The Nitrous Mafia is real!

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-07-06/music/hippie-crack-nitrous-mafia-boston

Doubtful these asshats will ever impact our scene, but they are wreaking havoc on the festival and jamband scene. Horror stories came out of the Memorial Day weekend Furthur Festival thingie down in Calaveras County, and it's just more of the same. These stories have been becoming more and more frequent over the past few years. Very interesting read

[Clams]

Make up your mind, dude.... are you driving across the country or reading about nitrous?

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Make up your mind, dude.... are you driving across the country or reading about nitrous?

first I'm gonna drive across the country, then I'm gonna read about nitrous

Awesome, totally awesome!

I hope you had a helluva piss, Clams

[Clams]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

my cross-country driving attire

[Clams]

didn't take long to derail this thread

we were overdue for some Fast Times stuff anyway...

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[UTHeathen]

I admit, I sucked down a few balloons in the Dead lot, and I understand the appeal, in fact one of my last and most lasting memories of my Grateful Dead experience was slowly regaining my wits while leaning against a bus at my last show, Sunday Vegas '95. The wow, wow, wow morphing into the sound of drums pounding, the hissing of tanks and the squealing laughter of the Heads. It was then that I had a moment of clarity that this was a big part of what I loved about the scene, the pagan ritual, the family gathering aspect, and I admit, getting totally fucked up without consequence (or much of it anyway). I also had a fleeting thought that this could all end at any time. Which of course it did about six weeks later. Jerry was a mere shadow of himself that day, and I remember sadly shaking my head during The Days Between. Of course it was the music that brought us all together in the first place, but all of those other things certainly contributed to the devotion we all felt to the scene. That being said, I think we all felt the decline that has been well documented in the years since. There were a lot of shit people showing up in the lot who never went inside and couldn't have cared less about the music, or the special, unique culture that was created by and surrounded by it. I guess human nature, greed and addiction will always raise it's ugly head, and what a shame that is.

BTW, Phoebe Cates is fucking hot! Doesn't anyone knock anymore?

[Jeremy]

I was at Allgood last year and after the first night it was ridiculous the amount of balloons littering the streets. Disturbing actually. The next day the WV State Troopers rolled in and busted a bunch of people with nitrous. They just followed the trail of empty balloons, these guys are bright huh. Then I was hanging out at this campsite and this chick came through asking people to chip in so she could bail her bf out of jail since he got busted selling nitrous. Something about they were school teachers and this was a chance to make some extra money, blah, blah, blah. I told her, "my mom is a school teacher and she never had to resort to selling balloons to make ends meet. Maybe you guys need to adjust your lifestyle. Second, I have no sympathy for someone out here selling nitrous, you guys make a shit ton of money, you are helping kids kill brain cells in the worse way(a 5 minutes high), you are littering the streets with rubber ballons, just all around bringing my festival vibe down. If your bf was selling some pot or something benign like that, I would help out, but the fact is he wouldnt have gotten busted. There was a reason that everyone cheered when they busted the nitrous people. I hope he rots in a WV jail for a while, I hope he gets fired from his teaching job and I hope you guys learned a lesson." She mumbled something about me being an old fart and a dickhead, and walked on.

But also, have you ever shined a laser pointer at a nirtrous ballon. It looks crazy, especially if you are inhaling it. We sat at a campsite at further festival one year and shined a laser pointer at all the kids buying ballons, it was hilarous. They would suck in half the ballon, we would hit it with a laser, and they would go oh shit, and the ballon would go flying around and they would get all pissed off. We were posted up behind a truck, so no one knew who it was. Man it was fun.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

I'm pretty sure I saw a dude die while flopping around on the ground at a GD show on 9/8/90 in Richfield, OH after hitting the hippie crack. Freaked us out so much we didn't stick around to see the results once the EMTs arrived. Pretty much scared me straight from the balloons...... not that I need another vice as it is