every person, I suppose, has
their eccentricities
but in an effort to be
normal
in the world’s
eye
they overcome them
and therefore
destroy their
special calling.
I’ve kept mine
and do believe that
they have lent generously to
my existence.
(Source: henrycharlesbukowski)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Steal Softly Thru Snow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Beefheart
Oscar Wilde(1854-1900)
During a time of moral conservatism, Wilde managed to survive his youth decked out in flamboyant clothing exuding eccentricity, because of his stunning wit – the true cause of his celebrity. While studying at Oxford University, Oscar would walk through the streets with a lobster on a leash. His room was decorated with bright blue china, sunflowers, and peacock feathers. He was the direct opposite of what Victorian England expected a man to be and he flaunted it for all he was worth. Unfortunately an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas brought an end to a brilliant career when Wilde was jailed for sodomy.
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy - Paralyzed
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy (born Norman Carl Odam on September 5, 1947, in Lubbock, Texas, is a rock and roll performer who invented an early example of the genre that came to be known as psychobilly in the 1960s. While sometimes considered a novelty artist,he regards himself as a serious performer.
Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon(Viscount Cornbury)
Cornbury came to be regarded in the historical literature as a moral profligate, sunk in corruption: possibly the worst governor Britain ever imposed on an American colony. The early accounts claim he took bribes and plundered the public treasury.
Cornbury is reported to have opened the 1702 New York Assembly clad in a hooped gown and an elaborate headdress and carrying a fan, imitative of the style of Queen Anne. When his choice of clothing was questioned, he replied, “You are all very stupid people not to see the propriety of it all. In this place and occasion, I represent a woman (the Queen), and in all respects I ought to represent her as faithfully as I can.” It is also said that in August 1707, when his wife Lady Cornbury died, His High Mightiness (as he preferred to be called) attended the funeral again dressed as a woman. It was shortly after this that mounting complaints from colonists prompted the Queen to remove Cornbury from office.
Daniel Johnston-Walking the Cow
Les OVNIs n’existent pas : les objets volants non identifiés ne sont que des illusions créées à distance par des extraterrestres.
UFOs don’t exist:unidentified flying objects are illusions remotely created by aliens
-Jacques Bergier
I conceive of nothing, in religion, science or philosophy, that is more than the proper thing to wear, for a while.
- Charles Fort
Charles Fort-Prophet of the Unexplained
Charles Fort (1874-1932) fancied himself a true skeptic, one who opposes all forms of dogmatism, believes nothing, and does not take a position on anything. He claimed to be an “intermediatist,” one who believes nothing is real and nothing is unreal, that “all phenomena are approximations one way or the other between realness and unrealness.” Actually, he was an anti-dogmatist who collected weird and bizarre stories.Fort spent a good part of his adult life in the New York City public library examining newspapers, magazines, and scientific journals. He was looking for accounts of anything weird or mysterious which didn’t fit with current scientific theories.Fort was skeptical about scientific explanations because scientists sometimes argue “according to their own beliefs rather than the rules of evidence” and they suppress or ignore inconvenient data. He seems to have understood that scientific theories are models, not pictures, of reality, but he considered them to be little more than superstitions and myths.
Abner Jay - I’m So Depressed
Abner Jay (1921 – 1993) was an American multi-instrumentalist, who is best known for performing eccentric, blues infused folk music, as a one man band. His idiosyncratic lyrics and style can also be considered within the realm of outsider music.
Lucia Pamela - Walking on the moon
Lucia Pamela is a gift from God.She is remembered today largely for an album and coloring book concerning an imaginary trip to the moon.A senior citizen who made a totally unknown, crudely recorded album in the late ’60s that sounded like a garage nursing-home band. Pamela was a former Miss St. Louis and veteran entertainer with several decades of experience under her belt by the time she recorded Into Outer Space, although there seems to be no reliable way of compiling accurate biographical data. Like the much more famous Mrs. Miller, Pamela couldn’t “sing” well in the conventional sense, but sang with the confidence of one who knows she is one of the best. Into Outer Space sounds like a time-warp ’20s swing band, fronted by a wedding-party guest who’s downed too many stiff ones. Most of the material comes from the pen of Pamela herself, who devised nursery rhyme-like ditties about walking on the moon, Indian alphabet chants, the year 2000, and only slightly less cockeyed love songs. The whole affair made its inevitable transition to CD in the 1990s Pamela faded into obscurity again after the re-release of her album, and died at the age of 98 on July 25, 2002 in a hospital in Los Angeles.
for more info:
Tycho Brahe, Danish Astronomer, 1546-1601
The Genius:
Tycho Brahe is renowned for the magnificent precision of his astronomical measurements. At a time when telescopic astronomy was young and crude, Tycho assembled an array of data whose accuracy facilitated numerous discoveries, including the laws of planetary motion by his assistant, Johannes Kepler.
Also, check out the ‘stache.
The Insanity:
Let’s suppose you were high up in social circles and often compelled to give dinner parties. Let’s also say you wanted to impress your high-profile friends and reassure them that their good faith and finances were in safe hands. What would you do?
How about hiring a dwarf, dressing him up as a clown, and without any explanation having him sit silently underneath the dining table for the duration of the dinner? Tycho Brahe did it, and he was a lot richer than you.
In order to protect journalistic integrity, it’s worth explaining that the above may misrepresent Tycho. “Hiring” can suggest a casual, occasional employment. Tycho’s dwarf was full-time. His tasks included sitting underneath the table when Tycho (and sometimes friends) ate, and just hanging around the house.
Tycho was renowned as a heavy drinker, so maybe he hired the dwarf in a drunken stupor and just never had the heart to tell him to leave once he sobered up. Otherwise it’s safe to say the man was a few planets short of a solar system.
http://www.cracked.com/article_16559_7-eccentric-geniuses-who-were-clearly-just-insane.html
