KOPFTUCH FÜR DEN HERRN

Heute, am 11. Mai jährt sich der Todestag von Douglas Adams, dem Kultautor von ‘Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis’ (Original: ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’). Im zu Ehren wurde gleich wenige Tage nach seinem Tod der Handtuchtag (Towel Day) als Gedenktag eingeführt. Am 25. Mai tragen Fans des Autors und seinem Werk ein Handtuch mit sich herum.

“Ein Handtuch ist so ungefähr das Nützlichste, was der interstellare Anhalter besitzen kann.”

Im Jahr 2005 habe ich im Rahmen eines Artist in Residence Aufenthaltes in Innsbruck das Projekt ‘The Physcal HoT Spot‘ produziert. Neben der Audio Installation die sich auch mit D. Adams beschäftigt, habe ich für die Aussenraumgestaltung eine Serie von Handtüchern bedruckt. Diese wurden damals mit dem guten Rat ‘DON’T PANIC’ bedruckt. Ergänzt wird dieses Zitat von den Initialen von Douglas Noel Adams, DNA und den GPS Daten von Innsbruck dem Ort an dem D. Adams die Idee für ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ hatte.

Kurze Zeit später, habe ich auf Grund des enormen Interesse an dem Handtuch eine Produktion eines professionell gewebten Handtuchs in Auftrag gegeben. Selbstverständlich wie gehabt mit dem weisen Rat: DON’T PANIC. Zu erwerben ist es im DON’T PANIC Towel Shop.

Trage es in Ehren :)

(DON’T PANIC Towel at the beach in Sharm El Sheikh, 2017)

On this day, in 2001 Douglas Adams, the author of the fabulous ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ died. As a tribute to D. Adams carry a towel with you, on may 25th. The Towel Day, a wonderful tribute to Adams and a sign in public to identify other Hitchhiker :)

Get ready… get your DON’T PANIC towel.

The original quotation that explained the importance of towels is found in Chapter 3 of Adams’ work The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you — daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost.” What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)”

— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

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The countdown for Christmas is running. But DON’T PANIC, the perfect Christmas gift is ready for shipping: The DON’T PANIC Towel

‘A Towel – Just about the most massively useful thing any interstellar Hitchhiker can carry.’*

For all hitchhiker’s and fans of Douglas Adams, the author of the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ we have the right companion for your life, the Universe and Everything. A beautiful bath towel, with the smart advice: DON’T PANIC.

Of course, you can use it just right after you have taken a shower or bath, but there are a lot of more things to do with a lovely towel:

‘Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough’*

Here you can get it: DON’T PANIC Towel Shop

Shipping worldwide – Even Lenin got one.

* Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, chapter 3