#this is like one of my first poems in a long time so be niceys

[lovecatsys]

Trans poetry inspired by Jobriath

Follow me on The Prose!

[remember-wim-faros]

Episode 7 – An Automatic Spark

When a tree falls in a forest and no one’s around to hear it

- It makes a sound!

Rod: [plays flute]

Deirdre: Wim Faros reaches out his hand from the past and invites us to let the world hear his sound again. Hello. I’m Deirdre Gardner in Rosemary Hills, and this is a very special episode of “It Makes a Sound”. Today… Rod? Rod? Hey Rod, Rod! Can you stop that?

Rod: Oh I’m so sorry, I just..

Deirdre: It’s, it’s distracting.

Rod: I found it over, I-I shouldn’t have picked it up.

Deirdre: That’s OK, that’s OK. Wim Faros reaches out like sinewy roots of a tree climbing up, bursting forth, gasping towards the surface. We break the earth to receive him. His spirit cannot be contained, it stretches out beyond the decades! We stretch too. Our fingers pulse towards him, anticipating his gifts. He hands us – a box full of treasures. Among them, a laminated sleeve containing a cardboard coaster marked with the date 6 21 92, scribbled upon it like hieroglyphs. The music of the Attic Tape!

Mom: She’s sort of funny.

Deirdre: And Mom, my Mom, remembers the songs. Somewhere they are perfectly archived in her brain. She’s our North Star. And it’s up to us to jog her memory. Right Mom?

[maraca, flute]

Deirdre: Welcome to today’s episode. Delicately placed on the table before us is that coaster, bearing the insignia of Rosemary Hills clubhouse: sprigs of rosemary hovering over hill on a golf course. Now it is covered with notations. His cheat sheet for the songs he played at Tricia Elwood’s 8th grade graduation party. Are they straightforward? For the non-genius, no.

Mom: Oh o!

Deirdre: Sometimes there are, are strings of lyrics knotted up around each other. Sometimes the letters are backwards or whole words are swapped. At times the chords seem to be sprinkled haphazardly next to the lyrics and tiny tiny letters. Luckily, listeners, I have created a system of organization, which will make it easier to see and untangle the information on the coaster. And cross-referenced it with other lyrics we have verified from the purple velveteen diary. Or the memory of Mom. Or the memory of of Deirdre Gardner. Borrowing techniques of historians before me I have here, on a large chalkboard on wheels, all the information we have so far charted onto a graph. And I have also been using my piano to test out some of these chords. Now now I admit that’s a somewhat limited test but I-I’ve been trying to figure them out by sound.

Rod: You did a lot of work!

Deirdre: Yes. Thankfully with me today to aide us in our quest is another special guest: Rod Reeder. Mom’s part-time nurse and an actual amateur musician.

Rod: It’s very detailed, it’s like a hospital chart, but different. You have good handwriting.

Deirdre: Oh thank you. Listeners, as Rod can see, I have attempted to separate out lyrics one line at a time. And these arrows see Rod? In a separate colored chalk point to the chords that most likely go with each lyrical line.

Rod: And what’s this square mean down here with the big question mark?

Deirdre: Ooh that’s, well that’s for the big unknowns. For instance um, track number 6, “Star 69”. We don’t seem to have lyrics to that at all. Also um, you know, things like the Deirdre Gardner connection, the the DGC as I’ve written here. Um, why was a newspaper clipping containing my picture in the time capsule? How does this affect the music? Things like that, big unknowns.

Mom: Who knows!

Deirdre: So today, our goal is to take the information, decipher it from the coaster, to restore the songs on the cassette tape recording of Wim Faros’ first concert, played here on the golf course in 1992. The cassette tape lost, found and, well currently inaccessible due to an unforeseen technical malfunction. Rod and I are ready. We are caffeinated, right? Right Rod, are we?

Rod: Yes, yes.

Deirdre: We have our coffee.

Rod: Mm hm.

