Half Light II (No Celebration)

I tend not to take lyrics literally, but this album is rife with references to The Woodlands, Texas, where Win and his brother lived when they were younger. The Woodlands is not a city, technically. It was developed as a master-planned community by The Woodlands Corporation. So right there, you can start to get a picture about what this place is like. It's planned, it's structured, there's lots of money to be had and spent, and it's a soul-sucking place.<br /> <br /> "Oh, this city's changed so much<br /> Since I was a little child<br /> Pray to God I won't live to see<br /> The death of everything that's wild"<br /> <br /> I lived in The Woodlands during my last two years of high school from 1998-2000. It's a sterile environment. Roads are laid before houses are built--common across the country, but this was not just a few houses, I mean entire "villages", as the large neighborhoods in The Woodlands are called, with thousands of homes. The first high school (there are now two) is stark white inside (walls, lockers, floors) with narrow slits for windows. Very prisonesque. There has been massive development surrounding the mall. There's a faux Riverwalk (think San Antonio) that is again sterile and manufactured--little, if anything, is organic about it at all. It's all mountains beyond mountains.<br /> <br /> What they call Market Street is supposed to be a throwback to a 50's-style town square. Visually, they nailed it, but many of the shops are national chain stores. The overall environment there is one of consumerism, of excess, of all life planned out without spontaneity. It's mostly for people who want a safe, sound place where they can live without being affected by the reality of the larger world around them. You're insulated from crime, terrorism, poverty, hardship, and just the average life that most people live. <br /> <br /> Much of the woods my friends and I used to troll around in are now people's backyards, devoid of all but the largest trees. There is no "outdoors" like you'd find in older cities, no cutting through woods or fields to get places. No adventure except on concrete residential streets and sidewalks. It's a terrible place to raise kids if you grew up having access to nature or grew up in an older town that had some rough around the edges.<br /> <br /> Having lived there a few years, and with frequent visits to my parents who currently live there, the place is in a continual state of flux. Every time I go back there, something has changed. ExxonMobil just finalized plans to move its worldwide headquarters just south of The Woodlands. They're set to build something like a 340-acre complex, and there are plans to build around 12,000 more houses for all the employees who'll transition to the new location. More sprawl. Manufactured purity on a truly massive scale. Once my parents are gone I'll never have a reason to go back there.