JPF Home Page Forums Lyric and MP3 Feedback Lyric Feedback Forum 2 When a Star Hits the Moon

HI Sweetjoyce,

Yes that's me. The picture with guitar was taken around 1975.

This story may give insight into the song:

HOW THE MOON GOT ITS FACE

A crane is startled from the marsh.
Enigma watches dreamily as the spaceship blasts off to the moon.
His faithful dog Penumbra dreamily eyes the crane.
Living near Kennedy Space Center Enigma watched every one of the launchings. This time his gaze lingers long after the huge rocket disappears.
Penumbra, the dog, nuzzles his hand bringing him back to earth.
As a child Enigma would be outside playing with his shuttle hot rod shuttle when his mother would yell “Come in and do your homework.” He had wanted to be an astronaut but his marks were low in Science.
Enigma grew up to become a mime artist. He could tell amazing stories just by silently moving his body with ‘physical eloquence.’
Penumbra used to tag along when Enigma went to the city to do his act.
As each performance ended Penumbra the dog would pass the hat around.
Although Enigma became famous for the stories he mimed he longed for something greater. When he showered he would daydream of performing on the moon, standing at the place where the dark side met the light...
The moon colony is finally finished. Enigma is approached to fulfill his wildest dreams— to go there to entertain the troops. There is only room for 140 pounds on the next flight. Enigma weighs in at 138.
As Enigma blasts off he imagines that Penumbra the dog must be just a tiny speck; a freckle on the face of the earth.
Upon landing Enigma is asked to perform. Still dressed in his bulky spacesuit with the plexiglass faceshield He is lead to the stage.
The colonists are all in their spacesuits too, waiting outside in an amphitheater carved out of a giant crater
Enigma starts with ‘How the Moon got its face.’ “Since the dawn of time,” he mimes, “man has done terrible things to one another. Each time a person did something bad to someone a star would fall like a tear striking the moon. So many injustices turned the surface of the moon to dust. Each meteorite left a crater that could never be erased, so that is why the moon has a sad face.”
It is difficult for Enigma to make the moves that he is accustomed to because his weight is much less than what it is on earth. With his awkward space suit he is bouncing around and slipping in moon-dust. So his pantomime doesn’t make any sense.
His expressive face is hidden behind the face shield so no one can understand what his skit is all about. They don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
His own image is reflected in each of the colonists face shields much like the bank of television sets in an appliance store, all on the same channel. No one knows how to react so they just sit there.
Enigma is disheartened. This is his most moving number. When he had performed this on earth people had been moved to tears.
The commander senses things aren’t going well. He takes the young mime aside and suggests that they set up to do the performance inside.
This gives Enigma time to think. ‘Why must I have the greatest and worst moment of my life in the same instance?’
Just then he looks out the porthole and sees an earth rise. With its atmospheric halo the earth is a blue jewel displayed on black velvet with a million diamond stars. Then he realizes that he has been blessed with an incredible
gift—to see the earth shining in the heavens.
The next day Enigma performs, after getting used to the weight difference. With his expressive face unmasked he leaps in the air and pulls his body into the shape of a tear, then comes down gently to draw a circle of a moon dust crater. This time though, Enigma mimes how the moon could have a happy face.
(The shower fades. “Enigma, it’s time to do your homework...” )

© 1995 Stefan des Lauriers