Found Object

A few weeks ago, one of the students in my improv class had a landmark birthday and so our instructor, Cecille, told us all to bring a found object, embellished or personalized if we wished, to give to her as a present. Different students had different interpretations of what a "found object" might be. My interpretation was that it ought to be something I came across just lying on the ground while out and about, maybe on a walk with Jin.

So when my dog and I were roaming the neighborhood a couple days before class, I kept my eyes open. Most of what I saw was trash or natural debris, nothing interesting or gift-like. But on the last stretch of Dhu Varren I found the perfect thing. It was an unmarked Memorex CD, lying at the side of the road. I've actually come across CDs several times while walking Jin, and whenever I see one I'm curious to know what's on it. Is it a mix CD that someone gave to their significant other? A compilation of Broadway tunes? An accompaniment track for a budding singer? An illegal copy of the Hannah Montana Movie soundtrack?

I've never actually picked up a CD to satisfy my curiosity because a) Jin is already a handful to walk, and b) a CD that's been lying on the asphalt for several days is not likely to be playable. But this time I had an excuse, and I had an idea in mind for what I'd do if the CD was not playable. The CD was visibly scratched, and the edges of whatever the silvery stuff CDs are made of were beginning to peel, so I didn't have much hope that I'd ever learn what had been recorded thereon. Still, I popped it into my CD player anyway and was surprised to find that the CD worked. This is what I heard:

Okay, it wasn't quite as interesting as I'd hoped.* And the 12 tracks were all pretty much the same (at least to an undiscriminating, non-bird-enthusiast ear like my own). So I decided to move on to plan B, which was something I'd heard about for years but had never actually tried myself. You can find any other number of videos like the one below on the web, but this is my own. And for the record, while it looks like I'm moving slowly and deliberately for dramatic effect, it's really just because it's hard to hold a camera steady, look through the viewer, and accurately press microwave buttons at the same time.

The best part is that dramatic half second where the CD bursts into tiny little electric flames. Then when you take it out of the microwave it has a neat marbled pattern all over the front and back. Cool, huh?

Sadly, people in my improv class didn't seem to quite get the coolness of the final product. They got all excited when I said that the CD turned out to have birdsongs on it, and then they were dismayed to lern that I had destroyed the birdsong CD. Oh well.

* You can hear Jin panting in the background. That's not part of the CD.