Let’s wrap up the year in Hit Play! We asked our Patreon supporters to vote on some of their favorite experiments in audio. This episode: the final half of that countdown! Artistic Director Rob Neill talks with the podsquad about moments where Hit Play was flexible and broke some rules, plus more Neos join us to revisit their plays. 

Featuring Annie Levin, Anthony Sertel Dean, Greg Lakhan, Hilary Asare, Julia Melfi, Katie Kay Chelena, Kyra Sims, Léah Miller, Lee LeBreton, Rob Neill, and Robin Virginie 

5:54 [CW: brief moment of fatphobic bullying] - Reimaginings of 2020: A Dramatic Reading of a Speculative Fiction story I wrote in 1991 at the age of 12 by Annie Levin

51:56 [CW: references to antisemitism] - If You're Hearing This, I'm Doing Fine by Lee LeBreton

Our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean
Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Julia Melfi, and Léah Miller

Transcript

Show Intro

Chill electronic instrumental theme music plays underneath.

Julia: Hi there, I'm Julia, New York Neo-Futurist.

Léah: I'm Léah, a tech with the New York Neo-Futurists.

Anthony: And I'm Anthony, our technical director.

Julia: And together we make up the Hit Play--

ALL: PODSQUAD!

Léah: While our ongoing 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. Yes, you! And so we made this podcast.

Anthony: If this is totally new to you. Welcome to it. We make art by four simple rules. We are who we are. We are where we are. We are doing what we're doing. And the time is now, right now.

Léah: So if we're trying to sync up our brains in 3-2-1...

Léah: Crayon //

Anthony: Palm //

Julia: Whipped Cream //

Léah: That's really us trying to sync up our brains! Good job guys.

Anthony: They were close.

Julia: For these episodes, we asked our Patreon supporters to vote on their top hit plays from season one of Hit Play. Last episode you heard our incredible and unbelievable 7-way tie for 8th place.

Léah: And now we're going to bring you the rest of our countdown.

Julia: And before we get things going, we wanted to bring back artistic director slash ensemble member Rob Neill again to talk a little bit more about Hit Play, Neo-Futurism at large, all those good things. So hello Rob.

Léah: Hi Robbo!

Rob: Hello. All those good things. 

Intro music fades out

Julia: So, Rob, in our first episode, we talked with you a little bit about what it was like to put Hit Play together, the process of how making an episode goes and what it's like to make Neo-Futuristic work for a podcast. But there were also some episodes in this first season where we kind of either broke the rules or changed the format of the episode, or we kind of experimented with the overall structure of some episodes. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about that.

Rob: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's fascinating when you're like, all right. For this week, we're going to make episodes that are based on days that they're recorded or we're going to collaborate with an artist who has a form that's different than what we're doing, or we're just going to take a whole bunch of audio and make a collage and see what it is. Because I think one of the great things about Neo-Futurism is--we like to say, OK, here are the rules, but there's no bright line and here's how you have to do it. It's like you push against it. You almost break them, you play with it. And I think part of Hit Play that was really fun was it's like, OK, we're learning how to do this. We're experimenting at it. And now once we've learned how to do it in a way that we like, let's mess with it. Let's fuck things up and see what happens.

Anthony: Yeah, there was one pitch session that I came in and I found a piece of text that I had written on a piece of paper that I did not remember writing. And I thought it sounded like either bad poetry or a bad Neo-Futurist play. And I thought, why can't it be both?

Léah: Dream big!

Anthony: I brought it to pitches and we were like, everyone has this kind of hidden something that we've forgotten about. And so we then blew that idea up into a whole episode, which was a really fun way to get to know these people we've been hearing throughout the whole season. This was the penultimate episode of our season, and it was just a really fun dive where we got some really bizarre incarnations.

Julia: I mean, my memory of what happened is Anthony, you were like I don't think this is good. I don't think this is anything, but I'm going to read this at pitches anyway. And then you were done and everyone was like, oh, this is so something that it's its own concept episode. And there's something really fun about being able to all gather during pitches and just like let the ball roll where it rolls and it ends up somewhere kind of wacky sometimes and just being able to pivot to make that thing happen because like why not?

Rob: Yeah I like how we just embrace that kind of moment. And when Anthony was describing like, oh, is this Neo-Futurism a good play or bad poetry? And it's like, is there a scale of mutual exclusivity that we weigh things out and go, well, nope, these two things aren't the same thing or they can't exist. But like, I don't think so. I think we're like, well, let's see if it is.

Julia: Well, thanks, Rob. Let's get started with our first play on the countdown. Here to talk with us a little bit about it is Robin Virginie and the author of the play is none other than... Anthony, give it a little intro?

Anthony: OK! [DJ hype intro music underneath words] This is a human being who inspires me almost every week. I think she's a genius. And the writer of this play, it is none other than [beat drops] Annie Levin.

Group riffs on Annie's name.

Anthony: And we also have Robin with us here as well to talk about this play.

Léah: We love Robin.

Anthony: Hi Robin. Hi, Annie.

Robin: Oh, my God.

Annie: Wow. That was a lifetime high.

Anthony: Oh, great! [Everyone laughs]

Annie: I will never, never before have I received such an introduction and I don't think it will ever happen again.

Robin: That's not true.

Anthony: If it helps you, I'll give you that introduction any time I see you.

Annie: OK, I love it.

Léah: Just carry around a boombox.

Anthony: Well, let's move on to your much beloved play. It came to us in a very special episode which we'll talk more about after we hear it. And wow, it was really a real treat into the inner workings of Annie's mind, let's hear that clip.

Reimaginings of 2020: A Dramatic Reading (5:54)

Annie: Reimaginings of 2020: A Dramatic Reading of a Speculative Fiction Short Story I wrote in 1991 at the age of 12. GO!

Annie: Shari's New Pal. 

High-pitched tone

The high-pitched wail suddenly jolted Shari back to her senses. 

Michaela: I hate that bell

Annie: she muttered to herself. 

Whirring moving floor

Shari stepped onto the moving floor and slipped into class just as the metal doors were closing. Her best friend, Lola, smiled at her and pointed to the earring lying on her desk. Shari had left it at Lola's house the week before. 

Electronic underscore fades in, with metallic sound effects paired to the text.

It was March 23, 2020, at Edgewood Middle School. The students were all wearing silver metallic clothes and jewelry. The room was air-conditioned and everything was computerized. Shari quickly looked up at her desk computer to see what today's lesson was about. She hit the "L" key, and her computer said, 

Anooj: Today we will talk about commas and quotation marks.

