Observation #2: Digital Rain

The songbirds sing lonelier songs. The brooks babble to nobody. If the tree falls in the actual-factual forest and there’s no one there to Instagram it, does it make a sound?

Yesterday, I was listening to the music of Johann Johannson (whose parents must have had a sense of humor) while I scrolled social media. In his song “Theme,” Jo-Jo sampled the sounds of seagulls at the beach, rain on the water, thunder, a choir. I was almost moved to tears by my forgetfulness of the music of the natural...