Poem: The Prophecy of Teeth and Blood

“The Prophecy of Teeth and Blood”, my first shark poem, written in 2010 after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.  It was performed to great effect* by Team Mesa 2010 at the National Poetry Slam by myself, Brit Shostak (now of Portland, OR), Tristan Marshell, and Lauren Perry.

On this, the seventh anniversary of the disaster, I revisit Gulf of Mexico on that terrible day, through the unblinking, slitted eyes of a bull shark.
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World Premiere Video – No Volcano, “Take My Chances”

A few months back I was asked to be part of a music video for the song “Take My Chances” by No Volcano, a Phoenix-area band.  Directed by Troy Farah, who had previously turned my poem “The Doom that Came to Manhattan” (a Trump campaign commercial/Lovecraft short story mashup) into a music video.  Since I had a lot of fun doing that, I said: “Why not?”. Here’s the finished product:

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The Mega-Low Down on the Megalodon

C. megalodon, whether you place it in the genus Carcharocles or Carcharodon is extinct.

Want.

Nothing would give me greater joy, reduce me to childhood giggling, and make me rush toward the nearest research vessel begging for a job than being able to say otherwise, but I can’t.  It’s deader than the Dodo and Disco.  There are theories why it died out, all of them intriguing, but none leave room for C. megalodon to swim in the world’s oceans.  Let’s take a deeper dive.
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Let’s Talk Tuna – Eating Responsibly Without Harming Our Ocean Friends (except the tuna, of course) – Part II (Sushi Edition).

I love sushi.  Spider rolls, seared escolar, ebi, shrimp tempura rolls, etc.   I’ve never been a fan of raw tuna or salmon, not because of the taste, or the idea of raw fish, but the texture of raw tuna and salmon leaves me cold.  Crustaceans  are my jam, which, if I were a shark, would put me in order Orectolobiformes, the carpet shark family. Easy access to crabs, lobster, clams (mollusks are pretty tasty too).  However, as I point out in a post back in February (Fry’s Food Stores and the High Cost of Shrimp), you’re not just eating crustaceans when you order your plate of coconut shrimp or tempura roll, you’re laying waste to the marine environment.

Come at me bro.

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Sharks in a Four-Color World – Live from the Verde Valley Comic Expo

This weekend (April 1st, 2017) I attended the 2nd Annual Verde Valley Comic Expo, put together by the Northern Arizona Cartoonist Association, to spread the word about sharks and the peril they face.  Many kids stopped by the booth either to ask questions about sharks, or to watch the dive videos from my recent expedition to Fiji’s Coral Coast, or my past expeditions to Isla Guadalupe in Mexico.

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na... BATSHARK.
Check out these adorable Batkids, who sprung into action to save a shark from a bowl of soup.

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