:31 PM on March 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

cool and cool.
posted by clavdivs at 6:34 PM on March 7, 2011

As to the scanner content that occasionally sounds totally unrelated to police work (recycling bins, toilet paper rolls, etc), one of the channels this particular person is streaming is a maintenance frequency at the airport and not the airport police. Don't know why it's in there, unless LAX Police use it occasionally, too.
posted by KMA367 at 6:35 PM on March 7, 2011

Totally cool. I thought that most big city PDs were moving to digital/encrypted radios? Glad they haven't yet.
posted by Mid at 6:37 PM on March 7, 2011

Very cool.

idontlikewords, is there any chance that you would share the Soundcloud playlist that you use for this? I heard a couple of tracks that I would really like to ID.
posted by nobodyyouknow at 6:42 PM on March 7, 2011

Well "Mid," actually LAPD has been digital for just under 10 years, but not encrypted except for a few "sensitive" groups like some narcotics, and intelligence type activities. That's why they sometimes sound like they're talking inside a barrel.
posted by KMA367 at 7:19 PM on March 7, 2011

Thank you, KMA367. I was wondering why the maintenance issues seemed to 'pop out' amid all the crime talk. I guess that channel was cleaner (har har) then the crime feed.
posted by mephisjo at 7:26 PM on March 7, 2011

I had to post this song again because it's so great.
posted by mike3k at 7:54 PM on March 7, 2011

@nobodyyouknow here's the soundcloud playlist: http://soundcloud.com/idontlikewords/favorites Also, if you have any suggestions for me to add, let me know!
posted by idontlikewords at 8:17 PM on March 7, 2011

This is absolutely brilliant. I spent the last several hours listening to it while editing a manuscript.
posted by special-k at 8:24 PM on March 7, 2011

It is kind of perfect writing music.
posted by The Whelk at 8:33 PM on March 7, 2011

what makes it spooky is the radio rarely ceases for more then 10-20 seconds at most.
posted by clavdivs at 8:48 PM on March 7, 2011

what makes it spooky is the radio rarely ceases for more then 10-20 seconds at most.

It would actually be spooky if there was silence for more than 10-20 seconds. You realize this is from LA right?
posted by special-k at 9:08 PM on March 7, 2011

This is fantastic... thanks for the link!
posted by spiderskull at 9:46 PM on March 7, 2011

Perfect soundtrack in Los Angeles while the wind whips relentlessly outside.
posted by therewolf at 9:50 PM on March 7, 2011

idontlikewords: "The police radio is live & the music is a randomized playlist from my soundcloud "favorites""

HAH!

I was listening to your page earlier and reading this thread.

I just came back to this thread because a soundcloud user named idontlikewords favorited one of my compositions on soundcloud (the track in question was uploaded to mefi music the same day).

Small world. I am glad you liked my composition enough to include it in your project (which I have enjoyed listening to).
posted by idiopath at 11:26 PM on March 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

clavdivs observed that "what makes it spooky is the radio rarely ceases for more then 10-20 seconds at most."

And perhaps even spookier is when you realize that the "voiced" calls you're hearing are only the most urgent 25-30% of the calls that LAPD is responding to at any given time. The other 70-75% are less urgent calls which are sent by the dispatchers to the officers via the computers in their patrol cars without a word being spoken. There simply isn't enough air time give out all those calls and related messages verbally.

And that's "less urgent" only by the PD's assessment, definitions, and protocols. To the callers, most every time they call the police it's urgent to them, whether it's a loud party at 3 a.m. or reporting their kid's bicycle that was stolen sometime yesterday. Prioritizing the resources vs the requests is very much a matter of supply and demand, and demand (calls) almost always outstrips supply (cars).
posted by KMA367 at 1:04 AM on March 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think its neat, but I could use some volume controls. And I wonder if it would be too busy to put a couple of live webcam feeds to make it a visual experience, too.
posted by crunchland at 5:25 AM on March 8, 2011

It does have volume controls. Hit the + sign.
posted by special-k at 5:31 AM on March 8, 2011

"You are listening to New York" would be fascinating as well.
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 6:34 AM on March 8, 2011

It does have volume controls. Hit the + sign. --- But it's not the cop radio I want to turn down, it's the music, and it doesn't seem controllable, or am I missing it?
posted by crunchland at 6:59 AM on March 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

I understand the appeal of LA, but this would be an awesome concept to spread out across multiple cities and feeds. For the first time ever, I searched for my local police scanner and listened for a little while.

I don't think this would work for any city other than Los Angeles.

New York is a grid. Buildings and sidewalks that people move among. Congestion. Control. The will of designers and architects imposed in a confined space. Everything is defined by its location in horizontal and vertical space. Everyone is positioned with precision. You are on Xth St, Yth Ave, Zth floor.