Annie: Shari turned around and made a face at Lola, who giggled quietly to herself 

Michaela: Gosh, she's pretty

Annie: Shari thought to herself. She studied Lola's straight auburn hair and deep blue eyes, silently cringing at her own curly brown hair and green eyes. The only thing she could honestly say she liked about herself was the fact that she was thin. Except for that, she felt like a piece of galactic rubble next to Lola. Shari listened to the rest of the lesson with a bored expression and sighed with relief as the bell rang. 

Tonal gong

She stopped by Lola's desk to grab her earring and then stood waiting for her. They rode down the hall together on the moving sidewalk when Shari spotted Mora Mars, the fattest girl in the school. 

Michaela: Hey, Mora, cut down on the Space-Dogs!

Michaela laughs aggressively 

Annie: she screamed, laughing. Lola looked at Shari critically and said

Yael: That wasn't very nice, Shari.

Annie: Shari made a face and said

Michaela: Shut up, Lola! You're not my mother! You don't need to discipline me!

Yael: I was just saying that it wasn't very nice to say 

Annie: whined Lola. 

Michaela: Well I'm sick and tired of your stupid commentaries, Lola!

Annie: screamed Shari.

Michaela: You always pick fights with me and we always make up, but not this time! This time I'm not gonna forgive you!

Annie: Shari stalked off fuming, with Lola standing there confused. 

Yael: Why does she always do that to me when I just state my opinion?

Annie: Lola cried. She ran into the bathroom just before the tears poured down her cheeks. 

Music fades out

Robin: They can fill in the rest. Annie you were 12 when you wrote this?

Annie: Apparently, yes.

Robin: That's so impressive.

Annie: Thanks, Robin.

Robin: Every time I listen to this, I'm completely engrossed. I'm like, right. Oh, my God, this feels recent and important to me.

Annie: Well, I feel like this story really came to life because of all of these voices and the sound design. And it really has a whole new energy behind it that it didn't have on the page.

Julia: It sounds so good.

Anthony: Aw shucks!

Léah: But also, the casting of all of these Neos in the particular roles that they were cast in and we didn't even get to hear the wide list of so many people.

Annie: I'm sad Robin, that we didn't get to hear your amazing turn as Marlene the robot.

Robin: Oh, man, that was such an honor.

Annie: It's very funny to listen to the things that I got right and the things that I got wrong in imagining the future. Like, I don't think we're all wearing silver metallic clothing. We're not in space, nor are we referencing space in every conceivable moment that we could. But school on a computer feels pretty prophetic.

Anthony: Mm hmm.

Robin: Yes.

Annie: These days. I found this story within a week of that date.

Julia: That's the craziest thing to me.

Robin: That's so bananas.

Anthony: This play was so fun because it was so different from anything we had done up to this point in the podcast. Or really, it's very different from much of what we do as a company. And it was just so fun. I was like, how are you going to make this work? Oh, this is how we make this work. And it's really, really fun. It was a real treat to put together and play with.

Annie: I can't decide if I am honored or depressed that the play of mine from this year that got picked is one that I wrote when I was 12. [Everyone laughs]

Anthony: You're consistent.

Annie: Sure, that's one way to put it. So I messed up the title of this play. I realized after I recorded it.

Julia: What? Tell us.

Annie: So I had initially intended for it to be Rediscovered Imaginings of 2020 to get that Found piece into it. And then I learned that everyone else's in that entire episode had Found at the beginning of their title. And I was like, oh shit. So I wish it had been Found Imaginings of 2020. Can we retitle?

Julia: The oral history.

Robin: Yeah, peek behind the curtain.

Annie: Yeah, it's been a really interesting year because I have been staying in my childhood home for all these months and so I keep finding things. Just yesterday I found this bizarre little cassette tape recording that I made when I was around the same age. It was an answering machine message that I created for Halloween. So hearing my little 11 or 12 year old voice doing this bizarre little thing, it's just fun to keep stumbling upon these artifacts from the past.

Robin: I'm so impressed by current-age Annie, but also past Annie for just constantly being so eclectic and prolific in her writing projects, even at age 12.

Julia: Yes, a lot of output.

Robin: Yes, yes.

Annie: To be honest, I'm impressed, too when I read that [Everyone laughs] I am! I'm like I can't believe little 12 year old me knew to do that stuff. I think it's really cool to get to meet my younger self again and be like, wow, you knew how to tell a story. Nice work.

Anthony: And now it's on a New York Times acclaimed podcast.

Léah: Boom. There it is.

Anthony: All right. Well, thanks for talking about this play with us.

Annie: Thanks for picking it. All of you who picked it.

Anthony: Alright. We are going to move on to the next play in our countdown. And to help us do so, we have with us Hilary Asare.

Hilary: OK. I'm about to intro the author of this play. Hit that sound cue [DJ hype music] All right, visual artist extraordinaire, audio artist extraordinaire, all around wonderful human, stripe lover [beat drops] Julia Melfi.

Group riffs on Julia's name and stripes.

Hilary: What What? Stripes.

Everyone laughs

Julia: I do love stripes, you guys. That felt so nice.

Anthony: And also with us, we have Kyra Sims to talk about this play!

Kyra: Hey!

Julia: OK, let's listen.

A Storm is Coming (13:42)

Julia: A Storm is Coming. GO! 

Words underscored with stormy sounds, using found sound: tubes, popcorn, phone recordings of rain, rice, closet doors, etc. The sound gets louder and almost overtakes the words by the end of the play.

Julia: A storm is coming. We don’t know when. It’s already here. It’s always been on the way. The Big One. The Very Big One. I’m talkin Biblical, and then some. San Andreas fault line. We’re pushing it real hard—pushing our luck. And it’s comin for me and it’s comin for you. 

Yael: My stomach hurt all the time but the tests said there was nothing wrong.They poked and prodded me in different ways. They fed me pills and I got better for it. It isn’t over, but now I stand in its eye. 

T: I hope I’m inland when it hits. I hope my family is on high ground. I hope all of my friends are safe. Which reminds me–we should have a contingency plan. Head to the desert. Don’t really trust the desert. Backroom deals, redlining, lies, racism, religion disguised as morality. That’s the kinda storm that will wipe shit out so you have no option but to start again.

Hilary: The car is swimming, the car is swimming! We didn’t have power for a few days but we did have tuna fish sandwiches and made shadow puppets on the wall. The car is swimming, the car is swimming, the car is swimming the car is swimming, the car is swimming…

Mike: (Overlapping the end of Hilary's line) Puddles on either side of the road reflected the sky and for miles it seemed like the road was suspended over thin air. 

Julia: There’s a storm in me and it’s rumbling all the time. The plate of Juan de Fuca. Heating up and melting everything above it. Tectonic, shifting and gurgling. The Cascadia Subduction Zone. It’s here today, not gone tomorrow. Stuck in my head wondering if I’m being mean to you or if I’m just standing up for myself cause what if I'm wrong, what if I'm wrong, what if I'm wrong, what if I'm wrong...

Anooj: (Overlapping the end of Julia's line) Driving down the highway with my brother, cloud chasing. Looking at each other and going faster and faster and faster and faster trying to beat this huge dark cloud to our destination before it started to pour. 

Jeewon: I can see myself in their storm. Caustic, defensive, sarcastic, unwilling to hear reason or compromise in the moment. Because it's storm time, didn't you get the memo, didn't you get the memo, didn't you get the memo, didn't you get the memo…

Rob: (Overlapping the end of Jeewon's line) It’s predicted. But it will be pandemonium. Big big storm. Like how I imagine it was when all the dinosaurs were wiped out, or at Pompeii, no Hiroshima. There’s chaos. So much will be wiped out. Super scary. Dark times. Bigbigstorm. And sad–many people won’t see it coming or comprehend what's truly coming–what it, what the Big Storm truly is and how devastating and destructive it will be. 

Julia: What storm’s been chasing you your whole life? Your whole ancestral life? And what will you do when it’s here? The eye of the storm sees. It’ll take about as long as this play for more than 10 million of us to lose water. What’s it lookin at? What’s it tryna get a closer look at? What can it see that we can’t see? What’s it tryna show us? 

Sound cuts out. 

Léah: Spooky.

Julia: I should also say that there's a lot of folks featured in that play. First off, we got Yael Haskal, T. Thompson, Jeewon Wright-Kim, Rob Neill, Anooj Bhandari, Mike Puckett. Aside from folks talking about it with us now. For Hit Play I adapted it, it was originally in our live show The Infinite Wrench and in that play, that audio track was playing and all of us Neos were doing a different task that would create a live storm in the theater. So I wanted to extract different elements of a storm and bring that into the space. So there was a big tub of water that we splashed water into. We dunked towels in the water and spun around and got people wet. And there were explosions of flour and strobes and whirligig tubes. And, Kyra, you had like a thunder sheet moving across the theater. Thunder Lady.

Kyra: I was the Thunder Lady.

Julia: And it made a really big mess. And I definitely think that a lot of people weren't excited about how big of a mess that this place made. But I was really excited about the big mess that this play made. And so in the audio version, Anthony helped me recreate that storm with everyday objects, like beans being put into a container, stuff like that.

Kyra: Yeah, it's it's really wonderful listening to this play, remembering being in the maelstrom in the Wrench version, like really like when you're like in the middle of doing that play, you really experience it obviously as much as the audience is, if not more so because I have this huge thundersheet in my hands and I'm like walking around the dark and there's noodles flying and flour and you really feel like you're in the storm. So it was almost like the play was for us to experience as much as for the audience to experience, being in it. And I really love how you did manage to capture a lot of that texture with the added sounds in it. Like in some ways I feel like A Storm is Coming was like a proto Hit Play play because it really was such an audio based experience because the theater is very dark. And so there were some textures of like physical visuals, but it really was mostly an aural experience. And so I think it was very apt of you to translate it into a podcast play.

Julia: Thanks, that's true.

Léah: Yeah, I'll say as an audience member, because it definitely was a hugely sensory experience and like, I have a lot of sensory sensitivities. And so it was pretty intense, not necessarily in a bad way, but it was like a very intense storm experience. And I feel like the audio does a really good job, especially at the end as it kind of like overtakes the sound of the speaking and like really puts you in there and then just personally knowing, like, as I was being part of the production team and then like making the transcription, like knowing the secret, that's not totally obvious of using found objects to to make that sound is just like even cooler.

Anthony: Yeah. I mean like in a solely audio medium as opposed to it being on stage, the expectation is that I take a field recording I have of it raining outside. We put that as, if we need rain sounds, that's what we're going to use as rain sounds. But that's so not what this play wanted. And having all of these complex, rich textures layered on top of each other spread to create like this really exciting listening experience and I mean, listening again, I'm just like I closed my eyes, I was fully immersed in this world and when it all just petered away so quickly, I found myself so in my body presently, just like where I am and not in this storm, it was so psychologically kind of [makes ghost sound] ooOooOoh

Kyra: Yeah, it's quick and intense. Like a true summer squall.

Hilary: Yeah. It really takes you on a journey. I was re-listening to it earlier today and I found myself balling my fist, like bracing myself. And I knew it wasn't an actual storm, but it does drum up that tension, it's really expertly crafted.

Julia: Thank you. Yeah, I remember giving a lot of direction about this play that the play should end at the climax of the storm and that being really, really hard, to be in that urgent of a space so long so that it's not like you get the full arc and like you can hit that climax and then kind of wind down. It's like all the way, baby! More!! is fun and really hard, I think, to do, so it was cool to do that in this setting. Cool. Well, let's move on to talk about the next play, as they say.

Anthony: Let's!

Julia: OK, so Kyra's going to stick around and we're going to bring in our next author to talk about our next play.

Anthony: [DJ hype intro music] All right. You know this author. Here is a Neo-Futurist here to kick some artistic butt! But the butt that she's kicking is bad art because she makes good art. [beat drops] It's Katie.

Everyone riffs on Katie's name and she reacts loudly and jubilantly

Katie: WOW. Can I have that every time I walk into a room?!

Léah: Yes.

Katie: Please. I'm still riding that high.

Julia: Ride that high on into listening to the play--

Katie: On into my sad play, haha!

Julia: There's no way to pivot.

Ode to 17 (after Anis) (22:02)

Katie: Ode to 17. After Anis. GO!

Mellow rock chords underscore. 

Katie: This one goes out to the teenagers.

This one goes out to the teenagers we all still are inside, driving way too fast with the windows down on the highways of our hearts.

This is for you.

This is for the acid I did not take.

This is for the skinny dipping in waterfalls.

This is for all the cake that went uneaten because of body shame.

This is for my first orgasm.

This is for the Waffle House parking lot where we had our first kiss.

This is for the girls who realize the world wants them to be smaller and instead they defiantly grow and grow and grow and grow and grow and grow and–

This is for the girls who shrink. It is ok. We cannot grow in all seasons. 

This is for Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice.

This is for the boys painting their nails.

This is for shitty stick and poke tattoos.

This is for coming out.

This is for the last of the first straws, when you have been cheated or mistreated or abused and they think they can take your spirit away, but you’ve just found your voice, and motherfucker, it is loud.

This is for your voice.

This is for all the clothes ruined by period stains.

This is for the parents of teenagers.

This is for teenagers who parent themselves.

This is for the girl who was hit so often with hands that all she could do was hit me with words.

This is for stretch marks and sweat stains and patchy pubes.

This is for those picked last.

This is for the quarantined high school seniors, 

Robbed of the mundane gazing out classroom windows at the slow blistering springtime,

Robbed of the cobbled together parties where someone's friend's brother brought the booze,

Robbed of the ritual and ceremony of stepping into the great beyond, trust me, you're a pro already, the great beyond is just exchanging one unknown for another.

This is for the golden boys.

This is for the ones who didn’t make it.

This is for the ones in conversion therapy.

This is for the ones in rehab.

This is for not knowing how to kiss and doing it anyway.

And this is for your teenage heart, and how relentlessly it beats, how the rhythm grows beyond your body, how it syncs to the beat of your favorite song as the sun shines down on your face and you think god it’s so hard to be alive, but god it’s so fucking good.

Music plays out. 

Everyone chuckles

Léah: We all have the exact same face on right now, just like, tender smile.

Katie: Oh man.

Kyra: I'm sorry I actually have to leave, I need to go to the Container Store for a bigger container for my heart. 

Everyone laughs

Katie: Oh God, it's wild to listen to this because the first iteration of this was in the Kraine. And so listening to it, I had this experience of going back to writing it in that moment and then also going back to writing it, rewriting the version for when quarantine started in New York. And it's a bizarre time slipping, like nine months back and then time slipping like a year back and then time slipping to when I was 17. And it's wild.

Anthony: Yeah. In slipping back to 17, I wanted to give a little peek behind the scenes about the music in this. I took some structure, inspiration or ideas from a song that I wrote when I was 17.

Everyone gasps and says "oh my god"

Julia: And the music is so damn good.

Katie: It's so good.

Julia: It's so bright.

Katie: I wept my baby little eyes out when you sent me the final track of this, it really--

Anthony: You sent me a picture!

Katie: I know, of me openly weeping.

Kyra: Oh, I didn't know that. [silly voice] Little baby Toni! I need to go back and listen to it again. I mean, which is such a treat to listen to this. So I will but I will listen to this picturing little Toni rocking out.

Katie: Yeah. You killed the music. You killed the music on this.

Anthony: I mean, there are some plays that we've done in this and the whole process that I really think more of as pieces of music than I do as plays. This is definitely one of them. And there are plays that I will just go back and like if I'm having a day where I'm having some sort of feels I'll go back and grab my guitar off the wall and songs from these plays that we've put together, they mean so much more and the music is imbued with so much inherent meaning when I hear it. It does a lot, you know?

Katie: Yeah, yeah. I agree.

Kyra: It does. Katie, you and I have talked about this before.  Your body of work is to me just like quintessential contemporary Southern Gothic, if you really just look at your whole body of work. That's how it fits in my mind and in my soul. And even with this piece, that's not necessarily about the South, I feel so much of that flavor in there, like the things that you bring out that pop out to me, like sweat stains. And my brother's friend's brother with the booze and the great beyond, like there's so much imagery in there that's just so reminiscent of that genre. Even though it's not necessarily about the South. And I just, I love hearing your true authentic self within this beautiful language. And yeah.

Katie: I appreciate that so much because I feel like for me, even though it's not explicitly Southern, it's very much of, like sweaty summers in North Carolina, and the reason that I brought this to Hit Play was because Governor School in North Carolina was canceled. And I said, oh, my God, this is like an early college program that I went to when I was a kid. And then I taught at and then I was going to be teaching again. And it felt like this massive door closing both for me that summer and also just thinking about the students that I had taught and being that age and the South in particular, just sort of like cracking and opening up and becoming this massive mouth to fall into. So it's absolutely imbued with all of that sweat.

Kyra: Yeah, it really feels like a love letter to that age and a sympathy letter, especially with the part you added at the end. And I know we talked about there were some younger listeners that you heard from, right?

Katie: Yeah, one of my students from Governor School DMed me on Instagram and asked me if she could use the audio to make a senior goodbye video with all of her friends. I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

Kyra: Oh, my God.

Katie: Wendy, if you're listening, I wept so many times.

Kyra: It's so beautiful.

Julia: Awww, oh no.

Léah: It's so interesting that you described it as, coming out of our silly intro, you were like, oh, now for my sad play. And it's not necessarily a happy, silly play, but for me, it just fills me, I have so much tenderness for that space in time, my time, everyone's... I love teenage messiness and I feel it from you so much through this play and it makes me feel beautiful and tender, you know?

Katie: Yeah.

Léah: And that there's like the sad parts in there, but that's like part of the--not to like romanticize the terrible things, but it's like part of the sadness and the messiness.

Katie: Yeah.

Kyra: You have to take the bad with the good. Yeah.

Julia: Yeah. I think it's a really victorious play and I think the music adds that... triumphy...

Katie: [At same time] Triumph, yes!

Julia: Yeah. Exactly. Like running the marathon feel.

Katie:  Yeah. Yeah I totally agree. And it's also a love letter to all of those things and a sympathy letter and a call back to our former selves and, and it's just a love letter to a poem that I really, really loved when I was that age, which is Shake the Dust by Anis Mojgani. And there's a lot, there's just so much baked in there.

Kyra: Yeah, I remember sitting on the Kraine stairs watching you perform this piece with the flowers and really feeling everyone's heart coming on stage with you and dancing in the imagery with you as you performed it. It's yeah, it was captivating every time.

Katie: It felt so good. It felt so good especially when there were college kids who would show up and you could see that they had just sort of gotten enough space from that time to to be totally swimming in it.

Kyra: [silly voice] Yeah, like I remember last year.

Katie: I remember last year, that was emotional!

Julia: Like last year also being like months away.

Katie: Oh, wild.

Julia: Well, thank you, Katie, for joining us to talk about this wonderful play.

Katie: Thank you.

Julia: OK, let's move on to our next play. Hit me with that intro sound, please, Anthony. [DJ hype intro music] Oh, wow. Who's entering the Zoom room? It's my dear friend who I once made a purse for in the spur of the moment. It's [beat drops] Hilary Asare!

  Group riffs on Hilary's name.

Léah: She loves dogs! Woof woof.

Julia: Hilary is here. Hello Hilary. 

Rob: Choirs of angels.

Hilary: That purse moment, I forgot. That was one of the greatest--I think that was during a deep clean and that was one of the best [Laughing] moments of that night.

Julia: You were captaining the show that week. And you discovered you didn't have pockets before the show. And you were like, I don't have anything--I don't have anywhere to put anything. So I made Hilary a purse from a bag and some string and we called it a purse.

Hilary: Great.

Anthony: We have another guest with us to talk about this play. Rob, you got any info about the purse?

Rob: All offices have had transformations during these times. So keeping track of things is very interesting.

