Bringing An Old Man Back to my Apartment
Floyd’s face was turning red as he berated the grocery store cashier. He was going on and on about something; I wasn’t paying that much attention to what Floyd was saying as much as how he was saying it. The timbre of his voice, the accent, the words he chose, these all came only from spending 7+ decades on this planet. He sounded like William S. Burroughs.
This all happened back in 1997. As he stormed out of the grocery store, I quickly paid for my items and ran after him. Introducing myself as an audio artist, I told him I lived in the high-rise right above the grocery store we’d just left, and if he had a little time, I would be very honored if he would accompany me up to my apartment where I could record his voice.
Without hesitation, Floyd agreed and 5 minutes later, he was sitting on my couch with his shoes off.
See, I wasn’t that much different then than I am now, although I am not in the habit of picking up septuagenarians and bringing them home these days. Using my computer and sharing my creativity with my online community was my favorite thing to do, as it is today.
The technology sure has changed. Back in 1997, there was no YouTube. We shared WAV files. We were ALL on dial up back then , and so these files needed to be small. Ten, fifteen seconds. Consequently, my half an hour interview with Floyd was broken up into 10 second snippets.
What I wanted to get Floyd to say was “Praise Squishy Bear!”. At the time, I was a leading figure in an internet cult which worshipped a stuffed animal named “Squishy Bear”. I could write another whole blog about Squishy Bear, the Cult of the Graphites and the lifespan of a satirical internet cult, suffice to say it took the whole half hour to get Floyd to say what I wanted him to.
Now, back in 1997, digital cameras were hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and my video camera was broken… so I have no pictures of Floyd, so his representation in this video is an approximation. The picture of me, however, was taken 14 years ago.
“Well, you could do charitable works…”
“Oh, No!”
You are awesome. Praise the squishy Bear. :love:
Oh no!!!
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“Praise Squishy Bear!” 😉
😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 it’s just…surreal!
Howdy Joko.
very in ter resting.
Curmudgeons have a special place in my heart. Praise Squishy Bear! ❗ :groovy: