Death in THX Sound

By Richard Edenfield

The RKO movie palace hangs as jewelry on Main Street in New Rochelle, New York; the title crowned with marquee illumination as glass door slippers shine forward transforming all who entered into royalty. The long dead echo of crowds haunts with footsteps tapping on marble as red velvet curtains slide like a sheet over eyes shocked with light. I stand in front on a frame of sidewalk that projects a gray feature into the horizon. A wrecking ball is now hitting the theater, a giant hypnotist swinging a pendulum inducing death. The sound it makes as it falls—technology’s soulless applause.