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Solidarity

Many of you are unable to enjoy the full Tirana power cut experience. Not only does sections of the city descend into darkness - though, mysteriously, there are always a number of random buildings that don't seem to be affected - but there is also the aural experience; the Tirana symphony of rows of generators running at the same time.

When I was out walking a few nights ago, I decided to try to record the sound of one of the many generators on my phone. I managed to convert this to a five second MP3 file. So I am pleased to announce this new Tirana ring tone is available for your use here. Just click on download, enter the given code and hit 'get'. Use it for your ringtone, message tone or any way you want in solidarity with the good people of Albania.

I don't know much about these kind of files, so the quality is not great. If any of you know better how to improve it, feel free to do so and either send it back to me or put it on Wiki Upload and send me the link.

This particular generator is from Franco's cafe on Rr Komuna e Parisit.

Comments

Anonymous said…
If only there was some way to also capture the fragrance of so many generators running at once.

I always appreciate opportunities to show solidarity with the good people of Tirana.
Anonymous said…
Perhaps if they would gather all of Tirana's generators in one (remote) spot and wire them all up, they would generate enough for the whole city to enjoy continuous electricity. Saves the costs of building a new power plant.
olli said…
hm, maybe there is a gap in the market for a Tirana scratch 'n' sniff card with a variety of distinctive Tirana smells.

Brilliant idea Jeroen. Maybe you should suggest it to Rama and Olldashi and see if they make it into a campaign promise.
Anonymous said…
scratch-n-sniff...might i also suggest "internet cafe"?
bryan-in-greece said…
Was it the Two Ronnies (Corbett and Barker) who initially mooted the idea of Smellyvison, whereby a TV could emit the smells associated with what the viewer was seeing on the screen? Surely the web and modern technology can indeed reproduce this? If we can blithely buy hugely over-priced inkjet cartridges to print what we see on the web (has anyone worked out quite how much a 19ml black ink cartridge costs per litre??? - It is around EUR1000 a litre...) then surely we can produce and splash out on a "ponkjet cartridge" which will let us *smell* what we are seeing on the web! :-)

Just a thought!!!
Anonymous said…
you albanian, american what........

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