"What I heard"

I did my sound walk on a saturday and decided to go downtown towards the village. As one might expect the sound of the trains on the way their were loud and prominent, but when I began to really search for sound I could notice people shuffling one way or the other because of their shoes. One traveler I could even tell was listening to michael jackson as I listened carefully and heard the faint music escape his earbuds as he stood across from me. Upon leaving the station as the thundering train left me, the low echoes of the clacking of everyones shoes, the low rumble of the air from vents, and eventually as everyone cleared the area the hum of the lights within the station could be heard. After getting above ground the soundscape became more complex, taxies were driving by and a random honk of a horn, the gust of wind as it blew the liter from the ground, and the far off chatterings of pedestrians created the background noise of the city. As I made my way away from the cube towards copper union I could hear music which after little effort searching realized was coming from some hippy squatter looking type with his guitar, what I found interesting about this however was not the quality of the sound itself but rather the fact that my focus on this sound immediately caused me to be unaware that their was a beggar nearby asking for change. Although he wasn't particularly loud or addressing me directly, I still found it interesting how well the human brain filters out sounds based on apparent importance and how had I not been doing this excercise I may not have noticed the beggar all together. How although my ears heard, my brain did not. Anyway as one might expect I went on and noticed various sounds but this assignment has a length requirement and these first few sentences really sum up the most important aspect of the experience.