It's All About the Trappists

 Today, I have something that is perhaps even more esoteric than most of what I typically post here. I don't know how many people this will appeal to, but I've had this tape a long time, and I find it interesting, so I'm hoping some or most (or all?) of you will, too. I am posting the entire tape, in the various recorded pieces that appear on it. With the exception of today's "Very Short Reel" at the end, everything that follows here is from the same tape. 

Most of it is concerned with a young man, seemingly in his early days of high school, who has already decided that what he wants and intends to do with his life is join the order of the Trappists Monks. Much of the remaining tape concerns another young man with a similar calling. I'm mostly going to let this tape speak for itself, and simply introduce the segments. The names of the participants are in the file names, and can be heard on the tapes, but I'm only going to include their first names here. 

First up, and by far the longest segment, and the centerpiece of the tape and this posting, is the young man in question, offering up, first, an essay about the Trappists and their lives of solitude and silence, then an interview with the prospective monk, conducted by another young man. This segment covers the first side of the tape and part of the second, and is over 50 minutes long: 

Download: Andy - Essay on Trappist Monks and Interview About Becoming a Trappist

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Next, someone named Terrance reads a very brief letter that he has written to what was likely a local monastery: 

Download: Terrance - Letter from Terrance to the Brothers

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The same young man (Terrance) is then interviewed for a few minutes about answering a religious calling: 

Download: Interview with Terrance about Answering a Religious Calling

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The rest of the tape about - nine minutes or so - is something of a hodgepodge. Here is most of it, starting with the end of a very well known, disgusting and very non-Monk-like joke. The rest of this segment is made up of some deadly serious sounding readings - with accompanying sound effects at times, badly recorded at others. 

Download: End of a Joke and Some Readings

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And here, for lack of a better title, is what I've labeled "The End of the Tape". I'll just let you enjoy its charms: 

Download: The End of the Tape

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As an aside, I'm wondering what people think of this idea of sharing the entire contents of a single tape. If there is sustaining interest across most or all of it, is this particularly interesting, or not worth pursuing? I have several others where I think this concept might work well. 

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Finally, our "Very Short Reel". This is a bit peculiar, and I'm not sure what purpose this tape served. As it says on the box (below), this is recorded directly off of the soundtrack of a 16mm version of two commercials, in this case for Peter Jackson Cigarettes, a brand which still exists today, after nearly 120 years, but which I'd never heard of before. 

What strikes me about this tape - a little three inch reel, by the way - is that it has the typical low-fidelity sound that I would associate with a 16mm projector, and it's not clear to me why someone would want to copy the sound that way. Regardless, it happened, and it ended up in my collection, and they're a fairly interesting little set of two ads, so here is that tape!

Download: Soundtracks to Two Peter Jackson Cigarette Ads (From 16mm)

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