Milo Lockett Habla del Arte Más Allá de la Obra: Derriba Mitos, Sale de los Lugares Comunes y Reivindica el Disfrute

Nota por Lu Tedesco publicada originalmente en El Planteo. Más artículos por El Planteo en High Times en Español.

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Milo Lockett vive rodeado de personajes que crea en su taller, en el centro comercial Vila Terra, en Tigre. Mientras realiza un encargo muy colorido, donde se ven unos rostros enfrentados, se anima a hablar de todo con El Planteo.

Es difícil no reconocerlo, porque parece que a su ropa la salpicó un arcoíris y porque tiene pegado el pincel en la mano, como si fuera una extensión de su cuerpo. “Necesito amarillo”, le pide a uno de sus ayudantes, para los rostros que pinta, con un fondo demasiado rojo. Acto seguido, comienza a contar cómo está acostumbrado a encarar una obra.

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“En general, veo que hay un problema por resolver. Suele haber mucho color, porque la obra me lo va pidiendo. Pasa que mientras más colores metés, más tiene que contrastar para que convivan. Es importante el contraste de la obra: hay que hacer que un color conviva sin invadir al otro”, explica, y destaca que a lo que más le presta atención es a los ojos porque “la mirada no esconde nada”.

Los mitos que oculta el arte

Al contrario de los planificadores compulsivos, Milo confiesa que “en algunos tipos de obras no hay tanta planificación” y que la improvisación hace que las obras se vean más sueltas.

“No es un problema que la obra no salga como querés, porque cada paso es un aprendizaje y se aprende haciendo. Prueba y error, es cuestión de buscarle la vuelta”, expresa.

Por otra parte, también desmitifica que detrás de todo haya un mensaje: “El artista no tiene que decir cosas todo el tiempo, ni tener una opinión para todo. Eso sería muy soberbio. Al menos yo, no se si tengo tanto para decir”.

Una vez, hizo una obra sin nombre y le insistieron tanto para que se lo pusiera, que al final la nombró: “A Tomar Helado que se Termina el Mundo”. Como la expusieron en Santiago del Estero, algunos pensaron que era referencia al calor que hacía. “Casi que hicieron un mundo de eso”, relata y deja claro que no todo tiene un trasfondo.

“A veces es más lo que se imagina que lo que se ve. Pero de eso se trata un poco: lo que el otro se imagina, lo que quiere sentir, su necesidad. Eso hay que aprender a identificar, porque si no es pensar que uno tiene que decir cosas inteligentes todos los días”, explica Milo, mientras sigue dando pinceladas a un cuadro que no para de transformarse: “Iba bien y me fui para el carajo”, admite.

Los artistas también son personas

Milo revela que no todo es tan extravagante en la vida del artista. “Los admiradores se preguntan a veces ‘¿qué comerá?’ ‘¿cómo se vestirá?’ ‘¿qué música escuchará?’ Hoy comí una pizza con mis secretarias y el que distribuye los cuadros, quedó ahí. Soy una persona común y corriente”.

También, demanda que la sociedad le exige mucho a los artistas: “Uno no puede hacer todos los días grandes éxitos. Incluso, entre artistas, también hablamos de cosas banales y sencillas”.

Lo cierto es que hoy está en una etapa en la que cumple un horario y luego sigue la vida con sus tres hijos y con la artista Luciana Vernet, su esposa, con la que se casó hace pocas semanas.

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“La expectativa del otro te magnifica, no siempre uno tiene que sorprender. El que lo hace es un genio de la vida”, dice Milo queriendo sacar a los artistas de la presión que impone la mirada ajena.

“Se suele pensar que los artistas somos creativos por instinto. Pero la creatividad hay que estimularla”, para lo que recomienda algunos de referentes del arte, como Jorge De la Vega, Damien Hirst y a Adebayo Bolaji, en quien hace hincapié porque “le encanta su estilo”. También, hace una mención especial a Claudia Del Río (dice que le gustan más las pintoras argentinas que las internacionales) y al libro de Julia Cameron, El Camino del Artista.

Ser académico o ser autodidacta, una discusión que no llega a ninguna parte

“¡Epa eh! Se fue para otro lado”, manifiesta en señal de aprobación al encargo que pinta desde hace horas. Parece haber encontrado el camino, entonces prosigue a entrar en la encrucijada que enfrentan muchos artistas: ¿ir a la universidad o aprender por medios propios?

El autor de “El Aguaraguazú quiere unos Mimos” reconoce que el conocimiento y la educación son todo. Pero que, en el arte, como en muchos otros ámbitos, pasa que la gente piensa que porque estudió es más que un autodidacta.

“Yo lo padecí”, dice y recuerda una mesa de artistas, donde había una profesora de dibujo y pintura. “Me dijo: ‘vos no vas a entender porque estamos hablando de pintores alemanes’. Me hubiese gustado saber, aunque sea, dos palabras en alemán”. Hace poco le pidió una foto y admite que se encontró con una “contradicción tremenda”.

Milo hace una breve pausa para tomar un café y pareciera que se prepara para exponer en un congreso. ¿Cuál es el tema? La forma de ser de los argentinos: “Hay un tema con cómo somos, con esa forma de pensar que sabemos más que el otro. En otras culturas, los artistas tienen otro nivel de reconocimiento y se los escucha de otra manera. Solo acá pensamos que es algo menor, porque el argentino mide todos los logros en la economía. No importa el rubro, a vos te va bien cuando sos exitoso económicamente”.

A pesar de todo, dice que más que la falta de reconocimiento al arte en el país, lo que le molesta es que no se incite a las personas a conocer sobre arte, porque es lo que hace que una persona tenga “otra mirada y otra sensibilidad”.

“Algunos se sienten respaldados por tener un título. Pero cuando sos una persona leída no es imprescindible un título, no te da miedo el conocimiento del otro, admirás, sos curioso, no envidiás. La educación es eso para mí”, comenta Milo, a quien le han ofrecido dar clases más de una vez.

Contenido relacionado: ¿Cuáles Son las Obras que Dalí Creó Bajo el Efecto de las Drogas?

Pero, sobre enseñar, opina: “Es algo con lo que te tenés que re comprometer. En algún momento me gustaría llevar adelante algún proyecto que abarque pintar, curar, descubrir referentes y cómo se llega a construir un lenguaje o una obra”.

—¿Cómo se construye un lenguaje artístico?

—Hay gente que por ahí piensa que porque copia no tiene creatividad. Pero es una forma de empezar: tomando elementos de referencia y después se descubre cuál es su lenguaje, dónde se va a quedar y su forma de trabajar. No es que te levantás y pintás un cuadro con un lenguaje. Hay veces que tenés la suerte de encontrarlo enseguida, también hay veces que nunca llega. Pero no por eso hay que dejar de hacerlo.

“Yo soy disperso y ecléctico, no pienso rígidamente una idea. Cada uno permite que algo mute. No te quedás en que sea rojo, ni te quedás con lo que pensabas al principio”, desarrolla sin dejar de advertir que el resultado es lo que importa.

“¿Te gusta? Bárbaro, ¿no te gusta? No quiere decir que no funcione. Después que le guste a los demás es otro tema”.

Hace 10 años, Milo pensaba que era un problema ser disperso, se enojaba y le costaba lidiar con eso. “Esto es ser disperso: agarré el naranja y estoy pintando con marrón”, sobre el encargo para su cliente. Sin embargo, ahora ve la dispersión como una herramienta de trabajo.

