Sunday, February 16, 2014

Quantus Barney: Secluded Residence @ Radio Shack, Part II

"Driving at night with my son in the car-seat, I perceived an amber light floating over the corn-fields.  We frequently see such things out here in the fields, and I wanted to show these quantic phenomena to my son, but he was asleep.  On the radio, Barney's transmission from the secluded residence."

The Court Ensemble
What a nice day, thought the monk's dog.  He had made his rounds, visiting every pine in the grove in a way he had developed, a way wherein every pine was visited in a different way every visit.  You see, the monk's dog, in his  companionship with the monk, had learned some of the arts of CHAOS MAGIC, but adopted to a dogs way of being, so he knew the importance of not creating a locked habit, as dogs in the suburbs do.  There, in the dusky outskirts of the city, dogs trode paths in their yards between playsets and grills, and always pooped in the same place.



There in the pine grove, the monk's dog delighted in the subtle differences between pine roots- the scent of their rosin, their mottled curly forms in needly shade.  It was silent: the dog noticed this.  His master was standing in the courtyard, his hair braided, with an attentive look on his face.  The dog wondered what he was looking for.  The dog ran to the monk.  They walked in the paths.  All the buildings were clear of debris, and smelled like fresh clay or wood since the monk had swept there...

There are men in the courtyard.  The dog barked as the men were jumping and twirling in the air, their hemp clothing snapping which made the dog think of snapping bones.  Quantus Barney was back in the courtyard, talking with the men.  He asked them to pull their car, a silver sport utility vehicle, up to the edge of the courtyard dais, and then the men unloaded poles, beams, gongs, and casks of silk-wrapped wooden bodies: the lutes of this particular "ji" sect, visiting musicians at secluded radio transmitter.

The court ensemble was composed of one rack of stone chimes, held and struck by Chin Wong Feng, a finely clear set of brass bowles, managed by Bing Zi, two lutes strung with silk, held by Xiao and Lao, and a leather drum played by Cold Lake, who also had an eagle.  A set of bone trumpets complimented tin whistles played by elves.  Also there was a nylon mouth organ played serenely by Sereno.

The monk had a big job ahead of him: to accurately and/or artfully transduce the sounds within and without these bodies.  He brought out lead and ceramic "piezo" materials to capture the crystalline resonances of the stone chimes.  Soldering and affixing the sensors with pine resin took him through dinner.  He chained them all into a cheste in the shrine at the dais, which served as preamp for the gentle ceramic mana.  This he thus took to the house of the transmitter, draping the rubbered copper between roots so as not to be tread upon by the court ensemble.

The dog liked to pee on this rubber cord, in the darkness of the night.  Looking up through the blown smoke of the ceremonial fire, he saw the rotating red light of the antenna tower, hovering above the pines.  The dog knew it was to be a powerful transmission for the monk was working very hard.

In the next installment of "Quantus Barney: Secluded Residence,"
What happens when the most proud and austere court ensemble encounters the debauchery of Barney's city friend, Monkletto?  How well does this system of transducers and preamps pay off for a radio-phonic transmission?

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