Search Results: entertainment/ (28)

Opposing Views
#1 Marijuana Smoker Barack Obama with #10 George Clooney

To recognize the rising visibility and importance of marijuana policy reform, the Marijuana Policy Project on Thursday released its first annual “Top 50 Most Influential Marijuana Users” list. This collection, MPP says, spans multiple public spheres and illustrates the pervasiveness of marijuana use across all socio-economic groups (although from where we sit it seems to heavily favor pre-fab pop icons).
The people on this list have become successful and influential while also being marijuana users, with the greatest threat to that achievement being the possibility of arrest, according to MPP.
 
“In order to have qualified for the list, each individual must (1) have tried marijuana at least once, (2) be alive, and (3) be living in the U.S. or be a U.S. citizen,” said Morgan Fox, MPP communications manager. “We also asked our supporters to adhere to the definition for the ‘Power 50’ list that’s used by Out magazine, which employs the following criteria: ‘the power to influence cultural and social attitudes, political clout, individual wealth, and a person’s media profile.’ “

GoLocalProv

The Rhode Island Senate is set to decide on a compromise designed to allow medical marijuana dispensaries to open in the state.

A vote on the legislation has been scheduled for Wednesday, reports The Associated Press. The House is considering a similar bill.
Lawmakers authorized the safe access points so patients in the state’s medicinal cannabis program could have a state-regulated place to get their medication.
But Gov. Lincoln Chafee blocked the three authorized dispensaries from opening last year after the state’s U.S. Attorney threatened they could face criminal prosecution for violating federal drug laws. Marijuana is illegal for any purpose under the federal Uniform Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule I drug.

Library Foundation of Los Angeles

Editor’s note: Los Angeles writer Mark Haskell Smith’s new book Heart of Dankness sprang from his news coverage of the Cannabis Cup for the L.A. Times. Novelist Smith sampled varieties of marijuana that were unlike anything he’d experienced before, unlike any typical stoner weed. In fact, it didn’t get you “stoned,” as such. This cannabis possessed an ephemeral quality known as “dankness.”

Haskell began a journey into the international underground where super-high-grade marijuana is developed. He tracked down the ragtag community of underground botanists, outlaw farmers, and renegade strain hunters who pursue excellence and genetic diversity in cannabis. The dank journey climaxes at Amsterdam’s Cannabis Cup, which Mark portrays as the Super Bowl/Mardi Gras of the world’s largest cash crop.

Cannabis writer and connoisseur Caitlin Podiak got a chance to chat with Haskell Smith about the book, about good cannabis, and about what, exactly, constitutes a state of dankness. Enjoy!

Discussing Dankness
By Caitlin Podiak
Special to Toke of the Town
Caitlin Podiak: Your quest for the “heart of dankness” centers on the annual High Times Cannabis Cup event in Amsterdam. But how relevant do you think those awards are to cannabis users in California? I know many of the strains we have here come from Dutch seeds, but beyond that, I wonder how much the Amsterdam Cannabis Cup results should matter to us in the United States.
Mark Haskell Smith: Oh, I think they’re very relevant to what goes on in California. The strains that win the Cannabis Cup ultimately become the popular strains you find in medical dispensaries or being sold by dealers. AK-47, Super Silver Haze, Willie Nelson, Lavender, LA Confidential… these are all fairly common strains nowadays, but they were first introduced at the Cannabis Cup. I imagine Kosher Kush, which is originally a SoCal strain, will become huge in the next year or two because it just won the Indica Cup in Amsterdam. It’s sort of like Coachella for cannabis. It’s where the unknowns get their shot at the big time. And that resonates in California. We want those seeds.

X17online.com
Miley Cyrus, in the shorts, and an unidentified female friend leave Therapeutic Health Care, a medical marijuana dispensary in Sherman Oaks, California

Pop tart and self-proclaimed “stoner” Miley Cyrus was photographed leaving a medical marijuana dispensary in Sherman Oaks, California, with a friend this week. Hey Miley, are you about ready to stick up for weed, yet?

Cyrus, 19, was looking casual but hot in denim cut-offs and a Pat Benatar t-shirt when X17online.com got some paparazzi shots of her and a female friend exiting Therapeutic Health Care. Miley didn’t seem to be very worried about being spotted outside the dispensary; after all, medicinal cannabis is legal in California for anyone with a doctor’s authorization.
Therapeutic Health Care (THC, get it?) is listed on WheresWeed.com as selling ounces of OG Kush indica for $18 a gram, $50 an eighth, $90 a quarter, $140 a half, or $280 an ounce. Oddly, no other strains are listed.

Graphic: Coolchaser
Rapper in a wrapper: Pac’s friends claim they rolled his ashes into a blunt and smoked him.

​Members of The Young Outlawz rolled up Tupac Shakur’s ashes into a blunt and smoked them after the rap legend was murdered in 1996, the reunited group claims.

