Oh the gems one can find when browsing aimlessly on Netflix for something to stream...
I found a curious little documentary detailing the creation of what was probably one of the first modern-era viral memes perpetuated through what today seems like absolutely arcane technology.
Back in the late eighties, a couple of youthful dreamers moved out to San Francisco from the farmlands of Wisconsin to forge their path in the world. Perhaps they were hoping to make it big in the music industry, I don't know. The film doesn't go into their motives.
Instead, the movie focuses its attention on the fact that since they had little seed money and no jobs, they were forced to live in the low-rent district in an apartment of dubious decor which happened to be situated next door to perhaps the worst neighbors imaginable.
These neighbors, old drunks who had no occupation except the business of getting fucked up on cheap liquor and to scream such vile things at one another all through the live long night. For all to hear.
And hear the two young new neighbors did, but that's not all...they decided to record it. Some sixty hours over the course of a couple of years. And the cassette tapes they made purportedly to riff on, found their way into the subculture of audiophiles who had a fetish for trading cassette tapes through a niche network of tape traders.
This was pre-internet, pre-YouTube, pre-social networking, pre-reality TV.
It was a harbinger of what was to come.
These audio-only tapes eventually spread like wildfire and by the early nineties many followers of the peculiar art of audio verite, which included not only surreptitious recorded "conversations" as in these "Little Man" tapes but also stuff like recorded prank or crank calls, created, mainly by simple word-of-mouth, a cult of dedicated followers.
I personally hadn't heard of this until this documentary but I kinda wish I had. It's the kinda stuff that reminds me, and would have been a fore tale of, so much in my life.
My parents were very much like the subjects of these recordings. Especially during their "rough years" of adjusting to an unwelcome life of regret and undesired commitments. Perhaps to each other, but certainly in regards to their children. I'm sure of that.
It's also quite similar to the dysfunctional dynamics of Ric and my friendship over the years. How many posts have I blogged here regarding our arguments, especially when fuel by alcohol?
Curious? Want to hear the piss drunk hateful vitriol between two washed up losers coming through loud but no so clear on your speakers?
Here's a little cartoon put up on YouTube done using audio of the poisonous tapes.
Be forewarned though. Cover the ears of little ones, the language is definitely NOT G-Rated.
I found a curious little documentary detailing the creation of what was probably one of the first modern-era viral memes perpetuated through what today seems like absolutely arcane technology.
Back in the late eighties, a couple of youthful dreamers moved out to San Francisco from the farmlands of Wisconsin to forge their path in the world. Perhaps they were hoping to make it big in the music industry, I don't know. The film doesn't go into their motives.
Instead, the movie focuses its attention on the fact that since they had little seed money and no jobs, they were forced to live in the low-rent district in an apartment of dubious decor which happened to be situated next door to perhaps the worst neighbors imaginable.
These neighbors, old drunks who had no occupation except the business of getting fucked up on cheap liquor and to scream such vile things at one another all through the live long night. For all to hear.
And hear the two young new neighbors did, but that's not all...they decided to record it. Some sixty hours over the course of a couple of years. And the cassette tapes they made purportedly to riff on, found their way into the subculture of audiophiles who had a fetish for trading cassette tapes through a niche network of tape traders.
This was pre-internet, pre-YouTube, pre-social networking, pre-reality TV.
It was a harbinger of what was to come.
These audio-only tapes eventually spread like wildfire and by the early nineties many followers of the peculiar art of audio verite, which included not only surreptitious recorded "conversations" as in these "Little Man" tapes but also stuff like recorded prank or crank calls, created, mainly by simple word-of-mouth, a cult of dedicated followers.
I personally hadn't heard of this until this documentary but I kinda wish I had. It's the kinda stuff that reminds me, and would have been a fore tale of, so much in my life.
My parents were very much like the subjects of these recordings. Especially during their "rough years" of adjusting to an unwelcome life of regret and undesired commitments. Perhaps to each other, but certainly in regards to their children. I'm sure of that.
It's also quite similar to the dysfunctional dynamics of Ric and my friendship over the years. How many posts have I blogged here regarding our arguments, especially when fuel by alcohol?
Curious? Want to hear the piss drunk hateful vitriol between two washed up losers coming through loud but no so clear on your speakers?
Here's a little cartoon put up on YouTube done using audio of the poisonous tapes.
Be forewarned though. Cover the ears of little ones, the language is definitely NOT G-Rated.