Episode 45 Five Days

Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. This episode: audio diaries, long drives, chord experiments, apples + honey! 

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, subscribe to the show, consider making a donation at nynf.org, and join our Patreon. Patreon membership gives you access to bonus content like post-livestream hangouts! 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, start a dream journal, and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

1:53 [CW: sex sounds] - Monday. An audio diary of today, September 7th by Shelton Lindsay

4:33 - Wednesday/Thursday. Rob on the road eastward bound by Rob Neill

12:52 - Thursday. Audio Experiments Experiments: Experiment no.2 by Anthony Sertel Dean featuring Kyra Sims

16:10 - Sunday. shanah tovah u'metukah by Léah Miller featuring Rob Neill, Rayne Harris, Shelton Lindsay, Laura Killeen, Katharine Heller, Dan McCoy, Julia Melfi, Anooj Bhandari, Lee LeBreton, and Marta Rainer

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 45 Five Days

Show Intro

Wooshy electronic instrumental music plays underneath.

Julia: 45. Five Days. Hi, I’m Julia—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 share the same spoon with you. If this is totally new to you—welcome to it!

We make art 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 part while wearing some novelty glow in the dark witch fingers from the drugstore and dragging them across a wooden carved eagle, that's exactly what we're doing. It makes this sound. 

Julia drags novelty glow in the dark witch fingers across a wooden carved eagle. It sounds scratchy. 

Isn't that nice? 

Some of the plays in this episode may contain sensitive topics. For more specific content warnings, check the timecodes in the show notes.

And now, we'll Run the Numbers!

The following section is overlapping between Rob, Anthony, Léah, and Shelton. 

Anthony: Hi!

Rob: I'm Rob.

Léah: I'm Léah.

Anthony: I'm Anthony.

Shelton: I'm Shelton! 

Léah: In this episode we’re bringing you 4 plays, 

All, staggered: woven together.

Anthony: The first one's 

Shelton: by me, Shelton Lindsay!

Léah: The second is by 

Rob: me, Rob Neill.

Shelton: The third is by 

Anthony: me, Anthony Sertel Dean featuring Kyra Sims. 

Shelton echoing "Kyra Simmmmsss"

Rob: And the last one: 

Léah: by me, Léah Miller with Neo friends.

Anthony echoing "Neo friennnnds"

Rob and Shelton: That brings us to 

Shelton: 173 audio experiments 

Anthony: here, on Hit Play. 

Shelton: Go team!

Rob: Cool.

Léah: Enjoy!

Music continues into next play. 

Play 1: An audio diary of today, September 7th. (1:53)

Shelton: Monday. An audio diary of today, September 7th.

People fucking and moaning.

Shelton: September 7th, 2020. Chris has woken me up watching porn.

Bacon sizzles.

The sounds of bacon for breakfast.

Dog pants, dishes clink.

After breakfast, snuggles and belly rubs

Outdoor noises, muffled voice.

Getting ready to go biking. 

Wind blows. A Whitney Houston song plays in the background.

Mile 5 of a bike ride.

Heavy breathing and wind.

Okay I feel like I should be halfway now, but I'm not. Now I just really don't have any idea where I am. Which is probably a metaphor for something.

Ambient noise. 

Sitting in a car. I'm so tired. My legs are like jelly. Whine! I don't wanna bike anymore.  

Conversation in the car, hard to hear the other person

Person: ...just to do that, that was nice. 

Shelton: Yeah that was nice. I loved the kid that was just screaming on his bike pedaling after his dad. 

Person: Yeah. 

Shelton: Poor thing.

Person: Yeah. It was a really good idea until it was like mile 4 and it’s like, “I wanna get the fuck out of here. My legs!”

Fingers type on a keyboard. Faint music in the background. 

Shelton: Do do do do do do! Okay! So the idea for this play was today, like at random like intervals when I've had like a thought or been doing something or like there's been a sound associated to what I have been up to, I have like recorded it and having it be like just an audio diary of a day. 

Anthony: (through the computer speaker, on Zoom): record like, whatever happens right before you go to sleep. Something like that. 

Crickets chirp continuously.

Shelton: Goodnight sun. Hello moon. Hello stars. Another day is done. 

Sound of bugs and ambient noise fade into next play. 

Play 2: Rob on the road eastward bound (4:35)

Rob (distorted and far away): Wednesday/Thursday. Rob on the road eastward bound. 

Audio collage, sounds come in and out throughout. Rob's voice is effected and layered and changing and panning left to right. 

Rob: Okay there I am. 

In New York and on my way out. It is time to start driving west and we shall see how that goes. 

New York. State one. 

Cars speed by and honk.

Hello New Jersey. 

Yes, under the river, on the train, and heading to pick up a car to train, to train, to car. 

All right. I have the car. I wiped it down
and connected my phone so we are ready to head to Jersey so we'll see how it goes.

Where am I going?

Where are you going?

Alright, we have just left New Jersey. It was a pretty good drive, and we are in the Poconos.

Pennsylvania!

I don't know why I'm saying we. Maybe because Pterry the Pterodactyl is riding with me. But here we go. I'm in the mountains of the Poconos in Pennsylvania. 

