Episode 56
Hot Play Summer
Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. This episode touches on the theme of summer and its many possibilities. Perhaps we'll see you outside? Some of the plays may contain sensitive topics. For more specific content warnings, check out the timecodes below.
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1:55 - Sunday May 30th, Greyhound Bus #2503: Boston to New York City by Robin Virginie
5:20 - Sir Gregolas Radio: (Confide)nce by Greg Lakhan
8:42, 11:00, 14:30, 23:18 - POTENTIAL SOUNDS OF SUMMER by Robin Virginie featuring Kyra Sims, Greg Lakhan, Mike Puckett, Annie Levin
9:54 - Footnotes and Concierge by Mike Puckett
12:22 [CW: death] - In response to the New York Times article that posed the question "How Do I Dress for My Pandemic Belly?" by Annie Levin featuring Katie Kay Chelena, Robin Virginie, Anooj Bhandari, Greg Lakhan, Yael Haskal, Krys Seli
15:39 - meta-documentary by Kyra Sims featuring Katharine Heller, Max Zemlin-Thornton, this week's cast
24:36 - Steps for Individual Site-Specific Sense Memory Theater by Hilary Asare
Transcript
Show Intro
Groovy electronic instrumental music plays underneath.
Hilary: 56. Hot Play Summer. Hi, I’m Hilary—a New York Neo-Futurist. While our on-going, ever-changing, late-night show, The Infinite Wrench, continues to be on hold for the foreseeable future, we wanted 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 a picnic blanket with you again. 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.
Change in audio quality. AC blowing. Buttons beeping.
So if we tell you that we're adjusting the temperature of our air conditioner, we’re really adjusting the temperature of our air conditioner. Like I am right now.
Some of the work in this episode may contain sensitive topics. For more specific content warnings, check the timecodes in the show notes.
The plays in this episode touch on the theme of summer and its many possibilities. Perhaps we'll see you outside?
Hilary: And now, Greg will Run the Numbers!
Greg: Hi, I’m Greg. I'm a New York Neo-Futurist.
In this episode we’re bringing you 7 new plays. This week's cast is Robin Virginie, Mike Puckett, Annie Levin, Kyra Sims, Hilary Asare, and me, Greg Lakhan.
That brings us to 235 audio experiments on Hit Play. Enjoy!
Music winds down.
Play 1: Sunday May 30th, Greyhound Bus #2503 (1:55)
Robin: Sunday May 30th, Greyhound Bus #2503: Boston to New York City. GO!
Underscore audio collage of Robin's field recordings on the trip. The quality changes for each section.
Robin: 6:45am - Waiting to board
I am learning I can keep questioning everything (because I like questioning everything and it’s what I’m used to) but at a certain point I should also offer myself a couple of answers to hold onto. Not everything can be liquid all the time. Thoughts?
7:04am - driving out of Boston
Do you remember old you? Not recent-past-you, I mean old old you, the original you. These days I feel very close to old old me. And that’s exciting. I think it could be exciting.
Somewhere near Waterbury
For some reason I can’t stop thinking about the time I was 8 and I was sitting across from my dad on top of the staircase and he was crying. And I distinctly remember being so surprised to see him care. About me, about us. And I also remember feeling this unformulated question that I do have the words for now: Was that real? What I mean is did he truly care or was it the specific set of circumstances that made him feel something in that moment. Like how you might briefly tear up during a movie because the narrative and editing expertly guided you there but once the movie is over you will never think about these characters again.
I find myself asking this question a lot.
I find myself asking this question a lot about people who have already shown me that I don’t have to ask these sorts of questions about them.
Between Ardsley and Worthington
It’s probably good we are not constantly talking about feeling All. Of. It, but I want to and I want to be asked a deeply cutting question so I can ask one back and isn’t it fascinating how each day we feel brand new to this planet while simultaneously feeling like the most ancient piece of moss or is that just me, and this whole piece feels so earnest, so sugary sweet it makes me want to replace it with something rougher or cooler. I can do rough and cool. I can also just offer a shorter version of all this which is: Forgive me, I’m a Pisces. And I’m hungover.
11:09 am - Through the Lincoln Tunnel
Remember looking in the mirror and for a moment feeling so uniquely beautiful? That was real for sure, I think. Yeah.
Sound fades out
Play 2: Sir Gregolas Radio: (Confide)nce (5:20)
Radio static
Greg: Sir Gregolas Radio: (Confide)nce. GO!
