For All Nails #27: Sexo, Drogos, y la Musica del Diablo
By Carlos Yu
(excerpted from Scientific Mexican, August 1970)
... A species of Chiapan yam, the cabeza de negro, was found to have extremely high concentrations of dioscoridone, a chemical precursor to progestone, the important female semaphore, and to arthronone, the anti-inflammatory drug. Covarrubias and his team continued to work on their research right up to the beginning of the Global War, when the exigencies of wartime duty caused them to part ways; Covarrubias to the Army's burn treatment research program, Blanchot to quinacrine production, and Kaminsky to metabolic studies of high-altitude pilots. Both Covarrubias and Blanchot still continued to work on the problem in their spare time, causing later difficulties in establishing patent priority...
... it was Kaminsky's insight, following the Scottish physiologist Farquhar, that some artificial semaphores could metastimulate the body's natural response. Thus, if the normal functioning of progestone during pregnancy inhibited further ovulation, perhaps a chemically similar compound would only inhibit ovulation...
... "It was Compound 4-9, in 1949, that gave us the good results," Covarrubias said. "But due to the upheavals, we weren't able to market the product until 1951. And when we did, we were completely unprepared for the demand." ...
(excerpted from Science for the People, August 1970)
... Although marihuana had been used for analgesic purposes since the founding of the United States (most famously Andrew Jackson's 'blunts' during his long convalescence), it was not until the Great Northern War that marihuana use became common outside of the rural, predominantly Mexicano, communities. It was on the Alaskan front where the common USM soldier discovered marihuana's ataraxic and euphoric properties, where it no doubt contributed to his vaunted courage and coolness under fire...
... After the war, two brothers from Durango, Juan Nepomuceno and Carlos Borromeo Hernandez, invested their veteran's bonus in a cigarillo-rolling machine imported from the CNA's Virginia Province, which they immediately improved upon. Within six months their investment had paid for itself twice over...
... Advances in selective breeding in the marihuana plant led to the next development in the industry. Fewer steps are now needed to process the marihuana plant with the new seedless (sin semilla) varietals, while improvements in the cannibol content have produced a longer-lasting and smoother high... Truly, the cigarillo of today is a far cry from the 'headache sticks' or 'hemicraneos' of yesteryear!
(excerpted from Azul, August 1970; translation mine -- C.Y.)
... unfortunately, Camacho's fine, sweet trumpet isn't matched by the shabby vocals of Hector Flores, which lack all animal spirits. But what makes this recording truly classic, of course, is Bill Rodriguez's drumming. This is the platter that buries the old 3T timpani-trampa-tonton kit, in favor of the new trampa-trampa tambor-bajo trinity, to which Rodriguez adds his trademark girasol crashes (so often imitated by his lessers, who fail to understand the internal passion of the man). As with most remasters, the 'improved' treble can make the high range of the trumpet sound tinny, but come on! No one is buying this disk for the ten minutes of (perfectly adequate) Camacho, but for the four minutes, forty-seven seconds of Rodriguez's divine madness...
... I enjoy horseback riding, swimming in the moonlight, and playaball. My biggest turn-offs are arrogance and racialism. My astrological sign is Sagittarius...
... The black legend of the electric guitar is that it was conceived to drown out the noise of copulating sailors and drunken whores -- whether in Acapulco, San Diego, Puerto Hancock, or San Francisco, no one knows. But certainly, the very sound of the electric guitar is steeped in sin, lewdness, depravity, and all those other things that spell out an entertaining modern evening...
Forward to FAN # 28: Sour Krauts.
Forward to 27 October 1970: Officers and Gentlewomen.
Return to For All Nails.