RADIO FREE DOWNLOAD

What once was a radio show on Trent Radio now becomes an audio blog proper. Over at Original Plastic I did try to keep up with the weekly broadcasts and posted links on the website to the songs I played on the show fairly quickly. Now that I have stopped doing the radio broadcasts, there's really nothing pushing me to create playlists on a weekly basis anymore.

I've been missing the new music in my life though. It's got me thinking about getting into podcasts. Maybe that would regulate my output. Somehow think that I would have to really do something extraordinary for a project that calls for recording my voice and uploading an internet archive. I feel like I'd have to be saying something pretty darn good to make that worthwhile. For the project of sharing free music on the internet worth listening to, a blog will do just fine.

Playlist #42
POSTCARDS FROM ITALY

1. Postcards from Italy by Beirut
2. Tricycle by Psapp
3. Took Some $$ by Troy Von Balthazar
4. This Lamb Sells Condos by Final Fantasy
5. Gay Cowboys by Corey Dargel
6. Want the Want by Winterpills
7. Roses by Skeleton Key
8. Away by Kathleen Edwards
9. Seventeen Devils by The Starlight Mints
10. Sun Trolley by Town and Country
11. Hospital Beds by Cold War Kids
12. Truth is Marching In by Marc Ribot

The above playlist started out as a mix CD I wanted to make for a friend who was going away to work in a Northern outpost for a few weeks. As per my habit, I checked out Thomas Bartlett's AUDIOFILE over at Salon for some new songs and immediately got intrigued by the title "Postcards from Italy" from a band called Beirut.

The connection I made in my head is to the paragraph I had just written as a freefall writing exercise that was to be sent to friend of a friend travelling in Italy.

During my one night in Rome, I was under special protection.
Christina managed to tap me on the shoulder, while I was looking at a
display of postcards, without alerting my bodyguards. She told me
that she loved my films. I was touched and I nodded slightly. It
might have been jetlag. It might have been the fact that the mission
was nearly over and I knew that I had failed. Christina took out a
postcard from her Hermes handbag and handed it to me. It was a
duplicate from the display I was just looking at yet this one was a
bit tattered and I soon discovered the writing on the other side, the
beautiful stamp and postmark from a year ago. Christina said I
looked as if I didn't recognize her or the postcard. Indeed, it was
a little while until I realized the note on the postcard was in my
own handwriting. It was sent to her address in St. Croix with a note
imploring her to meet me at this same postcard display case at the
Rome airport. I had a distinct feeling of being in a dream as I
looked at my wrist watch and realized that I was, in fact, at the
prescribed location at the exact time without any recollection of
writing the postcard or meeting Christina before. And I thought to
myself: "Things happen that way."

I don't know how those words came out of me. I realize later that it's somewhat a cross between Last Year at Marienbad and Griffin & Sabine with some Stanislaw Lem thrown in.

Listening to the song "Postcards from Italy" (which sounded very cool) I had not one epiphany - but two, about my current life and projects. I found out later that the computer was merely glitching out the song in an interesting way and the song isn't really as life changing as all of that. Yet I still have those epiphanies. I'll be carrying them around. I'll always be thankful for that.

My friend sent it to his friend Christina and she responded with this:

I can't believe Lester finally remembers our meeting in Roma. However
something went slightly awry as I am certain he is talking about the
female counteragent who infiltrated his security forces. I do not
carry an Hermes handbag. I have a Prada thigh holster, this is true,
but my handbag is a cheap knockoff that I purchased on the street in
Accra for $17 US. The postcard he received is an excellent forgery but
does not contain the secret message written in 2% milk which is only
revealed when the postcard is lightly toasted over an open flame. All
this aside, I still love his films.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE.