Random Tape

James Arthur’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Poetry, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, New England Review, and Narrative. He has received the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, and a Discovery/The Nation Prize. Charms Against Lightning, his debut poetry collection, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press. During 2012 he will...

When I was a kid I had this clown doll that would laugh when you pushed a button in its chest. It was terrifying. It's more the cackle of a chain-smoking maniac than the laughter of a clown but then again some clowns are heavy smokers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I recorded this fiery sermon that I heard on the radio in West Virginia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a successful meal Captain Tom has no trouble patting himself on the back for a job well done. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back when I was a deckhand on the M.V. Ptarmigan, a glacier tour boat in Alaska, I used to hang out in the wheelhouse and listen to Captain Tom tell stories. I called him up recently and asked him to tell me the one about about the time he won a ham in a furthest listening contest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I spent an afternoon in the parking lot of the grocery store asking people to read me their grocery lists and these are a few of the responses i got. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill Keaggy responded to postings by musicians on fiverr.com who offered to write and record a song for five dollars. He sent each of them a found grocery list and asked them to record a song inspired by the list. This is my favorite track from , an album of songs inspired by found grocery lists which you can download for absolutely free here: http://www.grocerylists.org/ Learn more about your ad...

This is the sound of hundreds of electronic slot machines on the floor of Lumiere Casino in downtown St. Louis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you ever did any late night channel surfing between 1993 and 2001 you probably came across the legendary pitchman hollering about sports cards and Beanie Babies on the Shop at Home network. A friend of mine made a CD of some of the best and this is but a taste. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My cousin Gavin does the best T-Rex impersonation I’ve ever heard. It puts my terrible acting to shame. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you want the love of the fire? Cuz I’m not gonna wait around to give you my desire. For some reason an ex-girlfriend of mine gave her number to a guy who called himself The Dragon. Not surprisingly he left her a string of insane voice messages. These are just a few of The Dragon’s many attempts at wooing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the sound of Matthew Shifrin using his BrailleNote—a computer for the blind that pushes plastic nodes through tiny holes to display text in braille. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Five Days after I began broadcasting classical music over one of St. Louis' existing Christian stations Albert Pujols announced he was leaving the St. Louis Cardinals for the Los Angeles Angels. Now what does Albert Pujols have to do with JOY-FM you might be asking. Pujols was one of the major donors to the down payment fund for the purchase of KFUO. I propose Pujols take JOY-FM with him and in ex...

Classical music station KFUO in St. Louis was one of the oldest radio stations west of the Mississippi. The stationed was owned by the Lutheran church up until last year when On July 6th, 2010 KFUO broadcasted Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor and then went silent. The following morning JOY-FM began it’s broadcast of Christian contemporary pop music. There are now six christian stations in St....

My friend Casey was a holdout during Hurricane Katrina. He worked occasionally for a friend who owned Old Time Photo, one of those business where you take fake historical photos with your friends. On the night president Bush came to the city there was a seven-o-clock curfew. Casey was heading home at seven twenty when he had an encounter with a couple of state troopers. Casey tells the story of wh...

I was walking my dog the other night when I came across Larry Boutan sitting on a concrete wall drinking a beer. I noticed he was missing his right thumb so I asked him how he lost it. This is the story of that fateful night when a large woman started hurling canned goods at him… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Francis Matherne was the organist at St. Henry’s catholic church in New Orleans for 25 years. A while back he brought some of his poems over to my house so I could record them. This is a short clip from that recording session. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I came across this LP from 1963 that features three naked women playing bongos on the cover. It’s one of the most inexplicable recordings I’ve ever heard. Each side is a single fourteen-minute track of what appears to be two people having sex on a rusty bed while a man plays the bongos and shouts in what may or may not be a real language. I give you the final two minutes of side A. Now that’s what...

These voice messages were left on my friend Danny’s phone by his dad. They are two of my all-time favorites. We’ll never know how the second message ends. The machine cut Danny’s dad off mid-message. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was reading in bed one night when I heard a strange sound coming from the foot of my bed... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices