Section of San Francisco street named for Emperor Norton

Joshua Norton, emperor of the United States and protector of Mexico. 

Emperor Joshua Norton, mentioned of course quite a few times in the Illuminatus!, has been honored by having a section of street in San Francisco named after him. A posting at the Boing Boing website explains:

"In a delightful update from San Francisco, Emperor Norton I, the charming 19th-century eccentric, is being honored with a street named after him in Chinatown. The 600 block of Commercial Street, located between Montgomery and Kearny Streets, is now officially known as "Emperor Norton Place." Interestingly, Norton actually lived on this very block in a building called the Eureka Lodgings from around 1864-1865 until his death in 1880."

More at the link. The author of the Boing Boing piece is Rusty Blazenhoff, a byline I don't recognize, but apparently Rusty is a regular contributor. Good for Rusty for spotting this. 

Timothy Leary's 'Mind Mirror' available again

Timothy Leary's classic computer game, Mind Mirror, billed as "a trippy journey through your own mind," is available again. You can for example buy it here. 

Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza explains, "An obscure classic computer game, Timothy Leary's Mind Mirror, is once again on offer through Steam, GoG and other online storefronts. Long only playable on modern machines with some geeky tinkering around, the modern downloads just work."

More from Rob's post at Boing Boing. 

RAW and the origins of Boing Boing

In connection with the publication of Ishtar Rising by Hilaritas Press, Mark Frauenfelder at Boing Boing reprinted the piece Christina Pearson, RAW's daughter, wrote for the official email announcement of the book. It's a great piece, which I assume many of you already have read, as I linked to it earlier on this blog. But I also wanted to draw attention to what Mark wrote in his intro:

As you might know, Robert Anton Wilson (1932 - 2007) is one of Boing Boing's patron saints. Raw's humor, skepticism, optimism, and ability to reveal the deep weirdness underlying almost everything were deeply influential to Carla and me when we launched bOING bOING as a zine in 1987. In fact, we kind of started the zine as an excuse to interview RAW at his house in Santa Monica that year. I'm very grateful I was able to get to know RAW, and honored that he wrote a regular column for bOING bOING. I'm also grateful to have become a friend of Bob's daughter, Christina, a delightful person who is active in keeping her father's books in print. Here's an essay Christina wrote about a new edition of Ishtar Rising, a book originally published by Playboy Press called The Book of the Breast. — Mark

I didn't know a desire to interview RAW helped launch the whole Boing Boing publishing empire. You can get that first issue with the RAW interview and other issues at the Internet Archive.

Happy anniversary to Boing Boing

Mark Frauenfelder (Creative Commons photo)

Few organizations have been as supportive of Robert Anton Wilson and his fandom as Boing Boing, first a zine, then a magazine and now a long-running blog/website. The very first issue of the original fanzine, which you can read here, contained an interview with RAW by Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair. RAW was interviewed and discussed in subsequent issues (see this archive.)

The zine evolved into my favorite magazine (once, when it had gone months between issues, I was so upset I called the phone number listed in it and talked to a young woman -- Carla? -- who told me "Mark" had been busy working on a Billy Idol album) and then a blog.

Mark penned a memoir a few days ago, describing the early days of Boing Boing and how it evolved.  "It's incredible to me that Boing Boing still has the original band line-up. I’m always excited to see what my co-editors post every day, and Boing Boing remains my favorite place on the Web, because I love their points of view," he wrote.

See also Mark's contribution to the RAW revival, the numerous posts for "Robert Anton Wilson Week" at Boing Boing in 2012 (which actually lasted for more than a week.)

Mark is a member of the RAW Trust Advisors, called upon from time to time by Rasa to offer advice.

Follow Mark on Twitter.

Antero Alli interviews RAW in bOING bOING

From the Danny Hellman illustration from bOING bOING

I was going through some back issues of "bOING bOING" magazine at the Internet Archive when I ran across an interview of Robert Anton Wilson by Antero Alli, in 1991. I did not see the interview when I checked at RAWilsonFans.org, so perhaps the interview is new to you, too. Here is the link to the issue. 

Also, here is a wonderful retrospective on bOING bOING by Mike Dank.  The Internet Archive collection of back issues is here. Some really great stuff. Hat tip: Mondo 2000 on Twitter. 

