Episode 78 - What do you hear?

Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. This episode: misheard lyrics, quotes, and aural delights. Some of the plays 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, tell a friend, and leave a review on your listening app of choice. We’d love to hear from you! @nyneofuturists on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. If you want to support in other ways, consider making a donation at nynf.org, or joining our Patreon. 

2:12 - Hearin’ a good morning by Hilary Asare

4:24 - What did you hear? by Shelton Lindsay

4:40 [CW: nudity]  - HEAR THIS! The herd had a choice/ a redacted remembrance 

by Nicole Hill

7:44 - It's summer, go places, see things, hear things by Anthony Sertel Dean

 feat. numerous summer travelers

10:31  - And I Quote by Mike Manship feat Jake Allen Miller

12:42 [CW: gun violence]  - Price of Freedom by Hilary Asare

14:09 - Hearin’ a good night by Hilary Asare

Our logo was designed by Gabriel Drozdov

Our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean

Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Hilary Asare, and Shelton Lindsay

Take care!

Transcript 

Show Intro
	 electronic instrumental music plays underneath.

Shelton: 78. What do you hear?

Hi, I’m Shelton-- a New York Neo-Futurist. 

Our live show is back, but we just can’t stop making art for your ears so Hit Play continues!

If you’re already a fan of The New York Neo-Futurists, or any of our sibling companies, hello! 

I can’t wait to be back in New York and do that laughing meditation thing where you put your head on someone's belly and you fake giggle until the giggles become real, with all of 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 that we’re still on a shipyard in Italy, still staring at some super beefy Italian welders we’re really doing that, like I am now- and let me tell you, it is “HAWT.” I’m a ship! Work on me Daddy!!! 

Now I don’t think this episode has any content warnings besides my desperate thistiness- but some of the work in this episode may contain sensitive topics. For more specific content  warnings, check the timecodes in the show notes.

This episode’s randomly generated theme is: What do you hear?

And now, Nicole will run the numbers!


Nicole: Hi, I’m Nicole Hill-- a NY Neo-Futurist. In this episode we’re bringing you 7 new plays. 

This week’s cast is Shelton Lindsay, Mike Manship, Hilary Asare, Anthony Sertel Dean and me, Nicole Hill. 

That brings us to 360 audio experiments on Hit Play. Enjoy!
	Music winds down.

Play 1: Hearin’ a good morning (2:12)
Hilary: Hearin’ a good morning. GO!

Yawns, the sounds of waking and getting out of bed underscored by a rising tone

Toni: oh this hotel is much quieter than my home in Manhattan

Sound of a tent zipper opening. Spoken words overlap. 
 
Nicole: It’s 9:40…

Shelton: it's 1:46 in the afternoon and I have just woken up

Hilary: It is 7:21 am

Shelton: I could have recorded this this morning when I actually woke up at like 8:38 ‘cause I had to check out of my hostel but I was a full and total wreck after drinking one too many negronis at the gay bar

Toni: It is 8:17am Berlin time

Mike: 8:44am in London which means it is 3:44am biologically 

	Sounds shift with the location & descriptions in each of the following lines. 

Nicole:  I don't have a favorite sound to wake up to…

Toni: My partner’s snores are so cute and charming...

Shelton: Love waking up to the sounds of friends making breakfast. Or the sounds of birds 

Mike:  birds! Wake me up with birds. I want to wake up to the sounds of nature. 

Hilary: Music, my days are best when I remember to start them with music. 

Nicole:  The second my eyes pop open I ask Alexa to play "Pandora acoustic new age."  It sounds like…

Nicole hums a new age melody from memory. We hear the sounds of a shower running, sounds of brushing teeth, more yawning and stretching. Cast takes a deep breath in & out 

ALL: good morning

	Bird chirps

Play 2a: What did you hear? (4:24)
Shelton: What did you hear?. GO!

Shelton: (sung) Can’t bobby loooooove, Can’t bobby loooooove

	Excerpt of The Beatles “Can’t buy me love” plays

Beatles: Can’t buy me love. 

	Song excerpt is played again, slowed down to hear “buy” and “me” clearly


Play 3: HEAR THIS! …. (4:40)
Nicole: HEAR THIS! They Had a Choice/ A redacted remembrance. GO!

NICOLE: I did a play once. A Neo Futuristic Prime Time to be exact called “The Great American Drama” a ridiculously ambitious experimental endeavor, and not for nothing a secret portal to my worst fears of being judged by you, the viewing public.

