{"id":282,"date":"2009-12-17T13:29:15","date_gmt":"2009-12-17T19:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=282"},"modified":"2009-12-17T13:29:15","modified_gmt":"2009-12-17T19:29:15","slug":"rob-vilars-story-time-a-place-to-bury-strangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2009\/12\/17\/rob-vilars-story-time-a-place-to-bury-strangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Rob Vilar’s Story Time – A Place to Bury Strangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

\"A
A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS - Exploding Head (Mute Records)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Rob Vilar<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gravitron is one of the best thrill rides on the midway.\u00a0 With the use of centrifugal force, the super spinning motion lifts riders off the floor for a feeling of weightlessness.\u201d \u2013www.midwestmidways.com<\/a><\/p>\n

***
\nA carnal love story set in a carnival, present day.<\/em><\/p>\n

With my water pistol at my side, I wait for the siren\u2019s call to commence the contest. I stare at the clown target. With the shrill ring of the siren to initiate the bout, I immediately draw my pistol and discharge fully onto the target with all the poise and rigour I can muster in this defining moment of carnival games. At the end, when it is all done, I stand there, drenched in the autumn night\u2019s air. The carnie leans over his counter and says to me, \u201cSorry son, looks like you\u2019ve come in last.\u201d I then hear a familiar voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cNice try sport. Maybe you should give it another go?\u201d<\/p>\n

I turn around and there she is\u2014black jacket, black pants, white shoes, and dark shades, smacking her bubble gum. Baby\u2019s in black.<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry I didn\u2019t win you a fucking bear,\u201d I reply, pulling myself together.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter. I\u2019m getting a little anxious here. What you say we go for a ride?\u201d She points to the midway.<\/p>\n

I take a few steps towards her, seize her hand, and say, \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n

We enter the midway grounds and we\u2019re immediately hit by an onslaught of glitter and din of noise.<\/p>\n

\u201cMakes you blind,\u201d she whispers.<\/p>\n

We slog through the throngs of nervous parents and idling thrill addicts. We make our way past the mirrored halls, horror houses, and roller coasters to\u2026 the starship. Silver and loaded with jewels, it\u2019s lit above with a sign that reads \u201cGRAVITRON.\u201d We watch as it decelerates to a gradual stop and opens its door, emancipating a fog of holiness into the night. She then breaks from me, fires her cigarette, and asks, \u201cBlast off?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpace is the place, babe,\u201d I answer and we enter the starship.<\/p>\n

Once inside the intergalactic spindle, we notice a DJ sitting at the black hole centre of the ship. Heavily bearded with a dark pair of sunglasses, he leans into his microphone.<\/p>\n

\u201cFellow travellers, take your positions\u2026 for tonight\u2019s voyage you will be taken to the stars. There will are no refunds. There will be no looking back. The controls are set to the centre of your soul and the new A Place to Bury Strangers joint Exploding Head<\/em> is set to spin.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we take to our individual seats, the opening psychocandy guitar riff of \u201cDeadbeat\u201d initiates the starship\u2019s revolution. With a burning surge of distortion ripping into the cabin, we begin to feel gravity\u2019s pull. As the drone intensifies, a feeling of weightlessness subverts itself under our feet and we begin to rise. We lift higher and higher with each passing spin, until when we hit the top; then the DJ eases the throttle and mixes into the next track, \u201cLost Feeling.\u201d\u00a0 The interior lights twinkle on, and it\u2019s heaven. The DJ looks at us and knows he\u2019s got us exactly where he wants us. I notice her singing along. \u201cThe feeling is gone, the feeling is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI take it you\u2019ve heard this before?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have, and on vinyl, no less. I don\u2019t go for cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DJ goes into a new track, \u201cIn Your Heart,\u201d and the ship\u2019s lighting goes from soft to strobe, the perfect prescription. I close my eyes and take in the moment. The song revolves and blurs as images of her smear the foreground of my mind. My rib cage tenses up as I feel my heartbeat rubbing up against the bone. I break into a slow sweat, open my eyes, and then turn to face her. She looks at me and says, \u201cIt\u2019s a real shame. I want to touch you, but I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what you mean,\u201d I respond. \u201cIt\u2019s like when I DJ for the kids, sometimes. They want to touch each other, but somehow, they can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does a situation like this get amended?\u201d she asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cDJ\u2019s got to drop it,\u201d I reply.<\/p>\n

The starship\u2019s DJ drops \u201cEgo Death,\u201d which kills the BPMs, slows the starship down, and loosens our joints up as we peel ourselves out of our seats and tumble to the floor. We lie there, bruised and sweaty, until she rolls me over onto my backside. She crawls on top of me, readjusts her shades, goes into her purse, and pulls out a pair of plastic fangs. With guitars heated for re-entry and fangs in place, she lunges for my shoulder. A spurt of blood shoots to the moon.<\/p>\n

We rest there in a state of bliss, the starship\u2019s deckplates covered in an ever-expanding pool of my blood. It\u2019s only then that I realize that rock \u2019n\u2019 roll isn\u2019t dead\u2014it just goes round and round\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

>>><\/strong> www.myspace.com\/aplacetoburystrangers<\/a><\/p>\n

>>><\/strong>www.aplacetoburystrangers.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rob Vilar \u201cThe Gravitron is one of the best thrill rides on the midway.\u00a0 With the use of centrifugal force, the super spinning motion lifts riders off the floor for a feeling of weightlessness.\u201d \u2013www.midwestmidways.com *** A carnal love story set in a carnival, present day. With my water pistol at my side, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,804],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","tag-a-place-to-bury-strangers","tag-rob-vilars-story-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}