Author: Jon W. Sparks

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Intermission Impossible Theater

Mixology: Ballet Memphis gets Unapologetic

If you savor local flavor, Memphis music and musicians are lovingly entwined with the dance works in Ballet Memphis’ Fall Mix that continues through this weekend.

Every October, Ballet Memphis presents a series of new, or newish, works that often give the young dancers and sometimes new choreographers a chance to do contemporary and sometimes experimental movement. Steven McMahon, the company’s associate artistic director, says Fall Mix re-launches The Memphis Project, an off-and-on series that puts the focus on the creative and cultural soul of the city.

The effort is a triumph of programming and performance. The opening work is something of an epic oldie, Trey Mcintyre’s “Memphis Suite,” reworked from its debut 20 years ago. The dances are song-length short stories soaked in Memphis sauce and with a soundtrack of classic tunes and local performers starting with Elvis, and moving through Ike Turner, Al Green, The Staples Singers, Roscoe Gordon, Rufus Thomas, B.B. King, Pat Hare, and John Lee Hooker.

The next piece by dynamo Alia Kache is “Unrest,” and is, fittingly, overlaid by the music of Memphis singer/songwriter Julien Baker from her “Turn Out the Lights” album. Baker is a poet of unrest and Kache’s choreography, dark and constrained at first, finds a fascinating deeper expression throughout.

McMahon choreographed the final piece, “Unapologetic,” in collaboration with Unapologetic LLC, the innovative record label and brand that travels the sonic edge while treasuring enough of the traditional to keep you guessing. Headed by record producer IMAKEMADBEATS, the group — Cameron Bethany, Kid Maestro, C Major, PreauXX, and Aaron James — is at the back of the stage, interacting with the dancers. The ballet, like the music, endeavors to take some risks and give the spirit of Memphis some complex, energizing expression.

Fall Mix is a thrilling program grounded in Memphis history and Memphis today, and celebrating the bounty of creativity in the city.

It’s performed at Ballet Memphis, 2144 Madison. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Nov. 1 (with a spark discussion beforehand), 8 p.m. Nov. 2, 8 p.m. Nov. 3, and 2 p.m. Nov. 4. Tickets are $25 evenings / $15 matinees. Go to balletmemphis.org or call 901-737-7322.

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Intermission Impossible Theater

In Praise of “Love and Murder” at Playhouse on the Square

Michael Gravois, Kristen Doty

It’s pointless to refer to “the death scene” in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. The musical farce at Playhouse on the Square has eight or maybe nine of them, and every one of the characters who goes in extremis is played by the exceptional Michael Gravois.

The stage veteran throws himself brilliantly into the silliness, playing members of the D’Ysquith family who stand in the way of a greedy outcast whose mother married for (shudder) love and was therefore kicked out of the clan’s good graces.

Nonetheless, if certain of Monty Navarro’s relatives should die (the quicker the better), then he’ll be a duke with a wife, a mistress, and most importantly, money. But we really love to watch as Gravois bursts on stage as one of the royal relatives, expires, and then reappears moments later inhabiting the character and costume of another doomed relation.

In Praise of ‘Love and Murder’ at Playhouse on the Square

Holding forth as the initially guileless Monty who embarks on a comic Breaking Bad as the bodies accrue, is Ryne Nardecchia, who played the role in the national tour and is flawless. Adam Cates directs and choreographs, and he, too, worked on the Broadway version and the national tour as associate choreographer.

It’s a thoroughly delightful escape, smartly produced, and scads of fun. If the orchestra would ease up a wee bit from time to time to let the singers be heard, it would be even better.

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Elvis Presley: The Searcher

On Saturday, a new HBO documentary was previewed at The Guest House at Graceland. Elvis Presley: The Searcher is a three-hour look at the entertainer with particular focus on his music — his influences, his favorite tunes, his top songwriters, his styles, and how he changed throughout his career.

There are extensive images and clips of Elvis and considerable performance footage. Among the sources heard in “The Searcher” are Priscilla Presley, David Porter, Tom Petty, Red West, Bruce Springsteen, Bill Ferris, Preston Lauterbach, Emmylou Harris, and Robbie Robertson. The first part of the documentary premieres Saturday, April 14 at 7p.m. Central on HBO GO and HBO NOW.

Attending the event were executive producers Priscilla Presley and Jerry Schilling, and producer/songwriter David Porter. In a red carpet interview with the Memphis Flyer, the three gave us a look at what the documentary aimed to cover.

