Jon Cotner & Andy Fitch,
"Humidifier" from Conversations over Stolen Food
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We recorded forty-five-minute conversations for thirty straight days around New York
City. Half these talks took place at a Union Square health-food store which, for legal
reasons, we call “W.F.” Other locations included MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, the Metropolitan Opera House, Central Park, Prospect Park, and a Tribeca parking
garage. What follows are the final seconds of the conversation recorded in Andy’s room.
10:42 p.m. Monday, January 23
Andy’s room (by yellow lamp)
A: It’s important to have silence on these recordings. I like to hear a humidifier bubble.
J: It it…from here it sounds like I’m cooking grains. Have you ever listened to quinoa cook? Or rice?
A: It…
J: Doesn’t that sound resemble…
A: Um the rice bubbling sound is too much for me. I picture stickiness at the bottom of a
pot.
J: Good point. Yeah once the grains begin bubbling you turn off the heat.
A: Without a…
J: By now the rice would be heaving as one big mass.
A: Did you just hear trees begin to rustle?
[Tape runs out]
