Episode 33

Episode 33 Are We Having Fun?

Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. This episode: existential, high, reminiscent, and crunchy!

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1:40 - recent over sights by Rob Neill featuring Vanessa Ehler, Léah Miller, Greg Lakhan, and Katharine Heller

2:51 - Sir Gregolas Radio: WII'D by Greg Lakhan

3:58 - Katharine Recalls The Plot Of The Musical "The King And I", From Her 6th Grade Production Without Googling Anything, And Rob Fact Checks Her by Katharine Heller featuring Rob Neill

5:57 - Hot Leaf by Anthony Sertel Dean

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 33 Are We Having Fun?

Show Intro

Bouncy and jingly electronic instrumental music plays underneath.

Julia: 33. Are We Having Fun? Hi, 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 so we made this podcast!

If you’re already a fan of The New York Neo-Futurists, or any of our sibling companies, hello! We can’t wait to eat whatever you bring to a picnic. 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 this line after we licked a bar of soap, we’re really recording this part after we licked a bar of soap. Like I just did. Ugh. Oh fuck, I actually really hated that. I didn't think it would be so bad.

Julia: And now, Anthony will Run the Numbers!

Anthony: Hey, I’m Anthony, technical director for the New York Neo-Futurists.

In this episode we’re bringing you 4 plays. The first is by Rob Neill featuring Vanessa Ehler, Léah Miller, Greg Lakhan, and Katharine Heller. The second play is by Greg Lakhan. The third play is by Katharine Heller featuring Rob Neill. And the last one is by me, Anthony Sertel Dean.

That brings us to 131 audio experiments on Hit Play. Woo! Enjoy!

Music winds down.

Play 1: recent over sights (1:40)

Rob: recent over sights. GO!

Voices of Rob, Vanessa, Greg, Katharine, and Léah edited together and layered with old-time-y public domain music

All: This is not the funny part

This is not the part where you understand

where I understand

There are too many questions now

This is not the time of strengthen

This is when we call up what strength we have

This is not where we know what the next day, hour, minute will bring

This is where the question mark inside me as to

what my body will do when confronted by the virus

unsettles me daily fundamentally

This is not business, life, dinner as usual

This is not let's huddle in the root cellar til it all goes away

This is not the apocalypse

This is training for the apocalypse

or it is not

This is a series of repeat shocks

shocks of isolation

Music plays out

Play 2: Sir Gregolas Radio: WII'D (2:51)

Radio static like scanning for a station

Greg: Sir Gregolas Radio: WII'D. GO!

Rap song. The WII theme is warped as the melody.

Greg: Flows are infectious

No names on the guestlist

Time so precious

Don’t know how to spend it

Sources of entertainment

So endless

Got a black cat

And we got a decent friendship

Wrote a couple tracks and

the content is endless

3 months trapped

And a nigga feelin pensive

Every single day is like high school detention

Bool with the roomies and I ease a little tension

Ghosting everybody you can call me Danny Fenton

Get sick kicks off the likes and the mentions

Mask on but you know it’s me

Gloved up like I’m about to fuck her ovaries

I could hop a turnstile no one even notice me

Gotta wait an hour just to go and buy some groceries

Toast to greed

This alone time really mean the most to me

Shouts out to all of the ones close to me

Tryna keep it discrete and on the lowest of keys

until everything’s how it’s supposed to be

I’m gonna play some video games and smoke some weed

Music plays out.

Play 3: Katharine Recalls The Plot Of The "The King And I" (3:58)

Katharine: Katharine Recalls The Plot Of The Musical "The King And I", From Her 6th Grade Production Without Googling Anything, And Rob Fact Checks Her. GO!

Katharine: So, Anna is a single mother, because apparently her husband passed away and has a kid named Louis. They're on a boat on the way to Siam, she's gonna work for the king of Siam as a teacher. He says, "I'm nervous", she says "Let's just whistle a happy tune" and does the song. Anyway. She gets to the king of Siam's house, and apparently he has like 100 kids, and like, many wives. And they do a little presentation and then she's all like, that's so weird, I'm a white feminist from London and he was like, no it's cool, I have many wives. And then he gets presented--B plot, by the way!--with a new wife named Tuptim, from what I remember. And he says "I am pleased with you" and then she sings a song called "My Lord and Master" and that, you know when I did the 6th grade production of this, I remember thinking that was weird, anyway, turns out Tuptim was having an affair with one of the garden workers I think? At the king of Siam's house. Then they sing a song called "We Kiss In The Shadows", then the king sings a song about "et cetera". By the way, the king has--his shirt is unbuttoned and he's wearing pantaloons and has his arms akimbo the entire time. So then, there's a ballroom situation with some diplomats and that's when they sing "Shall We Dance?" and then the king and Anna fall in love. Then the king dies and there's a letter that she reads and also, the king's son, the head son, is kind of a little bit of an asshole, and takes over the country. I think that's what the plot is. From what I remember. Rob?

Rob: So I was just looking at Wikipedia and that's pretty close.

Play 4: Hot Leaf (5:57)

Anthony: Hot Leaf. GO!

Leaf crush recording at fractional speed, morphed electronically

Anthony: This is the sound of a leaf, crushed by my foot on a summer afternoon. The heat, the air, its environment, morph it, make it brittle, make it frail, make it fall.