Greg: Hey guys, what you're about to listen to is a very old track that I made about 2 years ago? I made it during a point in my life where I felt pretty shitty all the time. And I just wanted something better for myself. So I wrote the song. I recently relistened to this and it brought back a lot of old emotions
Track fades in and overtakes Greg speaking
and I still think that the message of this song is very relevant to me and maybe to you too, so…
Produced song with Greg rapping and singing
Greg: I always thought I was a piece of shit
Who was not worthy of love
Mom should’ve aborted
And dad should’ve wore a glove
Always trying my best
But it was never enough
Not smarter than most
But still smarter than some
Always gettin abused
Never viewed as tough
Stuck in my base form
And never could power up
Always gettin rejected
Whenever I fell in love
Stuck in a tar pit
Can’t swim because I’m stuck
Skinnier than a twig
Wanted to get fit
Tried to fatten up
Decided to eat shit
Wanna manifest the opposite
Wanna get over my weaknesses and remain positive
Attract good things and make more accomplishments
I just wanna have confidence
Wanna grow and build confidence
Cuz everyone needs to have confidence
Wanna grow and build confidence
Cuz everyone needs to have confidence
You need to have confidence
You need to have confidence
(Cuz everyone needs to have confidence)
My understanding of English language improving with time
Also the fact that I only write while amazingly high
But there’s a fun little fact that I just realized
There's a prefix in confidence and the word is confide
Never trusted myself but it wouldn’t hurt if I try
Thought of loving myself it always felt foolish, contrived
Imma conquer my shortcomings, it all takes time
Your whole world can end and also begin with your mind
They always say that time heals
I wanna kill the indie scene I wanna strike deals
I want my life to feel like less of a minefield
Be less of a hypocrite and live up to my ideals
Wanna express all the deep feelings I might feel
Tell my friends and family I love em and things are quite real
But for some reason I can’t remove this tight seal
Cuz of all the different reactions my thoughts might yield
Wish I could love myself
Take the weight off my shoulders so I can hug myself
Wrestle all of my demons and overcome myself
Beat all the fear and anxiety rise above myself
Wanna manifest the opposite
Wanna get over my weakness and remain positive
Attract good things and make more accomplishments
Make it happen
I just wanna have confidence
Music fades out
Play 3.1: POTENTIAL SOUNDS OF SUMMER (8:42)
Robin: POTENTIAL SOUNDS OF SUMMER. GO!
Campy infomercial music
ROBIN: It is the start of summer 2021!! What will this summer bring?? Nobody knows. But that doesn’t stop me from generating some POTENTIAL SOUNDS OF SUMMER from some of my fellow Neo castmates. Please indulge me in this experiment.
Laughing
Robin: Okay. Alright we are here with Kyra on Roosevelt Island. and I am recording Kyra's potential summer sound. Are you ready, Kyra?
Kyra: I am ready
Music stops
Robin: Here we go. it’s 3am on a hot early August night and you are walking uptown after visiting an excellent lover on the lower east side, as you are passing Times Square, a portal opens in front of the M&M store and a glowing entity emerges, they whisper a prediction in your ear that confirms everything you’ve been doing so far is 100% in alignment with your deepest wishes, as this entity disappears back into the M&M store portal, you make the following sound:
Kyra: Hahaaaaaaaa! Silly laugh
Robin: Thank you.
Play 4: Footnotes and Concierge (9:54)
Mike: Footnotes and Concierge. GO!
Birds from outside Mike's window. Mike's conversation partner sourced from this scene in The Producers
The Producers Clip: He’s up on the roof with his boids.
Mike: I actually don’t have roof access in my building. But I hear the birds just fine outside my window.
Producers Clip: He keeps boids.
Mike: “Keep” is a strong word here. We feed the birds. Regularly. But I wouldn’t say I own the birds. If anything, it's more like I own their favorite restaurant.
Producers Clip: Dirty, disgusting, filthy, lice-ridden boids.
Mike: They're very messy eaters, that's fair. But I wouldn't call the birds dirty. In fact when they're eating they like to press their cloacas up against the window, so I’ve seen a lot of bird asshole in the past month and to be honest, clean plate club. All around.
Producers Clip: You used to be able to sit out on the stoop like a person.
Mike: You still can.
Producers Clip: Not anymore.
Mike: That’s just not--
Producers Clip: No sir.
Mike: I mean yeah, you have to bring your own chair.
Producers Clip: Boids.
Mike: If anything, I’d say that we’re keeping the birds away from the stoop--
Producers Clip: You get my drift?
Mike: No, I can’t say I do, madam. In fact, your vendetta against these--
Producers Clip: I’m not a madam--
Mike: Yeah, I know, but I had to set you up so you could say--
Producers Clip: I’m the concierge!
