(Fantasy) CBSRMT Y2K+: You're the playwright

[Texas]

KARAF, the night before I read your post I started taking my RMT imagination a step further. It's been an incredibly busy two weeks for me and Thursday marked a peaking point where I'd been able to get "over the hump" and get some problems solved on this huge web project I've been working on. As I was coming back from shopping with my son at Wally World I started thinking "If I could be a playwright for the RMT today, in 2003 (or beyond) what would I submit?"

Charlie, feel free to delete or move this if you think it's inappropriate, but why don't we start a thread for "plays I'd like to see today if the RMT were on". I know we're all busy and (hopefully) don't have too much free time on our hands, but if anyone does, why don't we make a fantasy title of "our story" (and a made up number if we want to go that far) plus a description as we might write it in our listening log. (We don't have to give away the ending here either, unless we want to.)

I threw together (or some might say "threw up" smile.gif ) some ideas Thursday night and Friday morning...maybe it was cathartic and therapeutic as I felt like I was "decompressing" after solving the big problems, and I've been listening to a steady diet of RMT episodes throughout this past two weeks. I'll list my own current fantasy play ideas below:

[Texas]

http://www.fanzing.com/images/imgs01/tina.gif[/img:db51dc041e]

[i:db51dc041e]"He worships the ground she's made from" - 030517[/i:db51dc041e]

(Hey, that's my birthday next week so it's as good of a date to start with as any [img]smile.gif BTW, I know playwrights are inspired by other events and stories they hear, and this one unabashedly is directly inspired by my memories of "Tina" (pictured above with Dr. Will Magnus from "The Metal Men", which was jarred loose from my own memory by listening to the CBS RMT'S "Deadly darling Delores") who could be a cutie pie when nicely drawn, as well as the story of kaolin magnate Charles Engelhard (said to be the inspiration for Ian Fleming's "Goldfinger") and the RMT episode "The men with the magic fingers".)

Stewart Eisenstadt, a multi-billionaire who's one of the world's richest men, is madly in love. Which surprises his staff of loyal servants and bodyguards, because those who knew him didn't think their thrice-divorced employer ever really cared for the women he had in his life before. He has what appear to be presents and bouquets of flowers delivered to his house. His maid tells the butler that she's seen, twice, a card that says "To my only, Tina, from your eternal love, Stew" (words of passion coming from a man as taciturn as their employer). No one though, has seen [i:db51dc041e]Tina[/i:db51dc041e]. Eisenstadt's passion for her appears to be matched by his zealous desire for their privacy.

What the bodyguards at Eisenstadt's New York estate HAVE seen, however, are what appear to be frequent mysterious orange glowing lights in the windows of the billionaire's huge third story bedroom, and what appears to be smoke coming from a chimney even on humid summer nights occasionally accompanied by noises which sound like machinery of some sort. They also have seen frequent armored vehicle deliveries, personally overseen by their employer, which appear to be taking their unseen cargo directly to the mansion's third floor. He is serious about his privacy...he always locks all his bedroom doors, and has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. His maid is almost affronted to the point of seeking employment elsewhere after he angrily rebukes her request to clean his bedroom...she thinks he may be on the verge of going mad.

Mad or not, he's ruthless in the marketplace, and in his desire to corner the world platinum market. He's particularly interested in the "Wilson-Ngezi" mine in a southern African nation which produces platinum ore of an unrivaled purity. (A business associate seems to believe Eisenstadt is personally obtaining some of the refined product himself.) Unfortunately for him, the despot president of that nation is getting ready to nationalize the mine, and seems to have a personal vendetta to shut Eisenstadt and his companies out of the picture there. The billionaire is furious, but believes he can arrange a meeting with the president (who himself travels with an armed cadre of bodyguards) to financially settle matters.

Meanwhile, having gotten word of the president's nationalization decision by cell phone that morning, Eisenstadt was so angry that he forgot to lock one of his bedroom doors...as his curious maid discovers while her employer's at his office. Venturing in, she's stunned to find not only bedroom furniture, but what appears to be a smelter of some sort, along with tools as cutting torches, hammers and welding masks. That pales in comparison to the centerpiece in the bedroom...an amazingly lifelike gorgeous, voluptuous woman made entirely of platinum, right down to the human-hair-sized follicles of her thick, long hair. To the other side of the statue there's almost a shrine of flowers, presents and a couple of empty champagne glasses. The horrified maid sees the glimmering statue is almost completely finished, needing only the rest of her arms from her elbow to her fingertips.

