18. Scattered showers
July 26th, 2020

Rain on the internet
(File under: rain, anime, asmr)

I have become a divining rod for rain on the internet. It’s currently 80°F in Seattle and I’m indoors with browser tabs full of variations on RELAXING RAIN SOUNDS ASMR 10 HOURS OF THUNDER SOOTHING MEDITATION 4K. I am a terrible New Yorker cartoon.

I spent most of this week listening to rain recordings due to the headache that’s been doggedly pursuing me for the past fortnight. But dowsing for virtual rainfall is a hobby of mine even when I’m not sick. Rain and I have a kinship, a nod-wink mutual appreciation often found in the British, or by anybody who successfully navigated that period of your late teens when you thought being moody and introspective was the same thing as having a personality.

Thankfully, there’s a perpetual area of low pressure that sweeps across the internet. In a slight break from tradition, and because I’ve consumed little else this week, here’s a handful of my favourite precipitation:

- The Garden of Words is a short anime drama directed by Makoto Shinkai (Your Name, Weathering With You). Its rain sequences give me enough serotonin to fly to the moon. It’s currently streaming on Netflix.
- Loscil’s Endless Falls begins with rain and ends with nine minutes of abstruse muttering from Dan Bejar of Destroyer. I may have dreamt this record into existence.
- Nomadic Ambience (via Robin) is a YouTube channel that specialises in hour-long rainy walks through various cities, all recorded with a binaural mic. I’ve found they also help with quarantine-age yearning for the everyday outside world, particularly this one from residential Tokyo.
- Here’s 10 minutes of rain captured in Kentucky Route Zero, one of my favourite games of the last decade.
- r/raining is a startlingly pleasant subreddit where members post videos and images of rain with zero commentary. r/aestheticrain is a similar space for art and animation.

Dept. of Enthusiasm is a charmingly sporadic email from me, Jez Burrows. You can read some past issues, or sign up below.