Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Package from Denman Island

Artist-musician Arne Olafson mailed me a package from Denman Island in British Columbia without telling me what was in it. I found it in my post office box Monday and decided to open it at the beach--not knowing what kind of weirdness it might contain. See previous Postcard from Denman Island for sample of Arne's sense of humor.
On Tuesday afternoon, August O'Connor and I travelled to 13th Ave beach in Santa Cruz and she deployed a camera to record the event of its opening. I found the package to be made of some indestructible plastic but fortunately August was carrying a small knife with a scissors attachment with which I was able to make an incision into the packet's side and expand the hole to partially reveal its contents.
As the edge of the package opened it exposed a thick navy-blue cloth annulus with bright orange insides. My first reaction was that it was some sort of portable orifice such as might be used on the shores of the Georgia Straits in some bizarre hippy rite. Perhaps it is a model of that new quantum opening into nature that I have been seeking for so long.
HO! It's a kind of crenelated headgear made by WITSEND of Denman Island. (They seem to be putting together a website at www.witsend.cc). Just fits and it's warm too. Maybe it's some kind of "thinking cap" that will attract inspiration for my work on the edges of human knowledge. The points might act as psychic lightning rods for attracting novel ideas from out of the deep etheric fields of consciousness. Or maybe it's a telepathic version of a cell phone. Thanks, Arne.
I'm way too old to be a court jester, but it could be a royal crown. Yeah, right. King Kwantum. Or perhaps the Emperor of Entanglement. Or the Czar of GHZ. Here's King Nicholas sitting on his stone throne at the edge of his empire which encompasses an enormous multidimensional region of Hilbert space. (As do your own empires, lads and lassies.) I hope to become worthy of this new crown and to bring honor and treasure to my kingdom to share with my friends. I will be sure not to let the duties of this new office interfere with the solitude of my Tantric Hermitage nor interrupt my quantum research projects. Sir Arne Olafson of Denman Island, please accept the hearty thanks of good King Nick for your splendid gift.



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