As Sensitive As A Dying Philosopher

Bill Morrison – Excerpts from the Balloon Man: “Sometimes When I’m Low”/”Leftover Turkey”/”Popped Blue Balloon Moods”/”Smog Doesn’t Help” – Bill Morrison is a legend in the world of Southern California public access broadcasting, which is another way of saying that I’ve never heard of this guy before in my life. These are excerpts from a series of recordings that Morrison made in 1971 with the intention of syndicating them as a series of forty minute-long radio programs, but no station in the country would touch them. That’s not much of a surprise given the intense strangeness of the content. In his persona as the Balloon Man he indulged in brief, surreal rants about life, death, sex, and philosophy while blowing up balloons and wearing a “balloonskin coat” made out of popped balloons, “each with its own story.” Morrison vacillates wildly between moments of thoughtful lucidity and unhinged mania, and is just as capable of insight and hilarity on either end of that spectrum. (Click here to buy it from Sharpeworld.)

Romvelope “Huw And Me” – It’s a bit strange to me that I’ve never enjoyed video games, but I tend to like so much contemporary music that sounds like cut-up arcade soundtracks. I’m not one of those people who wants to listen to rock bands play Nintendo music, you know? I usually find that music very annoying in or out of context, actually. Anyway, the first person to correctly identify the language that this guy is rapping in gets a No-Prize. There are a few recognizable English words here and there, but the rest of it sounds only vaguely familiar to me. (Click here to buy it from Post Everything.)