In what has certainly proven to be a big source of publicity for group’s reunion, The Young Outlawz claimed they based their actions on Pac’s wishes as expressed in the lyrics of one of his songs, reports Peter C. Aitken of the New York Daily News.
Members of the reunited group, originally formed by Tupac after his release from prison in 1995, addressed the long-standing rumors in a new video for VladTV.
“Yeah, it’s definitely true,” said Young Noble, reports the Daily News. “I think it was the night of, we had a little memorial for him, with his mom, his family and shit. We hit the beach, do a lot of the shit he liked on the beach. Some weed, some chicken wings, he loved orange soda and all that kind of shit. Pac loved that shit, so we were giving him our own farewell that night.
“I forgot which one of us came up with it, like we need to go and do that, but we twisted up some of that Great Grandaddy California Kush and mixed the big homie with it,” Young Noble said.
Another member of The Young Outlawz, E.D.I., took credit for the macabre idea.

Graphic: Tacoma Hempfest

​If you’re in the Puget Sound area and want to help break down the negative stereotypes surrounding cannabis and the people who use it, I have a great, free destination for you this weekend — and the weather’s supposed to be pretty, too. The second annual Tacoma Hempfest happens this Saturday, June 25, at Wright Park in Tacoma, Washington.

“We’d like everyone to come out and show the variety of people who truly support cannabis culture in the area,” Tacoma Hempfest creator and organizer Justin Prince told Toke of the Town.

Photo: Hello Beautiful
Whoopi Goldberg: “Smoking cigarettes and pot every now and then are my habits”

​Comedian Whoopi Goldberg has admitted she smoked marijuana just before the 1991 Academy Awards ceremony, and said she was quite high when she gave her acceptance speech for winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie Ghost.


“Smoking cigarettes and pot every now and then are my habits,” the current host of The View explained in footage obtained by TMZ on Thursday. “And I thought, ‘I’ve got to relax,’ So I smoked a joint, my homegrown,” to calm down before the Oscars.
She then described the shock be being announced as the winner and said she remembers trying hard to focus “to just get to the stage,” reports the New York Post.
“When he [presenter Denzel Washington]said my name and I popped up, I thought, ‘Oh, fuck’ … OK, up the stairs … around to the podium … there’s millions of people, get the statue, pick up the statue,” Goldberg said.
This isn’t the first time Whoopi’s talked about pot in public. Back in 2009 she came to Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps’ defense after the infamous photo swept the Internet of Phelps hitting a bong.

Photo: The Movie Mind
When Chuck Norris does push-ups, he doesn’t lift himself up. He pushes the Earth down.

​Chuck Norris can put you in a world of pain. But never fear; the new “Chuck Norris” pot strain can probably relieve it.

Los Angeles dispensaries are featuring a new strain of medical marijuana — and Walker Texas Ranger star Chuck Norris reportedly isn’t thrilled.

The new strain, “Chuck Norris’ Black and Blue Dream” is rumored to have (you guessed it!) a real “kick” to it, reports TMZ.com.
It’s definitely an unauthorized use of the martial arts star’s name, according to Chuck’s representative, but the Norris team reportedly hasn’t decided yet if legal action will be taken.
“Maybe Chuckie should just lighten up,” opines the Boston Herald. “Or at least trademark his name so he can make a few bucks off it!”
But, as noted by the Herald, that’s seems rather unlikely, given the 70-year-old Norris’s very conservative political views. (The pugilistic partisan even served on the board of directors of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools.)

Photo: Last.fm
“O great creator of being, grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives.” ~ Jim Morrison

​Jim Morrison, the legendary lead singer and lyricist of The Doors, would have been 67 years old today. The shaman and wild man was born December 8, 1943, in Melbourne, Florida.

The “Lizard King” is known as one of the most distinctive frontmen in rock music history, and also dabbled in poetry and filmmaking. He reportedly had an I.Q. of 149.
In 1965, after graduating from UCLA, Morrison met future Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach. With the addition of John Densmore on drums and Robby Krieger on guitar, The Doors were born.
The Doors took their name from the title of The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley’s book of mescaline experiences, itself taken from a William Blake quotation in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in which Blake said “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is — infinite.”
The Doors achieved national prominence in 1967 with the hit single “Light My Fire” and hit the charts again in 1968 with “Hello, I Love You,” in 1969 with “Touch Me,” and in 1971 with “Love Her Madly” and “Riders On The Storm.”
Weary of the rock star lifestyle after only four years, Morrison “retired” to Paris at age 27 in March 1971. He died of unknown causes in Paris on July 3, 1971.
Morrison’s poetry writings are available in the books The Lords and the New Creatures, Wilderness, and The American Night.

Photo: Fanclub.ro
Mike Tyson, right, wishes he had another chance to smoke weed with Tupac.

​Boxing great Mike Tyson recalls his friendship with rap icon Tupac Shakur in a new documentary airing on ESPN Tuesday night. The film, One Night In Vegas: Tyson & Tupac, chronicles the pair’s friendship and the night in 1996 when Shakur was shot on the Las Vegas Strip.

The mercurial boxer has one big regret about their relationship. “He always wanted me to smoke weed with him, and I never did, and I wish I did,” Tyson said, reports AP music writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody.
Tyson said he turned down the pot because he was a “closet smoker” and “didn’t want it to get out” that he smoked weed.
“That’s my biggest regret,” Tyson says now, when he looks back on the lost opportunity.
Shakur, 25, was shot after a Tyson fight in Vegas on September 7, 1996. He died six days later.