What I’ve been softly telling you is quite evident. When Darryl Martini (Cosmic Muffin) was alive, he didn’t call me Jo, he called me Old Hippie, and I was only 30 years old. What have I been softly telling you is now really evident, and Darryl Martini, nailed it when he called it, when he was alive. I see the future. It’s a gift I have; I’ve nailed lots of things, like music belongs in Sonoma County at wineries. My CEO understood it, then went out of state during that weekend.
A New Old Hippie
At the jazz concert I created, the tasting room manager and the CFO locked the tasting room doors, so people couldn’t enter to buy wine or used the restroom. That was while the two people inside stayed in the tasting room chatting, laughing, and not letting anyone in, to teach me a lesson. I guess I needed to run it through her, but I knew she would say “no.” So I ran it through the CEO, who thought it was a great idea. What a disaster, while they laughed.
Two people delighted.
Yeah, Right
I had also gone to a larger marketing group and told them concerts at a winery was a money maker waiting to happen. They just just yawned and snickered under their breath, and rejected my idea. I had just come out of rock radio in Portland, Maine, and was the staff photographer at national concerts with many international stars. I know what music does to people, and so did the farmers know more than anyone else in Sonoma County.
You may have heard of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant?
I had had a community issues talk program in Portland, Maine on WBLM fm, and conducted an interviewed a dairy farmer. He talked about a turn-style structure he created and rotated for his cows, which turned very slowly while he played soothing music. This created an atmosphere, where dairy cows were producing more milk.
Cows during milking on a turn-style.
Hinted At My Options
Not any more… Yes, I smoked marijuana in the 60s, and onward, until I decided to save my lungs. So, instead of taking pharmaceuticals, like many people, I just eat homemade brownies. We contain the tiniest amount of THC possible, just a smidge. That’s while everyone else is enjoying their hard (straight up bourbon on the rocks, and mixed drinks) and soft (wine) enjoyment of alcohol. What I have is minuscule, by comparison. It doesn’t take much at all for me to just be mellow and get stuff done.
Delicious brownies
People smoke tobacco. I did and I don’t since the early 70s, when I was so addicted I was smoking two packages a day, while my father was smoking three packs. How? He would light one when he immediately arose. And, as one was dying out, he would use it to light the next one, all day long, until he went to sleep.
Beverage and life options before us.
Marijuana Is An Herb
Marijuana is an herb, from mother earth. With grapes also having a soothing effect, when not abused. People get people stoned, too, through fermentation, from Mother Earth. Alcohol gets you stoned, too, from natural products, and we all know liquor is quicker. They’re all sources of escaping how hard life truly is. And then, so many people also get chemical laboratory concoctions. I don’t, but I would never think to tell anyone to stop. So there, it’s all on the table. We all need a bit of an escape hatch, since the world is a bit out of control, n’est ce pas?
Escape Hatch
So Here We Are
Do you get it yet, why alcohol sales are down? There are no longer only two options…. There are THREE. You know what? When I wrote HIGH 9INE, very few people read it. And I mean nobody but very few, because most heads are buried in the sand. I know how many of my friends enjoy it, but they’re still hiding that choice. They go off into the woods, where no one will see or smell them. But, obviously it’s happening. We’re not all of a sudden enjoying all the options. We’re just hiding in our closets. Well, not all. I’m out, because marijuana is an herb.
Ostrich, before burying its head in the sand
Who’s To Blame?
Our government is to blame, honestly. It’s about what they allow and don’t, with gifts from corporations. They began to sell their hooch in the deep south. First came Puritans, and they shunned alcohol, but the rest of Europe didn’t. Then French came to the US, and they drank wine, so they planted vineyard with indigenous colony grapes, like Concords. Yikes, a little too foxy, thanks no thanks. So Thomas Jefferson went to Europe and brought back Vitus Vinifer. Well that didn’t turn out so well, phylloxera happened, but the French also had some of our vines.
What save the French grapes was grafting onto our indigenous varieties and that worked, because we had also sent out native vine stock to Europe and this saved their almost gone industry in France.
Puritans, heavy emphasis on the “Pure,” but honestly, is any thing really “pure.?”
And Those Republicans?
Once the south realized they could get in on marijuana sales, they legalized it. Then they encouraged southern farmers to plant it, which they did. Now there were creators who realized they could combine beverages with THC. Voila! Another beverage was invented and the United States (Mitch McConnell) wants those beverages off the shelves, because they are still cutting into high balls and low lifes.
Is anyone in control? Yes, but you must find out for yourselves.
It’s All About The Money
We all have a right to choose what we want. Spirits, Wines, Pharmaceuticals, and yes… THC. And, don’t think we don’t have choices. Our government was created to be here to help society’s needs, not to control us when we’re actually minding our own damned business and not hurting anyone else.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written by Jo Diaz, a partner of Diaz Communications, who is helping to make stars realize their dreams. Edited by partner Jose Diaz. To reprint, please contact Jo Diaz: jo@diaz-communications.com
