Aly

Rooftop Rhythms, Abu Dhabi, 22 Nov. 2013, Night



In addition to this, I am also comfortable sharing the following item(s):

[ ] The city of residence of the recipient of this letter/phone call
[ ] The recorded audio of my 5 minutes of questions
[ ] Incidental recorded audio (conversations had, questions asked, enthusiasm expressed outside of the official 5 minutes
[ ] The transcribed text of my 5 minutes of questions
[ ] Complete and utter faith in the artist

Furthermore, I would like to add:

Total faith in the artist





[…]

00:00:00-0

Aly: —are you in NYU?

Yannick: Yeah.

Aly: Oh, that explains it.

Yannick: (laughing)

Aly: Because like there's only two artsy-fartsy Universities, NYU or AUS. And we're the only—I mean AUS. That's why I was like—if there was a project such as this I would have known about it. Because last week we had this Third Culture Kid workshop, making documentaries, and that was the latest thing I heard. So I was about to ask, "are you guys from AUS," because I've never seen you before. Alright I don't mind helping. So what do I have to do?

Yannick: All you have to do is I'm going to give you some paper and a pen, you can write a letter to whoever you like, address it, and then we'll go over somewhere quiet and talk for five minutes.

Aly: Alrighty.

[…]

00:00:42-3

Yannick: Uh, so who'd you write to?

Aly: I wrote to one of my best friends who is the daughter of the Armenian ambassador in Argentina. (laugh) It's funny.

Yannick: And why?

Aly: Because she's my best friend. And I miss her. So it's been .. almost a year now—maybe even more—I haven't seen her. And I just miss her so much. (whispered) Trying not to cuss (laugh).

Yannick: You can freely cuss.

Aly: I'd rather not (laugh)

Yannick: (laugh) Can-can you tell me a little something about her?

Aly: What do you mean?

Yannick: What would be //something you'd say//

Aly: //okay//. (exhales) Well … I don't know how to phrase this. She is a person who the first time I met, I was just like "I dig this chick." There's something energetic about her. And then the second time I met her, believe it or not, the second time I met her we started sharing secrets and we became best friends. It was just like, "what I've only met this women two times!" And we've been talking non-stop ever since—about everything in life, philosophical or superficial (laugh). So she is one of those um—you know when you meet a person and you just feel this like, "this is a trustworthy person" ? It's kinda like that. It's interesting—it's an interesting phenomenon to find in a human being.

Yannick: Why are you separated?
00:02:03-8
Aly: Because she's the Armenian Ambassador's daughter. They travel. The whole diplomatic thing—I can relate to that, 'cause I've lived in like 4 different continents (laugh). But yeah, I'm stuck here, she's over there, and then I'm gonna go to Canada, and she's going back to Armenia, so .. this whole displacement thing is a big B. But whatever. Ce' la vie.

Yannick: So, uh how did you choose this person.

Aly: You said 'write to somebody' and she's the only person I ever write to.

Yannick: Really?

Aly: Whenever I—like when I went to London, for spring break, I sent her a postcard. When I went to Canada I sent her stuff. I just send her stuff. Usually.

Yannick: And when you miss her, what does that feel like?
00:02:45-9
Aly: (laugh) We have this thing, whenever we miss each other, it's like "I'm pretending your here and I'm hugging you." And then we go like, you know "STAR Tight Hug STAR" [*tight hug*] (laugh). So it's really gay but (laugh) you know. it's what gets us by I suppose. I don't know. For me like displacement is one of those friendship tests. So if you want to test your friendship with a human being, it's-it-it's distance, that's how it works. And I think we have become much much much much more closer .. than when she was actually physically here. So yeah.
00:03:20-4
Yannick: Have you—have you seen her since then?

Aly: No.

Yannick: How long is that?

Aly: 2 years. I mean Skype does not count. Skype does not count. So no. 2 years.

Yannick: Why doesn't it count?

Aly: What do you mean?

Yannick: Why doesn't Skype count?

Aly: Because it's .. you know it's just like, the screen, this whole technological thing we have going on right now, it's so artificial. And, I'm one of those archaic human beings who believes in physical connection—okay that sounded bad I'm sorry. Um, I mean like, like if I wanna—if I miss somebody I want them here. That's what missing them means to me. 'Cause I could just like—I could simply miss any human being, and then, you know, "oh let me just go text them," which doesn't really .. I don't know, just kinda dehumanizes us, if you think about technology. Connects us, yes, but still dehumanizes us some bits, yeah. [Yannick: m] I sound like Plato, okay. It's like, "what the fuck?" Sorry (laugh)

Yannick: No, it's-it's good.

Amani: You can curse, it's fine, it's totally fine.

Aly: //because in my university we're not allowed to! (laugh)//

Yannick: //it's fine, it's totally fine//

Aly: I said "what the fuck" and the professor laughed and said "we say 'Fudge,' Aly." I'm like "okay I'm sorry." Yeah.

Yannick: So, when you feel that missing, when you feel that like "I want you here," uh .. where in your body do you feel that? Physically? Like if I was a doctor and you were coming in, you're like, "I've got this weird thing going on," describe it to me as if I'd never heard of it before.
00:04:48-6
Aly: Well that takes me back—"please point to where the bad man touched you" (laugh). Uh… it's mostly like an aching in the chest, and then I just—because I'm a hugging person. You know? I'm a hugging person. So like, you're just talking right now, I'm sad, I'm just like "oh! I miss this human being so—" I'm a—we're—I embrace a hu—another human being with hug. So it's mostly like, the torso. It's just like "uhhh I just want to hug that person." So yeah. That's, where it's mostly like—accumulates.

Yannick: And, and uh, as it accumulates and gets stronger, what can you do?
00:05:24-7
Aly: … 'K then I resort to technology—it's like "okay fine—I MISS YOU!" And then we start just, like you know, bitching about our lives. It's like "so my dad did this, my mom did that .. my brother did this," you know? it's like totally—like we go through superficial phase where it's just like "oh did you hear what this bitch did, du-du-dudu-du-dah?" It's just like, you know, total mean girl kind of thing. And then after that we just go through this whole … like we just .. (inhale) I don't know like whenever I have a very big decision to—that I have to make in my life, we talk about it superficially just to get the details out of the way, and then we go all critical on it. So, "if this is an option, this is an option." So she's one of those human begins where I can .. always resort to her for .. logic. When I'm not fully aware of what the hell I'm doing, and when my sanity's kind of compromised —you know, like if you're emotionally attached to, (inhale) let's say a human being and you're infatuated with them you don't think clearly. So it's like "What should I do?" She's the person I'd resort to if I wanna ask her these kind of things. And she's always so .. rational and humble and down to earth and .. I don't know, she's just like, phenomenal. And yet she's single. Somebody explain that to me. (laugh). Yeah, so.

Yannick: Um, just to wrap up; is there anything you want to tell us about yourself? Who are you?
00:06:40-9
Aly: Oh (exhales) that is a tough one.

Yannick: (laugh)

Aly: If you read my twitter bio, it's says I am a man of flesh and bone, with a simple mind of my own. That is who I am, I don't think I can sum it up other than that.

Yannick: That's pretty good. Alright thank you so much/

[…]
00:06:59-9
Aly: Thank you so much. Good luck with your project!

Amani: Great

Yannick: Thanks!

Amani: Okay

00:07:03-3

END
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