UgrewWHAT
- 366
- 93
What a fine Sunday it was...
I reached the Santa Rosa fairgrounds at about 9:30am yesterday and landed the same side street parking spot that I had last year! Perfect! Upon arrival I sat in my van rolling up a few of my own Mendo Grapefruit Kush for the wait in line and beyond.
A little after 10:00am I locked-up shop and headed for the gate with excitement and anticipation in hand. Landed the same distance in line from the main gate right where I was last year as well. All was in alignment with those around me too. Folks were in a shiny mood and the vibe was great... well, til the sound of an accentuated CRUNCH came in from two cars kissing each other to our left on Bennett Valley Road entering through the fairgrounds service gate! You could literally feel the drain of group energy coming off of us when we heard it. There was this immediate drawn out "Uuuuuugh" in that the Universe felt compelled to remind us that despite what awaits it's always a good idea to be alert.
There were some new faces and vendors in the non-Rx building this year and no different than last everything was very well thought out down to the plywood running boards placed over muddy areas. Time Blake and family and their crew put on another fine one.
The food selection was top notch and nowhere near roach-coach food truck level. I was impressed with what I saw people eating and my own carne asada burrito and salsa were killer. The pathway toward the Rx area lined on both sides with everything from Mex to Italian, Greek, Falaffel middle eastern, burgers, sourcraut dogs, smoothies, vegetarian tra-la-la.
I guess they wanted to jack everybody up from the get-go walking in the door so first on the left was the concentrates tent. I needed to walk back out and eat after that! There were a few new addition vendor names that I haven't seen before but fabulous product and clever minded doohickey's everywhere.
A fine share of growers, seed proprietors, hort-heads, micologists, biologists, chemists, engineers, electricians, politicians, liers, lobbyists, Trump haters, war veterans, patients, capitalists all in the same place at the same time... and stoned off their ass. It's Utopia.
The highlight of my day though came when rounding a corner amongst the seed vendors when I saw the words, "Brothers Grimm".
Now, I already know that anybody these days can get their hands on a few lucky finds, breed em' out, produce beans and next thing you know you've got a nifty Zerox color printer, a few t-shirts, some business cards, a website and you're at the Emerald Cup standing under an EZ Up with some fucking name nobody's heard of before and you've got scouts out in the crowd directing people to your booth for bonghits.
That, was my first thought upon sight of the Brother's Grimm booth. Some kid in his late 20's was manning the booth and seemed like many others in a previous paragraph description. So I approached and started drilling him with questions when this older silver-ash brown headed gentleman in a leather jacket returns from elsewhere and steps behind the booth to assist.
Thing is, I'm in the wrong first for being skeptical in the 1st place. But there comes a certain air about people with experience. This cat answered my every question with precision, knowing and tact that no fly-by-night vendor in their 20's would have and I found comfort in his wisdom of this plant. He appeared tired and a bit weathered but not necessarily by fatigue. Sometimes you just look at a face and see things.
I purchased some Cinderella 99's, introduced myself and reached to shake his hand... he said, "Much a pleasure meeting you... I am Mr. Soul."
So mine hand has shaken the hands of Jack Herer, DJ Short, Marc Emery, SubCool, Mz Jill, Steve DeAngelo, Ed Rosenthal and now the no-longer-in-need-to-be-elusive, Mr. Soul.
The battery on my iPhone was shot and I didn't get as many quality pics as I wanted this time but I still had the flip phone with me so what follow are both my clear and not-so-clear Cup pics.
The Emerald Cup is... well, it's right up there with the Santa Barbara Solstice Parade, in my book. It's a profound spiritual experience if anything at all. You just never know what you're gonna learn or who you're going to meet.
I reached the Santa Rosa fairgrounds at about 9:30am yesterday and landed the same side street parking spot that I had last year! Perfect! Upon arrival I sat in my van rolling up a few of my own Mendo Grapefruit Kush for the wait in line and beyond.
A little after 10:00am I locked-up shop and headed for the gate with excitement and anticipation in hand. Landed the same distance in line from the main gate right where I was last year as well. All was in alignment with those around me too. Folks were in a shiny mood and the vibe was great... well, til the sound of an accentuated CRUNCH came in from two cars kissing each other to our left on Bennett Valley Road entering through the fairgrounds service gate! You could literally feel the drain of group energy coming off of us when we heard it. There was this immediate drawn out "Uuuuuugh" in that the Universe felt compelled to remind us that despite what awaits it's always a good idea to be alert.
There were some new faces and vendors in the non-Rx building this year and no different than last everything was very well thought out down to the plywood running boards placed over muddy areas. Time Blake and family and their crew put on another fine one.
The food selection was top notch and nowhere near roach-coach food truck level. I was impressed with what I saw people eating and my own carne asada burrito and salsa were killer. The pathway toward the Rx area lined on both sides with everything from Mex to Italian, Greek, Falaffel middle eastern, burgers, sourcraut dogs, smoothies, vegetarian tra-la-la.
I guess they wanted to jack everybody up from the get-go walking in the door so first on the left was the concentrates tent. I needed to walk back out and eat after that! There were a few new addition vendor names that I haven't seen before but fabulous product and clever minded doohickey's everywhere.
A fine share of growers, seed proprietors, hort-heads, micologists, biologists, chemists, engineers, electricians, politicians, liers, lobbyists, Trump haters, war veterans, patients, capitalists all in the same place at the same time... and stoned off their ass. It's Utopia.
The highlight of my day though came when rounding a corner amongst the seed vendors when I saw the words, "Brothers Grimm".
Now, I already know that anybody these days can get their hands on a few lucky finds, breed em' out, produce beans and next thing you know you've got a nifty Zerox color printer, a few t-shirts, some business cards, a website and you're at the Emerald Cup standing under an EZ Up with some fucking name nobody's heard of before and you've got scouts out in the crowd directing people to your booth for bonghits.
That, was my first thought upon sight of the Brother's Grimm booth. Some kid in his late 20's was manning the booth and seemed like many others in a previous paragraph description. So I approached and started drilling him with questions when this older silver-ash brown headed gentleman in a leather jacket returns from elsewhere and steps behind the booth to assist.
Thing is, I'm in the wrong first for being skeptical in the 1st place. But there comes a certain air about people with experience. This cat answered my every question with precision, knowing and tact that no fly-by-night vendor in their 20's would have and I found comfort in his wisdom of this plant. He appeared tired and a bit weathered but not necessarily by fatigue. Sometimes you just look at a face and see things.
I purchased some Cinderella 99's, introduced myself and reached to shake his hand... he said, "Much a pleasure meeting you... I am Mr. Soul."
So mine hand has shaken the hands of Jack Herer, DJ Short, Marc Emery, SubCool, Mz Jill, Steve DeAngelo, Ed Rosenthal and now the no-longer-in-need-to-be-elusive, Mr. Soul.
The battery on my iPhone was shot and I didn't get as many quality pics as I wanted this time but I still had the flip phone with me so what follow are both my clear and not-so-clear Cup pics.
The Emerald Cup is... well, it's right up there with the Santa Barbara Solstice Parade, in my book. It's a profound spiritual experience if anything at all. You just never know what you're gonna learn or who you're going to meet.
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