[News] Famed Magician In Freediving World Record Stunt

[pkotik]

Trux, I think we both know that when those pants come off there won't be a dry eye in the room - and there won't be a single person without a camera phone in hand sneaking pics of the Magic Johnson.

A few posts back - the hands come out of the water to swap gloves and get a little lotion. Head stays in the water. Only hands come out. He's using those hands constantly, interacting with the spectators, pressing the flesh through the glass, writing notes on a slate. He needs them not to fall off in order to do his show. See my Part IV about the conflicting interests of art, business, engineering, security, etc. playing out in this show.

 

[Longfins]

Paul,

Couple of things:

1. For an 'investigative reporter', you seem to be pointing out a lot of obvious things. Can you point out the more obscure stuff please? :t

2. You're getting paid for this???

3. I'll bet your bunking situation is better in New York than Team PFI, no?

Hope you're having fun,

Peter S.

 

[Fondueset]

Maddona manages to make that look difficult - but then that's her thing: Filling in for talent with hard work.

Longfins - That's what investigative journalism is - making the obvious sound subtle, dangerous or otherwise enticing.

Durka Durka!

 

[tylerz]

TylerZ - relax. I think everybody's having great fun with this. Me, whenever I see a little fire starting my training kicks in and I immediately douse it with high octane gasoline. It's postmodern sarcasm, see ? A faux sarcastic narrative mode sarcastically devoid of sarcasm - except, of course, for an implicit sarcastic critique of sarcasm itself.

Hey, well if it is harmless great, enjoy your entertainment... It doesn't strike me as just, however, to those that it appears to be targetting. But now with your clarification, they may all be able to relax as you suggest, if offense was taken. That being said it doesn't change the fact that Kirk didn't seem to be joking in his response, and he is quite near the center of all the media and attention. It doesn't change the fact that those coming to DeeperBlue in response to freediving in the media, probably have no knowledge of your sarcasm-without-sarcasm techniques, and as one outsider already pointed out, the appearance of what was going on in this thread, from their perspective, was rather negative. I don't sense how fueling that fire does justice to external perception of DeeperBlue and the freediving community.

That being said, good job on covering the event. According to one person returning from the Cayman events, personally acquainted with your back, you are quite the "sweety" in person. Assessing a person on their written words can often be a narrow resemblance of experiencing them in person. Not to worry I am relaxed.

 

[sceptichristian]

2 points.

Re Eric. I'm not even being that ctitical by saying that I'm still not convinced that David was monitored, had checks made that proved only water or comparisons made with other similar situations (with and without addirtives to show a clear difference), but maybe we'll leave it there as you have made some effort and I haven't read the full report, just a summary some time back, so my opinion has to be limited to this.

Re 'If David Blaine did break 9 mins 'genuinely', it would be a mockery to free diving after he's only been at this for a few months'.

WHY?

Surely the opposite!

Woudn't it show the truer capacity of the human mind/ability? They used to rave above an extra mm in the high or long jump or javelin, but huge leaps have been made since and todays athletes could murder old records under the SAME conditons that they had without ANY modern or differen diet or training equipment. If David Blaine did challenge the WR under similar (no O2) conditions, it should push us all to greater things and pursue that stronger mind control and perseverance.

I think anyway!

Steve

 

[smellsfishy]

I just came back from seeing David Blaine, unfortunately it was quite crowded so I didn't have an opportunity to get up close and chat with him. Holding my breath for 4 minutes - not so scary, waiting on line for four minutes - Aaaahhhh !!! He wasn't wearing a full face mask but was writing notes to people as they came up to the platform and they were speaking to him through a speaker in the tank.

I checked in with Martin and Kirk and they looked good although it's my guess that they're tired of answering the same four or five questions over and over again in interview after interview, day after day. I mentioned the "deeperblue controversy" to Kirk and his reply was something along the lines of: It's a shame people can't accept this for what it is .... performance art. Again that's not an exact quote but it's the best I can recall. My apologies to Kirk if I mangled the message.

It's a beautiful 80 degrees today in Manhattan and there were lots of people out at the event. There's a long line of people winding through police barricades to talk to David but it's easy enough to get close if you just want to gawk for a bit. Martin mentioned that this wasn't the busiest time of day for them and based on the increasing traffic they expect quite a crowd for the finale.

Paul, sorry I missed ya, but perhaps I'll swing by again before the whole show's over.

 

[efattah]

David Blaine has made the front page of CNN.com! I recently checked the site and his picture was right on the front page in the video box.

 

[BennyB]

Interesting comment from the CNN reporter:

"These are hands only a diving website could love"

Huh?

The quote came along with footage taken of Paul's article on the Deeper Blue website. DB has made it to CNN!!

Mind your p's and q's folks, we're being watched.....

 

[pkotik]

I see Big Brother has removed the cute little pic of Herself Madonna from my earlier post. Don't quite know why - it appeared in a mainstream UK daily newspaper. Or maybe that's why ? That pesky copyright thing ?

