JAH Med

[Drunk Monk]

I'm surprised I never started a thread devoted to JAH Med.  It's mostly because I only work for them for festivals like SNWMF (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...hp?tid=454) and RotR (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...hp?tid=490).  

But JM has entered a new era for 2019 beginning with the Cannabis Cup (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...8#pid32768)

And since RM has dropped all its camping shows this year (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...9#pid32909), JM is poised to pick those up. This puts DM in a most interesting position because he is one of the oldest veterans still in play at RM and one of the founders of JM.  Any RMers who want to cross over to JM for camping fests must come through DM.  DM also has a shit-ton of knowledge, wisdom, and connections about these camping fests that JM needs.  It's good to be King, or in DM's case, Emperor.

Now you're probably thinking with all the madness going on now with my mom and TCEC, how the fuck does DM manage to deal with this?  I mean people are blowing up my phone and emails - vols, coordinators, supervisors and even a few promoters - with all kinds of shit.  It's crazy.  Actually, however, it's kind of distracting and I'm having fun parlaying favors, hooking people up, and telling others to fuck off.  

JAH Med has secured Cali Roots, my personal decompression party after TCEC on Memorial Day weekend. Last year sucked for me because I was run ragged for two months and got sick (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...1#pid287110).  This year, I'll be going into it after being run ragged for 5 months but I'm not going to get sick gawdammit.  No effin way.  I gotta be there to help with the integration.  

And the weekend after that is D&C (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...6#pid29096) but RM is weird now when it comes to psych.  I am indeed, THE LAST JEDI.

[Drunk Monk]

Last weekend we held our first Board Retreat.  Our fearless leader is a Doc for St. Joe's up in Arcata, and they give each Doc a chunk of change to donate to a non-profit, so he donated it to us.  It paid for a fantastic space for us to hold our meeting, as well as cover a wonderful feast at Larrupin, which I'm told is the finest restaurant in Trinity (pretty damn tasty).  Doc put me and my co-leader up in his mansionesque abode, near Humboldt State, just a short distance from the hwy but deep in the redwoods.  Our other Doc held a welcoming party at her mansionesque abode close to downtown.  We stopped by some of the other vols in the area - one who owns a sammich shop (Deos) and the other who owns a tavern (Dead Reckoning).  It was very nice.

JAH Med sent an amazing bouquet of white roses to Dan's funeral in AK.  I passed out laminates, which were treasured.  Memories were shared and we opened our Larrupin banquet with a toast to Dan.



Nothing from Rock Med.  Only 2-3 of the vets present at Dan's (maybe half of the attendees) are active RM vols.  The rest have all been blackballed or left in protest.

[Drunk Monk]

We had a JM Zoom meeting last week. Not much to say apart from we got nothing. All the festivals are cancelled through to September and even those are dubious.  

There was one hold out - Northern Nights - a no-holds-barred EDM that has been going for a few years on Dimmick, the property downstream from RotR where Reggae Rising expanded. I've never worked NN but it's legendary for its all-nighter mayhem. They schedule for July. JM was stalwart against doing it. Our CMO wanted to issue a letter of refusal, but I kept saying not to bother because they will surely cancel. Why stir the pot when the soup isn't even simmering yet? Why fold before anyone has ante-ed up? After much discussion, JM did issue a warning letter saying we had concerns. Yesterday, NN ran a paid infomercial in the local papers saying they were still on. Our CMO went into conniptions, emailing us the headline. Today NN cancelled. NN is really too dumb for words. I now get why our CMO was worried, but I got to say 'I told ya so' repeatedly, and that makes me feel good on this SIP May Day. 

The next festival that's still on is Dry Diggings (Sep 4-6). I've never done that either. It's put on by the Cali Roots promoters and is their opening acts. It's in Placerville.

After that is the Hog Farm Hangout (Sep 18-20). Neither JM or RM is doing that this year. I got a sideways invite from a supe, but I've not responded. The Hog Farm is run by the Barsottis, who are good friends (Bob was a disciple of Bill Graham and shares my birthday, Suzi ran the Dragon Crew for the Grateful Dead and shares a birthday with Stacy). If the Barsottis reach out, I might consider it, assuming things have quieted down. I probably won't be able to get that much time off work however, not to support both fests, and my loyalty is to JM for DD.

Lastly Cali Roots is rescheduled for Oct 9-11. Oct 8 is our 15 anniversary. 

Of course, all this is pending on if the California can heal enough by then. Time will tell. I'm not making any commitments.

[Drunk Monk]

I sit on the JAH Med board (aka Med Heads) with about a dozen other people, all of whom are my very close friends. We've been through so much together. One of our newest members, and our lawyer, her boyfriend (with whom she’d been living) committed suicide yesterday. By shooting himself. She discovered his body moments after the event, in their bed.

She's been consoled by our CMO and lead Doc and has a circle of friends and family around her now. 

We are all shocked and heartbroken. She is such a sweet, smart person. 

[cranefly]

That is so harsh.

My condolences to all concerned.

[Drunk Monk]

I messaged with another mutual JM friend who is much closer to our lawyer than me. She was the person that was called first, immediately after the incident. She arrived on scene at the same time as the cops. Once the cops took control, they questioned our friend for about 4 hours. 

My other friend has not left her side since.

[Drunk Monk]

Just finished a JAH med Zoom session about 2021. With CA lifting restrictions, some festivals are working at greenlighting their events and JM is trying to figure out how that might go. My division - psych - is the most dramatically affected. Our protocols require close contact with patients and given the Covid hazard, that's just not where we want to be. However, JM, like RM, has built their reputation on solving dramatic IPR cases on site and given the massive impact of the pandemic on national (nay, global) mental health, we anticipating a heavy psych impact on those first festivals. I can see attendees now sayin 'Ima gonna eat all the acid!' On top of that, most of our medical staff are burnt out. They're frontliners, and have been face-to-face with covid all last year. They don't want to volunteer for an imprudent festival.

This was just a preparatory meeting, just so we could get a feel of where we all stand. My gut feeling is that JM isn't flexible enough mindset-wise to make a pivot. But then again, 2021 might still be too early. 

Our lawyer was there and looked in bad shape, but spoke when it was her turn. One of our docs, a dear personal friend as well, has been through a lot too. I confess, I fell out of contact with her during the pandemic, as I have with so many others. 

I'm on the fence about it all. Some smaller shows I could see doing. The shitshows like Northern Nights, a massive EDM that our dearly departed LB said was a nightmare (I've never done it) seem really infectious. 

The bottom line is that the pandemic may have killed what I've done at concerts for the past 30+ years. I'm looking to pivot myself...as if I haven't pivoted enough already.