Aprender a comercializar, la deuda que tienen muchos artistas

Milo Lockett sigue definiendo los detalles de su pintura: “Tengo que reconocer que estoy perdido”, dice refiriéndose al cuadro, que para los ojos de los simples mortales es una obra de arte desde que hizo la primera línea. Frena, se prende un pucho y empieza a hablar de su taller que, curiosamente, se encuentra dentro de un predio comercial.

“Estamos acá desde julio 2021. Al principio tenía dudas normales de cambiar de lugar, después me fui acostumbrando. Me gusta estar en un predio comercial, porque la gente pasa, entra, mira. Muchos artistas que conozco se sentirían invadidos, a mí me pasa lo contrario”.

Parte del trabajo no se ve y, según Milo, eso vuelve difícil la parte comercial: “Es una cuenta pendiente en las escuelas de arte: enseñar cómo comercializar el trabajo”. Dice que de eso no se habla mucho y es importante. “Un artista necesita lo comercial para que funcione su medio de vida. No tengo conflicto con que alguien de afuera venga y opine de mis obras”.

Un pequeño viaje en el tiempo

Los años de experiencia se ven reflejados en los ojos con los que Milo analiza el presente. Recuerda la obra que más le gustó hacer, que fue pintada con barro y va más atrás todavía, hacia sus inicios.

“No arranqué con expectativas, lo mío fue una decisión de vida. Tampoco tenía puesta mi libido en lo económico. Venía de un fracaso bastante grande. Entonces, me detuve a pensar que quería hacer. En ese momento había cerrado una industria y era fuerte verme hacer eso, para el que se deja centrar por la economía”.

Cuando su arte se hizo conocido, dijo sentirse acompañado por su familia, a pesar de que cuando comenzó a salir en las revistas, no les cayó tan bien la exposición. Admite haber dicho “barbaridades”, pero no dice cuáles: “En la prensa dije muchas cosas sin filtro, que me trajeron consecuencias”. No se arrepiente, pero reconoce que está bueno poder corregirse.

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Su incursión en los NFTs también fue recordada por Milo como algo que llegó espontáneamente y que, como negocio, no fue algo en lo que le haya ido excelente.

Sin embargo, reflexiona: “Igual que en otras ocasiones, se volvió un disparador para otros proyectos. Algunos pueden pensar que en todo lo que hago me va bien. En realidad, son tantas cosas que hago, que de 20 pego una”.

“Sigue yendo para otro lado”, dice de esos rostros enfrentados, que ya se vieron mutar a sí mismos, al menos unas cinco veces.

De todas maneras, pareciera que se convenció y, poco a poco, la pintura llega a su versión final. Pero no sin antes abrir un paréntesis de su pasado: su breve experiencia con cannabis y otras sustancias. “Cuando era más chico tuve experiencias con sustancias. Pero mucho antes de la pintura”.

En su momento, cuenta, fue algo recreativo. Pero hoy ya superó esa curiosidad que le generaban las sustancias. “En algún momento fue un poco por la junta y también a modo de experimento”.

No especifica cuáles, aunque sí habla puntualmente del cannabis. Dice que nunca le gustó, pero que le sorprende cómo la sociedad se apropió de la planta: “En todos los grupos de amigos hay gente que tiene plantas y ahora te lo cuentan. Antes nadie contaba que tenía un porro o que fumaba”. Milo Lockett define el cannabis como interesante y útil.

“¡Sirve para tantas cosas!”, exclama, y sigue: “Conozco gente que consume cannabis medicinal de diferentes formas, me sorprendió la idea de que con eso se pueda hacer una crema que alivia un dolor”.

También, opina del uso recreativo: “Es válido porque habla de las libertades individuales, algo que yo defiendo: decidir sobre tu cuerpo y sobre tu vida”.

Un vistazo al presente y lo que se viene a futuro

Los proyectos no son para nada escasos en el 2023 de Milo Lockett. Hace poco recibió una proposición para hacer dibujos animados, está grabando un documental sobre arte contemporáneo para una plataforma y tiene programado un viaje de trabajo a Europa: estará en Italia y España.

“Suiza me toca el año que viene, hace varios años que trabajo allá con una galerista. Es un lugar donde gustan las obras despreocupadas”, cuenta el artista reconocido a nivel internacional.

—¿Y vos, por tu cuenta, qué tenés ganas de hacer?

—Yo quiero pintar y nada más, en eso soy muy egoísta. No tengo conflicto con decirlo. Lo único que quiero hacer es pintar, podría hacerlo 24 horas. Pero tengo una familia, soy padre y soy pareja. Tratamos de que haya normalidad en casa, no somos rockstars.

Milo cuenta que atravesó etapas de “mucho glamour”. Pero deja claro que “eso te tiene que gustar”. “Yo necesito cambios permanentes porque me aburro. En un momento quería los premios, cuando los tuve no llegué a ningún lado. Al otro día tuve que sacar la basura de nuevo. Lo que llaman éxito es muy vacío”, confiesa.

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“Hoy reconozco que soy feliz con lo que tengo. Soy agradecido de tener una vida linda. Hay gente que no disfruta, nunca descansa. Tengo amigos que tienen mucho y nunca les alcanza. Yo creo que está bueno reconocerse. Me gusta la sensación que me genera lo que hago”, manifiesta, suspira un instante y exclama: “¡Ahí está, falta nomás el barniz!”, en señal de que el cuadro para su cliente está terminado.

Milo es el antipersonaje, su alter ego parece haber desaparecido con el paso del tiempo, para dejar nada más que un hombre reflexivo, abocado a una vida donde el éxito económico pasó a otro plano, para dar paso al verdadero éxito: disfrutar de su familia y de lo que hace cada día.

Da la impresión de ser una persona seria, pero por dentro está lleno de color igual que sus obras. Se ríe de sus propios chistes, para todo tiene una anécdota y reivindica la recreación y la diversión: “Uno tiene que disfrutar y los logros van apareciendo en algún momento. No siempre son tangibles, ni son representativos económicamente. Puede ser un reconocimiento del público, de los pares, o de la gente que uno quiere”.

Fotos por Lucía Tedesco, todos los derechos reservados a El Planteo.

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The post Milo Lockett Habla del Arte Más Allá de la Obra: Derriba Mitos, Sale de los Lugares Comunes y Reivindica el Disfrute appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/espanol/milo-lockett-arte-obra/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=milo-lockett-arte-obra

Dr. Bridget is Here To Spread Courage and Wellness

Dr. Bridget, who specializes in family practice and cannabis medicine, was once overwhelmed by numerous frustrations in medicine. However, after seeing how cannabis altered a patient’s life for the better, the physician pivoted to a fulfilling career and life in the world of cannabis.

Now, she’s the CEO of Green Harvest Health. It’s a medical cannabis and integrative clinic based out of Ohio, where Dr. Bridget was ahead of the game when it came to treating patients with cannabis. She has quite a story to tell about her journey in medicine, but now, she’s helping others tell their stories.

Dr. Bridget will soon present Courage in Cannabis, Volume 2: The Triumphant Stories. Volume 1 was full of moving stories ranging from all corners of the industry. Now, Volume 2 will feature stories and contributions from Tyson 2.0 co-founder Adam Wilks, Ed Rosenthal, Tyrone Russell, and Johnny Curry, to name a few. 

Recently, Dr. Bridget told us about her life in wellness and cannabis, as well as Courage in Cannabis.

High Times: You met a breast cancer survivor, Renee, who changed the course of your life and led you to cannabis. How many years ago was that?

