Metra Ep 5 - The Very Big Day

The day arrives.

Cori, Sam, Aglaphonos, and Tom are about to intercept their subject and throw him into the Process. Will it win him over? Can the Bubble people change?

Songs: 
“Welcome Mythmakers”
“The Myth of Erysicthon Part 1”
“Metra’s Mother”
“The Myth of Erysicthon Part 2”

Check out our website for ways to join the climate movement: metrathemusical.com/do-something

Support Metra at ko-fi.com/metrathemusical

Written by Emily and Ned Hartford
Music and Lyrics by Ned Hartford
Dialogue Directed by Emily Hartford
Produced by MythMakers Media

Featuring: Jeannette Bayardelle, Cherrye J. Davis, Corinna Schulenburg, Fred Inkley, Alia Munsch, Cristina Obando Sanchez, Sierra Rein, Ned Hartford, Corey Allen, and Stephanie Willing

Sound Editing and Design; Instrumentation Arranged and Performed; Vocals Arranged; and all Audio Produced, Engineered, and Mixed by Ned Hartford

Follow the show:
https://pod.link/1843713183
IG and Bluesky:  @metrathemusical
metrathemusical.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:13

Mythmakers media presents a climate with size audio podcast Starring Jeanette by Adele as a glove for those.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

AJ Davis is Corey, Corinna Schulenberg and Sam.

SPEAKER_05 0:57

And Fred Inkly as Tyler. Featuring Aliah Munch. Sierra Ryan Christina Abando Sanchez as a wonderful tree nymph chorus. Yeah.

unknown 1:18

Change the mess. Change the world.

SPEAKER_10 1:23

Welcome back, humans. We tree nymphs are thrilled to present to you the middle episode, Hump Day, deep in the groove.

SPEAKER_11 1:33

Episode five of the scripted serial audio podcast of Metra.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

A climate revolution with songs.

SPEAKER_10 1:44

The process was changed and improved. The plan was changed and improved.

SPEAKER_11 1:50

But now, music, music, music, baby. Much more music!

SPEAKER_10 1:57

Starting right now. Picture yourself in an old abandoned bank building that was converted into a ramshackle music store.

SPEAKER_11 2:06

That for one night has been converted into a secret meeting home for a revolution. Where 100 treniums and 200 mythmakers have gathered.

SPEAKER_10 2:20

Good evening, mythmakers of Albany! Albany! Are you ready? Let's go! Because tonight is the night before the big boy and Sam are going to be out in just a minute. But to start us off tonight, let us introduce to you a mythological creature who needs no introduction.

SPEAKER_06 3:18

Bringing a human all the world how we finally came to be Revolutionary! Revolutionary Kind of God, for it go for it, go! Get it out of hot, we'll burn it out of control. Yeah, we went far to the slaughter. Now they tell us not to be here. Let them save the day. Why not? We gotta get them out of the way. Get them out of the way. And who are we talking about? We're talking about you! Welcome, Miss Makers! Welcome, Miss Makers! Mid Makers, such a sight to see! Mid makers in the ha! Mid makers make a couple of history! Come on, make us make you shut up! Gotta go secret combat! If we gotta the end of it, this would be fine if we want something just a little bit. Did I really say that? No, we don't play that. Yo, we gotta lay it down, fly back, get back, put the shit away stack! Because tomorrow, we win the bubble people over. Right? Now you know the hardships that have brought you here.

SPEAKER_07 6:18

The loved ones, gone. The famine, the thirst, the chaos, the security forces, and their guns. And the bubble people with all their food and water and comfort while the outside burns.

SPEAKER_06 6:45

But we can't be here for revenge. Okay. Let's have a little talk. No need to ask. I'm here to remind you the pain in your past. It doesn't define you. We learn to be strong. We learn to be brave. We've got to. There's a world to save. We're gonna change the situation. Strike a blow that's gonna lead to transformation. How do I know? Cause the answer's right before me. And the power and the glory of you and your story. Gonna reach across the distance. Gonna break down the resistance. Come so far. Yeah, who you are is always the same as all this year. Now give yourselves a big round of applause. Yes, myth makers. Let me I know it's not much.

SPEAKER_07 9:06

I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. You all should get going. Might not be safe to stay around here.

SPEAKER_05 9:16

We'll be fair.

SPEAKER_07 9:18

With the children. You should get going and be careful.

