can * nois * seur ( kan' us sur' ), n. One competent to render cridical judgement on the qualities and merits of Cannabis


Heads Up: Re-Leaf my favorite drive-by dispensary located at 1284 Mission @ 9th in San Francisco is holding Hollywood Kush a bright Sativa with the smooth elevation of a private plane.
Both medicinally effective ( i happen to be recovering from a virus ) and
cosmically creative, HK delivers on its name and price, $60 the eighth.
However there are discounts which is one reason i keep returning to this friendly club.

As usual, Grass Roots located at 1077 Post street, offers something old, something new, and a variety of interesting herb. The clinic has the atmosphere of a Victorian London Apothecary and their artfully crafted menu is always a pleasure to peruse. Some nifty items include, Casey Jones, a Sativa cousin of Train Wreck ( trivia questions abound), the lovely White Widow, and a host of Indicas including the venerable Blackberry Kush.

There will be new clubs reviewed on these pages in search of better boo for better living, including some forays into legendary Oaksterdam....


Let Us Be Perfectly Clear: The Way it Really Was

Now in 1962, anyone wearing Levi Jeans was considered to be some sort of working-stiff, blue-collar, drugstore cowboy, gas station attendant type, way down on the food chain. The only people wearing Levis were hobos, horse trainers, poets, painters, some actors, bikers, and folk singers.
In fact-the only place you could buy jeans were low-rent horse equipment stores.
Because, my friends, despite the groundswell, the drumbeats, which included perhaps 2% of the population...The World Was Square!
The hippest sector on the landscape was Playboy Magazine with its new emancipation of man, touting sex, jazz, pot, and money. But the Playboy wardrobe was short on blue denim, long on grey flannel.
So you get my drift, the cultural revolution was still in its adolescence, but it was expanding rapidly, in fact, exponentially, from Harvard to Michigan to Berkley, due to some common denominators. Namely; sex, weed and music.
Added to the mix were returning Vietnam Vets who used speed for combat and the potent jungle herb to come down. Not to mention heroin. They gave the peace-loving poets and folk singers some much needed street cred.
And every time someone turned on a friend, the message was passed, hand to hand to heart...


The Road To Hollywood Is Paved With Mistakes

Okay now you know what the ground rules were back in the day. Everything enlightening, pleasurable or remotely different was suspect, if not downright criminal. You worked until you died, and if you weren't dead you weren't working hard enough. Eyes open, mouth shut and nose to the grindstone. And wear a tie.
To start out with, down in Greenwich Village we didn't need no steenkin' tie. My Boston buddies Jerry Cole, Teddy Bernstein and others, including Rick Lloyd, (who popped in and out of the scene) all favored long hair, tight blue jeans and flamenco boots. And we were getting favorable reactions from ladies of all walks of life. We were starting to put together the first semblance of street fashion. You couldn't really buy the look anywhere, you had to build it yourself.
Now Jerry, a good-looking actor who had studied at Emerson, was right at the forefront, as a student of street culture. He himself had a blond, Steve McQueen, kind of look which could be both intimidating and disarming. Unfortunately he, along with Teddy and Rick had started experimenting with skag in their quest to push the envelope. Of the three Teddy was less a quester, than a junkie and he was the first to O.D. .
It seems Teddy had a connection, so Rick and Jerry gave him cash to cop for them too. Thing was, Teddy was greedy. So he stopped off to give himself an extra shot. Of course he took too much and, he was alone. In the words of Steely Dan, "poor kid, he overdid"...

Recommended Reading: Dispatches by Michael Herr

Recommended Listening: Balance' by Sara Tavares