Read along or sit with this audio recording of my 2020 October 14th dispatch, “The burning of the building.”
It was still open window weather at the time of this recording, done a week or so later, so there’s the usual ambiance of the street in the background, as I wax on about legacy systems, communal memory, caring for the dead, individualism in Dune, and so on.
This was my first time editing audio in Audacity, and I think I may never go back to Garageband now. Whew.
All quoted videos, referenced individuals, articles, etc are directly linked in the original post.
Opening tune is the track Alita’s Dream by A Guy Called Gerald, off the 1995 banger Black Secret Technology.
Intermission tune is WAR’s classic, Don’t Let No One Get You Down, off the album Why Can’t We Be Friends.
Enjoy.
[image description: the recently built, multi-million dollar Philadelphia Housing Authority headquarters on Ridge Avenue, which is surrounded by derelict buildings, an empty lot, and other neglected properties under its purview. The HQ is a cheap looking glass building without ornament, with the ground level windows plastered in blue vinyl covers saying “RETAIL SPACE COMING SOON”. Members of the Philly Police Department and clergy people amble back from whence they came, along the HQ’s spacious sidewalk. September 9th, 2020.]
ASMR Read-Along: "The burning of the building"