Julia: Yeah, we'll see if the tiny bag with a string made it. [Everyone laughs] Well, let's get started. Let's listen to the play.

A Breath, A Grace (33:50)

Hilary: A Breath, A Grace. GO! Take the time right now to get in front of a mirror. You can press pause, I'll wait.

Music starts underneath the voiceover. 

Hilary: Ready? Now, close your eyes, and breathe with me for a moment. Inhale for 1-2-3-4, hold for 1-2-3-4, exhale for 1-2-3-4-5-6-7. Again, Inhale for 1-2-3-4, hold for 1-2-3-4 , exhale for 1-2-3-4-5-6-7. Keep breathing and count it out on your own now.

Hilary breathes slowly over the music. The beats kicks in. 

Keep breathing. How’s that going lately? Is your chest open or tight? Put your hand on your heart. How is it? How is it really? Be honest. Are you punishing yourself for something? Is a memory taking up space that it shouldn’t? Maybe it was your fault. That’s okay, you are allowed to make mistakes.  

Keep breathing with me. Inhale for 1-2-3-4, hold for 1-2-3-4, exhale for 1-2-3-4-5-6-7.

Open your eyes. Keep breathing. Look in the mirror. Make eye contact and say “you can forgive yourself”. Raise your arms above your head. Shake off the blame. Free yourself of that dark moment. You aren’t defined by your worst days. Fling them off your fingertips. Take another breath, Look in the mirror again and say "I love you, it's gonna be alright".

That’s a nice start.

Sound of exhale with music crescendo.

Julia: Wow.

Léah: What a gift.

Anthony: From episode number 2!

Léah: Damn, really? Oh, my gosh.

Rob: Still pertinent. Still resonant.

Hilary: Honestly, listening to that, I wonder who that is. [Everyone laughs] Can I meet her? I was very calm and grounded and I was like, oh, I am capable of that? Cool. Yeah.

Anthony: Can you talk a bit about how the play came? Because it was so early, this play came from existing as a part of the Wrench and then brought to--

Hilary: Yeah. And then brought to Hit Play. I'm trying to remember why I wrote the play for The Infinite Wrench and I truly cannot. But I do know that the breathing pattern--someone who is not a scientist told me that that's the natural breathing pattern of a sigh. And I don't know if that's true or not, but it has always worked to calm me down or to slow me down when I need to. But really, any sort of attention to your breathing will help you do that. So I don't know how much stock there is in the specific counts. I wanted to be able to steady myself. I think March was an anxious time for a lot of people, myself included. I'm a baseline anxious person. So I think I was reading through plays that I had already written, wanting to contribute to the podcast and going, I think this would be nice to work on in this moment. And in the Kraine, which is our theater where we do the Infinite Wrench. This was one of the plays where I would go up to the tech booth and deliver this over a microphone. I believe the curtains were closed and behind them, the cast was holding up mirrors and I wanted lights strung over the shoulders of the people holding up the mirrors or the mirrors themselves. I can't really call to mind specifically why, but then at the end, where it says "Open your eyes," the runners would open and then the audience would then be able to look into the mirror.

Léah: Can I talk about my experience of this play?

Hilary: Yes. Yes.

Léah: So this was such a gift on the pod and it's a gift always. But the tech booth at the Kraine is in a tiny little box up a ladder in the back of the theater with a little window to see the stage and the audience. And it simultaneously gives you a really universal view of everything, but also a really distanced connection to everything. And so having a Neo come up and do a play on the mic in the booth is always a fun little treat when it's coming. But this one in particular is so special because right before and right after it, Hilary is stress-running in and out of this scary ladder to get into this tiny booth and then maybe her play is up next after. So she has to run back down and it's hectic. And this play is a gift, I think, for her, but also for us to take that moment and space in the show and then to be able to see not only the beautiful stage picture that the audience gets to see, but not that I can really see their faces, but to just like feel and see the entire back of the audience relax and really go on that journey and the part where you put your hands up and all of that, it was so special. And then to do it in the booth with Hilary and to do it now on Zoom, it just keeps giving.

Hilary: Yeah we all put our hands up.

Julia: Yeah, the hands up.

Hilary: Yeah, yeah.

Rob: I think the way that it keeps having to do some lifting in the show, in the podcast, in our lives over time. And this play was created before so many things that we've now lived through. And just to have, I mean I have in my personal practice like rededicated myself to doing things like this just to get through and how we were already getting through things at the beginning of this year. Little did we know how much we would have to get through and how much something like this play would help throughout. 

Car honks outside

Léah: Yeah, that car honk agreed with you, Rob.

Rob: Yes, there's definitely people outside my window agreeing with everything I say. The synchronicity!

Julia: They know.

Léah: I feel like it's a beautiful moment to transition to our next Hilary play.

Variations on Black Joy (42:17)

Hilary: Variations on Black Joy. GO!

All sing this song: "I’m tired of sorrow I want to enjoy - Black giggles, Black whimsy, Black Love, and Black Joy." The first line is full volume and then the song fades to underscore levels until noted. Supplemented by tonal underscore music.

Nicole: My joy looks like creative flow... 

My joy tastes like salty fried wonderful...

My joy smells like, mmm, the earth after a summer storm...

My joy sounds like endless jazz riffs… (Nicole makes a jazzy badum tshh sound)

My joy feels like a question to be eagerly answered in all the ways…

Rayne: My joy looks like dimples, bright colors, and sunshine

My joy tastes like the first bite of cookie dough bluebell ice cream

My joy smells like a vanilla bean scented candle and the smoke from the flame

My joy sounds like laughter - unbridled laughter

My joy feels like a room full of soft fluffy velvet pillows 

Hilary: My joy looks like purple clouds

My joy tastes like warm stock, savory, satisfying

My joy smells like mom’s Thanksgiving stuffing

My joy sounds like iridescent bubbles

My joy feels like a micro fleece on a crisp day

T: My joy looks like bright eyes and a confident smile

My joy tastes like coffee and a spliff

My joy smells like sweet potatoes and broccoli roasting in the oven

My joy sounds like a deep belly laugh

My joy feels like a full body hug with my love

Robin: My joy looks like a bright glowing orb of sunshine and glitter

My joy tastes like the first bite of a perfect meal

My joy smells like lavender

My joy sounds like (Robin lip trills into a yell) 

My joy feels like magic

Underscore cuts out 

Nicole: My joy is being released from her tower of limited past perception.

Hilary: My joy is mine, undeniable and energizing

Robin: My joy cannot be crushed

T: My joy is priceless and not to be fucked with

Rayne: My joy comes in waves and I am grateful for its stay - regardless of the deep deep pain, I know my joy will be back. It has to. 

