between the lines

[img courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/72249211@N00/. thnx.]

it's the matrix. any matrix will do. the matrix in your mind. the matrix in your lounge. the matrix in the bar. you're offered a metaphorical choice. do you take the red pill or the blue? which one do you take? and why oh why is life constantly reduced to duality which only offers two options. why not take none or all of the above... or scavenge up a whole lot of other color pills. or eat, i don't know, say, mushrooms instead?

it's amazing how many people around me & then further away take lots of drugs. chemicals are everywhere. i float on the periphery of a variety of sub-cultures so go figure. some take more than others. through the various social networks i infiltrate some are more stereotypically apparent than others. people mostly don't offer me anymore & they've finally stopped asking me what i'm on. usually nothing. sometimes i shut them up by selling 1gm bags of baking soda. it's better than most the shit they're snorting anyway. jk.

i don't really care about moderate or occasional drug use. informed choices, yes. like a born again christian i've been there. it would be hypocritical of me to position otherwise. why should it be just ok for me just because i fantasise that jimi hendrix & i belong on the same planet? sometimes i still like to experiment with things that come out of the ground. within reason. with respect.

what i find inherently dull is that people end up using just to maintain some sense of normalcy which in relative terms research has shown is a lot less happier/stable than non-users. stability schmability you say... drugs do not make anyone more interesting. only perhaps only to yourself. if life is so dull without them, maybe it's time to mix it up.

sure ignorance is bliss & we're all familiar with the status quo argument that surround a sheep with grass and it will mindfully eat it's way through a green field unaware of the wider surrounds which is arguably just a sea of endless repetitive fields. despite old school government reefer madness-like dressed-up scare mongering maybe there could be something in it? if faced with choices where do you find real information, real opinion, decent sources talking the shit you can as a self-aware cynic trust? first video response to reefer madness would have to be "grass", by ron mann.

a few weeks ago i found myself in an interview situation where a couple of sex workers were bagging out their drug supplier because the liquid ecstasy one of the women had previously ordered had been shammed so instead of only having her usual 5 mls she'd had the whole 15 and not been as smashed up as she should've so was then going to organise a "john" to make a surprise hit on the supplier in her workplace [city brothel] because she's a "dirty fucking crack whore". "how so", i asked? because "she would have used the money for an ice fix". most importantly this conversation could have occurred anywhere between anybody. an ad agency boardroom. a plumbing office. a music festival. drug hierarchy. now that's fucking hilarious.

this week a new experiment in youth comms hit the interwebs by way of between the lines, a web based incentive which offers realspeak forum & blogs covering the expanse of issues in the ubiquitous scene that we invariably & inevitably are a part of. all of us. the stuff that mainstream media will not cover. the good, the bad, the ugly. balanced dialogue. is it truly possible?

it's still early days yet but fresh off the boat it sits in infantile form waiting to seed organically from collective stories, wisdom. from you. from us. from all sides of the fence. without prejudice. without gloss. without dumbing down.

this is one topic that we need to cut through the BS on. because honey whether you collapsed your septum on 85% columbian coke off the cisterns at the ivy or on some badly cut base in the back of the cross you'll still look as bad as michael jackson the next day after. but maybe have a slightly different ride in between. how do you monitor that?

early december AWOL monk with punk monk propaganda will be working with between the lines in conjunction with the launch of FBi does drugs week further developing our "loves me not" mobile series which is an inverted narrative dealing with mental health. come party with us. i'll save you my best blend.