{"id":2454,"date":"2014-01-06T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=2454"},"modified":"2014-01-15T10:38:46","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T18:38:46","slug":"the-tape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=2454","title":{"rendered":"‘The Tape’"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Author’s note: I have many interesting places to go this year and I thought I would add the following ‘search’ to my adventures. \u00a0I’d be interested in your feedback of this episodic allegory – good, bad or indifferent. \u00a0If you don’t like it, Suzanne will be back next week with something more normal I’m sure.)<\/em><\/p>\n

by Bob Sparrow<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

‘The Tape’<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I turned The Tape<\/i> over in my hands several times; examining it like it was a rare gem \u2013 which, in fact, it might be.\u00a0 The title written on the plastic cassette case was \u2018In Search of Xoon\u2019.\u00a0 Xoon was my dog in Japan in 1968.\u00a0 Titles, I must tell you, were always non-sequiturs of sorts, never really pertaining to anything on the tapes \u2013 \u2018Music to Slit Your Wrists Over\u2019, \u2018Zsa Zsa Sing Bob Dylan\u2019 and \u2018Garbage Soup\u2019 to name a few.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I exchanged a number of cassette tapes with Don while he was living in the Middle East in the\u00a0late 80s and throughout the 90s. \u00a0We\u2019d affect our DJ voices and \u2018do a show\u2019 for each other; I\u2019d send him the latest hits from the US, he\u2019d send me off-the-wall songs from his vast collection of eclectic music \u2013 we\u2019d separate the music with talk about the news of the day as well as the personal issues going on in our lives \u2013 90 minutes, commercial-free.\u00a0 It kept us close at a time when the Internet was not available to the common man, or even two uncommon men like ourselves.\u00a0 I think there were 39 tapes in all, plus the one I was holding, the one he sent toward the end of his stay there; the one in a strange language, a very strange language.\u00a0 When I first listened to it I thought it was going to confirm that \u2018Paul was dead\u2019. \u00a0It was just gibberish, backwards or forward.\u00a0 I fast-forwarded it to see if the gibberish stopped and he started talking in English, it didn\u2019t and he didn\u2019t.\u00a0 B-side was the same, ninety minutes of gibberish, but it was commercial-free . . . I think.\u00a0 I concluded that he had spent too much time wandering in the desert sun or had been captured by a herd of Bedouin camels and was forced to confess something.\u00a0 I think it was he talking on the cassette, although it sounded a bit altered or perhaps addled.\u00a0 No, I\u2019m sure it was his voice \u2013 now that I think about it, it was unmistakable \u2013 I could hear the humor in his voice even though I couldn\u2019t understand a word he was saying. \u00a0But after 50 years of companionship with this eccentric genius, I was used to not understanding a good deal of what he was saying.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0He lived 13 years in Ta\u2019if, which is in the Sarawat Mountains of Saudi Arabia, so he spoke some Arabic, but The Tape<\/i> was not in any form of Arabic, it had a much more euphonious, even a melodic lilt to it. \u00a0He had lived in Sicily in the shadow of Mt. Etna at Sigonella Navel Air Station and spoke Italian.\u00a0 He spent several years in Caracas, Venezuela\u00a0 at the foot of the Maritime Andes, so he knew several dialects of Spanish and Portuguese.\u00a0 The language on The Tape<\/i> was none of these.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t sound like he was reading from something, it sounded very improvisational.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What the hell was he saying and why had he sent this to me?\u00a0 In subsequent tapes and years later in face-to-face conversations with him when he came back to the states, I\u2019d ask him about The Tape<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cOK, are you going to tell me what was on that crazy tape?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you destroy it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo do you mean what is <\/i>on the tape?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes!\u00a0 Were you drinking when you made it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon’t you have to be drinking to spend 13 years in Saudi Arabia?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I got so frustrated with his answering a question with a question that I stopped asking him about it altogether \u2013 I\u2019d show him!\u00a0 Who cares about this stupid, nonsensical tape anyway? \u00a0I forgot all about it.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

Cassette carrying case<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Every few years, particularly on a long, solitary drive, I\u2019d put my cassette carrying case in my car and pop in tape after tape \u2013 it was always great to hear his voice.\u00a0 I did just that when I drove up to his funeral service following his death in February 2012.\u00a0 While driving up Interstate 5 and fumbling through the cassettes, I inevitably pulled out The Tape<\/i>, laughed to myself, shook my head and put it back in the case.\u00a0 But this time, perhaps because he was now gone, I stopped before I put in another tape and starting thinking about The Tape<\/i>, what it could possible say, what it could mean and why did he send it to me.\u00a0 So I ask him to help me solve the mysteries of The Tape<\/i>.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cYes, but you do understand about my ‘condition\u2019 don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

\u201cYour condition?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, do you think I\u2019m as sharp as I used to be now that I\u2019ve been dead for several weeks?<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0For the next 90 minutes I listened to The Tape<\/i> in its entirety.\u00a0 I asked him, \u201cWhat language is that, I don\u2019t understand any of it\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you understand the song Nessun Dorma<\/i>?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know it?\u00a0 Do you like it?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I think it\u2019s maybe the most beautiful song ever as Pavarotti sings it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you don\u2019t understand it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I popped it in the car\u2019s cassette player and spent the next 90 minutes listening to The Tape<\/i>, more carefully this time, and I did hear it a bit differently; I heard more of the rhythm of the tape and . . . perhaps I picked up what might be some small clues as to where to begin my search for the translation and thus the meaning of The Tape<\/i>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Author’s note: I have many interesting places to go this year and I thought I would add the following ‘search’ to my adventures. \u00a0I’d be interested in your feedback of this episodic allegory – good, bad or indifferent. \u00a0If you … read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,813],"tags":[1264,1268,1093,1269,1270,1266,1273,1274,1272,1265,1267,1271,1910,1263],"class_list":["post-2454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-travel","tag-bob-dylan","tag-caracas","tag-japan","tag-meritime-andes","tag-mt-etna","tag-nas-sigonella","tag-nessun-dorma","tag-pavarotti","tag-sarawat-mountains","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-sicily","tag-taif","tag-the-tape","tag-zsa-zsa-gabor"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/The-Tape.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31aN0-DA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2454"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2499,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454\/revisions\/2499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}