Genius and Location (transcript)

When a tree falls in a forest and no one's around to hear it, It Makes A Sound!

Ladies and gentlemen, we are so close. Can you feel it Rosemary Hills? Can you feel the tugging, the suspenseful adrenaline crackling through the dried grass of the fairway as we wait together in tense anticipation for the music? Hello and welcome to the second episode of It Makes A Sound! *chimes* I'm Deirdre Gardner, your host, and you're listening to the only show ever solely dedicated to the music and legacy of Wim Faros, resident genius of our Rosemary Hills. In our first episode, I had the unique privilege of announcing the near-miraculous discovery of a cassette tape containing Faros's lost 1992 concert, likely the first time he played for a public audience. And it is only here, with me, on It Makes A Sound, this show that you'll be able to hear these precious tracks, and that will happen very soon, very soon. Today I remind myself of the great archeologist Howard Carter, who after years of looking, came across the steps of the tomb of King Tut. Now do you think, do you think, I mean he wasn't able to just bust in there all at once, there was a bit of a process, some red tape to get around, important people to bring over to help some planning as to how the heck to open an ancient thing. This is very common with monumentally earth shattering finds. And also it's the reason it's urgent you contact me if you are in possession of a working cassette tape player. You can reach me at itmakesasound@aol.com. In the meantime, here on the table before me, the cassette tape sits, like the stairs in the sand of the valley of the kings. The treasures contained within its small plastic sarcophagus, it is not yet ready to reveal. Well, I trust the tape, I trust that it will be played when it is ready to play. And I believe that the object is actually gifting us with time to prepare. And on today's show, I will pave the way for the music and help each of us carve out a space that is worthy of one of the greatest of our generation. The best art historians tell us that in order to fully crack open and contextualize the meaning behind the moment of creation one must look to the environment in which the artist is creating. Thus it is essential as we ready our brains for this musical reckoning that we turn to fellow residents of Rosemary Hills circa 1992. For instance, persons who perhaps find themselves having returned to the town after a duration of time who are uniquely qualified to reflect on local historical events. SO I have gathered for us some more select material from the town archives. It's a cross-sectional study if you will for us to sift through and examine. Together we'll look at the timeline of 1992 and how that relates to the social studies of rosemary hills in order to come to a greater understanding of the how and the why Wim Faros created what is quickly becoming known colloquially as The Attic Tape. Location, location, location. Historians before me have asked what would Edith Peoth without Paris? Charles Dickens without London? What would Nazareth be without Jesus? What would tussan be without Linda ronstat? We at it makes a sound ask, what is rosemary hills without Wim Faros? What would Wim Faros be if not for rosemary hills? I give you 1992 on overview! I have written down some bullet points here... Rosemary Hills was flush with new money and in the midst of an unprecedented population boom and total identity transformation. an economic upturn and the commercial development rush of the late 1980s led to an incorporation of a large area of surrounding wildlife acreage transforming much of the humble forest village into a golf resort community and retirement mecca, separated to the old parts of town with gates and barbed wire fences. Reflecting this change, the tallest structure in our town, the water tower was completed in 1992, announcing boldly in royal blue cursive worlds golf capital. What a vision. But this was premature. that water tower still overlooks the land of Wim Faros now faded and rusty. A new school opened rosemary hills junior high with classes in progress even though the construction of the building was never finished because of enrollment difficulties as the average median age in the town was 60. Back in 1992 as my mother used to say you could definitely you could definitely swing a dead cat without hitting a kid in rosemary hills. You could tie a bunch of dad cats together and swing them and still hit nothing. And now, let's turn to the news. How did current events affect Wim's hometown? Well, I have found a pile of saved newspapers form the era. now they have faded into a sepia tone, drying cracking yet still they proudly relay the important message of their day. I rhymed. Let's dive into the research. Okay well, it was an election year and the options were George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. But as you'll recall, only the third party candidate, Ross Perot, was featured on Wim Faros's bedroom mural. hmm. Ah yes! the mall of America had just opened in Minneapolis, so that would be just a few years after the ribbon on the rosemary hills ribbon was cut. And also all the corporate owned strip malls sprawled across the new side streets, with the hope that the surging population of a golf course community would have an insatiable itch for sensible shoes, windbreakers, what else... soup and bread bowls, electric can openers, wicker, so on. Wim Faros of course was critical of consumer capitalism. Th Nicoderm patch was released, oh that's interesting. Wim Faros was a nonsmoker, but of course, we will remember Park Song who came from Korea and was hands down the best golfer living in rosemary hills. She wore four Nicoderm patches in a windowsill shape on the bicep of her right arm. Nobody knew what they were at the time we just thought it was a thing that great Korean golfers wore on their arm. She lived in one of the largest houses near the clubhouse alone I think but as we all know she kept two domesticated peacocks as pets thank you Park Song. Those peacocks and her talent made her an intimidating community presence. She called children Sugarplum but in a tone that was not sweet. Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially separate. Well, get in line your highnesses because so had the parents of basically every student enrolled at rosemary hills junior high and the whole school was like a rainbows program. Do we still have that? Rainbows programs? For kids whose newly single mom or dad had to move in with the more financially stable grandparent trying to live out retirement in the golf course. The school spirit that united the kids was like a wide-eyed stare of betrayal. Should've tried to make that into the mascot. Wim Faros, however, did not attend rosemary Hills junior high and parental figures were never seen around him. WHo were his parents? Where were they? What were they like? What does he have in common with the princes of Windsor? We don't yet know. The top of the box office... Aladdin... and the highest rated TV show is America's funniest home videos oh boy. There is no evidence that these entertainments had any significant influence on Wim Faros's art. The average price of a gallon of gas was $1.05 well ok yes speaking of cars, we should note that sometimes seen parked in the culdesac outside of Wim Faros's two-story bungalow was a Chrysler laberon convertible. Now the details of the car might have been hard to discern from afar, but if you were standing near the barbed wire fence that separated the golf course form the wilder unincorporated area of rosemary hills, you could see its faux wood paneling and its sheepskin covered seats and steering wheel and a green little tree car freshener hanging from the rearview  mirror and there was a peeling rusty jones sticker on the passenger seat window and it was stick shift. around that time that is in 1992 when gas cost just over a dollar it is said that a significant dent appeared on that fence. To most, this dent may have gone unnoticed, as it was covered by overgrown weeds, but the dent happened to peel up the bottom of the fence upwards so that theoretically there would be enough space for say a medium-sized animal to crawl through. Soon after,