I picked up the newest issue of PANK (#3) (the cover of which is the above) at AWP this last year and right away read most of the shorter fiction (some great stuff by Hobart contributors Kathy Fish and Scott Garson and many others, including some especially rad "Yeti" poems ( really wish some of these were online so I could link to them) by Mary Huyck Mulka) and then set it aside, where it has largely remained for the intervening months. PIcked it back up today (inspired by Short Story Month, of course!) and flipped through and landed on a great piece ("piece" because it is more creative nonfiction/essay than "short story" per se, but what are the differences half the time anyway?) by Daniel Nester.
"The Talk Box Reveries" is written in the form of an outline, kind of, in the same way as his essay that is forthcoming in Hobart 10: "Mooning: A Short Cultural History" (which, c'mon, an essay that is part personal narrative and part history and all about mooning? Tell me you aren't excited about that mess!). Anyway, this essay is about the talk box, as popularized maybe most memorably by Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do" and/or Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer." Like the above-mentioned essay on mooning, this is part personal essay and part history and pretty much all great. Here's section 6c:
That whole first morning, I converse with my wife using only the talk box. She can't make out anything I talk box to her. I end each remark with something that sounds like a cross of oh-ho-wo and a belch. Day One with the talk box has not started well.
I highly advise everyone check out PANK.
-aaron
Thanks for the shout out. We really enjoyed Daniel's essay, and nominated it for Best Music Writing 2009.
Posted by: Roxane | May 12, 2009 at 01:10 PM