enjoy this Brian Looney writing
in the Scars Publications free 2011 PDF file chapbook: Punk Show
(click on the front cover image or the
title text to download the free PDF file)
Staying Submerged
Brian Looney
It’s like jumping into a pool and staying submerged. You can breathe beneath, but all your efforts are concentrated on that, on leeching the oxygen out of the water. Every other part of you struggles to hold on. The initial and disorienting rush stalls you with its intensity.
There is movement all around, murky and indeterminate. You’ve never seen the world move like this before. Part of you longs to unleash yourself, but the more prudent half remains aloof. We all tread the water at first.
But eventually, little by little, your mind will acclimate, and your actions will mirror the music. Your inhibition will deteriorate, and the scene will crack wide open. Body and mind will be conjoined, and all action is then expressive—a self-aware trance.
That is breakthrough. It is one of the fewest, one of the truest. It is the only kind we can accept. We are savage proponents of the cathartic medium. We champion art in action.
