Rael touches his face to confirm that he is still alive. He writes Death off as an illusion,
All that show for nothing? Now I really feel ripped off!
but notices a thick musky scent hanging in the air. He moves to the corner where the scent is stronger, discovering a crack in the rubble through which it is entering. He tries to shift the stones and eventually clears a hole large enough to crawl out of. The perfume is even stronger on the other side and he sets off to find its source, with a new-found energy.
The scent grows richer, he knows he must be near,
He finds a long passageway lit by chandelier.
Each step he takes, the perfumes change
From familiar fragrance to flavours strange.
A magnificent chamber meets his eye.It's the perfume counter of a department store.
He finally reaches a very ornate pink-water pool. It is lavishly decorated with gold fittings.
You can order a similar set-up from Bed, Bath & Beyond.
The walls around the pool are covered with a maroon velvet up which honeysuckle is growing. From out of the mist on the water comes a series of ripples.
Of course the velevet needs a good once-over with Exit-Mould because of all that mist in the air.
Inside, a long rose-water pool is shrouded by fine mist.
Stepping in the moist silence, with a warm breeze he's gently kissed.
Thinking he is quite alone,
He enters the room, as if it were his own
But ripples on the sweet pink water
Reveal some company unthought of -
Three snakelike creatures are swimming towards Rael. Each reptilian creature has the diminutive head and breasts of a beautiful woman.Well, give them back!
Too bad. I'm a "leg man" myself.
His horror gives way to infatuation as their soft green eyes show their welcome. The Lamia invite him to taste the sweet water and he is quick to enter the pool. As soon as he swallows some liquid, a pale blue luminescence drips off from his skin.
I'd go see doctor about that, too.
I know a good dermatologist.
The Lamia lick the liquid; very gently as they begin, with each new touch, he feels the need to give more and more.
Several faith-healing ministers are seeking the secret of this touch.
Rael stands astonished doubting his sight,
Struck by beauty, gripped in fright;
Three vermilion snakes of female face
The smallest motion, filled with grace.
Muted melodies fill the echoing hall,
But there is no sign of warning in the siren's call:
"Rael welcome, we are the Lamia of the pool.
We have been waiting for our waters to bring you cool."
Putting fear beside him, he trusts in beauty blind,
He slips into the nectar, leaving his shredded clothes behind.
"With their tongues, they test, taste and judge all that is mine.Including the aerosol gun and that shirt he's been wearing for days--yuck!
They move in a series of caresses
That glide up and down my spine.I don't care what anyone says. That's gotta feel nice.
They knead his flesh until his bones appear to melt, and at a point at which he feels he cannot go beyond, they nibble at his body. Taking in the first drops of his blood, their eyes blacken and their bodies are shaken. Distraught with helpless passion he watches as his lovers die. In a desperate attempt to bring what is left of them into his being, he takes and eats their bodies,
Ew! Gabriel, we thought you were a vegetarian!
and struggles to leave his lovers' nest.
As they nibble the fruit of my flesh, I feel no pain,
Only a magic that a name would stain.
With the first drop of my blood in their veinsOh, you neglected to mention the IV's.
Their faces are convulsed in mortal pains.
He's such a ladies man.
The fairest cries, 'We all have loved you Rael'."
Each empty snakelike body floats,
Silent sorrow in empty boats.
A sickly sourness fills the room,
The bitter harvest of a dying bloom.
Looking for motion I know I will not find,
I stroke the curls now turning pale, in which I'd lain entwined
"O Lamia, your flesh that remains I will take as my food"
It is the scent of garlic that lingers on my chocolate fingers.Chocolate and garlic: Two great tastes that go great together!
Whitman's Sampler No.65: Garlic Whip.
Looking behind me, the water turns icy blue,
The lights are dimmed and once again the stage is set for you.
Instrumental
I guess we get a break from making snippy commentary here.
Why?
[ The Arrival | A Visit to the Doktor | The Raven ]
The Arrival
Leaving by the same door from which he had come in, he finds some sort of freaks ghetto on the other side. When they catch sight of him, the entire street of distorted figures burst into laughter.
You still need to check your zipper!
One of the colony approaches him.
