(previously in story time: Novas 3)
(previously in story time: Novas 5.5 Act 1)
(previously in story time: Novas 3.3)
(previously in story time: Novas 3.4)
(previously in story time: Novas 5.5 Act 2)
(previously in story time: Novas 3.9)
Susan and Jack have left Earth, but there are many more worlds out there. Many more Earths, even.
I’ve had this one for over a year but it’s been hard to get a handle on the story. It started as a case of following the strange little riff in “Solsbury Hill” and letting the music go where it wanted. It started to paint a picture, and it definitely concluded a story that felt like it needed a coda, but it didn’t quite seem to be the future of the Novas universe. It was something else.
So I’ve let it be that something else.
It is 1999. One of the 1999s, at least. No, one of the other 1999s…
Novas 6: The Leaves Which Tremble At Dawn
Act 1: Nova
01 Cat Stevens – Angelsea (1972,England) JACK
She moves like an angel and seven evening stars Dance through the windows of her universal house Of her universal house Her voice, a crystal echo, lies humming in your soul So patiently awaiting for your ears to behold For your ears to behold (African chanting) She ripples on the waters, leaves diamonds on the shores And fish from every distance watch her ocean cellar door Her breath, a warm fire, in every lover's heart A mistress to magicians and a dancer to the gods And a dancer to the gods (African chanting) Her clothes are made of rainbows and twenty thousand tears Shine through the spaces of her golden ochre hair Yes of her golden ochre hair Ooh my babe I want you and on my life I swear My conscience will follow you forever if you meet me everywhere Yes if you meet me everywhere She moves like an angel and seven evening stars Dance through the windows of her universal house Yes of her universal house Of her universal house (African chanting)
Jack and Susan are energy beings now, roaming the multiverse, still very much in love.
I’ve had a deep connection to this song since about 1993. I even first heard Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” at the same time, but never quite made the musical connection between the two which I now find so strong.
02 Morcheeba – World Looking In (2000, England) SUSAN
Angels smiling on my happiness Danger cause this scene is still a mess we can all be blessed Don't stop just yet we've got the world looking in our window Don't stop just yet we've got the world looking in our window Spacecraft spinning slowly out of sight Peace man keep on chasing the wrong guy we'll see eye to eye Don't stop just yet we've got the world looking in our window Don't stop just yet we've got the world looking in our window We've got the world looking in, ah-ha We've got the world looking in, ah-ha Don't stop just yet we've got the world looking in our window Don't stop just yet we've got the world looking in our window
Susan selects one particular quantum reality she feels may need their personal attention.
03 1 Giant Leap – Braided Hair (2001, England) MICHAEL with JACK and GABRIELLE with SUSAN (separately)
Yeah You know we was talking earlier and I was, I was telling you, I was talking about life, uh-huh, I feel like life is really just like braided hair, cause it's, it's got like twists... you know about braided? Right, twists, you know, three strands twist together, and ultimately you get to where you're gonna get to. From the same dirt from the heels of my ancestors The naked roads and the fields where the pain festered And I wonder where the hold came from In the depths of my heart made me yearn for the doubt It's the same place where the cross was burned The same place where the loss was earned It's the place where the floss was yearned Gold teeth and bling Ice on the ring Baby sure Yeah we all got things that hang on our back Things that make us cool Things that make us wack Things that make us mad Things we wish we never had done But they're just the things that make us rare Now the map's the guide where we go from here The road twists and braids like hair Until we all get there Talk about miracles, we are a miracle, we're all living a miracle I like that I don't know some mysteries Ancient things and beginnings Excited about the day when I don't have to hear all the theories My scalp needs some grease In the same place where the cross was burned The same place where the loss was earned The only way we all can learn Is if we have these braids with the twists and turns So we all got things that hang on our back Things that make us cool Things that make us wack Things that make us mad Things we wish we never had done But they're just the things that make us rare Now the map's the guide where we go from here The road twists and braids like hair Until we all get there Walking in the race of life Looking for my own pace Not always wanting to But I have to Sometimes feeling like I've bitten off much more than I can chew But the wind goes through my hair And lifts me up with ease Not a crease Hair full of grease No weave embracing me It's you I see, yeah I am you and you are me I see, yeah (chant) It doesn't matter the colour your skin It doesn't matter where we come from Because we are one And we should know that we are one I am you and you are me I see, yeah We might survive as brothers, yeah Or perish here as fools Go place your bets Don't bet too soon Yeah, you might find me in another Feels like someone you once knew You know that face Yeah we all do We might survive as brothers, yeah Or perish here as fools Go place your bets But don't bet too soon Yeah you might find me in another Feels like someone you once knew You know that face Yeah we all do Braided hair, braided braided hair Braided hair, braided braided hair You know that face Yeah we all do You know that face Yeah we all do What's it all for? What's it all for?
It is 1999, another 1999.
Gabrielle is a young African-Chinese woman from a powerful and prosperous African Union that spans almost the whole continent.
Tom is a young Black man of partly American ancestry from the British Commonwealth.
They have not yet met, but Susan and Jack are watching them closely.