And in the meantime, Eisenstadt is livid when he's tipped off by a source that the president will attempt to keep the remaining Wilson-Ngezi platinum yield under his own control. Trembling with anger in his executive office, his fingers rest on the pistol inside his top desk drawer...

[i:db51dc041e]030518 - "The long bomb"[/i:db51dc041e]

Super Bowl 2008 has arrived, and the two teams squaring off have two of the most exciting, explosive offensive attacks ever seen in the NFL in recent decades. Even the best oddsmakers are having problems with this one, as the two teams appear to be the two very best in the league. It promises to be one of the best such venues ever.

It's also one of the most worrisome for a certain FBI agent. It's taking place in his hometown of Miami, and intelligence reports indicate an extremely high likelihood of an attack by a terrorist group. His superiors, while taking the threats equally seriously, assure him that security will be tighter than at any previous Super Bowl, and that the "no-fly" zone around the stadium with be heavily enforced as well.

Still, that doesn't sit well with him. He's got an ever increasing feeling that some kind of strange attack is going to take place, at the event in which he will be in attendance. An increasing number of reports which confirm that an attack is indeed planned using a nuclear device has he and his fellow law enforcement officials on edge. Any device the size of a briefcase or larger found anywhere on the premises will be confiscated, searched and scanned.

Then, minutes before the game starts, he gets a horrifying confirmation. The nuclear device is in something smaller than a briefcase...it's going to be implanted in one of the game [i:db51dc041e]footballs[/i:db51dc041e], and will be primed to detonate on any type of impact after it's thrown, be the impact from a receiver's hands or the ground.

And both teams playing are described as "pass-happy"...

[i:db51dc041e]"The Dark Moon 4" - 030519[/i:db51dc041e]

The bio on their web site begins with this sentence, as read by an inquisitive reporter for a well known publication that reviews popular music: "The D M 4 played their first concert on earth at the Dubsdread pub in Glasgow on 09 November 2000, and the world has been rocking ever since".

She's reading about the "Dark Moon 4", a quartet that came "literally out of nowhere" to the working class suburbs of Glasgow, and which is currently riding the crest of several top 10 singles. Other reviewers have been literally dumbfounded by the band's sound, described as "Techno goth rock". Wil, the bassist/lead singer, is said to have a "voice which weaves a range of notes as to be almost hypnotic". Iain, the guitarist, makes "music which appears to emanate from an instrument that's a living creature, not a machine." Ewan, the keyboardist, plays chords which sound as though two people were simultaneously creating them. Nile, the "percussionist", has been described as "the fastest drummer (the reviewer) has ever seen."

The reporter and her music industry friend laugh at what they consider to be claptrap writing from a competing industry magazine. She's secretly wondering, though, where the band really came from. No one seems to be able to find any record of their existence prior to appearing at the Glasgow pub (the band is notoriously publicity shy, which has become part of their marketing presence). More disturbing to her is a video she saw of a particularly strong concert at a town hall in another city during the band's first England tour...the audience appeared to be making no sound at all and was simply standing and staring at the band, as if in a trance of some sort.

Her curiousity is well-founded...the band's last stop before that first Glasgow appearance was Charon, the moon of the dark planet Pluto, where they trained at a special base on techniques of mass hypnosis of earth people. And yes, they have been sent to make preparations for an invasion...

[i:db51dc041e]"Nhandu" - 030520[/i:db51dc041e]

[img:db51dc041e]http://atshq.org/pix/troll/b-color01.jpg[/img:db51dc041e]

A shy entomologist/arachnologist who works for a major midwestern state university has devoted untold months of research on Brazilian tarantulas, specifically the very hairy-legged genus [i:db51dc041e]Nhandu[/i:db51dc041e] (including Nhandu coloratovillosus (pictured above)).

He's somewhat the object of jokes, even among fellow researchers, for his constant presence in the schools labs. One of them, laughing in the faculty lounge, says "I don't know if he's studying them or if they're studying [i:db51dc041e]him[/i:db51dc041e]". That fellow is rebuked by another man, a friend of the arachnologist's, who also encourages his reclusive friend to get out and enjoy life. There's a pretty little teacher's assistant who appears to have a liking for the shy man. Thanks to his friend's encouragement, the researcher finally musters the courage to ask her out. She accepts and they make a date to visit a nice restaurant and go to a movie.

The arachnologist, who clearly feels a bit uneasy out in the real world, has some problems to deal with. He's obviously not been on a date in a long time (if ever) and lack of social interaction skills shows, though his date doesn't seem to mind. Even more disturbing, though, is the fact that he thinks he sees, atop the wall right next to where they're dining, a [i:db51dc041e]Nhandu coloratovillosus[/i:db51dc041e] standing still and seeming to watch him. Clearly disturbed but not wanting to make a scene, he does his best to ignore it.

