MYSTERYTRAIN. Fresher and sweeter than summer lemonade.

oh, look at the rabid females clawing at our window! joy.

The FRESH STUFF is always to be found at Temperamental: A Hanson Blog, which includes updates to the site.

So, what is this extended metaphor of a "mystery train" anyway?
The mystery train refers to the Bandwagon of Hanson love: the eccentric and ineffably resilient community of Us, the engine behind numerous fan websites and MOE memberships and cheerily waiting in line for four hours to see three Tulsa boys rock out in concert, the dizzying punch-drunk rapture and all the rock 'n' roll memories of teenie girlhood that we share because of Hanson. The mystery train is a place-holder for a time in our lives, those effervescent years of girlhood, between the petulance of preteen and the hard cynicism of late adolescence, when your spirit is still young and looking for something to love crazily, something to believe in and cheer for until your head goes dizzy with euphoria. The mystery train is my personal narrative in the collective cultural phenomenon of loving a band, and ultimately growing up with them.

Quoting rock journalist Greil Marcus: "We fight our way through the massed and leveled collective safe taste of the Top40, just looking for a little something we can call our own. But when we find it and jam the radio to hear it again it isn't just ours. It is a link to thousands of others who are sharing it with us. As a matter of a single song this might mean very little; as culture, as a way of life, you can't beat it." (Greil Marcus, rock journalist. From "Randy Newman," Mystery Train, 1976.)

my song to sing
12 march 2001

only one year ago the little website known as mystery train did not exist, the duplicitous webmaster who calls herself lulu sniffed at the consumer-driven hodgepodge that is american pop culture, html language was more or less greek to her, and the pastime known as hanson worship did not occupy a single nanosecond of her vacation hours. the story of this girl's peaceful teenage years would have ended conventionally, happily ever after - that is, with her growing up, going to college, discovering a life vocation, and becoming a staid twenty-something new yorker. however, the summer of 2000 introduced a musical wonder made up of three tow-headed boys whose pitch-perfect harmonies won her stony heart. she fell in love with them on the television screen as they cavorted on the roof of a trailer in a california desert. (memorable details included a hairy black spider, a lovely flushed boy singing in a sherpa jacket, and an infectious bridge to a pop confection called if only.) lulu's summertime blues vanished. the rest was history.

welcome, friend, to this twilight zone between childhood and adulthood. between calm, proud self-possession and screaming, senseless teeniness, between grisly reality and larger-than-life pop culture. welcome to mystery train.

unveiled on 29 august 2000 to a largely nonchalant world, MT set out to pave its own path through the treacherous territories of teenage fanaticism. in the driver's seat was 16-year-old lulu, humming the melody to a song to sing in her throat while nervously steering the train right and left.

mystery train is dedicated to dialogues on one incredible band, its music, and how it has changed us. i wish you all a happy ride.

-lulu / 12 march 2001

it's all © 2000-2001 mystery train. we at mt (as in lulu and her many other selves) believe in the beauty of intellectual property, as well as in plain old copyleft laws. as any material from us probably involved copious hours of obsessive copy editing, it would be bloody mercenary of you to duplicate it. bloody mercenary, i tell you!

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