Dave Porter

The documentary is Elvis’ life with music in totality. There was quite a bit of involvement with me knowing him all the way back to the Flamingo Room when we were younger. I first saw this young kid — I was a bit younger — hanging around those clubs and everything just getting that energy. He had the spirit of Beale Street.

Later I saw him as a record producer myself and was honored when he asked Isaac Hayes and me to do a jam session when he brought Priscilla to Memphis, so we did that for him at the Manhattan Club with the Willie Mitchell Band. That was a bit of synergy there, then he later produced the record, at Stax in 1973 at the same time I was producing the Sweet Inspirations in Studio B, he was recording at Studio A, so we were always bumping into each other.

A tremendous amount of his influences were rooted in what he got out of Beale Street. He had a great respect and love for artists like Roy Hamilton, who he was a huge fan of, as well as Jackie Wilson. He was a fan of what was going on on Beale Street because during those times there was the energy, and entertainers were truly entertainers. Joe Tex, Jackie Wilson, James Brown all of these great, great artists would come to the clubs and these small venues in that area and you had opportunity, if you were ambitious, to come and really not only talk to them, but learn so much from them. Elvis certainly took advantage of that.

The thing that was paramount about music and entertainment at that time was black artists had to deal with truly being sure they were marketed right because they were entertaining for people at that time when oppression and bias and racism were so prevalent. So to have the artistry to make people feel comfortable and forget was a true, true amount of power and Elvis was able to come and see that kind of energy happening and make it work in such as way that was special for him. I believe his true identity was in having emotional connectivity with audiences.

Jerry Schilling

Elvis Presley: The Searcher is totally put together differently. I’ve produced more documentaries on Elvis than anybody. It is more from his point of view and it’s more behind the scenes, even the professional side. It’s the struggles he had to go through, with the triumphs. The other voiceovers are embellishing what Elvis is saying. And with Thom Zimny, the director, you get a very sensitive viewpoint. I think it’s the most honest, definitive, look at my friend that there is. It tells why we’re still talking about him and also tells why maybe he’s not here. Out of greed and disappointments.

Priscilla Presley

Jerry and I talked so many times about the books that are out there, the professors that are out there giving their viewpoint about who Elvis Presley was. They come up with some kind of clever thing that he was this or that or he was guiding his career in such a way, then all of a sudden he lost it, or that he happened to be at the right place at the right time, and that’s just lucky him. No. I’m sorry. It’s just not that way at all. He knew that he was unique. From a very young age he knew that there was something different about him.

Elvis was able to know not just what was good music, but that what came out of him touched his soul. He was so influenced by country, rhythm and blues, and gospel, which he says in the documentary. He pulled it all together because it truly touched him. And he loved rock and roll, but ballads really touched him. What 10-year-old boy would sing “Old Shep”? Have you considered that song? I mean, for a variety show? But even at age 3, he would go on that stage and rock out with gospel music and felt it, putting his hands up. It was already in him. You can’t tell me that he was just in the right place at the right time. He knew what he loved, and that was the feeling that came out of that music.

Jon Sparks

On the red carpet at the screening of HBO’s “Elvis Presley: The Searcher” (from left): producer Kary Antholis, music producer David Porter, director Thom Zimny, executive producers Priscilla Presley and Jerry Schilling, and Sony music executive John Jackson.

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Music Music Features

Julia Bullock at IRIS

This weekend’s IRIS Orchestra program is an American tribute with all works from the first half of the 20th century. But a thoroughly 21st century presence will come with guest performer Julia Bullock interpreting several tunes.

Bullock is a rising star: The soprano is the recipient of the 2016 Sphinx Medal of Excellence and other major awards. Critics have praised her powerful emotional presence revealed in performances in operas and with symphonies worldwide.

She recently immersed herself in Josephine Baker: A Portrait by composer Tyshawn Sorey. The operatic study of the iconic singer was presented at the 2016 Ojai Music Festival and helmed by acclaimed director Peter Sellars. At this weekend’s concerts, Bullock will perform two songs popularized by Baker: “J’ai deux amours” and “La Conga Blicoti.”

Bullock didn’t like it when a college teacher compared her to the legendary singer during a voice lesson. “I didn’t want to be thought of as simply a ‘black singer,'” she says. “But I discovered where the paths of our lives paralleled in some respects, and was moved by the fact that she placed her role as an entertainer alongside her work as an activist and humanitarian. The themes of exploitation, demoralization, and discrimination that followed much of Baker’s life were something I wanted to look at onstage, because strangely, by deciding to go into a field that is predominantly run, produced, written, and performed by white people, that helped me want to take ownership of all that I am — a woman of mixed heritage [white and black], who has many influences and doesn’t need to deny any of them.”