ROBOTIC INTERNET VOICE: They Had a Choice and They Chose Silence.

NICOLE: The conceit was that we would survey countless theater goers and ask them what they felt was needed to create theatrical success. 

ROBOTIC INTERNET VOICE: They Had a Choice and They Chose.

NICOLE: They Had a Choice and They Chose. We in turn were charged to give the people what they'd asked for. And at the end of each performance we stood before them and they voted on whether we succeeded or not. 

ROBOTIC INTERNET VOICE:  They Had a Choice 

NICOLE: and they chose nudity. Oh it came up. Alot! Perhaps you saw The Great American Drama. 

ROBOTIC INTERNET VOICE: They Had a Choice And. 

NICOLE: Perhaps you saw me. Play rock paper scissors with fellow Neo, Connor Sampson, where we bared our souls by sharing super personal, painful even, stories about ourselves, our sex lives. AND if we lost, we had to remove an item of clothing until one of us was butt naked. YUP! Perhaps you saw ALL of me the day I lost, and even with friends in the audience, who could feel my very palpable vulnerability and discomfort, succumbed to the silence of everyone around them and although… 

ROBOTIC INTERNET VOICE: They Had a Choice.  

NICOLE: And what did I hear? All of them bitches saying nothing.  Burlesque music coming up with catcalls “take it off” and whistles.  Shut up! No… Actually next time you see something that don’t seem right, speak up. Refute the fucking herd! 


Play 2b: What did you hear? (7:27)
Nicole: (sung) Whether you’re a brother or whether you're a mother you’re staying alive, staying alive Beaver city breaking and everybodies shaking…

Excerpt of The Bee Gees “Stayin Alive” plays

The Bee Gees: Whether you’re a brother or whether you're a mother you’re staying alive, staying alive Feel the city breaking and everybodies shaking…

Song excerpt is played again, slowed down to hear “Feel the city breaking” clearly

Play 4: It's summer, go places, see things, hear things (7:44)
Anthony: It's summer, go places, see things, hear things. GO!

	Blended soundscape of multiple people's surroundings. Some voices are unidentified. Captured audio of their surroundings intercut with narration of what they see and hear. 

Play 2c: What did you hear? (10:16)
Mike M: (sung) Lock a mutant uniform, burning black, bloodletting, Every motor estalade, automotive incinerade
	
	Excerpt of R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” plays

R.E.M.: Lock him in uniform, book burning, bloodletting, Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate 

Song excerpt is played again, slowed down to hear lyrics clearly



Play 5: And I Quote (10:31)
Mike M: And I Quote. GO!

This audio experiment is concocted like a ransom letter, combining audio clips from various sources to create the effect of multiple voices - except where noted.

I am reaching into the synapse structures, in search of lost plays that were never fully formed. What I find in the fragmented Roman numerals - Play I, Play II, Play III and forth- is familiar confirmation bias. A reminder: I don’t represent anything that could be considered marginalized or unheard. Even my chosen forms of deviance have stopped deviating much. 
	Sounds of a quiet night.
The earth is very old. 
	Sounds of quiet night continue. 
I’m looking hard, but I can’t skew my vision enough to see the back side of things and pop out the hidden truths. I can’t center the still lens so the photo is clear. The phonemes die in the dissection process, trying to metamorphose into words of praise like “cutting” and “biting.” Jake asks me,
	In Mike’s friend Jake’s voice:
“Why do you always use quotations from other people in your writing? It’s like you don’t trust your own words to be important.” 
	In Mike’s voice:
Maybe it’s not that I don’t trust them, Jake. Maybe it’s that –
	The sounds of a quiet night.

Play 2d: What did you hear? (12:23)
Nicole: (sung) Mitch Miller we will not let him go… Let him go…

	Excerpt of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” plays

QUEEN: Bismillah we will not let him go… Let him go…

Song excerpt is played again, slowed down to hear “Bismillah” clearly

Play 6: Price of Freedom (12:42)
Hilary: Price of Freedom. GO!

Drums on their own for a beat. 

Hilary: This country, the news, the daily multiple mass shootings, the SCOTUS decisions, upticks in hate crimes- Maybe you are tired. Maybe you are fucking tired like I am. Some days it doesn’t feel like I have enough energy to get mad. And on some of those days, I’m wishing for enough faith to foster hope. Because I know enough to know, that hope is how you fight.