Rayne (singing): I’m tired of sorrow I want to enjoy - Black giggles, Black whimsy, Black Love, and Black Joy 

All (singing): I’m tired of sorrow I want to enjoy - Black giggles, Black whimsy, Black Love, and Black Joy 

Léah: [singsongy voice] What a beautiful play.

Hilary: Woo! Thank you.

Rob: All those voices too, so great.

Hilary: Yeah, super huge thanks to Nicole Hill, T Thompson, Robin Virginie, and Rayne Harris, because I am not singing in any of that, that is all of their beautiful, honeyed voices and Anthony layering them together expertly with that underscoring and I'm so grateful for this play and for all of the work that went into it. I can't claim full credit, it's a lovely collage of talented talented talented humans I love and get to work with.

Julia: You wrote the song Hillary!

Hilary: OK, yeah, I did. But, you know, [Laughs] I didn't do it alone is all I'm saying.

Julia: Sure, sure. Yeah.

Léah: What I was thinking about on this listen, which I think I probably did the first time too, but I felt so strongly that I was just so grateful for the very distinct personalities of all of those people. Like joy was so A) perfectly crystallized by they're being a Neo-Futurist writer who knows how to be poetic and say things well. And then also just like the difference between like, that was so Robin and that was so T and like every time they said something I was like, wow, I love that person. And they are so different from that next person.

Rob: And just the amazingness of, as you said, the collaboration and how each person is bringing their own thing to it and then it gets put together. That's one of the gifts that Hit Play has been giving us in all these plays and all these episodes, allowing us to do things that really accentuate how amazing Neo-Futurists are at collaborating with each other and how it becomes something that is even more special and more transformative.

Julia: Totally. It's so exciting to hear so many voices in one play and to hear them sing and to speak. And I feel like as a listener, it's just like, oh, and somebody else, oh! And somebody else. And I think one thing that I think we're obviously really missing is like being in a group and it really approximates that feeling of being with a bunch of people singing at you is really, really special.

Rob: The idea of the universal being in the details and that everybody has their specifics that they're listing, but you relate to it so much because it's bigger than just that thing. It's representative and resonates in each person, each listener differently as well, which I love about how you crafted this.

Julia: What was it like to hear it again, Hilary?

Hilary: It was really yummy. Oh, it was really just--I think often when I'm working on something and I'm trying, I'm like on deadline and I'm just being hypercritical. And I very rarely go back and just reexperience what it is. And like you like you said, Julia, how much I do miss being in a room with my art family, you know, just playing and making sounds, making art, making theater. It did bring a little bit of that to this moment. And it's a very warm feeling.

Julia: It's a warm play.

Léah: It's a hug.

Hilary: There will be hugs. That's the title. That's a play title. There will be hugs.

Léah: [sung to Maroon 5's "she will be loved"] And there will be hugs!

Julia: I drank your milkshakes. I drank it up. But in a fun way.

Hilary: Oh, yeah. I was thinking.

Julia: We can get rid of that.

Hilary: It's great, perfect. Please, please keep it. Oh my.

Rob: All right y'all. Well I think it's time for me to step away for a while.

Julia: Sounds good, Rob.

Anthony: Thanks for being with us.

Rob: Bye!

Julia: All righty folks. You know it, you've been waiting for it, it's time to talk about one of our two plays that received the most Patreon votes. And here to intro that special Neo, Léah, take it away.

Léah: [DJ hype intro music] All right. Up next, we've got Lee LeBreton. Lee LeBreton is one of my favorite names to say in addition to one of my favorite people to know and here we go, it's... [beat drops] Lee. We love Lee.

Group riffs on Lee's name.

Lee: Wow. Wow.

Léah: Can we take this moment to talk about HilarLee...

Lee: LeBrAsare!!!

Julia: Oh my gosh.

Lee: Yeah, HilarLee LeBrAsare, in digital format.

Julia: Yeah, who's going to tell that story?

Hilary: What a time! Who is going to tell the story?

Julia: You go, Hilary.

Léah: I think you should because you're going to laugh so much while you tell it. [Hilary laughs]

Hilary: Well, this was a wrench that came up. This was Greg's. This is Greg Lakhan's wrench. And essentially after it was called Lee and I got into a giant t-shirt and did the remainder of that show as HilarLee LeBrAsare. And it was quite the journey.

Lee: Yeah, it required so much focus from the both of us to not injure one another or others that it brought out the most type A. It was like we were flying like a fighter jet together.

Hilary: Yup, yup.

Lee: But we looked absurd, we were wearing again a get-along shirt, like we looked absurd. And both of us are in a movie trying to mind meld as much as possible.

Hilary: We were so serious.

Léah: I feel like, am I wrong? Or was that also a weekend in which there was a wrench that involved wearing mittens? And at some point you also had mittens on?

Lee: Yeah, that was my wrench: Just Mittens. I brought that upon us.

Léah: You brought that to yourself.

Hilary: That's amazing.

Julia: OK, let's listen to your play, Lee.

If You're Hearing This, I'm Doing Fine (51:56)

Lee: If You’re Hearing This, I’m Doing Fine. GO!

Gentle piano/guitar underscore

Lee: I’m gonna get some of this wrong. We haven’t taken very good notes.

It’s the 1920s and Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld proposes that helping the transvestite population alter their appearances to align with their gender identities is a good thing, is a doctor’s responsibility, in fact. But his work is disrupted when Hitler names him, quote, “the most dangerous Jew in Germany,” and in 1933, young fascists destroy his Institute of Sexual Science—

—But then in July 1966, Dr. Harry Benjamin publishes this book resurrecting Hirschfeld’s approach, which spawns medical transition programs in Baltimore, in San Francisco—

—so that the month after that, when a street queen throws coffee in the face of the cop who is trying to remove her from Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin, and someone else smashes a window, and someone else sets fire to a cop car, the regulars know they aren’t grotesque criminal oddities, but people, deserving of dignity and care, and are being treated as such with increasing frequency by people and at clinics around the United States—

—Including one, however, that, around 1976, actually denies Lou Sullivan hormone therapy on account of his insistence that he is a gay man as well as a transgender one, sparking Lou’s life’s work advocating for the plurality of sexual orientations represented in what was coming to be known as the, quote, “gender” community—

—So that by the time it’s 1994, and I am six years old, sexual orientation is no longer a part of the diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorder—

—and when I am eight or nine on a trip to the city where I will one day live I drive past the spot where in 1969 a handcuffed Storme DeLarverie turned to the crowd at the Stonewall Inn and said “Why don’t you guys DO SOMETHING?,” and they did, near that spot I see two men kiss each other for the first time in my life and with so much tenderness that the sight sears itself to the back of my eyelids—

—and then 21 years after that I swish into a doctor’s office for a consultation with a surgeon and no one asks me who I like to fuck.

