Your shirt is very shiny - Frog girl - Don't make me - You're going - I'll have to kill you - Number 3, 6, 9, 12 - Okay - Wait - Thanks - What's this - Strict resolution - And that's right - I think I did the rest okay - Take away the B and add a U - This is the one - For the first time - Yes - Except for the cadence - Chapter 1 - All ready for you - Shorthand way of saying it - Shh -- It's easier - Guys - Quiet -- Brian - Come back - Sketch out the chords - Yawn - That was smooth - Watch you back - Some-times they just don't fit - Stop it - Cover your ears - He's playing mind games - It's very safe - Break - Crack - Runs down the field - Breakaway - Ask me what I had for breakfast - Do you know - That's nice - Doesn't surprise me at all - It's like Three's Company - That was an accident - Follow my lead - We're moving, we're moving - People are either hitting me or I'm running into things - Not wearing any pants - You're crazy - Can you hear the people sing - Bryan with the Y - I can press charges - I punch him - Were you trying to do something - Dorm meeting - Aiiieee - Hall meeting is now - Get my drift - Thank you - No big deal - We got some good Michael Jackson jokes - Moaning and banging - I'm being serious - Signing on it - Where's Jeremy - Till 10:29 - Send you all to Galen - Am I Brandon - Shut up - Titles, not descriptions - Twirl and spin the night away - Colombian music - Babe, the talking pig movie - Discussion en Espagnol - Nat, could you - There are some problems - Running amuck - And ya know -- All of your Snapple - Be nice - Walk away - Alle-luia - So yeah - A man dressed as a rina - Chuck, Chuck, Chuck - Independence Day was good - Then it rocked - Whoa - A model - 20 minutes or something - It's not tomorrow - Dancing Chuck - I want to go swing dancing - Don't make plans for the weekend - Can we go to the movies - We can't see it - The Olympics - Aw, yeah - What's the Trip Around The World - Jane put it in her pocket - By mistake - The day after - It's just a big tease - Don't kiss the pizza delivery man - Quad 2 did it - I'm worse than you - Made for illegal sleepovers - You just don't understand - My intui-tion told me - Lights out - I got rhythm - That one's too cold - Are you decent - I said I would - Are you cold - It has more pockets - What'd you say - Whoa - Today is the 4th of July - An appropriate shirt - I don't do 8:00 - 15 days till I'm 15 - No, I don't think so - Speaking of Mother Theresa - He doesn't even show - One kid slept till 11:15 -- $5 says his pants fall down - Make him run - Howard's outta the blocks - Loose means - I'm doing it for you - He's kidding - The coffee's actually getting to his head - The Nebulous Patriotic Event - Before that - A dying antelope - We should've had a video camera - I have my revenge - In Utero - Muscle spasms - No, that's Matt - Northern Westchester - Hour and a half - Annual visit to New Rochelle - Strip malls - Extra long enough - Not for real people - They're celibate - I can't be that humble - Ephrata - Camden is just sad - Only in New York, not in New Jersey - I am a redneck - I was out there - Mariah Carey eats like a horse - What do you define as "Play golf" - Up and backwards - Hand me the salt - Now I got a lawsuit on my head - Off of Pinochio's foot - A long time - Twice would be overkill - Kinda like shuffle-board - Forget this - I hit a Ferrari with a golf ball - The entire spoon - 10 to 6 - What do you get if the Mets win - It's not - The artist formerly known as - The last hurrah - Drive off the end of the earth - Fred Flintstone's Car - I'm freakin' going to the Devil's Den - Caw, Caw - Dawgs - I talked to Dana too - Minority from Alaska - Spilling too much salt - Kinda scary - What are you talking about - So where's Joe - Why do you listen to country music - Start messing with Dillon - Probably the pretti-est girl here - Slammed against the ground - Pink, white, and blue - Days off - 3 and a half minutes - Totally insane and neurotic - KW - Any kid named Zack - Violas rule the world - Some breakfast - Did you unwind the bow - You can't play the viola - Time for distance - Do you know Pearl River - Like he understood - Come to school with me - He didn't get it - Real friends wait - I'm not getting any bigger - My ten-year-old brother - She, like, smoked - She's a girl and you're a boy - Stop it - You just created this entire scenario - With duct tape - I think it's Dan -- Back me up someone - It doesn't even smart - 4 minutes early - Best sleep in the world - The mattress had finally become mine - Then my alarm went