My weekend at Kutcher's resort in the Catskills....

[W1GUH]

Was there doing this (http://www.nyharvestfest.com/). Needless to say, it was a very, very good time and there was a very good harvest this year! Met LOTS of great, talented people, heard a lot of super music and speeches, ate well from the vendors and all in all, it was time VERY well spent. My friend Ernie got a lot of the medicine he needs, too.

And the sheer poetry of having this festival at a resort like Kutcher's was marvelous. I tried to visualize both groups of people there at the same time -- those there for the Harvest Fest, and those that used to go up there in the 50's and 60's. But I couldn't -- that thought just "didn't compute." It'd be fun to make a movie where that family from Dirty Dancing shows up for their summer to find a festival crowd there. Of course it would end with all of 'em (including the pro dancers) sitting around a huge ornate bong!

I sure wish that everybody could experience an event like this. It's pretty impossible to try and describe just what's so great, but it's obvious almost from the moment you arrive. There is very, very good karma & that flows through everything going on and makes it very special. Hope you can get to one in your area.

To me, they're an island of sanity amidst the insanity that passes for our so-called "lives" these days.

[kb2vxa]

"Of course it would end with all of 'em (including the pro dancers) sitting around a huge ornate bong!"

Nah, just park the hemp van next to the vent for the HVAC system and watch all traces of sanity go Up In Smoke. Seriously, I could skip the speakers and their tired old rhetoric, I'd go for the music of those little known alternative rock bands. If nothing else I'd like to find out just who these Dharma Bums are since the Portland area garage band disbanded in 1991 after their third album Welcome and the act they opened for, Nirvana went on to fame and fortune.

[W1GUH]

"Nah, just park the hemp van next to the vent for the HVAC system and watch all traces of sanity go Up In Smoke."

Let me correct that and make it dead-nuts accurate...

Nah, just park the hemp van next to the vent for the HVAC system and watch all traces of insanity go Up In Smoke.




About the speeches. They evolve according to the times. Heard good, fresh stuff this time. But I know what you mean about the "usual rhetoric." But the slant I put on THAT is that anything repeated often starts to sound like the "same old rhetoric." But that in no way invalidates what's being said. And a LOT of what's being said very much merits that kind of repetition. TheY say a lie repeated often enough becomes "truth". Let's hope that the truth repeated often enough can become common truth.

And, anyway, if you're at one of the stages (there were 6 there), you're gonna hear a speech or two in between LOTS and LOTS of great music.

I've found it difficult to "follow" most of the acts I see at festivals. Either they're way out of town or maybe only existed for that one gig, or maybe split up afterwards. Who know? Heard a virtuoso harp player perform a fantastic a Capella solo in '94 and have been asking about them (Humans in Nature's Garden aka HING) ever since and so far have turned up zip. That's funny because I'm sure that I saw them on a leaflet or poster somewhere in the area before the event, and with the quality of the music they played it's a puzzle why nobody else noticed them. Ah, well...the search goes on.

And it bears repeating, since it's so unexpected to lots of folks, that in an environment where there are no restrictions, either by force or by public opinion, against smoking pot, you WILL find a very, very sane, productive, supportive, and wonderful environment. Probably more due to the freedom and respect than the pot, but in any event, pot definitely does NOT get in the way of that.

[XE1/N5AL]

Wasn't Kutcher in that movie: "Dude, Where's my hemp van?"

[kb2vxa]

I see where you're coming from man, anger issues over having dead nuts causes insanity. The interesting thing about such a gathering is one can guarantee they're infiltrated by the anti crowd spying on the goings on, they come with convictions and leave with doubts. Meanwhile dazed and confused by music definitely not their bag that lapse of concentration leaves holes where truth seeps in.

I don't follow groups, especially the lesser known ones, I just enjoy the music. I've seen quite a few unknowns and hearing their music wonder WHY they're unknown. Take Mirthrandir, I got to know Simon (keyboards) through a friend and ended up invited to a rehearsal that just blew me away, that's progressive rock WAY beyond progressive! Soon after I was among guests front row center at a concert where thank goodness we couldn't hear the sound reinforcement towers causing ear bleed farther back. Later they produced their one album, too bad they were so far from mainstream the industry thought they wouldn't be a money maker but being so far out of touch they're selling bubblegum.

There's a lot out there and gathered here: http://archive.org/index.php

[n2ize]

The best part of any event like that is the drugs. Particularly the weed and any shrooms.. If I was there I would probably still be stoned right now. The music is secondary. Like a friend of mine used to say, good drugs given as a gift of love transcends all else and makes all music beautiful

[kb2vxa]

Music and weed go together like hands in gloves. One of my major tags on ye olde pirate radio, here's a clip from a program intro.

[W1GUH]

The best part of any event like that is the drugs. Particularly the weed and any shrooms.. If I was there I would probably still be stoned right now. The music is secondary. Like a friend of mine used to say, good drugs given as a gift of love transcends all else and makes all music beautiful

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, 3 million bags full. (Your Westchester background is showing.) The best part is the freedom and respect accorded to each and every individual. Yes, that freedom extends to an individual's choice of whether or not to do drugs. As such, it's an incredibly uplifting, energy-releasing evolutionary experience to observe what happens when people exist in that kind of environment. Fact is, it's impossible to tell who's stoned or not. You DO NOT need ingest any substance whatsoever to benefit from the environment.

A really super way to get the straight-skinny is to read High Times. Yes, whomever you buy it from will be happy to put in in a "plain brown wrapper." That's part of the respect of which I speak -- it's nobody's business but your own. In it you'll get an inkling of what I'm talking about. And, of course, there's their website (but be careful about what wind's up in Google's database), also.



BUT...it encourages people to think for themselves and to get their information first-hand. Something that's an anathema to certain powers. THAT'S the reason for lots of the negative bullshit that goes around for "fact."

Re: such events being "infiltrated." Does anyone know of a recent specific example of that? (Yeah, we all know what Nixon did...but that's ancient history by now.) And what the results are? It's pretty ludicrous to even form the concept of them being infiltrated. Everyone who shows up, and, where applicable pays the price of admission - usually very reasonable, is accorded the same freedom and respect that everyone deserves, even those with opposing viewpoints. I suppose there are those who show up simply to investigate what's going on, maybe for future actions, but, c'mon man, this has been going on for decades with no negative incidents. The events keep happening, and each one is as good as (or even better than as things evolve) the last one. There are reports of harassment of those driving to and from events, but those are very isolated. I've never personally encountered anything of that nature.

Seems that some individuals could benefit highly by actually getting out to one and finding out for one's self what they're like, rather than commenting from mis-information. Sometimes the negative comments strike me as obvious prejudice, as in, "These people dress and behave differently than me, so they must be bad." But those same people will continue to refuse to c'mon out and find out for themselves what's really there and will only get their information second, third, fourth-hand, usually from those people just like themselves.

[W1GUH]

Music and weed go together like hands in gloves. One of my major tags on ye olde pirate radio, here's a clip from a program intro.

One of the "big three." Food, Music, and Sex. Fact is, bud enhances practically anything.

[W1GUH]

Oops! Must've hit "reply", not "edit." This was a duplicate. Mil pardon, mon amis!

[WØTKX]

I've been to many a Phish concert straight. Still a very good time. :yes: