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The Opening Act

from Miasma by nbor

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about

Inspiried by an idea I had watching the opening act of a show. What if it was all an act? I channeled Joe Frank as best as I could and wrote this out when I got home.

lyrics

She said she was from Ecuador, and was bringing us feelings from travels around the world. The young audience was enchanted and drew closer when she asked, raised hands when she wanted a vote, and nodded in agreement when she pleaded with them to buy local. But I knew this wasn’t true.

You see, we had grown up in the same suburb, outside the city, and that city was definitely not in Ecuador. We even dated for a short time, but I always wanted to go to the city, she just wanted to stay in our boring suburban town. Our crowd lost touch when she went to live with her real dad in some odd corner of English-speaking Europe.

Later, I approached her at the merchandise table, where she was selling her cassette release. “Tell me about Ecuador” I asked and she looked up without recognizing me. “Does it have a q in it? I always forget.”

Her eyes widened a bit, perhaps with concern that her game was up. “Do you have this on CD?” I asked. “I haven’t had a tape player since the 90’s.” “Hah,” she laughed “that was the only thing we had when I was a teenager in Quito in año dos mil.”

Later, over a beer, her Pan-Latin accent safely stowed away, she said it had started as a joke, when a friend gave her a poncho that gave her Mediterranean features a south of the border flair. When she sang in an accent, she dropped her self-consciousness, and she could actually perform. “I’m the first person to recognize you?” I asked. “Yes, the audience is so young and people our age forget. People their age want to believe."

Our old friends would have loved to hear this story, and hash over their memories of her, reconfigured by my anecdote. That someone could still disappear into a new person, find a new identity, however thin, and carry on with a different life of their own making, this was a sweeter side to lying, and the short satisfaction of gossip seemed best left alone.

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from Miasma, released May 1, 2020

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nbor San Jose, California

nbor: from years of working in obscurity, hiding in plain sight. A long-time experimentalist, software maker, sound designer, and computer music specialist, nbor is the shortened form of Peter Nyboer. Based in the Bay Area of California, his sound has been shaped by the long history of synthesizers, experimentation, and technology in the area. ... more

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