I
can't say exactly when I began to realize that I needed an aluminum-foil hat.
Some would cite physical trauma and point to the time I stuck that screwdriver
into the wall socket. Others would mutter psycho (referring to psychological
pain, I'm sure) and possibly point to a broken relationship causing me to
seek otherworldly, and thus safer, relationships.
The need kind of got sparked again a while ago when that cult in Japan poisoned all those people in a subway and the TV news shows did a review of the cult and showed a bunch of folk wandering around with aluminum-foil hats on their heads and ... did you catch how many dollars they were charging for one of those hats? Someone made a killing. But that's all stuff others might say.
For me, it really began the day I ran across Terror on Terra, a monthly publication of the bizarre mental connection the aliens have established with certain humans on this earth. Terror on Terra was only published once, in June of 1963, by a man named Taylor Wedgewitte. He was killed immediately afterward by a bolt of lightning through the back of his head.
I
designed this, my first aluminum-foil hat (AFH), based on Wedgewitte's specifications
for the model he proposed in that issue of Terror on Terra. Wedgewitte was
not so much concerned with tuning out the alien voices totally, as he was
with human choice in the matter. So, his main purpose in designing this specific
model of the AFH was to assure an on-off capability. By wearing the AFH forward,
one receives information. By wearing it backward, one shuts off the information
flow. For those of you interested in following Wedgewitte's philosophical
thoughts on the matter, note first his observation that it is best to speak
in terms of "information flow," rather than "voices in your head ... or your
fillings." Please note the careful conformation to the shape of the skullcap,
the continuous foil leads from the base of the spikes to the tips, and the
loop-devices at the end of the spikes for multi-purpose use, depending on
what material one places in the loops.
My brother tells me about a cop friend of his who was doing time with the Broward County police down in Florida. They went to this house where this guy was screaming about the voices ... the voices coming at him. The cops suggested on a goof that maybe aluminum foil might help protect the guy against the voices. The guy calmed down. The cops were called back to the place two weeks later. The guy was screaming about the voices again. The cops found that the guy'd covered the entire inside of his house with aluminum foil, "So, how come you're out here screaming?" they ask. "It worked for a while," the guy says. "But only for a while," and he commences to screaming again. Jesus, I figure. What're you gonna do when a houseful of aluminum isn't enough?
By employing the versatility offered by the loops at the ends of the spikes (I apologize for the use of the common vernacular ... I'm sure those among you who are of The Knowing (the TK) understand that the general public would have a difficult time understanding the full meaning and context of the term Communo-Vector-Receptors (CVR) and will permit me this attempt to communicate with the general public on their terms) one can accomplish a variety of functions. In this photo, I have equipped the AFH with optional Connected Tissue Squares (CTS) and would use this configuration to "wipe clean" the dirty air, as it were, of unwanted waste materials such as television broadcast signals, and radio talk shows.
When
riding a bus, or eating a meal in the park, I am often asked about this particular
configuration ... the application of a 1960s-style headband to the AFH. I
must say, elementary questions of this sort try my patience, but I do my best
to remain calm (fast-breathing and visual memories of Princess Stephanie during
that secret summer that we spent together help ... as does chanting the salient
passages from Terror on Terra,). This configuration is exactly what it seems
to be. Contact attempted with those responsible for the information flow which
so heavily influenced those of us who led The Revolution of the Sixties. Abbie
and I shared an AFH one evening just before we and ten thousand of our closest
friends attempted to levitate the Pentagon.
And one night, when Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson were gathered around a fire in some nameless southwestern desert, I cured their needs for certain dangerous toxins by passing the AFH instead of a joint. But I will not wallow in the past. The headband configuration is simply an attempt to contact some of the more mellow providers of information. This is, after all, a rather tense and strange society we have with us these days.
While
doing the photo-shoot to make these images (I had misplaced the lens attachment
to the AFH and was forced into using my Canon camera), I would occasionally
place the AFH on my head to make sure all was properly set up, and I got some
unexpected information flow at those times. It was kind of nice. Chicks in
outer space sending information. Babes in the vacuum flying around and tuning
in on me. Tasty. So I set up this shot to show the sensual side of me. Hey,
Saucer Babes. How you doing? What's your sign, constellation-wise? I'm a man
with a hat.
I've spent the last half hour, concerned. Squint your eyes a bit and look at the two images of the hat just below. One shot from the left. One shot from the right. And yet ... the perspectives are different. This is troubling.
Merely
by standing in a different spot, the perspective of the hat changed. Would
this mean that if I were to talk to a friend face-to-face, and then moved
to behind her and talked to her from that position ... would our perspectives
change? When I turn my head with the hat in one direction and the flow of
information is coming in strong, does the perspective taken by the speaker
change when I turn my head in another direction? ... [hmm, there's a lightning
storm coming on strong outside]
And I have a
need to talk with Wedgewitte. To his eternal spirit. To find answers. A need
to place the aluminum-foil hat on my head and hang myself halfway off the
third-story balcony of this apartment, reaching for the ethers, and try to
tune him in. ...
[hey, look at that. that's some ferocious lightni