Some fiction...
Feb. 16th, 2004 10:43 amI've had some version of the following in my head since college. I wanted to do it as a sound performance but I've never gotten the cast. I'd like to piece together some tracks. I have the equipment. All I need are a couple extra voices. Hear, please read the opener:
Rain fell from the elevated tracks. The drops rang out against the metal news boxes. Within each box was the same headline: "Citizen X is Dead".
A group gathered in front of the stairwell to the el. All of them wore black armbands with blue stripes. They'd been X's colors since he started.
"Here died the greatest man in this city's history. He stopped crime with his bare hands," said a man in his fifties. Others cried and clutched their umbrellas.
One girl placed a palm-sized wreath on a nail stuck in the stairwell frame. It bore a sash which itself bore the word "reprieve". The girl then stepped back as if afraid of her gift.
"C'mon, folks. Break it up," boomed a policeman. "We got commuters all over the place." The crowd stood still for one last moment, then moved en masse up the stairwell.
Maitland Square was silenced by the rain. The el passing above sounded like a broom brushing the rain off cement.
"That'll be fifty cents," the man in the newsstand said to a gentleman grabbing a paper. While the newsstand was only half a block away, the lack of street lights in the rain made the rest of the square a haze.
A man in a black trenchcoat with blue stripes tucked the paper into an inner pocket. "I guess I'd better stay dead a while,: he murmured to himself with a grin.
-there! It's out! Ps/d
Rain fell from the elevated tracks. The drops rang out against the metal news boxes. Within each box was the same headline: "Citizen X is Dead".
A group gathered in front of the stairwell to the el. All of them wore black armbands with blue stripes. They'd been X's colors since he started.
"Here died the greatest man in this city's history. He stopped crime with his bare hands," said a man in his fifties. Others cried and clutched their umbrellas.
One girl placed a palm-sized wreath on a nail stuck in the stairwell frame. It bore a sash which itself bore the word "reprieve". The girl then stepped back as if afraid of her gift.
"C'mon, folks. Break it up," boomed a policeman. "We got commuters all over the place." The crowd stood still for one last moment, then moved en masse up the stairwell.
Maitland Square was silenced by the rain. The el passing above sounded like a broom brushing the rain off cement.
"That'll be fifty cents," the man in the newsstand said to a gentleman grabbing a paper. While the newsstand was only half a block away, the lack of street lights in the rain made the rest of the square a haze.
A man in a black trenchcoat with blue stripes tucked the paper into an inner pocket. "I guess I'd better stay dead a while,: he murmured to himself with a grin.
-there! It's out! Ps/d
no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 08:33 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-16 08:53 am (UTC)And since the entire thing is portable (laptop + control deck + microphones), we can take it to an iso booth as necessary...
no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 08:45 am (UTC)good writing... can i sign up for your potsherds?
Sure! Just...
Date: 2004-02-16 04:14 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Re: Sure! Just...
Date: 2004-02-17 03:16 pm (UTC)OK, I go sign up now, and tell you who I am & all that (guessing you haven't figured out yet).
no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 08:54 am (UTC)So, that's a first scene: you've cleared your throat. Keep going!
no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 03:10 pm (UTC)"Clearing my throat" is a good way to put it. If I start rolling the ideas with my fingers, I'll get a shape. Thank you!
-Monday is "bring your laptop to work day", Dante