Page 27 - the NOISE August 2013

Everybody’s going through changes Everybody’s got a bag of his own Everybody’s talking about places
That can only be found in the greater unknown — The Fall, “Arms Control Poseur”
trip to America to see Brix’s family. Mark was a hit with the clan, but Brix was more excited to take her new husband somewhere very special and close to her heart: Disneyland.
Brix unabashedly loved Disneyland. She had grown up in Southern California and a trip to the theme park always thrilled her. She felt it was a truly enchanted place. As an adult, she learned how they used sounds and smells and sights to entice. Brix was de- lighted at the chance to introduce Disney- land’s magic to Smith.
They were accompanied by Brix’s jolly old granddad, who regaled Mark with tales of Brix’s childhood. Brix carried a portable cas- sette player to record the ambient noise with the idea of working it into a Fall track.
From the minute they stepped into the park, Mark grew strangely silent. He watched as Brix happily bought toys, stuffed her face with cotton candy, and posed for pictures with the roaming Disney characters.
After a while, Brix noticed Mark’s mood and asked if he was OK. He hated to spoil her good time, but he was fighting an over- powering sense of dread. Something about Disneyland was horribly ... wrong. Bad. Brix clucked and said she knew just the cure.
The Matterhorn was a giant rollercoaster designed to resemble its Alpine namesake. When Brix was a little girl, she would see the Matterhorn from her parents’ car as they neared Disneyland and it never failed to fill her with joy. She dragged Mark onto it while Grandpa waited below.
During the ride, Brix giggled and screamed while Mark gripped the safety bar with white knuckles. As they disembarked, Brix was startled to notice Mark was shaking and cry- ing. They stopped and sat down. Mark’s face was ashen. The only word Brix could get out of him was “evil”.
Not for the first or last time, Brix Smith worried about her husband’s mental health. Mark had completely charmed her relatives and their whole trip had been a blast until to- day. She knew Mark was a tough guy and his sudden change in temperament unnerved her. All this over a bloody rollercoaster she had been riding since the age of eight.
They reconnected with Grandpa and went on It’s A Small World, a ride guaranteed to upset no one, and Mark calmed down a bit.
the matterhorn
As they got off, they heard a commotion. A mini-ambulance whizzed toward the Mat- terhorn with a nurse hanging onto the back. The three followed and found the area cor- doned off. Some sort of accident had hap- pened. An apologetic announcement was made that the park was closing for the day and had to be evacuated as soon as possible.
Mark and Brix dropped Grandpa off and silently drove back to their hotel room. They turned on the TV and it was all over the news:
“Tragedy At Disneyland”.
Less than 20 minutes after Brix and Mark
had been on The Matterhorn, a 48 year old woman from Palo Alto fell or jumped out near the rollercoaster’s peak. She landed on the track below and a Matterhorn car full of happy riders decapitated her on its speedy descent. A team of experienced mountain climbers took nearly six hours to recover the headless body.
Brix was deeply shocked. Mark had been right. Her entire golden image of Disney- land was shattered, forever stained by death. When the two returned to England, they wrote a song about the experience.
DISNEY’S DREAM DEBASED
The day the dream went right back to base There was blood on the ground, blood on the sand, blood all around
Tracks of the ride of the bright murder hawk
The day the dream debased and went home
And the people did mill to those adrenaline rails And everything stopped, the nurses climbed up,
our faces paled
And there was no doubt at all, no two ways about it Was the day Disney’s dream debased
Saw a mouse and a fat-headed wife
And she told him what had gone down
But they did not know the extent of the show The people had gave in the mouth of their ride
And Dopey and Mickey and Brer and Pluto secretly prayed
Dark glasses on Western Union, man the gates The dream, an innocent meets her fate
Far away from Appalachia and the city hate
I remembered it from the back of my mind
>> continued on 26 >>
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news
• AUGUST 2013 • 27