	“Fight Fight Fight…” echos quietly 
	
And you won’t find the price of freedom on the stock exchange, no matter how often you hear otherwise. 

I hope that’s enough for the march ahead.

Call and response- the military one.

Hilary: I don’t know what you’ve been told

All: I don’t know what you’ve been told

Hilary:  Freedom isn’t weighed in gold

All: Freedom isn’t weighed in gold

Hilary: They have tried to turn back time

All: They have tried to turn back time

Hilary: They can’t take what’s yours and mine

All: They can’t take what’s yours and mine
	Fight Fight Fight Fight Fight Fight Fight Fight Fight Fight Fight Fight Fight 

Crescendos and then repeats into a fade. The drums follow shortly after.


Play 7: Hearin’ a good night (14:09)
Hilary: Hearin’ a good night . GO!
Overlapping text

Toni: Okay, nightly routine. You know, we got the cleanser, the serum and the moisturizer. Time to get pretty.

Hilary: I am only afraid of the dark 

Mike: I'm not afraid of the dark, particularly 

Hilary: if it's quiet.

Mike: I used to work for a ghost tour in Boston. And being out at night being in the burying grounds, the graveyards, pretty incredible 

Shelton: I like being in the in the forest in the dark, I like the moon in the stars

Mike: and very intimidating at first but then you just start to feel very comfortable and

Toni: I can't say I'm too afraid of the dark now, but as a kid, I had too much of an imagination.

Nicole: During the day I can pivot and tell myself everything's okay

Mike: so I guess I've become a creature of the night heh heh heh

Nicole: But at night, ahhhh the pivot often times feels like a fight 

Hilary: I’m gonna start locking up 

Some snippets of bed time bathroom routines, turning off lights, locking doors.

Shelton: it's 12:17 in Palermo, Sicily 

Nicole: 12:39 in brooklyn and-

Toni: It is 11:39pm Berlin time 

Hilary: I’m actually feeling kind of awake.

Mike: 11:45 feels darn late

Sounds shift with the location & descriptions in each of the following lines. 

Shelton: I love falling asleep to the sound of rain. 

Mike: Put me to sleep with crickets or cicadas.

Nicole: I have to sleep with some sort of blowing white noise going. 

Hilary: Lately it's been podcasts or you tube. I know it's bad sleep hygiene but my mind spins in silence. 

Toni: Is it really corny and cheesy to say that my favorite sound to wake up to and fall asleep to are the same thing? My partner snoring- I tried to take a recording of them before I left. um this is the best I got. They sound something like 

Toni imitates their partner’s snores

Toni: Maybe?! Hahaha close-ish 

Mike: I have a dear friend who believed as a child that the chirp of cicadas was the sound the stars made as they came out, because he didn't know what the noise was and only noticed the correlation. So, to me the nighttime chirp feels meaningful. And perfect.

Nicole: My preference is the sound of the AC but a fan will do. 

Hilary: If the insomnia gets really bad, Beck’s Sea Change is my favorite lullaby. The second I hear those opening notes my whole body eases towards sleep. 

Soft rising and falling tone and the sounds of getting into bed and under the covers.

Toni: I frickin love sleeping. It's like my favorite- one of my favorite things to do. I love that stuff. I am someone who will literally jump into bed because, yes dive in baby! It's a good place to be.

Shelton: The bed is really comfy. I’m going to turn off the lights now

sounds of turning out the last lights.  Cast takes a deep breath in & out 

ALL: good night

	Tone resolves and transitions to the outro theme. 

Show Outro
	electronic instrumental music plays underneath.

Shelton: 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 slash NYNF. 

For the rest of season 3 we’ll be selecting themes randomly and our patrons suggest ones for upcoming episodes. How cool is that? I wanna write art about stuff you’re interested in, so let us know

This episode featured work by: 

Shelton Lindsay, Nicole Hill, Hilary Asare, Anthony Sertel Dean, Mike Manship, Jake Allen Miller, and anyone Anthony could get to contribute to their play. 

Our logo was designed by Gabriel Drozdov and our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean. 

Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Hilary Asare, and me–Shelton Lindsay. Take Care! I'm off to stare at more Italian welders for the rest of the afternoon because it is the highlight of my life. 

	Longing sigh

 They’re so beautiful

	Music fades out!