Discordian writer and illustrator Bwana Honolulu contacted Adam Gorightly about an incredible find he made regarding Early Discordian and author Camden Benares:
Just yesterday I was watching a YouTube video about some old tech, the Vectrex video game console from the 80s ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlRyE4ru1S8 ), and stumbled upon a curious detail. In that YouTube video, there were some bits from old TV reports about the engineering team that developed the console, and all of a sudden at 1:57, my screen was filled with the image of the cover of Zen Without Zen Masters.
Camden Benares filmed while working at Vectrex, early 1980s.
Huh. And the voiceover said “[…] you see authors on Zen Buddhism writing toy instruction manuals. […]”, while the view zoomed out, showing said author, though unfortunately from behind without showing his face. White guy, balding brown hair, glasses. Could it be that this is Camdes Benares, I asked myself? I kept watching, hoping to hear a name or see a face, and when I got to the end, I started over.
Camden Benares filmed while working at Vectrex, early 1980s.
And yes, there he was, at around 1:10 – the face, the glasses, the beard, it all matched the “happy birthday” photo I’ve seen on historiadiscordia.com! I’m pretty much 100% sure this is Camden Benares in the video.
Camden Benares filmed while working at Vectrex, early 1980s.
This discovery really made my day, and… now you can see it for yourself, and maybe you wanna share it with the rest of the world. I couldn’t find anything about it on the Interwebs, so I guess it’s not (widely) known yet.
Here are links to the full original segments with timestamps:
