[ steve mokris ] if you can't have some fun
the concept

An attempt at a sort of surrealistic film soundtrack, merging foley sounds, dialogue, and “score.”

Acoustic / environmental / vocal sounds were recorded using a portable minidisc recorder, in several Pittsburgh locations including: a small independently-operated candy store off of a major street, a small pizza joint off of a major street, the “Pleiades” Dark Piece by James Turrell, installed at the Mattress Factory from 2002 to 2003, The Andy Warhol Museum, and a few random street exteriors.  The footsteps are those of Melinda Kate Cross.  The voices are those of (in order of appearance): Melinda Kate Cross, an unidentified cashier, a random shortwave broadcast, and an unidentified customer at the small pizza joint off of a major street.  The whistling is that of Steve Mokris.

The electronic sounds are courtesy a Casio Toy Keyboard that Chris Wright and I disassembled and rewired one afternoon.

A Really Old Shortwave Radio also makes a brief appearance.

the lyrics

Oh!  You know what!  It's one of those things!

$2.59!

So they stick on your teeth...
but they're good!

Oh!  They have two-headed ones!

(shortwave radio broadcast excerpt, in Spanish)

Thank you!

(laughing)
If you can't have some fun...
It's just better havin' fun in life, huh!

um...  yeah...

Hell yeah!

the download

steveMokris-ifYouCantHaveSomeFun-1.00.mp3 — 3,424 KiB — 2005 spring
spectrogram of composition

the tools
  • Sony ECM-717 Microphone and Sharp Minidisc Recorder
  • Casio Toy Keyboard
  • Really Old Shortwave Radio
  • Gadget Labs Wave/8.24
  • Sound Forge 7.0
  • Cakewalk Sonar 4