Ria - I stepped onto the nest's edge, Fish 'N Boots in my shadow, and a gust of wind blew through my hair, it got loose and blew all over mixing with the nest's texture . I got enwrapped. Trapped in some being's nest, I thought, o wow, what a death. Suffocated by hair. Too much hair. More than Susan's alone, more than mine, a whole, bigger than its parts. My mind flooded. All I heard was hair waving in the wind.
An owl flew over. OooHOOO ... Fish 'N Boots was mesmerized by what happened. The hair slipped off his skin like water from a duck. You'd think he knew there and then. But no. He just looked upon it all enfolding, like someone watching a Kurosawa movie..
Sigh, I was drifting on hair, I thought 'bloody fish is useless ... yet
again. Where's Bill? Where's the train?
Something opened up below me,
water? More water?'
Poink!
I fell hard on some rocky sharp
formation. I opened my eyes and saw LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT.... Crystals all
around. 'Must be the bloody peradams they keep mentioning,' I thought.
As soon as the ground felt solid i stood up. Shook my hair. Tied it in a
bun. Looked around. 'Nice,' I thought. 'Some amazing mirror palace,
Susan would get a kick out of this.' And as I thought of her, there she
was, surrounded by infinite loose ends.
September 28, 2011
William - Maramara brought the Chaf
Wagon round and we loaded the seasons harvest in preparation for the
journey to Hut 24 where the villagers were celebrating. Many of them
already a bit tipsy from the grog Susan had donated and sent on ahead.
We had climbed high these last few weeks but still weren’t acclimated despite over a years worth of testing routes past the obstacles the Mountain placed in our path. A brief pause for celebration on the lower flanks would be a welcome respite.
We had paused several times to peer through the scopes and caught glimpses of the celebration, the wagons unloading their chaff, the bright flags flapping in the breeze and the concert stage construction.
Fish fell into step with me and placed a damp fin on my shoulder, “William, I didn’t know the KaliKuties were performing at Chaf this year.”
“We’re not, we’ve been too high for any words to reach us,” I replied. Now, a feeling of dread began to overtake my mood. I quickened my pace and caught up with Susan. “What’s the last you wrote about BillyRay?”
She flipped open her notebook and read out loud, “To my surprise, there before me, on a shell in the middle of the coral reef was Billy Ray posed and ready to perform. “
“My God,” I shouted to the others, “the story is misplaced; we can’t let BillyRay go on during Chaf!!
Forgetting the wagon we raced down the slope but reached the back of the crowd just as BillyRay was returning for an encore. “William, William,” Fish N Boots panted, “slow down; this is like breathing soup.”
Just then I saw BillyRay hand his guitar to the Baroness, then reach down into Susan’s familiar but long lost rucksack and hold something over his head.
He held an eight track tape player and he was using it to make feedback loops into the microphone. Suddenly he placed the machine on the floor and with a flourish began dousing it with lighter fluid.
The Baroness knelt beside him holding a vintage Zippo lighter, igniting the eight track in a conflagration that caused a panic in the squirrel’s mosh pit.
The strains of “Born in Chicago” began to fitfully die out as the Baroness and BillyRay danced round the fire.
Fish looked from me to Susan then said, “He wasn’t supposed to do that, was he, like….I mean in the real story….you know the Hendrix's thing….was he?”
There Will Be Dancing - Lee Goldberg ©2011
We had climbed high these last few weeks but still weren’t acclimated despite over a years worth of testing routes past the obstacles the Mountain placed in our path. A brief pause for celebration on the lower flanks would be a welcome respite.
We had paused several times to peer through the scopes and caught glimpses of the celebration, the wagons unloading their chaff, the bright flags flapping in the breeze and the concert stage construction.
Fish fell into step with me and placed a damp fin on my shoulder, “William, I didn’t know the KaliKuties were performing at Chaf this year.”
“We’re not, we’ve been too high for any words to reach us,” I replied. Now, a feeling of dread began to overtake my mood. I quickened my pace and caught up with Susan. “What’s the last you wrote about BillyRay?”
She flipped open her notebook and read out loud, “To my surprise, there before me, on a shell in the middle of the coral reef was Billy Ray posed and ready to perform. “
“My God,” I shouted to the others, “the story is misplaced; we can’t let BillyRay go on during Chaf!!
Forgetting the wagon we raced down the slope but reached the back of the crowd just as BillyRay was returning for an encore. “William, William,” Fish N Boots panted, “slow down; this is like breathing soup.”
Just then I saw BillyRay hand his guitar to the Baroness, then reach down into Susan’s familiar but long lost rucksack and hold something over his head.
