Episode 61: Jamaica

          After enlisting in the US Navy and spending a year at the Naval Air Technical Training Center, in Millington Tennessee, I managed to get stationed close to home at the Naval Air Station Point Mugu’s Search and Rescue Division. While there, I put a band together with three friends and three female Thai background singers.

         During my fourth year in the Navy, and a few years with the band, I got orders to a munitions ship that would be going to the first Gulf War. I found this turn of events unacceptable according to what I believed and applied for discharge as a conscientious objector.

         This episode has been one of the most difficult to write and read due to the heaviness of the material and so I tried not to edit that heaviness out.

         This story deals with internal struggles in the band and a personal relationship that developed as well as my ordeal with the United States Navy.

This week we check back in with Armen Paronyan, CEO of LA Cannabis to talk about the present state of legal cannabis in California. Armen is a board member of the United Cannabis Business Association here in Southern California and we discuss his dealings with state legislators regarding issues of cannabis tax, regulation, and licensing. 

We find out about various bills proposed to make cannabis tax laws less onerous and fairer. We discover where the industry is currently, and where it’s headed, as well as the future of cannabis nationally. The discussion includes what can be done about California’s onerous Metric system of tagging plants with hundreds of thousands of plastic RFID tags. We talk about AB 1111 and the proposal for cannabis farmers’ markets. 

Armen also explains why LA Cannabis has recently made the switch to organic soil in 5 gallon grow bags after using Rockwell cubes for over a decade in a hydroponic setting. He also tells us about his new strains and the lower prices favoring consumers. Tune in for an in-depth talk with one of the most knowledgeable people in cannabis today.

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We return to the world of cannabis for a talk with Nat Pennington and his daughter Halle Pennington of the Humboldt Seed Company about the origins of cultivars, registering strains in Columbia, searching for landraces in Jamaica, the development of triploids, which I found out has nothing to do with three leaves, old strains, new strains as well as scratch and sniff cannabis and more.

         Welcome to Cali High Episode 65: The Gare Du Nord

         This is the fifth episode in a new series called,  “A Work in Progress: A Retrospective of Adventures”.

         The Gare Du Nord is a cautionary travelers’ tale which begins in a rainstorm in Studio City and takes us through Paris, Tunis, and Amsterdam and ends on a Eurostar train bound for Florence Italy. 

         This episode leaves out certain names, or changes them, due to concerns over various countries’ cannabis laws and current political climates as well as family.

Welcome to Cali High Episode 64: Soy Cowboy pt. 1

This is the fourth episode in a new series called “A Work in Progress, a Retrospective of Adventures. In this episode, Cenzo joins the Navy and gets stationed at Naval Air Station, Point Mugu and decides to put a band together. The band, Soy Cowboy, plays its first show, live on Tom Schnabel’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, at KCRW, while Cenzo is still in the Navy. 

         The episode ends with a recording of that performance.

Cenzo meets his new partner Molly and flies to Miami to meet Rick Hershman founder of the now world-famous Rick’s Café Negril.

Next, a chance encounter on the Sunset Strip with two guys sporting dreadlocks, who turned out to be two of the world’s most prominent reggae musicians: Stephen Cat Coore and Richard Daily of the band, Third World. 
Lastly, a blessed memory of smoking with Bunny Rugs.
It is a story of a serendipitous chain of events linked by my time in Jamaica and how the threads of that experience wove together a tapestry of lives.
Episode 63 takes place the year after episode 61: Jamaica and is the third episode in a new series called “A Work in Progress,” a retrospective of adventures.
Episode 63 is dedicated to the memory of Molly Harper, Richard Hershman and William “Bunny Rugs” Clarke!

Welcome to Cali HIGH episode 62: Instant Karma
This week we have a very special two-part episode. In part 1, Satire meets a most earnest quest for the hearts and minds of our fans and in part 2, We have a true childhood story of weed, recklessness and mischief.

This week we have a special holiday episode for you. Jamaica is the first in a new series of retrospectives called, A Work in Progress. It is a story of my search for Rastafarians, and their herb and what really happened as well as the lessons learned. This episode is a true story and is dedicated to the memory of Joe Frank, Richard Hershman and Reford Ward! 

This week we visit Rancho Verde Farms close to harvest and talk with my old friend Peter G. Out on the California coastal plains, Peter G has a medical grow at Rancho Verde Farm, where the it gets sun all day from sunrise to sunset. We take a stroll with Peter through the garden and learn some of his clever growing techniques. 

Peter has been a friend of mine for 44 years. We were in an avant-garde band called The Dadas in the late ‘70’s and in recent years he has been a mentor to me, helping me with my grow and sharing his knowledge, expertise and techniques of growing high quality, healthy cannabis. Peter is a drummer and after the garden visit, we composed a small duet for drums and melodica, of which several clips are interspersed in this episode. This is a fun episode to watch if just to watch us circle the garden and uncover gems of knowledge while checking out Peter’s grow. Not to mention the musical repartee between us. Just two (too) high OG’s in the garden and jamming! Check it out!

Also included at the end of the episode is the only known clip of The Dadas performing Pete the Pet Shampooer

This week our guest is Victor Pinho proprietor of Emerald Farm Tours.

Based out of San Francisco, his tours will take you to cannabis farms in Mendocino and the Anderson Valley to see first hand what you may have only imagined. Tours include wine tasting and dining experiences as well and recently expanded bar services for private events. Tours of the farms culminate with stopping at the local outlets carrying the farm’s products, so tour goers can purchase cannabis from the farms they have just visited. Emerald tours also includes visits to cannabis lounges and cannabis landmarks. Tours are mostly seasonal from July to harvest season.