an employee of ours took his leave of us yesterday. he'd been accepted at graduate school in california and had made up his mind to say farewell to new york and head out there with all due haste. hating flying as much as he did and feeling kinda jealous as i was about his moving out there, i offered to drive him myself. i'd harbored the desire to drive across america for a good deal of time and knew, if any, this was my chance. it was going to be a longer trip than he had accounted for so would involve some extra leg-work, but he was grateful all the same.

in talking about it for the past week we both realized that it had been quite a while since either of us had had the chance to relish in the peace and quiet of the open road. this realization swiftly turned into a pressing need and before we knew it we were in the car turning out onto the highway south west of new york city, just hours after closing up the office for the night.

now this kid, he had but one solid requirement for the journey. he knew a radio show he wanted to catch would be broadcast the following morning (this morning) and wanted to know if it would be okay if we could record it. i of course responded that there's not much point trying to record a radio show when you're traveling in your car. nevertheless he wanted to give it a shot. it was on national public radio and he felt the broadcast across the nation should be unanimous enough to catch it all. so he had his radio cassette player in the front seat with him & hit record as the first traces of the show came in.

it was a broadcast of the original orson welles' reenactment of 'h g wells' war of the worlds' with the mercury theatre. the same controversial show that had at one point left the people of america really believing an alien invasion might be imminent. i had to admit i'd not heard this performance either and was keen to immerse myself in what it might have felt like to have heard it for the first time back then. so it was decided. we turned it up & sat back to enjoy the ride.

alas due to bad weather and the car being constantly in motion, trying to listen to the show was hard. other local stations kept interfering with the signal no matter how dextrous we were with the dial, and well, it kinda ruined the mood. now my buddy was all about stopping the recording and listening to the thing another time. however one thing that had struck me whilst listening to the first 20 minutes or so, was how the radio stations that kept interfering with our broadcast seemed to add a certain chaotic sonic beauty to the experience. i dunno, it just felt more real somehow than hearing the performance completely unhindered might have done. as such i asked him to keep recording, even if it meant turning the volume down, so that i could have whatever made it onto the tape to piece through later.

an employee of ours took his leave of us yesterday. he'd been accepted at graduate school in california and had made up his mind to say farewell to new york and head out there with all due haste. hating flying as much as he did and feeling kinda jealous as i was about his moving out there, i offered to drive him myself. i'd harbored the desire to drive across america for a good deal of time and knew, if any, this was my chance. it was going to be a longer trip than he had accounted for so would involve some extra leg-work, but he was grateful all the same.

in talking about it for the past week we both realized that it had been quite a while since either of us had had the chance to relish in the peace and quiet of the open road. this realization swiftly turned into a pressing need and before we knew it we were in the car turning out onto the highway south west of new york city, just hours after closing up the office for the night.

now this kid, he had but one solid requirement for the journey. he knew a radio show he wanted to catch would be broadcast the following morning (this morning) and wanted to know if it would be okay if we could record it. i of course responded that there's not much point trying to record a radio show when you're traveling in your car. nevertheless he wanted to give it a shot. it was on national public radio and he felt the broadcast across the nation should be unanimous enough to catch it all. so he had his radio cassette player in the front seat with him & hit record as the first traces of the show came in.

it was a broadcast of the original orson welles' reenactment of 'h g wells' war of the worlds' with the mercury theatre. the same controversial show that had at one point left the people of america really believing an alien invasion might be imminent. i had to admit i'd not heard this performance either and was keen to immerse myself in what it might have felt like to have heard it for the first time back then. so it was decided. we turned it up & sat back to enjoy the ride.

alas due to bad weather and the car being constantly in motion, trying to listen to the show was hard. other local stations kept interfering with the signal no matter how dextrous we were with the dial, and well, it kinda ruined the mood. now my buddy was all about stopping the recording and listening to the thing another time. however one thing that had struck me whilst listening to the first 20 minutes or so, was how the radio stations that kept interfering with our broadcast seemed to add a certain chaotic sonic beauty to the experience. i dunno, it just felt more real somehow than hearing the performance completely unhindered might have done. as such i asked him to keep recording, even if it meant turning the volume down, so that i could have whatever made it onto the tape to piece through later.

only now as i sit in our motel room this afternoon (our alternator blew and the car is in a nearby shop getting a quick replacement) listening to the recording we made, do i see what it was that really worked about it. in fact i'm now wondering if those that broadcast it weren't doing the mashing up of conflicting signals themselves ... the nature of the songs filtering through from other stations are uncanny at times.