Posts Tagged ‘Music’
Cannabis Is A Wonderful Thing
Two days ago, I found this marvellous image of Hunter S. Thompson which reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to write about for ages.
Cannabis is a wonderful thing. We spend so much time having to engage in intellectual, scientific, medical, moral and human rights arguments that we forget to tell the truth. We forget to say what’s good. We forget to advance the wonderful, beneficial, delightful, life-enhancing qualities of this amazing plant. Cannabis is good. It does you good. It’s done so much good for me in my life and for so many people that I know. It opens hearts and minds and understanding. It reveals truth and beauty and music and conversation and the joy of existence on our beautiful planet.
Now, I can even substantiate this with science. Cannabis has been treated with reverence and as a religious sacrement by some yet demonised and reviled by the forces of darkness and evil. The positive benefits of God’s herb, known to mankind for thousands of years but shrouded in mystery and superstition, are now revealed by science as an integral part of the universe. The Endocannabinoid System (ECS), only discovered in 1988 but now known to be fundamental to life, is the reason that the natural supplement of the plant is a good, good thing. A nutrient that can benefit us all. See here.
The ECS, present in mammals, fish, reptiles and birds, is now known to be vital in pain relief, sensation, appetite, taste, weight control, mood, memory, motor skills and fertility. Contrary to the idea that each pull on that joint kills millions of brain cells, in fact the ECS facilitates neurogenesis, the birth of neurons. In 2003, the US government registered US patent no. 6630507 for cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants for limiting neurological damage following stroke or physical trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and dementia.
Cannabinoids have been shown to have analgesic, anti-spasmodic, anti-convulsant, anti-tremor, anti-psychotic, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, anti-emetic and appetite-stimulant or appetite-suppressant properties.
Is it any wonder that cannabis has been used as a medicine for thousands of years? Is it any wonder that millions of us have known instinctively for so long that cannabis is a wonderful, beneficial, health-giving plant?
Cannabis really is the wonder drug that the hippies rediscovered in the 1960s. It really does offer so many benefits to mankind. However much the prohibitionists lie and dissemble and spread fear, uncertainty and doubt, the truth is out. Science now knows what we knew all along. Cannabis is a wonderful thing!
Alcohol And Cannabis. Putting Drugs In Perspective.
I am not a fan of embedding YouTube clips unless they’re about films or music. I’ll make an exception for these two though. They make a very important point very powerfully.
The first is a very short US TV commercial with an anti-drugs messsage. The second is a witty, incisive stand-up routine that knocks the pomposity, arrogance and stupidity of our drug laws for six.
‘Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky!
In tribute to the finest guitarist and one of the greatest musicians the world has ever seen – who died 40 years ago this week.
This remarkable photograph was taken inside the house at 25, Brook Street, Mayfair where the composer Handel lived until his death in 1759. He was a German whose career took off when he came to London. He was well known for flamboyant displays of virtuoso baroque music.
200 years later in 1968, Jimi Hendrix moved into the same building. He was an American whose career took off when he came to London. He was well known for flamboyant displays of virtuoso blues and rock music.
Their spirit lives on forever.
Cooking Doesn’t Get Tougher Than This!
I's Da Boys!
It doesn’t get more entertaining either. Masterchef is back and, yet again, it’s better than ever.
The producers have made some little tweaks here and there. All of them are improvements. The individual skill test in front of Greig and John is wonderful, confrontational, dramatic, even excruciating at times!
It is extraordinary that even the very best restaurants will now let in Masterchef contestants as guinea pigs in their kitchens. That is the power of television.
The secret ingredient? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- it’s the music. That’s what makes it so compelling. It’s the relentless driving beat. I don’t know whether it’s house or trance or what but it’s addictive. It’s the one. I’m totally, utterly, obsessed, enslaved to it. I couldn’t dream of turning over!
The Yoof Of Today
On Friday evening my son, Evan, said “I’m going to a party tonight Dad but I’ll get on the train and come down to see you tomorrow. I’ll be there in time for the rugby”.
On Saturday at about 2.00pm (just before kick off) he rang again, (loud music in background) “Uh, I ‘m still at the party Dad but I’m definitely coming down tonight, alright?”
At about 4.00pm he rang again, (loud music in background) “Uh, Dad, I’m still at the party. Can you look up the train times for me please?”
At about 7.00pm, (loud music in the background) “Uh, I’m still at the party Dad”. We agreed that he’d be best off to go home and get some sleep. “I’ll put roast pork in for lunch if you ring in the morning and tell me what time you’re leaving.”
At about 8.30am this morning, (loud music in the background) “Uh, Dad, I’m still at the party”.
At least in my day we had the decency to hide the full extent of our debauchery from our parents. Not any more!
Rage Against My DRM Resolution
I have always sworn that I would never buy any DRM music. It’s a fundamentally flawed and immoral idea that if I pay for music I shouldn’t have the right to play it where, when and on what I want. It’s an idea that is doomed to failure. Even Steve Jobs, the gamekeeper turned poacher turned lord of the manor turned poacher has recognised that it has exactly the opposite effect to that intended and alienates customers too.
So what has caused me to break my resolution? The X Factor. It has to be bad that every Christmas the charts are hijacked by manufactured pop. I don’t count “Rage Against The Machine” as my favourite band but I spent 67p at Tesco’s online music store and got my DRM track.
You should join in too! See the Facebook campaign page and rage against The X Factor!
Peter Reynolds 