Topology of Sirens

Hey.

Yeah.

Yeah good! Just settling in.

Mm. Mm-hm.

You want the tone just to be just professional?

Okay.

Yeah I'll have it. Yeah, I'll have time later today.

Okay. Yeah, talk tomorrow.

Bye.

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of Professor Gregory Klein Department of Archaeology.

Office hours are Monday and Wednesday.

Hey, I'm Cas.

- Hi. Do you not remember me? - No.

I used to study with Belinda.

Actually, I'm a good friend of Whitney's.

We play together.

- Yeah. - Do you play any instruments?

Um, I studied piano.

Oh, okay, with Belinda.

- Yeah, we did when we were kids, but, um- - Yeah.

Yeah. I don't like, I don't not so much play anymore,

but I studied classical, so it's,

it's hard when I've tried to, in college

I tried to be part of a jazz thing

but it's like hard for me to break the meter, I guess.

I know that feeling.

- Really? - Yeah.

- I think everybody- - Yeah.

Every classical person does.

- Absolutely. - Is it raining?

- It is raining. - Oh wow.

- It is. - Still a sprinkle

...out of nowhere.

Sun to rain.

- Feels refreshing. I like it. - Yeah.

- It's nice change. - Yeah.

You know what they call this?

Every culture has a name for this

and it's, in some cultures,

it's like a fox is marrying a rabbit,

and in others it's like an owl is marrying a hippopotamus

but every culture has these sort

of wedding names for when-

Oh wow.

- Sun and rain happen at the same time. - Amazing.

Is that where the cats and dogs expression comes from?

Oh, interesting, yeah.

I guess I don't think of cats and dogs as so different.

It's coming down hard.

- Pets. - Are you okay?

I think I need a bit more, yeah.

- Do you need help? - Yeah, absolutely.

Here. We can help.

Yeah.

- Unplug this. - Oh.

Do you know the Veda says that we choose our parents

in order to have the challenges

that growing through will give us the tools

that we need to have for our own personal growth.

So clearly you chose this in all of its glory.

Yes. It's my power.

It, absolutely, we are victims of nothing except bonsais.

The house literally glowed with this freakish pink light.

I mean, it looked like we were running a bordello.

All for those little trees.

That's wild. How is it now?

The trees?

- Yeah. - Small.

Shush.

You know, they look nice.

Do you know if Belinda ever played hurdy-gurdy?

Hurdy? What?

You know what it is.

Like, it's like, it looks like a violin

but kind of big.

Has a crank on the side and...

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- That's a hurdy-gurdy? - Yeah.

Why would you think she played hurdy-gurdy?

Because I found one in the back closet.

The bedroom closet.

I thought you left it for me.

She was into some interesting things, your aunt,

but I cleaned out that whole house

and especially the closets and.

- That's weird. - Huh.

Hi.

Oh, hey, how you doing?

- I'm good, how are you? - I'm good. I'm good.

- Can I ask you a question? - Yeah, of course.

- I found these cassettes. - Mm-hm.

And I'm wondering if you have a player that can play them.

We probably should.

We've got a whole bunch of stuff. Um.

You're playing a video game?

No, it's actually this guy right here.

It's just a little kind randomized tone generator.

You can play around with it if you want.

Changes the range, that one, little bit of portamento.

Yeah, some of them don't do anything

but little experiment I've been working on.

Doesn't have a name yet

so if you have any suggestions, just, uh, just let me know.

- I'll think about it. - Cool, cool.

Um, I think we should probably have what you need in back.

Uh, follow me and, uh, see what we got.

Sure.

So I know they're gonna be somewhere on this side.

How old is this place?

It's about 75 years old.

It was my grandfather's

and then my father's and now it's mine.

Do you like working here?

I think so.

I mean, it's kind of just my thing at this point.

- All right, here we go. - Oh good.

Yeah, you can just have them to be honest.

Really?

Yeah. I mean, they're taking up space. I don't even know if they all work.

So they're yours.

- Thank you. - Yeah, of course.

Thanks very much.

Yeah, you gonna be doing some old school reporting

with them or what's going on?

Some new school detective work.

Some detective work. All right.

We think.

- And a shovel. - Mm-hm.

I mean, there's nothing like the French harpsichord

starting to sound, uh, natural.

They were gotten before that.

I have another, um.

Playing this for his death, basically.

What are you giving away?

"Just William".

What's, what's William?

No. It wasn't worth hanging on to.

Ooh, Pern, "Dragon Writers of Pern.

- I read that. - Oh wow.

Should I do it?

It's like young adult sci-fi.

- Emily Dickinson, look. - Oh, yeah.

He's diving into the shallow end of the pool

and they're rocks and...

but you can see underneath the surface of the water.

And so you understand that there's a risk there

but he's wearing goggles and diving directly onto the hard-

Illusion of safety.

Do you feel like, does it sound the same every time?

Probably doesn't sound exactly the same, but try to,

yeah, it's a composition.

So I try to follow the same series

of intentions, steps, actions.

What, where do you start from?

Like what is your intention with it?

I don't know.

I think it's almost a little more scientific

where it's like I know something will happen in terms

of the phenomenon of sound between these two frequencies.

Let that unfold kind of as I know it will.

Yeah. Does that make sense?

Sort of.

Programming from KTXT is brought to you

in part by viewers like you.

- I'm sorry. - Hello.

Is this KTXT the station?

Yeah. Yeah.

Oh.

I used to watch this channel when I was a little girl

but I thought it went off the air years ago.

No, no.

Never went off the air.

Um, I mean, things have progressed,

evolved with the station

just like the community has.

Um, technology's changed.

Production facilities have changed,

but you know people still send us their, their tapes,

you know, I mean some of this stuff

like this guy just started recording snow right

before the advent of digital 'cause he wanted people

to still be able to watch analog television snow.

So we broadcast that a couple times a week.

But, yeah, all kinds of stuff.

Don't people just think their TV is broken?

I dunno. I guess it's not my problem.

- Can I ask a question? - Yeah.

Do you know this woman?

Who is it?

It's my aunt.

No, don't know your aunt.

Did she work here or something?

I don't think so, but I'm staying at her house