the banana links

excerpts from

the banana links

paul conneally

(i)

in some ways the haiku today resembles the potato

before blight brought famine to ireland

(ii)

edible haiku are sterile mutants

new varieties cannot easily be produced by natural methods

(iii)

a haiku a day prevents a deficiency

which might increase the risk of stroke

(iv)

haiku a substitute for sweets and satisfy sugar cravings

(v)

your hands can benefit from haiku as well

(vi)

each haiku wrapped in foil and sold for a dime

'the banana links' are a dadaesque experiment

to see how truths about haiku might reveal themselves

through the manipulation of texts on or about bananas

Cubist Dad

Cubist Dad



Cubist D(e)ad End

Conneally & Conneally 2008

Beautiful Flowers

"Convert or we will kill you" is the stark message to fleeing Christians in the Indian state of Orissa.

Hindu lynch mobs threaten to burn Christians' houses and babies unless they become Hindu.

Violence has been growing since the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on 23 August.

The VHP appear to be supporting the lynchings.

rainy season
beautiful flowers ride
the town drain

FROM 'HOT OFF THE PRESS'
a growing collection of haibun reflections on the news and current affairs

Passengers Arrived

Passengers Arrived

paul conneally

2008

Anti-Energy Drink

"From design to production, every aspect of this calming drink was inspired by today’s popular hip hop artists who embrace the much sought-after hip hop lifestyle that encourages people to capture a stress-free state of mind."

'The anti-energy drink we're calling the extreme relaxation beverage.'

The drink's tagline is "slow your roll." So if that's something you need to do, keep your eye out. Drank will be hitting stores in New York soon and no doubt a waiting world soon after.

Helter Skelter 1999

Helter Skelter

paul conneally

1999

Renga Bandstand

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO

Poet / Artist Paul Conneally works with passers by in Loughborough's Queens Park to turn the 1908 bandstand into a Renga Bandstand. The bandstand rather than being a 'renga platform' in the sense that the renga was written on it became the focal space for the 'passer-by renga' - the master-poet engaging with passers by and encouraging them to read the verses gone before (each one as written attached to the bandstand) and write the next link and shift verse. A knitting group with their knitted picnic were invited to sit and knit in the bandstand and a morris dancer band too. The renga bandstand was strung with poems from the ongoing project 'The Sound of Water' and the renga built itself up around the outside rails of the bandstand. Here it is at the end of the day as things were calming down.

Jemma Bagley of Charnwood Arts co-ordinated the work.

Theraputic Gardening with Richard Clare

powered by ODEO
Organic gardening guru Richard Clare in conversation with Paul Conneally talks about allotments in the 21st century. How it’s not really about growing cheap food but more about lifestyle and gardening as therapy.
This was recorded during the preparation for Abundance in Richard’s greenhouse on his Sheffield allotment.
This was the greenhouse that played host to the poets who wrote Circle of Fire – the first renga ramble – and Richard was such a good host!

Interactive Real Sized Hologram

Interactive Real Size Hologram from Nicolas Loeillot on Vimeo.

Surveillance

'Surveillance' comes out of INVIGILATOR : DIGBETH the 5th in the INVIGILATOR series conceived by artists Paul Conneally, Nikki Pugh and Kev Ryan.

The poem is a direct transcript taken by Paul Conneally as he heard it of INVIGILATOR : DIGBETH participant artist Harry Palmer in the discussion workshop which formed part of INVIGILATOR : DIGBETH and took place after the Invigilators had returned to VIVID art gallery in the heart of Birmingham's Digbeth area.

The sound track is made from a snippet of Harry saying the word ' surveillance ' combined with the ambient sounds of the VIVID space that the artist led discussion was taking place in.

WARNING! The soundtrack of Surveillance contains backmasked material - hidden messages.

