HIGH SOCIETY NOTES

Loving Looks at Best Buds, Old and New

Highest greetings from Amsterdam. I'd like to begin with a salute to
a pair of dear friends of mine in Detroit who have just passed from
our midst: the poet and composer James Semark, a founder of the
Detroit Artists Workshop whose early works were published by the
Artists Workshop Press and who struggled to revive the Artists
Workshop after his return to Detroit in the early 2000s; and my man
Bruce Cohen, the well-known viper, music lover, collector of Grande
Ballroom and Gary Grimshaw art work, and heroic fighter against the
final stages of cancer for the last five years.

When I first met James Semark, shortly after I moved to Detroit in
1964, there weren't many weirdos, but he was definitely one of them.
We shared a burning interest in the music of the time and
particularly in John Coltrane.

In those days virtually everyone interested in jazz was committed to
viping, and I have the most vivid recollection of Semark in the house
when the Detroit Narcotics Squad crawled through the front windows at
4821 John C. Lodge in October 1964 to notch their first arrest of
your correspondent for violation of state narcotics laws, to wit,
selling a $10 bag to an undercover state police officer called Tall Paul.

When the police appeared in our living room, a joint was being passed
amongst five of us - two poets, a painter and two musicians- and the
game of musical tokes ended as the police entered with the roach in
the clutch of drummer Danny Spencer, who ended up taking the bust
with me while the other three went free.

At that point I learned that the penalty on conviction for selling
$10 worth of marijuana was a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of
life in prison. As a graduate student at Wayne State University and a
young man of solid white middle-class background not yet
distinguished as a poet, writer or cultural activist, I was allowed
to plead guilty to possession of narcotics and sentenced to two years
probation.

By the time I was sentenced James Semark, Danny Spencer and about 20
of us had rented a house at 1252 W. Forest and opened the Detroit
Artists Workshop on Nov. 1, 1964. We staged free jazz and poetry
concerts in our living room every Sunday afternoon, offered workshops
in poetry, music, photography and underground filmmaking during the
week, published a newsletter called the Artists Worksheet and smoked
joints together on the front porch.

A couple of months later I opened my mail one afternoon to find a
flier sent from New York City by Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders, my
poetic and spiritual leaders, which was sort of like receiving a note
from God and Jesus Christ in my religion. It announced the formation
of a marijuana legalization movement called New York LEMAR and
posited the group's first public event coming up later that month.

I smoked a joint, lost in thought for a few minutes, then turned to
my typewriter and bashed out an announcement that heralded the
formation of Detroit LEMAR, set a date for the first meeting, cut a
stencil for the Gestetner mimeograph machine that throbbed at the
center of our existence, and ran off a flier calling for the
legalization of marijuana in Michigan.

So I entered this picture with Jim Semark sitting next to me on the
couch and I underwent many an adventure with my old friend over the
years. Now he's gone, but his work continues to be seen at
detroitartistsworkshop.com, and his classic poem "John Coltrane
Rhythm Ballad For All" may be seen at my website, johnsinclair.us,
under Fattening Blogs For Snakes.

Bruce Cohen started out as a teenager sneaking into the Grande and
then pushed an ice cream cart (that also stocked a sizable selection
of tabs of LSD) at free concerts at Tartar Field. When I first knew
Bruce he was managing the Mickey Shorr's outlet on Woodward in
Ferndale where I would take him a few joints and he would install a
new tape deck and speakers in my road van.

Bruce relocated to Florida in the mid-'70s where he hung out with
fellow Detroiters Dave Dixon, Jesse Crawford and Billy Lynn, then
came back and started a business marketing custom motorcycle
taillights under the label of Motor City products, subsequently
adding a line of sound systems for mounting on road bikes.

Bruce was doing fine when the first bout of cancer struck. He began a
long and arduous series of treatments and operations and found his
pain could be alleviated only by the ingestion of relatively massive
doses of cannabis; he finished his life as a Medical Marihuana
Patient duly registered with the State of Michigan.

