บท 17: 17
Jack smiled to himself as he draped blankets over the kids in the downstairs rumpus room. Jason and Kiko lay spoon-fashion on one couch, Mary and Penny lay with their feet intertwined on another, Carly and Tina lay on the third, Asta was curled up on the bean-bag chair she had taken over, and Yelina lay dangerously close to the edge of one of the two half-size couches, Boom-Boom Kitty asleep on her chest. Jack shifted the sleeping girl into a less precarious position, kitten and all, and covered them. He then turned off the televison, dimmed the lights, and returned upstairs.
'Told you they'd all be asleep,' Mike smiled as Jack joined him at the dining room table. Mike was studying the stadium and PA model Jason had spent the past week building. 'Damn that kid is good! I can't get over the detail. And now that I see it, I get it.'
Jack rubbed the back of the sleeve of his plaid work shirt over his eyes, tiredly. 'Really? I don't.'
'Look,' Mike said, pointing, 'you see how the speakers are set up? In sort of a ball, all the way around, underneath and over the audience? For one thing, the sound will be really physical. For another, it will be true three-dimensional stereo, which to date has only been done with special headphones and experimental rooms.'
Jack gave him a look. 'Where do you get this stuff?'
'Studio mags they sell in the music mall,' Mike told him. He smiled. 'Boy, have you ever fallen behind the times!'
Jack stretched, trying to stay awake. 'Tell me about it. But you can't tell me that this stuff isn't new, even to you.'
'The ideas behind them aren't new,' Mike said, yawning, 'but you're right- there's never been anything like this on earth before.'
'Yeah, well, I still don't get what it'll sound like.'
Mike puffed out his cheeks. 'Okay, well . . . it will sort of sound like you're right inside the sound. It won't just sound like it's all around you. It'll make you kind of feel like you're suspended in space, with sounds moving around you, like they have physical feel and shape and texture. And . . . okay, look at this, see how Short Stuff has got the lights set up?' ("Short Stuff" was his nickname for Yelina. "Bear" was everyone's nickname for Tina). They're under the floor, they're attached to the speakers, they're under, around and at the back of the stage! When the girls play a note on their instruments, if the instruments are electronic, each note has its own speaker and set of lights. The lights shift with volume and timbre. It's a different story with the acoustic instruments. They make the "mood" lights change and pulse and flash. Most of the "mood" lights are on all the time, the greens, the blues, the reds, the yellows. They're in clusters, mounted on each speaker, and they can be set up like pixels on a television or computer screen- and I intend to do just that with them! Create images! It'll be a wiring nightmare, but nothing like it will ever have been seen or felt or experienced in history!
'I mean, look at this! When Bear and Short Stuff start pounding out the rhythm, the floor will pulse with sound and light, and the sound will come out all the speakers in three dimensions, and the mood lights will pulse in time with them. Then, when Kiko starts up on the electronic drums, it'll set off sparkles that go shooting out in circles, from floor to ceiling. And then, when Mary and Penny start up with the electronic stuff, the sound will set the whole light system to sparkling and flashing and spinning, and then Asta'll come in with that grunge electric guitar of hers, and that'll set the mood lights off, and that's when we can fire up an image-generator, maybe like a psychedelic three-D Jumbotron, and the place'll just go nuts!'
Unable to imagine any of this, but caught up in his friend's enthusiasm nonetheless, Jack tried his best to understand, and nodded his enthusiasm. 'Okay, well, how long before we can actually get a show happening?'
Mike leaned forward. 'I was hoping you'd ask that. Look, buddy, this may be pushing things a little, but we can do this now. The kids have enough tunes together, and I can make everything work. Young Jason's got a real talent for running the show. The only bug will be that we'll have to rent the stadium ahead of time so's we can spend a full day getting everything working right.'
Jack frowned. 'Why so long?'
Mike rolled his eyes in exasperation. 'It's only the most complicated sound and light system ever devised, that's all.'
Jack chuckled at that. 'I'm going to bed! You can stay up all night if you like. Okay, so we're putting on the show of the century.'
'Y'know, old buddy,' Mike told him seriously, 'that might not be too far off the mark.'
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