Comments on: Mix Tape for Dead Girl

Mix Tape for Dead Girl

botono9 — Wed, 11 Dec 2002 13:30:40 -0800

Mix Tape for Dead Girl. Writing a eulogy used to involve hours of revising and a good thesaurus. Joshua Allen opts for a cassette of field recordings and madrigals instead. Found sounds find their way to lost loved ones.

By: atom128

atom128 — Wed, 11 Dec 2002 13:43:01 -0800

Wow. Sad. The morning news is a great page, I've been going there regularly for a few months now.

By: Marquis

Marquis — Wed, 11 Dec 2002 14:10:24 -0800

i'm not usually a fan or mr allen's work, but reading Mix Tape this morning, i found it enormously poignant and well written. kudos to him, and indeed - it's worth reading.

By: Espoo2

Espoo2 — Wed, 11 Dec 2002 14:21:42 -0800

I wanna hear it.

By: fishfucker

fishfucker — Wed, 11 Dec 2002 14:22:11 -0800

wow. i saw the teaser earlier on tmn and didn't read it because i thought it would be something a little tacky; like actual commercial songs, instead of the greatly moving collection of sound moments the author has put together. thanks for the link. Quiet American is a site that may be of interest to those who enjoyed this piece, or to those who enjoy found sound/field recordings... i had the privilege of hearing a live set by him out in the forest last june -- it was absolutely lovely.

By: fuzz

fuzz — Wed, 11 Dec 2002 14:41:36 -0800

Great link. Sometimes it seems like millions of people on the Internet are furiously writing, trying to attain this kind of perfect mix of the trivial and the significant, but almost no one actually manages to get there. Is it fiction or memoir? Or a little of both?

By: cardboard

cardboard — Wed, 11 Dec 2002 14:44:07 -0800

Josh Allen has a habit of just making shit up and passing it off as true. Knowing that, I have trouble getting into the writing. Sort of a "won't get fooled again" mentality, I guess.

By: ed

ed — Wed, 11 Dec 2002 15:10:05 -0800

Yes, absolutely! Shame on Mr. Allen for daring to present an alternative to consecration and coffin. California golden poppies and assorted goldenrod reams upon Mr. Allen for -- tsk! tsk! -- using his imagination, tapping into his viscera, and -- alakazaam! -- representing something that may be fact or fiction, but that cannot exist somewhere in between for readers demanding words to wolf down in minutes. If it weren't for writers like Mr. Allen, why, we'd probably be spending all day reading bland op-ed columnists and literal-minded warmongers. Is this thread really necessary? Beyond a brief discussion over how writing relates to writer, it seems more of an excuse to either laud or condemn Joshua Allen for writing something beyond the pale.

By: xmutex

xmutex — Wed, 11 Dec 2002 16:08:21 -0800

Mix Tape for a Dead Girl could tour with Black Tape for a Blue GIrl. okay okay.

By: cardboard

cardboard — Wed, 11 Dec 2002 21:40:47 -0800

God bless you, Ed, for being able to over-react to threads like this for the rest of us.

By: botono9

botono9 — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 08:44:48 -0800

Are any threads on Metafilter really necessary? When was the last time you thought "thank goodness this thread exists. I might have killed myself otherwise, along with the rest of humanity. All hail the thread of life!"? Enjoy or hate the link. No one necessarily cares.

By: stonerose

stonerose — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 08:58:09 -0800

Ed, you obviously have some literary insights that other people might find helpful. Unfortunately, your manner of delivery means that nobody is really likely to listen. But I hope the sarcasm helped you feel better.