Episode 85 - Short & Sweet

Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. This episode: Top Gun. Communication without tone. And, Hilary listens to herself, for once.

If you like what you hear and want to support the New York Neo-Futurists, donate to our Best Of Theme Contest! You can also subscribe to the show, tell a friend, leave a review on your listening app of choice, or join our Patreon. 

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1:47 - Six short messages, full of subtext, written about an abbreviated weekend full of long drives, with an extra hour spent mainly at fast-charging stations by Mike Manship, featuring Hilary Asare, Katy-May Hudson, Rudy Ramirez, and Anthony Sertel Dean

2:29 - experiments in intimacy #3 by Rudy Ramirez, featuring Mike Manship 

4:52 - WHEN AMERICA’S GREAT WORKS OF PROPAGANDA MEET: FEATURING TOM SKERRITT’S TOP GUN MONOLOGUE & A SUPERCUT OF ALL THE LOL’S FROM THE FIRST 15 MINUTES OF A RANDOM EPISODE OF SELLING SUNSET by Katy-May Hudson

6:02 - frequently asked short question by Hilary Asare

8:22 - BUT WHY IS THE DOG LAZY? A Symphony // (Or, In Which Rudy and Chan Explore The Limits of their Voices Without Judgment) by Rudy Ramirez and Chan Lin

9:43 - Tiny message to an old friend at 2am by Katy-May Hudson

Our logo was designed by Gabriel Drozdov

Our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean

Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Lee LeBreton, and Hilary Asare

Take care!

Transcript 

Show Intro
Quiet guitar music.

Hilary: Episode 85: Short & Sweet. Hi, I’m Hilary, 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! We can’t wait to go on a leaf-picking walk 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 that we are deglazing the bottom of a pot with cooking wine, we’re really deglazing the bottom of a pot with cooking wine, like I am doing right now.

Hiss of liquid hitting a hot pan.

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

This episode’s randomly generated theme is: Short & Sweet. Enjoy the treats—they’ll happen fast.

And now, Mike will Run the Numbers!

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

In this episode we’re bringing you 6 new plays.

This week’s cast is Rudy Ramirez, Katy-May Hudson, Hilary Asare, and me, Mike Manship.

That brings us to 404 audio experiments on Hit Play. Enjoy!

	Music fades.


Play 1: Six short messages, full of subtext, written about an abbreviated weekend full of long drives, with an extra hour spent mainly at fast-charging stations (1:47)
GO!

Rudy: Hope you have a great trip, enjoy it.

Katy-May: We are looking forward to your visit.

Anthony: The guy next to me has Chapstick.

Katy-May: Wonderful guests. They make hosting easy and a pleasure. Always welcome!

Rudy: Thank you so much and happy to host you again 

Hilary: I miss you. See you soon. 
 


Play 2: experiments in intimacy #3 (2:29)
GO!

	White noise and ambient musical tones.

Mike: Will you draw me beautifully?

Rudy: I’ll try. You look… gleeful.

Mike: Are you the Sun or the Moon?

Rudy: The Moon. Do you feel more like Earth or Water?

Mike: Water.


Rudy: Ok. 

Mike: Yes. 

Rudy: Can you look me in the eye? 


Mike: How’s your breath these days? 

Rudy: Slow and deliberate. Are you scared?

Mike: Yeah. If you’re scared, I can be scared with you.

Rudy: I’m scared.

Mike: Ok.

Rudy: Yes. Are you honest?

Mike: No.

Rudy: What do you think is coming?

Mike: A lot of chaos and sadness and hardships and then hopefully, a lot of rapid change.

Rudy: Ok.

Mike: Yes. Was the last time the last time? 

Rudy: I really fucking hope so. Alright I’m almost done with your portrait.

	Sound of marker against paper.

It’s ready.

Mike: I look abstract. And beautiful.

	Laughter.

Rudy: You are.


Play 3: WHEN AMERICA’S GREAT WORKS OF PROPAGANDA MEET: FEATURING TOM SKERRITT’S TOP GUN MONOLOGUE & A SUPERCUT OF ALL THE LOL’S FROM THE FIRST 15 MINUTES OF A RANDOM EPISODE OF SELLING SUNSET (4:52)
GO!
 
	Intercut laughter.

Tom Skerritt in Top Gun: Gentlemen, you are the top 1% of all naval aviators. The elite, the best of the best. We'll make you better. Now in each combat sequence you're going to meet a different challenge. Every encounter is going to be much more difficult. We're going to teach you to fly the F-14 right to the edge of the envelope, faster than you've ever flown before, and more dangerous. Now, we don't make policy here, gentlemen. Elected officials, civilians, do that. We are the instruments of that policy. And although we’re not at war, we must always act as though we are—we must always act as though we are—we are—we are…


Play 4: frequently asked short question (6:02)
GO.

	Staccato keyboard melody accompanies Hilary.