Deirdre: Grab your coffee, listeners. Let’s go.

Rod: OK, you cozy, Mrs G?

Mom: Yes, thank you.

Deirdre: So Rod, looking at the chalk board..

Rod: You want a pillow?

Mom: Maybe just a pillow.

Rod: Yeah, sure.

Deirdre: Rod, oh sorry, when you’re done over there.

Rod: No we’re, were fine.

Deirdre: Rod, looking up here. Now is there anything that jumps out to you as an easily identifiable melodic sequence?

Rod: You sure you’re cozy? OK. Oh uh uh, well maybe, no I mean we have the chords and that’s super but it’s hard to know what, you know, the rhythm and the style of the line is.

Deirdre: Well that’s OK. Um, as someone once said, “begin anywhere”.

Rod: OK. Um, how about right here? [plays chord]

Deirdre: Mmm uh actually, let’s begin here. See on the coaster, these notes that run along the top edge? Here they are written out on the board. Do you see? So now, let’s cross-reference that with what is, is written here on the left hand edge. I think they might match, I’ve been working on it. Am I right that the first chord is kind of like uh uuh this? [plays chord]

Rod: Yeah, sure.

Deirdre: Yeah.

Rod: Uh huh.

Deirdre: So it’s like, [plays and reads] “Round in a cul-de-sac, one way out turn back. Either way my life is stun..ted by this one-way dead end track. Track.” This lyric is from his song titled “Cul-de-Sac”, now that’s track number 7 on the Attic Tape.

Rod: Yeah. Um here let me just, look at that..

Deirdre: Oh, OK.

Rod: Excuse me.

Deirdre: Yeah.

Rod: [plays chords fast]

Deirdre: Wow, Rod OK. Um, that’s very good, how do I do that? Well wait slower slower slower, it’s slower than that.

Rod: Oh sorry. [plays chords slower]

Deirdre: Oh, oh yes! That’s right, that’s right! Now wait, show me how to do that.

Rod: Yeah just here, um..

Deirdre: [plays chords] OK.. and, I’m doing! OK, so it was like… [sings] “Round in a cul-de-sac, one way out”, is that the tune?

Rod: Yeah, sure sounds great.

Deirdre: Yeah?

Rod: Yeah. Um, it sounds like the, there’s a, you have to go back to this chord here.

Deirdre: [plays chord] OK.

Rod: Yeah. But..

Deirdre: OK, so I do this?

Rod: Uh huh. So you’re singing that…

Mom: Ooh yes!

Rod: [sings] “Round in a cul-de-sac”…

Deirdre: [plays and sings] “Round in a cul-de-sac, one way out turn back. Either way, my life is stunted by this one-way dead end track.”

Mom: Ooh yes, yes! So that is the best (--) [0: 09:29].

Rod: You like it, Mrs G?

Deirdre: Listeners, listeners! Mom lights up as we play this part of the song. Mom, can you help me sing? What comes after that part?

Rod: OK, let’s start again.

Deirdre: OK. [chuckles]

Rod and Deirdre: [sing the same bit again]

Mom: [sings in different rhythm] That is (nicey icy man), he has a fork.

Deirdre: She remembered all of his other songs, she had it exactly. It was like she was present with Wim Faros in 1992.

Rod: Yeah well, sure music is amazing. For a patient like Mrs G singing and rhythm playing, these things don’t need a lot of mental processing but the rhythmic cues she hears get the brain’s motor going anyway. So tunes and rhythms and rhymes she knew a long time ago can remain intact in the brain, no matter what. An automatic spark.

Mom: Spark!

Deirdre: Listener, an automatic spark! Well that’s why she can recite some poems and speeches from her acting days, huh? OK so, so we have to accurately find, like the exact rhythm and tune to trigger her memory. We just need to get it right and then she’ll be with us.

Rod: Well, you know sometimes, no matter what music is like, it’s good. Helps her with her mood, can stimulate or sedate. It’s great for agitation management.

