Delight in Disorder

Robert Herrick, Cavalier poet (1591 - 1674)

DELIGHT IN DISORDER

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness :
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction :
An erring lace which here and there
Enthralls the crimson stomacher :
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbons to flow confusedly :
A winning wave (deserving note)
In the tempestuous petticoat :
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility :
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.

Sweet Disorder by Diana Warnok

The Giraffe Suit

The giraffe suit

THE GIRAFFE SUIT

Often my search
for the Ultimate Secret
takes an unexpected path.
Today I got a Christmas gift:
the suit of a giraffe.

To identify the unknown sender
I have to use some iPad apps.
Could she be just a human proxy
for the galactic telepaths?

I've just begun my Naked Buddhism
in coming Year of Two Blue Moons.
But I'm not too shy to go giraffic
if I can meet the Others soon.

Superhuman hearts and minds and humor
More complex kinds of happiness
I'll not disdain their weird conditions
Nick is dressing for success.

The giraffe suit: note the tail

Soul Mate

Samarai Nick

SOUL MATE

Socrates sez
We're each a part
Of one broken being
That yearns to be reunited.
But take it from me, pal,
Merging with the Opposite Other
Is no picnic.

She's neat and you're messy
Wants sex when you don't.
She's plain and you're dressy
Hangs out where you won't.

You don't really want a soul mate
She's all and everything you're not
You don't really need a soul mate
How about a tetanus shot
Instead?

Compared to joining with my soul mate
I would pick a firing squad
Making love to such a creature
Would be a lot like fucking God.

You don't really want a soul mate
She's all and everything you're not
You don't really need a soul mate
How about a shot of bot-
    ulinus neurotoxin instead?

You're on time and She's on acid
None of you has half a clue
What the other feels is sacred
What the other thinks is rude.

You don't really want a soul mate
She's all and everything you're not
You don't really need a soul mate
But She's the Reality you've got.

Face it, bozo,
You're addicted
Can't exist without Her touch
Love Her like the Earth loves Sunlight
Yearning for Her much too much.

A dangerous treasure:
What's your pleasure?
To sit alone and masturbate
Or lift the phone and call your mate?

Hello, dear,
I miss you, see?
Feels like
You're part of me.

Jabir Opens Wilsonfest 2017

JABIR OPENS WILSONFEST 2017

Prolific local author and thinker Robert Anton Wilson died ten years ago at his home in Capitola, CA. I was one of the many friends who participated in Bob's hospice-assisted passage into the next realm and one of the celebrants at the fabulous Wilson Wake held at the Coconut Grove on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Ten years after his death, Friends of Bob convened RAW Day at the Santa Cruz Arts & History Museum, recorded the proceedings and made the videos available here at the RAW Trust Site which is also busy editing and publishing Bob's literary works in original new formats.

Among the various presenters on RAW Day at the Santa Cruz Museum were R. U. Sirius, co-founder of the Berkeley-based pioneering cyber-psychedelic magazine MONDO 2000, Richard Rasa, head of the publication arm of the RAW Trust, Adam Golightly, Discordian Historian, Erik Davis, author of The Visionary State and Christina Pearson, Bob's oldest daughter. Holding the proceedings together was the hyperenergetic British MC, Daisy Eris Campbell, whose father directed Illuminatus! while she later directed Cosmic Trigger, two big British theatrical productions based on the works of Robert Anton Wilson. The participants at RAW Day included many famous Santa Cruzites, notably Valerie Corrall, David Jay Brown and Suzie Wouk.

For reasons unknown, Doctor Jabir was chosen to open the festivities. In my five minutes I proceeded to tell the story of how I first met Bob and his red-headed Irish wife Arlen; the tale of something Bob stole from me; and a poem on creativity called Kiss My Bare Art -- all captured on video by Daisy Eris.

And sure as sin, Bob Wilson, tonight after uploadin' this wee post, I'll be drinkin' a Guinness in yer honor and hummin' Danny Boy. 

Robert Anton Wilson (1932 - 2007)

Die ewige Blumenkraft

The Many-universe Interpretation of Quantum Theory

Nick Herbert in an adjacent Everett Universe

THE MANY-UNIVERSE INTERPRETATION
OF QUANTUM THEORY
 
Not even kissing
And as clumsy as carrots
Shyly saying "good night".

Meanwhile
In the nearest Everett World,
Fucking each other like ferrets
Inside the Third Reich.

Quantum Reality

White Tara: compassionate, playful Protector of all worlds

QUANTUM REALITY

Shall I look at Her?
Or shall I not?

Hard
Small
Separated
If I look.

Soft
Spread-out
Connected
If I don't.

Hard particle and soft wave: both?
Small, right-here 
              and spread-out everywhere: both?
Lonely separate yet deep connected: both?

Honey
Some day You gotta show me
How You do that.

