A little over a week ago, I went to the optometrist - the new clinic in the Ocean Centre Mall - and was diagnosed with a detached retina. I was rushed to Vancouver the next day and had it reattached. The procedure which took about five minutes includes placing a gas bubble in my eye which will dissolve in a couple of weeks at which point the retina should be back to normal. (fingers crossed)
So right now I have this bubble which i can see, not by looking in the mirror, but by looking out my eye. It is at the top of the retina which means I am seeing it out of the bottom of my eye. When I look down all I can see out of the eye is this round black hole type image. It is kind of creepy but kind of cool at the same time. It reminded me of the Retinal Circus.
Anybody old enough to remember the Retinal Circus, a psychedelic night club on Davie Street that brought the alternative bands of the late sixties to Vancouver. My brother took me to see the Velvet Underground in 1968. I don’t think it held more than a couple of hundred people and the music was ear shattering loud and the light show was eye blinding surreal.
And then I found this. The black and white doesn’t give the full effect but the first minute or so gives you an idea of what it was like.