Dr. Bridget: I’m going to say about 15 years ago. I was very early on in my career. It was within the first three years of me working full-time at the clinic. You know, things happen for a reason. I met her and this other guy, who was angry at his doctor, and came to me because he was 35 and on five blood pressure medications. The change actually started with the guy, I should say. I started spending more time with him and learning about his lifestyle.

He was 35, had three kids, and had a hard time dealing with this new lifestyle, trying to make enough money. Once I learned about who he was, then we really got into how we get you to a better place, mentally and emotionally. It’s a question of, what does wellness mean to you? We defined what wellness means for him. I started working on diet and exercise for him and other patients, but for him, I got him down from five to one medication.

Renee was a breast cancer survivor. I met her right at this moment when she was a new diabetic. She was like, “I survived this breast cancer and now I have diabetes.” We learned again, what does wellness mean for you? Do you care about these numbers? Do you understand why we want you to be on these meds? What else do we do? Are you interested? Do you know that if you really changed how you’re living your life? I just spent a lot of time with them.

In the course of it, Renee asked me about cannabis. Well, I’m not that cool, you know? (Laughs) I was like, this lady is off her rocker, so I’m going to pull up some information to tell her why this is such a bad idea. Now, I knew that there was stuff going on, let’s say out West, but I didn’t know that. I never paid any attention.

Different world at that time.

Different world. When I realized that she was coming from something I had no understanding of, I looked into it and said, “Yeah, let’s give this a try.” I don’t think I thought that long about it being illegal in Ohio. Once I was learning about cannabis, I learned this is kind of like insulin, to be honest. If you take it at night, it’ll help you sleep, but then it actually will help regulate your sugars by the morning. And so, I saw her sleeping better, she was more productive at work, and her anxiety was so much better.

We were seeing the blood sugars actually under as well. She was doing the diet and exercise. I pulled her off of the metformin. And so, I kind of just put the information away after that experience. When it became legal in Ohio, all of a sudden it sparked, you know, this experience I had had years before. I wanted to learn more about this and dig into it.

When you announced to your colleagues you were going into cannabis, the reactions were skeptical and far from encouraging. How’s the perception changed over the years? 

The thing is I care less, that’s a part of it. In the beginning, it was deer in headlights. I had decided to go into the cannabis space and looked for the reaction. Now I don’t look for the reaction. I’m sure there are still people that are like, Oh my God, why’d you throw your career away? I still do medicine. I’m very conscious that I’m doing cannabinoid medicine. I’m not just writing you a card, so you can go to the dispensary. I’m very conscious of your medical conditions. I practice it just like I do regular medicine with a little life coaching.

What I realized over time is what people thought of the cannabis physician, and that probably bothers me more. I know I’m probably happier than most of the people that would judge me. Most of the doctors I know are pretty miserable people, to be totally honest with you. 

When I say I’m a cannabis doctor, people think you’re doing it for extra money and taking advantage of the fact you have a medical degree. Now, when people think I’m one of those, that bothers me. I did an interview once with a guy, and we were teaching at the same place at the time, and he had a podcast and invited me on. He’s introducing me to the audience, like, “We all know what we think about these cannabis doctors, how grungy, scammy, and how horrible they are. But then I met Dr. Bridget.” I was kind of sitting there like, Whoa, is it that bad? 

It was a big shock for me. I was already in a place where I took it seriously probably because I had those experiences [with patients] years ago. People are so accustomed to everyone’s getting high, and it’s just about access to get the weed. There are people that think the whole medical aspect is just a front for people that want to escape and get high. 

I have so many cancer patients, and I have so many people that have chronic pain, and they’re all desperate to not be in pain. Fibromyalgia, which is horrible to treat, I’m trying to help them find relief. We’re tweaking what they’re taking and figuring out what will work best. I think probably the average cannabis doctor isn’t doing that. They’re just writing the card. But I really work hard with people to bring them some form of health and wellness, and people don’t expect that.

So, you were very unsatisfied with your work before your career changed and focused on cannabis. As a physician, how was it finally finding joy in your work? What did you hope to accomplish? 

I knew I was unhappy. I got in front of a patient, and that was my bliss. When I get in a room with a patient and help them help themselves, that makes me happy. But the whole system sucks, to be direct. 

My undergrad major is psychology, which I still love to death. At one point, I was literally thinking about leaving medicine. Then, I had this deep feeling that you can still do it, just do it differently. And so, I googled options… You gotta love that, right? You can just Google your life (Laughs).

(Laughs) I do it every day. 

I googled psychology and physicians, and the Physician Coaching Institute popped up. It’s a program to become certified life coaches, but it’s all health-related, and physicians that get certified. They basically help utilize your background in medicine and helping people, and then put that into a coaching realm. I was like, okay, this is it. This will give me a start at something different. 

At the same time, Ohio was going legal, and I was so curious about that experience that I had with Renne eight years ago. I actually got a job with a card company, because I was like, this will be great, I can do cards, and I’ll do life coaching. Now, when I start talking about treatment plans, research, surveys, and follow-ups, they’re like, “Whoa. We are cards for cash. We don’t care about any of that.”

For me, this is the time for a change. I got certified as a cannabis educator and then I was already doing the life coaching thing, so I decided to open my own offices. Most offices or apps are doing 10 or 15-minute visits with patients, while we do a 45-minute visit. 

Anyway, I was in search of something I didn’t know. I really didn’t know what it would be. I thought it would be fun to dig in and learn more about cannabis, but I did not know that cannabis would give me life. I had no idea. 

I do appreciate that, because of these intensely negative experiences you had in the medical industry, you found a way to bring more positivity to others. 

No, absolutely. I don’t mean this in the way you see it in memes or whatever, but I’m not one to lose. I’ll pivot. I will change the rules (Laughs). I also believe you have experiences for a reason. You can take that and do something good with it, even the worst experiences, or you’re going to get beat up by it. I don’t want to be beaten, and I don’t want to throw in the towel. I just feel that’s too depressing. Make something out of those experiences.

You survive. You have some horrible experience and you survive it. I’m not going to sit around saying, “Oh, look at my wounds.” I’m going to turn it into something that says, “Look at what I’ve been through, but look at the cake I made.” (Laughs) It’s just a mentality.

Well, I think that’s part of the reason why the book works. You have stories within the cannabis industry that, really, could apply to so many different industries, right? 

Oh, absolutely. So, Courage in Cannabis really comes out of the fact that I started seeing patients and I’m excited, you know? The buzz in Ohio at the time is how high the prices are, we don’t have homegrown, and the lab testing, all of the political talk and all of the whining around all the issues. 

I had this patient, a big burly truck driver. I still see this guy’s face. I’m handing him his card, and he was like, “I am going to show this to my son and I’m gonna tell him I’m not a pothead; I’m a patient.” I was like, okay, nobody’s talked about this. A woman comes in and she’s like, “I am taking this to church because I have feared going to church all these years because I’ve been using this for help.” 

I actually started writing down these stories. I had someone that really was interested in publishing it. I was just at the beginning of writing, getting some of these stories together, and then I had this horrible gut feeling… These aren’t my stories. I don’t know if I should do this, you know? And so, then COVID happened. I started doing an online conference, believe it or not, with a bunch of spiritual and religious life coaches from the south.

How was it?

