All of my art life is tangled up in one weekend!

Don't have time right now to write a full post, but did want to remark upon the second Radar Angel Slug Queen, Markalo Parkalo (aka Mark Roberts). He is a fine man with superb listening and communication skills and might be the most responsive Queen ever appointed. With his practiced skills at NVC and empathetic listening, many will be able to appeal to him for all manner of assistance and support. He came around Saturday Market yesterday promising all sorts of things...our heart's desires!

I plan to pitch the Kareng Fund to him to see if we can ride his coattails a little. A Market-grown nonprofit to help artists of all kinds (the low-income ones anyway) undergoing career-threatening crises. We give grants of up to $750 (soon to probably be raised due to a grant we received for $5000) and have given about $25,000 out in the past decade. He can help us with our outreach plans I think.

Mark has been running an Empathy Tent at the Market on occasional Saturdays. It's a neutral place where skilled listeners are available to all. He does this in honor of Marshall Rosenberg and it is a needed service.
I plan to use it myself next time he appears.

Singing for him was a blast. We rehearsed slightly the night before and didn't coordinate anything. Our costumes and styles are as always left to our own artistic inspirations and that is one of the keys to understanding the Radar Angels. We shine from within, and we try to help others unfurl their wings, so you never know quite who will participate and what they will do and say. We were asked to waltz if we wished and some of us did. It felt lovely to stand in front of yet another loving Eugene crowd and sing in public. I'm still surprised that I can do that after so many years of thinking I had stage fright. Maybe I still do, but when I dress in glittery clothes and wear Jell-O my inner glamour takes over and I am simply happy to be me. Like a bird. We were described as an "entourage of strangely clad hangers-on."

I suppose we could have been seen as outsiders to the Slug Queen Coronation, but that is simply not the case. Radar Angels have always been there. Radar Angels come and go from the active performance or art participation levels. We're like the Old Queens. You can't get rid of us, and you can certainly dismiss us (repeatedly in some cases) but we're not going anywhere. We are a shining thread of the Eugene fabric. We have our wings on and our fingers in every pie. So as the royalty we are, we find our shortage of photos and accolades amusing. At least Roger Rix and Kim Still recognize us. Not to mention Maude Kerns Art Center
(see previous blogs about the Community Partners thing.)

Have to go and picnic at the Country Fair site. Tra-la! Finally the picnic is held on a Sunday so craftspeople can make it before the food is gone, so I will go walk the land and love the community some more. This is a weekend full of heart. Love for everybody!