Deirdre: Well Mom knew that music though. She was there at the clubhouse. Plus that cassette was like all I played for a year. Let’s try it again, I think we could…

Rod and Deirdre: [play and sing]

Mom: [sings in a different rhythm]

[thumping on the roof]

Mom: The damn birds are after us, from inside the house. There, squawwwk!

Cody: Hi, what’s up?

Deirdre: Oh Cody, how did you..?

Cody: Well I rang the doorbell but nobody came and then I-I tried the door and the door was open so I just came in. I was supposed to go Tommy (Niehart’s) house after school, but I told Tommy that we should come here and, and Tommy said that he would never come here after what you did to his property, and I said that and he he said that I should be careful too, and that I I should watch out in case you got mad and I told him to shut up. I said actually I wanna play here instead of with him, so that’s why I came here and I texted my Mom that I am coming here and um that that you will watch me, and she said fine and thanks because she has to work for a few more hours and she always says that, I’m not stimulated enough and I told her that, I told her that you guys are really super s-stimulating and I wanna help find Wim Faros and I don’t care what you did to Tommy (Niehart).

Deirdre: Oh. Well I appreciate that Cody, um… You know, I’m glad you came over. We’re working on the songs.

Cody: [gasps] Mom: What did you do?

Rod: Yeah Deirdre, what did you do to Tommy (Niehart)?

Deirdre: Oh I uh, it’s nothing, I-I broke his iPhone.

Cody: She threw it out the window she was, she was our substitute teacher and Tommy was playing with his iPhone during class and she tossed it out the window, we heard it go cra-a-ack!

Deirdre: Yeah but it’s, it’s all fine. I mean it’s all been taken care of. Um Cody, you know it’s good that you’re here, it’s good that you’re here we’ll we’ll need someone to document our work today.

Cody: I could do that, yeah!

Deirdre: Um yes, and what lyrics and chords go together for each song. What worked and what didn’t.

Cody: OK.

Deirdre: Ladies and gentlemen, another special guest, a surprise special guest on today’s show: Cody Elwood!

Cody: …-Nowakowsky.

Deirdre: Research assistant. He will take notes.

Cody: Uh, on my iPhone?

Deirdre: No. We’re noting all of our findings on the blackboard, with the colored chalk. Here you go.

Cody: I never used chalk.

Rod: Well that’s sad.

Mom: You love chocolate pancakes.

Deirdre: That’s right Mom. Listeners, we will come back to track number 7, “Cul-de-Sac”, but for now, let’s move on to a different song to see if Mom has a more specific response. She’s kind of like a Ouija board.

Cody: I wanna look! Ahem. Oh listeners, I’m researching. I like this one with the exclamation points. It says “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get uuuuup!”

Mom: (-) [0:14:30] the (clapper).

Rod: Classic. [chuckles]

Deirdre: Yes Mom that’s right [chuckles], that was the commercial. But then there was Wim Faros’ song, which was a piercing critique of capitalism.

Cody: What’s capitalism?

Rod: Uh, take your iPhone for example.

Deirdre: Uh we’ll explain later Cody, OK?

Cody: [whispers] OK.

Rod: Here are the chords that you’ve written next to it. Is this (-) [0: 14:54]?

Deirdre: Let’s hear.

Rod: [plays fast country style music]

Deirdre: Um no, no no no. That sounds so folksy, it’s way edgier, it’s more intense. Um, I wonder could you maybe try it on the keyboard?

Rod: Sure.

Deirdre: I mean it was a controversial song, you see. Um, it was really powerful. It was a stunning choice to play at Tricia’s 8th grade graduation party, really. It sent a message. I can almost feel the social tension of that moment. So it was more dissonant, it was more like [hums] rah nah, bah nah, raah, na na any, rawr…

Rod: [plays the chords differently]

Deirdre: Yeah. Are those the same chords? That sounds so different, good! Yes, it was like [hums], yeah. Like “Help! I can’t get up, I’ve fallen!” and then like “frozen dinners, Grim Reaper… beepers” and help. “Help!”

