Episode 28 - Save for Now//Save for Later

Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. This week: swearing, boxing, hugging, following!

If you like what you hear and want to support the New York Neo-Futurists, subscribe to the show, consider making a donation at nynf.org, and join 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, rearrange your trinkets, and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

1:33 - My Family Swear Jar by Anooj Bhandari featuring Aash Bhandari and Priyal Patel

3:44 - Neo-Pugilism by Katy-May Hudson featuring Mike Puckett, recorded in 2016

6:19 - In which Michael solicits future hugs, Hit Play edition part 1 by Michael John Improta featuring Léah Miller 

9:49 - Reflections on following a bee down the empty sidewalk in the sun by Rob Neill featuring Alexa

Our logo was designed by Shelton Lindsay

Our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean

Joey Rizzolo designed and mixed the audio for Neo-Pugilism. Thanks, Joey!

Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Julia Melfi, and Léah Miller

Take Care!

Transcript 

Episode 28 Save for Now//Save for Later

Show Intro

Wooshy and bouncy electronic instrumental music plays underneath.

Julia: 28. Save for Now//Save for Later. 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, hi! We can’t wait to go to the movies with you. 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 making some iced tea, we’re really recording while making some iced tea. Like I am right now. 

Sound of ice clinking and liquid pouring

Julia: And now, Michael will Run the Numbers!

Michael: Hi, I’m Michael John Improta, a New York Neo-Futurist. 

In this episode we’re bringing you 4 plays by Anooj Bhandari featuring Aash Bhandari and Priyal Patel, a play from the vault by Katy-May Hudson featuring Mike Puckett recorded back in 2016. One by me--Michael John Improta featuring Léah Miller, and the last by Rob Neill...featuring Alexa.

That brings us to 115 audio experiments on Hit Play. Enjoy!

Music winds down.

Play 1: My Family Swear Jar (1:33)

Anooj: My Family Swear Jar. GO!

Xylophone music as underscore

Anooj: Mom’s voice lit up when she said this would be a good idea and I’ve been saying the f word too much so we already had a place to put our things. Now, the jar labeled “family swear jar” has some new items integrated into it along with the small paper scraps we used as both an alternative to not having coins and to not really have to pay up for fucking up trying not to swear in the first place. There are some notes in there about things like 

Priyal: how weird the times are 

Anooj: and how the things we do are weird no matter the times 

Aash: and something about loving your fiance and your brother because they told you to write that when you weren’t sure what else to put. 

Anooj: And beyond these folded up pieces of paper there’s a broken statue of the god Kali who's my favorite of the gods if that’s even a thing and I bought it for my friend Tim before it broke in my suitcase 

Priyal: and a lego figurine of Hermione Granger that was a gift from a guy named John who said her nerdiness was a reminder of me 

Aash: and a colorful bowtie because I had a ton of other ideas but needed something that would fit into the jar my brother stole from our kitchen cabinet. 

Anooj: Mom said we should dig up a hole at this rundown park with a rundown swingset called Conklin park that we looked up ten years ago not knowing it was rundown before we packed a bag for a picnic, and ate there anyways, and she said that in 2030, we can go dig it up. She said even if all of us have moved and gone far away that we can still come together in 2030, 180 minutes from their house, and dig it up; a family that looks like they have no business in little muddy Conklin park with shovels picking at the ground, and when we find the jar, we can gaze at the time when the world stopped and the men playing with big money said things online like how great it is that we all get to learn about balance and the things that matter most until the virus died out and they resumed to run Wall Street, and we will stand around a dug up hole in the ground feeling no more than we are today because balance, true balance, is the hard work and daily act of swearing to yourself that these little things have always been worth it, swearing to yourself to never forget the things lodged in this ground that don’t wait for you but are still there, and knowing that you don’t have to pay a fucking cent for that commitment.

Play 2: Neo-Pugilism (3:44)

Julia: From the Vault, recorded back in 2016, here's Katy-May Hudson's Neo-Pugilism. GO!

Katy-May: In Australia, my Australia, most weekends of drinking end almost ceremoniously with a bottling or glassing.

Strummy underscore begins

Mike: A Bottle to the face. A glass to the face.

Katy-May: Right. Or a bunch of dudes punching on…

Mike: Men punching each other? In the face.

Katy-May: Yes. Punching each other. In the face.

Mike: Hmm…

Katy-May: Aiming for a slack, open jaw, to knock someone out--or the ridge of a nose, to bust with a head butt. Or an exposed temple to crack, for a king hit.

Mike: Okay.

Katy-May: Or women, a group of women, ripping off their stiletto’s to beat each other in the face with spiked heels.

Mike: Wow.

Katy-May: I NEVER see that here. New York is safer, for me anyway. And it feels really great to feel safe. What about where you're from?

Mike: I mean, I'm from a suburb of Northern Virginia, um, I have not gotten in a fight there. Ever. 

Katy-May: Hmm…

Mike: So, Australia. The land of furry koala’s, Olivia Newton-John, True Blue mate ship, American allegiance… And glassings?

Katy-May: The koala’s all have chlamydia, you know. 

Mike: Oh, that’s a bummer. 

Katy-May: The Koala’s dying of a sexually transmitted disease or the violence…

Mike: I guess both?

Katy-May: It’s a violent cesspool of white entitlement, the aftermath of the displacement of lower class convicts that were rejected by their country/their people and who now act out against “other” people to reclaim, unjustly, space and status. It’s a place fraught with insecurity.

Mike: Well. Space. We all want it.

Katy-May: Do we?

Mike: Palestine and Israel.