I was always trying to get him to come and visit me in Amsterdam,
where he would find a world more to his liking than the one which had
deemed him a criminal marijuana smoker, but Bruce enjoyed his life in
Detroit to such an extent that I failed to persuade him. Here's a
word to the wise: Do it now before it's too late!

Meanwhile, here in Amsterdam, the 23rd annual Cannabis Cup
festivities were recently celebrated under the noxious cloud of
impending doom emitted by the new far-right government of the
Netherlands with its recent threats of persecution and severe
diminishment of the cannabis community, starting with the idea that
Dutch marijuana smokers must be licensed and only licensed smokers
would be allowed to purchase their five grams of marijuana in the
coffee shops. No foreigners allowed!

According to local news media, the new cabinet plans to turn all
cannabis cafes, known as coffee shops, into members-only clubs to
keep out tourists and underage smokers. As a sop, the mayor of
Eindhoven, Rob van Gijzel, has proposed the city's cannabis cafes be
allowed to grow their own marijuana for members. He also wants to end
cash payments and limit sales to 3 grams rather than the 5 grams
currently allowed.

Eindhoven is one of 10 cities designated to carry out experiments
with different ways of keeping organized crime out of the coffee shop
system. The government has given the city EU645,000 to fund the
experiments. Meanwhile, some 15,000 households in Rotterdam and The
Hague reportedly are being given "scratch and sniff" cards to help
them identify the smell of marijuana so they can inform the police
and electricity company when they suspect a neighbor of growing. The
card also includes other suspicious signs to watch out for, such as
the sound of ventilators and closed curtains.

What a weird world! While America, who started this shit, grapples
with the painful process of admitting that the emperor never had no
clothes on, now the Dutch, who pioneered the first reasonable
approach to marijuana smoking by its citizens, is trying to pretend
that some regal clothing has now mysteriously appeared to justify the
new round of repression.

But here's the real deal: "Until a century or so ago in Europe," the
International Herald Tribune reported on Nov. 30, "people could buy
cocaine and heroin over the counter ... and smoke cannabis cigarettes
anywhere. Such behavior was deemed appropriate, beneficial or even
fashionable."

It's like Jesse Crawford said, introducing the MC-5's performance of
"Motor City Is Burning" onstage at the Grande Ballroom on the Zenta
New Year in 1968, and speaking of you and me, "If you ask me, this is
the high society - you!"

AND THE WINNERS ARE ...

The High Times Cannabis Cup is always held in Amsterdam during
Thanksgiving week. The 23rd Cannabis Cup, held Nov. 21-25, featured a
First Generation Hip Hop Tribute with Busy Bee Starski, Superdude,
Del the Funky Homosapien, Kid Cudi and Devin the Dude performing at
the PowerZone, the Melkweg and other official venues.

The winner of the 2010 Cannabis Cup is Barney's Coffeeshop for
Tangerine Dream. Green House United took second place with Super
Lemon Haze, and the Green Place showed with L.A. Cheese. The Gray
Area and the 420 Cafe placed fourth and fifth.

In the Indica Cup it was a first place for Reserva Privada with their
Kosher Kush. THSeeds placed with Cold Creek Kush and Karma Genetics
showed with their White OG.

The Sativa Cup was awarded to Amnesia Seeds for Acapulco Gold, with
DNA Genetics second with Chocolope and Hortilab third with Sour Power.

In the Import Hash Cup, Barney's Coffeeshop won for Caramella Cream,
Green House United was second with Rif Cream, and the Green Place
made third with Twizla.

The Dutch Hash Cup went to the Green House for Tangerine Nectar
Iceolator, Barney's placed with Tangerine Nectar Iceolator, and the
Grey Area showed with Grey Area Crystal.

Early-days rapper Coke LaRock was named to the Counter-Culture Hall
of Fame, and Dale Gieringer of NORML was honored as Freedom Fighter
of the Year.