The shallow corridors of Arlington Station provide a walkway for bustling businessmen, a means of transport for blundering tourists and the perfect acoustics for a classical guitarist who finds peace in his daily grind of playing to the passersby.

Playing with upturned lips, David Gonzales, knowingly picks at his guitar but without the pride of a man who has played for as long as he has. Rather, he shyly gazes upon the crowd with a humble smile, and you’d swear you’d known him for years. His thick fingers play soft chords and gentle rhythms that would soothe the most hurried of subway travelers. He first picked up the guitar at age 8. The music comes easily now.

A 3-foot blonde strolls by, dancing in her yellow raincoat. She can’t be more than four years old, but she is one of the few who takes notice of Gonzales. At that moment, he glances up and plays just for her, and they share a smile.

There is a stigma surrounding him simply because he plays music in the streets. “People can say what they say,” he offers. And while his guitar case stays empty for large parts of the day, a casual smile remains on his face. Gonzales plays because he wants to, not because he has to.

“It’s not about the money,” Gonzales says. “My God, you have no idea how much money I could make doing this is Europe, in Asia.”

Dressed in a pink and white striped polo with light-colored khakis, Gonzales has the appearance of a casual businessman. He owns 22 pairs of tennis shoes. “I am dressed like rich, and I play in the streets,” he says in his still thick Argentine accent, though he has survived in the US for more than eight years. “This is who I am. This is my life,” he says, without apology. “The key is, you must do something to survive.”

Gonzales grew up very poor on the streets of South America. In appearance, he is unlike most Argentinians, with dark skin and eyes the color of molasses. Because of this, Gonzales says he experienced discrimination very early, even by his own stepfather, who never offered him money or life lessons. So he grew up poor and without role models.

“I was born very, very poor. We were sleeping in a king bed, four people, maybe five. So I know how much value you can learn from life,” he says.

But that is all he talks of his past. Instead, he focuses on the future and on his place in society.

“Everything I want I can make true in my life,” says Gonzales. “It’s confidence. If you have truth, confidence and determination … everything is possible. I can decide and design the life I want and have it.”

And he has. Gonzales worked as a photographer for an international magazine for three years, he worked for Delta airlines, he learned to scuba dive off the coasts of Brazil, he played professional rugby in France, he’s worked as a personal trainer and he owned a landscaping company. “I like the difficult things,” he says. “Every part of history to my life is big.”

One of his bigger moments came, Gonzales says, when he began getting acclaim for his photography and seeing the seedier side of journalism. He once was asked to take a picture of a prominent South American lawyer caught in an affair. So on a Brazilian beach, he found them, and he photographed him holding hands with his mistress. The controversy surrounding the picture is what drove Gonzales out of the field. “I am a journalist. We are the worst people in the world,” he says. “Where’s the love man?”

Each job tells another story. And he is not finished yet. “There are many things I long to do,” he says.

When’s he not playing music, Gonzales still plays rugby for the Boston Irish Wolfhounds and has since 2003. He loves the game. “It’s a gentleman’s sport,” he says proudly.

One of his teammates, Mike Kerry, spoke of Gonzales in an excited Irish brogue. “He’s a good guy,” he said. “Workways, he seems to have always jumped around to different things. But he seems to have found his niche … seems to be happier playin’ the music.”

“I am happy,” Gonzales says. “It’s not only the music, it’s the way I am.”

“I like the guitar,” he says. And pauses to grin. “I like food.” And though he makes a living strumming the guitar, he plays for the love of it and for the people who listen. “It’s not about the money,” he says again. “It’s an exchange of peace.”

“Everybody is afraid,” he says, of the economy, of Iran, of the swine flu. Gonzales plays for them.

There is a man who passes him by often, a Boston judge, who once remarked to him, “your music gives me a lot of peace,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales, who believes in karma, says “peace and love” are the only things he carries, and distributes alongside the music.

“I have many good things to give. I don’t want one person to say I didn’t learn one good thing. Wherever I’m going, I’m bringing peace.”

It is up to him, where that may be. Perhaps a professional rugby coach, perhaps back to Delta. But one thing is for sure, Gonzales is not scared of anything,

“Each time you pull me down, I go up,” he grins broadly. “And when I die, I wanna be like this.”

In an age where people have films and video games to do the imaging for them, a new type of literature is emerging to bring the characters and stories into the reader’s world for a change. Sean Stewart, Jordan Weisman and Cathy Briggs, the co-authors, illustrators, and creators of a book series with a fully functioning understand the need for this change and have fused the gap between books, technology and their audience with their novels “Cathy’s Book,” “Cathy’s Key” and the upcoming “Cathy’s Ring.”

The “Cathy” series is part of a new genre dubbed “interactive fiction” and comes complete with working telephone numbers, websites and e-mail addresses — bringing the characters to life in the reader’s world. “Cathy’s” author, Sean Stewart claimed, “This kind of interactive entertainment will surely be to the 21st century what film was to the 20th in terms of being the defining art form.”

From what Blast has seen so far, there’s a definite possibility for this prediction to become reality.

The idea behind interactive fiction was born in 2001 when Stewart was hired to be involved in a project building a fully functional online world surrounding the Stephen Spielberg movie “A.I.” The project, dubbed “The Beast” due to its dauntingly huge list of requirements, entailed creating the world of this movie so that even five months before it came out, people could go to the website, which was according to Stewart, “literally hundreds or thousands of web pages deep”.

“You’ll go to a person’s blog and it’ll look like a real blog, except in the future . . . it’ll have a link of where they went to school, which then has links for 60 or so departments, all of which are up and running. When you e-mail these people, they will e-mail you back. We’re going to create a world and actually let you touch it. Instead of watching what happens to Lucy when she goes through the wardrobe to Narnia, we’ll let you go through the wardrobe yourself and see and touch Narnia as much as you can.”

The problem was, once the movie came out and the project was finished, it was left for dead. Stewart found himself and his colleagues saying, “that was really cool but now it’s over and people can’t play anymore because it’s over,” so they had no choice but to move on.

In creating “Cathy’s Book” and the subsequent sequels, Stewart and Weisman wanted to make sure that people could come across the series five years later and still play along. Running Press is set to release “Cathy’s Ring,” the third book in the New York Times bestselling teen trilogy. Despite the approaching end to the series, people will be able to enjoy the interactivity for a long time to come. The co-authors also wanted to make sure that it could stand alone as any other book would without the addition of its real-life communicative capabilities.

“We built it with a very simple premise: if all you ever did was just read the words of the book, that should be a great experience and you should feel fully satisfied, that by itself, should work as a book,” they said.

And it does. The story on its own is compelling and relatable, yet wildly fantastic — ready to compete with any other young adult series out there, complete with immortal boyfriends, Asian assassins, and witty banter. However, despite the inherent fantasy of the plot, opening the book itself brings you into a strange false sense of reality.

The series’ illustrator, Cathy Briggs, had a lot to do with this. Each page’s margins are covered in sketch-like illustrations, as if the artistic Cathy Vickers — the protagonist — drew these doodles while writing in her journal. Each drawing carries significance to what is happening on the particular page, and every now and then there will be little scratched in commentaries about what is printed.

Needless to say, Stewart and Briggs had to work together on this one. Stewart explained the process, saying “Jordan Weisman and I will usually talk about what we’re thinking of doing in a book and then I will go off and write the book and then send in a manuscript and we’ll go through revisions. Then I’ll sit down and write down some ideas for illustrations.”

After jotting down the ideas, Stewart and Brigg would collaborate on what drawings to include on each page, and were definitely on the same page about one aspect of the illustrations: they should not interrupt the reading of the story.

“A lot of the doodles and illustrations should be in the background and a second read, not a distraction, but yeah, we worked quite closely on developing what those illustrations should be,” Brigg explained.

Stewart conveyed the same idea: “It works the same way that a soundtrack in a movie does”.

Even as a background, it is hard not to consider how time consuming illustrating every page of a novel could be.

“It was quite intense,” Brigg admitted. “My hand was definitely falling off by the end. Some of them look quite sketchy — very crude, almost — but even so, they take quite a lot of time.”

You might have noticed the “Cathy” similarity as well – it’s no coincidence, Cathy the character is based off of Cathy the illustrator.

It was mid-day. Northeastern University student Sarah Alverston was sitting in the library staring blankly into a textbook that she couldn’t seem to focus on. She just had a fight with her boyfriend, and she knew she wouldn’t get anything done until she talked to him. So she sent him a text message.

