A Post-Apocalyptic New Wave Americana Indie Rock Opera
In the near future, two kids from the bunker town of Trampoline tire of the mundane comforts and sweaty work of small town life. After having a vision of the utopian Solar City, they receive the blessing of their elders and hit the road to seek it out. Along the road they witness the state of disrepair the country has fallen into since the world turned upside down. 
They do reach a city, but find that it is nothing like their vision, with a violent police state oppressing the homeless inhabitants of the tent ghetto. 
Before things take too much of a turn for the worse, they discover a network of mutual aid workers who are giving the disenfranchised people a fighting chance. They end up going face to face with the man high in the tower of glass and steel, who explains his evil plot. 
Through their struggle, the trampoline kids receive a new vision of the middle path to peace, which proves difficult to translate into a comprehensible message.

Trampoline kids

I've lived my life inside of
Right angles
Beneath florescent lights at work tables
I used to buy
Right into some Old fables about the
Right way to be
I bummed a square on a
Street corner it was
Ninety degrees and
getting warmer and it's
Shaping up to be a 
longer summer than it has any
Right to be
I know I'm worth something
And I can Work for it
But it's wearing me out
and I feel worse for it
Did anyone here ever get a square deal
Who gives a f*** anyway how a square feels
You get a thing square and then it rearranges
Everything changes
You have the
Right to remain silent if you're all
Right with some state violence or the Alt-
Right defining science but that don't seem
Right to me
So what's the point of just
Checking boxes
Cashing Checks
Stacking blocks
Although I'll admit I'm at a loss for another way to be
The people you love sometimes become strangers
everything changes

Square

Somewhere half way in between
Where you're going/Where you've been
Don't close your eyes, you'll miss it in a blink (blink)
a county road you have to pass
the only place to stop for gas
will blow your mind, it isn't what you think (think)
The way the sun comes up around
comes up around the bunker in the morning make you scream (scream)
The thing we're growing underground, the underground
the underground is unlike anything you've ever seen (seen)
Overcorrections in peculiar directions
Ladies and gentlemen gimme attention
Overcorrections in peculiar directions
Ladies and gentlemen gimme attention
There are many strange things done by stranger folks on highway one
ever since the world turned upside down (down)
the strangest thing I've ever seen was in the town of Trampoline
if you can even call that place a town (town)
You don't need to watch your back, to watch your back
They've got your back, here we're ll one happy family (Lee)
Here there is no day or night, no black or white, no left or right,
No questions like "To be or not to be?" (be)
Overcorrections in peculiar directions
Ladies and gentlemen gimme attention
Overcorrections in peculiar directions
Ladies and gentlemen gimme attention

Overcorrections

You find youself at a bar
Not so certain who you are
And to you the thought occurs
That perhaps you never were
So you thank your lucky stars
That you found yourself
You found yourself at a bar

You find yourself making love
Sure you'll never fet enough
But that moment always comes
And you find you always run
So you thank the gods above that you found yourself
You found yourself making love

You find yourself on the John
Not so Certain what went wrong
And you realize today
You've got to turn the other way
So you thank the Holy One
That you found yourself
You found yourself on the John

Fluid in and fluid out
Oh that's what it's all about
A nice puree of mayonaise
The first stiff dink you've had in days
The blood of Christ, thine be the praise
Fluid in and fluid out

Fluid

Solar City on the horizon
I can see it in my dreams
shiny happy people who want for nothing
A city with less concrete and more green
And everything's free
And everyone's free
The laborers rewarded for their labors
Everybody trying to feed their neighbors
You ain't gonna read about this sh*t in the papers
Take me back to Solar City
Take me back to Solar City
Solar City, now I'm inside it
Flying over in the train
Every kind of people can walk the roads now
From up here it looks like they're playing
and everyone's safe
and everyone's sane
Everybody's going to a party
Some of us already getting started
They can't beat it out you if the beat is your heart
Take me back to Solar City
Take me back to Solar City
Utopia, the Promised Land
The Kingdom of Heaven
The Brotherhood of Man
I swear I had The Dream again
The same one that it's always been
Solar City, now I'm arriving
I can see my station clear
Everyone I'm missing is still alive and
Each one says "We're glad you're here"
There's nothing to chase
There's nothing to fear
We've got tools of livingry and not affliction
Everybody's cured of their addictions
If you've seen it clear enough, it stops being fiction
Take me back to Solar City
Take me back to Solar City

