Acid Park is a tribute to those times when reality borders on fantasy. 

In an unfamiliar west coast city. Imagine sliding down a steep precipice covered with deadfall, 100,000 volt power lines within arms reach - hair standing on end as you limbo beneath them in a barely controlled slide.  As you catch your breath at the bottom, you realize that getting back up safely will be nearly impossible. To make matters more interesting, you are on a train track, one of many that spread out from a dark tunnel through the cliff face you just stumbled down.  Peering into the darkness of the tunnel, you realize a sharp curve prevents you from seeing much more than a few feet beyond the entrance. The dead quite is disturbing. Would you hear a train before it bore down on you from the tunnel?

Looking for escape, you realize it may not be easy. On the distant side of the seemingly endless row of tracks is another steeper cliff that plunges straight down to the salty bay. Opposite the tunnel, the tracks quickly combine one by one as they consolidate to cross a  towering bridge that extends for miles across the bay. This place was meant for machines, not men - no room for wonderers on either the tracks or the bridge. 

A decision is made, freedom lies at the end of the immense span of the bridge, and before you talk yourself out of it you are on your way. Slipping from tie to tie, not wanting to look between them at the distant ocean below, you force yourself to pause. A quick assessment shows that you are about one fifth of the way across, and its been a quarter hour. Looking over the low railing at the side you can see the harbor traffic, coast guard cutters, barges and tugs, ferries and sea busses. All looking disturbingly small - with one exception - you can see a tremendous barge approaching below. You glance up at the tremendous structure above the middle section of the bridge. Your mind races a bit, uneasy thoughts boil below your conscious awareness. Something about that tower above the bridge, something about the approaching barge. An ear splitting horn sounds from somewhere near. Suddenly every fiber of your being screams "turn around" and "run". Before you have time for further thought you find yourself quickly reversing your course. As you near the start of the bridge structure you stop and turn around. You see the section of the bridge you were just on is no longer there, it is rising up into the towering structure above. You glance down to see the immense barge directly below the missing bridge section. You wonder what would have become of you had you stayed on course, the shaking shuddering section would surely have taken you high up into the bridge structure - provided you could hold on and not vibrate through the amply spaced railway ties. What then? You're glad you did not have to find out just how little space was left between the bridge deck and the metal beams of the overhead structure when the bridge was fully raised.

Now that the barge is through, you watch as the bridge center section rumbles quickly back down to its original configuration. So absorbed in observing this process you almost miss a new rumble rapidly increasing. From behind you! As you turn you see a freight train emerging from the tunnel and bearing down on the bridge entrance ... and you. Franticly you look for an escape. You see a small section of ground where the vast numbers of overhead power lines are supported by a lone pole.  You quickly stumble towards it - hugging it as the train thunders by, the engineer unaware of your presence. You can feel the suction wanting to draw you beneath its crushing steel. Suddenly it is over, the train has passed, the engines already across the expanse of the bridge. 

No sooner does the sound of the train fall off in the distance and "blam blam blam" the warning horn sounds again, another barge is approaching and the bridge is rising up to accommodate it. You wonder when the next train is due. Looking for way out of this mechanical nightmare, you see an obscure path between the bridge structure, the track edge, cliff and power lines. The overgrown grass that conceals it is long dead from creosote or diesel. You take to the path and find that it descends steeply down to a sheltered area you completely missed when you passed by the first time. At the base of the path you find a haven of large boulders, cement slabs and sand. Here the toxic effects of whatever killed the earth around the railway have subsided. Nature has taken over. Islands of green grass, bright and fresh amongst the sand and debris. The ground gently slopes to the waters edge and further down, overgrown with living green, another steep path up into the healthy trees above- away from the mechanical hell you just escaped. 

A strange peace exists in this place. You feel that no human has visited here since the creation of the monstrous bridge and railway tunnel.  Another couple of trains rumble by above, another barge passes below, repeating a seemingly endless cycle. Thankfully most of the noise is absorbed by the concrete slabs discarded near the perimeter of this place. You are almost overwhelmed by a sense of relief. You are glad you are not trapped in the middle of endless row of toxic smelling railway tracks with the oblivious freight trains running back and forth around you. The sun sends glimmering flashes off the water and the distant ships. It is so quite here now that you can hear the sound of gulls somewhere off in the distance. This is truly a sanctuary in the midst of mayhem. An unknown neutral zone in an urban industrial nightmare. Magic is here, calm, serene, and safe. Nothing can harm you here and your NOT alone. You are in the "ACID PARK". 

Acid Park - H plus (A lyrical representation)

Acid Park - 2