Today, with literally hundreds of thousands of informers going about their work in America, the matter of their wretched and degraded existence becomes practically irrelevant. What’s important is the abolition of the system that makes the creation of informers necessary.
Your "Guide to Gurus" in the October issue was fascinating. But the author omitted many of the "advertised brands," so I'd like to add a few wise men to the list: Bubba Free John and the Dawn Horse Mission in California; Scientology founder Ron Hubbard, who refers to himself as the fulfillment of Buddha's prophecy; and my own personal favorites, U. S. Andersen and his Atlantis University and Steve Gaskin and The Farm in Tennessee.
These Maryland rock formations have geologists around Silver Spring keyed up, but we haven’t been able to decide whether to half-date them or cut them up. We’ll sniff out some answer, I’m sure. —Name and address withheld We blended these fine, high mushrooms from the south country with some orange juice.
Q: Are there any decent recipes for pot munchies that don't require such exorbitant amounts of weed? —Leonard Klein, Brooklyn, N.Y. A: Conservation-minded heads know that seeds and twigs can be recycled to make "garbage brownies." All you need are two cups of seeds and stems, one pound of unsalted butter, a brownie recipe and a rainy day (it takes time).
From the Muslim north through black central Africa to the slum yards of Johannesburg, sex in Africa embraces an incredibly varied range of strange laws, customs, superstitions, magic and taboos. In the Islamic world of northern Africa, in fact, most observers agree that Arabs are "abnormally concerned" with sex.
Did you know that Syria doesn't have a humor magazine? Nor does Ethiopia or Bhutan. England, France, America and even the USSR do, however. Herewith, a guide. Stateside, the most successful laugh mag has, of course, been the National Lampoon, founded in 1970 and owing one percent of its profits forever to its forerunner, the Harvard Lampoon.
Among American intellectuals, Susan Sontag is probably the only Harvard-educated philosopher who digs punk rock. Sontag became famous in the Sixties when her series of brilliant essays on politics, pornography and art, including the notorious "Notes on Camps," were collected in Against Interpretation𠄄a book that defended the intuitive acceptance of art against the superficial, cerebral apprehension of it, then fashionable among a small band of extremely powerful, rigid intellectuals who, for example, dismissed such American classics as Naked Lunch, Howl, On the Road, Andy Warhol's film Chelsea Girls, etc., as trash.
SANTA CRUZ—An overflow crowd attended a psychedelic conference at the University of California campus here recently in honor of Dr. Albert Hofmann, the 71-year-old Swiss chemist who first synthesized and experimented with LSD. He described for an admiring audience the "unusual cycle of chemical research" that led from the discovery of LSD-25 to the isolation of psilocybin from magic mushrooms and the identification of lysergic acid amides in mornings glory seeds.
BOGOTA-Mexico has offered to exchange some 20 Colombian dope prisoners for less than a dozen Mexicans doing time on similar charges throughout Colombia, High Times has learned. The swap proposal, similar to the one that repatriated the bulk of American dope prisoners being held in Mexico, comes in the wake of new evidence here that maintains incarcerated Colombians in Mexico are being tortured, ripped off and in many instances illegally arrested.
KATMANDU, NEPAL—A new Nepalese currency law requiring tourists to spend at least $5 a day has caused a severe business slump in this mountain nation's once-thriving hashish trade. The sum may seem paltry to an outsider, but to those familiar with Nepal's hashish business, the law is indeed stiff, because it requires travelers to prove they have converted the $5 minimum at the official rate—one u.s.
HAVANA—Cuba's chief afternoon newspaper has attacked efforts to legalize marijuana in the U.S., adding that the legalization movement would not succeed because of the influence of liquor companies. Supporters of legalization, said the article in Juventud Rebelde, "were using all sorts of stratagems to get their pwn way.
Michael "Micky" Cezar, who since 1972 has openly bought and sold large quantities of cannabis from six barges in Amsterdam's canals, was recently deported from Holland while attempting to board a plane to the Black Sea, where he was to view a consignment of "People's Hash."