Bullock wanted to explore the themes of exploitation and objectification, particularly of black women. “Baker was the perfect vehicle,” she says, “because of how inviting and innocuous seeming her material was — most people only remember Baker as a black Venus in a banana skirt.” The New World Symphony invited Bullock to perform Baker’s songs on one of their club concerts, and they commissioned the orchestrations of the two songs she’ll be performing with IRIS. Sellars took an interest and offered to work with her on developing the program.

“I spent hours researching all of Baker’s recordings, organizing them by themes, and sitting with Tyshawn to talk through the music that I most wanted to reimagine,” she says. “I continue to edit the text and experiment with different cuts.” 

Bullock is also performing the Gershwin classic “Summertime,” and she says, she has to remind herself that it’s a lullaby, not a show piece. “I approach this material like everything else,” she says. “The lyrics are what inspired the music [other than Brahms — he wrote his melodies first and then found poems to accompany them]. But either way, I must ensure that the text and vocalism exist side by side and that one doesn’t overshadow or overwhelm the other.”

Michael Stern, the music director of IRIS, met Bullock when they performed Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 together at the Young Concert Artists Gala in New York in 2016. He wanted her to perform with IRIS, and the scheduling finally worked out — and Knoxville is also on this weekend’s program.

Bullock’s journey began in a home where the arts were essential.

“Music was always playing in my house,” she says. “My father had a beautiful baritone voice and played several instruments as an amateur; and my mother loved to dance, so I’d go with her to tap classes and shuffle along in the back before I was enrolled myself.” 

And her influences?

“I’d say the performer who first influenced me was Tina Turner,” Bullock says. “I’d simply weep if I met her today — yes, I am that big of a fan.” Other singers who got her attention from the first listen are Regine Créspin, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, and Kathleen Ferrier. “They were all great communicators,” she says. “There was a passion and ferocity in their delivery; there was a clarity in their sound, and a focus of intention.”

It wasn’t until well into her teens that she began to get into classical music. “I was floored by the intensity of the material, both musical and poetic,” she says. 

From this emerged her own intellectual grounding in her art. “My parents instilled the credo that if I’m not providing a service in my work, then it’s not worthy work,” she says. “There are invaluable byproducts from making music that make it vital. Music helps us listen more closely, it encourages us to engage with one another and ourselves, it asks us to act with intention and make choices, despite not knowing the future outcome.”

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Intermission Impossible Theater

“Turnout” debut offers informal ballet performances

CREDIT: Louis Tucker/Ballet Memphis

Louis Tucker/Ballet Memphis

Ballet Memphis’ Fly Studio is an industrial strength practice room that can double as a performance space. The company’s ‘Turnout’ series is premiering there this weekend.

Ballet Memphis, having recently moved to a shiny new headquarters, is taking advantage of it by adding some intriguing programming.

Friday night was the debut of “Turnout,” which the company bills as informal although that only applies to the setting and ambience. The dancing, though, is as complex and challenging as it is fresh.

The program is just under an hour and the four works in this weekend’s lineup include the popular “In Dreams” by Trey McIntire, set to the music of Roy Orbison. Five of the company’s most vivid dancers — Crystal Brothers, Julie Marie Niekrasz, Jared Brunson, Virginia Pilgrim Ramey, and Brandon Ramey — do sublime work on this gorgeous piece.

Brandon Ramey’s new piece “The Good Life” opened the show, a terrific satirical series of suit-and-tie workplace woes. And a couple of romantic works rounded out the program: “Cupid Revealed” by former company member Joseph Jefferies and “The Lovely Story of Us” by company associate artistic director Steven McMahon.

The idea of the “Turnout” series is to present contemporary works, often by company members, on an occasional basis. It gives Ballet Memphis a chance to show off its new home, particularly the Fly Studio, and is purposely kept short so balletgoers can take in some nightlife afterward. It also allows more homegrown choreography to encourage local talent.

If the first production of the series is an indicator, it may well become an event not to miss.

