Gorgons from Zola

    Their theme song was not circusy sounding, unless your circus took place in an alternate dimension in 1975.  If one has ever heard the cover of the Theme to Rocky and Bullwinkle, by Birdsongs of The Mesozoic, then one might have a good idea of how it sounded, but imagine it with a tad more synth.  The band rocked out the theme and segued into the Ringleader's Theme.
      In case you thought that they weren't a part of a real circus, they were.  It's just, the animals were not included.  But there were clowns, acrobats, aerialists, strongmen, and the like, and quite a set of freaks on the payroll, the band not included. What the circus lacked in animals, it made up for with very realistic side show acts. The ringleader, hearing the dulcet tones of the start of his song, pulled back a flap of the enormous tents stage entrance, and with great flourish strolled to the center of the ring, his arms raised up reaching to the audience, and a bright spot light meticulously following his moves. When he arrived to the center of the main ring, he brought his arms down swiftly, which was the cue to the band to stop, which they did expertly.  The head honcho and Ringmaster, whose name was Randall Smith, or "Smitty" as the crew called him, began.

     "Ladies and Germs, crocodiles and worms, I stand here before you and never behind you, to tell you something I know nothing about!! You are about to go on a journey, a journey not of sight and sound, but of mind!  Welcome to the 8th wonder of the world, the most amazing collection of novelties and strange acts you'll ever witness-- The Circus and Freak Show you all know as Cirque Du Psychedelique!!!  And now, LET THE TRIP BEGIN!"

'Let the trip begin' was another cue, and Cyan began the next theme, which was a foreboding and slightly disturbing rumbling deep toned number.  After a moment, the rest of the band joined in, and Cyan intoned the songs only lyric:

"GorGONzoLA!!!  GorGONzoLA!!! (repeated many times over a frightening cello like synth sound and Jose's purposefully fake sounding drums).  

The audience audibly gasped as the spotlights popped on in the ring to Smitty's left, where it appeared three harpy-like women with snakes for hair were apparently in the beginning of a... mud wrestling bout?  

Computer Game (Theme from the Circus)

VOLUME II

It really was a circus.

"Really, it is." That's Joe speaking, or "Cyan" as he was called in the band. And during their shows – "Cyan, Magenta, and Black." (Every now and then some smartass who knew all about printing would ask where "Yellow" was, and Joe would answer "We ain't yellow."

"But it's a shitty-ass burned-out hippie circus with no animals."

"Lucky for them we need a gig," Harry chimed in. "Lucky for us too."

"Bad luck for us, we need a gig because everybody else thinks our cool synth sounds are just a gimmick and we ha-ha sound like a computer game."

You might say the Techno Future Circus with no animals ("no hurting them!") and a wealth of weird and talented humans was more than just burned-out hippies, that it would be part of a coming wave, but who can blame Joe here?

Where Joe, Harry, and José fit into this circus with their voice, bass, and drums – and Rolands all around – was, well, obvious. What good is a circus without music, and what good is a Techno Circus without the highest tech of 1978?

"Hey, Black. I mean, *Dragon*," Joe snarked, snapping José to attention. José was as Mexican-American as you'd think, and Joe was... uhh.

"Yeah, I'm Dragon. Yeah? So? What do you want?"

"I want you to NOT DROP YOUR DRUMSTICKS ON THE DRUMS during our "computer game" opening this time, OK?"

"...*OK*."

Five minutes later, they were miked up and playing the circus's opening theme.

The End

"Reality," the Council declared, "must be destroyed. It is the only solution."

The people protested.

"A new one," the Council sighed, "will be created."

Reality was destroyed, and a new reality was created.

END OF VOLUME I

Parsing Industries

The year was 1967.  Ray Eawest had been part of a government project called Operation Space Owl.  Until this very moment, its secrets have not been told. Several small nuclear meltdowns had occurred in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union since the first reactors came online. The news of these meltdowns was repressed by both governments, but the level of long term crisis had surpassed even the deepest cold war sentiments of mistrust or ill will between the two Powers, and a secret deal was worked out, mainly due to Joe Eawest accidentally dosing his own Dad with Mushrooms. With the space race in full swing, an absurd idea had occurred to the psilocybin ridden Raymond Eawest. His excitement in the revelation erased any anger he'd initially had with his son, and, still tripping, he went to work at the grindstone of diplomacy to accomplish an amazing task, one he never got to take credit for. Operation Space Owl was basically off-planet barging of hazardous materials, Ray Eawest formed conglomerate called Parsing Industries to maintain more control of the process.  Phase One consisted of placing 2500 tonnes of spent uranium cartridges on the far side of the moon via a drop while the lem was passing in orbit.  Phase Two, when the real trouble began, involved sending much bigger barges of toxic and highly radioactive garbage randomly into space, and more and more frequently. What nobody thought to speculate on was where of it would ever end up.  As it turns out, the inhabitants of several planets and planetoids in the Alpha Centari sector were quite decimated by the toxic barges. A council was formed and a decision was made.

