#The Apartments

[circleofshit]

I never listen to them as much as I want to : the apartments, cindytalk, Danielle Dax, Gira's solo stuff, Chris and cosey, etc

[bandcampsnoop]

10/5/23.

I've been a Native Cats (Hobart, Tasmania) fan for quite some time. Their sound is truly a unique one - Julian Teakle's instruments and Chloe Escott's inimitable vocals. They were really the forerunners of a sound popularized by the more well-known acts like Dry Cleaning or Sleaford Mods. Apparently "the title of the album is drawn from the rules and principles David Thomas wrote for his band Pere Ubu."

I've also mentioned bands like The Cool Greenhouse and Woven In when discussing The Native Cats.

This is their first LP for Chapter Music (Australia). Speaking of Chapter Music, they've added a single from The Apartments on Bandcamp. You can listen below.

[thinplacesradio]

an orange-pink-purple sunset. on the right, a jetbridge extending out into an empty airport runway, lights on the horizon. the image is distorted by VCR static. white text reads: 

[019] THE APARTMENTS. A CALLER LOOKS FOR A CONNECTION. THE HOST WAITS FOR DEPARTURE.

listen here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under the cut:

[static, radio tuning]

[Traveling Sales Rep: Don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right back, after these short messages.] [static, radio tuning]

[click]

Hello and welcome to Thin Places Radio. I’m your host,

and it is the middle of the night. But don’t worry. You’re not alone.

[Thin Places theme] 

I’m coming to you in transit from my studio, which is what I like to call this abandoned corner of this airport terminal, all the screens blinking that blank, forgetful blue. [background hum] It’s floor-to-ceiling dark through the windows, and the light above me keeps flickering in and out. I can see people passing this gate every once in a while, their tired steps, faces contorted in yawns and sneezes and the blur of motion. No one sits down. Why would they? This isn’t their gate. It doesn’t mean anything at all to them. 

So… what is Thin Places Radio? Well, you can call in about anything strange that you’ve got going on in your life - feelings, omens, premonitions, hauntings.

Is someone following you and your friends around? 

Is your home connected to someone else’s? Metaphysically? 

Are you out looking for sea monsters? 

When the veil between worlds is thin, we get closer than ever to the strange and the unexplained - but also to each other. Call in, get it off your chest. Lines are open.

[click] [You have: 2 new messages.] [click]

Hi, um - I was scrolling through TikTok earlier, like the 20-something I am, um, and I came across this video that... was... of the two rooms that were shown, it had the exact same ground plan, exact same floor plan, as, as my apartment. And, it, it freaked me out. Um. And I don’t know if they, you know, they’re my neighbors or, y’know, just the same architect reused the floor plan. But it - the fact that it came across me and had the same - looked the same - it was weird. Um. Yeah. 

[click]

Hi, um - me again. I just woke up so this - last night, I was, yknow, messing around on my phone and whatever, right before I went to bed, just trying to get tired enough to go to sleep, and then - all of a sudden I saw these, these headlights, outside my window, which would be normal, except that I live on the second floor, and my room doesn’t face the street, it faces - actually, the opposite way from the street. And I didn't hear any sort of car, and I - I checked the weather, and it was completely clear, it couldn’t have been lightning, but I - I swear it was headlights, even though... I don’t know. It was strange. I just hope you might be able to offer some insight. Thanks. 

[click]

Hi, caller - I know you meant these as two separate questions, a week and a day apart from each other, but I think that they might actually be the same one. Two questions opening a door to the same location, interconnected with one another. Is the place I live connected to another, different place? The headlights coming in another window, in another apartment, onto your wall, the same shape as the wall in that apartment, the same rooms beside one another, the same kitchen and the same appliances and wall moulding and floor ridging.

[searching music]

The same house in two separate places, occupied by two separate groups of people, living their lives right on top of each other without ever knowing. Do you feel them, sometimes, when you’re both in the same place at the same time? Two hands turning on the shower, or the stove, or sliding the lock into the door? A sense of deja vu but for someone else entirely?

In the end, it just... is. It’s just true that all of us are connected to each other in a thousand different ways. You have the same water bottle as the person across the quad from you. You have a mole in the same spot on your cheek as someone else does on the other side of the planet. You have the same taste for dark chocolate. You wear the same clothes somebody else donated, in a different way than they used to. There is no universal experience, no emotion that everyone feels the same way, no situation that every person goes through all at once. But any two people will have something in common. Any two people, if you look close enough at them, and at yourself, have some small - or large - human overlap, a small mirror reflecting back and forth and back and forth and back.

[click]

[dot-dash-dash dot-dot-dot-dot dot dot-dash-dot dot / dot-dash dot-dash-dot dot / dash-dot-dash-dash dash-dash-dash dot-dot-dash]

I, Ir - I don’t know. I don’t ever know. I don’t -

[dot-dash-dash dot-dot-dot-dot dot dot-dash-dot dot / dot-dash dot-dash-dot dot / dash-dot-dash-dash dash-dash-dash dot-dot-dash]

[click] [low background chatter]

I don’t have a suitcase, like everyone else, a backpack, any kind of duffel or cross-body purse or plastic shopping bag or tote. I think this is my gate, though. I’ve got a boarding pass here in my pocket, but when I fish it out, I can’t read the five or six letters of my name on it, the barcode, the arrival or the departure airport. But the door ahead of me is opening, now, into nothing. And the only thing to do is to see what other place it’s connected to [humming] - whose apartment is on the other side. I can’t stay here. That isn’t what an airport’s for. The only thing to do is to walk into the dark to see what happens next. 

