Years ago I had a friend in Russia, the Soviet Union was falling apart and he called me at home every now and then. He had figured out a way to scrounge phone calls. He entered a telephone booth, took apart the handset, arranged the wires following a pattern he had devised, stuck some pins in the body of the telephone and dialed my home number. I don’t know how he didn’t blow up.
Leonid spoke five or six languages perfectly. He learned them by reading jokes.
I had contacted him first, finding his address in the Guerin Sportivo. There was a page where fans of sports memorabilia and gadgets could find contact details of other enthusiasts.
I was crazy about Eastern countries, so I took a pen and paper, stuck a Bari pin in the envelope and let the postman deliver my letter. Leonid responded by sending me the Spartak Moscow pin. I started cutting jokes out of puzzle magazines. Over the years I lost all interest in exchanging pennants, scarves and pins. I discovered that I liked music a lot.
Not knowing Bulat Okudzhava I made him choose. That’s how I found an Akvarium cassette in my cassette player. Perhaps the best cassette I received from Leonid. I don’t remember what was on it.
The exchange was this: he chose Russian music for me and in return I had the task of transcribing the lyrics of Albano and Romina Power’s songs for him.
He was an avid Albano fan, to the point of sending me Albano’s cassettes himself.
Even today I sometimes repeat Sharazad’s refrain in my head…
I don’t know what happened to Leonid, the last time he came into my life I was messing around in front of the Faculty of Languages, in Bari. In the general shouting, I distinctly heard someone pronouncing the name: “Leonid Tabolski”. A stranger.
Leonid had evidently found a way to also call other numbers in my city’s telephone book.
Obviously when Lac Observation sent me “Liquid Splinters Say Goodbye” I couldn’t help but think of Leonid.
Ivan Bodhidharma is the cover of a song by Akvarium.
Was Leonid aware of other telephone codes other than 080?
“Liquid Splinters Say Goodbye” is Lac Observation’s second album released on Almost Halloween Time Records in collaboration with Hvergelmir.
Listen to “Liquid Splinters Say Goodbye” by Lac Observation here .