Sound fades out and into the music of SOUNDS OF SUMMER
Play 3.2: POTENTIAL SOUNDS OF SUMMER (11:00)
Same underscore theme
Robin: Hello everyone! We're here with Greg, on the phone. Greg, where are you?
Greg: I'm in my office.
Robin: I love it. I am too, in my office, well I am in my closet. Are you ready for your potential summer sound?
Greg: My potential summer sound… Um I hope.
Robin: okay. There we go.
Music fades out.
Robin: It is a cool August morning, you are walking along the Brighton Beach coastline, you just executed the perfect cartwheel and you are feeling good about yourself. All of a sudden a small fish JUMPS out of the water and hovers in front of you: “you didn’t think I could fly did you motherfucker”, this fish says, and then immediately follows it with “I’m sorry, I get really intense when I fly like this, but that doesn’t excuse my behavior. I am very sorry and please join me in the air though if you want” and before you know it, the two of you are flying across the beach. Please make the sound you make while flying through the summer air:
Greg: unintelligible crackly noise. Uhhhh. Fuuuuck.
Robin: Amazing. Thank you so much Greg.
They both laugh
Play 5: In response to the New York Times article… (12:22)
Annie: In response to the New York Times article that posed the question: “How Do I Dress for My Pandemic Belly?” GO!
Droney underscore
Robin: How do I dress the legs that took hundreds of socially distanced walks?
Annie: The elbows that leaned on the edge of my father’s hospital bed?
Anooj: The chest that held up my dog’s beautiful little face before he took his last breath?
Katie: How do I adorn the mouth that forgot kissing, then remembered, then forgot again?
Greg: The eyes that saw too much news in one sitting?
Robin: The nose that misses the smell of outside?
Katie: How do I tend to the heart that works harder than it did before?
Yael: The stomach that drops when I hear that name?
Annie: The eyes that watched smoky curls of you ascend into the sky?
Krys: How do I cherish the lungs that held breath, the breasts that held milk, the belly that held you?
Yael: How do I honor the foot that hit the gas so hard on Garth Road, the knee that hurt the whole hike down?
Greg: The legs that protested in the New York City streets?
Anooj: How do I celebrate the fist that clenched my friend’s sweatshirt as I wiped out on rollerblades? The nose that decided to wear a ring again?
Katie: The belly that saved up cushion for the unknown?
Annie: How do I admire the ears that heard the doves each morning?
Yael: The hair that sprouted one inexplicable curl?
Robin: The chest that held my cat as he slowly moved on from this life?
All [layered]: How do I
Audio collage of various Neos saying the following words:
Dress, Clothe, Adorn, Appreciate, savor, Bless, Tend, Worship, Thank, behold, Caress, praise, Swathe, Array, Swaddle, Snuggle, embrace, enfold, cradle, cherish, envelop, nestle, receive, welcome, accept, admire, prize, treasure, venerate, adore, applaud, commend, honor, marvel at, respect, revere, enjoy, regard, acknowledge, celebrate, recognize, support, witness, observe, decorate, ornament, drape
All: ...this body?
Yael: How do I love this body?
Music plays out
Play 3.3: POTENTIAL SOUNDS OF SUMMER (14:30)
Same underscore theme
Robin: Hello we are here with Mike Puckett! I am on the phone and Mike, where are you?
Mike: I am at the Marine Park in Brooklyn.
Robin: We love to hear it. Mike. Are you ready for your potential summer sound?
Mike: I am.
Robin: Okay. There we go.
Music fades out.
Robin: It’s a sticky July afternoon. You are walking near Madison Square Garden. ‘What the fuck am I doing in midtown?’ you think. But just as you think that two giant eyes appear on Madison Square Garden, a mouth appears as well. And the building says: Hey Mikeyyyy wanna play some SPORT inside of me. And you are like ‘sorry what?’ but before you know it you are transported. You are now in the middle of Madison Square Garden and a crowd is cheering you on. You get handed a hockey puck and a referee in an elmo suit tells you to throw it through the basketball hoop. You give it a shot, literally, and YOU MAKE IT. The whole crowd roars and an interviewer holds a mic in front of you. What’s the first sound you make:
Mike: Ahhhhhhhhhh!
Robin: Thank you so much.
Play 6: meta-documentary (15:39)
Synth piano notes like a radio station sting
Katharine: WNEO
Classical music underscore
Max: Meta-documentary. GO!
Music fades out
Kyra on zoom: So, meta-documentary would be an audio documentary about pitching this play that I'm pitching right now. That's the play.
Kyra laughs.
Annie on zoom: Can you get Werner Herzog to do the voiceover?
