Re: nitrous


uNjoyMiceElf wrote:
> mr rapidan wrote:
> > Well, I suppose it's stupid as a way of life, but what's wrong with
> > doing a couple balloons at a show as a several minute diversion with
> > your friends? At most shows where it was available, we'd do one or
> > two, carry the balloons around for a few minutes, laugh and enjoy
> > ourselves, and then move on to the next chapter in the pre-show lot
> > excursion.
>
> well, and this is especially true in the northeast, a lot of the N2O
> dealers are not heads. They are local yo-boy types who make thousands
> of dollars off of one tank. A typical tank can cost you about $80 and
> pull in anywhere from 3k to 5k per tank. Especially with $5 smaller
> balloons. That's a lot of money to pull from tour, especially when it
> goes to people that don't like us. Do you want to support a person like
> that? I don't.

I understand where you're coming from, here. A total tangent - This
was both a distasteful element *and* an attractive one. To the extent
that the phish audience is/was homogenous, it was interesting to have
groups of those folks selling nitrous, clearly not giving one ***
about the music or any sense of community, just there to make a
(dis)honest buck. But, they were sort of straddling the fence in that
regard - because they were doing something illegal, and were almost
constantly at risk of being caught, there was something interesting to
me about these guys and how they operated, and I personally didn't feel
that their presence was completely incongruous with the event.

> Then there is the whole injury side of it. I have a friend who was just
> having a couple balloons with some friends and wound up curbing
> himself. He now has a permanent bridge for his 5 front teeth. Oh, and
> he was on acid too. Try knocking out 5 teeth on a head full of acid.
> OUCH.

I feel for your friend. But I suppose that this argument could be used
against *any* sort of substance that messes with your decision making
process and/or body control. When I did nitrous at shows, I'd do it
like I do any substance - like a wimp. I'd suck in just enough to feel
it, learn how much that was, then learn to modulate my intake up and
down, but never to the point where I'd be wobbly legged. Enough to
laugh, enough to bring on that hard to control smile. The exception to
my sensible substance intake would be alcohol - and I abused that
enough to make up for my timidity and control with all the other things
that I've tried and enjoyed over the years.

I'm not trying to start any sort of debate or mindless argument, here,
really. Just noting my take on this small, and controversial for some,
part of the sideshow at the concerts.

Oh, well, I miss phish. That's why I'm poking around in those other
threads to get opinions on the various livephish offerings . . .

.