[click]

Thank you for listening, callers, and thank you for calling, listeners. I hope you feel a little bit lighter. I know I do. As always, our number is 717.382.8093. That’s 717.382.8093. Until next time. I’ll be somewhere.

[static] [Traveling Sales Rep: visit us at the - diner just off -] [Various Garbled Voices: the - road - provides - the - road - provides -]

Thin Places Radio is a podcast written by Kristen O’Neal and produced by Kaitlin Bruder. The voice of Your Host is Kristen O’Neal.

Tonight’s voicemails were left for us by Kaia. Editing and sound design are by Kaitlin Bruder, and the music tracks you heard in tonight’s episode are: the Thin Places theme, by Miles Morkri, and Umeed by RANA. If you have a question to ask, a story to tell, or a suggestion for the host, give us a call at ‪(717) 382-8093‬. The lines are always open.

[Thin Places Theme outro]

[dot-dash-dash dot-dot-dot-dot dot dot-dash-dot dot / dot-dash dot-dash-dot dot / dash-dot-dash-dash dash-dash-dash dot-dot-dash]

[vamprisms]

eight episodes is not a full season of television

[lotrmusical]

never let anyone tell you that trawling through mediocre victorian poetry isn't worth it. we just happened upon an absolute BANGER of a worm poem. go read it or else 🪱🪱🪱

[charbroiledchicken]

"you're the writer, you control how the story goes" no not really. i wrote the first sentence and then my characters said "WE WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE" and promptly swerved into an electrical fence.

[t00thpasteface]

??? what was going on in pennsylvania in 1796. why was a guy called Master Pancake running around grabbing wild bats

[b4dm3m0ry]

my name is eden and i'm a system little who is a bodily adult. this is my side blog for my posts and images i like or that remind me of things. my memory is very bad so these things help me remember.

i have been through a lot of bad things like car crashes and being hit so some stuff might be like that. i am also an adult so please keep that in mind.

this was first a blog for pictures that make me remember but now it's mine.

my pronouns are that one/it or you can call me eden.

[nat-20s]

name a more iconic thing to happen for the fictional qpr community than Donna Noble quite literally meeting her soulmate and being like hmm. there's no one I've ever wanted to fuck less

[sedentarydreams]

[ai-dream]

[circleofshit]

Mr. Somewhere - THE APARTMENTS // live at French Touche, Paris. part1/5

[bandcampsnoop]

3/7/23.

Ron Rude (Belgrave/Melbourne) was part of a vibrant Australian post-punk scene in the late 70s/early 80s. Actually, there is an excellent compilation that captures this - it was released by Chapter Music in 2001 - and it contains "Piano, Piano" from Ron Rude (it also contains songs by The Apartments and The Pits just to name a few).

Ron Rude sounds like a product of their time that also somehow retains a current feel. You can't help but see parallels to The Stooges, Lou Reed and David Bowie. You can also hear Orange Juice and Lloyd Cole in the vocals. And finally, I can't help but hear a little Mac DeMarco.

This is being released Sorcerer Records, a reissue label based in Melbourne.

[ravenlilyrose]

Bruce is at a gala, okay, and he’s talking to a woman.

Random woman: “And we found out that we’re having another child!”

Bruce: *absolutely cackling inside, because this is about to be the funniest thing he’s done in weeks*

Brucie: “That’s wonderful! Where are they? Can I meet them? How old are they?”

Now Brucie is standing there, scanning the room for children with a huge grin on his face, while all of the random rich people stand around like ‘who’s going to explain to the adorable, well-meaning idiot that most people know they’re going to have children a few months before the children are born.’

And worse, who’s going to have to break the news to him that he can’t meet the kid today?

Because this man… this man has acquired all of his children with zero premeditation. Yes, he does have a bio kid, but that one showed up on his doorstep as a preteen. He did even less acquiring with that one than with the others.

Bruce has a blast acting out his disappointment, and has to turn some so that he can no longer see Tim and Cass leaning against each other and laughing, because otherwise he’s going to start laughing.

[varpusvaras]

Bruce, for the record, is absolutely stoked when Jason brings Roy around.

Because this now means that he is a grandpa. He is so ready to be a grandpa. Let him be a grandpa. Please please please please-

(finally, he gets to just give things to someone. anything they want. (finally, he gets to give Jason so much money and things and Jason can't say no because they are for Lian too))

The thing is, now he is in a very deep and serious rivalry with Oliver, who will not be replaced as the number one grandpa. Absolutely not. So now they are waging war on each other for Lian's affections.

It's messy and it's bloody.

One day, during a JLA meeting, Green Arrow notices something peeking from underneath Batman's suit. It's colorful, so it stands starkly against the dark suit. It looks very familiar.

Green Arrow looks down on his hands. At the friendship bracelet Lian had made for him. He looks back up at Batman and the very familiar colorful thing he has on him.

"What is that?" He asks.

Batman turns to look at him. He follows Green Arrow's gaze, and looks at the colorful thing on him, and then at the bracelet on Green Arrow's wrist.

"What is that?" Batman asks, nodding at the bracelet.

"I asked you first."

"I asked you second."

Green Arrow glares at Batman.

"It's a friendship bracelet my granddaughter made for me", he says.

Batman glares at Green Arrow.

"And this is a friendship bracelet my granddaughter made for me", he says.

They glare at each other. The meeting room has become several degrees colder. No one dares to utter a word.

Then they both pull out their phones and make a call.

"Jason-"

"Roy-"

Jason and Roy, in their bed, both realising that their dad's are calling them at the same time: fuck whatever it is, we're going back to sleep