Masscann freedom rally - Boston - 2009 edition

Hard to believe - 20 years Masscann has been hosting this rally on Boston Common. I've been to a couple of them over the years, but it's been a long few since the last time. This was a good year to get down to the Common, for a number of reasons, among them that this was a milestone year for pro-potters -- the Massachusetts legislature, for all its warts, did good on January 2, when it changed the possession laws in the state. It's no longer a crime to be in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. It's a civil offense, mind you, but decriminalization is a good thing.

So it seemed like a good year to hang out with the folks who were celebrating. It couldn't have been a better day, talking weather. A perfect late summer New England Saturday. The sun shone.


Another good reason to go: The Free Staters had rented the Fun Bus, so a group of us from southern New Hampshire could go down together, with Muni at the wheel. Thanks, Muni!

I'll tell you about the Free Staters some other day, but suffice to say, I haven't met a free stater yet that isn't into having fun. We're getting along like a charm.





And if you can't wait for me to tell you about them, you can check out their website, which is conveniently listed on the bottom of one of the flyers they were handing out at their booth.



Dennis, talking to one of many who stopped by to check out the FSP and find out what this freedom thing was all about.

We showed up around 12:30 - a good crowd assembled near the main stage, listening to a young man whose grandmother was in a great deal of pain. And although marijuana eliminated that pain, she was never going to get it, as long as she was denied medical marijuana...she could be living in any number of states, including New Hampshire, where Governor Lynch this year vetoed a bill in support of medical marijuana. Shame on him for denying chronic pain sufferers relief.

A fairly large police presence, at least in this area of The Common, at this hour of the day. There was one policewoman videoing the scene -- the image running through my mind was not an attractive one -- but hey, maybe she was just taping the band to put up on YouTube later. Lots of music between the talking -- but I couldn't tell you who any of the bands were, being totally unfamiliar with the local music scene in Boston.

As the day wore on, the crowd kept growing. By about 4 o'clock, there wasn't a square inch of space on the paths - wall to wall people moving very slowly, going from here to there. A lot of people out for a stroll in the park. Lots of people who looked like they were having a good time.



Music all over the place, from all over the place. We even got a hare krishna sing-along on the path in front of the FSP booth - totally entertaining, but it didn't do much for traffic, which had to come to a complete halt. I'm sure Dennis took full advantage of it.


And food - lots of that too.












I'm sure there was something organic to eat on the Common, but not that I could find anywhere. Quantity over quality this day.





Post munchies






All sorts of fun-loving people...







Kevin, sporting his new T














... and then people who just look like they're having fun



left to right: official-looking official, Celeste

And when it all gets to be too much, there's always a retreat to the Boston Public Gardens, across the street from the Common, in another world, where the swans drift by and the ducks play near the geese.


It was a good day to be in Boston. Many happy returns, Masscann!

Smoke gets in your eyes

movie night - Breakfast on Pluto

I've been meaning to watch this movie for years, ever since someone mentioned that there's a Van song in it. That's all I knew about it - there was a Van song. No one had to twist my arm to watch this one, but it's been sitting around in my collection for awhile now. Time to dust if off and put it in.

I'm always good for something different. Something from the director of The Crying Game fits the bill nicely.That's the only Neil Jordan movie I've seen, for no other reason than I've just never gotten around to checking his other stuff out. So kill two birds with one stone. My second Jordan movie and a Van song.

It's fanciful and it's dark. An interesting combination, which worked most of the time. It's set near the border of Northern Island during the 60s, so there's a lot of background violence, but our hero, Patrick Braden, a versatile young man, has his own life to live, and he's just looking for love...in some cases, in the wrong places. Among his many talents is writing stories. And that's how Jordan tells the movie, in a series of chapters, with the one constant in each being his search for his mother, who abandoned him, leaving him in a basket next to the milk bottles on the local priest's doorstep when he was a baby.

A local tells Patrick that his mother looks like Mitzi Gaynor, and she was off to London "to be swallowed up" that morning she left. The idea of Mitzi Gaynor takes hold, which is just the catalyst he needs to get in touch with his feminine side, mostly seeing what it's like to be a girl in girl's clothes, putting on makeup, even getting a transfer into home economics, where it turns out he's a pretty good sewer. By the time school's finished, he's ready to get out of town, go find mom.

The only thing he takes with him is his optimism - this guy has good karma. And a new name -- Kitten. Kitten gets into a lot of scrapes on the way, as you might, being a transvestite prostitute, with a lot of blowing up going on in the background to add to the mix. But her innocence and chronic case of "life is what you make of it"approach gets her from one spot to another; mind you, most times it's being tossed from the frying pan into the fire, but she's just glad that at least she's landed somewhere. Our hero is a pretty funny character, and it's a nice job by Cillian Murphy.

An Indie movie, it was a cast of unknowns to me, save for Liam Neeson as the priest and Stephen Rea as a magician who befriends Kitten along the way. All in all, it's a good story, not big on subtlety, but a good story well told. I would think Jordan would have been happy with this one. He's batting two for two with me.