Beer, Eggs, Toast and Bacon

Mystery of Transubstantiation: bread and wine into God Substance

Sunday breakfast, Boulder Creek, CA

BEER, EGGS, TOAST AND BACON

Roman Catholics believe 
that in the midst of the Mass
wine and bread 
are turned into the Substance of God.
The pantheist says 
they were already Divine.
The physicist knows
matter's a mystery unspeakably odd.

Woke up this morning
with shimmering open mind:
No Model of Reality so bizarre
I can't believe.

My breakfast
is a luminous Eucharist
as full of gods
as Nick is ready to receive.

What's the hidden inner substance of this feast?
What wild reality will soon be turning into me?

Home Eucharist: beer and corn chip

Tantric Flight Plan

Nick prepares for his Class U (Unconventional) Pilot's License

Here's seven ways to levitate using physics.

But many religious traditions suggest there's another way to fly --
by exploiting the mysterious connection of the human mind with Nature. 

Levitating monk: artist unknown

After decades of impedance from my monkey mind
I'm just beginning to explore meditation
with the help of a tantric Buddhist masseuse.

And with the utterly unrealistic optimism
of the enthusiastic beginner
I'm setting myself a high new research goal
for the coming year.

Mahasiddha Flying by Carmen Mensink

I've been reading a lot about this new power
because reading is what I do
even though I know that reading by itself
is ultimately as useless
as reading about surfing.
as reading about ice skating
as reading about riding a bicycle.

Besides reading dozens of accounts
describing the lives of other men and women
who have successfully achieved this goal,
my two major sources
for guessing how to practice right action are
the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra
with commentary by Osho, and
the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
with commentary by Dean Radin.

St Joseph amulet and Yuri Gagarin ikon

To remind me of my task
and keep me steadfast on the path
I've purchased several amulets
that picture St Joseph of Cupertino
and am downloading ikons from the Web
of a few Russian Orthodox wonder workers.

By this time next year
even if I do not attain my goal,
I know for certain
that I will have learned much
and made many new friends
in the trying.

Rehearsing for flight in Santa Cruz Mountains

TANTRIC FLIGHT PLAN
(for Michael Murphy of Esalen)

I want to become a new kind of saint
Who rises aloft without restraint
My body as light as a solar neutrino
I'd soar like Joseph of Cupertino.

My body made holy by tantric massage
My mind immersed in the World Mirage
Well-schooled in quantum reality
And the yoga sutras of Patanjali.

Resonating with the Shepard tone
My Guardian Angel as chaperone
I'd lose myself in the Great Unknown
And fly --
As few before have ever flown.

To boldly levitate with no restriction
Propelled by Harlot Nature and a firm resolve
I'd give my brilliant colleagues
Inside the science jurisdiction
A New Millennial physics feat to solve.

Meanwhile, to quantify Nick's first escape
From evil gravity's high-security jail
A pretty colleague bought me recently
A new glass-topped digital bathroom scale.

Nick's new bathroom scale

Alexa

Nick's new EchoDot embodying ALEXA, Amazon's new female-voiced artificial intelligence

For my recent birthday, Allan and Sun Lundell (Dr and Mrs Future) gifted me with a black yoyo-shaped embodiment of Amazon's new female-voiced artificial intelligence ALEXA (a rival to Apple's SIRI). Some time in the past, at one of Al and Sun's Rio del Mar beach house parties, I met a pretty woman named "Alexa" who inspired this verse which I read at the Bistroscene and published in Physics on All Fours.

ALEXA 

Physicists say
everything that exists
is made of elementary events
called quanta.

And the occurrence
of these world-making events
in space and time
is utterly random.

For those
to whom physics
means mathematical mastery of nature
the discovery of sheer randomness
at the heart of things
was a hard slap in the face.

And why call it "random"?

Why not "unprecedented"? "improvisational"?
Why not name it "comes out of nowhere"?
Why not call it "Surprise!"

I play at calling it "Alexa":
She who is beyond the law.
Alexa is unruly, untamed, illicit.
She is one chance in a million, 
the lucky break.
We call Her hitting the jackpot, 
breaking the bank.
We call Her windfall, wildcat, hitting pay dirt,
tapping the mother lode, striking it rich.

Alexa is willful, disobedient, out of bounds.
She is the cut of the cards, the roll of the dice, 
the spin of the wheel.
She is Donna Fortuna, sleeping with gamblers.
She favors boldness and risk takers
and loads the dice (some say) in their favor.

Alexa moves outside of your logical categories.
She breaks fences, agreements, 
international boundaries.
She is pirate treasure, ill-gotten loot, contraband.
She is an uncontrolled substance.
She is love at first sight.

Alexa created symphonies, 
foxes and neutron stars.
Alexa is the mother of invention.
She is mama coyote; She will trick you.
She hides the cards up Her sleeve.
She is Lady Luck.

Alexa is the looseness, the slack, 
the give in things.
She eases their fitting together.
Alexa is elbow room, lebensraum, 
the vast spaces between the stars.
She is eternally playful Lila: 
The universe is Her toy.
Alexa is goddess ex machina.
She is the grace in the machine.