It was fun. First of all, the personalities are amazing. You can imagine. One of the people I met was working on an anthology and she said, “I want you to be in it. Everybody writes their own story. They get to financially benefit from writing their story and selling the book.” I was like, That’s how you do it. I was in her book, I wrote a version of the story that you see in Courage in Cannabis. Once I was done, I told her, “I want you to help me to make Courage in Cannabis.”

Now, I was a huge fan back in the day of Chicken Soup for the Soul. It’s a book series of inspirational stories, all sorts of stories. At one point, they went into themes. So Chicken Soup for the Soul for Nurses, Chicken Soup for the Soul for Pet Owners, all these themes. I realized I wanted to do a Chicken Soup for the Soul for inspirational stories around cannabis. And so, that’s really where the books came from. 

So you have the book, your practice, and your non-profit, what else are you working on for this year? What else would you like our readers to know about the book?

I’m expanding and probably switching up my card company to multi-state because I do so much traveling. I want to create something as an alternative to the quick app card company and hire doctors that really want to do cannabinoid medicine. 

We should be publishing Courage in Cannabis, Volume Two this spring. The difference with this book is that it’s not just like the chapters as you’ve seen with this first book, but we have what I call small sparks, whether it’s a quote or a paragraph from other people within the industry itself. 

What’s very dear to me is a contribution from Alice O’Leary Randall, who’s the widow of Richard C. Randall, the first legal government cannabis patient. Richard has passed on, but Alice submitted some of his writings to be in the book. Mike Tyson submitted a quote for the book. People that I’ve come across over the last couple of years with a voice in the cannabis space are the sparks, for the most part. 

With all the other stories in there, it’s definitely a larger book, a much bigger undertaking, but when it’s done, I probably will be even more proud of this one. I was naive with the first book, but now, I know what this book could do and what it does for people. So, it’s all very exciting and very overwhelming.

But very fulfilling?

Definitely. Oh Gosh, if you can get that, what else can you ask for? 

Courage in Cannabis, Volume 2: The Triumphant Stories is available this spring. 

The post Dr. Bridget is Here To Spread Courage and Wellness appeared first on High Times.

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We Don’t Know if Taylor Swift is a Stoner, but Stoners Sure Love Taylor Swift

The year is 2008, and we’re in Texas. George W. Bush is president. Gay marriage is illegal; cannabis is definitely illegal (and still is in the Lone Star state, other than low THC products for limited medical patients). Not too long ago, the Dixie Chicks, who now go by The Chicks, were dropped from country music stations and blasted by contemporaries for saying they were ashamed to be from the same state as Bush, as they did not support the invasion of Iraq. And Johnathan Nguyen, who will one day grow up to be an insanely talented makeup artist living in a big old city, is in his peak high school years and in the midst of questioning his sexuality and crushes on boys. “I remember the day my cousin let me listen to “Our Song” by Taylor Swift. I felt an earthquake inside my soul. I truly believe that was my gay awakening,” he says. When asked his favorite Swift song, Nguyen replies: “These are very intense questions. I am stoned listening to Midnights. I take relaxing breaths as the cerebral bass hits my entire indica-fused body. I’m currently listening to ‘Snow on the Beach,’ and it slaps so hard. But I’m also thinking ‘Our Song’ from her debut album because I’ve come back to this song time and time again. It reminds me of an easier, more innocent time in my life. Ok, ok, fine. It’s ‘Anti-Hero.’”

Recently, with the release of Swift’s heady music video for “Lavender Haze,” from her tenth studio album, Midnights, publications from Leafly to Vogue questioned whether the song, which features a lovely Tay Tay blowing smoke rings, was a nod to cannabis. Swift says on Instagram that the inspiration for the song is that buzzy, NRE (new relationship energy) feeling of falling in love—one she wishes to maintain and protect in her long-term relationship with actor Joe Alwyn. “I happened upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching Mad Men,” shared Swift. “I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool and it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the ’50s where they would just describe being in love.” 

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While, given that Swift spent her 20s being ripped to shreds by the media, who dissected every relationship she was in, shamelessly slut-shammed her, and undoubtedly played a role in resulting breakups, it’s understandable how she wishes to protect her current relationship with Alwyn, her “End Game,” going on six years, from the talons of the tabloids. However, many were quick to point out the psychedelic similarities between “Lavender Haze” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” There’s even a strain of cannabis called Lavender Haze, which is also called G13. 13 is Taylor’s lucky number. From drawing the number on her hand during the Speak Now World Tour to the 13 tracks on Midnights, she peppers the number 13 (and others, Swift is a mastermind at using numbers as easter eggs) in basically everything she does. Cannabis users may relate to some of the word choices in the song, such as “I feel a lavender haze creeping up on me.” Stoned Swifties (a subgroup of fans that even have a Reddit page) insist that while lavender haze indeed refers to euphoric love, her songwriting is always more layered than that confetti birthday cake in the All Too Well short film. 

“Say what you want about Taylor Swift, but you can never say she can’t write a damn good song,” says Tina Baer, who works in a cannabis dispensary and whose claim to fame is coining “Swemo,” a term to describe an emo Swiftie. Baer’s favorite Swift song is “Ivy,” off her ninth studio album, Evermore. “I’ve been screaming with my whole chest since Evermore was released that ‘Ivy’ is the most low-key stoner song. Let’s start with the fact that this song is 4 minutes and 20 seconds long. On top of the lyric ‘it’s a goddamn blaze in the dark.’ The metaphors could allude to so many things, and I know the song is a story about forbidden love, but something in me cannot help but connect it to cannabis.”

Let’s be clear: While she sings that some guy said her aura’s moonstone just ‘cause he was high, Swift has never said she uses cannabis. We don’t know if Swift likes cannabis, but cannabis sure as hell loves Swift. “I don’t know if you could truly understand the mastery of Taylor Swift’s songwriting without cannabis,” says Melissa A Vitale, publicist and founder of Melissa A Vitale Public Relations, the first plant and intimacy wellness PR agency. “None of her songs are on the surface; you have to explore between the lyrics to fully grasp the meaning of each ballad. It’s euphoric when you finally piece together all the hidden meanings in her choruses. I don’t know if I’d be able to experience her words as deeply as I do without cannabis.” Vitale’s favorite Swift song is: “The Man – I am the man, she is the man, all boss babes are the man. Fuck the man and only fuck men, not little boys.”

A recent survey found that over half of U.S. adults are Swift fans. Certainly, not all of them smoke weed, and some will be pissed about an article associating her with cannabis. But Swift’s ability to connect with such a diverse fan base is a testament to what she’s best known for: her songwriting. “She is such a brilliant lyricist,” says Katie Keller, The CannaSwift, whose favorite Swift song is “State of Grace,” noting that this changes daily. “I make every record release a little party of one. It involves a bottle of wine, a journal, and tons of weed. It allows me to disconnect from everything else and focus on the music. You need multiple listens to take in all the words. I love those nights by myself. But the best moments have been meeting other Swifties.” Others agree.

“I especially love meeting other fans who, like me, you may not expect to be Swifties based on our appearance,” says Sohum J Shah, who spent the last decade working in the cannabis industry, most recently as a consultant at SZN Partners. “I also think it’s incredible (and hilarious) that [the] Swift Army is so powerful. Our collective outrage over the Ticketmaster fiasco triggered Congressional hearings into LiveNation and Ticketmaster over issues that artists and fans have been complaining about for years.” Shah went from a casual listener to a full-fledged Swiftie in 2018 when Swift first broke her political silence and encouraged her fans to register to vote and support pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ+ politicians in Tennessee. Kamari Guthrie, director of communications for the nonprofit Vote.org, told Buzzfeed, “We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift’s post.” Swift backed Democrat Senate candidate and former Gov. Phil Bredesen and spoke out against Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the GOP candidate for Senate, who, in her 2020 Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, Swift dubbed “Trump in a wig.” Sadly, it wasn’t enough, and Blackburn won the Senate race, but Swift won over hearts like Shah’s. 

