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Scarlett O'Leary's avatar

Haunting. His voice is unforgettable. Lingers.

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Marco North's avatar

It felt like something very rare, worth documenting.

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Stella Lyn's avatar

I feel like the meaning is contained in the timbre of his voice.

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Marco North's avatar

absolutely. it transcends everything else.

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Stella Lyn's avatar

Lamentation, for sure! Wow! It seems like mourning.

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Marco North's avatar

That is the best guess, no far no one here can tell me much about this.

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Terry's avatar

This story is so NYC. When I moved to Alphabet City in 1985 I had never spent much time in a big city and was constantly stunned to see people in the streets who were in need of physical and emotional help. 💔

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Marco North's avatar

That is so interesting - as I halfway assumed this was a rare glimpse into "here" (and only here). I do love to be wrong.

I sent the audio to a few people and they cannot tell me what he is saying, just that it is probably not a prayer but a mourning song, that it may be a Christian (Georgian Orthodox).

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Terry's avatar

I wonder if it’s a different perspective. I grew up in the ultimate suburb, Levittown, Pa. I went to college at Penn State. My exposure was severely limited. You grew up in the city. To me Nyc seemed full of these experiences of people in their own world sharing their “stories” on the street, so to speak.

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Marco North's avatar

that all makes sense - but I watched NYC (well the lower east side, my old hood) become less and less diverse by the year, until it became just rich and entitled in my old neighborhood, and yes, once you get out to the boroughs and the end of the subway line it is indeed diverse still. I was waking up to rich people and their problems by the end, more than anything else. to find something different, you had to get on a train for half an hour at least.

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