Mom: (--) [0:16:03]..

Deirdre: “Help I can’t get up! I’ve fallen!”

Mom: (I fall)…

Deirdre: “Grim Reaper, beepers… peepers”.

Mom: [sings indistinctly]

Deirdre: Help! I can’t get up, I’ve fallen, help! Call the Reaper with your beeper.

Mom, Cody, Rod: [singing backing vocals]

Deirdre: (Creepy) he-e-elp, (and then it’s like) frozen dinners..

Mom, Cody: The clapper! Clap on, clap on!

Rod: Clap on, clap on! (--)!

Cody: Clap on…

Deirdre: Reaper, beepers…

Cody: Capitalism!

Mom, Rod, Cody: Clap on, clap on..

Mom: Clap on, the clapper!

Deirdre: Yes Mom, that was the commercial, that’s the commercial guys. Mom, what about Wim Faros’ protest song? Do you remember? You used to like thump your mop on the floor when I’d sing it?

Cody: Thump!

Deirdre: Remember, in rhythm, it was like… Help, boom boom! Frozen dinners…

Rod: Yeah!

Deirdre: Grim Reaper, beepers, beepers…

Cody: Oh, oops! Sorry!

Mom: (--) [0:17:09 overlapping speech]

Deirdre: Oh, oh no, save the coaster!

Cody: Sorry! Sorry! [whispers] Sorry.

Deirdre: Is the coaster OK?

Cody: I’m sorry.

Deirdre: It’s OK, it’s OK look it’s fine.

Rod: I got it, I got it. Hmm. I’ll grab some paper towels.

Deirdre: OK.

Mom: Oh no, (-)!

Deirdre: It’s OK Mom, it’s just a little coffee. Easy.

Mom: What a mess!

Cody: I can clean it, it was an accident.

Deirdre: The coaster’s fine, Cody, so it’s OK. Uh, right Mom? Just a litte spil, an accident.

Mom: I’m on it!

Deirdre: Hold on Mom, we’ll clean it up in a second, OK? Yeah don’t, don’t worry yourself. I OK, I think this is all too confusing though. Um Mom, look up look up here with me. Let’s pick another song to work on.

Rod: Yeah, here we go.

Mom: Windex!

Rod: I brought Pinesol.

Deirdre: Oh, we don’t need that, it’s just coffee.

Rod: I know but you know, she’s a pro. She likes to spray. Here Mrs. G, I’ll get the floor, you get the table, what do you say?

Mom: Aye aye, put a cap on it, my captain. [spraying noises]

Deirdre: Thank you everybody. OK, that’s very good. [spraying noises] OK, that’s very clean now Mom, thank you. You wanna keep wiping the table? That’s OK.

Mom: [hums]

Deirdre: OK, yeah but sit down here, get comfy while you wipe, there you go. OK Rod and Cody, let’s go back to the chalkboard. Rosemary Hills, I’d like to draw your attention to what was number 9 on the cassette tape, “Youth Grows Old”. Cody, see those lyrics in pink up there?

Cody: Yes.

Deirdre: “You-you-youth”?

Cody: Yes, here. “You”… ha, there’s a lot of You’s. “You you you you you you you-th grows old in Rosemary Hills. Green grass will grow and grow with chemicals”.

Deirdre: Good, that’s right. OK. Now Rod, look to those chords in pink there OK, could you play them for us?

Rod: [plays chord]

Deirdre: Fabulous. And I will add piano now, if you can just show me where to put my fingers.

Rod: (That’s right).

Deirdre: Is that right? OK that’s right, so.. [plays chords] And then (-) [0:19:02] again. Ok so it goes like this. [plays and sings] You-you-you-you-you-you-you-youth grows old in Rosemary Hills.

Rod: [joins in]

Cody: [joins in]

Deirdre: Oh yes, that sounds great! Yeah that’s how it went, it was like a cascade, repetitive, experimental. Moody. You-you-you-you-you-you-youth grows old in Rosemary Hills. That’s right Mom, that’s right!

Mom: You-you-you-you-you-you-youth grows old in Rosemary Hills.

Rod: Yes, see that sounds good.

Mom: You’re so aloooooone, so alone in Rosemary Hills.

Deirdre: Good Mom, but different lyrics, OK? So, now it goes like this: Green grass will grow and grow and grow and grow. [others join in] Green grass will grow and grow and grow and grow.

Mom: You-you-you-you-you-you-you-you, yeah. You’re se alooooone, [Cody joins in] so alone in Rosemary Hills.

Rod: Green grass will grow and grow and grow and grow…

Cody: Rosemary Hills..

Mom: You-you-you-you-you-you-you in Rosemary Hills. I’m so alooooone…

Rod: Green will grow and grow and grow and grow…

Mom: So alone in Rosemary Hills.

Rod: Green will grow and grow and grow and grow.

Mom: The party is over! We have to go home. Don’t cry Deirdre! All clean.

Deirdre: That was so pretty, Mom.

Rod: Beautiful, Mrs. Gardner.

Deirdre: It was sad. Cody: I like your voice.

Deirdre: That isn’t the way the song went, Mom. But is that the way you feel right now?

Mom: I feel pretty and sad.

Deirdre: You’re so pretty, Mom. I’m sorry you’re sad. I understand.

Rod: The music, it-it sometimes brings out the emotion from its earliest associations.

Cody: Was your Mom at my Mom’s party too?

Deirdre: Yeah she was there, but not as a guest. Mom was the cleaning lady at the clubhouse, she was working that night.

Cody: I don’t like cleaning.

Mom: Amen, honeybunny!

Deirdre: Mom. Tricia Elwood’s party. Wim Faros in concert. What was it like that night?

Mom: Fahrenheit…

Deirdre: Wim Faros.

Cody: Wim Faaros, ahh!

Mom: You like to go to the pie in the sky with, with Fahrenheit.

Deirdre: That’s a good way of putting actually. It was the first time I felt like that.

Mom: [sings gleefully] Loving that’s awful, it’s awful. You are awful. How awful, oh no!

Deirdre: I think she means unrequited admiration can be difficult.

Mom: Deirdre and Wim sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! Deirdre and Wim sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-1.

Rod: It’s OK, Mrs. G.

Deirdre: Wait, she’s remembering the end of the party. I-I was alone in the conference room, listening to Wim Faros. And everybody else had gone outside, but Wim played on, and I was sitting in the back of the room with my cassette recorder. Kaylene Becker came in to get a sl bracelet that she left on the chair. She started yelling that, over the music. Deirdre and Wim sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

Mom and Cody: Deirdre and Wim sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! [repeated several times]

Deirdre: Oh god, I was mortified! And then Wim stopped playing suddenly, like a spell was broken. Kaylene’s voice was the only one in the room. Wim Faros looked at me, and and the look on his face was, was so vulnerable like, like he had just emerged from a cocoon. He held my gaze for what seemed to be like an hour and then, and then he, he turned away. And walked to the table behind him and opened up a Crystal Pepsi. And I ran out of the room to find my Mom.

Mom: Pepsi-daisy.

Deirdre: You could hear all of that on the tape. I never erased that part. I could never erase any of it.

Mom: Kaylene Becker is a spoiled fucker duck!

Deirdre: Truer words were never spoken, listeners.

Cody: She said the F word!

Rod: She does sometimes. She’s allowed.

Cody: Cool!

Deirdre: Rod, don’t you think that [scoffs] this is sense memory? The Pinesol, the cleaning, the melody, that made her remember Kaylene Becker, and then I remembered Kaylene Becker, and she almost remembered the song. But she felt the emotion, it brought her back in some ways to that time. But if, if she was there, in that familiar place. Mom, we have to go back to the clubhouse! People of Rosemary Hills, I know how we can get all of the songs back. If we go to the location, if we do this, where it happened, we can recreate the environment of Tricia’s party! We’ll set the stage. Um, the place, the air, the smells, and then we’ll get the sounds. We’ll summon them, so that Mom and I can remember.