Also, in Miss Americana, Swift discusses how, as a star with origins in the country world of Nashville, she was repeatedly warned to stay away from politics or else she’d face the same backlash as The Chicks. However, with age, and life experience, not all good (Swift broke her political silence after, among other events, winning a sexual assault lawsuit); it appears she simply stopped giving a fuck. The Chicks are featured on the track “Soon You’ll Get Better,” a song about her mother’s battle with cancer from Swift’s 2019 and seventh studio album Lover. “I lost my mother to cancer thirteen years ago,” Vitale says. “When her doctors found her two stage four cancers, we were never given the possibility that she could be cancer-free. Taylor’s “Soon You’ll Get Better” is a chance to try on a hope we were never given.” Vitale adds that she uses “thirteen” rather than “13” because “I refuse to believe my mom has been gone long enough writing-rules-wise I can start using the digits instead of writing out the numbers. Through heartbreaks, grief, and healing from trauma over the last few years, there have been two constants: an indica-dominant spliff and Taylor Swift playing over the speakers.”

The year is 2023. The lockdowns may be over, but the economic fallout certainly is not. George W. Bush and the Obamas, once fierce foes, seem to be friends, and many of us are too busy reeling from the Trump presidency (Will he go to prison? Be the next president again? Both?) to care. In Swift’s home state of Tennessee, it’s now illegal for drag queens to perform in public (but you can celebrate them in her video for “You Need to Calm Down“). In Nguyen’s home state of Texas, abortion is banned with very little exception, but since Roe V. Wade was overturned, the whole country should be sweating. The world is burning, but for many, cannabis and Taylor Swift offer solace. If you want to read an article critiquing her, Google it; there are enough already. “Have you tried walking at a slow pace around the city while listening to Midnights?” Nguyen asks me. “Instant euphoric music video realness!” And, in the words of this writer’s favorite Swift song, if you have a problem with his epic bejeweled drag makeup, Taylor Swift, or cannabis, all you are is mean. 

Author’s note: In my 13 years as a journalist (yes, that is the actual number), I have never received so many interview responses as I did for this article. I apologize to all the Stoned Swifties who were omitted; I appreciate you endlessly. I now know what Tay Tay goes through when narrowing down song choices on an album.

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The Best YouTube Rabbit Holes To Go Down While Smoking

The YouTube algorithm is a mixed bag. At worst, it will suggest something you’ve already watched before or is currently trending and completely unrelated to your subscriptions or political beliefs. At best, however, it will strike gold and suggest a video that’s right up your alley—something that shows the website knows your tastes and interests better than you do yourself.

Surely this has happened to you at one point. It has to me. More than once, actually. Every now and then, YouTube unexpectedly pushes me down rabbit holes I never even knew existed but am pretty glad to have discovered. I’m talking about entire subculture communities revolving around things as specific as “illegal” Lego techniques, finding the tiniest apartments in central Tokyo or amateur fossil hunting.

The videos that make up these rabbit holes are entertaining enough on their own, but the thing that really excites me about them is the notion that I have accidentally stumbled across a secret world hidden on the internet. It’s sort of the online equivalent of accidentally walking into a really cool speakeasy or bookstore; they’re cool precisely because nobody knows about them. 

Anyway, here’s a guide to some of these rabbit holes. 

Bonsai trimming

The traditional Japanese (originally Chinese) art of bonsai cultivation has gained a sizeable global following in recent years, so much so that you’ll find no shortage of YouTube channels of (mostly white) guys making videos on how to turn neglected little shrubs into aesthetically pleasing trees. The practical goal of bonsai cultivation is to make a young plant look like an old, mature one. Its spiritual significance is the calm and patience you develop sculpting living materials that have minds of their own. Even if you don’t really care for the underlying philosophy, they’re some of the most satisfying before-and-after videos out there. And if you really want to be wowed, you should check out demonstrations from the masters themselves.

TV painting

Everybody knows Bob Ross – fuzzy afro, soothing voice, devil-beating brush – but did you know he is only the tip of the iceberg as far as televised painting goes? Ross wasn’t the first to artist to become a television instructor, nor was he the last. His teacher, a big, booming German guy called Bill Alexander, is considered the OG. Born in East Prussia, he came to the America to escape from the Second World War, tried to make a living as a traditional painter, failed, then found decent success on PBS with The Magic of Oil Painting. Ross, who started out as one of his employees, not only stole his format, but also many of the sayings and mannerisms we now associate with The Joy of Painting. For such a famously chill media personality, there was a whole lot of drama going on behind the scenes—drama you can learn all about on YouTube.

Theme park history

This one can be a bit of a minefield. Stray off the path and you’ll find yourself surrounded by Disney adults wearing Minnie Mouse headbands ranking their favorite Magic Kingdom attractions or giving tips on how to get the best parking spot. Really, you want to stick with one channel and that channel is called Defunctland. Run by a dude named Kevin Perjurer, it specializes in publishing insanely well-researched documentaries about theme parks and the ambitious but often incompetent businessmen in charge of them. Topics range from Walt Disney’s embittered battle with his unionizing animators to all the debauched things that ever took place on New York’s Coney Island. Their best video, by a long shot, is a 2-hour-long documentary about the logistical nightmares caused by Disney’s Fast Pass system, which I guarantee is one of the most outrageous things you will ever watch in your entire life. 

Rock climbing

Ever since the release of Free Solo, it seems like bouldering gyms have started popping up everywhere in the U.S. Honestly, I get it. Watching the Oscar-winning documentary, in which Alex Honnold scales El Capitan in Yosemite National Park sans rope, you’re guaranteed to walk away with a newfound appreciation for the art and athleticism of rock climbing. You also become convinced that Honnold must be the greatest rock climber of all time, but that’s not the case. He’s definitely the bravest, but the best? Believe it or not, but in the world of the sport, El Cap is actually considered a fairly easy route—easy enough for Honnold to attempt it without equipment and stand a good chance of surviving, anyway. If you want to see some truly insane climbing, you should check out the YouTube channels of people like Adam Ondra, who perform climbs so technically challenging that nobody, not even Honnold, would ever attempt them without getting geared up first.

Hardcore travel

As a backpacker, I pride myself on traveling to destinations most of my friends and family members would not visit unless someone forced them. As far as the backpacking subculture goes, however, I’m still somewhat of a newbie. My idol is a YouTuber called Bald and Bankrupt, who goes to places so remote or dangerous that the people there are genuinely baffled when they run into him. A tall British man who speaks fluent Russian, he spent years travelling in and around Russia. Specifically, to small villages in the countryside struggling with brain drain—i.e. all the young people leaving for the big cities and never coming back. He was in Ukraine when war broke out, and joined refugees on a train to safety. He then turned around and went back into Russia, but was arrested and banned from reentering the country. I haven’t watched his videos in a while, but last I saw he was in the Middle East traveling through Taliban-controlled territory.

DIY aquariums

The algorithm seems to like this one a lot so you may have seen some of these videos on your feed before. Basically, they’re about people that try to create entire ecosystems enclosed inside aquariums, terrariums, or even small bottles. By the time they’re done, their creations look like something straight out of a David Attenborough nature documentary. My favorite thing about these videos is the style, though. I’m not sure who started it, but many channels make their videos in the same way, with relaxing piano music and text instead of dialogue. It’s ridiculously relaxing.

