BigBongMobile.com Mardi Grass 2005 WEB CAST

There it was, like an unexploded bomb parked right outside the Nimbin H*E*M*P*Bar / H*E*M*P*Embassy in the main street of town, back to the place where, in 2001, the idea to create a BigBongMobile was first had - [@t the H*E*M*P*Bar]. This was the third time the that the BigBongMobile has landed in Nimbin for a MardiGrass and it promised to be the "hottest insertion" so far. I speak now of the cannabis that was growing in the plenum chamber, a crop that was grown live on the internet 'in plain sight' of anyone who cared to look - and plenty did and do, by the way, this BigBongMobile webspace gets more popular everyday as the word of mouth spreads, point being, that the "innocent cannabis plants" growing "in" the mobile are highly illegal plants and displaying highly illegal cannabis plants in the main street of Nimbin is, as you would expect, an arrestable offense.

Of course, the N.S.W POLICE were only one force at MardiGrass who 'theoretically' threatened the sanctity of the 'final phase of the Big Bong PoT Art Demonstration, the crowd being the other.

When I was in "Mission 5 Ramp Up Mode" in the H*E*M*P* Bar - where I work Mondays and Tuesdays by the way - telling H*E*M*P* Bar patrons and "H*E*M*P*BarFlies" about the plan to display the mobile complete with it's "grown live to the web " cannabis plants 'in public" at the MardiGrass - when I was over at drugsense.org/chat reading the latest cannabis news and while I was participating in the PotRevolution yahoo chat group, most everyone's opinion was "those plants won't last 5 minutes" with equal odds for POLICE or crowd as to who would be first to rip them out. Please keep in mind that because of Prohibition, Cannabis is worth money at a MardiGrass, lots of money, street value of these buds? In excess of $420 au.

I have always believed that the amount of time, preparation and art that went into the 'Caged Cannabis Demonstration' was it's best protection, the cannabis plants looked so innocent, the image so evocative of the "real situation of Cannabis", that everyone was enthralled by them, the MardiGrass crowd, the local youths and black market profiteers who usually get such a bad time in the media for the havoc they create, the drunks in search of the never ending party and the N.S.W POLICE, I am sure that the smiles on their faces each time they passed by were genuine. No one it seemed wanted to spoil the spectacle for everyone else. Erk, I'm getting ahead of my self.....

At 420 Pm on the FRIDAY the pressure was on to take off the covers and show the crowd the 'Caged Cannabis Demonstration' as 'part of the start' to MardiGrass, but for some reason I dint, I think the reasons was that there wasn't 420 people around to unveil it to in either "physical reality" or "virtual reality", Friday au being a Thursday night USA and since I did know that the globally dispersed BigBongBurgerBar Franchise holders were all expecting -and getting parties prepared for - a LATE NIGHT Toke off Friday night USA, but the one thing I was surest about was that from the moment I took off the covers it would mean no sleep for me. End result? I chose to keep uncover up until the following 4:20 PM, after all, I felt like 'metaphorically' I was in the last stage of the cannabis equivalent of an around the world yacht race, a marathon - not a sprint, plenty of time to unwwwrap and thinking thusly.... I slept very well inside the mobile.

All day SATURDAY the worst kept secret on the street of Nimbin stayed uncover, heaps of sneak peeks (and smells) for friends, PotRevolutionaries and random passers by and then.........

@t 4:20 PM

Surrounded the PotRevolution, most all of whom were wearing the 2005 uniform - sunglasses, jeans and black tee shirts emblazoned with the very bright and very green slogan - it's always 420 @t www.potrevolution.com - Michael Balderstone and me ripped off the covers amid a blaze of digital flash lights whilst toking on a joint rolled by "the bud" [pictured below-left] who helped paint the mobiles bonnet/hood - she rolled up from the crown bud of the plant that was featured so heavily in the "BigBongMobile Preparation and 420 Webshowquot; and finally, the finale of the BigBongMobile PoT Art DEMONSTRATION had begun.