There’s another performance tonight at 7:30. Tickets are $12 general admission; or $20, which entitles you to a reusable lidded theater cup. Libation included. Info: balletmemphis.org

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Intermission Impossible Theater

Ballet Memphis’ “Take Shape” takes off; Juilliard String Quartet lands perfectly

CREDIT: Steve J. Sherman

I particularly look forward to Ballet Memphis’ contemporary programming, as in the season’s first offering, “Take Shape,” that runs through Oct. 22. Not that the classics aren’t spellbinding in their way (the perennial “Nutcracker” during the holidays and “Peter Pan” in April), but the new works tend to provide a higher yield of choreography that is fresh, provocative, and sometimes surprising.

There are three works in the “Take Shape” production, the first of which is George Balanchine’s 60-year-old “Square Dance,” inspired by American folk dance that the choreographer wanted to combine with classical movement. (And with six decades under its belt, it’s actually older than Steven McMahon’s upcoming “Peter Pan”). As in traditional square dancing, there is plenty of symmetry with ladies and gents lining up, spinning around, and pairing off.

Square dancing may be physical, but nothing like Balanchine’s vigorous demands on his performers. The rhythms of the folk dance are there, but the music is that of Vivaldi and Corelli, tunes you don’t normally imagine with do-si-do action, but entirely agreeable. The piece was absorbing, with technical demands well met and all somewhat antiseptic.

One of Ballet Memphis’ go-to choreographers is Julia Adam, and with good reason. Her “Fingers of Your Thoughts,” first performed in 2010, ambitiously depicts the passage of a life, from birth to demise, but in a way so expressive and touching that it remains entirely personal. The five dancers are a community of souls, moving as a group, as individuals, all part of the fabric of a life. Simply beautiful.

The final piece is a thrilling work by another Ballet Memphis favorite, Trey McIntire. “The Reassuring Effects (of Form and Poetry)” is a series of delights and surprises with electrifying chemistry between Crystal Brothers and Rafael Ferreras, and other superb performances by Julie Marie Niekrasz and Jared Brunson. (The cast varies depending on the date).

Also notable was lighting by Dani Deutschmann and sublime costumes by Bruce Bui and Ballet Memphis Costume Shop. “Take Shape” is a thoroughly engaging program and shows again the masterful work by Ballet Memphis’ dancers.

Steve J. Sherman

Juilliard String Quartet

Sunday afternoon, the Juilliard String Quartet came to the Clark Opera Center and performed works with such precision and control that you might have been forgiven if you forgot to breathe. There were no apparent instances of listeners slumping in their chairs, but the beautiful attention to detail in the midst of works by Beethoven and Haydn demanded careful listening.

The presentation, a collaboration between the Memphis Chamber Music Society and Concerts International, sounded flawless in the acoustically fine Clark Center, with the quartet in the center of the auditorium and the audience arrayed around it.

Expectations are high, of course, when you have four of the world’s finest musicians sawing away at great music (Beethoven’s Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5; Haydn’s Quartet in D Major, Op. 76, No. 5; and Beethoven’s String Quartet in E flat Major, Op. 127). Those expectations were met with warm interpretations of the works, precise attacks of the notes, and terrific dynamic control from fortissimos to pin-drop quiet. In all, a virtuoso performance.

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Music Music Features

Juilliard String Quartet to Perform

CREDIT: Simon Powis

Almost every time the Memphis Chamber Music Society presents a concert, it’s in the landmark home of someone who volunteers to open their doors to a few dozen classical music lovers. It’s been that way for 29 years, but this Sunday, there will be that rare exception when the Juilliard String Quartet will perform Sunday, October 15th at 3 p.m. at the Clark Opera Memphis Center.

You can attribute that to a collaboration between two presenters: the Society and the similarly chamber-oriented Concerts International (CI) organization. CI has been around longer — in its 45th year — and offers five or six concerts a year of ensembles with a global reputation, mostly at the University of Memphis. The Chamber Music Society presents nine concerts a year and typically draws from regional musicians who are often with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra or faculty at schools and colleges.

Simon Powis

Juilliard String Quartet

Marsha Evans, founder and artistic director of the Chamber Music Society, says her organization came about somewhat by accident. “I was teaching at Rhodes College and had formed a trio with violinist Max Huls and cellist Linda Minke. We needed a place to do our run-through the evening before our opening night debut.”

It happened that William R. Eubanks, the noted interior designer, was glad to have the performance in his posh home, which included a nine-foot piano. “We played the concert to about 60 people,” Evans says. “It turned out to be a big hit, and people started calling Bill and saying, ‘When are you going to do it again?’ That’s when I realized this could be a concert series.”

