The New Lifehouse: Synopsis Part One (spoilers)

["Brian Cady" <cadyb@home.com>]

This is part one of a synopsis of what happens in Pete's new version of
"Lifehouse."  For those of you who would rather not know what happens until
you get a copy, I've supplied spoiler space.

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Scene 1
"Night time in a faraway place - a kind of North - somewhere beyond the kind
of place we know."
Rayboy sings "One Note" (not the song "Pure and Easy") as the word
"Lifehouse" is whispered.  An orchestral version of "Baba O'Riley" begins as
Ray recounts how he drew pictures of the future when he was a child and this
crossfades into Rayboy telling the same story, then back to Ray.

Scene 2 (not in radio version)
Ray talks to his wife Sally who is sitting in a field on their farm.  Ray
tells how he brought them and their daughter Mary to the farm to exchange
the "couch potato" life he knew working in television for a life raising
real potatoes.  However the potato crop has failed, both he and Sally have
found real escape from the media world difficult and now Mary has run away
from home.

Scene 3
Ray goes back inside to watch television and Sally follows as it starts to
rain.  His program is interrupted by "The Hacker" who says he is collecting
people's music and everyone should come to the "Lifehouse."  Music: Pete's
demo of "Who Are You."  Ray and Sally then discuss Mary's disappearance.
Sally and the police have given up hope but, against Sally's protests, Ray
sets off to find her.  Music: Pete's demo of "Behind Blue Eyes."

Scene 4
Ray kicks the television to pieces.

Scene 5
Ray sets out.  Sally tells him to take his childhood drawings of the future.
He promises to phone.

Scene 6
Ray, crossfading back and forth with Rayboy, recognizes the rain-soaked
landscape from one of his drawings.  Music: Pete's demo of "Getting In
Tune."  Ray stops the vehicle and begins to do a dervish dance while singing
"Bargain."

Scene 7
Ray stops singing as The Caretaker, a mythical figure from Ray's childhood,
appears.  The Caretaker tells him he is in The Middle Of Nowhere, a place he
drew as a kid.  Rayboy in voice-over also tells us that The Caretaker was a
person he drew who got his name from always saying "take care."  Ray tells
The Caretaker he no longer needs him since he is now an adult and The
Caretaker leaves which frightens Ray.  He calls Sally and tells her who he
met.  She thinks he's been drinking, considers Mary dead and wants Ray to
come home.  Music: Pete's vocal demo of "Baba O'Riley."

Scene 8
Ray gets back in the vehicle and sets off again to find Mary.  The Hacker
comes on the radio, tells everyone to turn off the media that controls them
and commune with him in The Lifehouse.

Scene 9
Ray pulls over to side of the road and he and Rayboy recount how his father
wouldn't understand him and would insist that he watch television with him
where "I could feel his warmth.and the pain would disappear."  The Hacker
resumes speaking on the radio about Lifehouse.  Music: new Pete version of
"Who Are You."

Scene 10
The Hacker is broadcasting from his lair on the top of a city high-rise when
Mary shows up.  He thinks she is some kind of groupie but she says she just
wants to be there "when it happens." Music: more of new Pete version of "Who
Are You."

Scene 11
Ray enters a derelict church.  He recalls how he released a hundred moths he
had collected in a jam jar in a church when he was a boy.  The Caretaker
reappears and tries to get Ray to sing to "reclaim" the church for "the
people."  Ray fails and The Caretaker begins needling him.  He is angry at
Ray for dumping him when he grew up.  The Caretaker vanishes. Music: Pete's
demo of "Pure and Easy."

Scene 12
Mary tells The Hacker how her parents never notice her and how she became
absorbed by The Hacker's broadcasts and had to find him.

Scene 13
Ray phones home and Sally tells him about finding poems in Mary's room.  She
hints she blames Ray for Mary's disappearance.  A short distance down the
road Ray picks up Rayboy.  The two discuss The Caretaker and Rayboy says
he's disappointed with how poorly Ray has aged.  He tells Ray he is headed
to the sea.

Scene 14
Purcell plays on the radio as Ray and Rayboy pull up to the seaside.  Their
memories of old holidays are spoiled by the sounds of jet maneuvers and an
oil spill that has ruined the beach and left dead birds behind.

Scene 15
Mary and The Hacker go up onto the roof.  Mary tells him how wonderful he
makes her feel and he tells her how great it is to speak to the world.
Music: Pete's demo of "Join Together."

Scene 16
As he drives, Ray tells Rayboy how he misses telling the baby Mary stories.
Rayboy talks about his dad.  When Ray shows him his childhood drawings,
Rayboy says he has drawn pictures just like them.  Music: Pete's demo of
"Going Mobile."

Scene 17
Mary tells The Hacker her dad would agree with what he is saying but would
do nothing about it.  The Hacker encourages her to make her own broadcast
for her father to hear.  Music: an instrumental piece similar to "Meher Baba
M4" followed by more of "Going Mobile."

Scene 18
Rayboy tells Ray about a picture he drew about a future where people are
shut up in their houses with dreams piped into their heads "bought off the
man who owns the world."

Scene 19
Ray phones Sally again and they get into an argument.  Ray says he's trying
his best but Sally repeatedly asks him, "but what are you doing?"  Sally
compares Ray to fathers of lost children crying at press conferences who are
found later to have killed their children.  Ray becomes extremely upset by
this remark and says he is going.  Sally says there may not enough left of
their relationship to start again when he returns.  Pete's demo "Love Ain't
For Keeping."

Scene 20
Ray and Rayboy stop at the Moto-Munch, a service station-diner.  Ray is
upset to find The Caretaker there.  The Caretaker tries to push the diner's
junk food on Ray and Rayboy.  Ray starts throwing things and screaming at
the security cameras throughout the service station that he wants some real
food but when he goes into the darkness some unseen men violently beat him
and break his nose as Rayboy screams.  Afterwards The Caretaker admits he
had the goons attack Ray as payback for deserting him.  Ray tells The
Caretaker he doesn't want him coming around the kid and he and Rayboy head
off.

Scene 21
Rayboy tells how he came home from collecting moths in a jam jar to find his
family glued to the television watching the coronation of Elizabeth.  Music:
Pete's demo of "The Song Is Over."  Rayboy recounts telling a psychiatrist
his dream of a beautiful "one note."  Suddenly Mary's voice comes out of the
radio reciting one of her poems.  Ray keeps turning the tuning knob to keep
up with her broadcast and pays so little attention to the road that he
crashes.

Scene 22
The Hacker tells Mary that her dad must have heard her broadcast but she
says he is "crap" and that she would like to hurt him, see him bleed.  She
and The Hacker make love.
 (CONTINUED)

        -Brian in Atlanta