Tales of a Scorched Earth by jackyl@texoma.net first off, as always, the specs for film and stuff. film: black and white (sorry guys, it's a fetish... ;) very crisp, clean film, though. no jumps or scrathes or anything.... scenery: the scenes all look like a war zone....plaster coming off buildings, piles of rubble, rats, bugs, ands vermin abound, (dirt and grime and scum too, for that matter). every single person looks like they were a Jew who spent 6 or 7 years in a nazi concentration camp......one of the worst ones, buchenwald, p'raps? anyway, 'nuff babbling..... oh wait! *disclaimer*--there is heroin in this, and there is a guy who's od-ed at the end...this was unintentional (read the paragraph at the end) and i mean no disrespect to jimmy or jonathan....or anyone else, for that matter. okay that's all.... opening scene/music: bare room. wood floors. it's an apartment, you can see out the the door (cause it ain't there) into the hall and onto the stairway. a bare lightbulb in a plain scoket with a pullchain is in the middle of the roof. the camera is in the upper corner of the room, on the right as you face the door. the edges are slightly curved. okay now then......as the opening guitar squeal starts, a couple appears at the bottom of the screen, making out like there's no tomorrow. after the drums kick in, another couple pops in, and another, and another, until the room's full. about the time the drums quit again, they disappear in the order they appeared, 'cept for the last 3 couples. "farewell goodnite" the next 2 couples are gone, leaving only the original "last one out turn out the light" they disappear and the lightbulb explodes and there's darkness "and let me be, let me die inside" same room, but the camera's chest level, opposite the door. a guy's (pyscho, too) trying to kill himself, but 3 others stop him. very violent. "let me know the way from this world of hate in you" a little girl (we'll call her betty, cause she'll be back), about 10, running down a street (from upper right to lower left) among crumbling piles of old buildings. she turns back, still running, to look at the angry mob beating a small group of people. it's a very typical mob--torches, clubs, pitchforks, etc. "cause the dye is cast and the bitch is back" a group of 25-40 year old men gathered around a craps table, screaming their asses off (typical gambling, whatever). in the background, on the right side of the screen, is a thin, devilish woman. all in black. she smiles ever so slightly and very wickedly. she should look like satan's lover or something. okay yeah i know it's dye as in a mold and not die like dice, but this is my idea. get yer own. as for ms. satan, she's smiling cause now she owns their souls. "and we're all dead yeah we're all dead" anyone seen the terminator movies? ya know when the nuke goes off and everyone gets wasted? that's what happens. to the angry mob, and the little girl (betty). she's still running away, but it get's 'er anyway. "inside the future of a shattered past" you know that thing in 2001 that mr. bowman turned into? (oh god--it's full of stars)? billy as one of those, in a fetal position. he's inside a clear glass globe that shatters in an explosion of glass shards. while this happens he curls into a little ball into nothingness. "i lie just to be real and i'd die just to feel" okay i'm borrowing this from someone else's interp of this line...not in a vid, mind you, but just a song interp. a group of preppy teens at a trendy little coffeshop. this is in '97, just so you know. that's the first half. then that image is ripped down the middle and the same kids are lying on the rubble, beaten and bashed and bruised. one's dead. (i really don't like this part...maybe i'll change it one of these days...) "why do the same old things keep on happening" a 3-second fast motion clip of a nuke kuking the city. it plays all thru this line, over and over and over and over.... "because beyond my hopes there are no feelings yeah" this line's tuff. okay how's this: betty! back from the dead...she's climbing a rope that streches up into the bright, clear, sunny sky....but everyone's fighting to pull her down.... music in between lines: the band. on a platform, with a building (abandonned) behind on the right, a street just left of center, and piles of rubble down the street on the left. they jam. (they're arranged just like in concert: d'arcy, billy, james, with jimmy just behind and slightly above billy) "bless the martyrs and kiss the kids" a field. there's big tall crosses in a row, all exactly alike, nearly touching crossbars (lower left to upper right). each