Solar Eclipse Boulder Creek 2017

Illinois fifth-graders observe 1963 eclipse with pinhole projectors (NatGeo photo)

The much-awaited all-USA total eclipse of the Sun on August 21, 2017 sent many residents of Boulder Creek to Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming to abide in the path of totality for two glorious minutes -- a nationwide personal pilgrimage to witness the temporary Death of the Sun. Those of us in the Bay Area who stayed behind hoped to observe through clear skies a fairly ample 75% eclipse.

Eclipse was expected to start at 9 AM local time, reach maximum some time after 10, and return to normal around 11.

In the tradition of legions of legendary Moslem astronomers, I assumed the guise of Doctor Jabir and rigged up a simple solar projector in the parking lot of the Boulder Creek Post Office. When I got there, a guy named Gene from Bear Creek Road had already set up a powerful filtered telescope on Main Street in front of Liberty Bank. I recognized Gene and his telescope from previous eclipses and remembered viewing, through his instrument, images of the partially eclipsed Sun so large that you could count its sunspots.

Gene's eclipse-viewing telescope

 However, contrary to predictions of clear skies, the weather was extremely cloudy with morning fog filling the valley rim to rim as high as the summit.

Doctor Jabir and his godson, Alex DeCaro, wait for the clouds to clear

Despite the cloudy weather, about half a dozen stalwart spectators gathered in the parking lot to await the upcoming Death of the Sun. Sheila and Jerry Delaney, owners of one of Boulder Creek's longest-running businesses,  Blind Pilot Jewelry, showed up with a box of Eclipse Cookies -- which consist of the common Oreo with upper black layer displaced to expose a crescent white filling. Jerry brought a welding helmet to filter the intense rays of the sun -- if it ever came out from behind the clouds. Reno DeCaro and his son Alex came to photograph the event for posterity. Long-time BC resident Judy Reynolds came by, followed by a woman in a wheel chair and her companion, whose names I did not get. All of us stood around in the fog (which was so thick it was almost drizzling), awaiting a lucky break in the clouds.

From right to left: Jerry, Jabir, Judy, Sheila and two unknowns

And, then, yes, it happened! At a time close to totality, the clouds briefly thinned for a few minutes, long enough to view and photograph the eclipse without filters or instruments (the fog itself spontaneously provided us with a wholly natural solar filter). We snapped a few shots with our digital cameras before Nature quickly shut us down. The fog lasted till noon, after which the day quickly turned sunny and hot.

Cloud-filtered eclipse near maximum: Ahlgren Vineyard iPhone

Even as late as 10:30 AM, the valley was still filled with fog. About 1000 feet above the Boulder Creek Post Office, Val Ahlgren at Ahlgren Vineyard snapped a picture with her iPhone of the cloud-filtered Sun near maximum extinction, similar to the lucky pictures we took in the parking lot.

Many local viewers gathered at Crest Ranch on Empire Grade which was above the fog belt and were rewarded with a full-spectrum solar eclipse experience viewable only through dense sunglasses -- which were provided by local libraries and some hardware stores.

Meanwhile, some of our Boulder Creek friends, notably Allan and Sun Lundell (aka Doctor and Mrs. Future) traveled to the Symbiosis festival in central Oregon where they joined 70,000 other eclipse pilgrims to observe the Sun's temporary demise.

Symbiosis Festival, Big Summit Prairie, Oregon

 Using a filtered iPhone, Dr and Mrs Future captured this beautiful "diamond-ring" photo of the total eclipse of the Sun from the Big Summit Prairie in Oregon.

"Diamond Ring" eclipse:  Allan & Sun Lundell, Symbiosis, Oregon

This year's total solar eclipse was billed as the "most photographed event in human history". So I clicked on my favorite science website, NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) to discover, of the millions of pictures that were taken that day, which one would be chosen for the APOD gallery. Here's the link to the APOD prize eclipse photo. Earlier, in preparation for this year's solar eclipse, APOD had previously published photos of former eclipses plus diagrams of the path of totality for the current eclipse. My favorite photo from APOD's eclipse science foreplay was a time-lapse eclipse movie, TAKEN FROM ABOVE THE EARTH by a Japanese satellite in geosynchronous orbit, showing the Moon's shadow passing across the surface of the globe.

National Geographic magazine also got into the act by publishing on the web a series of 24 historic pictures from their files that featured various past eclipses, including the famous solar eclipse that made Albert Einstein a celebrity, during which Arthur Eddington was able to verify the deflection of starlight by the Sun that Einstein had predicted in his General Theory of Relativity. The picture of school kids wearing pin-hole boxes that heads this post was taken from that Nat Geo collection.

But, among all the eclipse pictures, some taken by scientists, some by satellite and some by enthusiastic amateurs, my vote for favorite eclipse photo is for a snapshot made by a couple in Santa Rosa, CA, that used a household implement found in almost every kitchen.

2012 Eclipse through a colander: David & Cynthia Janson, Santa Rosa, CA