Oh, and the scene with the Van song? It's near the end; Kitten is dressed to the nines, walking down the street, clicking clacking of the high heel shoes, dressed for the job, and on comes Madame George, which has long been thought of by some reviewers as a song about a transvestite. I wonder which came first? I suspect the myth. Whatever; I can get along with anyone who decides to put Madame George in their movie. Bring on the popcorn.

shannon's best guess: 3.55

movie night - Becoming Jane

Talk about a great movie weekend -- a three-fer. I've fallen into a British theme of late - that's what comes from getting most of my movie viewing done courtesy of Netflix, where, when you click on a movie to add it to your list, immediately a new screen wafts into view, one of those "If you liked that movie, you might like some of these...and if you click one one of those because you think you need to see that one too, then another screen wafts into view, and me, I can spend an afternoon wasted in Netflix land. So many movies, so little time.

So I can tell with Friday night's movie - Becoming Jane - that it was on one of those wafting screens that came up after I added Goodnight, Mister Tom (if you liked that British movie...). I can get really carried away with myself on those wafting screens, and I'm starting to wonder just how far I went down the British route that afternoon I was picking movies. Ah well, I'm going to find out soon enough.

The Jane in question is Jane Austen, played by Anne Hathaway. I had no idea that Jane Austen was such a likable person -- from her books, I thought she might have suffered some from an austere upbringing, leaving her somewhat the priggish sort. But not so, according to this movie. I have misjudged her. Here, she falls in love with a law student, Tom Lefroy, who is played by James McAvoy. I remember him from Atonement, which I saw a few months ago, and quite liked.

Jane and Tom's romance is fraught with peril, having all those 18th-century mores to deal with. But their biggest problem is money, or lack thereof. Her parents desperately want her to accept the marriage proposal from the local landowner's nephew, but Jane has other ideas, money be damned. The story is set in Hampshire County, so we get lots of great scenery -- long walks and coach rides in the country -- and the requisite number of dances and balls. I kept waiting for Mr. Darcy to make an entrance.

What's not to like? A chick flick with a bit of class. And it had Maggie Smith in it, so it scores points on that basis alone. She plays the landowner to a Maggie-Smith T. If you like Pride and Prejudice, then Becoming Jane is like old home week. I'm less a fan of Pride and Prejudice than I am of, say, Wuthering Heights. I guess I like my British romances on the dark side. But a little Austen now and then does the heart good.

Shannon's best guess: 3.2

movie night - Goodnight, Mister Tom

I've seen some good movies lately, and I've run into a problem. I simply can't remember them. I think it's my brain getting smaller. Although I have another theory: My head is so full of English grammar that there's no room for anything else - all that grammar is taking up most of my hard drive; I have no space for movies and books - they just take up too much space. So I compensate by taking notes, on the theory that if I write it down, I don't have to remember it, freeing up space for more grammar.

And so, movie notes from tonight...

I struck it rich at the mailbox today - two movies in from Netflix. It was well past midnight before I could get to thinking about watching a movie and after 12:30 before I could actually get it into gear, so, bowing to time constraints, I picked the shorter of the two, Goodnight, Mister Tom.

What a delightful movie. It's from Masterpiece Theater; it looks like it was released on television in 1998. John Thaw, who I recognized but couldn't place (turns out he's Inspector Morse, which explains it), is the man in the title, and what a great job he does playing the gruff grandfather out living on his own in the country. Imagine Grandfather in Heidi and you've got your man. But instead of Heidi come knocking on his door, it is William, an evacuee from the blitz in London.

It's a bit schmaltzy, but the story is a good one - how the two deal with their demons, Tom's those of the past, while William's are very much those of the present, an evacuee not only of the blitz but of an abusive mother. I'm a sucker for movies that are set in history. With the added bonus that a snapshot of history from one person's point of view is probably all the time I have for most things these days. It's a lot faster than the book, that's for sure. But I bet the book is even better; books always are better than the movie, although don't go by me on this one. Dollars to donuts I never read the book.

But that's the beauty of movies - instead of weeks of nights reading the book, I can watch the movie in less than one night and still have time to do the dishes. Mister Tom is a hero in my books, and an excellent character for Thaw. Other than the scenery, set in the fictional town of Weirwold, right out of a Constable painting, Thaw is the mainstay of the movie, because, admit it, the movie is formulaic, but what else to expect from Masterpiece Theater. I'm a sucker for British period pieces. And if I were a hankie person, it would have given me a good cry.

Most of the movies I watch are from Netflix, and they have a rating system over there that is meant to help me, the movie consumer, rate my preferences, the better to service my needs with the product I most want, or at least think I want. Thing is, their numbering system (1 through 5, with 3 being good and 5 being excellent) doesn't have any gray room for those more good than good but less good than very good movies, like this one. I give Goodnight, Mister Tom a 3.4 and would recommend it to anyone who likes a dollop of British every once in awhile.

shannon's best guess: 3.4