4 and 20 hours is a long time to expect to have cannabis in a flimsy wire cage in the main street of Nimbin, indeed, it would be a major MardiGrass miracle if it were to happen, or so said the punters at the 4 hour 20 minute mark. At the 12 hour mark there was just me and the webcam viewers and I was certain that the next 12 hours were a done deal because I knew that when the sun came up and the smoke machine from the H*E*M*P*Bar was added, thousands and thousands of pictures would be taken and there was no doubt in my mind that neither the crowd nor the NSW POLICE wanted to harm the innocent plants in their flimsy cage nor to stop the BigBong PoT Art Demonstration from going off as planned....

and then, on SUNDAY, in the 4 and 20th hour, at approximately 4 and 20 minutes until 4:20 PM, the 4th attempt to phone Michael B by the Nimbin POLICE "about the plants in the yellow car out the front' was successful - Michael, of course, hadn't been avoiding the calls, he had been down in peace park speaking to the crowd - and the ultimatum delivered.

If the plants in the BigBongMobile are real cannabis, take them out now. If they are not, they can stay.

BBBBUMMER You can't see the webcam! DON'T PANIC !!!! the fix is very simple, very simple for computer users that is :O)--~ Go to http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp and down load the plug-in! Webgreetings webTV User, unfortunately U can't see the webshow either ;O(, and whilst I believe we should be fixing the problem, not fixing the blame, the simple truth is that webTV can't receive the web cam images yet, let's both hope the dudes at Web TV manage to catch up to the rest of the wwworld real soon ;O)--~

The plan had always been to 'symbolically and literally' rip the cage off whilst yelling FREE MARIJUANA, and then after a short photo opportunity, Free the actual Marijuana from the mobile in order to share it with fellow activists at the nimbin-marijuana-march the following weekend and since they were real cannabis and since the police had been as wonderful and understanding as the crowd had been to the sanctity of the PoT Art Demonstration... So at 4.08:40 PM, Michael and I FREED MARIJUANA in front of at least 420 stoners (and more flash bulbs) whilst Cannabis Dave took some video - And we made it back inside the H*E*M*P*Bar in time for 420!

Phew, am I glad to have got this far with this word assembly, and this story is by no means fully told, and until the filmed segments have been assembled and uploaded to BIG-Movies, I will continue to overwrite this word assembly. I mean I haven't mentioned the roles played by my fellow PotRevolutionaries or H*E*M*P*BarFlies yet. BTW, the PotRevolution became a legend at MardiGrass 2005. "They were everywhere you looked, there must have been hundreds of them" gossiped the locals after the grass was over.

till next,

peace

;O)--~

over written last on July 18 -2005.

IMPORTANT FOOT NOTE: You may also want to have a look at what the PotRevolution has created ....

CLicK here for the MullContent Images

CLicK here for the Images captured by Jabba

AND CLicK here for Viva's Pics

*EXTRA IMPORTANT FOOT NOTE ABOUT THE VIDEO/DVD >>

There are 3 segments from which the Mission 5 DVD/ will be assembled.

Segment One was captured by the inimitable Cannabis Dave- the www.undatoka.com - the "toker from down unda" and I have been working together since 1997 when we found ourselves amongst the handful of citizens who REALLY wanted to change the cannabis law and chose the Internet as the mechanism we would use.When the "history of Australian Cannabis Law Reform around the turn of the century" ever gets written, undatoka will be stand proud as one of the true legends....

The second segment is taken "outside" the BigBongMobile on the Saturday and features the street music that the mobile "audio streamed' to the pot rev chat room on the Saturday afternoon that preceded the unveiling of the innocent plants, this segment was captured by the only 3 time winner of the MardiGrass Cannabis Cup, 2003,04,05. Mr 3peat is, not surprisingly, a H*E*M*P*BarFly.

The third segment is "from the inside looking out." On Friday morning one of the first to arrive @t the BigBongMobile materialized in a cloud of dust , no luggage except for a camera bag, introduced himself by saying "I'm Jabba, from the Pot Rev." Instant recognition! No wonder the cloud of dust smelt of travel, Jabba had just rocked in from Western Australia. Jabba -or hashcooker as he is also known - has, like me, been a "member of the POTRev for more than 420 days" and what this means in 'real life' is instant trust. Jabba had free range of the mobile (and it's computers) he crawled in and out and all around it, searching for the best camera angles and what's more, something tells me that one of these days that dust cloud is going to rematerialize and Jabba will step out of it, saying "Hi BB, I dint want to trust the originals to the post and it too many gigs to email, so I'd thort I'd deliver them in person and give you a hand on the next mission".

natcherally, I will upgrade the status of the 'final component' of the 2005 BigBong Pot ArT Demonstration, tho, knowing how slowww things can go in the 'physical world' I am fully expecting it to not be ready until MardiGrass 2006 !