Excerpt from the interview:

A A: Quantum mechanics is something of a second language for you. How does it help you communicate and live a better life? 

RAW: Quantum physics does help a lot in understanding daily life. The major discovery in this field is that the reality we perceive with our instruments is created by our instruments, partly. It’s not an objective reality. It’s created by our minds - by what instruments to use, what measurements to take, and what experiments to design. That happens in our daily life in the area of our decision- making, which is our instrument ... about what to observe, what to enter into, what to avoid and so on. Quantum mechanics just emphasizes by the magnification of scientific instruments what’s happening all the time, anyway. Modern psychologists, especially those branching out into neurology and perception theory make it very clear that the situation of a brain receiving signals has the same relativity and indeterminacy as you find in quantum mechanics’ “brain plus instrument receiving signals.” Whether there’s an instrument there or not, the brain’s the main creator of what gets organized ... not the only creator but the main one.

'Lost' Timothy Leary manuscript

Boing Boing founder, guru of cool and in-house Robert Anton Wilson fan Mark Frauenfelder reports that an unpublished Timothy Leary manuscript is being made available for auction.

Fraunfelder writes, "Timothy Leary wrote The Periodic Table of Energy while he was in Vacaville state prison in 1974. "The work explores 'correspondences among the Periodic Table of Elements, the Neurogenetic Theory of Evolution, the Tarot, the I Ching, [and] the Zodiac.' The 203-page typescript is profusely annotated and edited in manuscript, and illustrated with images, advertisements and articles clipped from newspapers and magazines."

Auction house press release is here.

Boing Boing's Robert Anton Wilson posts (lots of good stuff) is here.

BOING BOING runs my RAW piece

BOING BOING has run my RAW piece for the extended "RAW Week," almost four weeks after Mark Frauenfelder wrote me on Jan. 8 to solicit it. I'm pleased he ran it, and especially pleased I was able to slip in a plug for Robert Shea, who I think tends to be a bit overlooked.

RAW Week at BOING BOING

I've put up a permanent link under "Resources" for BOING BOING's apparently-concluded "Robert Anton Wilson Week."

I tried to link to somebunall of the best articles, but there was a lot of material. BOING BOING's special section featured pieces by Mark Frauenfelder, Paul Krassner, Gareth Branwyn, Antero Alli, Douglas Rushkoff, Jay Kinney, R.U. Sirius, Lewis Shiner, Erik Davis, Ivan Stang, Christina Pearson (in an interview), Richard Metzger, Mark Dery, Propaganda Anonymous and Angus Stocking. Also, some good RAW quotes picked out by Mark, and a "Giant mind-map of Discordianism." Lots of good links in the pieces, too.

A rare RAW interview

The very popular and successful bOING bOING blog originally was an offbeat magazine edited by gurus of cool Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair. It was my favorite magazine (I once phoned it because I was so upset that it hadn't published any new issues) and Mark and Carla have ever since been big favorites of mine. I let my subscription to "Playboy" magazine expire after it dropped Mark's Internet column. (Carla once was photographed for the magazine, so they both have a connection with the publication where Wilson worked and conceived ILLUMINATUS!)

But I missed the first couple of issues of the magazine, and so I did not know, until Thursday, that the very first issue included an interview with Robert Anton Wilson. A PDF of that first issue is available for $2. I bought a copy after being tipped off by a friend, Gary Shindler, who keeps on eye on pop culture for me.

A taste:

BB: I was disappointed when I learned that last year's Libertarian candidate for president, Ron Paul, is an anti-abortionist.

RAW: I didn't know that. I'm theoretically a Libertarian, but I know they're never going to win so I don't even pay that much attention to the Libertarian Party. What I like about the Libertarian Party is they throw good parties. They invite me to their conventions and I have a good time. I kind of wish that they would have nominated Russell Means. I thought he would have been a colorful candidate. The idea of a Native American running on the Libertarian ticket would have gotten more publicity. I mean, it's all show biz these days. I keep telling all the Democrats I know they should persuade Paul Newman to run for president. He's been a Democrat all his life and he'd win hands down. The Republicans have nobody they can put up against him. Could they get Charlton Heston? Hell no! Heston looks his age, Newman doesn't. Newman hands down, a walk in. The Democrats don't think that way. The Republicans are way ahead of them in terms of PR.