Rael:
I wandered lonely as a cloud,Hey, I didn't know Peter Gabriel wrote that!
Didn't you know that "William Wordsworth" is Peter Gabriel's pen name?
Till I came upon this dirty street.
I've never seen a stranger crowd;
Slubberdegullions on squeaky feet,You just made that word up, didn't you?
Hey! "Squeaky" is a perfectly good word.
Continually pacing,
With nonchalant embracing,
Each orifice disgracing
And one facing me moves to say "hellay".Hey, it's a frat party!
He is grotesque in every feature, a mixture of ugly lumps and stumps. His lips slip across his chin as he smiles in welcome and offers his slippery handshake.But I'm sure deep down inside he's a beautiful human being.
His skin's all covered in slimy lumps.
With lips that slide across each chin.
His twisted limbs like rubber stumps
Are waved in welcome say 'Please join in.'
My grip must be flipping,
Cos his handshake keeps slipping,
My hopes keep on dipping
And his lips keep on smiling all the time.I had a date like that once.
Rael is a little disillusioned, when the Slipperman reveals that the entire colony have one-by-one been through the same glorious romantic tragedy with the same three Lamia, who regenerate themselves every time,
So it's not really a tragedy then, is it?
and that now Rael shares their physical appearance and shadowy fate.
He shares the Lamias' physical appearance????
No, you see, well...never mind...
Slipperman:
"We, like you, have tasted love.It tastes like garlic and chocolate.
Don't be alarmed at what you see,
You yourself are just the same
As what you see in me."
Rael:
Me, like you? like that!Rael's a very PC kinda guy.
Slipperman:
"You better watch it son, your sentence has only just begun
You better run and join your brother John."
Amongst the contorted faces of the Slippermen, Rael recognises what is left of his brother John. They hug each other.In a manly, New York street gang sort of way, of course.
Of course.
A Visit to the Doktor
John bitterly explains that the entire life of the Slipperman is devoted to satisfying the never-ending hunger of the senses,
In other words, they're just like regular people.
which has been inherited from the Lamia. There is only one escape route; a dreaded visit to the notorious Doktor Dyper who will remove the source of the problems, or to put it less politely, castrate.
Or even less politely, to pull a John Wayne Babbitt.
You know he probably won't miss it, given his "success" with it so far.
They discuss the deceptively-named escape for a long time and decide to go together to visit the Doktor.
Slipperman:
"You're in the colony of slippermen.
There's no who? why? what? or when?
You get out if you've got the gripe
To see, Doktor Dyper, reformed sniperHe's going to shoot it off? Now that's good aim!
- he'll whip off your windscreenwiper"
And you only have to give a fifteen dollar co-pay under the Slipperman Colony HMO.
Hey, I call mine a windscreenwiper, too.
Hey, you're a robot, you don't have one.
I do so. It's a yellow, plastic shoobedoobe.
Rael:
John and I are able
To face the Doktor and his marble table.
The Doktor:
Understand Rael, that's the end of your tail.Never allow a surgeon who doesn't know the difference between a tail and a penis to work on you!
Rael:
"Don't delay, dock the dick!"
I watch his countdown timer tick....dick, dock, dick, dock.......
And the movie director yells, "Cut!"
The Raven
They survive the ordeal and are presented with the offensive weapons in sterile yellow plastic tubes, with gold chains.
I think they sell these on The Home Shopping Network.
I saw a three-hour infomercial on them. You know they really pull the chicks.
"People usually wear them around their necks," said the Doktor handing them over.
Most men wear them between their legs, but you sure took care of that, Doc!
"The operation does not necessarily exclude use of the facility again, for short periods, but of course when you want it you must provide us with considerable advance warning."
And another fifteen dollar copay.
And how does this differ from just behaving responsibly? I mean, why cut it off? Geeze, I guess Rael is just an extreme sort of guy, huh.
He places the number into a tube,
It's a yellow plastic "shoobedoobe".Come on, you made that one up too!
[Sings] Shoobedoobe doo, where are you?...
It says: "Though your fingers may tickle
You'll be safe in our pickle."As the brothers talk themselves through their new predicament,
In voices an octave higher.
a big black raven flies into the cave, swoops down, grabs Rael's tube right out of his hands and carries it up into the air in his beak.
