Thursday, October 25, 2007

Secrets of Levitating Hippies Revealed!

Perhaps you've had a chance to see this hoser "levitating" in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House. If you haven't, knock yourself out:

Alright, that's very clever...

It's also total bullshit.

In case you didn't notice, the video doesn't show the guy in the process of getting to his hovering position or how he descended back to Earth. This "Flying Dutchman" is actually sitting on a seat that has been attached to the pole that he seems to be unnecessarily holding onto. The chair is discrete enough to be hidden in the folds of the dude's baggy pants. The whole "levitation" act is more a matter of balancing the various forces involved in the physics of this enterprise on the end of the stick.

The trick is ancient, though, unlike it's distant Hindu relative the Indian Rope Trick:


So the moral of the story is don't buy this guy's line about learning from the Hindu masters and receiving some award from the Indian government or whatever it was he was peddling.

Still, it's not a bad way to get some attention though, especially when you decide to find a unique and photogenic location to ply your trade (say, right in front of the White House?).

At the end of the day, it's all about context, never about craft.

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