Classical music
Joey as Herzog: And so begins this ouroboros of futility. Paring away at itself into not remains, but the husk of an idea left to languish in a fetid pool of self-congratulation. Let us proceed as this play's progenitor proposes and listen to the origins of the play itself, as seen through the lens of a storyteller consumed with the distillation of the human experience, whose laissez-faire approach to his own presence in the story has distinguished him as a visionary of cartoonish proportions. Here is the framework that led us up to the pitching of meta-documentary wherein Neo-Futurist Hilary Asare guides the wayward towards a convergence of ideas.
Hilary on zoom: Okey-dokey. We're all gathered! Hi everybody! Let's just take a quick sec to land in the space. [Hilary exhales]
Robin on zoom: What cute groups! Look at all these cutie-patooties! This is cute.
Kyra laughs
Joey as Herzog: Robin Virginie, midwife to destruction, has broken the silence. Not content to obliterate merely the sanctity of peace, she pulls her own play into ruin.
Robin on zoom: ...you're walking down 3rd Avenue. You have to poop but it's not too intense yet and a bird lands in front of you. The bird says, "hello I am charlie I know everyone in your family" [Robin laughs] Sorry.
Kyra laughs.
Joey as Herzog: They grow fat, gorging themselves on hysteria at Robin's own urging. Yet none will suffer from this largesse more than Robin herself, whose infectious laughter is a constant companion to the terror that simmers beneath. Finally, we hear from the mind behind the meta-documentary.
Kyra: Hello! My name is Kyra Sims and I am the writer of meta-documentary.
Kyra on zoom: So meta-documentary would be an audio documentary about pitching this play that I'm pitching right now. That's why I'm recording us tonight.
Kyra: Yeah, I just thought it would be fun to do a documentary about making a documentary about a documentary. I don't know. I watched a lot of the cartoon hole movies when I was young and I think they did an episode about it. Anyway, before all the Werner Herzog stuff came in, I had a lot of ideas.
Kyra on zoom: I would set the scene with something like "it was 7pm on a cool Memorial Day night" and then go into audio footage of us gathering, saying hi. I'm not sure how this fits into the summer theme, but I will say that I am pitching this play right now without any pants on. Which feels like a very summer thing. Then in the narration, I would probably talk about how warm weather sort of brings out the trickster in me. Like how I was…
Joey as Herzog: Kyra Sims, musician, composer, nudist from the waist down, and self-identified agent of chaos. As we know from the tales of Anansi, the West African god, there is no expedient to which a trickster will not resort to avoid the horrible torments of labor and like Anansi when faced with work, Kyra finds someone to work in her stead. To whom does she turn? Who better than a fool.
Music plays out with a piano riff. Kyra laughs
Annie on zoom: Can you get Werner Herzog to do the voiceover?
Kyra on zoom: Well I could get Joey to do it.
Hilary on zoom: I was gonna say, call Joey!
Kyra on zoom: Joey would absolutely… Oh my god…
Joey as Herzog: Kyra Sims, as all tricksters do, not by pursuing her witless quarry, but by luring him into a snare wherein he comes of his own volition.
Phone voicemail voice: when you've finished recording you may hang up or press 1 for more options
Beep
Kyra in a sleazy voice: Hey Joey, call me back when you can. I got a Werner Herzog opportunity for you. Ciao!
Music comes back in
Joey on phone: Hello, anybody listening to this in the future, I think the plays of Kyra Sims are probably taught in all the schools now.
Kyra laughs
Joey on phone: Do you need me to write the Werner Herzog pieces, or?
Kyra on phone: Only if you have time. If you don't have time
Joey on phone: No no no. I mean, Ken-- I almost called you Kendra. Kyra.
Kyra laughs
Kyra on phone: Oh we'll have to unpack that in the Werner Herzog voice
Joey on phone: [Herzog voice] It was the day that I mistook my friend Kyra for my wife.
Joey as Herzog: This is me, the aforementioned Joey Rizzolo, doing an impression of Werner Herzog that is, as you have surely determined for yourself by now, a poor simulacrum of the German director. A copy of a copy of a reflection of a drawing done from memory. His German dialect alone is abundant in naught but its poverty. To understand why one would seek out this charlatan, we need only hear the beginning of this conversation.
Kyra on phone: Hey Joey, how are you?
Joey on phone: I'm average, how are you?
Kyra on phone: Average. I'm fine.
