Ensign 1999 is a rock and roll tragedy set in Jacksonville, North Carolina and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina during the last slice of the 20th century.

Ensign is a little kid with an English bulldog best friend named Dusty. Captain keeps them sharp at Shed Command - training hard to Do The Right Thing no matter the cost. Ensign finally kicks the can on top of Radial Mountain, but when Captain loses a leg to The Cube at The Main Event, their whole world  explodes. (A1; 1984-1989; Jacksonville)Ensign & Dusty escape Shed Command and find a real family with Janet and Carrol. Middle school is even harder if you spent childhood locked in a shed. Meredith teaches Ensign how to laugh; Meredith drowns in the ocean. (A2; 1989-1996; Jacksonville)

Ensign drops out and takes off to Myrtle Beach with Dusty. Ensign lands a job in the dishpit of a punk pizza palace. Across town Opal is having bright ideas. Eventually Rat King gets called down from New York. It seemed like nothing could stop The Wayfinders, but they weren't expecting The Gay Dolphin Apocalypse. (A3; 1996-1999; Myrtle Beach)

I don't think Ensign 1999 is a rock opera or a concept record - it's too big.It's a long, braided set of stories about trauma's impact on memory, coolness, disassociation, professional wrestling, Nickelodeon television, structural meta-physics, the death of sincerity, data as power... It's a trilogy and a tragedy. I'm calling Ensign 1999 a rock and roll novel.

It's like: Quadrophenia but make it Star Wars and dunk it in suntan lotion. Thomas Pychon writes the Epcot Center visitor guide. Life is Beautiful except the dad convinces the kid they're Robocops. What if Kurt Vonnegut only made airbrush paintings? American Gladiators with color commentary by Flannery O'Conner and John Prine.

I can't perform Ensign 1999 straight through (yet). But, I swear-to-god I'll die unless I start telling this story. So, for now, Ensign 1999 shows are a Viewmaster disc, of sorts - snapshots from the whole shebang.