“Sorry about earlier,” it said. “I’ve just been stressed out about other things. Want to meet me at the library? I want to see you.”

About 15 minutes later her boyfriend, Josh, walked up to her table on the second floor. He sat down and apologized as well for being stubborn. Then he gave her a look.

That look.

She knew what that look was for, and she whispered to him, “I can’t leave the library right now I have too much to do.”

But he told her it didn’t matter and winked. He motioned to one of the group study rooms. At first she thought he was crazy. There were people sitting right outside the room. Half of the door to the room was made of glass. There was no way. But then she got a rush of excitement and thought why not? It would be a great story to tell.

Alverston is certainly not the only college student who has performed sexual acts in public. One sophomore at Northeastern, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said that part of her job when she worked at the library was to make sure no one was doing things “they weren’t supposed to be doing.”

Last year during Northeastern’s annual sex week, a magazine was put together full of articles about sex. The magazine was called “Stripped” and contained a list of “Top Ten Places to Have Sex on Campus.” The list included places like the college’s underground tunnel network and the saunas at the gym. Number one was the library.

“I know tons of people who have had sex in public places,” said Alverston, in a recent interview. “I thought it sounded fun but I never planned on actually doing it.”

Other students have admitted to similar sexual experiences, the scenes ranging from dorm showers to parking lots. Jordana Kerr, a sophomore psychology major at Northeastern admitted to doing the deed in one of the school’s indoor gymnasiums.

“I worked there life guarding,” said Kerr. “(My boyfriend and I) didn’t get a lot of alone time because we both had roommates. One night he came to visit me and we ended up having sex in the racquetball courts. It was thrilling and it was a fun experience.”

However, if someone were to get caught, the student conduct handbook mentions these types of incidents would be handled as “sexual misconduct.”

Despite prohibitions and threat of punishment, many popular television shows portray sex in public as a natural and desirable activity. An episode of Sex and the City deals with a man who can only have sex if he thinks he might get caught. An episode of Friends includes a discussion about the craziest place the characters had ever “done it.” Even Homer and Marge Simpson rekindle their sex life by doing the deed at a miniature golf course.

This generation did not invent the idea of having sex in a place besides a bed. The openness and in-your-face style however, is something new.

John D’Emilio, author of the book “Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America,” thinks that every generation feels the need to be riskier than the one before it.

“It’s almost as if young people are pushing the boundaries one step further,” said D’Emilio. “Fifty years ago co-ed dorms didn’t exist, and now they do. And there’s no longer a curfew either. If you want to break the boundaries, you have to find a new way to do that.”

How Sex Has Changed

Public displays of affection are a pretty common sight around the streets of Barcelona. Media credit/mmoorr via Flickr

Alverston’s reason for having sex in the library was different from Kerr’s reason for having sex in the racquetball courts. Both of their parents however, probably didn’t think of performing a sexual act anywhere public, for any reason.

According to experts, each generation has had a different attitude about sex and adopted different ways of expressing themselves sexually as a reflection of the beliefs at the time. Sex in public did not used to be a normal practice. D’Emilio relates this trend back to the end of the 1800’s, when it was looked at with disgust.

“At the end of the nineteenth century there was public sex emerging,” said D’Emilio. “But it took place in neighborhoods that were deemed to be sex neighborhoods like red light districts where there was prostitution. This behavior was outrageous at the time.”

Those who were not labeled as outcasts of society kept sexual acts very private. It wasn’t until the emergence of automobiles and their growing popularity did that change. At a time when mobilization was much more plausible, couples began courting in their cars. Whether taking one another on dates to the movies or a remote place for privacy, sex began to move out of the bedroom for young people.

Sex was still relatively private though, and society built structure around this principle. Gina Ogden, a sexual therapist from Cambridge said sex was purposefully very repressed in the minds and practices of people in the past.

“Before and after the explosion of sex in the 60s and 70s, people were very constrained in their thinking of sex,” said Ogden. “There were male and female dorms. There was much less ability to be overtly sexual. During the Reagan years, I was a school psychologist at a boarding school. There was a big movement against ‘public display of affection,’ and people were getting expelled for holding hands. It was awful.”

The shift in how society views sex and also how people express themselves sexually has been a drastic one since then. D’Emilio thinks that societal acceptance plays a big role.

“What has really changed since then is that the assumption has become that young people will have sex before marriage. That’s just normal,” D’Emilio said. “It doesn’t push the boundaries.”

The filmmakers took a break between shots to adjust the camera and lighting for the next take. As they reviewed the previous shots, their star received a make-up touch-up. The bright lights were causing his white face paint and green hair dye to run.

When they were ready to resume, the actor once again repeated his lines, strutting around in his green vest and purple suit, flicking his tongue out over his lips in an awkward habit.

The filmmakers cut the scene and congratulated each other on the success. They were filming a new Batman movie that took place two months after the conclusion of July’s blockbuster, “The Dark Knight.” It was their first filming session, and the groups of filmmakers were making great progress.

Their star went to drink some water between takes and was greeted by the owner of the house they were filming in. “Nice makeup,” she said.

They were not on a sound stage or the lot of a billion-dollar production. The actor playing The Joker was not a Hollywood prima donna but mild-mannered 21-year-old Craig Deering of Illinois.

The house’s owner was Deering’s best friend and fellow film maker Allen Murphy’s great aunt Mary’s. While watching the filming, she told her nephew that while she always supported the arts and was glad to help, she had not expected college students running around her house dressed as Batman and an evil clown.

“She watched a little bit through a window and like peered in a couple time, and I think she might have freaked out a little bit,” said Deering.

“In my family, she should have known better,” Murphy, 20, joked.

With their initial success tucked away, the guys decided to venture into feature-length territory. (Photo by Dan Drake)

Deering and the rest of the filmmakers are part of Evil Iguana Productions. The group creates and posts their films on YouTube and suddenly blew up when they spoofed “The Dark Knight” trailer in the summer.

The filmmakers are a bunch of college kids who have been making movies together since high school with nothing but Deering’s father’s video camera and some editing software.

It wasn’t until July when the group released “The Dark Knight” spoof that they became stars. In the four months since its release, the video has received over 5 million views. Their new Batman movie is a follow-up to their spoof of “The Dark Knight” trailer that they released in July.

“I am like really happy that it is getting that good of reviews and like people are still watching because, honestly, when we were making it, and we were about to release it, I was so scared to release that video because I thought we were going to get shot down,” said Deering sitting down to chat with Blast recently. “(I thought) everyone was going to yell at us for like trying to spoof Batman and telling us it was crap, and I was expecting to take it down. But, all the positive feedback and stuff is great.”

Deering is the director and editor of all of the Evil Iguana videos, and also came up with the ideas for the “The Dark Knight” spoof, as well as the mockeries they made of “Twilight” and “The Number 23.”

–

After the success of their Batman spoof, Deering and the rest of Evil Iguana decided to venture into unknown territory — a 30 to 45 minute serious film about the Joker, set in Christopher Nolan’s Batman universe.

Deering said that making the drama was a challenge and a big change from their previous work.

“This is like by far the most professional we’ve been with a movie, which I thought was really cool, because usually we just get our camera and improvise a lot of stuff,” said Deering.

Two buds

“I was a total nerd (in middle school): big glasses, comb over.  I think my graduating class was like 21, it was really small. I tried my best to fit in with the rest of the class, though I was never considered one of the “cool” guys, but it was alright,” said Deering.

Today, Deering has people requesting to be his friend on Facebook whom he has never met but feel they know him through his Youtube series, “The Allen and Craig Show,” and his various film spoofs.

Robert Scholz took a deep breath as he carefully walked backwards up the stairs. In the distance he could hear shouts from the eager audience and the sound of the MC trying to hold their attention. Scholz tried to move a little faster, but his pace remained constant while friends assisted him from all sides.

He had to walk backwards up the stairs because he was on 10 inch stilts and could not lift his feet high enough to get up the stairs normally. He was off balance because his hands were partially attached to animatronics that controlled arm body armor. He was clad body armor because he was Canti, the friendly robot from the anime series “FLCL.” Scholz was performing in an animation masquerade competition, and the audience wanted their Canti.

Scholz reached the top of the stairs. The attendants in charge of the competition quickly helped him readjust his costume before he walked out onto the stage. They tucked the part of his ponytail that had fallen out from behind his LED mask into his headgear and straightened the jacket that covered his red chest plate. Some of the other contestants for the “master’s level” of the masquerade muttered under their breath about the duct tape being used to hold together Scholz’s leg armor, but all that mattered was that he was finally at the stage entrance in one piece.