Independent filmmaking

Last but not least, this isn’t a rabbit hole or subculture so much as it is a community of artists that deserve much more attention than they’re currently getting. Over the years, YouTube has started functioning as a platform where entertainers who are unable to find work in “the industry” can share their creative output and grow an audience. Sometimes, in case of Felix Colgrave—who creates insanely trippy animated videos that, in hindsight, should have been included in my trippiest animated movies article—their work becomes so popular they don’t even need “the industry” anymore. In other cases, like the Dungeons and Dragons-inspired series Doraleous & Associates, their efforts remain criminally underrated. Is this a long-winded way for me to tell you to go check out Doraleous & Associates? Maybe. But really, go check it out. You can finish it in a day, and you won’t regret it.

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DEA Uses Apple AirTag as a Surveillance Device

The use of Apple’s location-tracking device appears to be the first time a federal law enforcement agency has used an AirTag as a surveillance tool, according to technology industry insiders familiar with the case.

The investigation began in May 2022 when U.S. border security agents intercepted a package from Shanghai, China that they deemed suspicious. One package contained a pill press—a tool for compacting powders into oral tablets—while the other was a shipment of pill dyes. Believing that the package might have been sent to illegal drug manufacturers, the border agents notified the DEA of their discovery, according to a search warrant obtained by Forbes.

After DEA investigators inspected the flagged shipments, they hid an Apple AirTag inside the pill press and then allowed the packages to continue to their intended destination. DEA agents then used location data sent by the Bluetooth-enabled device to track the movements of the pill press to its intended address and after it was delivered.

The DEA did not reveal why it chose to use an Apple AirTag instead of other surveillance technology available to the agency, which has vast federal resources at its disposal to conduct domestic and international illegal narcotics investigations. But in court documents, a federal agent noted that the “precise location information for the [pill press] will allow investigators to obtain evidence about where such individuals store drugs and/or drug proceeds, where they obtain controlled substances, and where else they distribute them,” according to the search warrant obtained by Forbes.

Brady Wilkins, a recently retired detective with the attorney general’s office in Arizona, told Forbes that the DEA may have been testing the AirTag due to previous failures in other types of tracking technology currently available to law enforcement agencies, including GPS devices, which “sometimes worked, sometimes didn’t.”

An AirTag “can be hidden easier and is less likely to be found by suspects,” Wilkins told Forbes. “Suspects are getting better at countersurveillance techniques,” he added, noting that subjects have discovered GPS trackers larger than Apple AirTags used in previous investigations. AirTags also appear to have more reliable connectivity than other tracking devices.

Apple debuted the AirTag in April 2021, marketing the quarter-sized location tracker as a way for consumers to find lost bags, devices or other personal property. The affordable technology, which can be purchased online for less than $30, has resulted in many consumers sharing success stories of found items or the ability to track property including luggage as they travel to their destinations. But the devices have also been used for other, sometimes criminal purposes, including by stalkers who have surreptitiously placed an AirTag with their victim’s personal belongings, enabling the target’s movements to be tracked from afar.

After news of unintended uses of AirTags made news, Apple added measures to help prevent their clandestine use. The tech giant released an update for iPhones that allow them to notify the user if an unknown AirTag is detected on their person. AirTags also sound an alert when they are not in the proximity of their owner for an extended period of time.

The measures taken by Apple to make AirTags difficult to use secretly make them an unlikely surveillance tool for law enforcement agencies eager to remain undetected while conducting investigations. But Jerome Greco, a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society, said that if a surveillance or investigative tactic is technologically feasible, “we should always assume that the police are going to take advantage of it.”

“AirTags and competing products continue to raise concern because of the ease of their ability to be abused and the potential significant consequences of those abuses,” Greco told Forbes. “The DEA investigation is another extension of AirTags being used for purposes that were presumably unintended by Apple.”

It is not clear how valuable the AirTag was to the DEA’s investigation. The search warrant allowed the agency to track the package containing the pill press for 45 days throughout the District of Massachusetts, the intended destination of the package, and through any other state in the U.S. Court records show that the recipient of the package was not charged with any crime in federal court. The Department of Justice confirmed to Forbes that the suspect has been charged in state court.

The DEA and Apple did not respond to requests for more information about the investigation.

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Hawaii Cannabis Bill Fails, Ending Legalization Hopes for 2023

Hawaii will have to wait at least another year before marijuana legalization comes to the islands, after a legislative proposal stalled in the state House of Representatives. 

Earlier this month, the Hawaii state Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass the bill, which would legalize adult-use cannabis and establish the regulatory framework for a recreational marijuana market. 

But that bill “was not scheduled for a state House hearing before a key legislative deadline,” according to MJBizDaily, which means that the proposal is likely dead for 2023. 

It is a familiar outcome for marijuana advocates in Hawaii, where Democrats control both chambers of the legislature. The state’s governor, Josh Green, is also a Democrat.

MJBizDaily reported that senior leadership in the state House also “killed off three earlier legalization proposals introduced in that chamber in February when those bills were also not scheduled for hearings.”

Despite its smooth passage in the state Senate, the legalization bill was also bound to encounter obstacles in the state House.

One of the leaders in that chamber, House Speaker Scott Saiki, has “said that he thought it best for the state to wait on approving recreational marijuana use,” according to the outlet Civil Beat, and that he “would rather see a working group analyze the idea over the summer.”

The bill sailed out of a pair of state Senate committees earlier this month, with one of the legislative panels adding a host of amendments to the measure.

According to local news station KHON2, those amendments included: “1. Language was added to establish civil penalties for unlicensed cannabis growth and distribution activities; 2. Language was added that protects employers who seek to prohibit cannabis use amongst their employees; 3. Prohibition of advertising within 1,000 feet of any youth-centered area; 4. Proposed licensing of cultivation, manufacturing, testing and retail facilities that ensure a properly regulated industry while also preventing future consolidation and monopoly control of cannabis dispensaries.”

The bill was approved by the full state Senate by a vote of 22-3.

Green, who was elected as governor last year, has expressed his support for marijuana legalization.

“I think that people already have moved past that culturally as a concern,” Green said during a gubernatorial debate last year. “But here’s what I would do. First of all, if marijuana is legalized, it should be very carefully monitored, and only done like cigarettes, or I’ve been very careful to regulate tobacco over the years. We should take the $30 to $40 million of taxes we would get from that and invest in the development and recreation of our mental healthcare system for the good of all.”

As the bill made its way through the state Senate this month, an adviser for the governor made it clear that the measure would likely receive his signature.

“Governor Green supports legalized use of cannabis by adults, providing that any legislation that emerges protects public safety and consumers, and assures product safety with testing and tracking. The Governor also seeks to ensure the continued viability of our medical cannabis industry. Because these are complicated issues, he has encouraged his departments to state their concerns, and to make suggestions if there are ways to mitigate them. If a bill passes the legislature that accounts for his primary concerns, he has indicated he will likely sign it,” the adviser said at the time.

There is also public backing for legalization to couple with the political support. A poll released earlier this year found that 52% of Hawaiians are in favor of legalization adult-use marijuana, while only 31% are opposed. 