What’s on my heart is this: Time feels broken right now, stagnant, and we cannot see the future even if we strain; we cannot see what all this toil might yield, what justice we are helping push up the great hill; we are little and short-lived; and we want to believe something is nudging, we have to, but we won’t ever be sure. But the pushing is the point. The book, the smash, the lighted match, the shout, the kiss. The pushing is the point.

If you’re hearing this in June of 2020, then I am lying in a comfortable bed in Brooklyn recovering from top surgery. And many long-dead people made this possible.

Here we are in Pride Month. I’m proud of you, and myself, and those of us not yet born, for whom we push.

Music plays out

Hilary: Yep, lots of tears. So exquisite.

Lee: Ooh, I'm feeling the time vertigo, listening back to it six months later, I'm really feeling that. It's like I say in the piece, time still feels really broken. And reminders of time having passed feel really, really potent. I can talk a little bit about why I wrote this. In June and in May, I was feeling a huge sense of loss that I continue to feel coming up on Pride Month, feeling this sense of loss of queer community. I had planned on that community being around for this surgery, for top surgery that I had coming up, which for me was a very, was going to be a milestone, a very personal milestone and certainly an important milestone in this medical transition journey that I've been on for as long as I've been a Neo-Futurist. And then when COVID hit, my surgery was indefinitely postponed. I was worried it was not going to happen because my health insurance was ending and it was rescheduled twice and hours of medical bureaucracy. And then it eventually was scheduled again sooner than I thought, blessedly, for the first week of June. And a comfort to me during that period was--lost my thought there. The memory soup got pretty thick. 

I did feel that sense of community. It took a different form. It was in the form of fundraising, in the form of people stopping by the stoop of the apartment where I was in recovery, dropping off food and hanging out with me while I was very foggy from recovery. But another source of comfort for me during that period and all during the pandemic has been history. I remember others and remember that time is moving and it makes me feel small in a comforting way while also reminding me of my own agency and the arc of the moral universe. And that agency was also very--there was a lot of tension around that sense of agency because it was June of 2020. It was the first week of June, my social media feed, which was one of my only tethers to the world outside of my recovery room, was full of my friends reporting that they recovered from being pepper sprayed and were sharing resources for protesting safely on the Internet. And I was immobilized and in a recovery room. 

And I wrote and recorded this knowing that it would air while I was in that state and in a Pride month, that felt very different for so many reasons. Yeah. And so we released this as part of the collection of works that we created for the Infinite Pride, for the digital Infinite Pride. So I decided to connect the dots of my historical lineage and in choosing who to include, there are some people, there were some players that I felt I had to include. Lou Sullivan being one of them, who was perhaps the most, the first and certainly the most visible gay trans man in America and whose work has had a very immediate effect on my ability to access medical transition resources. 

But then there are some other people that I mention in the piece that I noticed were getting a little lost in the version of Pride's history that we were telling ourselves this year. I noticed that the queer community has awakened to the importance of figures like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, but almost to the point among white queers on the Internet specifically, to the point of turning them into monoliths or shorthand for a value system which depersonalizes them and I think begins to erase some of their specificity as people. And so I was interested in scooping along some other names and some other movements that we tend to hear less often, particularly living in a city where Stonewall is, and Stonewall looms large as a figure in our queer ancestry. And those felt especially present in Pride of 2020 and Pride's place, or Pride's legacy, rather, of protest and opposition to police violence. And those were all really heavy with me when I was when I was writing this. That was a lot of words for--that was a lot of words.

Léah: Beautiful words.

Hilary: A lot of great words. I'm really floored by your generosity of heart. I think that's why this play for me is so powerful and also your ability to distill that research into emotional accessibility. That's a real, real skill that is really expertly executed in this piece.

Julia: Yeah. That history feels really alive or personal. And there's something too about that repetition of "the book, the match, the kiss, the push," those things are so visual to me, and it makes this sort of mantra for me.

Lee: That's nice to hear.

Julia: That I feel like also connects the play to the listener really strongly.

Léah: Yeah. And I think it's so like tangibly felt that that feeling you were just talking about of like the feeling that history making you feel small in a good way, but also really personal and directly connected and as a queer listener, a non-binary listener, feel that also myself, through you as part of that lineage telling that and just like especially moved; I'm always working with queer teenagers and that's one of my favorite demographics and little ones and hearing that ending of I forget exactly how you phrase it, like "the ones for whom we push" I think. But just that little moment that really stretches that timeline out into infinity.

Julia: It's a goodie, Lee.

Hilary: Hell yeah.

Lee: Can I plug two of my favorite history resources for any nerds? I know no nerds listen to this.

Léah: There are no nerds on this call.

Julia: The Venn diagram is a circle. 

Everyone laughs

Lee: There's an amazing episode of the Nod called The Cowboy of the West Village, which is an incredible biography of Stormé DeLarverie. It's one of my favorite history podcast episodes. So if you want to know more about what Stormé did the night of Stonewall and the rest of Stormé's life, I highly recommend that. And then my other favorite trans history podcast, is called One From the Vaults that Morgan M. Page does. And I believe it's episode 3. It's pretty early in the season. It's called STAR House STAR People. And that goes into some details about Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. And those are great episodes if you want to be a history nerd for 90 minutes.

Julia: Well, thank you, Lee.

Lee: Thank you.

Julia: And thank you, Hilary.

Hilary: Oh, thank you.

Léah: And thank you, HilarLee.

Julia: And thank you Greg.

Hilary: Yeah, thank you Greg.

Anthony: Speaking of Greg.

Julia: Can I get a little backup? [DJ hype intro music] Joining us in the digital space to talk about this incredible play song is the one, the only... [beat drops] Greg Lakhan, that's right, Greg.

  Group riffs on Greg's name and musical name Sir Gregolas.

Julia: Hi, Greg.

Greg: Hello [laughs]

Julia: We should also say that, Anthony, you and Greg collaborated on this piece, but because we've heard a lot from you, I just focused that a little bit on Greg.

Anthony: Yeah. As you should. Yeah. Do we want to just get right into it?

Julia: Yeah. Let's listen.

Sir Gregolas Radio: The Days Ahead (1:04:49)

Radio static

Greg: Sir Gregolas Radio

Radio static

Anthony: The Days Ahead GO!

"Go" echoes and is manipulated electronically, crescendos into chill beats for a rap song

Greg: Failed connections

Try hard

Make good impressions

Poker face

To keep em guessing

If I’m stoic, I’ll seem impressive

Grown ass adolescent

All alone

Need connections

Need a home

Broke ass nigga

Need a loan

Need directions

Need a goal

Do better days await?

