I rarely decide on a new challenge since my blogging days are really full as it is, but Nope, Not Pam (last week) and Sunra Rainz prompted me to have a try at a new prompt. Each week writer Sammi Cox proposes the word and the length and off we go. This week it’s mirror in 95 words.
Death by concert We have come a long way. Woodstock was huger than huge. There people stormed in for free too. Did someone die? I think someone was born. A mirror to society: “People are dying. Stop the concert.” “No.” They say he signed a contract for an exclusive documentary after the fact. An early comment to the tweet which informs me of the concert deaths reads: “Everything was laced with Fentanyl.” No need for that. A concert can kill you just like that. By reckless organisers. Incompetent security. Greed. Or just plain peer pressure. Ask Pearl Jam. (Dedicated to all the dead and injured at the Astroworld festival crush. It should have never happened.)
For me, concerts and live music are of major importance. I have heard Pearl Jam play ten times (for example, here is the full show from Hyde Park 2010), Therapy? maybe not quite as often, and attended numerous other big and small gigs. Since the pandemic started, I’ve only been to two small outdoor shows. I can no longer see myself in the crowd.
I rarely take photos during a show since I prefer to enjoy it (and don’t pack my camera), but if it’s an outdoor, free event I might. Or only crappy but beloved phone photos remain of the day. Here are some from the last decade. The last photo was not taken by me or in my company. I wish.
Let’s start at the end. August 2021, Matter. Kamnik, Slovenia. 
I miss this kind of setting. 
Quick Covid-19 tests are held there during the day. 
Penultimate: July 2020, Zajtrk. Ljubljana, Slovenia. 
Okarina is a great, mostly free festival at Lake Bled in Slovenia. This was Vieux Farka Touré in August 2017. 
Also there: Larkin Poe, August 2019. 
They are two sisters from the USA who rock HARD. 
This was Bosnian rapper Edo Maajka in Ljubljana in August 2018, but look what she is wearing around her neck. A live animal (really, I saw it passed around). 
Soundcheck of Slovenian legend Janez Bončina Benč in Piran, Slovenia, July 2018. 
Later that night. Comfortable with amore and family. 
Pearl Jam, London 2010. My friend Darja got me a ticket for my 40th. 
Pearl Jam again: June 2018, Rome. 
Amore got us VIP tickets, first row. Fancy. 
Fancy but far. 
One of the prettiest settings: PicniConcert by Brina at Ljubljana Castle, August 2018. We came early. 
Brina and friends were wonderful. 
The biggest surprise. Patti Smith at the Teatro Rossetti in Trieste, November 2019. With Svetlana. 
I would say that I thought I’d died and gone to heaven but it’s not appropriate. 
A meeting with James Joyce after the show. Photo: Svetlana J. R. 
Earlier that day Patti found him too. (Taken off the line with thanks.) 
One more. Look at this venue!!
For Sammi Cox and Weekend Writing Prompt #235 – Mirror
This day in my blogging history
2014: Sculptures by Philip Jackson (not my photo)
2014: Anna Louise and Anton (Pünktchen und Anton, 1931), an early favourite
An Embarrassment of Riches 
Such a tragic thing. Your poetry is lovely, your memories reminiscent of another time and the photos are great ! I may never attend another another live indoor show. So many reckless people. Sigh.
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Thank you, Bonnie. This is true, I can’t imagine it either. We had to deal with reckless people before but now they carry death.
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Crowds of that size under those conditions are really uncontrollable. They are there looking for frenzy, and being egged on to it. And as you note, the current drugs of choice only add to the danger. But this tragedy, from start to finish, was particularly predictable, and those performing and in charge of what they called security have taken no responsibility at all. I keep hearing that father say “That’s my boy…I’m not ready to lose my boy”. (K)
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Yes, K., it’s maddening and devastating. 😦 I don’t wish to read too much about the matter because I suffer along, so I don’t know who exactly is to blame, but just the info that the audience breached into the space for photographers tells me all. They had nothing under control. Thank you.
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Woodstock was my era. What happened ? How did we loose that ability to have hundreds of thousands all jammed in together and no guns,no stabbings, none of that. It’s so sad what happened in Texas.
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Thank you, Anne. You had a good era. As soon as I was born, Jimi, Janis and Jim died immediately. It is horrible what happened now.
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Oh dear I saw Janis when she was still with Big Brother and the Holding Company. I can remember the day Jimi left us. I was driving to university and had to pull my car over as it really upset me . I saw Jim in San Francisco at the Filmore West .Such a fabulous band they were.
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Wow times three!! I always wished I was born early enough to witness them. I did my university reports on The Doors. 😀 Jim was a poet.
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Your poem really captured the moment. I’m really glad you chose to share it. Very fitting 🙂
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Thank you, Not Pam. I’m not sure what the habit is for this challenge. I’ve read all the entries but I think I’ve had only one person acknowledging my post. Anyway, a nice exercise about a sad subject.
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We normally link back to the origin. I really enjoyed it.
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Oh but I do link to Sammi and have left a link in a comment over there as well. Practically no reaction (except from you and Sunra, of course, and one other, I believe).
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It takes time I’ve found. I go looking for bloggers, some don’t and WordPress doesn’t make it easy to comment on people you’re not following 😒
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They have to be the crappiest VIP seats ever
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Haha, Bushboy, you’re naughty! I was super happy just to be there. Also, this is a HUGE stadium. I was glad to be sitting for a change, it was my first time. Also, I had a great rail just in front of me so that I could also stand holding the rail and slam my heart out when the moment grabbed me. Perks of getting older! 😀
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Great poem, the title is so fitting. That’s the one that was on the news recently, wasn’t it? Shocking and awful. No it absolutely should never have happened. Performers have a responsibility to stop the show immediately if anyone is in danger like that, always. A lot of them often do.
On another note, my goodness, you’re a serious Pearl Jam fan! 😀 I do love Vedder’s voice, and was listening to them the other day. Your photos make me long to go to a gig, it’s been so long. Hopefully, soon (I have personal commitments at the mo. It’s hard to explain things on a public comment).
I’m glad you share. You make me want to share more. I love the cloud photo 🙂
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Thank you, Sunra Nina! Ah, it’s lovely how you end this comment. I make you want to share more! Such a horrible event, this. And yes, I’m a devoted fan of him and amore is just one day older (same year and all), so I took the second best. 😀 I hope there are more concerts in our future. (Did you get my email? I used the contact form on your blog.)
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Very far. I prefer to dance at concerts.
How I miss them.
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Oh, I did dance, and slam, and mosh, and everything, as long as I could. Now I doubt that I could merely stand for half an hour. I do hope we still have them in our future. Thanks, Bojana.
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A lovely and sad post, Manja. This has shaken us all I think. Where did they go, all those beautiful moments from years gone by? You are so good at capturing the feeling in the moment…thank you for the great gallery and fitting poem.
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Thank you for saying so, Leya. 🙂 I’m glad you like my moments. This is such a sad matter but my words wanted out.
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♥
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