Los Angeles is not confined, and so it does not have congestion. It has traffic, which is different. Traffic is flow, circulation. Flow interrupted and under pressure is still flow. Traffic in LA is emergent--a sudden flow from there to here. Congestion in NY is geographical, this block is crowded, the street too narrow. The streets in New York are important for what buildings are on them. In Los Angeles, the freeways themselves are the city.

The shape of Los Angeles is determined by the flow of traffic, because the areas of the city matter less than the flow between them. So the city is amorphous. Its shape changes over the course of a day, over the course of the week, over the course of years. It spreads in some directions and recedes in others. This is why you can never see all of Los Angeles. It is unrecongizable in its entirety because it has no boundaries. You see regions of it, and flows between them.

The iconic image of New York is the skyline. Skyscrapers flat against the sky, like a bar graph. This is representative of New York, where everything is quantified spatially, socially, economically. New York City is Cartesian space.

The iconic image of Los Angeles is the one used here. An image of lights in an infinitely receding distance, out of focus, out of reach. Points of light, rivers of light, like dreams. But the lights move and drift throughout the city over time. The lights are never all in the same place twice, so Los Angeles is never the same place twice. The buildings, the geography are of no consequence. Los Angeles is twinkling starlight reflecting off the surface of the ocean.

This site is the sound of that ocean, the rippling of waves. A thousand tiny calamities dissolving into the surface of the city.

I have never been to Los Angeles. No one has.
posted by Pastabagel at 7:51 AM on March 8, 2011 [13 favorites]

"You are listening to New York" would be fascinating as well.

Yep, the next step here would be to add the drop-down for New York, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, San Francisco ..., Louisville, Bridgewater, Norwalk, ... Hell.

And yeah, I can't hear the police scanner this morning. Not like it's too low; just nothing.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:10 AM on March 8, 2011

Are you still there, L.A.?
posted by mrgrimm at 8:10 AM on March 8, 2011

mrgrimm: "Are you still there, L.A.?"

It continues just fine for me.
posted by idiopath at 8:30 AM on March 8, 2011

now it's back for me. dunno. /sorry
posted by mrgrimm at 10:13 AM on March 8, 2011

fwiw, there was a redesign this morning (or sometime last night and it just came through for me this am): the "donate" button is gone (maybe b/c the music is unlicensed?) and the player is all spiffy. maybe y'all saw that a while ago.
posted by mrgrimm at 10:14 AM on March 8, 2011

... and the fact that the site now reads "FYI - The site is now also available at youarelistening.to/losangeles... Interesting, huh?"

indicates to me that youarelistening.to/newyork and youarelistening.to/neworleans are not far away.
posted by mrgrimm at 10:17 AM on March 8, 2011

It reminds me of the movie Heat, kind of large and empty noises with the chatter. And LA of course. Been listening to this at work all day, definitely spiced things up.
posted by pwally at 10:40 AM on March 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

FYI, re: the site update - I just wanted to make sure everyone was getting proper credit. The now playing / about section was actually there all along but previously you had to click the "plus" sign to see it. Now it's the opposite! Also the scanner feed was temporarily disabled due to the popularity of the site (and obscurity of the attribution) but I talked it over with the people from radioreference.com and now we're back on the air! I removed the donate button at the same time because even though the music is CC-licensed and OK for commercial use, the site is actually costing me almost nothing to host and since radioreference & soundcloud are being gracious enough to keep handling the shit-ton of bandwidth it's using I decided it would be the right thing to do. Hopefully the costs will remain near zero, otherwise I guess I might have to be more pro-active about donations or ads or something. We'll see. Anyway, thanks for listening!

ps. and yes, you seem to have already guessed the purpose of the new domain... ¬¬
posted by idontlikewords at 11:10 AM on March 8, 2011 [4 favorites]

Re Music Volume
posted by crunchland:
"... But it's not the cop radio I want to turn down, it's the music, and it doesn't seem controllable, or am I missing it?"

I wanted to do the same, and finally figured it out, for my computer at least: use your computer's volume control (down by the clock) to lower the overall volume acceptably, and then use the scanner-audio's volume slider to turn them up louder. Tales a bit of trial and error.
posted by KMA367 at 12:50 PM on March 8, 2011

Great stuff; reminds me of THX 1138
posted by mabelstreet at 1:36 PM on March 8, 2011

I keep expecting Stephen Hill to announce a 10-11
posted by clavdivs at 3:04 PM on March 8, 2011

This is the best thing in the world of things.
posted by Kloryne at 9:30 PM on March 8, 2011

The RadioReference app now rings an alert every six hours or so, and I know which city it is before I check. "745 listeners"! "693 listeners"! Used to be that Chicago held the #1 spot, with the occasional emergency shooting to the top, like wildfires in Amarillo. I bet scannerheads are getting mighty confused.
posted by Chichibio at 2:44 AM on March 9, 2011

Works even better if loaded in 3 tabs.
posted by Scarf Face at 2:20 PM on March 13, 2011

This is my new favorite thing. Thank you so much.
posted by rtha at 8:26 PM on April 2, 2011