All the Queen's Ravens at Hootananny

Here's 3 of the fantastic All the Queen's Ravens performances last friday at the Hootananny
(interesting effect: due to strange light and Charlie's sun?-what's-sun?-complexion she appears to be black and white)

Georgina Miller, UK pool champ

This weekend Georgina Miller came first at the UK pool freediving championships in Liverpool, with a PB in dynamic of 131 meters and a fat new UK record static of 6:20



here's a video by Sean Peters of her entire static



and she did all this while having to pee and with the entrance boarded up



but more factually, and impressively, she did it while running a physically and mentally very demanding business as a landscape gardener: http://www.georginamillergardens.co.uk/ 



Well impressive lady, that one. And blissfully odd taste in men.

poetry

Sometimes, what you feel inside just has to come out, don't it? While cat-sitting for friends, i felt compelled to share with them my innermost thoughts, feelings and stirrings -i do have those, you know. And it was only fitting that i'd share them in the form of the fridge magnets they use to tell each other sweet things.

This was 2 weeks ago. Yesterday i get this picture send -they had found my words of hope, love and life-affirmation and i'm sure taken it to heart. Or maybe to bowels.


picture by Brittany Trubridge

Gotta love poetry. It comes from deep within, and vacates the body in a peristaltic verbal vowel movement, leaving us satisfied and cleansed.

Some of it is shit, though.

swimming through bubble rings

leaving paradise

Why would you ever leave paradise?



I mean voluntarily, not just with your head bowed in shame because you ate its forbidden fruit. I left because my ticket said it was time to leave, which is a ridiculous reason; it's a schlep and a half to get to the place, getting back is even worse (cause you're traveling in the wrong direction), so you best stay long as you can. But my bank account also went from silently weeping in the corner to screaming its head off, so i'd come to the end of the road anyway.



Now that i'm back to what i guess is reality and normality (with my kind of brain, both concepts are forever in question and rarely within reach), i can tell you a couple of things about paradise. It's an odd place to get into:



but once in there is that sense of infinite beauty



with the kind of views and blues usually reserved for, well, movies about paradise



and some beautiful people





who are there to cherish the blue and the sun



but even the clouds are pretty



and even the rain is sunny



and fantastically fat



the insects are HUGE



the birds tiny



the fish quite sociable



as are the lizards -though they prefer to be outside



whereas the porcupine fish likes to be inside



and the frogs like monofins



the corals are smart and angelic



and can come in the shape of a rubber ducky



of course, this is modern day paradise, so there's quite a lot of plastic shit about



which has its own sad visual poetry



but other than that, it is remarkably pristine and crowd-free



and it seems paradise takes over civilization more than the other way round



so i'm happy to report that the tree of wisdom is safe and sound



and that i obviously have yet to partake from its fruit



but during the journey back into civilization i had a thought



you don't really know about love until you've had your heart broken, or about life until someone you love dies. In paradise, happiness is a state rather than a moment. I hope the memory of that state adds value to future moments.

And i hope to be back in paradise as soon as bank accountably possible.