Trey's narration from "Harpua," 12/30/97:

...and I'm gonna tell you about this, this morning, when I was waking up, I started thinking about, um, 1974. Some of your probably weren't even alive in 1974, but I was ten years old, since I was born in 1964, and I was going to John Witherspoon, uh, Middle School, I was in fourth grade, and, um, something happened that year that was very profound and had an effect on me and changed the whole course of my life, and changed the course probably of the band, the whole life of everyone in the band, and, uh, I suppose, in turn, some people out there who come see the band. And, uh, what happened in 1974, I was in fourth grade, and I really wanted my parents to get me a TV in my room, and so this was a thing that went on for a couple years, where I would ask my parents whether they would buy me a TV, and let me have a TV in my room, um, they're like, "No, no, you're gonna watch too much TV," so finally they let me have a TV in my room, um, they gave me a black and white TV, and the bad thing that happened was that I started watching TV like six hours a day, and what would happen would be on Saturday mornings I would wake up, I had this ritual where I'd wake up and I would get four slices of, uh, Pepperidge Farm white bread and a stick of butter and an electric frying pan, and I would melt an entire stick of butter in an electric frying pan and make French toast, and then sit down in front of the TV and watch like, you know, 17 hours of TV for the entire day of, of, uh, my Saturday afternoons. And, so, this would go on for the entire year there when I was in the fourth grade, that's what I would do, every Saturday, I would sit around and watch TV, and at five o'clock, uh, there was a show that used to come on called "Lost in Space"—did any of you see "Lost in Space"?—and I remember waiting for "Lost in Space" to come on. And um, there was this one particular Saturday where I made my French toast and I sat down in front of the TV and I'm sitting there and waiting for "Lost in Space" to come on, five o'clock comes along, "Lost in Space" comes on. I'm sitting there eating my French toast, and I had this little rubber ball I that used to play with that was sort of like shaped like an udder, um, it had udders all coming off it, and I'm sitting there watching "Lost in Space," and about halfway through the TV show, there was this part where Will Robinson and the robot, you know, they're walking along one of those cheesy sets in "Lost in Space," they go around the corner, and they end up in this sort of clearing. And, um, this clearing, the weird thing about it was um I'm sitting there watching TV and I'm thinking this clearing is the identical that is behind the school that I went to, the John Witherspoon school that I mentioned before. And it was a place that I had been before. So I'm watching TV and I'm thinking here's Will Robinson and the robot hanging out in this clearing that I go to on, um, you know, during recess in fourth grade. Completely strange moment. And, um, I look down at the foot of the robot—I know this is a long story, but it's very profound and important, so please listen; it changed my life—and at the foot of the robot is this udder ball squeezing squeak toy that I also had in my hand. So this completely, you know, I'm sitting here looking, here's this clearing and the udder ball, and suddenly I realize that the robot is sending messages directly into my brain.

Four slices of Pepperidge Farm white bread fried in an entire stick of butter in an electric frying pan: Phish. Saturday TV, the udder ball, the clearing behind the school you went to in fourth grade. The way that recesses there could be science fictional. The way that, after hours of passive entertainment, once the executive function of the brain is lulled into silence, the magic starts to happen, characters within the medium begin speaking to you, directly into your brain, showing you the places where you feel the most like yourself: Phish.