Day 99:
I will not have this burning into my conscience anymore. I don't care who reads this, warden be damned, I have to write it down, to remember it as it was, and without clouding. We were past the guards, we were out of their jurisdiction, then they ran after the car, I said to Bevi, "He's running after us." He said, "Don't stop." I said, "We have to." He said, "Don't stop." I stopped. The guard was one we hadn't seen before. He wanted to see the papers again, but wouldn't say why. I looked at Bevi, and I nodded, that's all I did, and I admit that much, I nodded at him. At this point, from where I can see, a nod can mean many things, I can name a thousand right now, but in that moment, it only meant two things, but those things were vastly different. That guard was shot for asking for the papers again, and I am in jail for nodding. [Pre-Order] [stream the album this week only]
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tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - "Drying clothes made entirely of zippers (partial cycle)"
This is literally what it claims to be, and if you have nothing to get to, if you're into sitting with it for the whole 17:47 some interesting things start to happen. First, you hear what it is, you picture it, you think, "big deal". You think, "yeah, I think I saw this in a gallery once, I get it, but who cares." And you're kind of right. Then you start thinking about how it's music, about how the idea must have come to the artist, about what mood they were in, about what mood they were trying to create. And then, like the way you stare into space on the subway, or in class, you're suddenly in the mood of a laundromat. One of complete and sublime patience. If you can do something else while you wait, you can, you're totally free to, but now is a time when you can just sit, and listen to the dryer, and just let that be all there is. And after a few minutes of that, you might start to realise how great this song is. It's not really re-listenable, you don't put it on at a party, you might not even want to keep it around, because it could be annoying if it came on again at any point, but for right now, nothing is happening except that. You're not offending anyone, you're not winning anything, you're not trying, or loving, or lying, you're just waiting, wonderfully, pale and yellow.
[From a post about The Cassette Mythos on the FMU blog]
Posted by Dan at March 25, 2008 10:37 AMThe second track was an excellent way to begin my morning, to find beauty in the mundane. Thank you.
Posted by Sean at March 25, 2008 12:30 PM"Drying clothes..." is pretty absolutely perfect for clamping on the headphones and focusing in an open-office plan. You have made my day.
Posted by nichole at March 25, 2008 12:39 PMThe Hurt Hawk text is exactly like the last person who was hanged in Great Britain, Derek Bentley. There's a film about it, called "Let Him Have It" (1991). The title of the film refers to the ambiguous cipher that was Derek's response when a policeman asked for the gun his friend was wielding.
Posted by Thomas at March 31, 2008 10:02 AMAs the person who made this recording it is, of course, interesting for me to read yr commentary. A few things that I want to clarify are that: the clothes being dried are really made entirely out of zippers & I made them myself; I don't know of anyone who's ever made clothes like these - as such, I doubt that you or anyone else "saw this in a gallery once"; in fact, what this has to do w/ a gallery is beyond me - these are clothes I wear out on the streets; what there is that yr hypothetical listener is "get"ting is also unknown to me. The significance of the clothing is that it took balls to wear them in Baltimore where I lived at the time - if you want to be repeatedly threatened just try being a blatant pervert sometime in a narrow-minded shit-hole city. Sonically, my intention was to humorously refer to stochastics a la Xenakis - the sounds are a form of field phenomenona akin to the behavior of heavy gases. Anyway, I appreciate yr review, it seems that you enjoyed the listening experience. It might interest you to know that when I submitted that piece to Cassette Mythos / Audio Alchemy, I expected the editors to just use a minute or 2 of its 47 minute full length. To my astonishment (& the chagrin of people who were rejected as a result) the editors chose to use a longer excerpt.
Posted by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE at April 16, 2008 10:26 PM
and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