Static

I am at a rest stop in Pennsylvania about an hour from where I stopped tonight. And rest stops are weird out here now. There's a bunch of trucks. It's like 9:30. Bunch of trucks parked. 

Very few clouds in the sky,

and out here, you can see stars. 

You definitely can see stars. 

Maybe there are more clouds than I thought. But there are definitely stars. 

Good morning, Pennsylvania.

And it's 7am.

Full day of driving,

that is for sure.

Alright. Let's get going. 

Here we are.

Back on I-80.

Riding through.

Driving through treetop hills.

This country - fully green -

Mostly seeing trucks out right now.

Will there be time where
everybody’s accepting masks

the same way, and you’ll go,

“There’s still people out there
that don’t wear masks?”
I mean that’s that time now, I guess.
Sunrise.

Oh, still on I-80.

Still in Pennsylvania.

Passing trucks, driving through Pennsylvania.

Passing trucks, driving on I-80.
I’m on I-80 for a long time.

And now Ohio! Welcome to Ohio.

Another very wide state to be driving through. All day, I-80, all day.

Just counting the trucks

and the McDonald’s I pass.

So many rest stop stops.

Woah, so much construction on this toll road through Ohio.

Hello, Indiana.

The shorter tracks across Indiana still on I-80. It is 66 degrees. The temperature’s dropped, and the speed limit is 70, somehow.

The speed limit continues to be more than the temperature.

I kinda wanna know, in what sense?

And then, Illinois.

Welcome to Chicago.
About to hit the skyway,
now I’m actually on Interstate 90.

I guess we got off of 80 to avoid some delays.
Say “so long” to Interstate 80

as we head through this industrial part.

Wrapping out Illinois in a pretty substantial rain. Oh yeah, it’s coming down.

Made it through the traffic thanks to the express lanes.

A little bit of a slowdown around the south side and into the toll road, but not a bad move around Chicago. Oh yeah. Hello, Neo-Futurists! I know you’re out there.

Now.

Wisconsin.

Seven.
Oh, hello, Wisconsin.
Welcome to Wisconsin.
Welcome to Wisconsin, Wisconsin!

Hello Wisconsin.
Wisconsin, land of cheese and cows and beer
and so much!
Hoo! Yes.
I will be driving past the large cheese castle because I do not have time to stop, sadly, but I will see you on the other side,

large cheese castle.

Giant pieces of machinery getting hauled by big trucks in the rain.
Four lanes of cars moving -
So much -
at 70 plus miles an hour
in between fields of grain, fields of corn, fields of trees.

Can there be a field of trees?
Is that not a forest, a copse?
A copse of trees?
And you notice, having not done a long drive like this in a while, just how many more cell phone towers there are

in the countryside.

Because it’s, this moon… 

It is.

In a Lyft. 

Let’s go.

Off the train.

On the moon.

New procedures.

Jersey. State Two.

Amazing sunset. And I got to see some of that, although I did drive through some very pretty country in the dark.

And that happens. 

Sometimes you just-

Pennsylvania. Three.-

need to open your eyes.

We’re now very close to East Strasburg.-

Just go.- Strasburg.

That’s okay.

Definitely eating cookies. 

Take it all in.

Resting, napping, sleeping.

And almost no cars.

Eating cookies.

Definitely. Definitely. Definitely. 

Look up.

Redefining isolation.

Good morning.

Out here in
the wilds of Pennsylvania.

Embrace the adventure.

Here we are.
Back on I-80,

middle of Pennsylvania, heading west, running from the sun.
It's 7:39 AM,
which is amazing to me.

Pennsylvania signs: Buckle Up. It's Your Life, It’s Our Law.

There’s still people out there that don’t buckle their seatbelts?

Taking responsibility.

Help other people.

Although, on this side of the hill, some of the trees are starting to turn colors.

Fall is coming.

Just passed a UPS truck.

How will this country
that scares and amazes me-

Ohio. State four.

Drinking pumpkin spice cold brew in Ohio.

Driving on, yep, I-80 still. Still on I-80.
I’m gonna change my coffee, because the coffee I got at the first stop was so bad!
I couldn’t drink most of it.

Indiana, state five.

The shorter tracks across Indiana still on I-80. It is 66 degrees.
The speed limit is 70.

Oh yeah, Mike Pence territory.
Just passed a billboard that said,

“Without a doubt, Jesus is alive.”

Hmm, who’s Jesus?

Me too.

Illinois, state six.

State state six. Weird.

We are on the cusp
in so many ways.

So long, 80.
Just passed a UPS truck.

Had to focus on the driving.

Thanks.

I can’t see you, but you’re there.

Here we go.

Wisconsin. State seven,
seven,
seven, seven.


So many contradictions.


Wisconsin. Welcomes. You.
Try and- 

Still in the rain, now on I-94.

Just passed a UPS truck.

Seven trucks passing.
Kenosha, seven trucks passing.
Seven, seven, seven, seven.
- to think about.
What are we doing?
What are we doing?
What are we- Where are we going?
I made it.- Can we-
I made it to the place. -do it together?
A place of home. A place of memories.
A place of family.
And not tear each other apart.

