Maybe Day: Another way to remember RAW

The Palmolive Building, formerly the Playboy Building, in Chicago. Creative Commons photo, source.

Welcome to Maybe Day. Today, Bobby Campbell will be running a free comic book convention in Wilmington, Delaware. Of course, he is hard at work on the second issue of Tales of Illuminatus. Please see his Maybe Day page for updates.  UPDATE: New blog post at RAW Semantics!

 For my special  Maybe  Day post this year, I would like to share my new idea for helping to preserve the legacy of Robert Anton Wilson.

Since Wilson left us in 2007, there have been many attempts to keep Wilson's books and philosophy alive for new generations of readers. 

Hilaritas Press has issued many new additions of Wilson's work, and has been offering a monthly podcast. Brian Dean, Oz Fritz, Apuleius Charlton and myself have been writing RAW blogs for a number of years. There are numerous social media accounts devoted to Wilson's output. Bobby Campbell has been organizing Maybe Day celebrations for several years. Scott Apel published a new anthology of Wilson's writings, Beyond Chaos and Beyond, which was later reprinted by Hilaritas Press. Prop Anon came out with the first book length biography of Wilson, and it has been well received. Eric Wagner has a new book out, assisted by Michael Johnson, which explores the influence of James Joyce on Wilson. Steve “Fly” Pratt has written books and recorded music albums to help continue Wilson's legacy. John Higgs wrote about Wilson in his invaluable KLF book. Daisy Eris Campbell staged a play based upon Wilson's Cosmic Trigger book. 

This is not an exhaustive list, and I am sure I have left out some excellent efforts by other people. You are welcome to fill in with other examples in the comments. Many other people have contributed with their own efforts. 

When I went to Tulsa a few weeks ago to visit my mother, my sister and I ventured out to visit the Church Street studio established by Oklahoma rock musician Leon Russell, which was used for recording many artists signed by Russell's Shelter Records record label. When we were given a guided tour of the studio, the guide pointed to a diner across the street, and said that was where Tom Petty signed his record deal with Shelter Records, launching a long recording career that resulted in Petty selling tens of millions of recordings. 

That gave me an idea for an historical marker. It would make sense, I thought, to put up a marker at the diner or the Church Street studio marking the beginning of Petty's music career. 

Then I came up with another idea. Why not put up a couple of historical markers at sites significant in the life of Robert Anton Wilson?

Each state has its own historical marker program, but as far as I can tell, they all operate in pretty similar ways. An historical marker can be proposed by anyone, but to put up an official state marker, the wording likely would have to be approved by an official in the state's history department. Permission likely would have to be obtained from whoever owns the property where the marker would be located. A good-looking official state marker costs thousands of dollars, so if a wealthy donor was not available, a crowd funding campaign might be necessary.

Here are a few ideas for markers:

The Palmolive Building, Chicago. The Chicago Playboy mansion probably is better known, but the Palmolive Building, 919 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, was known as the Playboy Building when it housed the editorial offices of Playboy magazine from 1965 to 1989. An historical marker would note that Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea worked there as editors when they wrote the Illuminatus trilogy. A marker here would perhaps get a lot of attention.

Information about Illinois historical markers can be found here.

Birth of Discordianism, 15545 Whittier Boulevard, Whittier, California. The former site of the Friendly Hills Lanes bowling alley; it closed about ten years ago, but the building was preserved when the site was redeveloped, see this post.  An Aldi grocery store is there now. Discordian historian Adam Gorightly has identified  the bowling alley as the place where Kerry Thornley and Greg Hill created Discordianism. An historical marker would of course note that Discordianism is blargely known because it is featured in Illuminatus!

Information on California Historical Landmarks registration.

The "Maybe Day House," 15176 Rio Nido Road, Guerneville, Calfornia. (North of San Francisco, Santa Rosa is the nearest good-sized city.) Where Wilson had his contact with entities from Sirius, July 23, 1973, according to Chapel Perilous, the RAW bio. This is apparently a rural area, so a marker likely would not attract much attention. 

What other landmarks of the "RAW History Trail" would make sense?