The Loud Jacket Man

 ong i had stared at the photo - a man posing next to his obviously home made planetarium projector .   indeed, VERY homemade,  he was wearing bright tweed

the loud jacket man was he

 it was a black and white picture of whirligigs, whatsits, and unidentifiable devices all there for a purpose, even though what it was didnt seem clear.   but there was something else about the man that intrigued me .. he wore tweed - a rather loud version of it in fact.   slowly but surely i drifted into obsession with this undated but obvioously old  picture. 

and he wore bright tweed.  the loud jacket man i called he

i found myself wanting to recreate the scene .    i began building a replica of his impossible projecting device with old planetarium parts i had piled up in my barn ...  i kept going until i had what i thought was a reasonable facsimile.of his device.   i recreated even the background, what appeared to be almost a silo like dome behind it.   the man in the picture was pointing a long slender device up on the dome, so i recreated this as well.   but there was one more thing .. i needed his tweed jacket.   i trip to a local thrift store did the trick - after shuffling through countless old sport jacket on their musty racks, i finally found one that fit the bill reasonable.  it was loud .. it would like about right in the photo recreation i now planned.   

the night i actually took the picture i carefully set the scene - i'd have to put my digital camera on manual exposure in the dark, then take my place in my recreated scene next to the reconstructed projector, holding the pointer, then hit a foot switch to hit the slights and do a quick exposure.  when all was ready, my foot hit the switch. 

something occurred at that instant that i still cannot process.   something similar to lightining.   there seemed to be a glass partition between me and the world.   i could not move, but was frozen in place.   i had replaced the man. .  i could not get out

and i saw a dark figure leave the room.  was he wearing in my clothes  ? 

  

and there i hung.  on the wall.   wearing tweed

the loud jacket man was me.