"Santa
Monica"
--in
the fancy Town
A.The
fancy Santa Monica:
Santa
Monica, from the description in the lyrics, seems to be a typical summer
resort. We can imagine that there are lines of neon lights glittering
along the promenade. Crowds of people sitting outside of restaurant
are chatting and feasting. You can see people dressed up fashionably
everywhere as if they are walking out of the beauty magazines. The
town itself is like a never-ending carnival. People buy coffees "from
the coolest places on the promenade," and all dressed like supermodels,
even with names which follow certain fashion styles. It seems that
the dogma of the city is "beauty," as the line "beauty so unavoidable/
everywhere you turn/ It's there"” indicates. Their definition of
beauty is that of the beauty magazines: attractive appearance, beautiful
figure, fancy restaurant and so on. Nothing about inner beauty is
mentioned here. Even the streets mentioned in the song suggest leisure
and splendor, such as "promenade," "boulevard,"” and "Lazy streets so undemanding."
No pressures can be found in the city; the city is composed of only beauties
and amusements.
B.The
coldness and loneliness feeling in the town:
The
pedestrians who have to "dodge the inline skaters" show another characteristic
of this big town. Skating should be fun, but the skaters can be rude
and dangerous to other people. This line shows the coldness
of the city. Ironically, most people don't seem to notice this
and sees the town as a place for fun. Although the city is full of
splendor and joy, the narrator feels loneliness in the crowd and a sense
of detachment of this city with such people. When he "walks
into the crowd," he feels no happiness but a sense of loss and loneliness.
This is a foreshadowing of the later lyrics about the conversation over
the phone lines. He then asked himself: "What am I doing here?"
This is probably the common feeling people may have in a big city.
Sometimes, when there are people laughing and chatting around you, you
may still feel excluded, receiving no warmth from the merry crowd.
And since the setting is winter, it makes the narrator feel colder.
C.Disguise
over the telephone:
The
dominant feeling of the verses is about the loneliness in Santa Monica,
whereas the chorus is about the sarcasm. No one will care who
you really are as long as you are known as a famous person on the phone.
Although you may have no attractive appearance, through the phone lines
or other means of telecommunication you can be anyone you wish to be.
As long as you are the hottest person on the phone, people will then notice
you and have interest in you. You are not sure about whom you
are talking to, and it makes no difference to the one at the other end
who you really are. Cape crusader and space invader are unusual
characters, and the narrator takes them two as examples to show that exaggerations
are found in the telephone lines, which is not surprising.
The narrator is trying to say that telephone communication can be extended
to the communication in the virtual world. You can also disguise
yourself in the world to win attention, friendship or even love.
A.The
fancy Santa Monica:
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