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Faster. Stronger. Smoother. Longer. The Science of Formula-X

The pursuit of the perfect high is not something cannabinoid technicians take lightly. Once you get in amongst the molecules, the majesty of their long-chain carbon structures is all you think about. That’s been the forensic focus of Frozen Fields’ scientific lead Andrew Barton for the last few years. Barton’s work with live resin extraction in his lab in Oregon means he now holds a pending patent for a cannabinoid delivery system called Formula-X, and it is making waves in both the wellness and recreational cannabis categories.

“Formula-X is an enhanced delivery system created through a proprietary processing technique where we can condense cannabinoids with components of terpenes in cannabis,” says Barton, “ulti­mately delivering a faster onset with longer-lasting effects.” 

Formula-X is a new, highly bioavailable form of Delta-8 THC developed by the team at Frozen Fields, led by Barton. Frozen Fields’ Formula-X is more easily absorbed by the body and provides an almost instantaneous effect. This proprietary process makes Formula-X experiences vivid and more euphoric than anything previously seen in the alternative cannabis category. These condensed cannabinoids have special solubility qualities and improved transportation in the body, helping the other cannabinoids or molecules in Frozen Fields’ product have a greater impact via this enhanced delivery system, carrying them quicker and delivering them to the receptors faster. 

Courtesy Frozen Fields

Formula-X is blended in unique formulations to give consumers the desired Indica, Sativa, or Hybrid effect. 

Sativa: “This is our fast-acting and uplifting blend,’ says Barton. ‘Our patent-pending blend delivers a profound sense of energy – a friendly blast of get up and go – before you settle back into a richly rewarding experience. This is the Sativa effect, but with the unique fuller, faster, feel-good factor of Formula-X. Formula-X along with other condensed cannabinoids, are Patent Pending and will be used exclusively in Frozen Fields products.” 

Indica: “Our Indica blend has a euphoric onset followed by complete relaxation. You get the feel-good factor as you experience exhilaration before settling into the sublime state you would expect from a true Indica.” 

Hybrid: “Finally, this one’s a remix of our Indica and Sativa. A true Hybrid with the fast-acting and uplifting effects of our Sativa blend and the relaxation and euphoric nature of our lndica blend, creating a well-rounded experience for someone looking for a go-to product for all-day use. I’m proud of our three blends,” says Barton with a smile on his face like that of a proud parent. 

The difference between Formula-X and traditional cannabis extracts is the size and nature of the nanoparticles, which have an easier time getting where they need to go and are better able to exert their effects. Formula-X nanoparticles travel dissolved in terpenes, naturally occurring chemical compounds in plants responsible for the aromas, flavors, and colors associated with various vegetation types.

Courtesy Frozen Fields

Formula-X nanoparticles take more force to move than the terpenes they are dissolved in. This means that water repels them at a different rate than the terpenes, making it easy for the body to separate them individually. Their tiny (nanoscale) size means they are easily suspended in water, allowing the body to transport them immediately in large quantities. Their tiny size also means they quickly “settle” on their targets, enhancing their effects.

If that feels like a lot of science, we asked Andrew Barton if he has an everyday, real-world analogy:

“When the body absorbs materials that don’t dissolve in water, it uses a variety of bio-molecules to break the materials into smaller and smaller pieces. Once the pieces are small enough, they can be suspended in water and transported throughout the body. You can think of this process as being like rocks in a river. The current doesn’t move the biggest rocks; the water moves around them. As the rocks get smaller, they move increasingly with the current. Small rocks get pushed around where the current is fastest, shaping the bottom of the stream. Gravel moves farther, filling in the empty spaces between small rocks. Like in the body, the smaller the particles are, the farther they travel, and the better they fill small spaces when they settle.”

Smaller particles moving further get into more places, causing an enhanced effect. That’s the Formula-X Feel Good Factor. 

Courtesy Frozen Fields

All of this cutting-edge science begins on the 45 parallel in Oregon near the banks of the Deschutes River. The 45th parallel is known to have the best terroir for growing cannabis. Frozen Fields’ hemp is grown near beautiful Bend, Oregon, halfway between the North Pole and the Equator. Oregon State University Global Hemp Innovation Center has confirmed this location to be an ideal climate for growing this amazing plant. This is partly thanks to its rich volcanic soil, which ensures dense, trichome-full flower that is virtually indistinguishable from high-end medical cannabis varieties.

“Our development team has mixed these new cannabinoid molecules in different quantities to mimic an Indica, Sativa, or Hybrid effect with the enhanced bioavailability of Formula-X,” says Frozen Fields CRO Koby Licciardo. “We’re utilizing cutting-edge advancements in the hemp-derived category to craft an experience mimicking traditional cannabis. The key difference is Formula-X means you have a virtually instantaneous effect followed by a longer, stronger, smoother journey. All of this begins with a quality live resin extract flash frozen at precisely the right moment.”

Frozen Fields’ flowers are frozen within two hours of harvest. The sudden flash freeze at the peak of their ripeness immediately halts any further maturation. It maintains the robust terpenes and cannabinoids in a whole way that also increases the entourage effect of the resin.

Courtesy Frozen Fields

Proprietary technology in the form of closed-loop light hydrocarbon extraction is used. The final product is concentrated and fresh. The plants remain frozen until the Frozen Fields lab is ready to process them. The unique hydrocarbon extraction technology leaves zero residuals.

“During extraction, the chambers reach an industry-leading negative 110 degrees Fahrenheit, gently releasing the trichomes from the flower. There is no way to replicate the smell, taste, and effect of our Live Resin. You either freeze it at harvest, or it is lost forever. This method additionally eliminates the need for further filtration or winterization. Whole flower LIVE RESIN is the highest quality and most potent cannabinoid and terpene concentrate on the market today,” says Licciardo.

Frozen Fields lives and thrives at the crossroads of technology and creativity. They have crafted a unique flash-frozen product to create a high that is the perfect combination of faster, stronger, smoother, and longer lasting – with blends that deliver euphoria, color, and stimulation in the mixes customers want. Working with some of the world’s leading geneticists, they push the boundaries of organic chemistry to innovate the industry with patent-pending products. Frozen Fields Formula-X products can be bought directly through their online store or look out for them wherever you get your vapes, liquids and gummies. 

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From the Archives: Captain Kurt Spaces Out (1985)

By Craig Silver

Richard Brautigan committed suicide. Joseph Heller has become trite. Thomas Pynchon no longer writes. But Vonnegut goes on. Hi ho.

More accurately: Hi Ho!, because Vonnegut remains a major standard-bearer of the crazed-lunatic, surrealist-absurdist, ultimately ultra-sane literary style that blazed across the ’60s. Remember the ’60s? The ’60s—a metaphor for a sensibility that has now be come unstuck in time. Unstuck in time—a phrase coined by Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse-Five, a big ’60s novel that was partly an allegory about Vietnam. Vietnam—a deadening of the spirit caused by American corporate greed disguised as misguided American philanthropy. Kurt Vonnegut: an expert on the deadening of the spirit.

“This country is making me crazy,” Vonnegut recently told a slightly shocked but spellbound audience, much of which thought he was drunk, at the New York University Writers’ Conference. “New York is making me sick… my wife is making me sick… you can become sick by the culture outside yourself.”

Vonnegut is basically so pissed at humanity that he kills off all of it but a handful in his new novel, Galápagos, and those he saves he turns into harmless, armless creatures resembling porpoises who only like to fart, fuck and go fishing—scratch that, all they can do is fart, fuck and go fishing, because that’s where evolution has left them. He’s also stripped them of their so-called “big brains” and covered them with fur. It’s the big brains that have made people miserable, Vonnegut has concluded, and in Galápagos, humans’ large brain size will prove to be an evolutionary dead end, like the flightless wings on a dodo bird.