Always question

Always second guessing

As I toke on these depressants

Memories stay on repeat though

Days before finito

Still I’ve been incognito

I’m fragile like my ego

Fun fact

I bounced back

I’m above that

I’m uncapped

Life of the party

I know that I’m tardy

I brought some Bacardi

I Went Out of Service

And I’m truly sorry

I just needed time to put the past behind

Get back on the grind

Find some piece of mind

And then try to unwind

Plenty good days in store

Focus energy on making more

Past tragedies are ancient lore

And now I’m better than the days before

Chorus sung through twice

A little more time

A little more patience

Till I reach my prime

And find motivation

I’ve been fed a lot of lies

I’m growing impatient

Still waiting

On the days ahead

Rapped verse, repeated twice

Memories stay on repeat though

Days before finito

Still I’ve been incognito

I’m fragile like my ego

Fun fact

I bounced back

I’m above that

I’m uncapped

Life of the party

I know that I’m tardy

I brought some Bacardi 

I went Out of Service and I’m truly sorry

I just needed time to put the past behind

Get back on the grind

Find some piece of mind

And then try to unwind

Plenty good days in store

Focus energy on making more

Past tragedies are ancient lore

And now I’m better than the days before

Sung quietly as background to chill beats

Meaningful connections

I learned my lesson

I’m feeling pensive

Warped voice

Number 10: the law of manifestation

Everything manifest begins as a thought, an idea

Ideas and experiences create beliefs

Which in turn create reality 

If you are unhappy with your current reality 

You must change your beliefs and behavior

Beliefs make change and recognize those that are not working for you

You can program or create success and harmony in your life 

The unlimited creative power of your mind 

Creation, awareness, and dreaming

Can be wisdom to rise above your karma

Within physical laws you can manifest any reality

You desire to experience

Music fades out 

Greg: Oof. Wow.

Julia: Oh, there it is.

Greg: Wow. That kind of just smacked me in the face, I'm not going to lie.

Julia: How so?

Greg: I have not listened to that since we put it out. What was that, like a month ago, we made that together?

Anthony: Yeah, more. More than that.

Greg: Yeah. I mean, like, whenever I put songs out, I just kind of put them out and I never go back to them. I hate the sound of my own voice, but it's cool that I did that.

Léah: Hell yeah! I like the sound of your voice, for what it's worth.

Greg: Oh, thanks. I appreciate that. I don't know. It's just like whenever you work on a song for five hours, you never want to hear it again, or at least you want some space between you and the song. And I think I definitely got the space that I needed to fully appreciate it again. And that feels very good.

Anthony: Yeah. I mean, I came to you with the idea to do this--in this long countdown, when we started this, we kept on talking about where we were at the start of this show, of Hit Play back in March and walking down 9th Avenue, being at Fish Bar, all of these things. I remember one time, Greg, you and I and a bunch of other folks were walking to the subway after a Tuesday night rehearsal for the Infinite Wrench and offhandedly one of us had mentioned about me producing a track and then you writing the words, performing the words on it. And we were like, yeah, that would be fun to do at some point. And as we were getting to the end of Hit Play, I was like, this is kind of the perfect time to do that. And I had this track, this song written in my head or this beat or whatever in my head for years. And I was like, I think this is the time. And I really wanted to make something special with you and listening again, like I had taken so much time away from this song and coming back to it, it was really, really special, really fun to listen, also to listen with you, with everyone else here. It was a real treat.

Greg: Dude. Well, thank goodness you sent me that beat. Actually, I remember writing the lyrics to that. I was working this God-awful driving gig and I was just spending all my time sitting in a van waiting for orders. And writing that song is like what got me through that gig. And I don't know, it was just fun to make music for the sake of making music, you know what I mean?

Anthony: Heck yeah!

Greg: I feel like every song that I make, it's like, OK, I got to plan a rollout and then it's got to be on a project and it's like, nah, man,  just rap to rap. It was cool. I had a lot of fun.

Anthony: Yeah. I think there's been something really fun in just like the whole Hit Play experiment of it is like, I mean yes, we're always experimenting with new forms in the live show in the Wrench as well. But like there was a very low bar to--we brought in a lot of things, not saying that the work was low bar or anything. I think this whole Best Of show has been a real example of the real kickass work that we've done this year.

Léah: Hell yeah!

Anthony: And also so much kickass work that didn't even make it into the countdown. But that's just because we just had this space and we kept on making, we brought in 199 audio experiments over the course of this. And it was really...

Greg: When y'all sent me that survey [laughs] Yo, I was like that shit made me anxious, yo, but like in the best way.

Julia: You're so right. Greg. You can be like, oh, I'm sitting in this van all day long and that's what it is. And then it's something great.

Greg: Oh, it's so much. I don't think I would even be as prolific if I didn't have people just motivating me to keep making stuff, you know?

Anthony: Heck, yeah.

Greg: That's why I am very glad--

Anthony: It's the community.

Greg: Yeah! That this community exists. I'm glad that it exists. And like the fact that we had over 100 plays to choose from is a testament to that work ethic and that inspiration that we give each other I think.

Anthony: Yeah. Big time.

Julia: So amazing.

Anthony: Well thanks for thanks for coming in for this one, Greg, and thanks for making this great song play, this piece of, this thing that we've made together.

Outro music fades in as underscore

Greg: Of course, yeah, it was a pleasure. And here's to many more songs in the future, my friend.

Anthony: Beautiful.

Julia: Yes, absolutely. Wow, we really done did it, folks!

Léah: Yes we did!

Julia: That is our second Best Of episode. Thank you so much to all our Patreon supporters for weighing in and making these Best Of episodes the best they possibly could be. And thank you to all the Neos who talked to us a little bit more about their work.

Léah: And if you liked what you heard, subscribe to the show, tell a friend, listen to all the other 50+ episodes. And if you want to support the New York Neo-Futurists in other ways, you can consider making a donation at NYNF.org or by joining our Patreon at Patreon.com/NYNF.  Contributing to our Patreon helps us continue to make this art and to get paid for it.

Anthony: Cha-ching! We would also love it if you would leave us a review of Hit Play on your podcast listening app of choice and share it with us in whatever way you'd like: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, postage--

Léah: I like snail mail.

Julia: Or send us an email!

Anthony: The brainwaves. Oh yeah. Email me. 

Everyone laughs

Julia: Our logo was designed by Shelton Lindsay and our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean.

Léah: Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean.

Julia: Léah Miller

Anthony: And the one and only Julia Melfi.

Julia: Ooh take care.

Léah: Take care!

Anthony: Take care. Love you.

Léah: Love you!

Julia: Love you.