He held an eight track tape player and he was using it to make feedback loops into the microphone. Suddenly he placed the machine on the floor and with a flourish began dousing it with lighter fluid.
The Baroness knelt beside him holding a vintage Zippo lighter, igniting the eight track in a conflagration that caused a panic in the squirrel’s mosh pit.
The strains of “Born in Chicago” began to fitfully die out as the Baroness and BillyRay danced round the fire.
Fish looked from me to Susan then said, “He wasn’t supposed to do that, was he, like….I mean in the real story….you know the Hendrix's thing….was he?”
Conclusion to Confusion - Lee Goldberg © 2011
September 29, 2011
Mark -The Baroness had one arm in
the future and the other in the distant past so I knew I had to act
fast. Past as in the 19th Century past. Meanwhile I was going from table
to table, each covered with snow, or was it hair, or were those notes?
Notes written on paper, musical notes, frames of a storyboard that were
taking shape as quickly as they were mentioned. I imagined Lee was
somewhere close by gluing the notes together creating paper quilts and
tents and balloons but Bill, Ria and Susan were nowhere to be seen. I
looked at one table then another. Scanned them for Susan's hair, for
Bill's height. Would I recognize Ria if I saw her? How would I
distinguish Susan's hair from the DNA-like strands spiraling off each
table toward the ceiling of this basement cave? At each table it was
standing room only. People packed together shuffling the tsuff that
piled higher and higher, each one forming a beautiful pyramid shape.
First there had been squirrels, now people but none of them looked
familiar. Bill and company had said they would be here, now they
weren't. But where WERE they? The Baroness caught my eye and as I
approached her to ask if she had seen Ria she faded away into one of the
adjacent time zones. I could not yet tell which one because I was still
waiting for the shimmering Gumby arc to form.
September 30, 2011
Mara - I heard Mark say, "The only
way out is through the final remaining time slit. The others will
disappear one by one". At this point about all I could see were wavering
time slits, appearing and melding into a Star War-ish looking bar
scene. The thing is, how to locate the
"final" time slit? "Mark, MARK!" No matter how I yelled and waved my
arms he didn't seem to recognize me, or even see me. This certainly
seemed dream like, but pinching myself assured me it was not. What would
I do now if this were a dream... hunmmmm... probably try to carry a
wide variety of oddly shaped packages up some ancient stairs and come
face to face with the captain of the ship "Serif". Looking about, the
odd packages were definitely piled on and under my table, so in typical
dreamlike fashion I struggled to gather them together. It seemed like
the thing to do, at the time. But was it the right time?
October 1, 2011
William - "No Fish," I said, "he wasn't
supposed to do that. It's not the right time". "In fact, I don't think
that was in the script at all". Fish seemed perplexed for a moment,
then brightened, "Well, that's a good thing, isn't it, I mean unpredictability,
isn't that what makes life so grand?" I smiled, "Yes Fish, life is
grand, just as it is. Let's get back to the Chaf wagon, maybe there's
still grog left. It's good to be on the mountain, for the time being".
We turned and made our way through the crowd. Fish suddenly turned
and said, "William, who is he"? I thought a bit and replied, "who is
who". "This Time Being. The one that it is good for him to be on the
mountain"?
October 3, 2011
Mark - Bill replied, "Look, I shot
the serif but I did not smite the debutante." With that, his 8 track
tape player began to ring. It was Mark calling from the cave. "Where are
you guys? I thought you were going to meet me here?" "We are going back
to the hut," Bill replied. "And how is it you are calling me here?
Cell phones have not yet been invented and there is no reception on the
mountain." Mark was frustrated. "If there aren't cell phones then how
was I supposed to have found out you are headed back to the hut?" "It
was too crowded in that cave. We got Ria her 8 track tape machine that
exactly matches mine but tell me how are you able to place a phone call
to it?" Bill asked.
"This is not a phone call," Mark replied as the time slit began to close. "I am screaming into the Baroness's armpit! I'll meet you guys back at the hut!"
Fish began to snicker.
October 12, 2011
Mara - The Baroness waltzed up to Mark, "Would you dance with me?" She asked. Certainly no débutante, but without a doubt she was charming, and fortunately smelled rather good.
October 17, 2011
Susan - I awoke alone once again. All the craziness had passed. I remembered the celebration, the grog, the lights, the lines of truth, the moon, the water and the music. Then the explosion of the eight-track down below and the anarchy. Mark, what was it he wanted me to do? Something was lingering in my memory, as I looked around at all the exposed audience of debris keeping me company. My head was pounding with distractions I couldn’t grasp. What chaos. Hanging above me were endless notes in different hues. Some letters were glowing in magnificent shades of reds and oranges. Others were in the vibrant, almost blinding spectrum of yellows. I had to squint from the brilliance and auras surrounding them. I felt bathed from the illumination and I was momentarily stunned with awe before I peered at my feet. The ground was covered with more notes. These were discolored and in different forms of erosion. Many were curled as they wrinkled and fermented before my eyes.