CHIENG MAI, THAILAND—One of the cheapest and most exciting tours in the Orient is the three-day adventure through the villages around this northern Thailand town where opium smoking reigns supreme. The jungle tour, arranged by the Moo Tourist Agency of Chieng Mai, costs $12.50 per person.
CLEVELAND—Her nose was her trademark, her claim to fame. It found its way to fortunes and earned her a comfortable life. She is a German shepherd named Heidi, a dope hound trained to find marijuana no matter where it is hidden or how it is disguised.
Narcs in the small California town of Freemont, claiming the largest mushroom bust in history, are distorting facts surrounding the case in an attempt to force the city council into hiring more agents. Freemont narcs, responding to what they claim was a potential burglary, climbed through open windows of two tropical plant warehouses owned by Larry Williamson and discovered 2,000 square feet of psilocybin mushrooms.
If you ever wonder why many narcs shoot first and ask questions later, consider what they are taught by federal dope agents who conduct two-week seminars around the country for local and state narcotics officers. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the seminars include raps like this one, which describes the beginning of a session with 37 Georgia narcs in Atlanta: "For the next two weeks we're going to discuss the conduct of drug investigations.
PHOENIX—An Arizona miner convicted of assault for holding Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents at gunpoint on his property in 1975 told DEA and U.S. Attorney's Office officials here that he would not accept a presidential pardon "if Carter brought it here himself" In November 1974, Charlie Stoll discovered a pack of DEA narcs roaming his property near the small mining town of Oatman.
WASHINGTON—In a furious series of behind-the-scenes meetings, the Senate Judiciary Committee almost legalized possession of ten grams of marijuana, briefly decriminalized up to one ounce and finally decided that holding the lesser amount should be termed a "low-grade criminal infraction."
WASHINGTON—Outgoing FBI Director Clarence Kelley, in what appeared to be an attempt to get a high-ranking job at DEA, told an INTERPOL conference in Stockholm that he opposed President Carter's plan to decriminalize marijuana by abolishing federal grass penalties.
PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA—A marijuana air force (MAF) plane hauling 600 pounds of Mexican pot was recently downed by DEA fighter-plane fire here, ending a four-plane, 100-mile chase across Southern California. A shotgun blast fired by San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies wounded copilot Don Woodbeck and forced the Piper Cherokee to land.
SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA—When Allen Ginsberg, Baba Ram Dass and Dr. Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, stood side-by-side, the first thing everyone wanted to know was, "When did you last trip on acid?" For Ginsberg it was the day before on the flight that had brought him to the U.C. Santa Cruz symposium on LSD. "I was doing my homework," Ginsberg joked.
A new LSD is being touted through the land. Like its psychoactive predecessor, it has followers who say it's the path to world salvation. And they mean it literally, for the elixir of the Eighties is Long Slow Distance running. Its aim is total fitness, and its chief coach is Dyveke Spino.
A forecast released by the Business Intelligence Program of the Stanford Research Institute concluded that the fastest growing market is people who don't want to buy much. Authors Duane Elgin and Arnold Mitchell surveyed the economic impact of grown-up hippies, environmentalists, health-food fans and other grass-roots freaks and prophesied that an anticonsumerist ethic will grow stronger no matter what else the future brings.
Keith Stroup, head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), finally became a prisoner of weed (POW) when Canadian Customs officials nabbed him at the border with a two-gram (!) stash. Released on $300 bail, Stroup vowed, "I'll fight this all the way."
Living in Miami has its advantages. Some of the best dope in the world passes through the living rooms and garages of the dealers. The heat comes and goes with the seasons, and the Drug Enforcement Agency operatives have their hands full with the constant hassle of watching each other for big brother.
