my ideas for this thing
july 16th, 2002
come close to the fire, warm yourself and relax as i tell the tale of “this thing.”
a while back, i noticed one of my friends carrying a hand held tape recorder around. curious, indeed, i asked her “hey, what’s up with that thing?” and she replied with “oh, this thing, this is my tape recorder.” and i said, “yeah, i know, but why are you carrying it around with you everywhere you go.” and her reason was to record random ideas she would have, or to just talk freely to capture on tape what would have otherwise been private in her own mind.
great, i thought, i mean, i’ve had that idea before but i never followed through with it so i was envious and inspired to maybe do it myself. but there’s more, she actually let me listen to the tape because she got really stoned this one night and really let loose so she was like, “hey listen to this bullshit that i rambled on and on about last night.” so i did, and man i didn’t want to stop listening.
it isn’t often that people get the opportunity to be honest with one another, and it might even be less often that they take the time to be honest with themselves. it happens so scarcely in fact that i felt like an intruder listening to it because it was almost as if i was walking around in her mind. there were ideas about the future of the world, thoughts about her family, her own endeavors, aliens, technology, religion, all these things all woven into a preserved medium that no one was supposed to judge or reflect on, or respond to or argue with or fall in love with. had i not listen it , the possiblility is high that the tape would have never been heard by anyone , and in fact, it would have remained private and personal like our thoughts always do.
anyway, i instantly wanted to use her recording for some kind of sound piece, hoping that maybe another listener would somehow be just as inspired as i was. it just so happens that josh came up with this idea at the same time i was thinking about this piece, so i guess, cosmically, or coincidentally, or whatever happened, they were meant to go together.
i’m going to try to update this thing every other day or so, to make mention of my progress. hopefully everyone involved in this project will use this log to keep track of themselves, and to keep others informed, because, as mentioned earlier, it isn’t often that we take the time to bounce real ideas back and forth.