420 Weekend Jukebox And Open Thread
It’s theorized that this particular weekend will be bringing in hella tourists to both Colorado and Warshington to celebrate the first “legal” 4/20. The news reports I’m seeing out there for “Colorado 420 tourism” mention “thousands” of people coming here. Which, I suppose, is more interesting than “hundreds”.
In any case, I stumbled across a song (which I’m sure you’ve already heard) Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and their song “Thrift Shop” (featuring Wanz!). Warning, it has strong language (like, a *LOT* of strong language), a bit of the male gaze thing going on, and opens with an offensive, but amazingly cheerful, Stuart Smalley-esque self-affirmation. Hell, the whole song is cheerful, if offensive. And those horns!
That’s not why I brought you here, though. I brought you here because of the parody of this song that came out called “Pot Shop” by Steve Berke. It does its best to take its cues from Macklemore (strong language, male gaze) and then turns this silly little parody song into a serious (well, at least not unserious) rant against marijuana policy in the US.
And this is the first time I’ve ever seen a parody song be more serious than the song it is parodying.
So argue about drug policy in the comments or, heck, use it as an open thread.
I listen to the first one every other day I’m at the gym, but I’ve never heard the parody. That’s kind of awesome.Report
Steve Berke also ran for Mayor of Miami Beach on a “legalize it” platform. Which, honestly, strikes me as silly given that I don’t know that Mayors (even of Miami Beach) have quite that much jurisdiction but, hey. Dream big.Report
In some jurisdictions, mayors and city councils can have a lot of power over what laws get enforced, so, hey, maybe it wasn’t *that* silly.Report
Fun video. (For me the first half of the video raised the question of what impact legalizing pot would have on the national diabetes and obesity rates. And I am not in favour of people being allowed to drive while high.)
I support legalization, though. I can’t see what rationale exists for having tobacco illegal and marijuana not; smoking anything is seriously harmful to your health, and both are carcinogens, but at least marijuana is far less addictive. Since it also doesn’t render people dangerous (unlike a lot of other illegal drugs – and unlike excessive alcohol), it seems like a good candidate for legalization; I wouldn’t support legalization of most other drugs. It feels like the objection to pot is less on the basis of health and more on the basis of moral opposition to people being high.
Legalization will have its challenges, but it’s far preferable to the drug war policy, and more legally consistent (and less beneficial to organized crime) than a policy of “it’s illegal, but not really enforced”.Report
I had a discussion about this this morning about how all of those hippies who smoked it in the 60’s and 70’s became DARE! parents in the 80’s and 90’s… and how the kidz today see arguments about the reefer as arguments about social justice.Report
“Aww, he got the Velcro!”
Made me laugh.Report
That’s a great moment. That reminds me!
I had to look up “Volcano” due to that line in the sister song. What is a “Volcano”? Well, it’s a top of the line vaporizer. Like, $600-$700. As used by master chefs. Uh-huh.
Anyway, the plant matter, essential oils, or what have you is heated without being burned and the vapor from the whatever is blown into a “balloon”.
It’s the sous vide of weed.Report
Is that Mike Schilling coming out of the dumpster at 2:10 in the first video???Report
Second video — that was fishin’ awesome! Great Jukebox!Report
I like how Macklemore pops up at the end of the parody to support the cause.Report