It is night now. It is night now, and the bugs and the water are the loudest things here. It is very different than home in New York City.

Crickets and a continual stream of water. Simple piano music continues into the next play.

Play 3: Audio Experiments Experiments: Experiment no.2 (12:52)

Anthony: Thursday. Audio Experiments Experiments: Experiment no.2.

Piano playing a diatonic loop

Anthony: It’s so clean

Kyra: simple

Anthony: correct

Add internal chromatic steps

Kyra: but what happens

Anthony: when we go in between?

Kyra: go out of key

Anthony: step out of line

Kyra: It can feel crunchier

Anthony: incorrect

Kyra: or maybe just not what we’re used to hearing

Shift to modal loop full of chromaticism

Anthony: Kyra, when you hear something discordant, something that the rules of western music deem “incorrect”, how do you feel?

Kyra: I sometimes feel it in my spine and then my whole body shivers.

Anthony: what do you look for from a musical resolution?

Kyra: I look for a flower blooming. A star exploding.

Anthony: tension

Kyra: and release

The loop gets chords that lead us to a perfect cadence. In the next section, the piano matches the chords they mention in the text.

Anthony: There’s the diatonic

Kyra: and the chromatic

Anthony: The chroma giving our scale color

Kyra: give me a Tristan chord

Anthony: a Petrushka chord

Kyra: a So What chord

Anthony: a Dream chord

Kyra: a Viennese Trichord

Anthony: a major seven sharp eleven

Kyra: that’s just a Lydian chord!

Anthony: All these names for stepping out of line

Kyra: being wrong, while being right

Anthony: Do you feel like you rebel in music?

Kyra: I wish I did more often than I do. I made this fun weird thing with my Amazon Echo the other night. 

Anthony: When I was playing in jazz groups, I would lean on the rest of the ensemble to hit more wrong notes, not needing to resolve. We could be playing together, playing wrong together, and feel closer to each other, the more dissonance we were adding.

Kyra: Sometimes tension just keeps building, and building // and building, and building

Anthony: //and building, and building

digital feedback builds and cuts off, repeating "and building"

An ionian mode phrase on piano. The phrase repeats with some notes shifted.

Anthony: but none of these notes are played on piano. Not in this play. They’re on a computer. 

Notes shift out of tune and are joined by digital, computeristic sounds.

Kyra: The natural world is not tuned to a keyboard

Anthony: and neither are we

Kyra: We fall somewhere in between

Anthony: and while the keyboard can guide us, give us names for pitches we want to put together, I want to live more fluidly through sound

Kyra: So play

Beep booop bop bleep errr waaaa noisey beep beep. Music transitions into sound of apple being sliced.

Play 4: shanah tovah u'metukah (16:10)

A knife slices through an apple and hits a cutting board.

Léah: Sunday. Shanah tovah u'metukah

Léah chews and sighs underneath line.

The good crunch of this farm fresh apple. The sticky sweet of this farm fresh honey. 

Léah: Some more good and sweet things: 

Layered sound of Neos sharing good and sweet things with music underscore

Rayne: Water

Rob: A good boat ride

Rayne: Drinking it and playing in it

Rob: in the sun

Laura: Knowing I'm going to the seaside tomorrow! 

Julia: Misting my plants

Laura: And I feel like I'm gonna have a summer holiday all in one day!

Katharine: That sweet breeze that smelled like the ocean when I took a walk to the park. 

Lee: Finding a frog in the woods

Dan: Finding the perfect shady spot in the park to sip an iced mocha and read a good book. 

Shelton: The smile on my dog's face as she realizes I'm about to take her for a walk. 

Rob: Hummingbirds

Marta: (quieter, underneath Rob and Laura) We have marigolds and dahlias and black-eyed Susans and yarrow and oh a whole bunch of other stuff--some poppies!

Rob: darting around

Laura: It turns out aubergine leaves are really furry and fuzzy 

Rob: a multi flowered hibiscus plant

Laura: and I find that adorable 

Lee: A toddler saying my name

Anooj: the groundingness of the color purple

Rayne: and sunshine

Léah: Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Ruach Ha’Olam, Ha tov v’ha meitiv

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ רוּחַ הָעוֹלָם הַטּוב וְהַמֵּטִיב

Blessed is goodness and all that causes more goodness. Amen.

A knife slices through an apple and hits a cutting board. The buzzing of bees fades in. Birds chirp. The apple is crunched. Ambient music plays, slowly morphing into the Hit Play theme.

Show Outro

Wooshy 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 by joining our Patreon – Patreon.com/NYNF. Patreon membership gives you access to bonus content like post livestream hangouts. 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, start a dream journal, and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

This episode featured work by: Shelton Lindsay; Rob Neill; Anthony Sertel Dean featuring Kyra Sims; and Léah Miller featuring Rob Neill, Rayne Harris, Shelton Lindsay, Laura Killeen, Katharine Heller, Dan McCoy, Julia Melfi, Anooj Bhandari, Lee LeBreton, and Marta Rainer. 

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!