it's always dangerous

[[ After looking at pictures of James Dean's wrecked car. ]]

it's always dangerous

to live in the 50s

typewritten testimony 

death certificate

some unincorporated

part of California

where turnip seed and

spider intersect

keep your eyes peeled

out on antelope road

a spider cartwheeling over the desert

intentional love song 6: bird at night

[[ moving old props around the stage ]]

what's the bird that sings at night?

poems rhyme about nightingales

but it's winter here and cold

and I don't think we have nightingales

in our trees

so what's the bird that sang just now?

now the cars have all gone

and the trains have shut down

and everyone else has drifted away

in the freeze?

every song has a moon

when you're up all night and lonely

every song has a moon and stars

when your days are right

all my songs have only you

and we're all alone

think I'll go out to hear that bird

if that bird hasn't flown away 

don't lock the door behind me

I'm just going to see what I hear

I won't take the keys

intentional love song 5: a little smoke

woman in a black dress

smoking secret cigarettes

says come and be the last man 

I'll ever kiss this year

roll down the highway

stop to buy some smoke

look around for a place to let

and drive on, drive on

woman in another state

says she's got a couch to spare

if I don't mind a little smoke

I say I don't mind 

a little smoke

she said the last man I ever kissed

was the last man I ever kissed

intentional love song 2: under the hood (internal combustion)

[[ internal combustion, four-stroke engine ]]

got to get down 

under the hood

make it

make it 

make it

make it good

you know how the strokes go

intake, compression, combustion, exhaust

you know how the strokes go

intake, compression, combustion, exhaust

you know how the strokes go

suck, squeeze, bang, blow.

when love runs down

you've got to 

when love runs down

you've got to 

when love runs down

you've got to 

check the pressure

charge it up

snug the lug nuts

pop the top

adjust the clutch

grease the gears

new sparks and shocks

or this baby walks

Lincoln Highway Blues

[[ It started with a quote in an article about the Beatles: "At the time I happened to be driving across the country on Interstate 80; in each city where I stopped for gas or food—Laramie, Ogallala, Moline, South Bend—the melodies wafted in from some far-off transistor radio or portable hi-fi. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard." And there are fires now. And Ulysses and Leda peek in. And I took a Google maps trip down that part of the Lincoln Highway (30, not 80). And other stuff. But it's not about the Beatles or any of that other stuff. It is summer + radio + car + open spaces + America in the vaguest sense ]]


we heard you

coming through the radio

we heard you

humming down the wire

we heard your voice.

between the mountains 

when the mountains 

were on fire

we heard you

rolling through the barrio

we heard you

moaning through the wall 

we caught you 

going down ... 

the river 

where the river 

starts to fall

your voice was everywhere all summer 

they had to tie me to the mast  

and when the fever had passed 

I slept into autumn

I slipped into nothing 

I dreamt I was gotten

by something with wings

we heard you all the way 

from Laramie to Cheyenne

we heard you all the way

from Cheyenne to Ogallala 

I believe I fell asleep in Ogallala

and had an awakening in Davenport

we heard  you 

going down ... 

the river 

where the river 

starts to fall

we heard you all the way 

we heard you all the way 

This highway

1st gear:
This highway snakes
through dark and day
before heading to town.

Look in its eyes,
you forget your way,
where you were going.

2nd gear:

Some towns, this highway
runs right through and cuts them in half.

Some towns, this highway
abandons and leaves them to wither.

How would you rather die?
Split down the middle?
Or missed all together?

3rd gear:
This town, the highway
just rolled over smooth.

This town isn't even
a sign in the wilderness anymore.

This town, the highway
punched a hole through and let out all the air.

4th gear:

This town, it tunnels under
This town, it wraps around
It squeezes the last living breath right out of this town

2nd gear:

Some towns...

1st gear:

This highway snakes...

[[ instrumental up to... ]]

5th gear:

Check your mirror:
the highway you follow
follows you.

[[ New highways kill a town two ways -- they run right through it and take everything away, or they go around it so no one ever bothers driving through that town anymore. Either way, the town dies. ]]

submarine races

Don't wait up, dad.

Kerrie is gone

to the submarine races

and she won't be back

any time soon.

Running the battery

down with the radio.

Running the engine

to keep themselves warm.

Don't be angry, mom

they didn't mean to be out late.

Don't be angry, dad

they didn't mean to fall asleep,

fall asleep.

[[ This one is from life (and from death), about a 15-year-old girl from our school, our grade, who went parking with her boyfriend. They left the engine running and she died of carbon monoxide poisoning. I think he lived, somehow. ]]

car going nowhere

At the side of the road,
alone at the wheel
of a car going nowhere.

Hands at ten and two,
don't move a muscle,
in a car going nowhere.

Let you bleed
at the wheel
of a car going nowhere.

A man in the lights,
spinning reds, spinning blues,
in the glare of the whites.

We see a silhouette,
the back of his head,
from a dashboard camera.

At the side of the road,
alone at the wheel
of a car going nowhere.

[[ a single image -- a man at the wheel of his car. he's been pulled over, the hint is that he's black, and if he twitches the wrong way the cops will kill him. Or maybe he is already dead. ]]