Don't you just hate it when that happens?
Suddenly, black cloud come down from the sky.
It's a supersized black bird that sure can fly...
The raven brings on darkness and night
He flies right down, gives me one hell of a fright.It's a low-budget version of Alfred Hictchcock, The Birds. Instead of lots of little birds, there's just the one big bird.
He take the tube right out of my hands
Man, I've got to find out where that black bird lands.
Rael calls for John to go with him.
And he replies"Nevermore!"
"I will not chase a black raven. Down here you must read and obey the omens. There's disaster where the raven flies."
Rael:
"Look here John, I've got to run
I need you now, you going to come?"
He says to me:
John:
"Now can't you see
Where the raven flies there's jeopardy.[Sings the jeopardy theme.]
We've been cured on the couch
Now you're sick with your grouch.
I'll not risk my honey pouch
Which my slouch will wear slung very low."John is talking in tongues!
So once more John deserts his brother.Surprise, surprise.
If you can't trust your no-good creole half brother...
Rael:
He walks away and leaves me once again.
Even though I never learn,
I'd hoped he'd show just some concern.John showed concern. It's just it was for his own honey pouch. And probably his shoobedoobe, too.
The bird leads Rael down a narrow tunnel, he seems to be allowing him to keep at a closed distance. But as Rael thinks he might almost catch hold of the bird, the tunnel opens and finishes at an enormous subterranean ravine. Casually, the raven drops his precious load into the rushing waters at the bottom. It's enough to drive a poor boy ravin' mad.
Peter made a pun! Ha ha ha!
And one worthy of a tabloid newspaper.
Seeing the dangers of the steep cliff, our courageous hero stands impotent
No joke!
and glowers.
Grrrrrr...
I'm in the agony of Slipperpain
I pray my undercarriage will sustain.Well, actually, your undercarriage is relatively safe, assuming that tube is water tight.
The chase is on, the pace is hot
But I'm running so very hard with everything that I've got.
He leads me down an underpass
Though it narrows, he still flies very fast,
When the tunnel stops
Catch sight of the tube, just as it drops.
I'm on top of a bank too steep to climb
I see it hit the water just in time
to watch it float away...
He follows a small path running along the top, and watches the tube bobbing up and down in the water as the fast current carries it away.
Oh, well, you never got much use out of it anyway.
However, as he walks around a corner Rael sees a sky-light above him, apparently built into the bank. Through it he can see the green grass of home, well not exactly; he can see Broadway.
As he walks along the gorge's edge,
He meets a sense of yesteryear.
A window in the bank above his head
Reveals his home amidst the streets.
Subway sounds, the sounds of complaint
The smell of acid on his gun of paint.
As it carves out anger in a blood-red band,
Destroyed tomorrow by an unknown hand;
- My home.
Is this the way out from the endless scene?
Or just an entrance to another dream?
And the light dies down on Broadway.
His heart, now a little bristly, is shaken by a surge of joy and he starts to run, arms wide open, to the way out. At this precise point in time his ears pick up a voice screaming for help. Someone is struggling in the rapids below. It's John.How did John suddenly get down there? Oh yeah, the gods of plot contrivance placed him there.
But as the skylight beckons him to leave,
He hears a scream from far below.
Within the raging water, writhes the form
Of brother John, he cries for help.
He pauses for a moment remembering how his brother had abandoned him. Then the window begins to fade - it's time for action.
The gate is fading now, but open wide.
But John is drowning, I must decide
Between the freedom I had in the rat-race,
Or to stay forever in this forsaken place;
Hey John!The rat race was pretty crappy, after all.
He makes for the river and the gate is gone,
Back to the void where it came from.
And the light dies down on Broadway.
He rushes to the cliff and scrambles down the rocks. It takes him a long time to get down to the water, trying to keep up with the current at the same time. As he nears the water's edge he sees John losing strength.
Struggling down the slope,
There's not much hope.
I begin to try to ride the scree
but the rocks are tumbling all around me.
If I want John alive,
I've got to ditch my fear - take a dive
While I've still got my drive to survive.This is interesting--you're willing to take a dive for John, but not your penis.