Duct-tape or not, he was Canti, and the audience ate it up. Scholz/Canti had been so rushed getting up the stairs that his fingers were not entirely in the animatronic hand armor, making it look like he was giving the audience the middle finger. They didn’t care — they still screamed when he finally took the stage.

Scholz was performing in Anime Boston’s most popular event, the cosplay competition, called The Masquerade. To cosplay is to dress up as a character, — in this case from an anime – and act in their character. This was Scholz’s fifth year cosplaying, and he decided to sign up for the highest level of the contest.

It was only fitting that he wore a costume that took him three years to design and create.

The 5,000 audience members roared as Scholz performed his skit with his two friends. They were pretending that were playing Guitar Hero, and Canti was losing. Scholz accidentally dropped the toy guitar out of his hand because his arm armor had been put on too hastily. Instead of letting it ruin the skit, he just switched to the costume guitar that Canti always carried in the anime series.

By the time the skit was over, Scholz could barely see out of the costume’s visor, which cut off most of his vision. He was not focused on the noise going on around him. All that mattered was that he had finally accomplished what he had set out to do five years ago; compete in his Canti costume.

It took his friends’ wild gesturing at him to make him realize the MC was yelling to him.

“Hey, hey you! Giant red robot! Stop!” cried MC Michael Lee.

Scholz turned around to once again face the audience, and the lights in the auditorium suddenly went black. The audience gasped in wonder as the 204 LEDs attached to his outfit suddenly lit up and created a dazzling light show. By the time the house lights were turned back on, the audience was on its feet cheering for him.

“That’s why I cosplay from anime,” Scholz said, “because of how complete strangers give you praise for your skills at creating them.” 

Anime refers to Japanese animation, and is different from what most Americans view as cartoons. A popular example of anime is the smash hit from the 1990s, “Pokémon”, which exemplifies what is broadly known as the anime “style.” The Japanese Times describes it as “exaggerated physical features such as large eyes, big hair and elongated limbs… and dramatically shaped speech bubbles, speed lines and onomatopoeic, exclamatory typography.”

Scholz said that he started watching anime when he was a kid. “But, like most of the US public we didn’t realize we were watching anime,” he said. “Rerun shows like ‘Speed Racer’ and ‘Battle for the Planets’ were some of the anime I watched back when I could actually willingly wake up before sunrise [to watch them].”

Scholz is the son of two German immigrants and a first generation American. He says because of that he tended to think “outside of the states” and that it was during his trips to Germany with his parents that he originally developed an interest in anime and manga. His parents supported his interest in a culture different from his own.

“I was the first person in middle school and high school to get onto the ‘Sailor Moon’ and ‘Dragon Ball Z’ kick,” Scholz said. When the animes were still aired on Sunday mornings, Scholz would set his alarm clock early enough to be able to watch them. After they were moved to weekday mornings, he learned to time driving to high school around them.

Anime originated in Japan in the 60s, but didn’t really begin to grow as a major cultural export until the 80s and 90s. While early hits began with “Robotech” and “Dragon Ball Z,” today’s American audiences are following hits like “Naruto” and “Bleach.”

These animes are more action-based, or “shonen,” animes and generally are geared towards young boys. They tend to focus around cultural aspects that are specific to Japan. “Naruto” follows the story of a boy who wants to be a ninja. “Robotech” and “Dragon Ball Z” both have to deal with select characters defending their worlds from alien invaders. They use advanced technology to achieve their aims.

Japan is well known for its advances in technology, and this obsession with machinery is evident in most animes. The weapons used in “Bleach,” such as the katana, mimick those used by samurai in feudal Japan. The fantastical elements and intense plot lines make it easy for young viewers to be drawn into the worlds created through these popular animes while accepting the subtle aspects of Japanese culture in them.

When animes are brought to American television, they are often altered in content to satisfy conservative television studios. The animes are dubbed English before they are aired, and the translation can end up being extremely different from the original dialogue.

For example, in one episode of the Japanese version of “Sailor Moon,” there is a scene where one of the characters is nervous about getting into a hot spring, but his parents convinced him it was okay because only family was in there as well. However, the English dub changed it so that the boy says the water smells funny, and his father replies with “That’s just the sulfur in the water, you’ll get used to it”, followed by his mother saying “It’s not so bad smelling like rotten eggs.” This changes the entire meaning of the scene.

Select scenes and even entire episodes can be cut from a series because the American distributors feel that it is unfit for children’s eyes. This was done infamously to Sailor Moon by the television distributor, DiC. In the first season, five of the original Japanese episodes were cut and two episodes were merged to one because of “excess violence”. Also, two of the characters who were lesbians in the original show became cousins in the American televised version.

Andrew Cocuaco, owner of the anime store Tokyo Kid in Cambridge, finds that anime addresses far more mature themes. “[Japanese] don’t have the same hang ups we do,” he said. “You see sexual themes addressed more in anime than you do in regular American television.”

Cocuaco finds that what tends to be aired on television stations like Cartoon Network are the more action-based and fighting animes, while the more intellectual animes like the movie “Five Centimeters Per Second” are left for viewers to discover on their own either from hearsay or via the Internet.

 ”[Anime] is written for adolescents with power fantasies,” he said.

Scholz watches whatever animes his friends introduce to him, be it the newest hit on Cartoon Network or an obscure title found on the Internet.

The UMASS Dartmouth student says that college life really increased his ability to watch anime. Not only did he have access to the internet on a daily basis in order to watch animes through file streaming and sharing, he also had the freedom to venture off to “indie places” in Providence.

He was first introduced to the idea of cosplaying in 2003 at the first Anime Boston convention. It was not until his friend suggested that he dress up for the next years’ convention that Scholz realized that anyone could cosplay, not just models hired for specific character advertisement. He decided to dress up as Vash the Stampede from the popular anime “Trigun”.

Backstage at the masquerade competition, Scholz was nervous about going out in front of the growing audience in his costume. When he peeked out from behind a pillar to look at the growing number of spectators, he was surprised at the screams of excitement his costume elicited from one group of girls.

After his performance, the masquerade coordinator took him aside from the other contestants and suggested that after he received his first award, he should run quickly from the stage because he would be receiving another. “This kind of took the fun out of waiting to find out if I won,” Scholz said. He received two trophies for his costume, as well as numerous prizes.

Anime Boston’s first convention in 2003 drew 4,110 people, including vendors and staff, and had only 14 exhibitors selling anime-related goods. The most recent convention in March drew over 14,000 with 66 vendors, including Cocuaco’s Tokyo Kid.

Scholz returned each year to Anime Boston with a cosplay costume bigger and better than ever. After over three years of working on the project, Scholz introduced his newest masterpiece: the robot Canti from the anime “FLCL”.

“Canti was an inspiration of both genius and insanity,” he says. “With the cosplay world increasing in talent and competing against my past creations I figured I’d go overboard.  I decided on Canti because it was challenging.  Oh, people cut out old computer monitors, but it wasn’t accurate in my eye and vision.”

Scholz pictured a Canti costume that was intricate and honored the anime’s depiction of the robot. In order to do this, he wanted to create a full body suit that would look similar to the metal body Canti had. Instead of the flimsy cardboard cutouts other contestants had used for heads, Scholz wanted to create a head mask that would be able to light up like Canti’s does multiple times during the series. He wanted to make himself into a robot.

The idea seemed brilliant when Scholz first imagined it in 2005. However, after being laid off from his job,  he did not have enough money to continue working on Canti. The fiberglass, plaster, and electronics were all expensive. Scholz was only able to work on building Canti for months at a time because the amount of time and effort it took to put together the pieces of the costume as well as his limited funds. That is why Canti took so long to complete.

“My parents didn’t like my cosplaying until after the first win and I started off to make the next one,” Scholz admits. “My friends enjoyed it; some were amazed by what I put into it. … But when I came to Canti and strived over those years when I had time from occupation and responsibilities, [my parents] found it fun to see it arise from its pieces and were happy to help here and there with electronics and fitting.”

Scholz says that Canti is still in progress, but he presented the costume for the masquerade competition at this year’s Anime Boston regardless. One of the judges said that they saw him as “a walking accessory”.

What the Canti costume did consist of were 204 LEDs, 20 of which were blinking, contained in 14 different sockets on the body armor. Scholz was stilted on 10 inches of piping and plywood covered in foam and fiber glass. He used basic hand animatronics to extend the arm lengths to keep them in proportion with the rest of the body. The body armor was constructed by making plaster shapes and fiber glassing over them.

