Flat Recordings CD 01 15

Compact Disk 01 15 The Real Miracle Filter

THE REAL MIRACLE FILTER
Recording (Tape 10)

This is the fifth tape in Miracle Filter series. Although called the “Real Miracle Filter” it does not feature any read text as performed in the earlier tapes (6 to 9), rather it consists of general social interaction Samkelo Matoti, Aliza Levi and Tamlyn Martin join Barry, Horsburgh and Allen in conversation at the FLAT. With Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports” as a backdrop, a gentle mood is littered with discussions about “Paris-Texas”, Waco-Texas, the “raisin-bun theory” and other topics. The section below is quite interesting only because the Miracle Filter tape that followed this one is called “Heaven” (Tape 11).

H: There was this guy in New York, in 1920, who called himself God. He was this black preacher living in Harlem. He called himself God and his headquarters “Heaven”.
M: I think its true.
B: Imagine if he really was God.
H: He was an absolute ruthless […] monger and he had this 8-block commune which he called “heaven”
M: […] monger! What did he do, man?
H: He would extort everyone in the neighborhood and say: “Hay God’s getting itchy.”
M: Crazy!
H: Ja, I think he was a little off. After dinner every night they would have wild orgies in “Heaven”. All of the angels would get stripped down first and that was when everyone would get drunk and would have sex.
M: So they reckoned they were in Heaven?
H: Ja and people would send in letters addressing them to God, Harlem, NY. And they would get to him.
B: And what happened?
H: I think he might have killed someone.
M: I think it is quite an interesting story that… But what do you think about people with influence like that?
H: A lot of those things are built around personality. The cult of personality… About cultivating an ego which sustains itself.

This section appears on FLAT CD 1

H: I had to get rid of that idea that haunted me all the time. Why didn’t I kill bed-bur the very day that we had doubts about that ugly game he was playing. Starting from that point I argued with myself: why do you have the right to kill? My conclusion was that end justified means. My end was to make a successful break. Stretched out between the bow and the mast and I slept and slept and slept and slept and slept and slept and slept and slept and slept.
B: Isn’t anything more important?
H: I slept and slept and slept towards the sea under my fingers. I slept and slept and slept and slept on the surface where the river met. And I slept in the middle and it was strong and I slept like a big bruise.
B: Shoot low with the matches. Pushing them idly into powerful patterns with their long fingers and watched a beautiful mouth pushed up…
H: And I slept and slept and slept and slept and slept into a stiff quart of rum and a sky sail in a jib. And I slept into the bows in the name of God. And I slept and slept and slept and slept and slept.
B: Not savagely?
H: No, the flood tide lasted six hours.

THE MIRACLE FILTER – HEAVEN
Recording (Tape 11)

This is the sixth tape in the Miracle Filter series. This cassette consists of mainly ad-libbed free speech and indeed is the most confident and focused of all the tapes. But then again it does mark a shift in the process and therefor it can also be seen as a transitional recording. Here, Horsburgh takes on the persona of God and conversations between Eve, Gabriel and Michael Landon take place. Extracts found on FLAT CD 1.

A: God, is that you?
H: Er… yea, who’s this? Who is it?
A: Its me, Eve.
H: Eve? Oh, what are you doing?
A: Oh, I’m just hanging around.
H: I think the telephone is ringing. Just go check.
A: Me, we don’t have a phone.
H: Of course we do. Gabriel installed one last week. Would you please just go and check.
A: No, no, no, we don’t have a phone, I’m sorry.
H: OK, just ten seconds. OK here I am. Its me in the person, can’t you tell? Oh shit! I’m sorry I am assuming the form of a tree.
A: I just wanted to find out if Adam and I were married, officially? Do you know?
H: Eve… are you aware of the burden of holy matrimony?
A: No.
H: Do you have the slightest idea of what it means to devote your life, your entire life, in economic, social and religious bond.
B: [Enters, after finding out what happened to the FLAT’s telephone.] He installed it in the wrong apartment. It’s next door.
A: Adam, please help me. I am talking to God and he won’t tell me if we are married or not.
H: What do you mean he installed it in the wrong compartment? What do you mean by that? You are telling me… the telephone… he installed it… What are you telling me? What is this?
B: He installed it in Linith’s apartment.
H: You mean he installed it in the wrong apartment? What the fuck is Gabriel doing? Would some one please tell me what the fuck Gabriel is doing? Peter…Peter…

B: Is this reverse-charges?
H: That’s a good question. Is this reverse-charges?
A: This is a radio!
B: Don’t ask me you should know these things, omnipotent one.
H: Look, I attend to seven hundred million galaxies a day. Not only that I have to contend with the fact that scientific evidence is accruing against me. Have you heard about the fact that the big-bang theory had been discredited? That was the last outpost of every religious bastard on the planet.

