Geoff Ryman - Air (or Have Not Have)

Thank you for your kind words. Your sister sent me a very kind and informative card a few weeks ago.

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audio file from: Lieutenant Chung Lung

4 November

Are you angry? I meant to say I was proud of your site and that I forgive what you have done.

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videomail from: bugs@nouvelles

10 November

Hiya! I just wanted to let you know that we are getting plenty of comments in our newsgroup about you guys. Can I make a few suggestions? Put who you are and your address on each screen. Incredible as it may seem, some people still print out screens. Usually they give them to other people, but if the address doesn't show, then people can't find you. Second, people love you. They want to know more about how you live, how things are going in your lives. Really! So more hot gossip. Also, forgive our ignorance, but people here know absolutely nothing about Karzistan. Your President looks like a lovely man, but we have one of those ourselves. So, a few more links to other sites about Karzistan would be go down well. Finally, do you have any music you can put on the site? The Collaborationist movement here is desperate for new sounds to share and build on and something from the roof of the world (are you guys in Tibet?) would be very popular. And remember, we love you, so give us more news.

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videomail from: Mrs Chung Mae

15 November

Dear Mrs Bugsy-ma'am

It is very strange because I am speaking Karz and my lips are doing one thing and the voice is coming out in English! I do this for the first time because this is a special occasion. We have a deal from big New York store and they say Nouvelles drives people crazy for Eye of the Beholder screens. This plays our hearts like a harp. We do feel you are family, and Mrs Wing Kwan offers suggestion for a special token. Native women make a circle of friends. A circle of women all work together. They spin, wash, crack nuts, sort beans, beat old tough lamb, sew, do everything but clean house together. So they can sing and tell stories and smoke pipes. Each woman wears a special collar for that Circle, which they all embroider together. It is a small sign of belonging among friends. Would readers of Nouvelles like to join our Circle and have a collar? We promise special low price, to cover cost. Available only to friends of Nouvelles through big New York store. Oh, and we clip on a file of our access statistics, which show how powerful Nouvelles is as a way to make new friends in many lands. One final request: Can you send me any information you have on Air and the difference between the Formats?

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voicemail from: bugs@nouvelles

16 November

Mae-honey. It'll drive ' em wild. No sooner said than done, but I need a shot of the design. I have to say, despite the mismatched lips, you look and sound great. You should get on TV more often. But hey, where's my News from Kizuldah screens? Like I said: gossip, girlfriend, gossip. But hey, I've been speaking English to you, what language have you been hearing?

SIZZLING SEZEN'S POP PICKS

Hello, young people, this is hair-in-eyes Sezen who is impatient with everything, except my Auntie Mae. We may not be having Madonna sixtieth birthday parties, but we are full of music here in Karzistan and it is great mix of modern and old. We got Arabesque, we got Lectro, we got Traditional, many different musics, and this is where you can hear what we sound like and use it in Collab.

GIVE US MONEY

You can listen, but don't keep the music unless you pay. Our musicians are poor, okay? So try to send us something. We are starving up here – well, not starving, but my mother keeps corncobs in our chic diwan, and our neighbour keeps a pig in her kitchen. And it is very bad-tempered. So don't steal these poor people's music or you are dried shitcake!

That noise was Auntie Mae telling me off for being rude. I talk too much anyway. So here are my 'Pop Picks.'

'BALSHANG' BY CHEN TUI

Start with my favourite. Tui is Chinese girl who writes all her own stuff. She plays Karz flute and the violin, she used to do Lectro dance, but this is both real and Air music at once, and it's so beautiful, about girl who falls in love with a married man and his city at the same time. So she talks about the city and the man using the same words at the same time. They say there is an Air version full of pictures and memories as well. I want to see what her beautiful beau looks like!

'KISH MASHALI' BY ERCHAN PEKER

How is it that fools can make good music? This guy thinks he is pretty, and pastes his face all over everything. He is good-looking, but we should discover that for ourselves. This is a fun song about school, the words are really good, and he wrote them but he is a Balshang Otter, which means he is small, smooth, and vicious. Listen to the rhythm and the way his voice jumps about. That is pure Karz, like he is.

'KLASIKLERI' BY MUSA

Just how smart are you? This word comes to us from Europe, it is your word. you should just say it and you will know what it means. This is new song but played in completely Traditional way and it is about all things classical and Karz that are going away, like Musa himself – soon. I hope. Musa is how all Karz men would like to be: big, fat, hairy, full of bristle and moustache, and everyone says how handsome he is, but I think he is old and ugly, and he says some very dull things about new music. But everyone loves him and so do I. in a way, like a good father. One of his other songs is called "Yorgun.' which means 'Tired,' and that is very appropriate.

'MUT' BY YULDUZ

'Mut' means 'Destiny,' and the singer's name means Stars, so she has high opinion of herself. She used to be backup singer with Chen Tui and she would like to be Chen Tui, but Chen mixes Chinese, Karz, and New York Air. Yulduz is just another Balshang Fox. Most of her stuff doesn't work, but this is really good, nearly as good as Chen she imitates. It is about our country and how it mixes things and how it is lost now, but will find itself.

'HARP HATAMAHLARI' BY BULENT DO-UDAN

War memories. This is the story of our country in the 1980s when there was a terrible war. My Auntie Mae's father was murdered. She has to run from the room whenever this song is played. So the song is harsh, big, it roars at you. Now, look at the picture, the only one on this page. Isn't the singer beautiful, all makeup, polished hair, lipstick, a woman as shiny as the front of a new car? You will get a shock when you hear the voice, because that person used to look like Musa. And one day, Bulent suddenly looked like that instead, no explanation. The voice stayed the same. The name didn't have to change either. Nobody cared. Don't you find our country is surprising place?

GOODBYE, AND REMEMBER TO PAY

So that is some of our music. We don't have many books, our television is all kung fu. All our heart and soul is in our music. It's where all our brains are, too, in the little tapes. They play around our heads like swallows even here in a dump like Kizuldah.

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audio file from: bugs@nouvelles

18 November

Just thought you'd like to know that there's a Collab sharemind base called the Sezen Drop. You can't go into any New York club without hearing Karz music. Your little girl's a fashion leader. Oh, brace yourselves. Got the collar offer up on my home. And thanks again for telling us about the store. Attached to this you should find an article about the difference between the Formats and who's behind it. You may be interested to know how hard the cable people fought against all this! That's my old industry!