Joey as Herzog: There it is. When asked how he is doing, he answers with doleful honesty "average" but this conversation continues on. On one end, the fool, victim to his own naivete, on the other, the agent of chaos, spitting at the fascist authority of Freytag's Triangle. Theirs is a symbiosis more precious than anything we can surmise. Philistines will see this as the relationship between the large intestine and the tapeworm. But in truth, it is merely the sanctity of friendship
Piano sets in
Joey as Herzog: ...whispering to us that beyond the gloam of cynics, there is a sunrise. Even when we seek humanity as a single species expressing its basest instincts, we cannot listen to this conversation without concluding that the lowest common denominator here is love.
Joey on phone: You're actually the first person that I'd admit to…
Kyra on phone: Yeah cause you're so loved!
Joey on phone: Well, not because I'm so loved,just because…
Kyra on phone: Well you are very loved.
Kyra: Wow, you know I really wasn't expecting Joey to turn the narration into talking about how much we love each other as friends, but that's really nice to hear. Um. Yeah.
Hilary on zoom: Anthony! Could--I'm going to name some patterns, if you could-- tie dye, stripes, dots..
Anthony on zoom: Yes that one! Tie dye!
Hilary on zoom: Tie dye! Mike.
Mike on zoom: Uh, meta-documentary.
Kyra on zoom: Thank you. It's happening.
Anthony on zoom: Co-starring Joey Rizzolo potentially?
Kyra on zoom: Yes. I'm gonna call him tonight probably. Oh I can stop recording now.
Zoom voice: Recording stopped.
Play 3.2: POTENTIAL SOUNDS OF SUMMER (23:18)
Same underscore
Robin: Okay. We're here with Annie, on Zoom. Annie is in Chicago and we are here to record her potential sound of summer. Annie, are you ready?
Annie: I'm ready Robin.
Robin: Alright. There we go.
Music fades out.
Robin: It’s a sweltering hot mid-July night. You are on the porch of a lakehouse cabin drinking an ice cold lemonade. You are thinking. Yes. This is it. In that exact moment you feel something on your tongue, and as you stick your tongue out a DAISY sprouts from it, singing your favorite song from when you were 16. You sing along doing the best you can while your tongue is out. After the song is over, the daisy whispers ‘hot damn you’re a good singer’ and while the daisy untangles itself from your tongue and walks away into the lake, this is the first sound you make:
Annie: Blaaarrrhhhhhhhh
Underscore fades back in
Robin: And that was our final potential sound of summer! What did we learn? Who can say. Have a good summer, my friends.
Music plays out
Play 7: Steps for Individual Site-Specific Sense Memory (24:36)
Hilary: Steps for Individual Site-Specific Sense Memory Theatre. Listener, you are in this play- You are the star of this play, if you choose to be in this play. Gather the following props: A piece of paper, writing utensil, your favorite snack, and an outdoor space you've been meaning to go to or revisit. Now pause or skip the rest of this play and come back to it when you reach the destination you chose. Or if you are as impatient as I am, close your eyes and go there now.
Gentle and meditative underscore
Hilary: We’ll begin shortly. Pause between steps if you need more time to finish an instruction. I’m assuming you have your props and have reached your destination. We are going to start now, as I say GO!
Step 1- Arrive. Really arrive there, in the present tense.
Step 2- Breathe it in. See everything you expected to see, and everything that’s new.
Step 3- Close your eyes, and open them to repeat step 2. See your memories and expectations overlap with what’s in front of you.
Step 4- Write down everything you want to remember
Step 5- Have your snack, savor it. You deserve a treat.
Step 6- Pick something to sniff, and sniff it.
Step 7- Take note of how the ground feels beneath your feet.
Step 8- Pick a sound to remember, write it down.
Step 9- Write down and complete the following sentence, “When I want to come back to this point in spacetime I will...”
Step 10- Fold up your paper. Tuck it somewhere safe, where you won’t lose it, but won't find it for a while.
Great work. Your notes are for you, but I’d love to see them. I’ll send you mine if you send me yours. hilary@nynf.org. Congrats, and thank you for stepping into this play. The run is open ended, repeat performances on your schedule.
Music fades out
Show Outro
Groovy electronic instrumental music plays underneath.
Hilary: Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. If you liked what you heard, subscribe to the show, tell a friend, and leave a review on your listening app of choice! 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.
This episode featured work by: Kyra Sims, Robin Virginie, Annie Levin, Greg Lakhan, Mike Puckett, Hilary Asare, Katie Chelena, Yael Haskal, Krys Seli, Anooj Bhandari, Max Zemlin-Thornton, and Katharine Heller.
Our logo was designed by Gabriel Drozdov. And our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean. Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Léah Miller, and me, Hilary Asare. Take Care!
Music fades out!