----

Emotion Grids

Another aspect of Invigilator:Digbeth are the 'emotion grids' that participants were asked to fill in when at the work place. I spent some time last night looking at these and the accompanying emotional words list - a list of emotionally related words that participants could circle if they felt applied to them at the time - as many as they wanted to circle or not.

One group posted a filled in Emotion Grid through the letterbox of the building 'Good For Wood' (which sounds like a good title for a porno movie) and pasted another on the building itself.

Harry Palmer's Emotion Grid fell into the canal and floated off.

Those that I have been able to look at will I'm sure soon tell me something.

Invite Boredom

Listening to the Invigilator:Digbeth discussion I was struck by oblique and direct references to boredom - the gallery invigilator's job being referred to as sometimes boring.

When transposed to an outside space where the invigilator has to stand or sit and simply 'watch over' then the space and the action of simply watching over it sets up an interaction that is boring in such a way that it can transcend boredom if we let it... The space becoming bored of the invigilator throws up new facets new resonances between it and the 'watcher over' the 'invigilator'.

A couple of Invigilator:Digbeth participants said that they found the invigilating very zen like - another not at all - the invigilating passed-by with a contrived doing - a counting of and classification of vehicles passing through the invigilated space. Such actions are invoked by the space itself as it is watched over - after all it was only chance that the space invigilated happened to have cars passing through it - this counting this classifying borne out of the possibility of boredom.

"INVITE BOREDOM" - paul conneally 2008

invigilators - digbeth

invigilators
Originally uploaded by Nikki Pugh

Here's a picture that Nikki took of the Invigilators before they set off on their walk to work as part of Invigilator : Digbeth.

Most successful on-line art shopping service in the world

Tesco.Com is the most successful on–line art shopping service in the world. Sales continued to grow strongly in the year - up by 31.9%, to reach almost £1 billion. Profit increased by 54.9% to £56.2 million.

What is remarkable about our on–line business is the diversity of customers using it, from busy urban families to people in rural communities.

It has also allowed many house–bound people to shop for art properly for the first time.In south east London where we have fewer stores and some that are exceptionally busy, we have developed a tesco.com–only store.

It is situated at 25-26 Mason’s Yard (Off Duke Street) St. James’s London SW1Y 6BU. This enables us to offer this service to more customers and builds on our existing capability as the warehouse is designed like a Tesco superstore inside.

Visit us at Tesco.com

Rolls Hot Rolls

Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
Virginia Tech

haikumania

rolls
hot rolls

fresh

lean unfrozen

ground meat

one

case

regular Pepsi

one

case

orange drinks

rolls

hot rolls

Brown 'n' Serve

cans

of biscuits

(at least six)

hamburger buns

pickles potatoes

and onions

assorted

fresh fruits

cans of sauerkraut

wieners

at least three
bottles of milk

and 1/2 & 1/2
cream

thin

lean bacon

mustard

peanut
butter

fresh
hand-squeezed

cold orange juice

banana
pudding

to be made

each night

ingredients

for meat loaf

and sauce

brownies

to be made

each night

ice
cream

vanilla and chocolate

shredded coconut

fudge cookies
gum

Spearmint Doublemint

Juicy Fruit - three each

cigars

El Producto

Diamond Tips & Altas

cigarettes

Dristan

Super Anahist

Contac, Sucrets

(antibiotic red box)

Feenamint gum

matches

four to five

books

‘rolls hot rolls’ is a poem found by paul conneally in a shopping list at graceland

back to haikumania index

Dreams of New Delhi

Dum Dum Dum – Dreams of New Delhi (Live)

Changing Faces

Tesco Alcohol and Young people

Changing Landscapes

Attended the launch of Changing Landscapes pamphlet yesterday in Kings Norton at the 3 Kings Cafe - this short video by Little Onion was also shown:
Check out this video: Changing Landscapes - Walk the Line



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Paul Finds Employment

Artist Joshua Sofaer gives poet / artist Paul Conneally a 1910 map of Sheffield and sends him out on the streets to find employment.