off - Secondary dominant - Temporary tonicization - He actually knows what he's doing - Come hither - Because of my widow's peak - That's the I chord - It doesn't belong - Escape tone - E, G, B - Glad you joined us - Hey - It's the July 4th - How do we know - Ask yourself - It's hilarious - What it should be - He's petting it - Greg thinks he's right - Isn't life so terrible - All right - There's no G flat - We're movin' now - Rounded Binary - I guess we're having fun now - I'm wrong - Favorite figured bass of all time - The flat goes with the 7 - Is it a minor IV though - That wasn't so bad - Not very well - Oy - Dominant quality - So here it is - Do you stake your life on it - Make it easier to see - Scary laugh - A no-brainer - Capital III with a 6 next to it - What is that note - No, it's not a 4 - That's supposed to be a D - Next - But we're in D - Shut up - Phantom music - Chromatic - Leading tone resolves up - Nope - I'm not having convulsions - First thing we do - Never mind - Underneath the 7 - Whoops - I'm sorry -- There's some-thing missing - Wait a minute - Oh - Calm yourselves - All we gotta do - Yeah - I've got me finger stuck up me bum - Make it a little, like, harder - You're such an idealist - It's not a 7-7th - Do - Full, half - Minor, minor, major - Do you scare kids - Please don't be done - Too bad we have to go now - There you go - Formula - From the I 6-4 to the V 7 - It was a visual thing - Get your kicks - I will explain very soon - The third is natural - Josh knows - Them crazy tritones - I'm very proud of you - The next project - Musicologist - I'm sitting next to a cappuccino machine - Some of you ha-ven't had music history - They analyze them - Excessively Schumann - Language: English - Read some stuff - He rocks my world - All smiling - Put it in - Ha, ha, ha - back to the dorm - Dumb - Urination 101 - When in doubt, take a leak - Hi, Joy - She was an RA - For the record - You're really dirty - Nat's such a cry baby - Tyler tripped on a grave - The only Jew - Patriotic Jell-O - It's not a cheesesteak - Ask - You'll beat me - Incest is a bad thing - I caught it like a split-second later - That's disgusting - Other than CTY - How are you, Matt - Meral, Next Hitler - He didn't have time to be a parent - It is cold - That was the direct quote I think - I'm, like, burning my tongue - Thank you, Jeremy - Okay - Socially acceptable - Open - Just give it to me - What - I want to go read - Wait - What am I talking about here - Cranberries shirt - I don't want a popsicle - Heather, don't swallow Brian - Amy Judd - That's nice - Everybody sucks - Run, Brian - Make sure you make it - I wonder why - Walking zombies - Trying to wake up - Does anyone need a penny - Speaking of Jewish cowboy - R-E-S-P-E-C-T - Order in chaos - Very long - You look like Greg now - Imagine - I know how to read out loud - And, I'm, like - I still need a candy bar - Poor little congresswomen - Sometimes it's good to be moderate - What's up with the wedgies today - I have this weird feeling - I don't iron - Dude - That was stupid - Anger spasm - First person to slap it - Not recently - King or Ace - Faster you go, the better - Step to me - Cracking up - Double take - Be kind to the furniture - We own the hall - I have all the goldfish - They're not going to siege Quad 3 - Beam back down - Home is where the heart is - Wouldn't you like to have it - Your shirt is so baggy - It was her - Baseball - This is not like - Its blue - They have the brains - We're not going to - Rabbits smell like urine - Shh - Heads - The IBTC-D - It has a lot of D in it - One more time - You're mine - Margot, Margot - The Big Comfy Chair - What would you like - I'll meet ya there - That's low - I think not - You putts - Come on, Dan - Go for a homerun - Oh, it1s a V 7 - Parallel fifths - Life is full of distrac-tions - Make-able fun-able - Thank you - That's, um - Fraid so - II chord in A minor - Poking fun at her - What are you staring at my butt - I'm not going to even bother -I'm going to go random here - Single - In D minor - That's not very nice - Stop play-ing - Whoa - I got on base - Shh - A, C, E flat - Hang on a sec - Abraham Lincoln lives in my pants - I eat little girls - Teacher made a funny - He's back and better than ever - That's, like, cheap - Hendrix - I love saying that - We have a condition - Meow, meow, meow, meow - You're quiet, but good - She's loud, but bad - Get on base - And they say yes - Silence - You have the funniest laugh - We are a music ma-chine - You have broken the machine - The horrible pit of death - Laxative - Stop breathing - Brandon just died - To my face - You'll be tickled - You like to be pants-ed - Are we all fully dressed - You just don't joke about them - Now is the time for learning - Neapolitan - Again without the vocal accompaniment - Gotta show you how to do that - The funny interval - That's much smoother - You can't play this - Maybe it was a dare - The exclusive night club - That would, like, hurt - Whaz up - Some girl's calling him - What are the first two digits of your number - Do you know how much your roommate hates you - Java - Fatal error - Save it - Not anything we need to worry about - Foosball - Music Practice - Why not - Yoko Ono - It was fun - I know that - Am I right - Reagan - I don't want to waste money on pizza - You're sick - Only kind that I liked - You're stupid - Lacrosse sticks - Someone on your hall - Throw it to me or something - Stop having sex - If any Q - Arnold's not funny - What, what, what - Up in the air - Right there - Nice catch - Get away - Want some popcorn - Um, yes, but - Get off - Everything I say|***|
What is it?
The text for this work was taken, verbatim, from conversations (both overheard and ones in which I was involved) held between 7:15 p.m. on July 3rd, 1996 and 7:14 p.m. on July 4th, 1996 at CTY in Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA. The text doesn't, by any means, represent everything said by all members of CTY during those 24 hours. Instead, it is a large subjective sampling of things spoken by people around me (including me) as I moved around the campus on a normal day, here divided between the night activities on the Third and the day activities on the Fourth. When I was finished collecting these 1,800 words, I was found that what I had come up with could not really be classified to easily. You might call it conversation log, but it is not com-prehensive enough and the reader doesn't know who is saying what. Consecutive lines are only sometimes coherent progressions in a conversation, and often they are abbreviated. Therefore, there is not much of a plot, so one cannot call it a story. The most probable classification would probably be a poem, but I feel that it still doesn't truly fit in the world of poetry. I think this aberration fits best as the text for a rather simple performance art piece.
After some inspection of the text and it relationship to the way it is to be presented, I have discovered a few interesting facets of the piece that shape it into what it is. The snippets of conversation here are not labeled with the people that originally said these things, and only the people actually involved will ever know what they said, to whom, and where. Therefore, each new interpretation of this work brings out different combinations and permutations. The only things that stay the same are the text and the order in which it is to be performed. I deliberately left out all forms of punctuation except the comma and the apostrophe (which are often necessary), so that the actors and actresses are freer to interpret each line their own way. This plays up the fascinating fact that your tone and the context in which you are speaking greatly influences the message that you're sending to people. That's why double entendres are so funny, and why coming into an on-going conversation can often be very amusing. I will not explain any of the lines in this work, but I can see right away that the audience will find many progressions and combinations of lines funny. With each new performance of this piece, your mind may try to follow a different train of thought, thereby opening yourself up to more delightfully absurd or humorous interactions among the actors and actresses who have been given their lines arbitrarily.
Overall, there are two ways in which you can think of the text in this piece: as a great long puzzle with many pieces missing, or as many versatile jig-sawed tiles that connect in millions of different ways. Since it is impossible for even me to recreate each and every one of these conversations, I think that the latter metaphor is more fitting (no pun intended). These words began as petty statements, exclamations, jokes, class answers, come-backs, and announcements, but I think that, by the time an audience has experienced this work, the words will have combined to form an entirely new entity. I think it will be a new theatrical entity, the likes of which were never envisioned by the original actors and actresses playing out their life-long roles on that great big stage that the immortal Bard liked to call the world.