I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-“Martian Monster” (MGM Grand Garden Arena, Friday 10, 31, 2014).

In honor of Halloween, these Ghost Box stories will be attached to a recent Phish Halloween show [with quoted material from various reviews]. 

Known for dawning musical costumes to celebrate [Halloween], Phish broke with tradition last year to offer a set of original music.  The Phish Bill read that Phish’s musical costume would be a 1964 Disney album of sound effects – Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House.  But it wasn’t a cover set. Phish played original music set amongst an incredibly psychedelic, theatrical graveyard stage accentuated by zombie dancers and a ghoulish MC.  At the start of the set, the stage was cleared before a graveyard came to the foreground.  Smoke filled the air, zombie dancers appeared, and music filled the venue. A haunted house was brought to the front of the stage, which eventually exploded, and all four-band members appeared, dressed in white like zombies. 

“Martian Monster” is the final song in the Phish Halloween set.  It’s a funky clavinet-fueled rocker and the longest track at 14 plus minutes.  Page is having a lot of fun on this song, both playing the riffs and sampling portions of the narration.

The song is meant to be a trip to Mars.  Because of the speed of your rocket, your trip is short.  It as described as

a filthy, original Phish groove mixed with spoken word quotes, sound effects and vocal warbles as actors performed zombie-fied dances in the space surrounding the haunted house. McConnell’s funky clavinet leads were at the forefront of the deliciously weird “Martian Monster.”

There are dozens of samples of “your trip is short.”  By the middle of the song, Trey starts reciting “your trip is short” which is getting manipulated crazily.  They are processed and robotic as we hear the Martian chewing and chewing (chewing you, obviously).

The song builds and builds and builds to a big blast off climax and then it returns to the funky keys and lots of “your trip is short.”

It’s a great ending to this surprising original set.

[READ: October 25, 2017] “Shadetree”

Just in time for Halloween. from the people who brought me The Short Story Advent Calendar comes The Ghost Box.

This is a nifty little box (with a magnetic opening) that contains 11 stories for Halloween.  Lovingly described thusly:

A collection of chilly, spooky, hair-raising-y stories to get you in that Hallowe’en spirit, edited and introduced by comedian and horror aficionado Patton Oswalt.

There is no “order” to these books, so I’m reading them in what I think was the order they were boxed (or at least the order I last put them back in the box).

This is the final book in the box and it’s a doozy.

There was a lot of this story that made me really angry and I’m trying to decide if it’s a misogynist story or just a powerful story where a woman is the victim (subtle distinction, I know).

The story is about a girl named Colly Sue and a boy named Shadetree.  They enjoyed listening to the stories that Shadetree’s great-uncle would tell.  They were spooky supernatural stories about ghosts, witches and haunts.  He had a dry whispery voice and it made the stories seem very real. Colly Sue was frightened but never stopped coming to hear.  Shadetree enjoyed spooking Colly Sue.  He would grab her during the story or claim that he was a spook or a haunt.  One day he told Colly Sue that he was a swapchild–a small haunt that was exchanged for a human being.  And Colly Sue didn’t doubt it.  Shadetree asserted, “I’d never hurt you, Colly Sue.”

The next day, Shadetree told everyone at school that he was a haunt and this was believed without question by everyone.  Shadetree’s name came from the fact that he was very pale and could not really venture in to the sun so she spent most of his time under shade trees.  And everyone believed there was something supernatural about him.

One day, Shadetree killed his great-uncle.  It was an accident–a rock was kicked up from the lawn mower and hit him right in the head.  Shadetree told Colly Sue to tell her cousin the local mortician not to embalm his great-uncle, saying it was his great-uncle’s request.  Colly Sue doubted that was true, but couldn’t imagine why Shadetree would tell her that.  People assumed that Shadetree killed his uncle on purpose and that his death affected him strongly, because he grew every more solitary.

In due time they graduated high school.  Colly Sue was in line to inherit her mother’s farm, but it would not come until she was married.  People assumed she marry Shadetree (and her mother was not happy about that).  But there was another boy who was after her, Bubba Colbin.  Her mother approved of Bubba.

Bubba wanted her and he was used to getting what he wanted.  They went out one night and he tried to force himself on her. She was a lot stronger than he realized.  Eventually he told her that he would tell her mother that she had been sleeping around unless he let him have her way.

So he raped her.

She did not move an inch during the act.  Nor did she move afterward while he drove her home, but lay there in that same awkward accusatory pose until he threatened to hit her.

She got home and told Shadetree and said she would never marry Bubba.  But Shadetree said that she should marry Bubba after all. He explained that she couldn’t inherit the farm until she got married so she should do it.  And leave Bubba to him.

This part is pretty horrible to deal with.  But she does marry him.  Shadetree begins trying to scare Bubba away.  But Colly Sue was disappointed in the results–she expected a campaign more complicated and subtle.  Mostly Shadetree just seemed to be annoying Bubba, and Bubba figured the best way to get the harassment to stop was to beat Colly Sue. Which he did.  Boy I hate this.

The next day Shadetree waited for Bubba.  Bubba walked defiantly up to them, but he was intimidated by Shadetree for sure.  And when pipsqueak Shadetree was able to lift Bubba up over his head, Bubba was more than a little frightened.  So that when he told Bubba to run, Bubba ran.  And as she watched, Shadetree seemed to have some real supernatural abilities.

But Colly Sue was not free–she found that she was pregnant.  I really hated the story for this.

But then things go a bit more surreal.  Shadetree told her that he could help her with the child as well.  He would trade this wretched baby for a haunt–not for Colly Sue of course, it didn’t matter who received the haunt.  Colly Sue didn’ think that was such a good idea but Shadetree didn’t wait.  He grabbed the baby and ran.

The end of the story is pretty twisted and somehow I feel better about it than I thought I would.  Things don’t get any better for Colly Sue, but the supernatural nature of things somehow removes the sting of the misogyny (I mean, yes, it’s bad when women are victims, but they have to be victims sometimes right?  All victims can’t be men). It’s a still a pretty dark and bleak story with a kind of late 70s gruesomeness splashed onto it.