I 

Michael Moorcock has intercourse with his Demonic Female Twin

Ralf awoke from his nap. 
His toe, he started to tap,
As the cobwebs withdrew,
He noticed a tru-ly wondrous
Rhythm and Rapt--

Then Ralf walked on down the hall,
He thought he'd find the band's squall,
Sorry for the shlock, but much to his shock,
What he found was Lady Michael Moorcock.

Then Moorcock pulled out an Axe,
To Lady Moorcock he gave forty whacks,
Lizzy Borden burst in and grinning a grin,
She said hey this is forgery you sonsuvbitches.

Mezzobaritone: Slumber

Suddenly, everyone took a nap.

The Tone Mountains

...a bewildered, then immediately frustrated Jens plopped onto the floor of the hall. "Goddammit I'm not dead! Shit damn Christ!" he raged. He was more fraggled a figure than ever, a little bloody, a lot smelly, and even more hairy, so much that you'd think he was a werewolf or something.

Ralf just stared blankly, but Ralf immediately tapped into his memories of his original self and filled with a rage of his own. "You... abomination before the Lord. You're still alive."

A slight touch calmer now, Jens replied, "Yes, that's exactly the problem... who are you?"

Ralf puffed up and answered, "Raymond Eawest, agent of our Lord, nominally in the service of his blessed nation the United States of America, dedicated to the elimination of impurity and sin, slowly if I must, quickly if I can... You won't get away this time. Any last words?"

Now significantly calmer, Jens explained as if to a small child, "That's precisely the problem. I thought I'd already uttered them back there in Bavaria! The wormhole seemed to be working, my entire self started fading away, and now... this!  Damn it!!"

The other Ralf helpfully offered: "Do you know that singer Danzig? He told us just now on the TV screen that the Gate Destroyer had awoken. He was very scared. Then he just... disappeared. Everyone did. Nobody left here now but Ralf, and me – Ralf. And you..."

"...Jens. I know Danzig very well." Jens, tapping instinctively into newfound power gained during his latest ordeal, then emitted a force field around him that effortlessly blocked the furious blows that Raylf had begun fruitlessly attempting to throw at him. For all Raylf's pomp, he was irrelevant for now. Jens had seen much in his years and knew that, even without the field, Raylf's assaults still would not have ended him, and so he did not wish Raylf ill, think ill of him, or even comment on him.

Immediately after putting up the field, he realized the true meaning of Ralf's words. "The Gate Destroyer. The Gate Destroyer! This is terrible. He must have disrupted the wormhole – I was trying to un-be in one, you see – and I'm positive he'll have disrupted much more. I'm not lucky I made it out alive, but you certainly are. He's a being of pure harmonics, and he lives on a plane of pure harmonics, not on ours. I've never met him – fortunately for long years he has indeed been sleeping – and I never wanted to, but I don't see much choice. I'd rather not go alone, but there aren't many people alive who can help me much. Still, you won't be useless if you understand sound... this seems to be a studio? The part of the plane where he resides is called the Tone Mountains, and naturally we'll all be travelling by sound. Fables speak of some who've whistled their way, but it's smarter to take instruments. I guess that won't be a problem. But maybe we can find some of your friends before we go so it's not just us? If they understand sound as well, that is. I don't mean to be unkind, but anyone else will do best to stay at home."

Raylf had gone by then from fury at Jens to fury at his own inefficacy to exhaustion to acceptance. Moreover, it sounded like this abomination would end itself in the mortal sin of suicide if he would just help it meet its goals? So be it.

"I don't know much about sound, except for church hymns, but take me anyway - this Gate Destroyer seems to be of the devil, and when something's of the devil, I fight it. Give me a chance... you sorry abomination," he said, forgetting all diplomacy.

Ralf was very confused by now, but it sounded like this hairy guy in a tacky suit wanted him and Ralf to go on an adventure of sound to fight evil, so why not? "Sounds like we know what we need to do, guys. I don't know about finding any of our friends here, though. But I'd sure like to. Why don't we split up in three directions? That always worked in Scooby-Doo."