photo by Chevy Anderson
[Editor's note: In the spirit of Halloween, we're asking you to contribute your theories as to the source of the sound embedded below. Leave your thoughts in the space provided directly below the sound, and please beware the beast.]
story by Michael Todd
My search for the sound seemed cut short, like the life of an unsuspecting passerby, plucked from the sidewalk by giant talons. This apparent dead end to my quest came hours before the creature was to begin crowing from its nest in the green tower, high atop the skyline of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Around 4:56 p.m. on Tuesday, I sat in the Lincoln Community Garden with my field recorder at the ready. You see, as a Hear Nebraskan, it is my duty to let the sounds of Nebraska be known, and when those sounds cannot be explained, it is my duty to disseminate them to be explained by the greater community.
Many nights previously, after concerts at Duffy's Tavern, The Zoo Bar or The Bourbon Theatre, I had heard the shrill squawking of a prehistoric beast. I imagined it to be a mass of ravenous fur with webbed wings and a stomach-squeezing stench that would pervade most of downtown were it not for a costly smell-diversion system put in place decades ago. Of course, I had never seen the animal, nor had anyone else to my knowledge. But perhaps due to my inability to swiftly hide my field recorder, I now can ascertain there's more to the story than the protectors of this mythic monster would like us to know.
Yes, I was forced to leave the garden so the gate could be locked, "according to schedule": Those are my air quotes. But never one to be stopped by the system, I returned later that night to find exactly what my ears had been parsing ever since they first perked up to the prickly sound. I found the evidence of an aural gargoyle that must manifest itself physically in the most terrifyingly fleshy way.
Please listen for yourself, and leave your own deductions directly below in the comments:
Michael Todd is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. Perhaps you don't believe him. This sound, also captured on Tuesday, just two blocks from the earlier-posted alleyway squawking, might sway your opinion. Reach Michael at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.
