More quantum pranks

After the publication of “The Quantum Prank” story [ FT404:74], I was astounded to find out that other people had uncannily similar experiences. A friend of mine, Lance Glover, recounted his encounter:

“My own weird David Byrne experience happened in about 1990. Some work colleagues and I were having lunch at Ships Coffee Shop on Overland Avenue in Culver City, California, when David Byrne walked in. He asked the hostess something, then proceeded directly past our

table to a pay phone in the corner, where he made several calls. He then left by the same route, right past our table. About 10 minutes later he returned, made more calls and left again. Then it happened a third time. By this point, my friends and I were beginning to wonder if it was some kind of practical joke, but he didn’t reappear, so we chalked it up to typical Los Angeles oddity (if you know LA you know what I mean).

Two days later a friend and I (he had been in the lunch group) arrived at Schoenberg Hall, UCLA, for a concert – John Cale with Michael Brook opening. We were way early, having come straight from work. It began to rain; my friend and I lit up a joint outside under the expansive eaves. A short time later we retreated to a side gallery housing an exhibit of mediæval music notation. My friend headed off to the restroom. Wandering transfixed among the beautiful manuscripts, I barely noticed someone entering the room. For many minutes I was aware of this person’s presence, and thinking it might be my friend, I finally looked up to find myself face to face with David Byrne. He was as awkward as I was stoned. We both spent the next 15 minutes or so avoiding each other’s gaze and staying engrossed in the content of the display cases. Finally, he left and was replaced by my friend and our dates, who had come separately. Early on in the concert I realised that Byrne was sitting in the row in front of us, only a few seats away. He left the concert early.”

An artist friend of mine, Cathy Ward from London, writes: “The last time I was in New York, I asked a guy to allow me to sit at his vacant table in a full café – it was David Byrne. Maybe he’s the Quantum Cafe Haunter! It was at an outside Art Fair and he was sitting on his own. Evidently everyone around bar me had clocked it was him. As it was the only place available, I had to ask him to let me sit down and he very charmingly got up and let me sit down. Only then did I realise it was him. I didn’t bother him except to say, ‘Thank you’. Charming nice man.”

When I wrote my Quantum Prank story about David Byrne, I believed that it was an isolated event; however, now it seems more like a repeating uncanny scenario with conspicuously similar details. In each situation, from out of nowhere, David Byrne appears unexpectedly. Each story is centred on a café or coffee shop. All of the events take place near an art gallery (or an “art fair” with scores of galleries). There is something incongruous about the circumstances that make it seem odd, like a practical joke (or prank). Could David Byrne be enacting similar Quantum Pranks at other cafés all around the multiverse? Maybe this is what he does all day long.

Jeffrey Vallance

Canoga Park, California

“I could still feel him watching me from the semi-darkness”