Red HALYX pin from the Defunctland documentary kickstarter, as well as a bootleg pin I made based on the pins given out at the world premier screening of the doc.

Comparison between original and bootleg.

Mine is definitely more saturated in color, and there are some slight differences in scale. I did work in RBG instead of CMYK, so that may account for the stark color difference. Regardless, I am happy with my work.

Although these objects are modern, we do not have official merchandise from the band. It feels nice to have a piece of them with me.

Uh oh guys, I watched a Defunctland documentary and now I'm obsessed with a space rock band that only existed for the summer of 1981.

Hail Halyx, I guess

For many years Halyx was the number one urban legend of the early 80s rock scene.

Halyx will be forever remembered as the space rock shooting star of summer 1981.

Check out the documentary directed by Matthew Serrano. A must see for anyone pretending to be a true 80s addict !

Halyx, Starlight Express and Captain EO walk into Xanadu. What happens next?

okay wait I know this is gonna sound dead fucking stupid because this is literally a Disney band but I think panther could do suuuuchhhh a good cover of this song like if they just changed it to be about a chick (think: the wacken 2016 girl from oklahoma song for fabi)

like look at these lyrics!!! it's literally so them

dusts off the old shitty art blog

wake up babe new hyperfix just dropped

i don't want to be a teenager again. i don't want to go back to high school. intellectually i know things were worse than maybe they'll ever be again.

but also i want to go to blockbuster again. i want to eat in my favorite restaurant. have one last bagel at my favorite bakery. i want to have chocolate coke with all my siblings in the car at sonic, hoping "fireflies" by owl city will come on the radio while we're there. i want to not be working two and a half jobs. i want the hastings down the street to be open again, and my favorite knickknack store to be waiting when i drive to that side of town. i want the street lights to be orange again. i want my favorite thrift store back, the one with the best fabric selection in town. i want vhs tapes and cassette tapes and cd players in laptops and cars. i want to write more letters. be less angry. not spend $300 on church camp that i mostly hated anyway. i want to play three's a crowd one last time. i want to climb up the wall to the roof on the grad school campus. i want the concrete books back behind the library. i want to go back to house phones and no social media. to before they redid the movie theatre. to when the best feeling in the world was wearing a white shirt when they turned the blacklights on in the bowling alley. to stretching my fingers out as far as i could go to touch the nose of the zebra statue behind the railing at putt putt golf and whispering i love you to it. because i did.

you know.

transparent versions of these gifs for your neocities, carrds, etc. - taken from the animator's website (Lizzie Fij)

River Crossing

Vantas sits comfortably by the campfire, tending to it with a long stick. He is at least a far cry more comfortable than his unusual companion, who seems to want to stay as far away from the flames as possible, occasionally fussing his hair into and out of braid. Vantas still can’t get used to just looking at him – A waterfolk, a full blooded one, sitting right next to him. Though, he supposes where ever Halyx had originated from, he wasn’t such a rarity. He supposes that same place didn’t have Ashbloods either, though that hardly made it different from him home.

“If you keep tuggin’ at your hair, it’ll all fall out,” Eventually he speaks up, gruff and irritated but only just. He’s more tired than anything. They’ve been wandering around The Corridor for what feels like days, but its hard to tell with no sunlight. Halyx either ignores the rogue or doesn’t hear him, just staring at the dirt between his boots, muttering something with enough speed to give away his anxiety. “Is your mind waterlogged? I’m talking to you – Halyx!”

“What? Sorry.” He doesn’t even flinch, Halyx just looks up, still partly in a daze but let’s go of his hair. “I was just – Thinking.”

“No shit. You looked about ready to fry your own skull.”

“I’m serious-“ “So am I,” “- I’m thinking, what if we can’t get back? What if… What if we’re stuck here, in Gods only knows where? What if we ended somewhere else? I mean, I don’t even know how we got here to begin with –“ “Will you shut up?” “- Do you want me to answer you or not?!”

Vantas snaps his mouth shut with a scowl, but his ears flatten to his bird’s nest hair and his tail flickers. For a brief second, he sounded like Calliope and that’s enough to twist his stomach into submission, he sees enough of her in his white lines, itched into his glittering skin just likes hers. There’s brief pause between them, the fire dances but doesn’t crackle, something exclusively unsettling to The Corridor – The silence. But it makes Halyx’s point clear, they don’t know how they got there, they don’t know what happened or how to get back or where they are even going, just that they need to keep moving.

“We will get back. You’ll get back to your stream, and I’ll get back to mine.”

“But how?”

“We just will! That’s all that matters – Fuck!” In frustration, Vantas throws the stick into the fire, just to have some destruction, something to control. He leaps out of his seat and takes a step back, sharp fangs bared. “I don’t know, okay? I don’t. But we will. We have to.” He gets quiet, tugs at the red scarf around his throat to loosen it and run his thumb over the violet cord knotted tight around his neck, around his body, keeping him together. He doesn’t need to say anything for Halyx to understand. They have to get back, they have people waiting for them.

I really need to stop watching Defunctland specials at midnight, they keep making me emotional

How can I be fine after learning about the band Halyx.

DON'T LOOK AT ME

Halyx as in the defunct Disneyland band that used to play in Tomorrowland in the 80s?

yEES that's the one

Disneyland Ask #4--as a fandom, we don't talk enough about the shows!

4. A ride I wish I could’ve experienced

Okay let’s talk about a SHOW I wish I could’ve experienced instead!!

Honestly we really don’t talk enough about shows, which is funny since the Aladdin show at DCA is one of my absolute FAVORITE things to exist ever and I miss it constantly

Right off the bat the first thing I thought of was Halyx, because after watching that documentary I think it would make ANYONE want to experience it 😭

Also while I was technically there as a baby, I would’ve loved to also actually experience and remember the festival of fools show because according to my parents it was amazing

Lora Mumford (1954 - 2011) had dreams of stardom and moved from North Carolina to California to follow a career in singing. She achieved success singing in a band that toured the USO in South Korea, and at 26 years old in the summer of 1981, performed at Disneyland in Anaheim California as the lead singer in HALYX. HALYX’s sound was a mixture of the music of KISS and Star Wars. Their sound was unusual and rather intriguing for Disneyland, and attracted the attention of park visitors. After appearing on the stage at Disneyland, Lora and the band pursued a record deal but nothing materialized. She eventually took a job as a waitress near the famed theme park, hopeful that other opportunities would appear. Lora passed away in 2011, but as recently as just a few years ago her story gained popularity again after the release of the documentary Disneyland’s Forgotten Sci-Fi Rock Band - Live From the Space Stage. We remember Lora, her extraordinary voice, and exceptional story on her biography at AncientFaces..