THE GINGERBREAD MAN
THE GINGERBREAD MAN is the story or, maybe more accurately,
one of the many journeys of an entity that visits the minds
of human beings, and spies upon their thoughts. In the
center of these personalities, the Gingerbread Man finds
each person’s individual “brain song,” an infectious piece
of pop music that floats around in their mind. The
Gingerbread Man recognizes this “brain song” as a human’s
unconscious attempt at creating order in the quagmire of
chaos constantly confusing its mental condition. Because of
his ultimately detached position, The Gingerbread Man has
no real emotional stake in the lives of these people, but
they do represent an ongoing sense of amusement for him. In
the end he sums up his feelings toward humanity with a
brief song of his own.
The musical treatment of THE GINGERBREAD MAN is a
continuous piece approximately 36 minutes long. This piece
is actually a series of musical fragments united by two
themes announcing the arrival and departure of the
Gingerbread Man as he visits each personality. Within this
structure several different characters or personalities
will be created:
• A BUTCHER, who has returned from a near death
experience, is preoccupied with thoughts of revenge towards
someone he refers to as “buddy.”
• An ASCETIC or seeker of truth constantly strives to find
out what is at the “top of the mountain” but also hears a
voice that tells him to “beware of what he wants, because
it might want him more.”
• A LONELY OLD WOMAN obsesses on the fact that her
children never write or call and asks an angel if anyone
would even notice if she murdered herself.
• An ARTIST sees himself as having sold out, but justifies
his position because he had to “feed the fat boy,” a demon
that everyone must eventually serve in order to become
successful.
• An OLD SOLDIER fondly remembers an affair with a younger
woman as he stands at attention in the hot summer sun; he
wishes they could just dance together one more time.
• A CONFUSED TRANSSEXUAL has unfortunately discovered that
a sex change operation was not a miracle cure for all
his/her problems; he/she identifies with crows and how some
people see the call of a crow as a cry, while others see
the cry of a crow as a lie.
• A WEAVER who believes that something better is always
just beyond her reach, but is also terrified that she won’t
recognize her big opportunity when it finally arrives;
meanwhile she plays the lottery and looks down on the man
who is completely devoted to her.
• An AGING MUSCIAN fantasizes how might he might be
remembered on MTV if he committed suicide; he mentally
constructs his suicide note which reads: “If you like to
pretend that you’ll never get old, you got what it takes to
rock n’roll.”
• A DYING OILMAN
In the interactive version of THE GINGERBREAD MAN, the
music will be nearly identical to the audio-only version,
but this sound track will be supplemented by multimedia
visual and audio material. At times these visuals will be
synchronized to the music, while at other times the
pictures will be controlled or “played” by the user. This
material will be primarily composed of two different types
of visual elements: the actual characters, who will be
represented by disembodied floating heads spinning in front
of psychedelic backgrounds, and the objects or possessions
that reflect the characters’ personalities. Within this
context the user will be able to not only create the sea of
swirling visual and text elements in which each character’s
head swims, but will also be able to effect these visual
elements in regard to their colors, paths, degrees of
distortion, etc. The result will be a unique long form
music video in which the user has a certain involvement,
and also one that will never look the same way twice.
- The Cryptic Corporation