Month: December 28, 2011

As I was riding the bus a few months ago, a mentally handicapped man got on and immediately yelled, “Go Giants!” Well, this was in San Francisco, and it was also after the Giants became World Series champs, but it was also long after they became World Series champs. Needless to say, much chuckling ensued and the results were all captured on my recorder. Occasionally, the man would randomly repeat his exclamation to the further delight of his bystander audience. It seemed like something that might be useful to sample, although I don’t know exactly how I could use it, but it also made me wonder if giving a microphone to people like this is some form of exploitation. Case in point:

Talk about mixed feelings. I remember listening to this stuff years ago and getting a good laugh out of it due to how incredibly ridiculous and awkward it was and I can’t imagine that Chris Burke has been in on the joke. So is Chris Burke being exploited or is he drawing attention to down syndrome? Is this the kind of attention down syndrome needs? Would I simply be mocking a handicapped man by sampling his enthusiam for the Giants? It’s hard to say. It seems like exploitation and promotional education should be on opposite ends of a spectrum but, the more I think about it, the more it seems as though these two interpretations lie on either side of a thin line at the center of a spectrum.

In six more days I’ll be parting with my constant companion: my trusty Olympus LS-11 linear PCM recorder. The idea feels a bit stranger than I expected it to; it appears that after a year of carrying this thing around, I’ve gotten quite used to it. I’m regularly reflecting on what odd conversations I’ve stored and relishing the fact that they’re now available to me for good. It’s like an incredibly drawn out Stanley Kubrick film that only I have access to, for now (ya know, because his films progress so damn slowly). And I want more. My recorder is actually starting to die, the buttons not being very responsive anymore, but I can’t imagine that I’ll be putting it away for good after the 31st. For one, the next time I’m in New Jersey, I would really like to record my grandmother. She’s a, uh, character, to say the least, in her 80s, and has a rather unique Louisiana accent. It’s as though, if I were to capture her voice, even just through one conversation, I would somehow be saving her for posterity. I suppose that’s why people make home movies: so that those who didn’t create some grand legacy can still be preserved somewhere for the people they leave behind and their progeny.

I think there’s a weird reliance one develops with the technologies they use on a day-to-day basis. How many people feel complete when they leave their homes without their cell phones? I certainly don’t. I feel disconnected when I can’t instantly Google that odd concept I suddenly became curious about. How would I have casual conversations with friends without text messaging? How will I know what time it is or what my mom’s phone number is? I think leaving my recorder behind will have the same naked effect for me.

I’ve also come to realize that some of the most interesting things I’ve recorded would be some of the most difficult to use in songs. On the one hand, I don’t want to bar the use of anything as that would be out of the spirit of the project but, on the other hand, I don’t want to cause unnecessary problems either. I didn’t really expect the issue of privacy to become so important as I figured most of the issues with privacy would be with my own privacy, in which case I would just stomach it, but I can’t stomach it for other people, and I really have been documenting more than just my own life.

In any case, I figured this little rant was apropos considering how close to the end of the year it is. That’s all.

[Update 1/1/2012: Yup, definitely feels weird to not be recording.]