WCS 59: Whose vibes are these, anyway?

w/: Warriors open smokin' + Trump-proofing Cali + Freakout Fest

It was on a night in the summer of 2001. The song above was blasting for a White, liberal couple. Accomplished friends from good schools.

Upstairs, a party raged in an East Hollywood apartment. I’d dragged the friends down and out and into my rental Alero to hear the track. A different friend, a comrade from SF’s Haight-Ashbury District—The Crack Emcee—had laid on me his recording of “Democracy Sucks” and I was obsessed, sharing it with everyone who might listen.

Such a banger. Super transgressive. Punk AF.

The Crack Emcee called himself a Black Republican. His body of work popped into my head after the horrific events of November 5. To be sure, Democracy does suck. It’s the best system of government among other failed options, as the saying goes. The “Democracy Sucks” gripe is that racial minorities are always going to fare less well than Wypipo in American society, the way things were set up.

To be clear, I did not co-sign on the song’s thesis. Nevertheless, how that Black Republican arrived at his conclusion has not been lost on me.

People are complicated. Once in West Virginia, a White woman blew me, then 20 minutes later used the N-word in my presence.

My listening liberal friends—tasteful post-punk fans—were visibly shaken by “Democracy Sucks.” We went back up into the party and never mentioned that song again.

The thing about “Democracy Sucks” is that I agree with nearly all of its shrieked contents, except for the title. Kevin Carnes’ singular drumming I especially concur with. And of course I was all in on The Crack Emcee’s distaste for phony liberals. There were a lot of phony liberals in 1994 San Francisco: Dudes who would cross the street when you were about to bypass them at night. Women who might flinch upon your arrival outside the bar and hit on you a few drinks after, as if fear had been an aphrodisiac.

These contradictions are mainly why my old friend called himself a Republican, dead-up in the upscale Upper Haight-Ashbury District: Contradiction shared not by words, but through vibes.

In the minds of detractors left and right, Kamala embodies a lot of late-20th century California fakeness. Code-switching was an issue for them as much as policy turnarounds. Elections, scholars tell us, are way more about personality than policy. (Both pale in power to the strength of voters flushness; money can make a Bircher vote Obama.) The Democrats campaigned on vibes, not comprehending that one person’s good vibe is the next man’s—and I do mean “man”—bummer.

I know people who were not feeling the Harris vibe. They may well be racist. They probably are misogynist. There is a chance though that there’s something else at play.

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This week I recorded a couple podcasts episodes, both consisting of visits with psychedelics thought leaders. One is from LA. She’s Stephanie Karzon Abrams. A clinician by training, Karzon Abrams offers up insights and major charms and… music!

April Pride is a different kind of expert. A designer, she first gained weed world notoriety with the arrival of her beautiful weed accessories brand, Vander Pop. Since then, Pride has created perhaps a dozen brands and managed the tricky pivot to psychedelics education.

Over the weekend I’ll make a couple of TikTok shorts to preview their episodes. For now, ☝🏿 is a conversation that Alex Halperin and I had with the Northwest bright light. We all met in December of 2019, during a Las Vegas trip.

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10 Exactly how good are the Warriors?

San Francisco’s 7-1 NBA team takes on the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers tonight, two nights after beating the world champion Boston Celtics in their own building.

The Warriors—my preseason pick to break out of the Western Conference’s second tier—are threatening to become the NBA’s biggest story. They are also threatening to take the top spot of the West Coast Sojourn All-Sport Power Rankings, an Oregon Ducks football loss away from supremacy.
Winners and Whiners

• Returning from injury, Steph Curry scored 27 points with nine assists, seven rebounds and four steals in Boston. Former Kings mainstay Buddy Hield now comes off the Warriors bench to function as Kirkland Steph. Hield scored 16 off the bench on Wednesday and is averaging a shade over 21 points per game.

• Tonight the Warriors could be without Draymond Green, who’s on the injury report. Green is playing vintage hoops, but Golden State has depth like no other squad. It’s uncertain how much he’ll be missed.

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Rhianna loves this Portland jam

“This is not a drill: Rhianna messaged me,” reports Portland Artist Zyah Belle from the Land of TikTok. Perhaps the R&B track is up your alley as well.

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