Ever since we began publishing High Times, we have been deluged with hundreds of photographs taken by our readers, depicting their own great dope. Now, to spread both the practice and enjoyment of the high art of dope photography, we present a comprehensive guide to the technology and techniques employed by some leading figures in the field—the dedicated lenspersons who can make a simple brick of dope or line of coke into a visual high fit to frame beside the noblest works of Rembrandt, Picasso and Dali.
The Pygmy does not approve of tsoi, strong drink, beer or wine. The elders say that it is debilitating, and they are right. Wherever alcohol has been introduced into the Pygmy territories, the physical and moral health of the community has been all but de Stroyed.
A candid conversation with the Hunchback of Camelot—an exclusive report from our Indian Affairs specialist
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Johnny Bob
For some time now. I, Johnny Bob, have been in receipt of a number of annoying letters and phone calls from High Times concerning the absence of my articles from that magazine and the absence of dollars from their bank account that went for my advance payment.
It's your first ton, and you don't have to smoke it to get high Just think about it. One ton. 2,000 pounds 32000 ounces One million joints. How much would that be in grams? In pesos? In Daylight Savings? Questions like that get at a time like this.
In the beginning was the Word. As it began to get around, the Word became a cult, a high-energy form of religion that exists only as long as it isn't too popular and that gives true believers the inside track to ultimate reality. While Christianity was still a secret club, people figured if it makes you crazy enough to live in catacombs and smile at lions, maybe there's something to it.
Cuba still isn't set up to accommodate independent tourists. You may succeed in getting your own visa through Mexico or Canada, but the delays are frustrating and lengthy. Cubatours' hospitable program for facilitating groups of visitors doesn't extend yet to lone travelers.
Rock is like a multistage missile. At takeoff in the Fifties, its meaning was simple: Sex. Ignited by sex, rock nuked the Eisenhower blahs and prepared the way for the new morality of the Sixties. Kids on rock 'n' roll would suddenly get uppity and itchy and blatantly horny.
Other people fantasize the same images I do, they just don't act them out," says Los Angeles conceptual artist Chris Burden, who has had himself shot in the arm, kicked down two flights of concrete stairs, crucified atop a Volkswagen ("the trick was to use small nails") and has risked death by fire, drowning, starvation and electrocution— all for the sake of his art.
Cut off from civilization by impassable Peruvian mountain peaks, fierce river rapids and thick jungles dotted with fields of ganja and coca, the legendary El Dorado "City of Gold" empire has resisted the advance of time and exploration for hundreds of years.
The Record Plant, one of the largest recording studio combines in the world, is constructing a megalithic, $2-million pyramid-shaped studio in Malibu, California. The six-acre pyramid complex is a unique marriage between ancient Egyptian architecture and modern recording technology, boding a whole new genre of recorded music.
While New York City slept, a UFO mother ship, emitting strange colored light and smoke and equipped with seven tentacles, landed in front of the George M. Cohan statue in Times Square. Was it the real thing, a work of science fiction or an acid vision of the future?
In a precedent-setting seizure, the government of Honduras has permitted the U.S. Coast Guard to tow a stateless vessel carrying 60,000 pounds of marijuana to a Honduran port. The 85-foot freighter was stopped and boarded off Cape St. Nicholas, near the northern coast of Haiti, far from U.S. territorial waters.
Crashed planes in Texas and green farms across America dominate this month's list of pot unfortunates. Tramp freighters are still being scuttled along the southern trade route, and local sheriffs and constables are tightening up the rural grass watch.
Miami Customs officers uncovered 157 pounds of cocaine aboard the banana boat M/V Maya during a routine docking of the ship, which plies the Colombia-Florida produce route regularly. Agents boarded the 267-foot vessel after "detecting a change in activity by personnel unloading the cargo."
A colorful folk wizard with 30 years of experience in the art of snake charming, was elected the most talented of the Colombian culebreros at a charmers' convention recently in the small town of Guarne, near Medellin. The new wizard, Who calls himself "Zaragoza" after his native town, fits all the requirements of a successful serpentologist in Colombia.