The final height of the costume rounded out at about 7 and a half feet.

The future looks bright for anime lovers out there. Nickelodeon’s 2004 release of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” produced a show that was an American take on Japanese animation and ended up being extraordinarily popular with a large age-range.

“This equilibrium of thoughts and ideas has influenced a majority of US film and in return has sparked Japan’s creation.  I might be pushing it, but the world might be a better place when we have these medias intermixing,” said Scholz. “Not to say we’ll all become a bean pot, but I feel the growing generations in this time are more understanding and tolerant compared to past generations.”

“Maybe world peace will be found in the global sharing such as anime,” Scholz said. “Yeah, now there’s rambling.”

In a tidy pinstriped suit, bright-blue shirt and golden geometric tie, this 24-year-old with long hair and light chin fuzz could be a grandson of the older woman resting inside the casket. But Tyler Pray is actually a young funeral director, the one who arranged this small service on behalf of an estranged sister who wanted to bury her broken relationship as soon as possible.

With the collar popped on his black trench coat, Tyler grasps a silver bar affixed along the side of a gray container. His father and grandfather help march it out a back door, balancing the weight within.

The three generations of Pray men stand in as pallbearers and family for the petite woman who spent her last few years in a wheelchair. Under soft, pink lighting, she appears asleep in such an unnatural position – hands crossed in front and glasses shielding her closed eyes. An assistant cranks the casket closed and the woman’s body slowly tilts back into place, her stiff, clasped hands freeze in the air as if reaching for one last handshake. The men lift her closed casket into a black hearse. Only 10 people show for the funeral. Two attend the burial.

Still, Tyler makes sure she looks great. He sets her hair in neat curls, dresses her in a stylish leopard-print blouse and brings her pale skin back to its natural glow. It’s a chance to do something for her that she can no longer do for herself.

“It doesn’t do anything to my skin, really, but something that’s really pale, like, look at our hands. They’re red. They’re fleshy. It just makes it look like there’s blood flowing through there again. Not that they’re alive, but just a more natural appearance.”

He flips the blush case over. “Oh god. This is so cheesy,” he says. “This is called Sparkling Wine.”

Reputation is important, not only in the bereavement business, but in this small community. The Pray family handles roughly 150 deaths each year in Charlotte, a town of 8,300 near Michigan’s capital of Lansing. Blunders in this small place don’t go unnoticed.

“I don’t want to put too much red on somebody … if they didn’t wear red lipstick,” Tyler says. “Same as with a man. I want to put color on his lips but look at my lips. They’re a pretty red. And I’m a guy not wearing any makeup.

“When I first introduce people to their person in the casket, a lot of times I’ll kind of read and listen to them, ask them if everything’s OK. And people say, “God she looks terrible. There’s too much red on her.’”

Families suffer the most intense episodes when they enter the home and see their deceased for the first time, he says. They hug and cry uncontrollably; some collapse. But that’s how they deal. And sometimes, the Prays are all that families have. Tyler is most proud when someone says their dead relative – not breathing, laughing, smiling like they once did – looks good.

“People who don’t get a chance to have this final moment always seem to be disconnected with what’s really happening,” he says. “Like it’s not true. Like they’re going to come home tomorrow. But they’re not.”

Tyler walks all of 60 feet to work through a back alley from an old, gray colonial, one of three houses the family owns. It’s a prime location for a job with no set schedule. And he’s made it a hub for his creativity. He stands at the kitchen table flipping through some poetry publications that arrived in the mail today. In another room, a guitar stands upright on display and an old typewriter rests on his desk, both ways for Tyler to turn out inspiration. He’s particular about his feng shui, too, demonstrating how the mounted flat panel TV looks cleaner when the DVD rack isn’t directly underneath. He says the spacious apartment is a peaceful getaway from the extreme hours next door.

Anthony* sits on his bed across from two friends in his Boston apartment. There’s a fan blowing next to his bed. Dave Matthews Band is playing in the background as he takes out his bong and begins to pack it with Salvia extract, a legal drug that grows in the mountainous region of Oaxaca, Mexico. Anthony purchased the drug earlier that day at Kang’s Corner, a head shop and convenience store located on the corner of Gainsborough Street and St. Stephen Street.

The senior music major at Northeastern University takes two hits from the bong and looks at his friends and shrugs. He hasn’t felt anything yet. He then packs the bong again and takes another two hits, this time inhaling more deeply, and for a few moments he appears to be in another world.

“Can I have a glass of water?” Anthony asks his friend. He grips the glass with both hands and seems to be struggling to bring it to his mouth, claiming that the fan is going to blow him away.

Anthony gives up on trying to drink the water. Still holding the glass, he is staring at his friends with a confused look. As he is clearly entering into a deeper stage in his trip Anthony asks, “Who put on the tribal music?”

His reaction demonstrates just some of the effects of smoking Salvia divinorum leaves or extract, sometimes know as Diviner’s Sage. Besides hallucinations, other effects include altered perceptions, change in body temperature and panic. Often among college students like Anthony, Salvia has recently become popular because of its unique effects. It’s also legal in almost every state.

“It’s like your mind is thrown into a centripetal force. Like it’s being pulled away from itself,” said Chris*, who extracts and sells Salvia on his Web site, www.salvialight.com.

Salvia is legal in most states. Other drugs like cocaine, LSD and ecstasy were once legal as well. They were used in a controlled manner for scientific, medicinal and therapeutic purposes. But once the general public got a hold of these drugs and began abusing them, they became regulated and controlled substances.

Dr. Ara DerMarderosian believes the popularity of Salvia has increased because other drugs are not readily available.

“Young people decided they’d get high on something else,” said the professor of pharmacology at University of the Sciences in Pennsylvania.

The recreational misuse of Salvia might lead to increased regulations in the rest of the country, according to DerMarderosian.

“It depends on the generation. If enough people get hurt, eventually it will become illegal,” said DerMarderosian.

Brett Chidester, 17, of Wilmington, Del., committed suicide earlier this year after smoking Salvia. He left a suicide note describing the experiences he had with Salvia, claiming he knew the secrets of life. Sen. Karen Peterson (D – DE) is now trying to get a bill passed that will ban Salvia in the state.

So far, Chidester’s is the only reported incident in which injury appears to be a direct result from using Salvia. For now, Salvia continues to be sold legally, mostly available on the Internet and in head shops.

In 2004, researchers conducted a survey on Salvia, which questioned 500 people and found that certain effects of the drug lingered in some people. For example, 47 percent of those questioned claimed to have increased insight. Also, about 32 percent of users felt like they were floating and claimed that things felt unreal to them.

“I expected it would have the same effect on the brain as LSD does, and was very surprised when they found out it did not. It was very different than anything we’d seen before,” said Jay McLaughlin, a psychology professor at Northeastern University. “Right now, the psychological effects differ, but many people will suffer hallucinations.”

Why Salvia affects the brain the way it does remains a mystery to scientists.

About five minutes after Anthony took those last two hits from his bong, he came back to reality.

“Whoa. That was ridiculous,” he said groggily, rubbing his eyes. He looks at his friends. “I swear you two turned into trees and I was walking through a forest in this like Tarzan outfit. I mean, I could feel myself sitting on the bed, but I was definitely not here.”

Although not primarily popular in the United States in the past, Salvia has been around for hundreds of years, experts say.

Salvia is a plant native to the mountainous region of Oaxaca, Mexico, according to Eduardo Butelman, a research assistant professor at Rockefeller University in New York. Indigenous people use it for traditional medicinal practices, Butelman said.

Salvia has been associated with the Mazatec people, who likely used it in healing rituals, researchers say. According to Butelman, Salvia was used under specific conditions, prescribed in the form of a leaf. The Mazatecs used it to ease the suffering that the sick and dying felt. It was also used to treat certain medical conditions, including headaches, anemia and rheumatoidism, as well as in divination rituals.

Salvia has been found to grow specifically in the Sierra Mazateca region of Oaxaca. The Aztec people inhabited this region between the 13th and 16th centuries, so there has been some speculation as to whether or not they knew of Salvia as well.

“It’s a form of communication with a higher force,” said Chris, who uses Salvia as well as sells it.

The Mazatecs believed that Salvia had magical powers and that spiritualists could travel to heaven and communicate with God and other religious figures when taking it.

“It was used for thousands of years in Mexico, not as frivolously, but in a more religious and cautious way. It was used occasionally, they had no problems with it,” said DerMarderosian.

