The evening was wonderful, met some lovely people, and we were delighted to witness the following:
Kim Peek, the real "Rain Man", made an appearance with his father. Kim Peek is diagnosed with Savant Syndrome with a photographic or 'eidetic' memory and developmental disabilities, resulting from congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbit, played by Dustin Hoffman, in the movie Rain Man.
Mr. Peek was born with macrocephaly, damage to the cerebellum, and agenesis of the corpus callosum, a condition in which the bundle of nerves that connects the two hemispheres of the brain is missing; in Peek's case, secondary connectors such as the anterior commissure are also missing. There is speculation that his neurons make other connections in the absence of a corpus callosum, which results in an increased memory capacity.
According to Peek's father, Fran, Peek was able to memorize things from the age of sixteen months. He read books, memorized them, and then placed them upside down on the shelf to show that he had finished reading them, a practice he still maintains. He reads a page of text in about ten seconds (about a book per hour) and, apparently, remembers everything he has read, memorizing vast amounts of information in subjects ranging from history and literature, geography, and numbers, to sports, music, and dates. He can recall some 12,000 books from memory. Peek can also do formidable calculations in his head, a skill that serves him well in his day job, where he prepares payroll worksheets. He has worked at a day workshop for adults with disabilities since 1969.
When asked at the meeting, he was able to recall in detail the cover of a 1965 issue of Life magazine. He was very affectionate, hugging everyone who greeted him--including my wife, of whom he was especially fond (his brain condition must have enhanced his taste in ladies, too). Later that evening, we got to fondle his Oscar for best screenplay, and hailed Mr. Peek and his father a cab.
Joe Kittinger, now a sprightly older gent, was the first man to parachute from the edge of space--100,000 ft. above the Earth. Mr. Kittinger recounted his three incredible jumps, each of which had its dangers: The first, from 76,400 feet in November, 1959 was a near tragedy when an equipment malfunction caused him to lose consciousness, but the automatic parachute saved him (he went into a flat spin at a rotational velocity of 120 rpm, the G factor calculated at his extremities was over 22 times that of gravity, setting another record). Three weeks later he jumped again from 74,700 feet. For that return jump Kittinger was awarded the Leo Stevens parachute medal.
On August 16, 1960 he made the final jump from the Excelsior III at 102,800 feet. He was in freefall for 4½ minutes and reached a maximum speed of 614 mph before opening his parachute at 18,000 feet. Pressurization for his right glove malfunctioned during the ascent, causing his hand to swell. He set records for highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest freefall and fastest speed by a man through the atmosphere. According to Kittinger, he broke the speed of sound during that famous jump.
Nate True suspended time by synchronizing his strobe light with the drip rate of his "time fountain". Very fun.
The photographer Rosamond Purcell narrated a selection of her marvelous photography. Very sweet, talented lady.
A fellow named Jesse Ferguson brought his huge Rube Goldberg devices, which required some assistance from the audience at certain points (I don't think Mr. Fergusson has worked out the kinks in his contraptions just yet).
A performance of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet was then performed in the artificial language of Solresol, which employs color, numbers, hand gestures, musical notes and speech to communicate. Solresol words are made up of only seven different syllables. These syllables can be represented in a number of different ways: as musical notes of different pitch, as spoken syllables (based on solfege, a way of identifying musical notes), with colours, symbols, hand gestures etc. Thus, theoretically Solresol communication can be done through speaking, singing, flags of different color, etc. — even painting. Very interesting history behind the language, which was devised by Francois Sudre, but the speaker didn't really elaborate much and left everyone wanting to hear more.
Guests won pathological walrus baculums, Roses of Jericho, Lichtenburg figures, shrunken quarters, subscriptions to Cabinet Magazine, boxed sets of Make Magazine, etc.
Drinks and vittles were served in the lobby, chatted with new friends and then made our way downtown for some delicious Japanese fare and warm sake. Stopped by our dear friend Evan's shop to peruse the new offerings, then made the (incredibly) cold trek home. My graying beard came in handy, but I'm looking forward to the spring molt. Damned thing itches.
~W