SPEAKER_05 9:23

Thank you.

SPEAKER_07 9:24

Thank you for your kindness. I'm sorry, it's not more. If you ever come back, maybe things will be different around here. Better.

SPEAKER_05 9:33

Monkeys.

SPEAKER_07 9:35

Good luck!

SPEAKER_05 9:46

Okay. Here we go. Tom, you ready? Wall battery powered up, computer online, guitar in tune, ambison pedals turned on, and the combination of this ridiculous sombrero pulled down low over my eyes, and this ridiculous fake beard is scratching the shit out of my face. Well it all successfully renders me unrecognizable and absol fucking lutely uncomfortable. Thank you very much, Corey.

SPEAKER_06 10:15

Yeah. Sam, but the refugees. And how long have they been?

SPEAKER_07 10:23

I think they were from Texas, so a long time ago.

SPEAKER_06 10:26

You gave them your own rations, didn't you?

SPEAKER_07 10:28

They were children.

SPEAKER_06 10:30

Yeah, I should have planted more quinoa, sweet potatoes, everything else in the garden burned up. What the fuck else have I messed up? Overlooked just for god.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Don't two vehicles approaching. Alright. I am anticipating an especially rewarding day for all. Especially you, Cory.

SPEAKER_06 10:50

What do you mean? Alright, here they come. Tom, the Autoglide Minds want to give you the signal.

SPEAKER_05 10:56

Now that sounds like it worked.

SPEAKER_06 11:04

It did. Security is out. Weapons drawn. Secondary nymph team luring soldiers away. Oh, let's give it a second. Okay. Tom, release the elite! Bubble elite feeling ahead. He's getting out of the vehicle. He's looking around. He doesn't see a security team. He's throwing his hands in the air.

SPEAKER_07 11:34

Something must be bothering him.

SPEAKER_06 11:36

He's definitely a little bothered right now. He sees the bar. He's looking around again. He looks back at the Oh, here he comes. Actors Taplaces. I'll get behind the bar.

SPEAKER_07 11:47

I'll set up my favorite person. And like that.

SPEAKER_06 11:54

Wow, it's hot. Come in and close the door.

SPEAKER_09 11:58

Right. Wow. That glare hard to see. Bar's over here. Thanks.

SPEAKER_07 12:06

Right over here. Here's a bar stools. Sit here.

SPEAKER_09 12:12

Hi. Hi. I had a thing, an accident. Or a thing. Yeah. Wow. Lucky not to be killed. And then the autoglide hatch pops open and then bam. And then you came in here. My autoglide. Oh, four tires. Blown. And then the hatch on the autoglide opens.

SPEAKER_07 12:40

Wow. Autoglides are supposed to stay closed so that the bubble people are protected until the security forces arrive, right?

SPEAKER_09 12:48

Yeah. I'm sure the security soldiers will be here at any minute. You're lucky you broke down just a few steps from my bar. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 12:57

Bubble folks have a hard time with the heat.

SPEAKER_09 13:00

Well, we're we're all in this together. That's what they say on the news. So welcome.

SPEAKER_06 13:08

Drink Yeah. Water. Some cold water. A little low on that. Water rationing, you know. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 13:17

Welcome to the outside.

SPEAKER_09 13:20

Well. It's a bar. What you got?

SPEAKER_07 13:23

Try the honey to me. Like out of ancient Greece. Ancient Greece. It's a classic.

SPEAKER_09 13:34

Yeah. Okay. Thanks.

SPEAKER_06 13:42

Sam gives me the honey. It's hard to come by these days.

SPEAKER_09 13:50

My lips are sealed. You do what you do to survive.

SPEAKER_06 13:55

It'll be a great story at your next cocktail party. I drink mead with outside.

SPEAKER_07 14:03

They'll all be like an adventure.

SPEAKER_09 14:10

I'm Tyler. Nice to meet you, Cory.

SPEAKER_07 14:15

I know you. You're Tyler Gant. Tyler Gant. Right. Tyler Gantz. Huge leader with the ideas to save us.

SPEAKER_09 14:38

Okay. You got me.

SPEAKER_06 14:40

Tyler Gans.

SPEAKER_09 14:44

Tyler Gans. If you're worried about me being stranded here temporarily, I will personally vouch for you and your hospitality when the security soldiers get here. And I'm sure they will be at any moment.