Katy-May: I don’t know.

Mike: Shia and Sunni

Katy-May: I don’t know.

Mike: Albanian / Serbian.

Katy-May: Oh, I don’t wanna know… Yankees and Confederates?

Mike: Not quite, cause the Confederates wanted space and the Yankees wanted to keep them from taking it. I don't if that's the same thing. 

Katy-May: Mm. 

Mike: Space.

Katy-May: Does anyone deserve it? Are we entitled to it?

Mike: I guess it can feel like an inalienable right, right? It's certainly a justification for globalization.

Katy-May: Mm, I don't know about that. But I do feel entitled to this space. Is that disgusting?

Mike: No.

Katy-May: I feel at home here.

Mike: Maybe that’s because you aren't witnessing people physically assaulting each other on the weekends.

Katy-May: I’m not.

Mike: If you feel entitled to a space, but you don't own it, then who does?

Katy-May: It belongs to everyone. 

Mike: Or to nobody.

Katy-May: Same thing.

Play 3: In which Michael solicits future hugs Hit Play edition (6:19)

Michael: In which Michael solicits future hugs, Hit Play edition part 1. GO!

Michael: Recently, I got on my bike and I rode 40 miles in one day to talk to a bunch of my friends about when we would be able to hug each other next and what it would feel like and how much it sucked that we couldn't hug each other right now. I made a video of all of those responses and you can see that completed video on the New York Neo-Futurist Patreon. Today, for Hit Play, we're giving you a little, uh, full recording of one of those conversations. This is my conversation with Léah Miller. Enjoy! 

Sound of tape measure rattling. 

Michael: Oh, great, okay! Cool. You can let go! 

Sound of tape measure retracting. Léah sounds farther away in the recording. 

Michael: Hi Léah! 

Léah: Hi Michael! 

Michael: Do you wanna guess how far away we are from each other right now? 

Léah: I would guess… like, 10 feet? 11 feet?

Michael: 19 feet! 

Léah: 19 FEET??!

Michael: 19 feet! This is what 19 feet feels like.

Léah: Wow, that is… Surprising! 

Michael: When was the last time you had a hug? 

Léah: There's been like 2 or 3 housemate hugs with a couple of housemates but not at least for like, 2 weeks. 

Michael: Can you remember a really memorable hug that you'd like to tell me about?

Léah: Yes! So many, but the one that came to mine was at camp, I work at a summer camp, and we're just a very touchy bunch, but there was like, at the camp dance, like on Saturday night or whatever we have our big end of camp dance and I had a hug massage dance with one of the people that I work at camp with and it was like several songs long, I want to say fifteen minutes, but that might be a little exaggerating, but we were just like squeeze hugging while also kinda doing like finger back massage stuff, just kinda swaying to the music--I guess it was dancing, but it was more, it was hug-based, for sure. 

Michael: I love that! That's great. I'm making this video play because I miss hugging my friends. So I was wondering if you'd like to maybe scheduled a hug together for when we are allowed to? 

Léah: I would love nothing more. 

Michael: Great. Follow-up question is--in your imagination, what would that hug look like? 

Léah: Ok, I took notes. 

Michael: Yes! 

Léah: I'm ready. Okay, it would start with a scream of your name when I caught sight of you wherever we were, big open mouth grin as we approach--maybe we're at the Kraine, who knows? That would be nice. 

Michael: Yeah! That would be nice. 

Léah: I think our personal hug shape is like, one arm up, one arm down, like more chest contact than the tree hugging kinda shape. More direct contact and it would be TIGHT TIGHT TIGHT squeeze cause you have the muscles 

Michael: (He laughs) Thank you. 

Léah: And there'd be some torso wiggles a little bit and dancing around. There'd be a little cheek kiss, at least from me, and I'm gonna do like a little bit of chatting while we're still kinda hugging and then one final huge squeeze and then let go. 

Michael: That's kinda what I imagined too! I love that. Alright, it's a deal. 

Léah: I can't wait!

Play 4: Reflections on following a bee (9:49)

Rob: Reflections on following a bee down the empty sidewalk in the sun. GO!

Rob: 1. I said hey bee

Hey

2. I said hey bee

Bee

Beebeebee

Hey

3. I said hey bee, bee

and the bee said

nothing 

it was a bee

4. The bee darted free in and out of patches of sun and shade

And the song that is not this song but like this song played

(sounds far away) Alexa play: 

Old song on an old-timey radio station plays, continues as underscore, gets slowly louder

5. I said Bee

Hey, I am happy right now, bee

And the song that is not this song but like this song played in my ears

6. Bee, I said, hey

I am mad right now, bee, sad right now bee

Bee, things are so bad right now

And the song that is not this song but like this song played loudly in my ears 

7. And the song that is not this song but like this song was playing

So maybe I just didn’t hear what the bee was saying

And it eventually flew faster than I walk

But as I sit reflecting in the shorts 

a bird up in a tree downtown shat on today

I feel nature 

nature is not just talking to me

Music plays and Rob breathes.

Alexa

Music stops and Alexa boops

Thank you

Alexa responds: You're welcome

Alexa play 

Old song on an old-timey radio station plays and fades out

Show Outro (12:30)

Wooshy and bouncy 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, rearrange your trinkets, and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

This episode featured work by: Anooj Bhandari featuring Aash Bhandari and Priyal Patel, Katy-May Hudson featuring Mike Puckett, and thanks to Joey Rizzolo for sharing this play with us from the Vault, Michael John Improta featuring Léah Miller, and Rob Neill featuring Alexa.

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!