Please Come Home is a setting of three personal ads from the back pages of the Los Angeles Free Press, an independent and staunchly anti-establishment newspaper based in Hollywood, which ran from 1964 to 1978. Aptly nicknamed “The Unclassifieds” by Free Press founder and long-time editor-in-chief Art Kunkin, the advertisements in the back pages read as a carnivalesque portrait of life in Los Angeles during the 60s and 70s.There are advertisements for everything strip clubs, to new religions, to military draft counseling, and grow-it-yourself marijuana kits. And, printed alongside them, are scores of postings in which scared and desperate relatives beg their runaway loved ones to come home. These are the “Please Come Home” messages.
The 60s and early 70s saw a significant increase in the number of runaways across the United States. Inspired by growing hippie movement, many fled the perceived shackles of their nuclear families for countercultural havens such as San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, New York’s Greenwich Village, and Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard (near the Free Press’ offices). In the pre-internet era, relatives often resorted to unusual methods in order to reach runaway loved ones. In the case of the “Please Come Home” messages, they placed advertisements in the hope—and with a prayer—that their loved one, or someone who knew them, would happen to pick up the paper that day, turn to the back pages, glance at the right portion of the page, and notice their plea.
In Please Come Home, I use a Leap Motion Controller, Max/MSP, and Kyma to manipulate and perform recordings of myself reading three of the “Please Come Home” messages. Through the music and a performance that borders on the theatrical, I evoke the writers and their addressees, bringing their hopes, anxieties, and fears into sharper relief. Ultimately, I aim to show that, while each message has arisen from a rupture in a relationship, everyone involved is driven by the same, timeless desire for connection. By using my own voice as the work’s primary sonic material, I also trace my relationship to these people—a fascination that gradually deepened into a sense of kinship.
Composition Text:
I. TINA LOUISE
My mother is dying and you left
when I needed you the most. I
still love you with all my heart.
Please come home. Ron.II. LENNY K. OF NORTHFIELD, OHIO
Please call home collect. Mr.
Bossein was only trying to frighten
you. He couldn’t send you to the
boys’ school. We love you, and
want you home. Love, Mom & DadIII. GAIL
We still care—do you?
Texts are reproduced in accordance with the fair use doctrine 17 U.S. Code § 107.
Love Mom Dad & Brett