In the 1960s, the plant was not widely known in the United States, but this is when it was first brought to the attention of western ethnobotanists.

“Once it came here, it was more prevalent in psychedelic communities,” said Prisinzano.

As a result of limited research and little data, there were some unclear reports made about the psychoactivity of Salvia, according to Butelman.

The psychoactivity of Salvia was confirmed in the early 1990s. It became very popular in the states, mainly due to its being legal. The increasing popularity of the Internet allowed the plant to be sold commercially. Although there was an increasing scientific interest in Salvia at this time, the careless usage of the drug also began.

“It’s not going to be safe in all situations, said Butelman. “Uncontrolled use will probably lead to problems.”

Salvia has positive, neutral and negative effects on its users. People may experience all three kinds of effects while they’re smoking, while some only experience one type.

Some positive effects include a dreamlike experience and heightened insight. Neutral effects consist of a change in consciousness, the feeling of entering an alternate reality and a sensation of pressure or wind.

The negative effects, which are often the most intense, include strong feelings of panic or terror in the user.

“It produces disphoria—which is the opposite of euphoria,” said McLaughlin. “It’s been tested in animal models, and I can tell you that they hate this drug and will do a great deal to get away from it.”

Each letter of Salvia represents one of the six stages of the trip many users experience.

According to Chris, Salvia is like Zen. It teaches the mind to get to a quiet state of nothingness, and changes a person’s ability to think and perceive. People tend to lose reality.

“The experiences one has on Salvia are out of this world. Literally,” said Chris.

The first stage is called ‘subtle effects.’ When this stage is reached, many users feel extremely relaxed. They know that something is happening, but they cannot quite say what it is. It is the mildest level of Salvia, and can be used for meditation.

The experience that electrical engineering major Thomas* had could be considered the first stage of Salvia.

“It didn’t really have much an effect on me,” the Northeastern University sophomore said. “I felt pretty chill, but that’s it. I saw some people do some crazy shit when they smoked it though.”

The next stage is called the ‘altered perception’ stage, during which users pay close attention to colors around them and also may have a greater appreciation to music. There are no visions or hallucinations during this stage. Also, people who reach this stage have trouble rationalizing a situation.

When Stephanie* tried Salvia in her dorm, she remembers thinking to herself after one hit, “Where am I? Why am I here?”

‘Light visionary state’ is the third stage of Salvia. Many users will see things, but only with their eyes closed. They might see objects, patterns or designs. Apparently, at this stage the person will not mistake these images for reality.

After Stephanie* took that first hit, her friend told her to try it again.

“That’s when it really hit me,” said the freshman in the school of general studies at Northeastern. “I turned around from the window and free fell backwards onto the floor. I guess I was just like feeling the rug and staring at my friends, but I didn’t see them, I saw crazy things– like my parents dragging me away saying I was on drugs and this woman dressed in orange. It was definitely a trip.”

Stephanie was experiencing the fourth stage, or ‘vivid visionary state.’ During this stage, seemingly realistic scenes can occur and voices can be heard. Everything is three-dimensional. The user won’t be completely disconnected with reality if his or her eyes are kept open. There is a chance one will enter into a surreal atmosphere or scene. If the user’s eyes are closed, he or she may believe what they are seeing or feeling is really happening.

“The hallucinations can be anything. It depends how mature the person is,” said DerMarderosian. “You could end up harming yourself because your sensory system is disturbed. Who knows, you can end up electrocuting yourself.”

Steve*, a Northeastern University sophomore civil and environment engineering major, said he had a very unpleasant experience with Salvia and vows never to smoke Salvia again. After he took a hit, he looked down and saw that his legs turned into his bed posts, his feet cinderblocks.

“I tried, but there was no way for me to move my feet,” Steve said.

When he looked around this room, he did not recognize his surroundings, and a sense of fear came over him. He believed he saw a cartoon-like house with a station wagon in the driveway.

“Three dancing shapes came out of the house, a circle, a square and a triangle. They had legs and arms; they kind of looked like stick figures. They were like dancing back and forth singing some weird song,” he said.

These shapes apparently asked him to get into their car, but because he believed his feet were cinderblocks, he could not move to do so. His friend, who was sleeping on the floor during this entire time, suddenly yelled, “What the hell are you doing?” and brought him back to reality.

Steve had apparently picked up a fan that was in the window and threw it at his friend. Only then did he realize the house and the shapes were only hallucinations.

“I looked down and saw that my legs were back to normal,” he said. “But I had a throbbing headache and my clothes were drenched in sweat.”

Steve had also experienced the ‘vivid visionary state’ of Salvia.

The fifth stage is called the ‘immaterial existence’ stage. The user’s individuality can be lost at this stage, something Chris experienced.

“All of a sudden I saw myself split into two people, then four, then eight, then 16. Within two minutes, I saw billions of me all over the earth. I was thinking, there’s no way I’m going to find me,” he said. “I didn’t even realize I was me because I kept splitting into pieces.”

It was this specific time that Chris smoked Salvia that he was determined to not let it control him. Doing this made his experience much worse.

“Just see wherever it takes you,” he said. “If you try to fight it, you’re going to lose.”

At this stage, some people also feel they merge with God or even an inanimate object, like a wall or chair. One time, Anthony felt like the whole left side of his body somehow became part of his couch.

This can be a dangerous stage because it is nearly impossible to function in reality. This may be terrifying or pleasant to the person who has taken Salvia.

“It’s like your brain shuts off and reboots,” said Anthony.

The final and most dangerous stage of Salvia is called the ‘amnesic effects’ stage. Consciousness is lost. If it isn’t, the user may not be able to recall what they have experienced. The can also obtain injuries without feeling any pain.

“It’s what I could call a natural anesthetic,” said Chris. “It numbs you.”

Northeastern students Seth* and Lucas* first heard about Salvia from a friend in January.

“I was like ‘oh man, I’ve got to get some of that,’” said Seth, a freshman criminal justice major.

So he went to Kang’s Corner and bought Salvia extract. The pair headed over to the Back Bay Fens on Park Drive with another friend one night to try it out.

“It hit me so fast,” said Seth. “I felt like I wasn’t in the same place anymore, I was in this new world. I remember feeling like I was a stone statue. I touched my arm and it felt rough, kind of like the corner of a sidewalk.”

Seth also said he thought that he and his two friends were part of a KFC sculpture. He passed the bowl to Lucas, who then took two hits of Salvia.

“After the hits, I suddenly felt it come over me. The sky turned bright, and when I looked over at my friends, they were characters in a children’s book and the pages were flipping and I thought if the last page turned the world would end,” said Lucas, a freshman business major.

It also seemed like “one big deja vu” for Lucas. He knew everything that was going to happen before it did.

Seth recalls when one of his other friends tried Salvia for the first time.

“Another time, the first time one of my other friends did it, he thought he was building a house with toilet paper,” he said. “He thought the toilet paper was like flowing from his mouth…and he kept asking everyone to get out of his house.”

As for the future of Salvia, no one can really predict what is to come.

Because it’s controlled in other countries and a few states, there’s a good chance it will become illegal in all 50 states soon enough. At first, the government was not sure of the effects Salvia had on the mind, but now they can classify it, which means they can control it.

“There’s too much hype now,” according to Chris, who claims Salvia has become more of a household name in the past five years. He believes it will become illegal sooner than later because of its growing popularity.

Some people believe that herbals should not be used unless they are controlled. Dr. Eugene Bernstein, professor of alternative medicine at Northeastern University, believes that everything in nature is toxic.

“There are no innocent substances in nature,” said Bernstein. “Anyway, they are not so natural, being contaminated by the changing environment…but the general public regards herbals as natural and good for their health.”

He describes many herbals as having “honeymoon periods.” At first, everything is fine, but after the honeymoon, life happens, he said. It’s not so nice after that.

“Herbals can be harmful, he said. “They are potent, dangerous.”

There are some indications, however, that Salvia might be useful for depression, pain relief or to help cure opium addiction. But because it is still fairly new in the United States, there are no formal studies that have been done on humans to support these ideas.

For now, the main reasons people seem to smoke Salvia are either to get high legally, or to partake in a spiritual experience. It is not only students who are attracted to these strange effects of Salvia. Many people are interested in this mysterious drug.

“It’s a spiritual type of altered reality,” Chris said. “It attracts all types of people. I’ve sold it to judges, politicians, officers, attorneys, punk rockers.”

