neatly in beautiful display cases. At the end, wide doors opened to the xeroscaped patio and lush lawn, and with it, a bar. Above, a rooop deck and more stairs led to a lounge. “In uencers” stood sparsely around a mostly- empty stage on the green, while a series of shaky-voiced entrepreneurs gave their elevator pitches. e sun already
crowd-surfer? Was this strange army of yuppies still taking themselves that seriously? ank Jebus, there was a dab bar. It clearly said “Dab Bar,” next to a huge sign, “Can- naCocktails.” I tried the purple haze live resin for $6. You made the order – and then a rig operator cleaned the thing, torched it, added my hit, got the cap
ready and gave me the thumbs up – all important assistance when you’re trying to listen to someone pour their heart out on stage, grasping at those echoing words. at’s when the dab rst hits – and the guy’s telling you, yep,
seemed to be set- ting. It was tting for the moment. e extremely hot and short-lived cannabis bubble has burst. Names like “MedMen” and “Harborside”
weren’t even spoken here.
Still, my pres-
ence was… jarring. To suddenly see a batshit afro-head staggering through this crowd was just – wrong . Years ago I attended a Bizcon pre-show nance forum – a whole day of bigwigs - which was not easy on little sleep. I cheefed constantly in back to get through the tedium and began watching a man doing laps, maybe lost, through the seats. He did this with some regularity – oen went dawdling into a corner or out the door and then back again, down the aisles. He had the mad crazy hair of a woodland hermit and had fashioned his bathrobe into a daycoat of sorts. It turned out to be Je Dowd, alleged co- inspirator for “ e Dude” of Coen Brother’s “Big Lebowski” fame. Was I now that weirdo
keep going, we’re good, we’re good we’re good , and you’re doing your best to just very calmly, cooly, conquer and smooth-roll out a velvety plume while your eyes go cross and you double down on leg muscles to stay standing, just so you don’t make a scene…. But it's hard to justify dusting o the old cape for this sort of thing–and especially on the eve of society's collapse. Maybe a uniformed hep ballroom of military swing would've been more appropriate. Aer a year's worth of daily berat- ing by darker and darker national headlines, it felt a little patronizing to chat “API’s” and “scal- ing” with such nonchalance. But that's what the poor bastards were attempting to do here, in de ated form.
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