Stillwave - Telethon

PROTAGONIST:

They locked down the gates of Disneyland last week

I saw it on the news

Citing the riots up and down Katella Avenue

I watched that news reporter stumble with her prompter and I wondered soon

would news reports stop, too?

Being the good American I am

I knew I had to run

Could be the last time, so I thought it prob’ly best to take the 1

Traffic standstill, oceanside, sprawling desperate humankind

The Pacific was tiny, sake of timing, I kicked back to the 101

152 to 5

Not sure anyone still alive

Barely any cars in that whole time

And this suburban kid turned city dweller

Felt a tear drip from his eye at having

Never really drove just to appreciate the drive

That sentiment extinguished quickly

When I caught the sight of a 50 something crewcutted dad-looking guy

Throw an empty garbage can through the window of a Best Buy

And carry out a flat screen

A couple sets of DVDs

Of How I Met Your Mother

«Motherfucker!

Put 'em down» I heard a disembodied voice call out

And that guy got tackled to the ground

By a woman with a nametag and a bright blue polo shirt

Drew a sickly looking crowd

As she kicked his teeth into the dirt

When he eventually stopped moving

We stared grimly at his body

Till he got up, grabbed his glasses, made a b-line to the Hobby Lobby

I left the scene, aghast and terrified

I took it as a warning of the horrors that could lie ahead

In wake of the announcement, human race to be eliminated

But something in there dissonated, and left me quite astounded

It was that

Some people still wave

Amidst the fuck offs and the muggers

As they walk their dogs through parks

And they hold hands with one another

It strikes me as cliche

Like something you see in movies

But the movie’s coming true

And people recognize exactly what to do

PART II: «LOCUS OF CONTROL»

White knuckled, I spent three more hours

Captive in the cockpit, doing 98, denying all impulse

To simply pile through the guardrails that envelop the highway;

To roll the credits my way, but a morbid curiosity

Took control

The second I saw

Fluxing hills of smoke and smog

Pluming over Burbank and North Hollywood

The great domain of angels

Looking kinda like I thought it would

The cars, the trucks, the busses

There they were

A jam heading the other way

A mass exodus from LA

And there I was, ever contrarian, heading in

To watch the show

I took the exit to Ball Road, stopped on the street and slammed my doors,

I started walking

So anxious and excited, I was talking to myself

I said

Am I depraved?

Or am I going insane?

Did I drive all of this way

For validation of my shame?

Got no use in wondering now

There’s a Kingdom I gotta see

A toppled idol of optimism and blueblood ingenuinity

And fantasy, adventure

The honest American dream!

Rendered futile in the absence of a future

An 85-acre emblem of what now will never be

PART III: «JOURNEY INTO IMAGINATION»

Jumped a chain link fence into Disneyland this afternoon

Accessed from the side, straight through warehouses and garages

Near the back of Tom Sawyer Island

Past Splash Mountain, with its flume completely dried

The Haunted Mansion looked so normal

Club 33 had its doors swung open wide

Fascinating though it was

I found the atmosphere nightmarish

Not a soul in sight to speak of

Magic technicolor bareness

I mean no noise, no cheer, no instrumental loops

Just themed facades inside a vacuum

That was until I met the Troops

PART IV: «LIGHT & FLUORESCENT STARKNESS»

Finally felt the castle spires dwarfing me

Warm sensations quickly pinned as familiarity

Until i spied the upturned LAPD

K-9 Unit Crown Victoria

Half submerged beneath one of the false brick turrets

A gigantic concrete base

A bronze Walt Disney lay below it

Hand outstretched to partner’s, 40 feet away under

A sign reading «Tomorrowland» on an ornate metal globe

A sawed-off wooden plank above it and all it said was «No»

PART V: «INITIATION»

I heard murmurs past the drawbridge

Slurs I couldn’t understand

Knew beyond the iron gates stood what they called Fantasyland

I couldn’t bare to see the fantasy these times had wrought in full 3D

But, again, that curiosity!

I guess it got the best of me

I tiptoed in, my head halfway rotated o’er my shoulder

My breaths grew short and stuttering, the wind was blowing so much colder

And then I’d say about a hundred living corpses pivoted and all moved

Toward me silently and slowly, then with

Grey eyes and thinning hair

What appeared to be the leader of the group said.

«Welcome in, o weary traveler!

…or should I say, New Member of the Troops?»

PART VI: «LIVING IN HELL»

THE LEADER OF THE TROOPS:

«This is our land now, for the next few days now

We can live the way we want and run it any way now

I know why you came here, you wanted just to disappear

Away from friends and family, from all responsibility;

To slip inside this world of optimism, ingenuity, etcetera

The saunter around the promenade must’a learned you better

Judging by the look upon your face

I tell ya boy, well that’s okay

Why don’t I give you a tour of all the hovels in this place

The Casey Junior train

It don’t roll around no more

Its tunnels something of a haven now

For junk pokers and whores

And Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan

In their respective buildings

But those buildings’ve been taken over

In fact they’re almost spilling

With the detritus of our country

I’m sorry to put it so bluntly

Let’s keep moving, shall we?

Oh, that’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride

The site of several suicides since it closed

If you take a look inside, past the switchbacks and the turnstiles

You might find what you’re looking for, if you don’t

Well, you’d better watch your back

Behind those blacklit plywood flats

Something sinister is sneaking, stealing souls

Don’t think it can be seen

It takes the forms of dying dreams, childhood memories, and the places in

between

Oh yeah!

But you’ll be fine, there is a Hell in that world, just remember that

The little devils deep inside they know precisely what you lack

You may be perfect, straight and narrow, but they’re planning their attack

Hey!

Buddy!

Where the hell ya headed?

We was only gettin' started!"