Cyborg Alice
A large screen behind the stage shows an industrial landscape. Alice sits on a tiny chair, surrounded by tinsel, listening to headphones. Text appears on the screen: There might be a cyborg Alice taking account of these new dimensions.
Alice speaks loudly over the music.
I am hiding here. Away from my house. Just me and my Johnny Longjohn.
Music: When the lights have all burnt out
And the computers all shut down
When the old way is the new way
And the new ways really weird
Headphones on.
Music:Who is gonna stop the crazy clock?
Who can take us away from here
Headphones off.
I keep counting the days until I can get the hell out of here. I don’t want to grow to be a woman their way; I want my body to stay safe from all this technology.
She is yelling.
They start the systems so young. They move move move despite any moral dilemma. Their data is all distorted!
She stands.
The Age of Paper has long past. Spinning. Is this Utopia? The technology terrifies me sometimes and I am not sure I will survive it.
She puts the headphones on.
Music: When the genders have all gone by the by
And identity is all fractured
When the physical is digital
But digital feels weird
Headphones off.
Alice holds up her apron to become a screen. On the screen we see her future self, a glammed up rockstar walking towards the audience.
In my dreams I imagine I am savior rising from the streets, just like Johnny Longjohn, all edgy and andro and sexy, with music just commercial enough to achieve mainstream success while maintaining my indie credibility. And I step in to summarize the events of the past years and I put an end to the Era of Accidents. I turn off the technology! Contain the contamination!
But, no. The rockstar pauses, smiles and turns and walks away.
The TV sets of the 1950s turned to the news cameras of the 1970s to the TV wrist bands advertised in the eighties to the flat screens and tiny machines of the 2000s. We’ll all be out of date tomorrow.
Headphones back on.
Headphones off.
I love Johnny Longjohn. And I can’t stand my parents. Their pathetic faces punching little time cards, pulling levers, pushing keys, and maintaining levels any way they can. Doing patterns in the corporate park facilities again and again and again for favorable performance reviews. Fiending for fuel, fending off foreign terrorists, failing the dream their parents forced them to follow…feeling sorry. I never want that for myself. I want to be an artist, a pop icon like Johnny Longjohn.
Music:
I’m a rock and roll sensation
Music TV creation
The pop icon turning politician and back
A rock and roll sensation
Music TV creation
Saving the planet with a perfect soundtrack.