Episode 20
Episode 20 - Geographies
Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. This week: mask meanings, seaside picnics, learning español!
Some of the plays in this episode may contain sensitive topics. For more specific content warnings, check out the timecodes below.
If you like what you hear and want to support the New York Neo-Futurists, consider making a donation at nynf.org, or joining our Patreon. Patreon membership gives you access to bonus content like video plays! We’d really appreciate any support in these difficult times. Contributing to our Patreon helps us continue to pay our artists.
Take care of yourself, paint your roommate’s room while they’re asleep, and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
1:23 - Found Sound Part II, Plus or Minus Some Masks by Anooj Bhandari
3:57 - Reflections while currently living on an island (based on a dream, a birthday, and a 100-year-old book) by Rob Neill
8:06 - A Spanish Lesson by Michael John Improta
Our logo was designed by Shelton Lindsay
Our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean
Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Julia Melfi, and Léah Miller
Take Care!
Transcript
Episode 20: Geographies
Show Intro
Groovy subtle electronic instrumental music plays underneath.
Julia: 20. Geographies. I’m Julia Melfi—a New York Neo-Futurist. While our on-going, ever-changing, late-night show, The Infinite Wrench, is on hold for the foreseeable future, we wanted a place to keep making art for you. And thus, Hit Play was born!
If you’re already a fan of The New York Neo-Futurists, or any of our sibling companies, hello! We can’t wait to walk down the street and hold hands with you. Just something simple. If this is totally new to you—welcome to it!
We play by four rules: We are who we are, we’re doing what we’re doing, we are where we are, and the time is now. Simply put: we tell stories, and those stories are our own. Everything that you hear is actually happening. So if we tell you we're recording while watering our plants, we’re really recording while watering our plants. Like I am right now. Hey guys!
Sound of Julia watering plants.
Julia: And now, Mike will Run the Numbers!
Michael: Hi, I’m Michael John Improta, a New York Neo-Futurist.
In this episode we’re bringing you 3 plays by Anooj Bhandari, Rob Neill, and me–Michael John Improta. That brings us to 83 audio experiments on Hit Play. Enjoy!
Music winds down.
Play 1: Found Sound Part II, Plus or Minus Some Masks (1:23)
Anooj: Found Sound Part II, Plus or Minus Some Masks. GO!
Sound cue from the last half of a video of Anooj's family playing in the rain on the roof and yelling for joy, picking up from the end of episode 19 of Hit Play.
*The sound cue that backs the text is another trill note, but perhaps a treble one of a higher pitch, than part I, starting after the word ‘unpolluted’
Anooj: This is what it sounds like to play in the rain, unpolluted.
A single low note trill on the cello.
This sound was taken on a roof that eight months ago, I could not step onto without a mask. The dust from the burning crops flew through the air from the farmlands north of New Delhi and rubbed dusty elbows with the urban pollution to breed a thick layer of fog that fell on the city like a heat blanket you can’t escape.
Walking down the street looked at many times like the prelude to a movie-dream sequence but without the romantics of it all, and the rain was sparse... acidic, if there. I would take a yellow and black checkered scarf from my bag, fold it lengthwise and wrap it around the top of my head until I could tuck enough of its length to tie across my face. When my cousin sent me this clip of him and his son dancing on the roof, playing, he said, “Remember when people were still wearing masks, but for different reasons? Do you remember the smog?”
I think societies have a habit of calling those impacted, living under the circumstance of pollution, as the ones in the greatest need of being cleaned. You can hear his son yelling, “Oh Bapre!” the colloquial Hindi for “Oh my gosh!” unbridled, before they literally sit in the water on that roof, drenching their limbs in the downpour, and I think to myself… what a divine secret it is in this world to know that being a subject of something deemed a pollutant is not the same as being a pollutant itself. Our limbs know how to respond to the world pouring out, crying onto us just as much as our brains can adjust to the moments where a definition of something as simple as a mask changes overnight. I just hope that my body doesn’t forget what a phenomenon it is, in the moments where it begins to ask for its next downpour, its cyclical reminder of its sacredness beyond the masks.
Cello plays out.
Play 2: Reflections while currently living on an island (3:57)
Rob: Reflections while currently living on an island (based on a dream, a birthday, and a 100-year-old book). GO!
Sound effects of water, gulls, cars, waves, boats, bells, bars, streets and layering throughout. Some text is distorted, echoing (especially the lines in parentheses).
Rob: I have always been drawn to the water
to the sea
To so and so and so and so’s dog
or cat or kid
This or that thingamabob
A good spatula
Spry old locals ripping for a bargain
A picnic
Shall we picnic?
I have always been drawn to
The speedster
The convertible
The summer visitor
The old friend
The circle of community
The meld of days of minds of agendas
Impressions
Falling waters
Places that feel like home, like a home
Drawn to a picnic, whatever that means
Shall we picnic? (shall we)
This stanza repeats later as underscore
Here’s to the clam entourage
The little neck
The sea clam
The razor
The cable car
The mud clam
The bluefin
The fine wine
The bivalve
The whistler
The quahog
The pissant
The pea shooter
The beach pea
The lupine
The ol clammy hand
Outdoor seating
This stanza repeats over itself
Bayberry huckleberry daisy
Geranium
The soft green of the wild sarsaparilla
Butterfly weed
Danish treat
Piece of cheese, of tasty cheeses
A picnic (a picnic) Yes!
Counting forms of life clinging to rocks
The sloop
Barge
The scow
The full reward of the scallop
Hard a lee
Buoy bell sound
Picture your type of boat.
Where is that boat going? (What color are its sails?)
Where are you going? (Where are we all going?)