SPEAKER_07 15:02

I've seen on the news how Tyler Gans is paying for all this amazing climate research.

SPEAKER_09 15:08

Well, we're gonna turn this thing around. Believe you me.

SPEAKER_07 15:12

Mr. Tyler Gans, here in your bar.

SPEAKER_09 15:15

Yeah. Imagine that. Tyler, please. I'm just another human being. A person. Just like you.

SPEAKER_07 15:22

Oh my god. I'm a billionaire too. Corey, I can pay my tab.

SPEAKER_09 15:28

Okay. Financially, we are not the same.

SPEAKER_07 15:31

I just mean you went out here off to have an illicit affair.

SPEAKER_09 15:36

No. No. If you only knew how much I love my wife and kids.

SPEAKER_07 15:43

Family man. Nice. I'm Samantha. Friendly billionaires can call me Sam. Yeah now. Back in the day, I watched your talk. Yes. And well, you saw that coming. You saw it an innovative, iconoclastic change leader, entrepreneur like you. You had the vision. You saw what was coming. Yeah, here we are anyway.

SPEAKER_09 16:15

That happened so much faster than we thought. Tell me about your work. So you said you were going to turn things around. Well, not me personally, of course. I'm no scientist. But I have put together a brilliant team of researchers, and I believe that investment will soon pay out.

SPEAKER_07 16:34

Listen, since you're here, I've got to ask you what's going on behind the doors of your lab. Well, I don't know there's stuff you can't reveal. You can spare a tiny secret for your new friends, right? Come on, impress me. Blow my mind.

SPEAKER_09 16:56

Wheat. Drought. Uh extreme weather events, crop collapse. But what if we could grow what we need indoors? Hydroponics is not new. No. But wheat, the staff of life, a much higher nutritional profile than lettuce or bok choy or whatever. Wheat has been impossible to vertical farm cost efficiently. But what if a certain somebody's lab came up with a way? And not just to vertical farm wheat, but other high nutrition, high protein seed strains. Wow, fascinating. Now remember, secrets among friends. My lips are sealed. We could just stop the production of all fossil fuels. We could have.

SPEAKER_07 17:41

Like they say on the news. A cascade effect.

SPEAKER_09 17:45

It all happened so fast. Faster than we could have guessed.

SPEAKER_07 17:49

Or admitted. And if the powers that beaten still use fossil fuels, we wouldn't get our limited power.

SPEAKER_06 17:56

And the bubbles couldn't fuel their 24-7 air-purified, cooled, humidified, superbly hydrated existence.

SPEAKER_07 18:05

Or their security system.

SPEAKER_09 18:08

That is not something I something I think is right. I'm just you know, thank you so much for your hospitality, but I should probably wait outside in case of the security.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

Who the fuck is she? What why is her face painted green? My face is not painted.

SPEAKER_06 18:31

Can't handle your mead.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

What the fuck is going on? Why why can't I get out of this chair? What's happening? Evil King! What are you going to do? What are you? Who are you?

SPEAKER_07 18:46

I am a name. Straight out of ancient Greece, which is convenient because she's straight out of ancient Greece. And so is the little story we're about to tell you.

SPEAKER_06 18:58

A little story that maybe you haven't heard before.

SPEAKER_07 19:01

An ancient Greek myth. It was written down by the Roman poet Ovid over 2,000 years ago. But the story is much older. Now, this is not one of the better-known myths, but it's a very important one for all of us gathered here today. And if you take a moment to glance at your programs, please take note that at today's performance, the role of Metra will be played by Corey.

SPEAKER_06 19:29

Which honestly couldn't be more fitting. Every single life.

SPEAKER_07 19:36

Bada bing bada boom. And now, without any further ado, the myth of King Erisicthon and his daughter Metra from Ovid's metamorphoses. Here it comes. Get ready. Huh. Yeah, as written by Ovid in 8 AD, what he transcribed is what survived. Through the mist of history, King Arasikon is evil mesties. All the damage that was done out of selfishness and greed. Yeah, Ovid wrote down a whole bunch of lines about the selfish king and his horrible crimes. But when it comes to nut trap, we know much less.

SPEAKER_06 20:22

Ovid didn't think I was important, I guess. Fucking Ovid.

SPEAKER_07 20:31

Fucking Ovid. Yeah. But there's somebody else who played a key role. Somebody totally left out. Who did Ovid leave in that narrative? Who do we know nothing about? My mother.

