A Disco Date With Mary Jane**

This young club dancer pauses for a joint in front of a

dance 'joint', with his friend mirroring his pose, background. Your

ratings and critiques are invited and most welcome. (If you rate

harshly, please submit a helpful and constructive critique/Please

share your superior knowledge to help improve my photography).

Photo, at night on the street, available light, vibration reduction

lens. Thanks! Enjoy! John

ok, nothing to do with the shot but I have to tell you this story: the other day while I was setting up a student work station in another classroom a teacher came up to me and asked what had been going on in my room. It had a strange smell. I looked at her and did the what? and she did the yea it smells really funny and I did the universal pot sign as the man is doing above and she snickered and said you should go check it out. I ran to my room and low and behold it did smell funny and my first thought was oh no the students are smoking pot and the smell is following them into my room. Turns out a fellow staff member 'smudged' my room with white sage.

 

 

Well John did he offer you any? Just a joke! Looks like you were close so I guess he didn't mind. I have a couple of pictures (none up) of people getting high, including a group of restaurant workers passing one around in the alley behind where they worked. They freaked when they saw me! When they found out I didn't work for a newspaper they didn't care.

Oh, come on now. . .

 

You expect me to believe that somehow your room had been 'smudged' with 'white sage'?

 

Maybe it had been seasoned also with parsley and thyme, and set to bake at 350 degrees for about an hour?

 

A likely story.

 

Go tell it to Mr. Chubb.

 

We deal in reality here.

 

;-)

 

John

Well, if the photos were any good, maybe you should post them.

 

Pot is the open secret of our culture. Federal law, which is supreme says that it is illegal, and through selective prosecution, the feds can put you away for five or so years just for possessing a very small amount, no matter what 'initiatives' have been passed by voters of your state supposedly 'legalizing' it.

 

The head of a 'pot club' in Oakland, sponsored by the city of Oakland, was tried by the feds for sale of pot, and convicted. The jury in federal court was not allowed to hear that he was a partner with the city in providing pot to the sick and lame. He got stuck with a felony conviction and can no longer vote in some states.

 

At least the judge was sensible; gave him one day, and credit for time served. End of sentence. Much ado about nothing.

 

Jury, upon hearing about the purpose of the pot and the contract with the city, said universally they would not have convicted, but a judge legally withheld that information from them.

 

Fact is, I even have seen attorneys smoke pot in their office(s) somewhere on this earth at sometime if my memory is not hazed over. (I don't as I'm violently allergic and could get pneumonia.)

 

So, if the photos are good, why not post 'em?

 

John

Hi John,

 

There is no rhyme or reason to what I post on PN. Unfortunately the shot of the restaurant workers is too dark, so I probably won't post that one. The other shot I might.

 

As for pot? Personally I think it should be legal. I think alchohol is much more dangerous, and I don't think jailing pot smokers makes good use of our tax dollars. As long as your not endangering others (driving under the influence) then I'm all for more personal freedom. I have not smoked pot for many years and rarely drink, but I can personally say I felt more in control after a joint than three drinks. I've also known quite a few people who have died at the expense of a drunk driver as well as one person in high school who died of acute alchohol poisoning. He died the morning after playing drinking games all night. Drinking is socially acceptable, but smoking pot is still not. Perhaps the laws will one day change as I would suspect the majority of people from the Baby Boom generation on have tried marijuana at one point in their lives.

 

 

 

 

We all know that pot is less harmful than alcohol, so why's it still illegal? As with many things in the US, the answer lies in following the money. The trouble with pot is that it's efficacious (kept that word for one of your shots, John) in treating a variety of medical conditions, especially pain and lost appetite. Unfortunately, it's been around too long to be patentable, and its synthetic imitators are less effective and more expensive, and certainly not worth bringing to market when the punters can grow their own or buy the genuine article for a fraction of the cost. It's not in the interests of a certain industry sector, big in the "health" field and strong on political contributions, that it should be readily available.

 

But, more importantly, I like the guy's expression here, John. I also like the crisp focus on the guy's right eye, and how the circle formed by the eye is an element repeated across the image to the eyebrow ring, and the glowing circle of the background smoker's joint. Nice shot. Best, Jeremy

One: You are SUCH a cynic. You think that big business and money determines everything. Don't you know that Marijuana causes 'Reefer Madness?'

 

As to your pointing out the repetition of the right (as facing him) eye, the ring over his other eye and the circular glow of the other smoke being a theme, KUDOS.

 

That's a repetition I hadn't seen and you win hide the salami for having found an essential element of why this photo 'works' that had eluded me.

 

I had placed more emphasis on the plane of the faces forming a 'V', somewhat, one in focus and one out of focus, which still is true, but the circles tie them together.

 

Kudos again.

 

John

You're right about the Vs - hadn't seen them myself, but they're there throughout the frame.

 

I don't think I'm cynical ... just well informed ;-)

Indeed you are well-informed and not necessarily cynical.

 

In fact, the nation's capitol is 'led' or at least has at its head the most cynical bunch of people one can imagine. 'Up?' 'That meant down, and you knew we meant down . . . etc.'

 

Recent research has shown that if you warn seniors and others with infirmities of the dangers of certain medical nostrums and rubrics, they forget the warning but remember the dangerous rubric. The Administration does that with terror -- e.g., terror = Iraquis when Iraquis had nothing to do with U.S. terror, but they have convinced mainstream America of its truth. The Administration even has said publicly there was no connection,but they rode to victory on it before quietly disavowing it, then their followers continue to believe it. So we remain at war and the Democrats are gutless to oppose, too fearful of being made right-wing punching bags, and in the process being made punching bags anyway for their passivity.

 

Bush has a putsch-like boldness as does this adminstration, Constitution be damned, then appoint justices who will change the Constitution to their views (Christian nation espousing Christianity and not just Christianity but right-wing fundamentalist Christianity, something a Jewish friend of mine feels extremely afraid of -- as do I).

 

And I'm a Republican.

 

Yes, I'm glad you saw the V's in this photo. Curious, isn't it, how such themes 'work out' when one looks carefully at what 'works'?

 

John