Red right returning
Halyard
Starboard
Port
Ports
Keel keel (keel keel keel)
Danger
A pair of pepper pewter pots
A pair of pepper pewter pots
A pair of pepper pewter pots
A pair of pepper pewter pots
A pair of pepper pewter pots
A pair of pepper pewter pots
Like this is a meditation
Rob takes a deep breath. Buoy bell sound
Or a picnic
Will you picnic? (yes, yes)
Yes yes I believe I always like a picnic, a drink quick, a once-forgotten river bend discovery, even a dark long bar in the daytime (McHale’s, hm)
Take a cup, any cup. Fill it.
I have these here
I like to think that these cups are made from bone
Sound of cups clinking
And the whiskey, inspiration
Sound of whiskey pouring
Did I mention the whiskey? The whiskey is always implied.
And we drink and talk
Into mics, say
Or right now I talk (in your ears, say)
Rob takes a deep breath. Buoy bell sound
Last night it was snowing and melting immediately as it hit the streets, that is a form of magic for me
Buoy bell sound
Last night we stood high atop the promontories shouting out our favorite dessert hoping for anyone to respond
(Casellula’s Chocolate Cake) (that is a form of magic for me)
Buoy bell sound
Last night we actually just slept and didn’t look for doors in the ceiling.
Wait, did you see that? (Where did it go?) (magic for me)
And, one day merged into the other (one day merged into the other)
And one day merged into the other (into the other)
And in the very old book, they wrote,
"In any one of them, I shall find the same sense of freedom, the same sort of pleasure, and the same love for the salt sea, and from each, I shall look at the windy, sandy shores with the same loyal affection…”
the same, the same the same, same same (the same, the same)
One day merged into the other (one day merged)
And I saw you
I didn’t see you
Saw you
I saw you there again on the boat or the train or the boat train, or the dock
(staring, staring, staring)
Or maybe in the street as we passed, masked, missing that that person walking by was someone who one day had been
One day maybe
General background noise fades to the sound of a wave ebbing and flowing
Able to picnic
to picnic
to picnic
to picnic again
Buoy bell sound
A pair of pepper pewter pots
A pair of pepper pewter pots
A pair of pepper pewter pots
A pair of pepper pewter pots
A pair of pepper pewter pots
A pair of pepper pewter pots
Rob inhales and on exhale:
Hail mollusks!
Rob takes a deep breath that fades out with the background sounds.
Play 3: A Spanish Lesson (8:06)
Michael: A Spanish Lesson. GO!
Sound of technology, then Spanish music plays, fades to underscore levels.
My name is Michael John Improta, and today I am going to be giving you a spanish lesson. The first vocabulary word I’m going to teach you is an easy one.
Repeat after me: Español
Good. What does this word mean? It's the word for the language Spanish
The second most spoken native language in the world. The language spoken in countries like Spain, Colombia, Mexico. Cities like New York, Miami. And also the Modern American Colony of Puerto Rico.
Okay. Second vocabulary word. Repeat after me. Mejor!
Anyone know this one?
Mejor means better.
Obama is a Mejor president than Trump
Squirtle is a Major Pokémon than Charmander
Rihanna is Mejor than Beyoncé
English is a Mejor language than... say it with me… first vocab word: Español
...which is what my parents thought when they taught me English instead of Spanish.
Okay next Vocab word is… Ojala.
Great. Now this word is interesting. It means “I hope” but its direct translation is
“God Willing”. The Latinx people by and large are incredibly Christian. So the fact that religion has seeped into the language should come as no surprise.
But what that means is that Spanish speakers, specifically my people the Puerto Ricans, tie our hopes onto a God that was thrust upon us by early Colonizers. So if one were to… I don't know, hope to find an identity–that person would be hoping linguistically through the lens of an entirely different cultural and religious point of view. Ojala
Great. Okay now the last vocabulary word is a bit tricky. Repeat after me: Hablara.
Bueno! This is the first person singular imperfect subjunctive form of the word Hablar
Let's break that down. Hablar means to talk. That's easy enough.
First person singular. That basically just means me, as in I’m fucking talking about myself here y'all!
And lastly Imperfect Subjunctive. Now there are a few ways to use this tense but the one that strikes my eye is this: the Imperfect Subjunctive often refers to unlikely events, or possibilities.
Unlikely events, or possibilities. Hablara.
Now let’s put that all together to form a sentence. Repeat after me: Ojala hablara mejor espanol
I hope that someday I speak better Spanish.
Music fades out.
Show Outro (11:24)
Groovy subtle electronic instrumental music plays underneath.
Julia: Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. If you liked what you heard, subscribe to the show and tell a friend! If you want to support the New York Neo-Futurists in other ways, consider making a donation at nynf.org, or joining our Patreon–Patreon.com/NYNF. Patreon membership gives you access to bonus content like video plays and livestreams. And if this episode gets over 1,000 downloads, we'll order one of our Patreon supporters a pizza on us. We’d really appreciate any support in these difficult times. Contributing to our Patreon helps us continue to pay our artists.
Take care of yourself, paint your roommate’s room while they’re asleep, and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
If you're looking for more shows to listen to, you should check out Neo Alum Dylan Marron’s new podcast, Small Triumph, Big Speech. In each episode, Dylan celebrates someone’s everyday accomplishment with a big over-the-top-speech. And all the money raised from the podcast goes to the National Domestic Workers Alliance's Coronavirus Care Fund, which supports domestic workers who don't have access to health care, job security, or paid leave. Give it a listen!
This episode featured work by: Anooj Bhandari, Rob Neill, and Michael John Improta. Our logo was designed by Shelton Lindsay. And our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean. Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Léah Miller, and me, Julia Melfi. Take Care!
Music fades out!