"KillerWhaleTank"
(from New Orleans is Sinking)
I had a job before this. I had a job before this. Ultimately it was that job that drove me into this. I worked at an aquarium, an aquarium with lots of money from the government, so it was huge! I was a clean and scrub man; we called each other in the C&S Union. I scrubbed the inside of the Killer Whale Tank. And after a while the boys in the C&S, the Clean and Scrub, we just sorta made it one word. TheKillerWhaleTank. TheKillerWhaleTank, uuh. TheKillerWhaleTank, uuh. I'm going into, TheKillerWhaleTank, uuh. I got along with these two big beasts so well it was like they knew me, they looked at me with their hundred year old eyes and it was like they knew me. I'd put on my scuba gear, my mask, my regulator and I'd fall into the tank with nary a sound. Maybe a "fffft", and then I was underwater. Sometimes, I'd jump out, right in front of the window. When people are expecting a Killer Whale and they see a human they get spooked! Spooked. Anyway I'd do that.

But I was in the water this particular day, unbeknownst to me, Shamu and Bartholomew, their relationship had gone stale. Seems I was going in there so much, and I was lookin so good; Shamu took a shining to me. And they're so smart those things you know. They've got all these human emotions. Love. Lust. Greed! Hundred year old eye jealousy! Bartholomew was livid! Unbeknownst to me; I can't hear a god damn thing under water! He came up, he was bumpin against me a lot. That stale, Killer Whale; bumping up against someone so pale, and frail; how was I supposed to know the Killer Whale relationship had gone stale? Well ... he brushes up to me a couple times, his skins like sandpaper. I say, "Hey man, Bartholomew, what's up? What's goin on big fella? What is it? I don't wanna steal your Mommy and I sure don't wanna take the place of your Daddy. I only wanna be your friend.

And he circled around and I thought we were all patched up and I was scrubbin and he took my, he came and he, he came and he, he ripped, he ripped my left arm off. I mean Killer Whales they're beasts of the deep, they're quite docile and friendly in captivity but somewhere along the line, thousands of years of breeding just snapped and he took my left arm man. He took my left arm, took my fuckin left arm. "What is it Bartholomew?" I spoke to him in a language he could understand as I came back ... WEEEEOOOOOO ... [pale as a light bulb] ..."


"Double Suicide"
(from Highway Girl)
"She had a beautiful apartment, she had a beautiful apartment. Well, actually it was a lousy apartment but she she's very handy with her hands and she's got Architectural Digest magazines so she knows what she's doing. She likes to decorate her apartment in the Santa Fe tradition, I told her it was dated but I see more of the world than she does. She got an apartment where the property was cheap, next to the freeway. She said, "I save lots of money but I lose lots of sleep, in my apartment where the property is so cheap". And we'd laugh, and we'd laugh, and we'd laugh. Oh, we'd take pot shots at the passing cars.

And we'd laugh. Ah, we were dumping the body and we'd laugh. We found a place that was dark and rotten. A place where the police helicopters would never spot it. I destroyed the map that we so carefully ploted. Everyday we were dumping a body, she and me, every single day. And we'd laugh about it.

That's when I knew it was time that we both kill ourselves together. Together we were nothing but a menace, apart we were nothing but lonely. I read too much, I thought we should kill ourselves. She doesn't read a thing, she believed me. "Are you really the messiah?" "Yes, I am". She was younger than me, too. She was younger than me. And I said to her, I said, "You know Pauline, no one stamps on a burning bag of shit any more, nobody.

"Are you really the messiah?" "Yes, I am. Believe it." So ah, we opted to kill ourselves, as I said but we had one rifle and one bullet, so I told her to put her head down close to the barrel and put the barrel sorta into her mouth and I'd be right behind her, with my head right behind hers. I said her life would end instantly, mine might have a few extra minutes of agony and suffering. We couldn't pull the trigger, so we attached a string to it, around the lamp and to the doorknob, the first person to come into our apartment would blow both are heads off. We got to (we got ta) thinking, we changed our minds, you know, I mean we got scared and uh, we kinda chickened out and we (we) and we laughed, you know, we laughed about it, what were we thinking? You know together we're not that bad ya know (we're not that bad), we don't need to kill ourselves, we don't need to kill ourselves.

And then the D Train rattled overhead, knocked the door ajar, the door ajar, the door ajar, the door ajar, the lock, the faulty lock, the door swung open and killed her ..."


"Bone Marrow"
(from Highway Girl)
"Ahhhruuuummmm ... Ahhhruuuummmm ... I was sitting in my brand new house that I bought just adjacent to the Interstate. Yeah, I go where the property's cheap. I save lots of money but I lose lots of sleep. I was celebrating the anniversary of Chernobyl. I was watching it on my TV thinking to myself, well, ok maybe what we need to do is sell safe and efficient nuclear engery. And sure enough I saw an ad and I thought about my girl and I thought about how sometimes it seems as though she is radio dead.

I did a bone marrow transplant on her. I got a steady hand and a keen eye. I reduced myself to the shape of a pinhead and put myself in a little capsule that would make it's way through the skin flesh, lower layers of the epidermous, through the veins, and into the bone and into the bone marrow. And I travelled throughout her body in her bone marrow. It's a slow-moving stream so it took me a while. I went through the ribs and it took me about two months. And I circum-navigated her heart with all it's fleshy valves and it looked like that, and it moved like that, like a fist-sized knot.

When I emerged, I spotted your problem. From inside your bones I could see that your heart was ineffective, ill-used, mismanaged. On my encouragement, she got a full heart transplant. I save lots of money but I lose lots of sleep. She said "Don't you think, boy, you move a bit to fast"? I said "Slowing down don't make it last."


"Laminar Flow"
(prior to Eldorado)
"The outer layers of the whale. The connective tissue, the skin and blubber, have the capacity to simulate fluids in motion. You people down front you check this story out because this will interest you, because YOU know, YOU understand about a large group moving through water. It seems to me that you would like something a little more economical, a little easier way to move through the crowd. Well, the big whale as I said, it has the capacity to undulate its skin, to simulate fluids in motion almost as if it itself was a liquid substance. This strange quality is what hydrodynamics experts call laminar flow. Laminar flow, it sounds good doesn't it? It can move through the water without friction or drag. For example, a dolphin attains torpedo speed expending a tenth as much energy. A-HA-HA, A-HA. DO IT!"


"Fille de Roi"
(prior to Fully Completely)
"Here's a song for the Fille de Roi. Daughters of the King. Women who came over here and married the settlers. Women brought over in ships, to populate the country. La Fille de Roi, daughters of the King. You think after the voyage, after purifying themselves on the voyage they wanted to put up with any shit? We've got a country to populate! Don't give me so much grief!"


"He was My Man"
(from Pigeon Camera)
"You folks alright down there? Ya alright down there? Anyone get hurt? Anyone get hurt down there? When he jumped in, anyone get hurt? Everyone's ok? I knew I should have tripped him. When I saw him running across the stage I knew I should have taken care of him. I knew I should of took him down. I shoulda done it and I'm sorry. It was my responsibility. He was my man. Yeah, Clint Eastwood, Clint Eastwood with John F. Kennedy; Kevin Costner with President Regan. He was my man! Shit!"