Phenomenological "Sound-In-Time"

Unfortunately, as Katie also aptly observed, I cannot experience the painting's "sound-in-time," (the sound of the painting as I stand in front of it) and describing the feeling I get from looking at it would boarder on virtual feeling, which will come later. Instead I opted to graft on some referential work, and listen to the sound-in-time of Tom Wait's "Nighthawk Postcards (from Easy Street)," off the concept album "Nighthawks at the Diner," which is a live recording of Wait's, in a nightclub setting, attempting to recreate the moods of night clubs, jazz, booze, and of course, the loneliness of Hopper's painting. If the painting could speak, it would sound like this.

Listen.

The sound of the piece is the kind of cool, yet suggests the narrator is a bitterly alone night-owl, roaming the streets, boozing, describing the scenes around him. The gruff voice of Waits is humorous and stereotypical of 1950's film noir, but somehow still the perfect narrator for the picture of empty streets and late night diner stops. Waits based the album on the painting, so it can't be too far off in terms of referential meaning.