Rod: But the clubhouse, how can you get in, isn’t it private property?

Deirdre: Well I mean we could literally just walk in. Nobody’s paying any attention to Rosemary Hills golf course community, if you haven’t noticed. I assure you guys, nobody in a million years would notice us.

Cody: But it’s haunted.

Deirdre: Oh Cody, no! It’s just old and abandoned, and places like that can always seem scary, but it’s not scary. It’s just, well old and abandoned.

Cody: But when Ralphie ran away, I had to go over there and find him and I heard things.

Deirdre: I’m sure, I’m sure. The wind on those shattered windows is probably really loud. There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s really, it’s just a big old fancy house, Cody. You’ll see.

Mom: Fancy birds!

Cody: But they’re gonna tear it down.

Deirdre: What do you mean?

Cody: They’re tearing it down, they’re gonna build a cemetery and then it’s gonna be even scarier.

Deirdre: Who’s they?

Cody: I dunno, my Mom said.

Rod: The local government, I guess?

Deirdre: They can’t tear it down, it’s a historical landmark!

Rod: Really?

Deirdre: Well, it should be.

Mom: Uh oh!

Rod: Where are you going, Mrs. G?

Mom: Uh oh, toast!

Rod: You hungry?

Mom: You are toast!

Rod: [chuckles] Wait for me, I’m coming. You know I like making toast. I’ll just, I’ll just go with her.

Deirdre: Ladies and gentlemen, we have a call to action. And I have a plan. Together, we have been getting closer and closer to fully restoring the music of Wim Faros. I mean, from the outset of our journey, we have been working so hard on remembering how to remember, haven’t we?

Cody: Yes.

Deirdre: Yes. Yes! And figuring out how to unpack the Attic…

Cody: Yes. Yes.

Deirdre: Yes. Wim Faros, through his time capsule, gave us a bridge from the past to the present.

Cody: Bridge!

Deirdre: He is telling us to walk that bridge, he is showing us how. Don’t you see? He is telling us, he is telling us to go to the clubhouse! I know that will work. I am certain that if we enter into the hallowed grounds where the concert was on June 21, 1992, into that convertible conference room where Wim Faros himself took the stage for the Elwood commencement. We will be able to complete the songs. I feel it.

Cody: I feel it too.

Deirdre: I feel it!

Cody: I feel it too, Deirdre!

Deirdre: OK! So on the next episode of “It Makes a Sound”, join us and these hills will come alive with the sound of music once more!

Cody: It’s aliiiiiive! Huh! Can I do the chime?

Deirdre: Yes you can!

Cody: [plays chime]

“It Makes a Sound” is created and written by Jacquelyn Landgraf. Co-directed by Jacquelyn Landgraf and Anya Saffir. Original music composed by Nate Weida, with lyrics by Nate Weida and Jacquelyn Landgraf. Sound designed and mixed by me, Vincent Cacchione. With Jacquelyn Landgraf as Deirdre Gardner, Annie Golden as Deirdre’s Mom, Nate Weida as Rod Reeder and Melissa Mahoney as Cody Elwood.

“It Makes a Sound” is a Night Vale presents production. For more information on this show, to buy merch and to learn about our other Night Vale podcasts, go to nightvalepresents.com. You can follow “It Makes a Sound” on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. And you can support the show by writing a review on iTunes. We’d really appreciate it.

Thank you for listening. Right now, a bottle of Crystal Pepsi is listed at 1,000 dollars on eBay, but slap bracelets are around 5 bucks. We’ll meet again in January. All of us at “It Makes a Sound” wish you a memorable end to 2017. And we hope you’ll remember to give a little toast to Wim Faros.