I sadly bend down and carefully turned and sat on this carpet of crumbling life. They disintegrated at the very touch of my delicate fingers. “Man, my notes, my precious words, my thoughts, my memories, my life, my many thoughts tumbling down like the leaves of time from the tree of life!” I lamented. The autumn has come to my world and more tales were evaporating down below. Was it now time to hibernate and contemplate life. I started to weep for the earth as the soil below was watered with my tears.
Then I saw something glowing from below.
I carefully crawled over to the open hatch and grabbed my telescope from my pocket.
I saw a sign.
All was not over
# Occupy ma
It was an omen.
I dove back into the bed of notes and started to make “note angels” with my arms flapping. “All was not lost, just more layers to work with!” I screamed with laughter for everyone to hear me as an echo ricocheted by me with the words “Time Being”. Faith had been restored once more for me on the mountain.
Ria - OMG It wasn't Susan, well not really. It was a billboard. Humongous. What's that doing here? I thought. MMmm probably Bill's doing, a landmark, a sign to guide me back to the train, the others, whatever time slit they were in now, I could hear mumbling, laughing, shouting. An echo "helllloooooooo! I'm in layer cat. 98.0875# registered by climber SS.".... F**k me, I thought, that's gonna take me a while. I looked over at Fish 'N Boots, who was rolling his eyes. Right, he thought the same, here we go ... I rumbled thru my back pack, neatly organized, changed into my Issey Miyake coat for friction and of we slid down the owls nest. We'd stayed there way too long.
Mark - Susan wasn't cooperating and there wasn't time to warn her so I just gave her a push and she disappeared into the slit.
Mara - I heard Mark say, "The only way out is through the final remaining time slit. The others will disappear one by one".
Ria - "See?" I shouted at Fish 'N Boots as we were sliding, "I don't get notifications of these happenings, someone is messing with the standard climbing notification system, how on earth, well, how on MA, is climber RVE to know who went into which time slit? I just hate it when peeps run all directions/times without warning. I'm a control freak! ... 'Now hang on to your fins, this is going surreally fast."
Mark - One by one the evil monkeys ceased to torment their squirrel hosts. Thousands of light years of Sciuridae slavery were coming to an end in the wink of an eye. Meanwhile Sammy's eye WAS winking, letting Lee know that the notification system was back in operation. "I am no longer the field squirrel," said Big Blue, "Nor am I the cave squirrel. I am OUTA HERE!!!!" And with that he stormed out into the open air feeling the freshness of 25th Century air for the first time in days. Meanwhile the monkeys just stared each other with mouths agape.
Ria - Fish 'N Boots slid better. Must be in the fins I thought. And then suddenly he bumped into Big Blue. *insert surreal bumping into sound* Not much longer I slid against both of them. Kinda hurt too. Fish was out of it. Big Blue looked at me in recognition .... 'Well, look ahere,' I said, 'long time no see. So is that a waffle iron you're holding? Or are you just happy to see me?'
Mark - It seemed we were all flitting in and out of the present in record time. It was like a strobe effect but instead of dark and light it was between the past and the future. The resulting effect made us all feel the present for the first time since we had embarked up the trail to the various huts and it was all making sense to me now. But why was Ria standing so close?
Mara - I was stuck. Opening my eyes, ears, nose and mind as wide as I could the scent of maple wafted, followed closely by butter....
October 18, 2011
Mark - Bill went on to enlighten us ”According to Norse mythology, Ratatoskr (Old Norse, generally considered "drill-tooth" or "bore-tooth" is a squirrel who runs up and down the world tree Yggdrasil to carry messages between the unnamed eagle, perched atop Yggdrasil, and the wyrm Níðhöggr, who dwells beneath one of the three roots of the tree. Ergo, you all must now admit with this evidence how critical our success is based on the Blues here on Mount Analogue!”
William - I was about to answer Fish but he winked out... poof. I thought to myself, "How like him, needed some other place, some other time by someone else and off he goes. Swimming that time-stream back to the beginning much better than I."
"This is not a phone call," Mark replied as the time slit began to close. "I am screaming into the Baroness's armpit! I'll meet you guys back at the hut!"
Fish began to snicker.
