Martine[1] left yesterday with our sound recording:[2] everything indicates that it is superior in quality to the preceding one.[3]
I am less reassured by the first results of the research into news footage: the blackest point is Portugal, which seems so boycotted by the press that Pathe had nothing other than a few images from 1 May 1974 in Lisbon. One must search in England. On the other themes, certain indexes can correspond to suitable documents or can be deceptive; it appears that the slowdown of activity in August will more or less stop our efforts.
I am thus resolved to set the end of this period of research at 20 September; the montage can then be completed at the end of October. I do not know which manner of distribution currently appeals to you, but I hope that this date does not constitute an inconvenience.
I think that, if necessary, I can pass up any particular theme that is missing at the end of this period, except for Portugal and a good number of advertisements (which must be oriented around their ravished consumers, rather than the objects themselves -- showing "the good life of the people," as has been the case, for several years, with Coca-Cola and bas Dim, for example).
I would like to screen all the advertisements that you can procure on, say, Thursday, 25 September. Martine tells me that Simar may change the laboratory it uses. Naturally, I have no preference for a particular laboratory, but perhaps we will not have the kind of complicity that we have at G.T.C. in the duplication [contretyper] of the copies that we have used in a slightly illicit fashion (this time, it would only be the advertisements).
See you soon. Best wishes,[1] Martine Barraque.
[2] Of the soundtrack of Refutation of All Judgments.
[3] Recording of Guy Debord's voice for The Society of the Spectacle.
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 5: Janvier 1973-Decembre 1978 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2005. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! April 2007. Footnotes by Alice Debord.)