Many people try Salvia out of curiosity. They want to see what is going to happen. They want to experience this altered state of mind. This is not always safe, especially if an individual is to reach the final stage of Salvia.

“Something that never happened before is taking place,” said Bernstein “Now is a unique time. The population is testing the drug on itself.”

Most students who were interviewed said they enjoyed the experiences they had on Salvia.

“It was pretty intense,” said Lucas, “but I’d do it again.”

As for the future of Salvia, no one can really predict what is to come.

Because it’s controlled in other countries and a few states, there’s a good chance it will become illegal in all 50 states soon enough. At first, the government was not sure of the effects Salvia had on the mind, but now they can classify it, which means they can control it.

“There’s too much hype now,” said Chaz, who claims Salvia has become more of a household name in the past five years. He believes it will become illegal sooner than later because of its growing popularity.

Some people believe that herbals should not be used unless they are controlled. Dr. Eugene Bernstein, professor of alternative medicine at Northeastern University, believes that everything in nature is toxic.

“There are no innocent substances in nature,” said Bernstein. “Anyway, they are not so natural, being contaminated by the changing environment…but the general public regards herbals as natural and good for their health.”

He describes many herbals as having “honeymoon periods.” At first, everything is fine, but after the honeymoon, life happens, he said. It’s not so nice after that.

“Herbals can be harmful,” he said. “They are potent, dangerous.”

There are some indications however, that Salvia might be useful for depression, pain relief or to help cure opium addiction. But because it is still fairly new in the United States, there are no formal studies that have been done on humans to support these ideas.

For now, the main reasons people seem to smoke Salvia are either to get high legally, or to partake in a spiritual experience. It is not only students who are attracted to these strange effects of Salvia. Many people are interested in this mysterious drug.

“It’s a spiritual type of altered reality,” Chaz said. “It attracts all types of people. I’ve sold it to judges, politicians, officers, attorneys, punk rockers.”

Many people try Salvia out of curiosity. They want to see what is going to happen. They want to experience this altered state of mind. This is not always safe, especially if an individual is to reach the final stage of Salvia.

“Something that never happened before is taking place,” said Bernstein “Now is a unique time. The population is testing the drug on itself.”

Salvia is Illegal in:

• Australia since June 1, 2002
• Belgium – Salvia divinorum was added to a list of “illegal products” in May 2006.
• Denmark since August 23, 2003
• Estonia since April 2005 – Salvia divinorum is listed as a medicinal herb that requires a doctor’s prescription
• Finland since August 2002, unless with a relevant prescription from a doctor
• Italy since January 11, 2005, the sale and possession of Salvia divinorum and salvinorin A are illegal
• Japan – Salvinorin A is one of the thirthy-three controlled substances that has been said to be banned under a pharmaceutic law that should have taken effect since April 2007
• Norway – In 2002, The National Health Council of Norway has listed Salvia divinorum as a medicinal herb that requires a doctor’s prescription
• Spain since January 28, 2004
• South Korea – as of January 2005, both Salvia divinorum and Salvinorin A are controlled
• Sweden since April 1, 2006
• The United States: Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Delaware, Maine and North Dakota are the only states in the USA that have laws prohibiting possession of Salvia divinorum. (Illinois recently passed legislation that will make Salvia divinorum a schedule I contolled substance in that state beginning January 1, 2008.) Louisiana and Oklahoma have provisions in their laws that allow possession of the plant when it is not intended for human consumption. In Oklahoma, plain Salvia divinorum is legal, but extract-enhanced leaves are not. The state of Maine only prohibits possesion by minors. Possesion remains legal for adults in Maine; however, it is illegal for adults to sell or transfer Salvia divinorum to anyone under 18 years of age. Salvia divinorum is entirely legal in all other states. However, law makers in several other states are currently considering legislative bills that seek to ban Salvia divinorum in those states (see below).
• Louisiana – The new law, Act No. 159, went into effect on August 15, 2005 (Strain et al. 2005). Thus Louisiana became the first state in the USA to criminalize Salvia divinorum
• Missouri – Salvia divinorum and salvinorin A also became Schedule I substances in the state of Missouri
• Tennessee – A bill passed that classifies the knowing production, manufacture, distribution, or possession of the active chemical ingredient in the hallucinogenic plant Salvia divinorum as a Class A crime. It went into effect on July 1, 2006
• Oklahoma – On May 26, 2006 Salvia divinorum was added to the list of controlled substances
• Delaware – On March 16, 2006, Salvia divinorum was made a Schedule I controlled substance in that state
• Maine – A bill was signed into law on May 15, 2007, that regulates salvia in the same way tobacco products are regulated in Maine. Adults 18 and over could legally purchase and use the material. Selling or providing Salvia divinorum or salvinorin A to anyone under the age of 18 would be a criminal offense

Salvia Under discussion

• Germany – Since May 2006 it is illegal to sell Salvia products in shops that are not drugstores. According to Erowid, as of July 2007, the BfArM may be considering scheduling Salvia divinorum and all of its parts
• Russia – Salvia divinorum is not controlled or illegal in the Russian Federation. However, information from “Timiryazevskaya Agricultural Academy” (botanical academy) and GNK officials (DEA-like organisation in Russia) suggest that the Russian authorities plan to control Salvia divinorum by mid-2007 (Erowid)
• United Kingdom – On October 19, 2005, John Mann, Member of Parliament, tabled an Early Day Motion urging the government to ban Salvia divinorum under the provisions of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (Anon. 2005b; Mann 2005). So far, no further steps have been taken to ban Salvia divinorum in the United Kingdom (The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center)
• US – Federal Legislation – The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is presently studying Salvia divinorum and salvinorin A, and is considering whether or not they present a risk to public safety that would justify making them controlled substances (and consequently further infringing on the personal freedoms of American citizens). In July 2007, it became known that the DEA had recently initiated an Eight Factor Analysis of Salvia divinorum. The Controlled Substances Act requires that this analysis be performed before a substance can be scheduled as a controlled substance. The eight factors considered are:
  • Actual and potential for abuse
  • Pharmacology
  • Other current scientific knowledge
  • History and current pattern of abuse
  • Scope, duration, and significance of abuse
  • Public health risk
  • Dependence liability
  • If an immediate precursor of a controlled substance

Based on the results of the analysis, the DEA may recommend that Salvia divinorum be scheduled as a controlled substance. This analysis will probably take several months to be completed. If they do decide to criminalize it, it will take a minimum of 30 days after they give public notice of their intentions in the Federal Register before the change of legal status takes effect. (The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center).

Oregon
On January 25 of 2007, Representative John Lim (R) introduced House Bill 2494 to the Oregon State Legislature. If passed, this legislation would make Salvia divinorum and salvinorin A Schedule I controlled substances in that state.

New York
On February 8, 2007, the bill that would make possession of Salvia divinorum a crime punishable by a $ 50 fine passed in the senate. It is now being considered by the State Assembly.

Illinois
A proposed law that implies that any substance extracted from Salvia divinorum (water, chlorophyll, whatever) would be treated as a Schedule I controlled substance will probably go into effect on January 1, 2008.

Wyoming
Salvia divinorum is still legal here.

Alaska
On January 16, 2007, a legislation on Salvia was reintroduced but has yet not passed.

New Jersey
Two bills were introduced that would classify Salvia divinorum and salvinorin A as Schedule I controlled substances in New Jersey. As of today, neither bill has come up for a vote.

Pennsylvania
Since May 2, 2006 several “Salvia bills” have been introduced to the Pennsylvania State Legislature. None of them has passed yet.

Virginia
On January 10, 2007 a bill was introduced that seeks to add salvinorin A to that state’s list of Schedule I controlled substances. The text of the bill only mentions salvinorin A. It has not yet come up for a vote.

Iowa
On January 18, 2007, the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy introduced Senate Study Bill 1051 to the Iowa State Legislature. This bill seeks to add Salvia divinorum and salvinorin A to that state’s list of Schedule I controlled substances. If passed, the bill would make it a serious misdemeanor to manufacture, deliver, or possess Salvia.

Utah
On January 18, 2007, a bill that seeks to add Salvia divinorum to that state’s list of Schedule I controlled substances was introduced, but has not yet come up for a vote.

California
On February 5, 2007, a bill was introduced to the California State Legislature which would make Salvia divinorum a Schedule I controlled substance in that state. It was defeated by committee vote, but a reconsideration (for which no date was set) was granted.

Florida
In Spring 2007 one “Salvia bill” died in committee, so it is still a legal substance.

