Rat Hole Radio at The Nerve Centre.

Life isn't always a bucket of peaches.

Unfortunately, despite a great desire, a sheer need to catch up on home life meant that I couldn't be at The Nerve Centre on the evening that Rat Hole Radio, and the newly christened 20lb Sound, broadcast and played live there. However the wonders of digital technology meant that I could listen in the comfort of my own armchair, with a strong Italian coffee and dimmed lights whilst the whole thing happened. Happily, my famously temperamental connection stayed put for the whole show and that meant that I enjoyed it immensely.

The slightly late start vigorously apologized for by host Dan Lynch on several entertaining occasions resulted in a fascinating half hour of guitar chords and half-heard asides that if mixed well enough could be entertaining in it's own right as a part of The Nerve Centre's gallery itself. Eventually, technical issues were resolved and Lynch's always cheery voice welcomed us to the podcast where the usual eclectic mix of Creative Commons sourced music was played for listeners as far away as Amsterdam and of course Liverpool.

20ib Sound eventually began to play their set and the acoustics of The Nerve Centre lent an appealing reverb to their guitar lead songs as they performed to what could have been called an intimate audience of "hardcore" Nerve Centre regulars and cardboard cutouts that were apparently "getting down" to the bands riffing with songs such as "Getting Away With It" or the affectionately titled "Jimmy Carter." Had I been present in person I'm sure I'd have had an even better time, but what better a testament to digital technology's power than this?

To quote one of the band, "That was quite good, wasn't it?"

Sebastian Gahan. 


P.S: If anyone has any photo's of those dancing cutouts, I'd like to see 'em!

'Levator Ani' from Womens Poetry Group Embrace.

From Pat Fearon of the womens poetry group Embrace, from which member Val Walsh will appear on 26th August at The Nerve Centre with poems and stories, comes the poem 'Levator Ani'. An introduction to the poem is below:

On Saturday, I tried to gather poems according to the theme of Regeneration.  I included four on this process: a woman's regeneration after divorce; then two on the degeneration humankind causes this planet, one locally and one worldwide.  Finally, I offer here, an example of the kind of moves we should all be making, to pre-empt degeneration, that unpopular concept, a combination of preventive medicine and self-help, otherwise known as personal responsibility.  I chose to use humour for this.  Perhaps I should add that the levator ani is the muscle supporting the pelvic floor which helps to prevent incontinence of bowel and bladder.

LEVATOR ANI

She’s standing at the bus stop with that look upon her face:

Absent minded; enigmatic; she’s staring into space.

She’s in another world, you see, of secret exercise.

The muscles of her pelvic floor are tightened till they rise

Then loosened and let fall again, in satisfying sag.

Oh, what a risk she’s taking should those weakened fibres flag!

There’s sympathetic scrunching up, for fear that she might leak,

From all the women here.  You’ll see them tensing as I speak.

She’s serving you a coffee on the café’s counter top

But what goes on behind it is the thing that must not stop.

That enigmatic, absent-minded, introspective stare

Bears all the signs of exercise of Someone’s pelvic floor.

And once you’ve learnt to recognise those secret goings-on

You’ll feel your pelvic muscles rise, your peace of mind quite gone.

So, don’t let it annoy you, as you wait to be admitted

To the station, or the theatre - where e’er they tear a ticket.

If she has that ramrod stiffness and that other-worldly gaze

And you can’t get her attention - her eyes just seem to glaze -

Don’t hesitate to ask her if she’s exercising tension

Upon her pelvic muscles, intending the prevention

Of those Tena Lady moments we all want to evade.

It feels so good to empathise, to share in her crusade.

And perhaps to share your feeling that men should do it too,

To cut down on their tendency to fart and follow through.

The Nerve Centre.