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voicemail from: bugs@nouvelles

16 November

Mae-honey. It'll drive ' em wild. No sooner said than done, but I need a shot of the design. I have to say, despite the mismatched lips, you look and sound great. You should get on TV more often. But hey, where's my News from Kizuldah screens? Like I said: gossip, girlfriend, gossip. But hey, I've been speaking English to you, what language have you been hearing?

SIZZLING SEZEN'S POP PICKS

Hello, young people, this is hair-in-eyes Sezen who is impatient with everything, except my Auntie Mae. We may not be having Madonna sixtieth birthday parties, but we are full of music here in Karzistan and it is great mix of modern and old. We got Arabesque, we got Lectro, we got Traditional, many different musics, and this is where you can hear what we sound like and use it in Collab.

GIVE US MONEY

You can listen, but don't keep the music unless you pay. Our musicians are poor, okay? So try to send us something. We are starving up here – well, not starving, but my mother keeps corncobs in our chic diwan, and our neighbour keeps a pig in her kitchen. And it is very bad-tempered. So don't steal these poor people's music or you are dried shitcake!

That noise was Auntie Mae telling me off for being rude. I talk too much anyway. So here are my 'Pop Picks.'

'BALSHANG' BY CHEN TUI

Start with my favourite. Tui is Chinese girl who writes all her own stuff. She plays Karz flute and the violin, she used to do Lectro dance, but this is both real and Air music at once, and it's so beautiful, about girl who falls in love with a married man and his city at the same time. So she talks about the city and the man using the same words at the same time. They say there is an Air version full of pictures and memories as well. I want to see what her beautiful beau looks like!

'KISH MASHALI' BY ERCHAN PEKER

How is it that fools can make good music? This guy thinks he is pretty, and pastes his face all over everything. He is good-looking, but we should discover that for ourselves. This is a fun song about school, the words are really good, and he wrote them but he is a Balshang Otter, which means he is small, smooth, and vicious. Listen to the rhythm and the way his voice jumps about. That is pure Karz, like he is.

'KLASIKLERI' BY MUSA

Just how smart are you? This word comes to us from Europe, it is your word. you should just say it and you will know what it means. This is new song but played in completely Traditional way and it is about all things classical and Karz that are going away, like Musa himself – soon. I hope. Musa is how all Karz men would like to be: big, fat, hairy, full of bristle and moustache, and everyone says how handsome he is, but I think he is old and ugly, and he says some very dull things about new music. But everyone loves him and so do I. in a way, like a good father. One of his other songs is called "Yorgun.' which means 'Tired,' and that is very appropriate.

'MUT' BY YULDUZ

'Mut' means 'Destiny,' and the singer's name means Stars, so she has high opinion of herself. She used to be backup singer with Chen Tui and she would like to be Chen Tui, but Chen mixes Chinese, Karz, and New York Air. Yulduz is just another Balshang Fox. Most of her stuff doesn't work, but this is really good, nearly as good as Chen she imitates. It is about our country and how it mixes things and how it is lost now, but will find itself.

'HARP HATAMAHLARI' BY BULENT DO-UDAN

War memories. This is the story of our country in the 1980s when there was a terrible war. My Auntie Mae's father was murdered. She has to run from the room whenever this song is played. So the song is harsh, big, it roars at you. Now, look at the picture, the only one on this page. Isn't the singer beautiful, all makeup, polished hair, lipstick, a woman as shiny as the front of a new car? You will get a shock when you hear the voice, because that person used to look like Musa. And one day, Bulent suddenly looked like that instead, no explanation. The voice stayed the same. The name didn't have to change either. Nobody cared. Don't you find our country is surprising place?

GOODBYE, AND REMEMBER TO PAY

So that is some of our music. We don't have many books, our television is all kung fu. All our heart and soul is in our music. It's where all our brains are, too, in the little tapes. They play around our heads like swallows even here in a dump like Kizuldah.

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audio file from: bugs@nouvelles

18 November

Just thought you'd like to know that there's a Collab sharemind base called the Sezen Drop. You can't go into any New York club without hearing Karz music. Your little girl's a fashion leader. Oh, brace yourselves. Got the collar offer up on my home. And thanks again for telling us about the store. Attached to this you should find an article about the difference between the Formats and who's behind it. You may be interested to know how hard the cable people fought against all this! That's my old industry!

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e-mail from: Lieutenant Chung Lung

20 November

Mother,

It pains me to write to you like this, but I feel I must point out that the things you put on your machine are open to the world. Sezen Ozdemir recalls my grandfather's murder. There are people here who misread the site as being full of backsliding minority nationalism. I urge you to have a care and to be less of a wild woman.

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audio file from: Mrs Chung Mae

20 November

Son, it pains me to write to you like this, but I am not entirely cut off like a thread from the world and news does reach me. You married and did not invite me or even tell me. I would have understood that you could not have your mother there, and that only your father would be invited. If only you had explained, I am adult enough to understand. You chose not to tell me at all. I am open before the world, you are hidden even within the family. So, is that the difference between good and wild behaviour? So go fuck yourself. Is that wild woman enough for you? By the way, all my mail is private, unless you have been using army decoders to read it. Have you? Are you a spy as well? Tell your army friends that they will find a world they cannot control, and that I am glad that they are all asleep.

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audio file from: Mrs Chung Mae

28 November

Bugsy, you are the only one who can help us. Bugsy, we have over five hundred orders for the collar. We make our embroidery special, we cannot make five hundred collars, not at special deal price. We were very foolish not to think of this and apologize humbly for causing our good family friend such difficulties. It is not our way to make native designs by machine, it is not what our business is for. What can we do? Also, why is your name Bugsy?

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audio file from: bugs@nouvelles

28 November

First things first. Bugsy is a gangster's name and people call me that as a joke, because they say I remind them of a gangster. Second, I attach info about a machine that embroiders to order. Yes, it's a machine, but listen, you give it the ID files of your guests, and it will weave their names and or a message into the collar. It won't be handmade, but it will still be special, and the design will still say a Circle of friends.