Georgia
On March 1, 2007, a bill was introduced that classifies the knowing production, manufacture, distribution, or possession of the active chemical ingredient in the hallucinogenic plant Salvia divinorum as a Class A crime. It has not yet come up for a vote.

Texas
Two “Salvia bills” that would make Salvia into a Schedule I drug are now being considered by the House. If either bill is enacted, the new law would take effect on September 1, 2007.

Ohio
On May 9, 2007, a bill was introduced. If passed, this legislation would make Salvia divinorum a Schedule I controlled substance in that state.

*Names of some sources changed to protect their identities

This is a Blast Magazine Enterprise piece.

Sitting up against a mound of pillows legs stretched over a deep blue comforter Mike and his girlfriend are like any other couple studying on a Sunday afternoon. She is frustrated that she hasn’t mastered her Italian flash cards and keeps repeating verb conjugations. Their feet are flirtatiously entangled while Mike stares intently into a large history notebook.

With a slam of a flash card she gives Mike a frustrated look and he intuitively reaches for a blue box that’s sitting on the nightstand. He pulls out a blue and green swirled pipe followed by a bag of marijuana. A smile crosses Mike’s face as he fills the pipe and passes it to his girlfriend. She lights it, breaths in deeply and the room fills with a thin fog of smoke.

Mike then lights the pipe, breaths in, chuckles and said, “I smoke every day and I make dean’s list. Smoking quiets everything in my mind so I can concentrate.”

The days of the “stoners” lying on the grass in hippie attire, munching on snacks and going nowhere with their lives has disappeared. The typical “stoner” has been replaced with a well-dressed, put-together college student who does well in school and blends in seamlessly with the rest of the student body. The magical marijuana that allowed the cast of the movie “How High” to ace their Harvard entrance exam may be closer to the reality then once believed. Students are smoking cannabis while studying, writing papers and taking tests and doing extremely well while they’re at school.

Scientist and doctors have been searching for data to back up this phenomenon, but have only come to a few contradicting theories. There is evidence to back up the hypothesis that marijuana has no negative long-term memory effects on a smoker, even a long-term user. Yet, there is little tangible evidence to the short-term effects of cannabis smoking.

“I have seen this claim made,” said Dr. Lester Grinspoon author of several books on the subject including Marihuana Reconsidered and retired faculty member at Harvard Medical School. “I have come across it in anecdotal literature but there is little hard science.”

The stereotype that intellectual cannabis smokers are diverging from can be seen in Kevin Smith’s infamous stoner characters Jay and Silent Bob, who hang out in front of a convenient store all day only moving to smoke a joint around back.

The “stoner” label can also be seen in the movie “Dazed and Confused” as the main character decides to throw away his chances with the football team, joint in hand.

“I think there is a stereotype that people who smoke pot are stoners, and I don’t consider myself a stoner,” said Mike. “With the whole stoner connotation comes the idea that you are not able to do well in school when you’re high and I do very well in school.”

***

Acclaimed as a gateway drug marijuana is the most common used illegal drug in the United States according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Marijuana, which attracted 2.6 million new users in 2002 alone, has no long-term effects or addiction.

“There is no physical dependency so you can stop smoking whenever,” said James Scorzelli a psychology professor at Northeastern University who specializes in drug addiction.

Marijuana is an unusual drug because there is no withdrawal associated with quitting smoking marijuana. It also is an abnormal drug because there are no long-term effects other than the respiratory ramifications that go along with smoking anything.

“Marijuana does not have any permanent toxicity to the brain. It returns to the same as someone’s who does not smoke,” said Harrison Pope, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard University, who has studied the residual effects, the effects of marijuana after you stop smoking, at McLean Hospital.

The general effects of marijuana can be harmful, but not everyone experiences the same negative or positive effects when smoking.

“In terms of the effects of marijuana there is an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, loss of precision skills, short term memory loss, paranoia, relaxation, calmness, a heightening of emotion,” said Scorzelli. “If your happy then you become more happy if you are stressed then you become more stressed. Other effects are sleepiness, poor coordination, and increase in apatite.”

***

There is no explanation for the increased concentration some associate with smoking marijuana.

Scientist have come across little consistency in their findings because the drug effects people in different ways. Some believe that marijuana works like Ritalin or Adderall and allows students who have attention deficit disorder to clear their minds and concentrate on their work. Others connect the ability to study while under the influence and then recall the information during an exam to a psychological learning theory called state dependent learning.

“State dependent learning is that if a person studies under a condition and takes a test some suggest that they would be able to remember that information while in that state,” said Dr. Ethan Russo founder of Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics.

State dependent learning is a psychological theory that can be applied to studying information in any state whether under a chemical influence such as marijuana or an emotional state for example depression. The theory also states that if you learn information while under the influence of a drug then you might not be able to recall it again until you are under the influence again.

Some believe that this theory can be incorporated with the Q theory, another psychology term, in order to explain the effects of marijuana on learning.

“States of drug intake can be Q’s and the Q’s guide certain behavior,” said James Stellar, dean of Northeastern University’s college of arts and sciences and psychology professor.

“If you do a certain drug with someone you begin to associate the drug with the person. Almost to the level that if person X always gives you a drug when you smell their cologne you can revert to the behavior of the drug.”

Therefore it can be inferred that the state of mind you achieve through smoking along with the smell and feelings that relate to the experience could work as a Q to remembering the information studied.

“For some people it is useful, for example a student who has hyperactive ADD syndrome,” said Grinspoon. “I have several patients who suffer from the syndrome who have trouble organizing their thoughts.”

Dr. Grinspoon has worked with many patients who suffer from this syndrome. The problem that people who have ADD face while studying is the inability to concentrate or focus on the task at hand.

“There is one case with a student who used marijuana and then was willing to not use marijuana for a few weeks. It is true, we took it away and it did impact his success in a negative way.”

The science behind the intellectually beneficial effects of smoking marijuana may remain a mystery simply because the areas of the brain it is associated with, one being the endocrine system are newly discovered and are not fully understood.

“There are lots of very bright people who use marijuana and they have the impression this is useful to them,” said Grinspoon.“I find it difficult to say yah or nay on the whole, it can be less than useful for many youth… there is certainly not a dispute that some people have used it in a constructive way with their school work.”

***

The main evidence behind the idea that students are able to study, take tests and write papers high on marijuana is based in the anecdotal testimony given by people who regularly follow this practice.

“When I was in college I started interning at high times, I went to classes high and took a lot of tests high and I did very well,” said Bobby Black writer for High Times, a magazine based on marijuana culture. “One class I took was logic, mathematical and philosophical, and the teacher loved my input.”

Black contributes some of his success in the class, scoring A’s on both his midterm and final, with the increase in concentration and efficiency he gained when smoking marijuana.

“Being high can help you even more because when your brain gets an idea, on an idea, it really runs with it, it can help you focus like you forget about everything else,” said Black. He also point out that this practice does not work for everyone, “If your not used to smoking all the time then you can’t function, but if you do it everyday its your regular phase, it’s like a switch.”

While some students study, take tests and write papers purposely under the influence of marijuana others have experienced the intellectual effects purely because of circumstance.

“It’s not something that I do on purpose. I know it helps some people focus, for me it’s I have to study and I am high,” said Sarah, a junior political science major.

Sarah is an example of someone who is able to learn and recall information while under the influence of marijuana. This ability can be accredited to the state dependent learning theory. Smoking is not an essential factor in her studying, which can be the case for someone who suffers from ADD who uses marijuana to clear the head.

“Sometime I can relate to the material more, sometimes I have been procrastinating for a while and I just happen to be high. It’s sort of something I can do, not something I have to do to concentrate,” said Sarah. “It is easier for me to write papers, the thoughts flow better.”

Sean, a sophomore political science major, who does not directly attribute his academic success to smoking marijuana, has seen a decline in his grades since he was forced to quit for his co-op’s drug test.

“Its been six weeks since I quite smoking and my grades are lower, I don’t know if it is because I quit or my classes just got harder,” said Sean. “My personal opinion is that it has no bearing on how well you do or how well you study. I don’t think it has an effect, negative or positive.”

Though there is some ambiguity on their reliance of smoking marijuana while doing school work, all agree that smoking does help them clear their minds, focus on their work, and organize their thoughts.

“Don’t let anyone tell you that people who smoke all the time aren’t logical,” said Black. “I work high all the time and I get everything done.”

***

The legalization of marijuana is a debate across the country, drawing opinions from regular smokers, government officials, medical experts and the general public. Many organizations have formed for the sole purpose of legalizing marijuana.

