Greetings friends :0}
It’s a lovely early autumn’s day here in Philly and I’ve got a long listen for you today. A typical mashup of discussion, field recordings, and an original piece of climate survivor fiction—a new All That’s Left story—from yours truly. I hope you like it.
I know I call myself a writer but playing with and layering audio is what makes me realllly happy sometimes. It only took about 10 years for me to get a semi-decent recording setup in place, and after moving this summer it only took me 3 months to set up the microphone and record this for you.
As usual, there’s a glut of other projects that I want to do—a vol 2 of Transitional Times Transitional Body, new bookmarks, a tumblr archive zine, a 2023 planner, audio collabs w/friends—but no, you’ll hear what I’m making myself focus on instead in the audio.
>>> To the mail club members ($5 tier and up), how did you like your lil stationery package some months ago? I think it’s time for another one, maybe with a lil zine or something. Please feel free to lmk.
In other news, the Mercury Monastery continues to be a quiet but useful little writing group. Please message me if you too are working on a long fiction project and need a generative cyberspace to occasionally commiserate and share word count, drafts, etc.
As well, if you follow me on Instagram @cyborgmemoirs, I’m occasionally posting in my stories about Philly area events I’m vending. For a while I had stopped vending altogether because it was too much pressure to produce (esp as it became a solo endeavor), but over the summer I reprinted a load of out-of-print Metropolarity and my own zines for a market that wound up being a bust due to the heat. But it’s been interesting vending again, since when those now dated zines were first made, seven to TEN years have passed, and there’s a whole new gen of people encountering the work.
Well there’s lots more to ~ruminate~ on, but is that enjoyable for you to read?? I wonder.
I hope you’re taking this turn into autumn (spring for my south hemisphere ppl) nicely. I had such a hectic summer that this autumnal slowing down is wholly welcome. Cook for yourself. Move your body. Get some fresh air on your face. Drink water. Call your friends. Look at the stars.
Talk to you soon,
Monk
@}-}-;——-
AUDIO NOTES:
Start – One of the People’s Townhomes regular speakers on the mic earlier in the day during the press conference and rally on the east side of City Hall- 9/7/22
01:00 – Livestream IG audio from when the People’s Townhomes disrupted the packed Building Industry Association PAC fundraiser meeting which Brent Altman sits on the board of – 9/7/22
02:44 – Multiple People’s Townhomes speakers on the mic outside after disrupting the event and talking about what went down and what’s next – 9/7/22
14:00- Followed by greetings & light discussion (talking writing process, experience at the Cascade workshop, tribulations and pitfalls — and for fellow Central alum, the after school club in mention was LYRIC)
28:00 – [FEATURE STORY] new draft ALL THAT’S LEFT (my failure tale) ch1
01:09:26 – Interlude / 4th sound clip: Audio taken from @PhillyThrive’s Instagram livestream recording, featuring somebody from Philly Thrive speaking about Hilco redevelopment being bullshit thus far & outlining community action responses ongoing. 9/14/22
01:14:00 – return to new draft All That’s Left ch1 end
01:35:27 – outro
Samples in order of appearance:
Sisterhood’s The Giving Ground
Ornette Coleman’s Lonely Woman
Golden Axe (arcade version) – Turtle Village 2
Deborah Cox’s Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here followed by a DJ Swisha chopped n screwed version
Drexciya’s Neon Falls
Midori Takada’s Trompe-l’oeil