The first year of the series there were three concerts and they sold out right away. “The next year we increased to six,” she says. “The next year we increased to nine, and that’s what we’re doing now.”

Julie Schap, the artistic director of Concerts International, says the collaboration for this Sunday’s concert came about quite naturally, although CI had first dibs on the Juilliard String Quartet for this season. Evans, at the Chamber Music Society, emailed Schap saying she was a little disappointed because she’d hoped to book the quartet, especially since cellist Astrid Schween, a favorite guest at the Society’s concerts, was a new member of the group.

Schap says she told Evans that Concerts International would be glad to let the Society have the quartet. But then the two of them talked it through some more and decided a collaboration would be even better. “We have a wonderful history together,” Schap says. “She coached me for my first big concert in Memphis.” (Schap, a vice president at Merrill Lynch, is also an accomplished pianist.)

For Evans, this is an opportunity to have additional visibility for the Society and show more people what her passion is about. “I strive for variety,” she says. “And I strive for the musicians to be thrilled with what they’re playing. I try to get programs that represent the passions of the players — and then I get to pick a piece, too.”

The Juilliard String Quartet’s performance at the Clark Opera Memphis Center will be done in the round, Schap says, giving audience members an atypical view of the musicians — from front, side, and rear — as they perform.

It won’t be quite like a concert in the intimate confines of someone’s home, although some of those performances have had their unusual moments. Evans recalls that one time the Blair String Quartet was performing at a home and the resident cat managed to find its way into the event after intermission. As the violist was sawing away, the cat jumped onto his lap to general amusement and consternation. But the player kept his cool, raising his bow and raising the viola to accommodate the curious feline.

Sunday’s program: Beethoven’s Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5; Haydn’s Quartet in D Major, Op. 76, No. 5; and Beethoven’s String Quartet in E flat Major, Op. 127. Tickets are $50. Contact cimemphis.org or 527-3067. Cats not permitted.

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Music Music Blog

MemphoFest debuts, nice and easy

CREDIT: Jon W. Sparks

Jon W. Sparks

Booker T. Jones at MemphoFest Saturday.

Saturday afternoon began with anticipation as curious music lovers trickled in to the brand spanking new MemphoFest on the expansive grounds of Shelby Farms. The day before was the first day of what organizers expect to be the first of many annual festivals, and it was blessed with good attendance, pleasant weather, and a well-organized operation.

By mid-afternoon Saturday, the crowd flow continued to increase, coming to sample two stages of sounds, including bluegrass by Devil Train, no-nonsense rock by Hard Working Americans, and the funk/steel guitar power of Robert Randolph and the Family Band, who did a tribute to the victims of the Las Vegas tragedy.

Robert Randolph on the First Tennessee Main Stage at MemphoFest Saturday.

By the time Booker T. Jones settled behind his keyboard around 530 p.m., the mellow crowd was ready to soak up some Stax-flavored tunes delivered by first rate performers backing up the man who brought the world the MGs.

While the tunes of Booker T. and the MGs are ingrained in pop culture consciousness, Jones still wants to scratch that creative itch. The 1969 hit “Time is Tight” was on the MemphoFest playlist, but the very different version Saturday echoed one Jones presented five years ago at a concert with the late, lamented Opus One ensemble from the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. It began with a slow, gorgeous, and thoughtful extended prelude far different from the East McLemore original. Eventually it morphed into the recognizable hit we remember, backed at MemphoFest by a superb band, even as it was backed by an orchestra in 2012.

Hoops madness at MemphoFest.

Next on the First Tennessee Main Stage was Steve Cropper, the only other surviving MG, who did a number with Jones and then played on with his band, including some tunes with fellow Stax star Eddie Floyd.

Other bands at MemphoFest included Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Chinese Embassy Dub Connection, Objekt 12, and Marcella and Her Lovers. Friday’s lineup included Southern Avenue, Dead Soldiers, Star & Micey and Cage the Elephant.

Diego Winegardner,  the festival’s founder and the CEO of Big River Presents, which is putting on the event, was in high cotton about the way the festival was going. Discussions about doing a fall music festival at Shelby Farms got underway in earnest only about nine months ago and went into high gear in April. He says there were no surprises, due in large part to painstaking planning with Jen Andrews, executive director of the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy. Security, parking, production values, and food were well thought out, he says, and of course it was nice of the weather to cooperate (rain was forecast for Saturday; didn’t happen).