SPEAKER_06 21:02

Of whom I know nothing, not a goddamn thing. Ovid deemed her non-essential. My father kept her confidential. I need to know who she was.

SPEAKER_07 21:15

We all need to know because the revolution is conceived by Metra's mother. And uh tell us all about it. Our lovely swingstress, yes, direct from the Greek islands. Let's give a big quarry's place. Welcome to that sultry siren, our fairy tale femme fatale, and thank you.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Is a little number I wrote from the point of view of a woman I knew of from many years ago. A human being I felt sorry for. And it's a song about the man who did her wrong. So, with all due respect and deference, Ivy, this is a little song I like to call Metra's Mother. Goes like this. He cursed me the day you were born for not giving him a son.

SPEAKER_06 22:40

My body has broken and torn. No more thong this earth for anything, or any one body. At least I made it you, my beautiful daughter.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

That even he fell in love with me clearing. I could share his eyes.

SPEAKER_06 23:16

My body gave up. He beat me, he was lame and designed. At least he loves it, my beautiful daughter.

SPEAKER_03 23:35

And I cried as he took you away from me, and I died in a moment of clay. Then no one knows me or my story, just like those who came before me. No one never had a voice.

SPEAKER_08 25:55

I am a stick thorn, King of Thessaly! Mighty throne, I said, dumb, don't you mess with me. I take what I want and I get what I need. I am a rustic thorn and I like a weed.

SPEAKER_06 26:21

Consecrated, dedicated to Ceres, the goddess of abundance and fertility. So everyone was like King, let the forest be.

SPEAKER_08 26:31

Hmm. Let me think about it. Huh. Now, two, three, four. Yo! Had you going there, didn't I? Ho ho! Made you think I cared, didn't I? Well, I don't! I don't care because I am Eric Fun King of Thessaly. Mighty thrown I sit down. Don't you mess with me on land I own, I do as I please! Fuck the gods! Those are my fucking trees.

SPEAKER_06 27:46

From the acts of blows, the blood flows.

SPEAKER_07 27:52

The people all cry, cause everybody knows residing inside those holy trees, the holy handmaidens of the goddess Ceres Ali A man steps forward before the next swing and begs for the king Don't do this thing, but my father cuts off that poor man's head Anybody else wanna wind up dead?

SPEAKER_08 28:41

I didn't think so.

SPEAKER_06 28:45

Ovid then says I do absolutely nothing. Does Ovid mean I should have done something? What the fuck, man? I'm just a girl with a rotten fucking father in a rotten, cruel world.

SPEAKER_07 29:04

A nymph dies. A man dies. A forest shudders.

SPEAKER_08 29:13

It's high time the people realize I am the only God that matters.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Metra. A climate revolution with songs by the heartfits.

SPEAKER_05 29:50

Starring Jeanette Bayardell, Sheree J. Davis, Corinna Schulenberg, and Fred Ingley. Featuring Alia Munch, Christina Albando's Sanchez, and Sierra Ryan. Yeah. Episode 5 features the compelling vocal performances of Corey Allen is Texas man, Stephanie Willing is Texas woman, and Tom Mulby is Tom Moby. Now a shout out to our Stellar Ensemble. Jonathan Craig, Gowie McCullough, William Peaton, Ned Hartford, Kristen Vaughan, Walker Schneckenberger, and Luke Wingarden. Dialogue directed by Emily Hartford. Singing sessions directed by Tom Mulby. Songs written by Aglofinus, Corey, Sam, and yours truly, Tom Mulpey. Music and vocal arrangements as well as sound editing and sound designed by Tom Mulpe. All audio produced and recorded and mixed by Tom Mulpey at Mythmakers Media Studios. Principal casting by McCorkoCasting. Additional casting by Mythmakers Media. Public relations and media outreach by Tink Media. Visit our website, MetroThemusical.com for a detailed list of credits and thanks. Follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky at Metra the Musical, all one word. Metra, a climate revolution with songs, is a production of Mythmakers Media. Copyright Ned and Emily Hartford, all rights reserved. Remember, change the myth, change the world. You great A plus, wondrous, motherfucking fabulous climate revolutionaries. That's a reference from one of the later episodes, so when you get there, you're gonna be like, oh yeah, I recognize that.