Solar City

Silence is golden, your actions speak louder
Read the damn room
Don’t smoke
Near gunpowder
Raise your voice only to lift up the silenced
Shield those who need it, but be slow to violence
There’s some friends you party with and some friends you trust
Partnership is not the same thing as lust
There’s days when you’re up and days when you’re down
Hang on to the folks who keep coming back round
Stay the fuck out of debt if you value your friends
Recall he who borrows is slave to who lends
Your reputation will keep you in business
The people you hurt do not owe you forgiveness 
Listen to people and know what they think
Hold off on judgement until something stinks
This above all, to thine own self be true
Nobody’s ever gonna love you like me and your old lady do

Polonius

Liberty and Justice
Just this once
For just us
Liberty and Justice
Just this once
For just us
It's you and me and the open road and 
What's left of America
What's left of America
Give to me your huddled masses
I'll give 'em gas and then call 'em classless
Give to me your huddled masses
I'll give 'em gas and then call 'em classless
It's you and me and the open road and 
What's left of America
What's left of America
When was it great?
Tell me, when was it great?
Tell me Specifically, I will wait
When was it great, and how long, and for who?
Tell me Specifically I'll be waiting for
waiting for you and me and the open road and 
What's left of America
What's left of America
Give me Liberty and Justice
Just this once
For just us
Liberty and Justice
Just this once
For all of us 
Give me Liberty and Justice
Just this once
For just us
Liberty and Justice
Just this once
For all of us 
It's you and me and the open road and 
What's left of America
What's left of America

What's Left (feat. Mark Kaufman)

Our neighbor Dan needs Narcan again
Needle in his arm in his car again
Been hard for the man since Armageddon
But his daughter Paula knows who to call, yeah
We are the cool kids on the block
We stay up til four'o'clock
Check the signal when there's shots
Say "hi" to everyone but cops
Hi. hi. hi. hi. 
Trent and Cindy live in the tent city
Rents are high and the salaries sh*tty
Heat keeps turning up the intensity
When they send the bulldozers just call us on over
We are the cool kids on the block
We stay up til four'o'clock
Check the signal when there's shots
Say "hi" to everyone but cops
Hi. hi. hi. hi. 
I'm hunkydory if you're drunk or a junkie
it's just the guns and Humvees that make me kinda jumpy
We're okeydokey if you're crazy or broke we
Just really wouldn't rather end up dead or in the pokey
We are the cool kids on the block
We stay up til four'o'clock
Check the signal when there's shots
Say "hi" to everyone but cops
Hi. hi. hi. hi.

Trampoline Kids

Cool Kids

High in my tower of glass and steel
My might and power I at last reveal
You may call it arrogance
but you are not the one holding the gun
Give Ceasar what's Ceasar's or he'll seize your assets
with @$$hats in flack jackets
Please pay your back taxes at
Your earliest leisure
Am I the only one or is this getting fun?
If you're stressed out now you're just following the plot
But we're just as loud even if you turn us off
So are you better off or not
Following the plot
You see, the market is like a shark it
Must keep on swimming forward or it will surely die
and the market's hungry
the shark it sure is hungry
the market doesn't care about you and I
To keep me swimming in the blue
I conquered your planet and sold it back to you
If you're stressed out now you're just following the plot
But we're just as loud even if you turn us off
So are you better off or not
Following the plot
and everybody's selling something
Everybody's selling something
Everybody's selling something
Everybody's selling something
If you're stressed out now you're just following the plot
But we're just as loud even if you turn us off
So are you better off or not

