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To: jbIII who wrote (4071)	1/11/1999 1:35:00 PM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32884

Everybody Must Get Stoned by Joyce Slaton 3:00 a.m. 11.Jan.99.PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The 11th annual Digital Be-In on Saturday proved the Be-In isn't just another tech industry party. It's a tech industry party with a high-minded theme. Recent Be-Ins have championed issues like cultural diversity and human rights. This year's theme, "Body, Mind and Cyberspace," attacked US government drug policy with speakers, exhibitors, and performers who defended legal drug use as an important civil right. Digital Be-In founder Michael Gosney, president of the multimedia development company Verbum, said there is a strong connection between psychedelic drugs and the Net. "The vanguard of the computer industry consists of creative people, who, like any creative community, are more inclined to experiment culturally," Gosney said. "It's been unspoken for many years that the crown jewel of the US economy has been so influenced by 'soft' drugs like marijuana and LSD, now we want to stand up and be counted." And stand up they did. Those who mounted the stage at the SOMARTS Gallery in San Francisco were unilaterally in favor of a drug war moratorium. "I feel good about who I am, and I wouldn't be who I am without LSD!" crowed emcee Carol Jo Papac to the polite crowd, which included well-worn Bay Area techno hippies and a younger, rave-y crowd wearing glitter, day-glo, and using laser light pointers to puncture the swirly trip-graphics projected onstage. John Perry Barlow, the outspoken EFF co-founder whose Blue Ribbon Campaign for freedom of speech online was launched at the 1995 Be-In, was even more daring. Barlow started his address with "I'm John Perry Barlow and I'm proud to be an acid-head." Proud and out-loud, Barlow proselytized against the drug war, stating that, "People online are much more likely to use intoxicants, and not just legal ones. We have hundreds of thousands of people in jail for political reasons, and that's an issue of freedom." That tenuous logic was lost as Barlow turned the stage over to 1999's money name, Ken Kesey of Merry Pranksters fame, who has drunk deep from the psychedelic cup. Recalling the days when a party wasn't a party without a bathtub full of acid-spiked Kool-Aid, Kesey and co-hort Ken Babbs delivered a rambling, word-jazz speech accompanied by drumming and theremin. "Shit floats but art rises," Kesey said mystically. On cue, costumed Pranksters signalled an end to the speakers and the beginning of music and dancing. MC Fantuzzi set the tone, announcing, "Things are going to kick ecstatically. We're going to go galactic!" Milling revelers could choose between live music, the relative calm of the ambient salon, the driving house beat filling the dance-happy techno cube or exhibits from groups like California NORML and the DrugPeace organization, which launched its political action campaign at the Be-In. "The digital community is not only influential in society but we're also influenced by psychedelic drugs," said DrugPeace director Julia Carter. "The founders of both Microsoft and Apple have admitted to using LSD. A lot of the great minds who foresaw the digital revolution used psychoactives to develop their creativity and expand their vision. Here at the Be-In we can come together as a community around an issue and create positive change." Maybe the dancing revelers who overflowed the trance cube and main room had similar high-flown ideas about what they were doing at the Be-In. But it was hard to tell. The glittery twentysomething club kids, too-pale programmers, and digerati hangers-on looked a lot like those found at any industry event. The soundtrack, the overhanging reek of Nag Champa incense, and the digital in-crowd chatter were much the same, too. Barlow, however, saw more. "Yeah, this is a party. But we're voices against the drug war. That's all we can do."