Whirling Dervishes Eat Haunted Donuts

I'm in Atlanta Georgia and I'm bored. I haven't really had a chance to leave the hotel yet, and even when I get a chance I'm not particularly excited about it. I mean, it's Atlanta. Although, one cool thing, I'm about 3 blocks away from this sweet looking Haunted House, which was rated the #1 Haunted House in America by Hauntworld Magazine! So, I will definitely check that out soon.

Also, I finished reading both of those Rudy Rucker books.  Spacetime Donuts was the first book he ever wrote, but 2nd published after White Light. SD was fantastic. It's about the idea that the Universe is shaped like a donut, so that if you were to shrink infinitely, you'd eventually wind up coming back around to our size. In other words, our Universe is contained within itself, in every atom. The donut analogy as Rudy describes it is this:

Say you have this donut laying flat, and you place a piece of paper on top of it. The points where the paper actually touch the donut form a circle and is our size level. Staying on the surface of the donut but moving towards the center, the hole of the donut, the size of the circle you are on shrinks. That's you shrinking down to the size of molecules, atoms, quarks. Continue around and without going backwards, you wind up growing back up in size until you are back to where you started. It's very fractal. Good timing that I just read that book actually... everything is speaking to me through fractals these days. Rudy is often trying to describe the complex mathematical ideas of infinity through his gonzo transreal stories. My brain actually feels massaged every time I finish one of his books. He's very good at it.

I know I know. You're exhausted with my Rudy Rucker blogs by now. Sorry. Maybe you should get off your butt and read some already, so you'll know how awesome he is, too.

Moving on, I was holding off on this until it actually came to fruition, but it looks like it never will, so... I was contacted last February by someone who works in the Religion and Ethics department of the BBC website. He had stumbled across my video and pictures of the Whirling Dervish ceremony I'd attended in Turkey, and he wanted to use them in a piece he was putting together. I of course was flattered with a much enlarged ego. He'd written to me once or twice to say that he was still working on it, and that it could be a while before it came together, but it's been a really long time now and nothing. They did however put my name and website prematurely on their photo credits page, so I've got that going for me! See here! Scroll down to the M's. Very exciting, very nothing.

Comments

[Miss Luongo]

That Whirling Dervish video is really cool. I was in awe the first time I watched it. I suspect the BBC has a lot on their plate these days what with the monkeys in Delhi that killed the deputy mayor. I'm sure they'll get to it when something Dervish-related happens. I think the Whirling Dervishes are touring the states...so maybe I'll get a chance to catch them for myself. Although, I'd imagine it's more exciting in Turkey. Oh, well.

[messiestobjects]

The deputy mayor of the Indian capital Delhi has died a day after being attacked by a horde of wild monkeys.

That is AWESOME. I want my tombstone to say that. Killed by a horde of wild monkeys. It's the most fantastic headline ever since the one about crack addicted squirrels attacking Central Park joggers.

[Miss Luongo]

I know. I felt terrible about it, but the slapstick image of it was making me giggle. I'm an awful person. But, really, a guy swatting at monkey and then falling off a balcony? Monkeys & falling! That's high comedy. (I'm sorry he's dead.)