Plot

A moment of quiet (hush)
a peace I do not fully understand
a thrill up my spine (a rush)
the feeling that I walk on holy land
back to the Wood Between the Worlds
back to the water
back to the sky
back into the infinity both outside and inside of me
I open my eyes
I'll put this somewhere I'm not gonna lose it
I'm not gonna lose it
The Testament never went to its true destination
The thoughts of the prophets are lost in translation
I'll put this somewhere I'm not gonna lose it
I'm not gonna lose it
I've reached for the highest highs
And been to places many cannot leave
I've lived in the deepest sighs
And somewhere in the middle's where you breathe
Back to the trails where I belong, above the wetlands
Back on my bike
The process of recovery
Discomfort, self discovery
I guess this is life
I'll put this somewhere I'm not gonna lose it
I'm not gonna lose it
The Testament never went to its true destination
The thoughts of the prophets are lost in translation
I'll put this somewhere I'm not gonna lose it
I'm not gonna lose it
I floated like a spirit through the pillars
lit only by the runes I could not read
A Voice from down below me whispered secrets
I knew that I have everything I need
I'll put this somewhere I'm not gonna lose it
I'm not gonna lose it
The Testament never went to its true destination
The thoughts of the prophets are lost in translation
I'll put this somewhere I'm not gonna lose it
I'm not gonna lose it

Lose It (feat. Anna Fritsche, C.B. James, Marc Boubelik)

You were feeding me pellets
Had a halogen sun
Getting handled by strangers and they
Thought it was fun
Living under a rock
Crawling out of my skin
Got the funniest feeling that the
Walls are closing in
Surely Slowly, are the walls closing in on me
Or am I outgrowing my terrarium?
Used to hold me
Now you look so small to me
Done my time and I’m
Outgrowing my terrarium
When the scales finally balance
And I sharpen my claws
All I want to give you is
A great big round of applause
You thought you domesticated me
I was only masking
Victorious, vindicated, liberated and basking
Surely Slowly, are the walls closing in on me
Or am I outgrowing my terrarium?
Used to hold me
Now you look so small to me
Done my time and I’m
Outgrowing my terrarium

Terrarium

Lyrics:
if this is the place that I'm thinking of
to be fair, I'm not sure if it is, if it is, I came here a long time ago.
It was with the boys. I wonder how those boys are doing now.
It was right there we saw that dude if this is the place I'm thinking of.
Clearly this dude was not okay
Smelled of a bottle and he couldn't stop his swaying
Clearly this dude had something to say
But you couldn't make out what he thought he was trying to say
"Do you want to do what you want to do? Or do you not want to do what you want to?"
If this is the place that I'm thinking of
Glad to have, by my side, at least this time, for the ride, you along
It's weird to be back
It would really suck for me to have had to come back to my hometown on my own
I'm not the same dude I was then if this is the place I'm thinking of
I have so many more options than him
So many more six feet up than six feet under
It's just that it was the last thing that he said
So now when I stare into a mirror I can't help but wonder
"Do you want to do what you want to do? Or do you not want to do what you want to?"
Meaning is something you choose to believe in
Today is the day that I choose to be
Meaning what I'm saying, saying what I'm meaning
Meaning is something you choose to believe in

If this is the place

If This Is The Place

Paper Airplane

This is a tough one for me, yet one of the ones I believe the most strongly in my better moments.

Breath of the Day #6- We are all us. There is no them.

Stand in the Sun

"What I like doing best is nothing" 
"how do you do nothing?" asked pooh, after he had wondered for a long time. 
"well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, what are you going to do, christopher robin, and you say, oh, nothing, and then you go do it."

Nothin

I go
they go
he go
she go
everybody
but the ego
If we say so
It gon' be so
Everybody's going to heaven

What has God's son got to do
For you to believe He ain't mad at you
I meant what I said when I said good news
Everybody's going to heaven

When did we start doing worry?
When did we start doing fear?
Did you even read The Story?
What do you think we're doing here?
Everybody's going to heaven

Everybody's Goin' to Heaven

Carried your bags from Rome
Right down to Riomaggiore
Love you more
Feeling so far from home
Even with Mi Amore
Love you more
You claw, you scratch
I hold you back
Darling you love me, true
but I love you more

Baby I told you 
The way that I hold you
You're tearing a hole through me
Saving my soul baby
Love you more
You say we're family
Then say to hell with me
That don't sit well with me
That don't sit well with me
Love you more
We fight we cry we say goodbye
Darling you love me, true
But I love you more

Kissing in airports
this ain't a fair sport
love you more, love

Love You More

@stevemicharlanderson
SteveAndersonMedia.com

youtube.com/user/stevevader101

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