 

[pkotik]

Now, Peter S - surely you jest. Be assured I will not reveal ANYTHING of a nonobvious nature until YOU end your embargo of the Secret of Training Hands-Free Equalizing. Investigative reporting ? How about MOB RULE ? Hey, everybody - Peter S figured out how to train himself to equalize hands-free, and he's keeping his method secret ! Let's make him talk ! C'mon...PE-TER....PE-TER...all together now, everybody..PE-TER...PE-TER...

 

[SanSan]

I too don't like Pauls attitude no more...
You are acting kinda strange Paul, did something offend you? It seems to me you wan't to protect somebody but I think the wrong people.

Good coverage though.

 

[pkotik]

Folks, please. This is SHOW BUSINESS. There's no conspiracy, nobody to protect, the fate of the world is not at stake. It's just fun, play - a game. There may be a Deeper Meaning to it all, which I'll certainly be trying to get my head around, but for now I'm just going to join the performer, the crew, and the millions all over the world who are having a great, great time with this show. Helmets on ! I might joke about it, too ! I wish all of you could be here - last night in the gorgeous spring air, with the opera-goers, the party-goers, the New Yorkers and foriegn tourists ( some even from New Jersey !) crowding the plaza and filing past the sphere - pure magic. Street musicians playing, the skyscrapers lit up all around, the traffic on Columbus Avenue and Broadway... incredible. This is magic in my book. One of the sercurity guards told me Tom Cruise made a covert pass through the crowd - he has been in town running wild to promote Mission Impossible III, so maybe it's true. Even if it isn't true, it might as well be ! That's the effect of magic. It's a festival, people.

I hope everybody can find a way to see the ABC live special Monday night. Could somebody please tape it for me ?????

For those of you within reach of Bulgarian National Radio, I'll be doing a live interview Monday at around 5PM Sofia time. Got to learn Bulgarian by then so.....

Got to run - I've taken a sleep break out in Queens, near the Archie Bunker Memorial, and now have to take a deep breath, hold it, and ride a subway train back to Lincoln Center.......whooooooooooooooooop

 

[Fondueset]

Equalization During Sex

So, when David is reborn out of his giant salmon egg - do you thing he'll just be richer - or will he turn into Madonna for nine minutes? (that's right Paul- I got your 'unobvious' secret coded message)
If he does will it be an insult to hard-working maddona's everywhere -
an illusion -
not an insult, but not that cool either -
cool and also not an insult -
David Blaine and Madonna both are only archetypal images; the world was completely destroyed awhile back and all this is just a bardo -
Last choice; all this is just one big, expensive hand-creme commercial and David goes in Guinness for the longest continuous advertisment.

PS - I'd really like to know what kinda hand creme he's using.

 

[pkotik]

Fondueset - you definitely are in the groove ! That was a beautiful post. You've got the lyric gift, for sure. Can I quote you ? Seriously ? I think you've totally grokked this thing.

Many thanks !

 

[pkotik]

The question is - was it the red pill or the blue pill that I took from Morpheus ?

I can't remember.

 

[pkotik]

Hey, Erik Y ! Are you going to tell me / us why you censored out the pic of Madonna from my earlier post ? I plead ignorance. Can't imagine why.

 

[Fondueset]

It is against the teachings of Blainetology to allow depictions of Madonna

all hail

allways take both pills

and the sunglasses

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Hey, Erik Y ! Are you going to tell me / us why you censored out the pic of Madonna from my earlier post ? I plead ignorance. Can't imagine why.

Paul,

The mentor team respond to reported posts. Everyone has the ability to complain about specific posts by clicking on the report bad post icon above each post. Once a post attracts a few complaints it generally gets yanked.

Even I am not immune to this process and I pay for this whole schbang.

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Folks - anyone going to be able to tape the ABC programme on Monday night? If so can they PM or Email me.

 

[Kars]

I'm amazed how many post this subject has generated, it is both fun and educational in my view. Paul, though in general I like your articles very much, I think the sarcasm-style does not fit you very well. Maybe it's because I've read it a bit to many sarcasm lately, could be.

Talking about 'There may be a Deeper Meaning to it all' , yes there probably is. I think there isn't much we cannot learn from when I think of it .
I find the association to the AIDA-record so deceptive that to me it's a lie. I don't like lying. Is it wrong to dislike people because they lie? I know that an illusionist does fool, and that's not a problem in my book as long he does it in his performance. But Lieing in the announcement is outside his 'performance timewindow'.
Another layer of depth could be, that many athletes seem to overreact when their performance get's compaired to something a bit different, or gets devalued in another and/orunfair way. Perhabs Eric Fattah's signature quote comes in handy here: "I encourage you to be free in the way you measure your success. I don’t claim to know what it will be like to be in your position, but I know that when you leave here, grades will be handed out differently. Your ability to gauge your success will largely depend on how you perceive it. You can shape it, set it up, feel it, and define it. Allow competition to turn inward. Do not depend on awards, money, or other validations. -Jonny Moseley "

Perhaps a little soul searching helps, and maybe that's another nice thing about Blain's performance, challangeing our minds in unexpected ways, perhabs even shifting paradigms. Thank you David Blaine for tickling my brain, it got dusty and you showed me .

Love, Peace and Water!

Kars