H: Look Eve, go… go…
B: To Hell…
H: Gabriel, it’s not necessary at this point, would you please… do you mind? Look Eve, go down to Adam, and tell him you want to feed him something. OK, seduction is an art which you must learn.
B: He’s already had the apple.
H: He’s already had the apple?
B: He swallowed the whole thing. In one bite.
H: Why the fuck didn’t anyone tell me? Here I was attending to the destruction of large portions of earth with floods and plagues and boils and things and no one tells me that he has eaten the apple! This is central. This is absolutely central to everything that is going to happen for the next four billions years on earth.
A: Well we were hungry.

H: Michael! Where’s Michael? Have you seen Michael?
A: Michael Landon?
H: No! Michael the Angel of Death.
A: Oh well, Michael Landon is right here.
H: Where is the Angel of Death?
B: He’s digging graves.
H: He’s digging graves. Well could you get him on the telephone. Could you locate him by means of radio-active-triangulation? Do we have triangulation devices in heaven?
H: [Over a speaking device] Michael! Come down to heaven, for a couple of minutes. Come here.
B: How did you get past the gates?
H: Is that you Michael? Michael come closer, I can’t see you, the light is obscuring your features.
A: Hi, I am Michael Landon. I am auditioning for a play here.
H: Wait a minute, weren’t you in that thing about the angel… Heaven… Heaven Doesn’t Want me or Heaven & Hell, or something. What was it called?
B: I think you should send him back.
A: No I was in Little House on the Prairy.
H: Are you really Michael Landon?
A: Yes.
H: Wow, its really great to meet you. I mean you’re famous. My stature is falling. I mean what I think I need to do is brush up my image.
B: No kidding, you are spending your prime time talking to Michael Landon.
H: Of course, I’m talking to Michael Landon. The man knows how to sell himself. The man has got contacts in the world of show business. Which I feel as though I require in order to reclaim my position as a superior being on this planet.

A: Hi, I’m Michael Landon’s wife.
H: Are you Mich…Oh I am very glad to meet you. Do you feed him anything special? Do you give him vitamins or anything?
A: On special evenings I can speak with a forked tounge.
H: Jesus, this is Michael Landon’s wife.

H: What do you think? We need this Jesus character. What is he going to do? He need’s to do something. He needs a gimmick. Love! You know I like that, its fresh, its original, it hasn’t really been used yet. There was Plato, there was Socrates. Moses didn’t really talk about love.
B: Make him a revolutionary.
H: Yea, a revolutionary who preachers about love. It’s got a damn nice ring to it, hasn’t it? We should write poetry, Gabriel, you and me. I think we should just sit down and write some poetry, one day. We can be poets! Gabriel, you’ve done what!?
B: I’ve done a few cut-ups.
H: What are cut-ups, Gabriel? I'm, I'm thinking about, like about Shakespeare. You know? Like bad verse. And you're talking about cut-ups? God, you're in anti-art already, Gabriel? Fuck, Gabriel should be running this show!
B: Is that what you suggest?
H: Gabriel, you don’t have the voice for it. That is what it boils down to… is the voice. Look I am telling you. Look at Plato. Look at Socrates. They all talked about the primacy of speech, you know. Self present speech. That’s what we are about. We are about talking. We are about people talking. You know, people getting in touch. We want a better standed of living for the entire planet, OK. And you could not pass that off with your piddley little voice.

B: You know what will regain your popularity?
H: What’s that Gabriel?
B: I think you need a sex change.
H: A sex change. Hermaphrodism. Do you mean hermaphrodism? Personally, first of all, we need to get rid of this illusory Luciferian. And then we can talk about the possibility of me exchanging genders at random because that interests me. I mean doing it once a week interests me, you know. I mean keeping people on their toes, so they don’t know whether they are addressing he or she, or whether they are going to be hit by lightening, because they are doing something… I mean that… that to me is power. You know. Not telling people the rules, and waiting till they fuck up cause they didn’t know them and then hitting them with the lightening bolt. I mean that, that’s true power. You know! [Tape starts breaking up. Tape wobbles.]