FREEFORUM

Since the tüntolk thread got me talking. My shelf, partly:

- Jolchu (1999), copy of a copy of a copy. Hiss now louder than Askar.
- Zvezda Irad EP on a CD-R with "ZVEZDA" written in marker.
- Swift Hooves, US cassette, the case cracked in a very specific American way.
- Eleven unlabelled tapes from the bazaar that I have not dared to play.

I run the tape stall at Bazar-i Kalan, so this is a professional problem as well as a personal one.

I have an original Jolchu. The real one. Hand-lettered sleeve.

Not for sale. Not for photographs. It exists. That's all you get.

I have dreamt about this cassette.

My father's shelf: Melodiya records, a lot of Russian estrada, and a Swift Hooves bootleg with the track names translated into Russian by someone who did not speak English. "Old Man Tursun" is "Старый Турсун", fine. "Notches" is "Ноутбуки". Notebooks.

An original Swift Hooves CD, 1993, from a record shop on the north side of Chicago, with the charity sticker still on it. The liner notes list all fourteen songs.

I could name all fourteen. For the peace of this forum, I won't.

Thank you, Temir. Genuinely.

PILGRIMAGE REPORT. Nurzhan, the radio-bazaar, last row. The man with the beard and the green jacket that Kanykei's guestbook told people to find in 2000. HE IS STILL THERE. Same jacket, I swear. Copies were 30 som in 2000. Now 50. I said "tüntolk" quietly, as instructed eighteen years ago. He smiled and reached under the table.

ok i'm going. bishkek to nurzhan for a cassette. this is my life now lol

he's still there?? tell him the girl with the crooked horns says hello. he will know.

cumbia cassettes from my tío in Monterrey, two rancheras CDs, and one (1) Altyn Muuz CD single that I bought at a gas station. sin vergüenza

Cassettes are the only format that works on the zhayloo. Batteries, a Walkman, and eleven tapes of Kechki Jomok I recorded from the radio over the years. The program ended last year. The tapes did not. In the evening I play one to the children and they hear the old bards and Baktygul-apa's voice.

In Surgut a Russian guy in our wagon has tüntolk on his phone. He thinks they're Yakut. I didn't correct him for a week. It was a good week.

I bought the Eski Ün album as a digital download. Does that count for this thread?

No. But welcome anyway.

Coin people came by the stall this week offering Tulparcoin for tapes. A hundred TLPR for my Jolchu copy. I told them the hiss alone is worth more. They did not understand. They left a leaflet. It is now holding up the shelf.