Season Two, readings from the book Travel, Memory
The Bangui Magnetic Anomaly refers to a variation in the earth's magnetic field centered at Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic.
I wrote a story with the same name in response to a friend's question—what is a day like in the life of an aid worker in Central Africa?
The article was written, beer-soaked and sunburnt on a back porch, under the cumulative effects of constant low-grade warfare. Magnetism refers to the desire to understand humanity. The anomaly was that it entailed conflict. In Bangui in 2014.
I tucked into the correct latitudes, paid for experience with sanity, managed to hold out, albeit only for a year, and bore witness to the world. But the world was gazing back. And it knew what it saw.
Intro music by Warhammer 48K, episode music by Franco, Black Moods from the album Invitation to Love, Outro music by the South Hill Experiment, Baird, Goldwash, "Chameleons"
In this episode, we go on a vertiginous tour through the Western World, guided by one-night stands, aging parents, and a lone suicide bomber. From Cape Town, Sydney, Istanbul, Athens, Sevilla, Madrid, Paris, Mexico City, to Havana we look for love in all the wrong places, we search for grit in city centers a century too late, and like a debt collector we survey what the present owes the past.
Intro by South Hill Experiment, Baird, Goldwash, "Chameleons". Talk to Me by Black Moods. Taxista, Rosa d’Abril, Kithou, Mare Bufona by Paul Riba. Cheetah by the Homosexuals. All the Years of Trying by Patrik Fitzgerald. High-Pressure Days by the Units
In this episode, we rehabilitate a house in France, we get married (almost), and travel to Germany to bug my father-in-law's house. This begins the narrative of battling a golddigger, a younger woman, who tried to extort money out of my girlfriend's father. So if you’re interested in German inheritance law, dementia, and relationships under duress, this episode’s for you.
This story is chapter 4 in the book Travel, Memory, meaning it makes more sense if you listen to the previous episode or episodes of season 2, if not it’s no problem, especially if you enjoy depressing love stories.
This is a confession to a breaking and entering in Germany
This is not an alibi but rather a justification for why I did it.
This is a love story and a story of a gold digger. So come travel to France and Germany in an attempt to prove probate fraud.
All music by Christopher Mathis from the album Woodlandsgaze. Outro by the South Hill Experiment, Baird, and Goldwash, entitled Chameleons.