Later, though, at the movie, he sits nervously holding his popcorn and watching the show. At the moment his date starts to lean her head next to his he jumps and almost loses all the popcorn.

Maybe it's her closeness that startles him. Or maybe it's the fact that he's just seen the outline of a [i:db51dc041e]Nhandu Carapoensis[/i:db51dc041e], a very thick Brazilian tarantula, crawling down to the top of the movie screen and stopping...

[i:db51dc041e]"DeAngelo, King of Texarkana" - 030521[/i:db51dc041e]

[img:db51dc041e]http://www.5tharmy.army.mil/21States/tx_fl.gif[/img:db51dc041e]

DeAngelo Jackson is a 12-year-old who lives with his brother and grandmother in a housing project in that southern city. He's clearly an intelligent child but is on the verge of making some bad choices in his life. His brother seems to have already made some unwise ones, and hangs with a rough crowd and appears to be on the verge of criminal behavior.

Visiting the Texarkana public library, DeAngelo's is fascinated by a traveling exhibit of art and customs of the ancient Yoruba people, who lived in the region of what is now part of the African nation Nigeria. He wonders if his own ancestors came from that region, but dismisses the thought when he gets the chance to play a "talking drum" that the exhibit coordinator allows the kids to play. The CBS RMT weird music bed sounds as DeAngelo plays the instrument, feeling strange and almost seeming to hear a voice. The coordinator practically has to take the instrument from DeAngelo but he gives it to her for the next child to play.

Later, he returns to the library on the way home from school. "Miss Ellie" the librarian (who's also a sometime NAACP activist in the city) says hi to him. As he's walking past a room with an open door, he sees a garment, inexplicably left out on a table, that was said by the coordinator to be worn by a yoruba king of great power named "Esi". On a whim, he tries it on, and is immediately possessed by the spirit of the king. DeAngelo suddenly is much wiser and has the strength and speed of a very powerful man. His voice also appears to change when he dons the robe..."Miss Ellie" is stunned when DeAngelo walks out in full robe and says in "Esi's" voice that he must "go to his people". She doesn't even call the police.

"His people" are at the projects. DeAngelo attracts a stunned crowd when he walks up in Esi's robe. He stuns others even more (including his brother) when a few try to grab the robe from them and he furiously fights them all off like a battle tested warrior. (The robe also will not come off DeAngelo unless he wants to take it off.) DeAngelo starts speaking wisdom and platitudes that enthrall the rest of the crowd, who heckle the would-be attackers away from the boy. People begin to hail DeAngelo as a leader sent to make them "free".

Miss Ellie arrives, though, and is not so sure. She's done research on "Esi" and has learned that he was indeed a king, but one who, unfortunately, helped sell many of his own people to slave traders. Descendants of some of those sold may actually be among the crowd, or at least in the families of many Texarkana residents. She challenges "Esi" on this, and many of the crowd start to get angry and threaten to overwhelm the boy/king.

However, someone else jumps in to defend him and says: "We may have been slaves, but I'm [i:db51dc041e]glad[/i:db51dc041e] my grandfather got off that boat here in America." Immediately, he's joined in encircling DeAngelo (whose consciousness seems to be fighting that of "Esi's", especially since Miss Ellie's revelation) in a shield of protection against the angry mob...

(The CBS RMT never was politically correct, and neither would this episode be. It could have been an interesting civics lesson, though.)

[i:db51dc041e]"I'll meet you in the morning" - 030522[/i:db51dc041e]

A huge funeral is taking place in a midwestern town. Bill McKay, a prominent and well-respected retired bank president and community philanthropist has died, and it seems like the entire city is paying its respects. As people weep while the pianist plays "I'll meet you in the morning" (http://bluegrasslyrics.com/monroe_song.cfm-recordID=sp709.htm) the president's retired secretary, who worked alongside McKay for decades, thinks to herself (and to the RMT audience) "I don't think anyone should be crying. If you really knew Mr. McKay's story, you'd be smiling..."

She goes on to relate how she's one of only a couple of people who knew Mr. McKay when he was a young up-and-comer who started as a teller, earned his MBA at night and was rising up the management ladder. He was a hard-driving man who was also hardened and hard drinking. His father died an alcoholic, who never seemed to recover (seemingly along with his future bank president son) after his wife abandoned them both.