Hilary (left ear): Am I okay?
Hilary (right ear): I ask myself this too often, 
Hilary (left ear): more often than could possibly be helpful and I think it repeats because I avoid answering it
Hilary (right ear): the way an acquaintance you haven’t caught up with in a while skirts around
Hilary (left ear): “how are you?” 
Hilary (right ear): with a 
Hilary (left ear): “can’t complain!” 
Hilary (right ear): but you sense they’ve got a lot of complaints 
Hilary (left ear): maybe other people don’t do that. 
Hilary (right ear): maybe they do! 
Hilary (left ear): maybe we are all avoiding invitations to check in with ourselves because we know the answer and do not want to know know, you know? 

Hilary (right ear): Am I okay?

The underscore answers briefly 

Hilary (left ear): I bruised my right elbow, my left shin, and my toes in the span of 72 hours but so long as SVU is filling the silence I know some good is coming because 9 times out of 10, Benson gets the bad guy. 
Hilary (right ear): If it's too quiet too long there’s too much room to think about how far from reality that is these days, 
Hilary (left ear): most of the days that there have been, actually

Hilary (right ear): Am I okay? 

The underscore answers briefly, again

Hilary (left ear): I wrote this in anticipation of mid-term election I didn't have much confidence in—
Hilary (right ear): —respectfully the price of faith was inflated at the time
Hilary (left ear): —and I wonder if I should float the idea of a vasectomy again cause this IUD will take me to 2026 
Hilary (right ear): and I’ll probably be able to get another one no need to get hysterical 
Hilary (left ear): to my knowledge DSM V didn’t roll back 50 years 
Hilary (right ear): that's the 1980s by the way 
Hilary (left ear): maybe we start saying 75? I know we get the short hand but still inaccuracy of facts is a lot of how we got here. 
Hilary (right ear): “Am I okay?”

The piano answers briefly. Hilary counts just above a whisper: 1, 2, 3.
 
Hilary (right ear): This almost silence makes me uncomfortable too. 
Hilary (left ear):I wonder if you ask yourself as I ask myself? 
Hilary (right ear):  “Am I okay?”

Hilary whisper-counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Hilary (left ear): There is a part of me that does not want you to know my answer. 
Hilary (right ear): It's corny. 
Hilary (left ear): Lacks tone, specificity—
Hilary (right ear): There is little artistry to it. 
Hilary (left ear): I crave your permission to be mundane but I am going to be just that
Hilary (right ear): regardless of your allowances 

Hilary:“Am I okay?”

Hilary whisper-counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Well, I’m headed in that direction most days

Play 5: BUT WHY IS THE DOG LAZY? A Symphony // (Or, In Which Rudy and Chan Explore The Limits of their Voices Without Judgment) (8:22)
GO!

	Rudy and Chan repeat, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,”

and “This is my voice. Do you like my voice?”

Their voices overlap. They repeat words, vary their speed and intonation, vary their pitch, repeat the phrases with different emphasis. Singing, lip trills, reverb.

	“Do you like my voice?”


Play 6: Tiny message to an old friend at 2am (9:43)
GO!

Katy-May: Hey friend, it’s me. I miss you. Sorry I haven’t called for two-ish years. It’s just been a weird time, weird time for me, with the pandemic and having to leave and I had a baby and I was depressed about it, ‘cause…hormones. But I hope you’re well and I’m really sorry I’ve been so crummy at staying up to date and I feel like I’ve left it so long now that I just… can I just call out of the blue after all this time? Because we were just such good friends! And then, the world got weird and I haven’t contacted you but you also haven’t really contacted me. I’m cool with it. I hope you’re cool with me. I think about you a lot and I still love you just as much now as I did two years ago when we were hanging out all the time. I just haven’t had the bandwidth, y’know? Maslow’s… it’s very late. Maslow’s… hierarchy? Triangle? Y’know, the thing? I’m so tired. I just can’t sleep. How have you been sleeping? Have you been sleeping well? I hope you sleep well. I hope you sleep better than me. Sleep is important. Speaking of sleep, I’m going to try to get me some because my children are going to be up in four hours. And I just wish I could be more present for them and less sleepy. But, y’know, can’t sleep. Too busy thinking about you! Do you ever think about me? C’mon, you could tell me. Enough of that. I gotta get some sleep. Okay, bye. I miss you.
 
 
Show Outro
Quiet guitar music.

Hilary: Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. If you liked what you heard, subscribe to the show, tell a friend, 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) or making a donation at nynf.org.

If you’re listening the day this episode drops, there are a few days left to participate in our Best Of Theme Contest fundraiser. You have the power to decide how we dress for our year-end live shows in 2022. Your options are: Vampire Convention, Business, Prom 1986, Ye Olde Medieval Tavern, and December Pool Party. There’s a link to the campaign in the show notes. Anything you can give us helps us keep making art for you.

This episode featured work by: Mike Manship, Rudy Ramirez, Katy-May Hudson, Chan Lin, Tom Skerritt, and 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, Lee LeBreton, and me, Hilary Asare. Take care! 

Music fades out.