Paul Chandler, executive director of the Germantown Performing Arts Center, was in on the creation of MemphoFest, bringing people together. As he looked over Saturday’s crowd from the Super VIP tent, he remarked that, “There’s a sense of happiness and calm here, even with a band rocking out on stage.”

Sunset at Saturday’s MemphoFest.

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Opinion Viewpoint

Colorado’s Buzz Biz

In the late 1970s, New York’s East Village was terrific and awful. It was a time when we thought any reason to smoke pot was a good one. We had CBGBs and 50-cent subway fares and Basquiat’s SAMO (with copyright symbol) plastered all over. There was also a dawning realization that something called AIDS was murdering friends, family, and loved ones. So, yes, existence there really was the musical Rent.

Marijuana commerce thrived. Two doors from my tenement, an anonymous storefront opened to a vacant room with a box office-like opening at the rear. A guy scrutinized you as you walked up. Say “nickel bag” and plonk a sawbuck on the counter and he’d wordlessly produce a small coin envelope, bulging with bud. You pocketed it, no questions about strength or provenance, and went back out, praying that New York’s Finest were fighting crime elsewhere.

Acquiring weed has long been a furtive activity. But nowadays, stealth transactions are only a memory for recreational pot-users in Colorado and Washington. I was in Denver recently, where getting your bhang on merely involves walking into a storefront and bringing plenty of cash. Sounds like the old days, but that’s where the similarities end. 

A visitor to Colorado should start with weedmaps.com and coloradopotguide.com. The sites cite legal specifics and offer locator maps to find the nearest vendors. Avoid prescription-only stores if you don’t have an MD’s blessing. There are some 75 or so recreational retailers in Denver, though. And bring lots of cash, as credit cards are not yet accepted. In the first three months of legalization after January 1st, Colorado got $7.3 million from the 22 percent (yikes!) recreational pot tax. Pricing varies, but you can easily pay $100 for a quarter ounce. 

As an out-of-stater, you’re limited to a quarter-ounce per transaction, but anyone 21 or older can carry an ounce of THC in the state hassle-free, except on federal parks and properties. Not all cities allow sales, and public consumption is not allowed. 

The toking-in-public prohibition is mainly enforced with a wink-and-nudge. It’s common to see someone at a hip little coffee shop having a latte al fresco and lighting up. Certain concerts and public gatherings proclaim “420-friendly” status, but technically, you could still be arrested.

Thus armed with a responsible pothead consumer’s knowledge, I walked to the nearest cannabis vendor. At the entrance, I still looked both ways with practiced panic. And then I floated into a very different world.

High Level Health on Lincoln Avenue is an irrepressibly cheery place. I am greeted at the door by an employee who checks my ID to make sure I’m not too young (I’m not) and signs me in. She is as briskly efficient as any flight attendant, but with more body jewelry. Exuding a hip perkiness, she leads me to the back room, where I meet Joshua Arendt, the budtender. “He’ll answer any questions you have,” says my escort. 

I have a few, but first, I’m wide-eyed. This place would be heaven for Memphis’ own Muck Sticky, the troubadour of toke.

There are shelves and racks with pipes, vape pens, massage oils, T-shirts, and all manner of merch. On one side, shiny glass cabinets are lined with candies, brownies, sodas and jellies and the other has shiny glass cabinets filled with rows of medicine bottles and glass containers with a variety of buds. 

It blows the mind. There are at least a score of buds, from Chocolate Rain to Cataract Kush, packaged in labeled medicine bottles. Arendt — cheery as any good salesman — says hybrids are genetically bred for bud density and concentration of THC. “You can have a myriad of effects,” he says. “Up or down or in between.” You choose herb according to your whim: to sleep, to stay alert, to whet the appetite. Or to watch the last half hour of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

You can also get your buzz on without a single toke. Infused edibles — not your grandma’s pot brownies — pack a punch. However, standards for baking and claims for effectiveness are loose. It’s easy to gulp down more than you really want, as credulous New York Times scribe Maureen Dowd recently discovered. Silly journalist. Good thing she didn’t sample Dew Drops hemp oil, which gets you a mile high using a dropper that deploys the liquid under the tongue. Efficient, discreet, and with potential for easy misuse.

Or you can keep it basic. A customer asks for a pre-rolled reefer. “Just one?” he’s asked. “Yes, please,” he says. 

In Colorado’s buzz biz, there’s more politeness, less paranoia, and potent profits. And a love of tourists.

Journalist Jon W. Sparks, who now eschews loco weed, writes soberly for various publications.