04 The Adults – Boomtown (2011, New Zealand) GABRIELLE and MICHAEL (separate)
(Islamic women's chant) I run with the currents and power lines Move from the moment I left behind Take all of the energy I divine Push your body up to the back of my mind (I'm running, I'm running, I'm running, I'm running) (I'm running, I'm running, I'm running, I'm running) When you slip through the distance and fade away I slow for a second and breathe my name Leave space for a rush as you lose your place I'm only as lonely as I am brave Ha Now I'm running, running Ha Now I'm running Na na na na na Ha Now I'm running, running Ha Now I'm running Na na na na (Islamic women's chant) A F R I C A NZ connect find me there Cheza mboku, nicely played It's a fiery place need to find me shade Ok I know I haven't been home in a minute I'm on the frontier I've been going to get it Living for the day, in the moment, we in it I'm so damn committed and no we ain't finished With the music we dance to the bongo The story I'm scripting starts in the Congo Wake up every single morning like Alonzo Still trying to make my mama proud of me pronto So poor a young un just a little uragawa Take off your shoes when you're walking in mi casa All I need is my grandma Ugali Then we get it going like we in Kinshasa Ha Now I'm running, running Ha Now I'm running Na na na na na Ha Now I'm running, running Ha Now I'm running Na na na na na (Islamic women's chanting) Ha Now I'm running, running Ha Now I'm running Na na na na na I run with the currents and power lines Move from the moment I left behind Take all of the energy I divine Push your body up to the back of my mind (I'm running, I'm running, I'm running, I'm running) (I'm running, I'm running, I'm running, I'm running)
Gabrielle and Tom are both ambitious in their separate worlds. Gabrielle is a physicist. Tom is a telecommunications engineer and occasional musician.
The Adults is a project of Jon Toogood, of the Kiwi hard rock band Shihad, who was born in England and married a Sudanese lady, so that’s part of the English-African thing going on here in the rhythm that started with Cat Stevens / Ysuf Islam.
05 SJD – Rising Falling Rising (2004, New Zealand) MICHAEL with JACK
A hundred thousand words, a million pauses Electrons slide like beads along the long lines Their empty staves just rising, falling, rising To competing oscillations as the radio Can you see the light Of the rising sun shine? On the median line All the arrows and signs Coming into range behind the ranges Songs that guide you home, accelerate you Can you see the light Of the rising sun shine? On the median line All the arrows and signs Seer the mind Like a skin of light The wheels are turning But you're still inside
Michael, returning home, is feeling haunted by something he doesn’t yet understand.
Sean James Donnelly is another Kiwi artist and as someone else with an Irish surname, there’s maybe also a Celtic thing sneaking in there too.
06 Clannad – Ancient Forest (1984, Ireland) GABRIELLE with SUSAN
Came upon an ancient forest A guided path that led me there Walking through the mystic forest A legend tale of times gone by Voices whisper in the black night Reflections deepen through the pines A floating mist that circles shadows A legend tale of times gone by Giant trees of folded memory Of many years and ages past Will they ever share the answer Of legend tales in times gone by? Walking through the mystic forest I'm walking through the mystic forest
Gabrielle finds herself led to a forest she knows well.
There’s Enya, so yup, definitely a Celtic thing underneath that African beat. Something that was noticed by Afro Celt Sound System too, though their music doesn’t feature here (except in that Peter Gabriel publishes their music). Now that I mention it, “Braided Hair” also has some Celtic sounds, doesn’t it?
07 Enigma – Out From The Deep (1994, Germany) JACK and SUSAN
We came out from the deep To learn to love, learn how to live We came out from the deep To avoid the mistakes we made That's why we are here That's why we are here That's why we are here We came out from the deep To help and understand, but not to kill It takes many lives till we succeed To clear the debts of many hundred years That's why we are here That's why we are here That's why we are here And that's why we are here That's why we are here That's why we are here That's why we are here That's why we are here And that's why we are here
Gabrielle encounters Jack and Susan in their energy being forms, who reveal their mission.
And there’s Michael Cretu and Sandra, again. Romanian-German, just to mess up the Afro-Celtic symmetry a bit.
08 Illusion – The Man Who Loved The Trees (1979/1989) GABRIELLE with SUSAN
In the peace of the everglade Where the green summer's lost in shade Written there in a rusty frieze "The Man Who Loved The Trees" How he lived, how he cried and laughed No-one knows from his epitaph All he had was himself to please The Man Who Loved The Trees When the world was hard to understand I could always learn from this old man Simple were his words and was his way I will always love him to this day In the crisp of the autumn chill He is there, as he always will I can feel him there in the breeze The Man Who Loved The Trees Trees...
Susan explains to Gabrielle the core of their problem.
In this timeline, Susan’s father did not become a Cold War genetic engineer and Director of the Center for Scientific Progress, but lived and died alone, a forgotten ecologist, here in this forest.
There was no SKYWATCH, no SYSTEM, no Astradyne, and Susan was never born. This Earth is a safer place but there was also no space infrastructure, no contact, and the alien asteroid with its cargo of strange technology impacted the Sun rather than the earth.
And as a result the Sun is about to go nova.
I almost wonder if this 1979 song was inspired by the opening melody in the 1972 “The Lorax“, given the very similar doomy ecological themes, but that’s probably just an Illusion.
For the longest time, I knew this song had to end Act 1 because of its sheer emotional power (as well as its musical rightness), but I couldn’t work out what it meant. There was such an overpowering sense of grief and loss combined with a deep love and respect. But the song was by who, and for who? The “Gabrielle” character didn’t seem to have anything going on in her life that would be that quietly devastating (other than having just been contacted by extradimensional beings).
And then I finished scripting “A Case Of Goodbye”, with Emmylou Harris playing Susan’s mother, and suddenly I had the answer: it had to be about Susan and her father. And he was also her link to Gabrielle.
And suddenly I understood all of the rest of the songs. The thing about Susan’s father (the Director of the Center for Scientific Progress) is he is not exactly a bad person or even a bad father. He made certain choices within a certain organization and those had certain effects leading to Susan suffering a lot of pain but being placed in an important position. Given another roll of the dice, he made different choices and became a very different person.. and there was no Susan to either suffer or achieve. Neither of those choices were “the wrong choice”. But everything changes because of them and so… the answers are different.
(next in story time: Novas 6.6) in which we meet Susan’s father