Talking Timbuktu

sorabji.com: What are you listening to?: Talking Timbuktu
THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016).
By R.C. on Tuesday, January 6, 1998 - 06:19 pm:
    I'm listening to Ali Farka Toure & Ry Cooder - Talking Timbuktu (1994 - Rykodisc/World Circuit) & wishing I remembered who hipped me to Toure. Must've been someone from BAI...
    And I'm getting that tingly, crazy feeling I get whenever one of those incredible Florida storms is blowing in. I love thunderstorms & Florida has the wildest/most heart-stoppingly beautiful ones I've ever seen. It's been weeks since we had a big storm. Gotta sign off soon. I can't wait!
By A on Tuesday, January 6, 1998 - 07:29 pm:
    R.C., Storms are so thrilling--like looking over the edge of a tall building. Fog here is so dreamy. Three days of fog surrounding the dark trees and creeping over the ground. Almost expect horses and carriages. If this lasted for another week--I'd be in heaven.
By R.C. on Tuesday, January 6, 1998 - 07:40 pm:
    Where are you -- San Francisco?
By A on Tuesday, January 6, 1998 - 09:55 pm:
    Massachussets. But I've always wanted to go to San Francisco. BTW, I e-mailed Mark with this little craziness about how great his writing is. When I read something like his I tend to get consumed by it. Like after reading All the President's Men and wanting to meet those reporters. It took a few days to shake that and realize how far away these people really are (like stuck in the 70s), and that if I ever did meet them, what would I say? Writing takes on a form of its own when a living person isn't right there telling you the story. It's more pure and more dramatic to read.

    Listened to Mark's new year's audio on a friend's computer. Strange to hear the voice I had been reading for a few days now. Listened to the piano music and read the story.

    I'm going to NYC for the first time in my life this weekend. Hopefully I'll have distanced myself from this website so I don't have constant daydreams about picking up ringing payphones and Mark playing his piano.
By R.C. on Wednesday, January 7, 1998 - 12:25 am:
    A:
    If you're going to NY/you simply MUST e-mail Mark & ask him to meet you for a drink somewhere! I bet he'd be THRILLED! (Actually
    /I bet he'd break out in hives. But I'm sure he'd show.) And as much walking as he does/he can definitely show you all the sites. And if you're flush & you can get a reservation/stay at The Carlyle -- it's the most wonderful hotel in the city. And it's right near The Whitney/if memory serves me correctly. I used to tryst there in a former life -- great room service. And the suites don't feel at all like hotel rooms -- you feel like you're staying in the guest house on somebody's grand estate in the English countryside/yet all of NY is right outside yr window.
By A on Wednesday, January 7, 1998 - 02:15 pm:
    R.C., I'd probably break out in hives (although that's never happened to me before). Mark never returned my e-mail (but then, it was a strange one and I imagine he gets a lot of mail).

    I have one day in the city. Ironically it's a Sunday. I'd love to meet Mark, but I don't think it will be this weekend.

    After being in Sorabji-land for days, I've come to the conclusion that I am probably Mark's opposite, except that I can't live without writing.

    When I can drink...Ok the fact is I am almost exactly 10 years younger than Mark.

    When I make enough money I'll check into the Carlyle. This Sunday, though, I'm going to the Met and the Witney (if I don't get lost completely) to see all the art that has only lived in my memory as pages from books.
By R.C. on Wednesday, January 7, 1998 - 03:37 pm:
    A:
    Don't feel bad -- I e-mailed him 2 or 3 times & he didn't answer me either. Which was kinda sad/but what the fuck, right? Maybe his New Year's resolution was not to answer any more e-mail from strangers. But YOU can always e-mail me at: RadicalCon@aol.com

    I don't think he wd mind that you're only 20 -- you seem to have a lot of interesting things to say. And he knows the Whitney. Maybe you'll run into him there Sunday. :)

    I have a story about Keri that I want to tell Mark. I know one of the models in the exhibit of Keri's photos that I posted the link to on the General Chitchat page. She had worked with Keri & had fantastic things to say about her. It's kind of a long, strange tale/but it has a nice ending. But if I e-mail him & he just deletes it without reading it... Do you think I shd just post the whole story on one of his BBS's & let him hear it that way?... I think he'd find it comforting/but it's really kinda long.

    Anyway/have a great time in NY!
By A on Wednesday, January 7, 1998 - 04:42 pm:
    R.C, 19, actually (I feel like I'm 23, though, which is strange). I just might e-mail you, but I don't know if I have the nerve because my e-mail address alone tells a lot about me.

    About the Keri message (his entries about her are so sad), you said that Mark doesn't check the BBS unless it's some obscure composer message so maybe you could hook him that way. If e-mail doesn't work, I can't think of what will. Maybe try putting your main point in the subject (that sometimes works). You sound like you know Mark in real life. Do you?

    Funny, I just found where his recent entries are, but I don't know how to find the ones after his Christmas eve posting and before yesterday's. Any ideas?
By A on Wednesday, January 7, 1998 - 04:45 pm:
    R.C, 19, actually (I feel like I'm 23, though, which is strange). I just might e-mail you, but I don't know if I have the nerve because my e-mail address alone tells a lot about me.

    About the Keri message (his entries about her are so sad), you said that Mark doesn't check the BBS unless it's some obscure composer message so maybe you could hook him that way. If e-mail doesn't work, I can't think of what will. Maybe try putting your main point in the subject (that sometimes works). You sound like you know Mark in real life. Do you?

    Funny, I just found where his recent entries are, but I don't know how to find the ones after his Christmas eve posting and before yesterday's. Any ideas?
By R.C. on Wednesday, January 7, 1998 - 10:00 pm:
    A -- You can reach Mark's old site by going to the Navigation box & clicking it. All the various corners & closets of Sorabji's Madhouse will appear in a pop-up menu. Click on The Old Site. Or click Here

    As far as my Keri story goes... it's really not a BBS kinda tale. It's the kind of tale you tell from the opposite side of a table in a quiet bar or coffee shop. It covers chance meetings & casual friendships over several years/working on the fringes of the fashion industry/a lot of synchronicity & then suddenly realizing -- a year after her death -- that maybe this wasn't random at all. Maybe my only role in the whole thing was to someday tie all the threads together & tell the story to someone who is hurting over losing a friend. But it's too long to post. I've been thinking of how to put it into words since last night. But I really do think it's rude to keep e-mailing someone who never replies. That's like knocking forever on someone's door when you know they're home/but they're not answering because they obviously don't want to be bothered with you.

    And no -- I've never met Mark. I only know how he writes & how his mind works/from visting his sites. But I think I've seen him/more than once. Back was I was living in NY/I used to shop at a Tower Records he used to work at. And I sometimes hung out at the Nuyorican (he used to leave flyers for his site there.) That's why all of this fucks with me so much... He writes about all these weird things I experience too/but would never admit to anyone/becuz then the whole world wd know I was insane! Yet he digs deep into all his pain & fear & loneliness & fashions them into words & throws them up here in front of the whole world. He makes us feel it & know it/make us think about how Life is easy/yet Living can be so hard. It takes an artist to assume that level of risk/to take the ugliness within himself & turn it into something beautiful/& give it to the world. He makes me feel like such a punk-ass chicken-shit for not having that kind of courage in my own writing.

    You can e-mail me/or not/as you choose. But we really can't keep filling up this page with a 1-on-1 exchange! S'not polite. (Plus, you never know -- maybe he does peruse all these boards from time to time!)
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