The younger McKay immersed himself in work and frugality, vowing to make something of himself. Unfortunately, he couldn't make his own pain and bitterness go away. The secretary remembers how curt and often downright unpleasant he was in the mornings, after he'd make his daily walk from his residence through the heart of that town to the bank. McKay didn't like to waste money on anything if he didn't have to, even on gasoline for his car. His walking route would take him right past his house, now abandoned and in disrepair, that he grew up in. He said he wanted to always remember where he came from.

It was a few years after he'd earned his MBA that Mr. McKay started noticing a woman in her late 20s sitting on the steps of the old house. She'd sit, head resting on her hands, staring at him silently and almost tearfully as he'd walk by. McKay ignored her at first, but as he saw her more frequently became annoyed and asked her to leave the property. She'd stare at him with teary eyes and not say a word. One climactic day, McKay became simultaneously terrified and enraged when he realized that the woman was his own mother, apparently at the age when she abandoned him and his father.

(She'd also died at least a decade earlier, impoverished and alone.)

Finally able to speak words, he says: "Wha...what are you [i:db51dc041e]doing[/i:db51dc041e] here??"

And his mother speaks back. And rather than getting angrier, he suddenly starts to feel something loosening up inside of him...

[vgarci]

Tex,
Wow. Impressive. I haven't read all of you story ideas yet (I will) but the concept is cool. Unfortunately, I don't think I have the skills to participate.

[Texas]

Thanks, Vince, but please don't put yourself down. There appear to be some creative people here...this is all for fun, and I'm guessing there's a lot more imaginative stories around than what I did. Letting your imagination uncork a little you may be able to suprise yourself.

Now if only we could find a way to download these ideas in .mp3 format... smile.gif

[brian1984_2001]

I actually did this in Junior High School and I wish I'd held on to my script. I did it for an English class. The teacher accepted three scripts and had them produced on cassette for all her classes to listen to.

Unfortunately, mine was deemed to have potentially offensive content. It also had religious content which is a no-no in public schools. So I wasn't selected. Here is the essence of it.

A fairly successful rock star sells his soul to the devil in exchange for fame, fortune, and women. When it's time to collect, the Devil sends a Hell Hound to rip the guy to pieces and deliver his soul to Hades.

However, a Hell Hound can't work in the presence of others. The rock star must be entirely alone through the whole attack for the hound to successfully rip his heart out and get his soul.

Through the story, the guy is struggling to always be in the presence of other people. He spends nights in busy airports and bus stations and fears falling asleep.

He is traveling by bus when it breaks down in a lonely small town. One by one, the people on the bus find rides or alternative transportation, leaving our anti-hero desperate. He spies a Catholic church and starts hammering on the door. Just as he hears the telltale growl that signals the arrival of the hell hound, the priest answers.

The rest of the story is our anti-hero relating his tale of a life of debauchery and the two of them desperately trying to stay awake to keep the hound at bay.

I won't spoil the ending for you. . .

I was inspired by a few things: This was when it was rumored that the rock group Kiss had sold their souls to the devil. KISS was supposed to have stood for Knights in Satan's Service.

My second inspiration was the dog in the movie "The Omen".

My third inspiration was an old recording by a bluesman whose name I've forgotten entitled "Hellhound on my Trail." Heard this on some obscure radio show when I was a kid and was entranced by the desperation of the guy singing as he realized his soul was doomed.

[Texas]

[quote:dfef7553ff]I was inspired by a few things: This was when it was rumored that the rock group Kiss had sold their souls to the devil. KISS was supposed to have stood for Knights in Satan's Service.
[/quote:dfef7553ff]

I'm flat out amazed at the stuff I used to listen to. (I had a "Gibson Grabber" bass guitar just like Gene Simmons.) I still like some of KISS' music, though.

Nice idea. What was your working title?

[KARAF]

Tex,

Great plot lines. I don't have any worth sharing... yet. But hopefully you've gotten the juices flowing for many of us.

Fun idea,

KARAF

[Charlie]

Let me know when your programs will be on the air. :lurk:

Charlie

[brian1984_2001]

My working title was "Hell Hound". It was my first experience with censorship and it left me a little bitter. I tried not to be angry with the teacher because I don't think she made the decision with any joy. She had to cover her behind and the script was controversial. My parents discussed it with her and she confided in them that if she let it be recorded and played, she'd be in a lot of trouble.

I didn't have any sex or profanity, but it did deal with issues of good and evil. Looking back, it was pretty superficial, but even superficial discussion of those issues is enough to scare off public school teachers.