92seconds

Program 14: Stars Below

92seconds@anonymousblack.com — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:00:00 -0500

I wonder if there are writers who have managed to develop that filter, the late night voice of reason, confirming that the three sentences rolling up to the surface in the back of one's head will wait for--or even, improve by--morning, and can be left to stew, to age, maybe even to melt away if it isn't worthy. Every word found on the pillow seems like a priceless jewel, no luxury spared, what necessity is restfulness, after all? And so, drifting to sleep finds this story about drifting to sleep--except, instead of with three vixen teases of lines that won't go anywhere, with a more ultimate (and unpronounceable) understanding.

I hope she would have liked it.

(for Octavia Butler: June 22, 1947 to February 24, 2006)

Program 21: "He (Dream, Cycle 1)

92seconds@anonymousblack.com — Tue, 16 May 2006 23:59:00 -0500

This project fluttered from a manila file to my feet, last week. Picking up the age and tea stained paper, I blinked at it with new eyes. I've kept sporadic dream journals since I was twelve. I could probably count the sex dreams I've had on a hand and a half, thumb the enjoyable ones, but into my twenties there ran a series of dreams -- different subjects, if the subject could be identified -- that explored the masculine principle and my relationship to it. These dreams were threaded through, they knew each other somehow, and what I started to do some years ago was pull the thread tight, write them together in a series. Back then, I couldn't figure a medium for them, though. Cycle 1 is probably the least dreamlike of the collection, which is probably why it serves best as an introduction.

I guess what I'm saying is: if this feels incomplete, that's because it is.

Program 22: Waterford

92seconds@anonymousblack.com — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 19:05:00 -0500

I determined it was time to channel the creative force within the front lobby. I determined I could look around the room and pull a story out of some item in my environment. The oscillating fan? Not yet. The ancient squalling lead painted radiator in the corner? Compelling, yes, but not quite. The questionable mid-eighties brass detailed lamp housed in $28 Service Merchandise crystal? You know, the room looks sort of surreal, looking at it through that. There's a kind of familiarity, though, a context I would have never anticipated... in fact, the whole thing looks more whole looking at it through cut glass---ding ding ding! Lamp! This one's for you.

Though maybe this was somewhat more terse and rhythmic in my head.

It can be hard to channel lamps.

Program 23: Where you go from here

92seconds@anonymousblack.com — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 09:00:00 -0500

Joe Frank isn't exactly a mentor, but he isn't exactly not a mentor, either. I found rebroadcasts of his program "In The Dark" on my local NPR affiliate in 1995. He was the first artist--the only artist, for quite some time--I knew to put together extended pieces of storytelling and ruminations over music. Without knowing it, he gave me the space and a rough shape of formula to try it myself. His performances aren't essential, they exist solely for the ideas they convey; they are not, necessarily, reporting, editorial commentary, autobiography or even fiction, except for that they are all these things and they aren't just essential but critical. So he shows up in my dreams, from time to time, to polish up his various triggers and metaphors. In this spot, a dream recorded years ago, he plays Our Local Fortune Teller.

By the way--when tortured with nightmares of yourself in former incarnations, really. Make the best of it.

Program 24: Hello, hello? Sorry I missed you

92seconds@anonymousblack.com — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:20:00 -0500

Isn't it impressive, how it sounds like I'm talking into a cordless VTech telephone at 4:07 in the morning? Godbless you, Livejournal Phonepost, for converting your format to MP3. It fits the motif, though chances are that motif exists because, after all this time, I can't find the microphone I use for voice recordings.