October 12, 2011
Mara - The Baroness waltzed up to Mark, "Would you dance with me?" She asked. Certainly no débutante, but without a doubt she was charming, and fortunately smelled rather good.
October 17, 2011
Susan - I awoke alone once again. All the craziness had passed. I remembered the celebration, the grog, the lights, the lines of truth, the moon, the water and the music. Then the explosion of the eight-track down below and the anarchy. Mark, what was it he wanted me to do? Something was lingering in my memory, as I looked around at all the exposed audience of debris keeping me company. My head was pounding with distractions I couldn’t grasp. What chaos. Hanging above me were endless notes in different hues. Some letters were glowing in magnificent shades of reds and oranges. Others were in the vibrant, almost blinding spectrum of yellows. I had to squint from the brilliance and auras surrounding them. I felt bathed from the illumination and I was momentarily stunned with awe before I peered at my feet. The ground was covered with more notes. These were discolored and in different forms of erosion. Many were curled as they wrinkled and fermented before my eyes.
I sadly bend down and carefully turned and sat on this carpet of crumbling life. They disintegrated at the very touch of my delicate fingers. “Man, my notes, my precious words, my thoughts, my memories, my life, my many thoughts tumbling down like the leaves of time from the tree of life!” I lamented. The autumn has come to my world and more tales were evaporating down below. Was it now time to hibernate and contemplate life. I started to weep for the earth as the soil below was watered with my tears.
Then I saw something glowing from below.
I carefully crawled over to the open hatch and grabbed my telescope from my pocket.
I saw a sign.
All was not over
# Occupy ma
It was an omen.
I dove back into the bed of notes and started to make “note angels” with my arms flapping. “All was not lost, just more layers to work with!” I screamed with laughter for everyone to hear me as an echo ricocheted by me with the words “Time Being”. Faith had been restored once more for me on the mountain.
BillyRay Concert - Susan Shulman ©2011
Ria - OMG It wasn't Susan, well not really. It was a billboard. Humongous. What's that doing here? I thought. MMmm probably Bill's doing, a landmark, a sign to guide me back to the train, the others, whatever time slit they were in now, I could hear mumbling, laughing, shouting. An echo "helllloooooooo! I'm in layer cat. 98.0875# registered by climber SS.".... F**k me, I thought, that's gonna take me a while. I looked over at Fish 'N Boots, who was rolling his eyes. Right, he thought the same, here we go ... I rumbled thru my back pack, neatly organized, changed into my Issey Miyake coat for friction and of we slid down the owls nest. We'd stayed there way too long.
Billboards on Analogue - Lee Goldberg ©2011
Mark - Susan wasn't cooperating and there wasn't time to warn her so I just gave her a push and she disappeared into the slit.
Mara - I heard Mark say, "The only way out is through the final remaining time slit. The others will disappear one by one".
Ria - "See?" I shouted at Fish 'N Boots as we were sliding, "I don't get notifications of these happenings, someone is messing with the standard climbing notification system, how on earth, well, how on MA, is climber RVE to know who went into which time slit? I just hate it when peeps run all directions/times without warning. I'm a control freak! ... 'Now hang on to your fins, this is going surreally fast."
Mark - One by one the evil monkeys ceased to torment their squirrel hosts. Thousands of light years of Sciuridae slavery were coming to an end in the wink of an eye. Meanwhile Sammy's eye WAS winking, letting Lee know that the notification system was back in operation. "I am no longer the field squirrel," said Big Blue, "Nor am I the cave squirrel. I am OUTA HERE!!!!" And with that he stormed out into the open air feeling the freshness of 25th Century air for the first time in days. Meanwhile the monkeys just stared each other with mouths agape.
Ria - Fish 'N Boots slid better. Must be in the fins I thought. And then suddenly he bumped into Big Blue. *insert surreal bumping into sound* Not much longer I slid against both of them. Kinda hurt too. Fish was out of it. Big Blue looked at me in recognition .... 'Well, look ahere,' I said, 'long time no see. So is that a waffle iron you're holding? Or are you just happy to see me?'
Mark - It seemed we were all flitting in and out of the present in record time. It was like a strobe effect but instead of dark and light it was between the past and the future. The resulting effect made us all feel the present for the first time since we had embarked up the trail to the various huts and it was all making sense to me now. But why was Ria standing so close?
Mara - I was stuck. Opening my eyes, ears, nose and mind as wide as I could the scent of maple wafted, followed closely by butter....