“It’s hard to believe nowadays that people could ever [be] brilliantly duplicitous…” says the narrator in the book, a million-year-old ghost named Leon Trout, son of Vonnegut’s famed s-f writer character, Kilgore, “…until I remind myself that just about every adult human being back then had a brain weighing about three kilograms! There was no end to the evil schemes that a thought machine that oversized couldn’t imagine and execute…”

No, there’s no end to the mess people make of their world in Vonnegut’s works, or the mess the world makes of them. “Society and culture are my villains,” he told the budding NYU writers. “I think society is wicked.”

Such a blunt assessment of modern reality has made Vonnegut a hero to generations of college-age social rebels, from the ’60s to now. They respond sympathetically to his basic premise that life has become much more precarious than it need be. The idea is brought out in novels like Galápagos, Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle and Deadeye Dick, that are based on undeniably plausible visions of sudden and unnecessary apocalypse. In Galápagos an epidemic destroys human fertility; in Cradle a pointless scientific invention freezes all the water in the world; in Slaughterhouse the good guys wreak an inferno on a large civilian population; in Deadeye the U.S. government destroys an Ohio city to test a neutron bomb. And so on.

Vonnegut rages at society gone mad, at technology gone mad, at a people gone morally soft in the head and hard in the heart. “How sick was the soul revealed by the flash at Hiroshima?” he asks in his autobiographical Palm Sunday. “I deny that it was a specifically American soul. It was the soul of every highly industrialized nation on earth… so sick it did not want to live anymore. What other soul would create a new physics based on nightmares, would place into the hands of mere politicians a planet so ‘destabilized’, to borrow a CIA term, that the briefest fit of stupidity could easily guarantee the end of the world?”

But though many college students may love Vonnegut, he doesn’t necessarily love college students. In a brief interview with HIGH TIMES, he brushes them off as being mostly “conservative, like their parents” because of their privileged economic standing. “Students were conservative when I went to school at Cornell. The class system in this country has been stabilized since 1900… This is a society that protects the prosperous.” He adds with a chuckle, “So I’m not in any danger.”

Vonnegut has taken to berating students while on his lecture tour for voting for Reagan in such heavy numbers. “You’re investing a lot of time and money and effort to acquire knowledge,” he exclaims. “And here’s a man who has never read a book!”

On the whole, Vonnegut’s politics tend to be more ruefully existential than dogmatically class-conscious, but he definitely has had fun slapping around the rich and eccentric in his tales. And a more boisterous array of the strictly looney-tunes cannot be found in all of literature.

There’s Eliot Rosewater in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, who concocts a religion of personal philanthropy based on fire engines; wealthy Pontiac dealer Wayne Hoover in Breakfast of Champions who suddenly believes the world has turned into rubber; the mutant, hirsute twins who speak gibberish to each other in Slapstick; a bag lady who controls a powerful, evil conglomerate in Jailbird; a charlatan artist whose passion for gun collecting destroys his family in Deadeye Dick.

But what does Vonnegut really think about rich people? Quite simply, he thinks they are destroying our literature.

“Rich people are more and more dominating writing, because they can afford to write,” he said at NYU. “And, of course, they’re going to write about their own experiences: prep school, sailing, horseback riding.”

He thinks this is a particular shame because he thinks it’s our literature that communicates to the world “that Americans aren’t just gangsters and cowboys. We are human… Our literature is what makes us respectable.”

Vonnegut’s outspokenness on so many subjects has made his books a favorite target of archconservative groups who would like to dictate the reading habits of the nation’s young. Slaughterhouse-Five was actually pulled out of a school library in Drake, North Dakota, and burned in the furnace by the school janitor, obeying the instructions of a book-monitoring committee there.

Vonnegut’s works, along with those by such literary Big Names as Joseph Heller, Bernard Malamud and Mark Twain, have been assailed in various censorship campaigns that saw incidents of book-banning, or attempted book-banning, increase 1000 percent between 1971 and 1981, according to the Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association.

Vonnegut prefers not to be alarmist about the book-banning craze, and told HIGH TIMES that such moves “are more of an irritant than something that has had a crippling effect. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) is now more interested in First Amendment cases as a result, and it has gotten a lot of other people oriented to the problem.”

Asked about such recent court cases as that in which film director Costa-Gavras was sued over a fictional movie (Missing) depicting American-sanctioned brutality in Latin America, Vonnegut commented that “There’s always been censorship. We actually have a surprising amount of freedom here. Censorship is a universal human impulse everywhere. Those people [who would censor] don’t know how the American game is supposed to be played. They’re very bad Americans.”

Vonnegut sees something else as being as much a threat to writers and writing: the fact that, perhaps as a result of living in an apocalypse-haunted—not to mention TV-and-movie drenched—culture, people no longer have much in the way of attention spans.

“It’s been shown that audiences can’t stand exposition. People are writing books like movies, with quick cuts. People will no longer sit still during the opening of a play and listen to a maid talking on the phone setting up character and action.”

This is an ironic comment coming from a writer who has made a stylistic specialty of tearing away all excess verbiage from his prose (except for those repeating mantras), a writer who has built a reputation for streamlined story-telling that makes him something of an Ernest-Hemingway-of-the-absurd.

“I write from the point of view of a child,” he has said. “Like Henry David Thoreau.” He tells students that “the writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo speech you heard as a child. I grew up in Indianapolis, where common speech sounds like a band saw cutting galvanized tin, and employs a vocabulary as unornamental as a monkey wrench.”

For Vonnegut, keeping it plain has serious religious implications. “Simplicity of language is not only reputable, but perhaps even sacred. The Bible opens with a sentence well within the writing skills of a lively fourteen-year-old: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’”

Some critics have had trouble coming to terms with Vonnegut’s immense popularity, and deride as merely facile his controlled comic style. But no true student of writing would fail to see the enormous and painstaking craft that goes into Vonnegut’s prose, how he is able to purposefully recharge with life withered figures of speech, how his jokes jump out at the reader like pop-up figures in a greeting card. That takes hard work, and incredible skill.

Today, Vonnegut says he’s never edited unless he asks. He enjoys writing “only in retrospect—after it’s done” and that he does read his reviews. “But the reviews are often the sadistic part of a magazine.”

“Some of the reviews are like the court martial of Dreyfuss,” he told a British documentary team, “where they form up the regiment in the square, and Dreyfuss is marched out, and they pull off his buttons—which are all the books I’ve written up to then—and then they take the man’s saber—which is maybe the one really good book I wrote, Slaughterhouse-Five—and the officer busts it over his knee and hands it back!”

With Galápagos, Vonnegut proves that his vision remains the bleakest and blackest around, and miraculously still one of the most fun to lock into. And he’s no hypocrite. He doesn’t just think your brain and my brain are way too big for reasonable functioning—he has stated for the record that one of his long-term goals is to “clear my head of all the junk in there… all the assholes, the flags and the underpants. I’m trying to make my head as empty as it was when I was born on this damaged planet…”

Perhaps he is trying to attain a Zen state of consciousness, where emptiness is form. With his simplicity of style, his sense of stillness and pain, his mantras and his absurdities, and his death-to-civilization hopefulness, maybe he has even achieved it.

What’s the sound of one Vonnegut laughing?

Hi ho.

High Times Magazine, December 1985

Read the full issue here.

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