HIGH EXPECTATIONS, A PRESENTATION ON VACATION

MICAELA CAROLAN with MISSY HIGHTIMES

“In May of 2010 I became Miss May for High Times Magazine. In addition to the fame and well-deserved title (which will only get better with age), I was given a VIP judging pass to the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, to determine what is the best weed in the world. It was a very hard decision, but many friends were made along the way. As some may say: to build character. These events you are about to see were documented with a hidden camera and audio recorder.”

—Missy HighTimes, 2012

On May 24, 2012, I introduced myself as Missy in a coming-out manner to the public, my public, who voted for her to become Miss High Times back in 2010. As a character who existed only on the Internet and then later overseas in Amsterdam, this was her first local debut in the flesh. I chose Passion Sports Bar & Lounge, a neighborhood hookah bar, to stage the event. The lounge was prepared; balloons inflated, black lights on and mirrored walls adorned with smoky souvenirs, maps and freebie t-shirts from the Cannabis Cup.

The evening was set up like a vaudevillian act: part storytelling, part slide lecture, techno dance party and séance. It was a moment of reflection for Missy as she presented herself on-screen for the first time. As Missy, I lounged back in a DJ booth, microphone in one hand, hookah in the other, casually flipping through surveillance videos and audio snippets of marijuana misadventures both in an explanation and re-iteration of my evolution and purpose.

Over the past two years, Missy and I have evolved together, both in an explanation and re-iteration of my character. The purpose of her existence, since it is also evolving, should include evolution in its own parameters. She is not simply a separate entity but also an object I rationally understand as an appearance created in the likeness of myself, the artist. She is much like a shadow. And as to try to delineate the silhouette of this shadow, I can only define purpose in terms of repetition. It’s open. Open to not ended-ness.