one has a martyr :) in extremly bad shape being crucified. in a circle around the base of each cross are 7 little children, dressed in prep school uniforms (the kids are from 1997), sitting cross-legged, holding hands, swaying back and forth and singing along (note-same 7 kids at each cross, and yup--there's betty!). yay! oh yeah, and there's the occasional nun walking aimlessly in the field... "for knowing better for knowing this" tough line...go with your gut, yeah......okay, betty, at a prep school (back in 1997), being offered a joint by one of her classmates. she looks around, then decides to take it..... "cause your all whores" a bunch of whores on a street corner (back to the horrible future now), in the foreground. this guy comes around the corner at the other end of the block and starts walking toward them (he's behind 'em, in case i confused you like i did me). "and i'm a fag" still the same scene, but now the guy, gets this look on his face of pure and utter disgust and wretchedness and loathing...why? i dunno..... "and i've got no mother and i've got no dad" betty and the other 6 kids (3 boys, one of 'em who offered her the joint, and 3 girls) in the future now, in torn prep school uniforms, sitting/lying in the rubble (sound familiar?) looking abandoned.... "to save me from the wasted" same scene, but now there's junkies and drug dealers and criminals around the little kids, who've huddle together and look scared now, too... "save me from myself (yeah yeah)" just betty now, looking from her left arm (full of heroin scars) to her right hand where she's holding a loaded syringe... "i lie just to be real and i'd die just to feel" same as this part the first time "why do the same old things keep on happening" betty shooting up...in the same room from the opening "cause beyond my hopes there are no feelings" she gets this look of pure ecstasy on her face as the hig sets in... "" if i knew what he was saying, i'd come up with something appropriate, but since i can't......okay. for this part, it's slow motion....the band, back on their platform, jamming in slo-mo. d'arcy looks cold and detached, james is rawking in his own little world, jimmy is pounding away at the drums with fury, and billy is attacking his guitar (like live :) "and tell me everything that i don't know " this is the only 'lost lyric' i understand....at this point, the band snaps into regular motion....and billy screams this into the mike (he hasn't been singing along until now) and they go on jamming.... "everyones lost waiting to be found and everyones a thought just waiting to fade" they stop jamming when the music slows, and then billy and james speak these words into the mikes "so fuck it all cause i don't care" betty, on a roof, looking out at the demolished and crumbling city, with a syringe in her hands....she crushes the syringe and you see blood seep out from between her fingers "so what somehow somewhere we dared" she steps up to the edge, and we can barely see her fall as we cut to.... "to try to dare " a guy, about 25, on the band's platform, fist in the air, screaming along with the "dare"....there's a crowd gathered around him, with their fists in the air too "to dare for a little more" betty, standing in the street (back from the dead again!). her back is to us, but we see an angry crowd coming toward her....coincidentally, the same crowd from the previous scene.....who happens to be the same angry mob from way back at "let me know the way..." but now she's standing defiantly and not running "i lie just to be real and i'd die just to feel" betty, back in prep school, watching her teacher leave the gym (why a gym? i dunno), and then turns to face the camera and lights her joint... "why do the same old things keep on happening" the room from the beginning, camera at the same place as the opening scene, but now the floor is littered with heroin needles and drug paraphenalia, and there's a dude who's od-ed on the floor. "cause beyond my hopes there are no reasons" betty again, back at the top of the building (about 20 stories tall), at the edge, ready to jump...and she does, but just before she hits the ground, we cut to....... "" we see a school playground from the top of the 2-story school, and a hill in the distance, just to the left of center... in the playground: betty and the other six kids, before the war, before they started taking drugs, before anything bad happened, when they were still innocent...oh yeah, they're playing something... on the hill....we can barely see ms. satan sitting cross-legged, with her fingers steepled, smiling like she was before..... fade to black.