NOTE: If you haven’t been following this from the beginning, and if you want to know the full sequence of events, start with the introduction. Click on Archives on the right.
Trip’s daughter has just found some notoriety by joining the all girl band “Toxic Blob”. I meet her at The Tentacle Coffee Bar near her rehearsal studio. We are the only customers. They serve sushi, tea, and coffee in the afternoon and full meals in the evenings. The place is sparse, with a few tables and chairs in a large space. The bar looks as if it once served as a drug store soda fountain. There are holes in the walls where various attachments have neen removed.
“Toxic Blob”released ten million flying ants at a recent summer concert on the campus at Prestige University.
“Yea, that’s P.U., get it?” Asks Liberty.
“Perhaps” I hesitated.
“The place stinks!” said Liberty fiercely but confidentially.
She went on in a quiet but serious voice, “I mean there is one group up there that thinks it is still 1968 or something, and another group who are promoting the ‘design argument’ against evolution. They need to wake up.” She broke off, and now it was she who hesitated.
In vulnerable and trusting tones she asked me to forget all that. I suggested that the substance of her remarks seemed plausible enough. After some further reflection Liberty agreed to let me post her remarks and moved on from arts to ants.
That number was used by the publicist. Though ten million is obviously an estimate, the figure is also allegedly mentioned in a suit the college filed against Toxi Blob. The campus of Prestige University was infested with fire ants and had to close its summer session for a full week after the incident.
Liberty showed me a clipping from the local paper, which revealed that Dr. Bookbender the dean at P.U. refused to be interviewed. The reporter was also put off by Carol Crowding of the college administration office. Dr. Flower Finderelli has offered off the record remarks only. He is co-chair of the Gender Studies Dept, at Prestige and reportedly knows Liberty well. A spokesman for Terminal Arthropod, the exterminator, refused to comment on the issue as it is now in litigation. Some one did say they still find ants on their desk.
Liberty plays under the name ‘Etta Smog’. She has a smile like her Mother’s, worthy of the screens at any multiplex, and speaks in the same soft friendly tones as her Dad.
“I am an entertainer” she said, “and our band is the only one doing the buzz thing”.
Some men walk in and sit down at the bar.
Liberty is wearing her work cloths. These are customized outfits made of pink black and orange plastic plates. In combination they look a bit like the armor jousting knights used to wear, except that Liberty does not care to cover too much of her shapely contour when on stage, or on warm days in rehearsal.
“It is like my exoskeleton” says Liberty. “It gives us the insect look and feel. I am not wearing the antennas and mouthparts, but we have them for the stage. Very important for building the band’s identity. It is our brand. It also feeds into the cross species thing.” Liberty does not explain further. She offers me a look at their concert on a portable DVD player.
Toxic Blob plays on stage from inside a translucent and multicolored plastic bubble that vibrates like jelly to sound.
“There’s is the Blob”. Liberty pointed out. I keep thinking of the seat on Jake’s deck and of jellyfish it brought to mind. The video shows the band breaking out of the blob and freeing the insects all at once. She leans across the small cafe table pointing out the effects.
“See them – see those beautiful clouds – there – and there – look at those flying up through the spot lights. We keep the bugs hidden in canisters, out of sight until the end.”
She explains that they’re latest music was inspired by the recent sounds of cicadas. “Why not?” asked Liberty. “I mean who’s the dude that wrote the orchestral piece ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’?
She paused. Her upper plates have ridden up crushing her breasts as she leans over to point out more clouds of insects. Liberty wriggles to adjust her plates. One by one the men at the coffee bar turned to stare.
“Rimsky-Korsakov!”
She exclaimes it in the tone of an expletive, as she turns suddenly, looking back at the men, and answering her own question. The men at the bar turn back to their lattes, as her plates slip back into more comfortable positions.
“That’s the dude who started the insect thing” she went on. “ Well, we use electronics and guitars, no orchestra, at least not yet.”
Since Liberty joined the band last year, they have done seven gigs at university campuses around the country and national fame beckons. Liberty shares her Dad’s business acumen, but she allows as how her taste in entertainment has led to some strain on the relationship.
“Dad’s OK “ she said philosophically, “He can see the bottom line. He’ll get over it. I found his wine storage thing was a perfect place to keep my insect larva. It kept them sleepy until the right time. So Dad didn’t know what was going on. Now the lawyers are all over him, and he is helping us too. That’s why we had to move on when his cel went off in the wine cellar. It was the lawyers. I know for sure. He’s got the best. Believe me.” She broke off to adjust the plates riding up on her collarbone.
“You mean your Dad’s lawyer’s are going to defend the band?”
“I didn’t say that.” The plates are flexibly joined by elastic threads. She pulles out and down slightly from each side, her elbows out to right and left like wings. As the orange and black segments stretched apart her breasts fell back into place under them.
“Okay, so your Dad’s got smart lawyers.”
“Let’s not go there” she said, still adjusting her exoskeleton. These things can get really bad, especially if they pinch my nipples!” she complained, making smaller adjustments with her fingers, and then went on, “This was our first release.” Liberty said of the ants. “We planned a hornet release next and a cockroach release at the next concert, but this first one may be our last.”
“Hornets! That sounds very dangerous. Once people got stung there could be a panic in the audience.”
“Oh so long as we are outside it would be okay.”
“With a very high wind perhaps.” I suggest they might want to release CDs next time. “We release insects,” said Liberty “We sellCDs.”
The concert video is over. She closes the CD player. “That’s it Fred.” She pulls away from the table. “Hey! don’t forget to look for our label, ‘Aphid Fuzz’. We are going to use white polyester fibers on the CD ‘jule box’ to make it a warm and fuzzy purchasing experience.” She got up. Her body bulged, her skin creased and peeped from under the plates. She and her plates moved towards the door. She glared at the men sitting at the coffee bar and went back to her rehearsal.