Sony's new Elcaset tape system (soon to be acquired and marketed by Superscope) tries to combine the self-contained convenience of cassettes with the extra fidelity of the open-reel format. The idea is to make a bigger cassette and drive it at 3¾ inches per second, instead of 1⅞, to reach reel sound quality.
A jury recently acquitted Minnesota homesteader Harmon Seaver of felonious assault in his attempt to keep his land free of Forest Service pesticides. Seaver and family had searched five years for their unpolluted 40-acre tract in Superior National Forest.
BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN SKYLINE, by Sammy Walker (Warner Bros. BS-3080).
NEW WAVE, by various artists (Vertigo 6300 902-British import).
WOODSTOCK MOUNTAINS: More Music from Mud Acres (Rounder 3018, from Rounder Records, 186 Willow Avenue, Sommerville, Massachusetts 02144).
SOUNDS FROM SILENCE (Bit Enki Publications, Box 9068, Berkeley, Ca. 94709, $16. $16.96 in California).
THE ROOTS OF ROCK 'N' ROLL by The Ravens, The Robbins, Little Esther, Johnny Otis, Nappy Brown, Big Maybelle, Hal "Cornbread" Singer, Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams and others (Savoy/Arista SJL 2221).
THE HUTCHISON BROS. BAND (Vetco LP-511, from Vetco Records, 5825 Vine Street, Cincinnati, Ohio).
MUSIC OF WILLIAM PENN, by Olly Wilson and Russell Peck (Composers Recordings CRI SD 367).
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Neal Barlowe
Glenn O'Brien
Bob Grossweiner
Gary von Tersch
Lester Bangs
Larry Sloman
George Stanwick
Douglas Kelley
Ed Fields
Timothy Quince
The Sex Pistols are laying it on the line in their new album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (Warner Bros. BSK 3147). Bollocks is Brit for "bullshit." The meaning is clear. The Sex Pistols became a household word without releasing a single single in the U.S. market, one of the greatest publicity triumphs of all time.
HALLUCINOGENIC AND POISONOUS MUSHROOM FIELD GUIDE, by Gary P. Menser (And/Or Press, Berkeley, $5.95).
VIDEO GAMES, by Len Buckwalter (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, $6.95).
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Harry Wasserman
Chevy Chase Manhattan
Joe Kane
Bruce Ratcliffe
Bob Grossweiner
While Lee Harvey Oswald was buying the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle that may or may not have killed JFK, thousands of miles away author Robert Anton Wilson saw a man with warty green skin and pointed ears dance in a cornfield and then fade away. In Cosmic Trigger (Berkeley: And/Or Press, $4.95), Wilson claims his apparition, which occurred the day after his first peyote trip, was Mescalito, the peyote god who has also taken the form of leprechauns, alleged UFOnauts, Disney's Peter Pan and Mr. Spock of "Star Trek."
Le Look is fuck-you fashions that tell everyone "tuck me." Wet mouths, moist eyes, hot pants in clinging nylon ciré. Safety pins can be dangerous. Look sharp, feel sharp, be sharp—wear razor blades. Dominant denim, dog collars for slaves. Whimsical whips, and such charming chains (available in metal or plastic).
Every day's Thanksgiving when you eat your feast with two nostrils. So don't be a turkey, pick up on the two-pronged delights of the Wishspoon, a clever gift for holidays, bar mitzvahs, confirmations and cousins in California. At prices you won't sniff at ($29.95 in sterling silver or gold plated, $49.95 in 14-karat gold) from Idea Contempo, 4133 Twenty-second Place, Los Angeles, California 90018.
Moments after their coup d'etat of the ancient dynasty of the Imam of Yemen, these revolutionaries reached for a chaw of khat, the Middle East wondershrub featured in last month's High Times. Correspondent David Lancashire snapped this exclusive photo in the city of Ta'Iz moments before the captured throne was splintered in a public axing in the palace courtyard.