Minteer - Calling All Aliens (2017)

At first, we weren’t sure if we should feel privileged by this strange invasion, or threatened. Looking exceptionally glorious, they descended from the twilight skies in their glistening crafts emitting jewel toned beams of light. They proudly arrived to our desert cities bearing gifts; food and drink elixirs more exotic than anything ever known to us. They fluently spoke our languages. “Welcome home,” they enthusiastically expressed in friendly tones. It all sounded so favorable and good, perhaps too good. Yet we felt honored to surrender to their guidance, to bask in their apparent splendor.

Before we could attempt to understand what was truly happening, things went haywire. Up became down and down, up. We were mentally confused and saw unbelievable visions. I, leader of the Mojave Sector, experienced terrifying apparitions as well, witnessing my childhood hero, Batman, being forcefully and bloodily extracted from his suit, observing angry clowns screaming and clawing at my family, seeing smiling obese women wielding smoked turkey legs lounging in the back of speeding pickup trucks, and watching what looked like a band of mixed jungle animals drinking cocktails and swinging from golden chandeliers through the skies of our city.

For what purposes were our new friends poisoning us and driving us mad? These strange endeavors in our beloved desert astonished and greatly frightened us. After a while even I no longer knew who I was, and had reached the point of not really caring about anything anymore. Feeling victimized and helpless, our behaviors became more erratic. Yet the endless party with the alien “visitors,” as we called them (hoping this was truly a temporary blip in our otherwise pre-alien, perfect lives), continued to exhaustion.

While there was still some bit of sanity left, my family and I hastily escaped to the mountains while the fiascos in the desert escalated. Our moonshine drinking extraterrestrial friends soon found us, though, and by force instilled in our psyche the ability to get intoxicated on water they had extracted from our fellow desert dwelling humans. We immediately danced to a strange new tune and again celebrated the alien presence, losing ourselves and our minds once more, but this time, without reservation.