Many people have asked us, why Professor Seagull’s? Who is this strange grinning man? Well, we are glad you’ve asked! Professor Seagull’s Smartshop is named after a man from New York City, Joe Gould. Joe was a writer and bohemian who lived a wild life on the fringes of New York’s writing scene. He earned the name Professor Seagull because of he had a tendency to get too drunk and begin dancing around, flapping his arms like a bird and making strange noises. The Professor gained his stature as a legendary bohemian writer, by telling everyone in his circle that he was working on An Oral History of the Contemporary World, also known as An Oral History of Our Time or Meo Tempore. The Oral History was reported to be a word for word account of individuals lives. Joseph Mitchell who wrote a book on The Professor said “it may well be the lengthiest unpublished work in existence." Ezra Pound claimed to have seen a fragment of the work that ran about 40,000 words in length. The work was never published, and some claim it never existed.
Professor Seagull’s Smartshop is named in honor of this complex individual and his phantom work that was seeking to record the complete experience of every individual. We see an overlap in the concept of The Professor’s work, the concept of the Akashic Records, and the psychedelic experience.
