blazing disk

[unpakwon]

I don't know what "a blazing disk" refers to in the following context, although I know its literal meaning.

In the opening pages of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe describes "a thin blond guy with a blazing disk on his forehead too, and a whole necktie made of Indian beads. No shirt, however, just an Indian bead necklace on bare skin and a white butcher's coat with medals from the King of Sweden on it."

And does the "coat" refer to the coat decorated with "the medals he received from the King"?

Thank you.

 

[emsr2d2]

Maybe a tattoo of a bright blazing circular object, maybe the sun?

 

[unpakwon]

Aha!

It's a very informative explanation. Many thanks.

And the "thin blond guy" was Stewart Brand. Let me quote some more.

"... coat with medals from the King of Sweden on it." This guy was Stewart Brand: a Stanford-trained biologist, ex-army paratrooper, turned Ken Kesey cohort and fellow Merry Prankster who was about to become the voice of one of the most potent forces for abundance the world had yet seen: the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) innovator.

 

[Tdol]

And they were taking lots of LSD.

 

[5jj]

Turn on, tune in, drop out. :crazyeye:

 

[SlickVic9000]

When I read "blazing disk on his forehead", it made me think of one of those head mirrors that ear, nose, and throat doctors (otolaryngologists) used to wear. Of course, they use otoscopes now.

 

[Tdol]

Turn on, tune in, drop out. :crazyeye:

Red5, my brother and I went to see Ken Kesey and another Merry Prankster at the Barbican a few years ago, and it was dismal. We left before the interval. It was two old bores telling vaguely racist and tedious stories about Hispanics. They should have dropped off, not dropped out.