October 18, 2011
Mark - Bill went on to enlighten us ”According to Norse mythology, Ratatoskr (Old Norse, generally considered "drill-tooth" or "bore-tooth" is a squirrel who runs up and down the world tree Yggdrasil to carry messages between the unnamed eagle, perched atop Yggdrasil, and the wyrm Níðhöggr, who dwells beneath one of the three roots of the tree. Ergo, you all must now admit with this evidence how critical our success is based on the Blues here on Mount Analogue!”
William - I was about to answer Fish but he winked out... poof. I thought to myself, "How like him, needed some other place, some other time by someone else and off he goes. Swimming that time-stream back to the beginning much better than I."
I decided
to take stock, and found a good sized nut tree and sat under it's shady
canopy. Reaching into my rucksack I pulled Ria's Tibetan bowl out and
placed it on my head and listened to the ping...ping ...pinging of
falling nuts lull me to sleep.
Mara - Each of us settled down and drifted off in their own way, I wondered... "What will we wake up to tomorrow?"
October 28, 2011
William -I
drifted off and had the most fantastic dream. My friend, Fish N Boots
was in it. We strolled down a rocky beach discussing philosophy as usual
when a beautiful carp walked out of the sea on a pair of red Louboutin
pumps. She tried in vain to wink her
lidless eye at Fish and settled for a slight puckering of her lips,
which definitely caught Fish’s attention.
“Do you think she’s looking
at me?” he whispered.
In the dream I heard myself saying, “Are you
kidding, a good looking dame like wouldn’t don’t fall for chum like me,
go on introduce yourself.”
She stepped carefully among the rocks, very
light on her feet. A thought passed overhead in a word balloon. It
said, “Perhaps she’s a dancer.” Fish stumbled after her, obviously not
one.
The Courtship of Fish n' Boots - Evertson ©2011
I’m not sure why but the romance flashed by in an instant and I
found myself at a wedding. I walked down the aisle, acting as Fish N
Boot’s best man. I glanced side by side and saw only our Loose Ends in
attendance. On the brides side was Sigrún, SueTu and several goats. For
the groom was Gumby, Maku, and a rather large frog.
I was jolted awake
by a pounding sound that seemed to originate from my temples. The
Tibetan bowl was rather abruptly removed from my head and I found myself
staring into the limpid hazel eyes of the Baroness Elsa von
Freytag-Loringhoven. She smiled curiously then said, “Haven’t you
stopped to wonder why lately?”
November 6, 2011
William - “Why? Why, What?” I was shaken, stirred and taken aback at being woken from my revere by the notorious Baroness.
Her grin seemed to extend into my periphery, “Why are you here? Here on the Mountain. You and your group have been climbing for
over a year now and yet you seem to make no progress. I see circles. I
see advance and retreat. Is this some type of game?”
I tried to sit up but since the Baroness was kneeling on my chest I slumped back. “Elsa, can you get off me?”
“Oh, sorry, I get carried away at times.” She hopped to her feet and began rifling through my rucksack. “Just look at all this tsuff you’re carrying. No wonder you can’t make any progress. Cans of soup, train schedules, harmonica, rope, carabineers, glove liners, long underwear, waffle iron…”
“Hey, that’s a necessity,” I cut in. She glared, “I’m lightening your load, you’ll thank me later.”
With that, she slung my sack over her shoulder and started up the trail. She briefly turned and said, “Well, are you coming?
I hesitated, unsure about this turn of events when I realized she wasn’t talking to me. Instead the wedding party I had just dreamed of scampered past me and fell in behind the Baroness. I watched the backs of Sigrún, SueTu, the several goats, Gumby, Maku, and a rather large frog disappear around the back wall of the corrie.
I tried to sit up but since the Baroness was kneeling on my chest I slumped back. “Elsa, can you get off me?”
“Oh, sorry, I get carried away at times.” She hopped to her feet and began rifling through my rucksack. “Just look at all this tsuff you’re carrying. No wonder you can’t make any progress. Cans of soup, train schedules, harmonica, rope, carabineers, glove liners, long underwear, waffle iron…”
“Hey, that’s a necessity,” I cut in. She glared, “I’m lightening your load, you’ll thank me later.”
With that, she slung my sack over her shoulder and started up the trail. She briefly turned and said, “Well, are you coming?
I hesitated, unsure about this turn of events when I realized she wasn’t talking to me. Instead the wedding party I had just dreamed of scampered past me and fell in behind the Baroness. I watched the backs of Sigrún, SueTu, the several goats, Gumby, Maku, and a rather large frog disappear around the back wall of the corrie.
2 comments:
very cool, i love the interactive story and art... very nice my friends, and though a story by many... still the flow is pretty balanced
very nice flow of interactive story adds and art... love interactive art.. thank U for sharing... it is very nice
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