Listen "Sea Nymph (Earth)"
Episode Synopsis
Full EP here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/deviousness/sea-nymph
I found this at a flea market. I was looking for interesting old artwork to decorate my new apartment. I was going for a mid-century modern look and this was stuck in a pile of scratched-up chrome thingamabobs. I didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t mid-century modern. The guy selling it didn’t know what it was either, “it’s some weird art and it’s $3 like the sticker says...” So, along with a clock with real radium glow-in-the-dark hands, I bought it.
When I was cleaning it, I realized it was more than a bit of odd metal, it looked technical, otherworldly, alien. I called my friend, Dr. B., PhD, who is the closest thing to a mad scientist I’ve ever met. He promised to look into it when he had a moment. A month or two later, he called back to say that it was like a CD player, but one that had a translator built in. “A translator? Why would a CD player need a translator?” I asked. He informed me that it wasn’t for translating between Earth languages but interplanetary ones.
The thing was not from Earth, but it had learned English. It was just some garbage made to advertise a spaceship. It was just one of those promotional records that car companies would send around to entice you to visit new places – and to visit those new places in their vehicle. Interplanetary promotional exotica.
One of the tracks was supposed to be jazz from Earth, but it was the wonkiest jazz I’ve ever heard. I imagine some alien came here in their Sea Nymph, expecting our music to be like that and instead found Swedish death metal, mumble rap, or young country. They probably threw the damn thing out of the window (does the Sea Nymph have windows?) and shot off to the jade sand beaches of some other planet.
I asked Dr. B. what to do with it now? He said, “dunno. It looks cool, put it on your shelf and get your $3 out of it.” So that’s what I did.
- F.A. Kaufman, 2019
I found this at a flea market. I was looking for interesting old artwork to decorate my new apartment. I was going for a mid-century modern look and this was stuck in a pile of scratched-up chrome thingamabobs. I didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t mid-century modern. The guy selling it didn’t know what it was either, “it’s some weird art and it’s $3 like the sticker says...” So, along with a clock with real radium glow-in-the-dark hands, I bought it.
When I was cleaning it, I realized it was more than a bit of odd metal, it looked technical, otherworldly, alien. I called my friend, Dr. B., PhD, who is the closest thing to a mad scientist I’ve ever met. He promised to look into it when he had a moment. A month or two later, he called back to say that it was like a CD player, but one that had a translator built in. “A translator? Why would a CD player need a translator?” I asked. He informed me that it wasn’t for translating between Earth languages but interplanetary ones.
The thing was not from Earth, but it had learned English. It was just some garbage made to advertise a spaceship. It was just one of those promotional records that car companies would send around to entice you to visit new places – and to visit those new places in their vehicle. Interplanetary promotional exotica.
One of the tracks was supposed to be jazz from Earth, but it was the wonkiest jazz I’ve ever heard. I imagine some alien came here in their Sea Nymph, expecting our music to be like that and instead found Swedish death metal, mumble rap, or young country. They probably threw the damn thing out of the window (does the Sea Nymph have windows?) and shot off to the jade sand beaches of some other planet.
I asked Dr. B. what to do with it now? He said, “dunno. It looks cool, put it on your shelf and get your $3 out of it.” So that’s what I did.
- F.A. Kaufman, 2019