“We support the decriminalization of marijuana for consenting adults,” said Jessica Goshor, director or member service for The National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws called NORML. “We participate in lobbying on a state national and local level.”

The future of marijuana, the people who use it and the ability to obtain it is unknown. Some people believe that the legalization of marijuana is imminent based on the lack of dependency and its popularity. Others believe the day when you can buy a joint at the corner store will never come.

“I think that it has the potential to help a lot of people,” said Megan, a junior criminal justice major. “I also understand that there are a lot of other drugs that have been proved to be the same if not less harmful as marijuana that are still illegal. Like some of the studies that proved ecstasy is harmful have been disproved, so if you legalize marijuana you would have to legalize that too.”

The decriminalization of marijuana means that first-time offenders found with a small amount of marijuana intended for personal use will not receive fines, prison time or a record. In Massachusetts where possession of marijuana is considered a misdemeanor the same offender can receive six months in jail and a fine of $500.

“12 states in the U.S. including states as close as Maine have already decriminalized 1 ounce or less of marijuana,” said Bill Downing Director of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition Inc. “They comprise almost half of the population of America, so half of the people in the US live in states that have decriminalized marijuana.”

Downing explains that many first- time offenders in Massachusetts do not receive the maximum punishment. “Most people’s cases have been continued without finding for a period of time, usually 6 months, then it is usually dropped and the person will only have to pay court fees which is from $60- $100.”

Where a person lives can determine the charges they will be faced with. Those in who live in a city are at a greater risk because of the close proximity to schools, elderly housing and public housing. This puts students in an urban school setting, like Northeastern at a greater risk for being charged with the crime of possession with intent to distribute.

“I think legalizing it is a good idea for a number of reasons,” said Sarah. “It could be better regulated and taxed, so it could benefit the government; in some ways it’s like alcohol, lifting the prohibition helped. I think it will never happen because of the federal government and the Christian Evangelists who are running the show.”

The new college “stoner” that has broken the mold could soon be able to smoke legally. The potential national legalization of marijuana may not be imminent, but there are many states that are working toward or have successfully decriminalized possession of marijuana.

“I think that it adds to my quality of life and my educational experience,” said Megan, who regularly does her school work while under the influence of marijuana. “There are a lot of people who feel the same way and I think that will lead to the legalization.”

From an actual Internet Conversation:

BOSTONCHIC:
What’s up for tonight? Any plans? Any idea how Friday looks for lunch?

MUSTANGXX:
Friday ain’t gonna work. I promised my wife I’d go into town with her tomorrow night to go to dinner with some of her friends.

BOSTONCHIC:
I understand about tomorrow. Let me ask you a question though and be totally honest, ok babe? Would you rather scrap the idea about meeting altogether? I feel like I’m badgering you.

MUSTANGXX:
Of course I want you to keep harassing me about getting together!!! Because one of these days, when the time is right, I’m going to absolutely surprise you and show up! I promise

Dana, also known as “BostonChic,” pulls her red Jeep onto a side street next to her South Boston apartment. “It’s nearly impossible to get this good of parking at night,” she said, turning off the engine. Jacketless in November, she walks through the dark alley surrounded by mist and has her key ready when she reaches the front door.

Inside, the hallway smells of potpourri, powder and perfume. The light blue walls and twig wreath hanging on a nail on the front door are comforting signs of home. Keys still in hand, Dana unlocks her door and steps into a small but cozy, modern-deco apartment. She kicks her blue Crocs off in front of the stove, revealing a festive red pedicure–fit for the holiday season–and puts on a pot of coffee. Homemade corn bread sits on the wooden cutting block and she cuts two thick slices.

The picture of domesticity, she takes a seat at the kitchen table, pulls up the sleeves of her gray sweater and blows on her coffee to cool it. Later, after she’s settled in and calmed down from a hectic day working in downtown Boston, Dana will curl her legs under her on the couch, pop open her black laptop and continue a chat she started earlier that day with one of the married men she’s having sex with. There’s been X and Y and Z. Lately, she’s been thinking about adding Q. But tonight, she’s got her sights on her favorite, a man she calls K.

BOSTONCHIC:
Thank you so much for coming out and having lunch with me K. It was great meeting you after all this time. I’m looking forward to getting together again.

MUSTANGXX:
Hey sexy. Thanks for having me down. I had a great time, I’m sorry it took this long for us to finally get together. I can’t wait to do it again….

Thirty-eight-years-old and single, Dana is a savvy Internet guru when it comes to finding what she wants online: sex, especially with married men. Jaded from the dating world and countless first meetings gone awry, many people have turned to the Internet as the quickest and easiest method to fulfill physical needs without the strings.

With a temporary, self-imposed dating ban, Dana is simply looking online for companionship and someone with whom she could spend a few secret hours every once in a while. And the Internet has made her search for hassle-free, no-fuss sex easily.

“It’s convenient,” she admitted. “I don’t have time to go to a bar or a club and pick someone up.”

The youth of the 1960s made an indelible impression on future generations. They clung to ideals hoping to change the world. They reacted to the turbulent times they’d found themselves in by living in the moment. They couldn’t be contained or restrained or controlled.

Edie Sedgwick epitomizes all that was good and bad about growing up in the sixties. She is an icon for Baby Boomers and has become an idol for today’s “Echo Boomers.”

She didn’t consider herself a rebel. She considered herself a “life artist” and wanted to use her medium to tell a story to parents a generation above her.As Sedgwick once told The New York Times “It is not that I’m rebelling. It’s that I’m just trying to find another way.”

“The thing she wanted to say the most was that there was a lot of hypocrisy with the way things had been in the 50s,” said Melissa Painter, co-author of a new book, “Edie: Girl on Fire,” that includes an audio CD of the “Ciao! Manhattan” tapes, her last recorded interviews. “She wanted to be honest… in an outrageous sort of way.”

Sedgwick was much more than aspirational stereotypes allow. She wasn’t simply a socialite; she was glitterati personified. She wasn’t a model; she was a fashion trendsetter and style catalyst. She was not an actress; she was a film star and a muse for filmmakers.

She was brilliant and beautiful beyond words; passionate, playful, spontaneous and reckless.

Today, Sedgwick entices men with her sexuality and her uninhibited soul. She attracts women who want to be like her. Yet she’s been dead for 35 years.

Edie’s History

Sedgwick was born on April 20, 1943, to Alice Delano de Forest Sedgwick and Frances Minturn Sedgwick. Both came from wealthy, well-connected families. Born Edith, she was their sixth child, and grew up in a ranch in California. Her artist father was an adulterous alcoholic; her eccentric mother turned the other cheek at his indiscretions.They sent Edie to boarding school at 13; at 18 she was sent to Silver Hill, a New Canaan, Conn. mental hospital, to treat depression and an eating disorder. When that facility didn’t prove effective, her father admitted her to notoriously strict Bloomingdale, a psychiatric hospital in nearby White Plains, N.Y. While out on a pass from Bloomingdale, she made love with a handsome Harvard man and got pregnant. Edie shared on the Ciao! Manhattan tapes, “I was pregnant and I had psychiatric permission, you know, I could get an abortion without any hassle at all. And then after that, experiences I had making love, I found I had all sorts of hangups.”

Eventually, she left Bloomingdale and headed to straight to Cambridge, Mass., fraternizing with Harvard students and graduates and managing to find ‘the Bohemian epicenter’ in that community.

In 1964, Sedgwick inherited a trust fund from her maternal grandmother and moved to New York. When she arrived in Manhattan, she enjoyed an exorbitant lifestyle, one that included heavy use of amphetamines and alcohol. She shopped, danced, and socialized in an outlandish and extravagant way. In no time, she earned herself a reputation as the party girl to meet and in so doing, attracted legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan and influential pop-artist Andy Warhol. She knew she had become both famous and infamous; she herself said on the “Ciao! Manhattan” tapes, “Wherever I’ve been, I’ve been quite notorious.”

Warhol and Edie fell in love platonically but intensely, and their mutually beneficial relationship became the talk of the town. By her side, Warhol found himself on the guest list of upper-crust soirees. With his direction, Sedgwick found herself appearing on film for the first time.

“Very soon,” Warhol said of his favorite muse in the book, “POPism: The Warhol Sixties,” a collaborative effort between Warhol and his diarist Pat Hackett. “Edie would be innovating her own look that Vogue, Life, and Time and all the other magazines would photograph – long, long earrings with dime store t-shirts over dancer’s tights with a white mink coat thrown over it all.”