Evel Knievel you got nothing on me.Except skill and lots of experience.
Here I go!
Well stop gasbagging and get on with it!
He dives down into the cold water.
No, wait, I forgot, I can't swim!!
At first he is thrown onto the rocks, and pulled under the water by a fast moving channel, which takes him right past John, down river.
Yeah, good move Rael.
Moving down the water
John is drifting out of sight,
Its only at the turning point
That you find out how you fight.
In the cold, feel the cold
all around
And the rush of crashing water
Surrounds me with its sound.
Rael manages to grab a rock, pull himself to the surface and catch his breath. As John is carried past, Rael throws himself in again and catches hold of his arm. He knocks John unconscious"I've always wanted to do that."
Woo hoo! Now if only he could knock himself out.
and then locking themselves together, he rides the rapids into the slow running water, where he can swim to safety.
Striking out to reach you
I can't get through to the other side,
When you're racing in the rapids
There's only one way, thats to ride.
Taken down, taken down
by the undertow
I'm spiralled down the river bed,
My fire is burning low.
Catching hold of a rock that's firm,
I'm waiting for John to be carried past.
We hold together, hold together and shoot the rapids fast.
And when the waters slow down
The dark and the deep
have no-one, no-one, no-one, no-oneOne more "no-one". Please?
no-one left to keep.
Hang on John! We're out of this at last.
But as he hauls his brother's limp body onto the bank he lies him out and looks hopefully into his eyes for a sign of life. He staggers back in recoil, for staring at him with eyes wide open is not John's face - but his own."Man, I could sure use a haircut."
Somethings changed, that's not your face. It's mine - it's mine!
Rael cannot look away from those eyes,"In my eyes...the light the heat..."
mesmerized by his own image.
Narcsist.
In a quick movement, his consciousness darts from one face to the other, then back again, until his presence is no longer solidly contained in one or the other. In this fluid state he observes both bodies outlined in yellow and the surrounding scenery melting into a purple haze.
[Sings first few bars of purple haze.]
'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy!
With a sudden rush of energy up both spinal columns, their bodies, as well, finally dissolve into the haze.
When its cold, it come slow
it is warm, just watch it growhehehe!
- all around me
it is here. it is now.
Just a little bit of it can bring you up or down.
Like the supper it is cooking in your hometown.
it is chicken, it is eggs,
it is in between your legs.Not for Rael anymore. He lost his shoobedoobe, remember?
it is walking on the moon,
leaving your cocoon.
it is the jigsaw. it is purple haze.
it never stays in one place, but it's not a passing phase,
it is in the singles bar, in the distance of the face
it is in between the cages, it is always in a space
it is here. it is now.
Any rock can be made to roll
If you've enough of it to pay the toll
it has no home in words or goal
Not even in your favourite hole
it is the hope for the dopeAre you referring to this movie with that?
Who rides the horse without a hoof
it is shaken not stirred;A brief cameo by James Bond!
Cocktails on the roof.
When you eat right fru it you see everything alive
it is inside spirit, with enough grit to survive
If you think that its pretentious,This whole movie is pretentious!
you've been taken for a ride.
I'll say! I paid eight bucks to see this!
What? I had to pay twelve and I had to hand over my shoobedoobe as a deposit at the box office.
Look across the mirror sonny, before you choose de cide
it is here. it is now
it is Real. it is Rael
'cos it's only knock and knowall, but I like it...Hey, I didn't know Peter Gabriel wrote that!
The man gets around.
All this takes place without a single sunset, without a single bell ringing and without a single blossom falling from the sky.If you're trying to convince us the plotline is not corny, you're too late.
There was a plotline?
Yet it fills everything with its mysterious intoxicating presence. It's over to you.
Eight bucks and now you say it's all up to me? If it was up to me, I wouldn't have paid eight bucks for this movie!
To me? Well if you think I could provide a more satisfying ending, you'd be right. If you think I have the slightest inclination, you'd be wrong.
But, I ask you, what about the lamb??? Is it still repeatedly lying down on Broadway, or was it hit by a car, or what?
Show's over...let's get out of here...
[The ending credits roll. Everyone gets up and leaves the theater.]
"And there was much rejoicing..."
Hooray.