Art Underground: Kasia Polkowska

Posted on November 28, 2008

Agate Landscape By Kasia Polkowskawww.katarzynapolkowska.blogspot.com

Walkabout Jones wants to feature artists of all kinds. Submit your paintings, graphic art, photography, drawings and other forms to “Art Underground” at walkaboutjones@gmail.com

| Filed Under Art Underground | 3 Comments

Now

Posted on November 26, 2008

| Filed Under Now on MyTunes | 1 Comment

To the Sea

Posted on November 24, 2008

| Filed Under Paparazzi | 1 Comment

The Golem

Posted on November 19, 2008

The phone rang, and for an instant, it was like calling anyone. The drug dealer’s line rang exactly the same. I don’t know why this came as a shock. What had I expected? Reggae? Actually, I didn’t know what to imagine. A woman picked up on the second ring. She spoke in sober, polished tones—not your traditional maryjane receptionist. I thought of the many Blazed-out-Bettys I’d been talking with in pharmacies lately. I’d been looking for pot work for almost a month, hitting up every smoke shop and co-op from Oceanside to Ocean Beach. Many of my cold calls had played out like this: Blazed-out-Betty answers the phone while coughing up a bong hit. I start to speak, only to hear a Bic flicker and water lowly percolate. “Who are you again?”

Ginger sounded more like a medical receptionist. First, she thanked me for my patronage, then identified the establishment, and then with a felicity that’s fading from the modern day, asked how she might be of service. A place with lucid employees was a twist I hadn’t expected. She wasn’t rubbing Maui Waui from the edges of her words. I heard no Spearhead in the foreground, just the double-jab of a stapler.

Funny the things we learn on the phone. I was learning, most likely, Maurice was not a part-time junior college student, running a collective out of his car. I’d met a number of pot-repeneurs who neatly fit this bill. They were young, enterprising, media savvy, able to quietly run their rackets with a Verizon plan and a Yugo. Theirs were bare-bone, nimble ops, that thanks to the magic of digital technology were able to present themselves in any way they chose.

My favorite was a delivery service where the website evoked a pastoral setting, as though this wasn’t the Mexican border, but the Irish countryside. There were offers for deep tissue massage and new age spiritual counseling. Marijuana and cannabis were not mentioned; the only way to know you had stumbled into a marijuana business were references to health and safety code 11362.5. But who isn’t up on their legal code, right?

There were other clues, if you knew what to look for. Many linked visitors to state Senate Bill 420, and its voter-mandated predecessor, Proposition 215. Back in 1996, California became the first state in America to decriminalize marijuana for the seriously ill. It didn’t come without a fight. Even in pinko California, this was a hotly contested race. Critics called it “backdoor legalization” while supporters trotted out the critically ill. A vote against medical marijuana, they said, was a vote against anyone suffering the scourges of things like cancer and AIDS.

I agreed, but still I couldn’t help notice a cheshire cat grin on some activist faces when I asked if total legalization remained their lattermost goal. I was in college at the time, so clearly weed wasn’t so hard to come by. What did I care if folks wanted to get stoned? What bothered me about “The Compassionate Use Act” was a sense it was dancing around the truth. “If you want legalization, then say it, fool.” There is no such thing as medical marijuana. It isn’t grown in special labs and the term “medical marijuana” refers not to any chemical properties, but to the people who are smoking it.

All marijuana is medical marijuana—if you have a doctor’s note. Read more

| Filed Under Hollywood Reefer | 12 Comments

Artists

Posted on November 16, 2008

It began as a seed. Just an idea. Medical marijuana businesses are required under California law to operate as non-profits. So why not launch a service that lives up to the law’s true spirit? We could provide safe access to the sick, and instead of marijuana money going to profiteers, we could take those funds and create opportunity grants for writers, artists, performers, musicians, and others whose work shows bonafide merit.

Californians spend between $870 million and $2 billion on medical marijuana every year. At Walkabout Jones, we think the best way to tell the story is to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. Earlier this year, Dann worked undercover as a medical marijuana delivery driver in San Diego county, one of the most dangerous places to do this sort of work in the state.

Excerpts from his book “I Am the Monster” will appear on Walkabout Jones from time to time. Dann is a deliberate writer, so it won’t be fast. But you’ll appreciate the final result.

Now in Hollywood, Artists Collective will continue Walkabout Jones’ exploration into the world of medical marijuana, all while ensuring a significant portion of the proceeds go to creating opportunity grants for deserving artists.

It’s a big undertaking and it’s going to take time, but we know it’s a journey worth completing. And it’s a story that Dann will lead us through with his new weekly department/blog, “Hollywood Reefer.” A little rougher around the edges, it will chronicle the daily travails of a medical marijuana delivery driver in Los Angeles.

If you’re an MMJ patient in the LA area, and you like the idea of marijuana proceeds going to deserving artists, you can reach Artists Collective at 323-979-7822.

Please note: Artists Collective verifies all doctor’s letters and delivers to medical marijuana patients only.

On the philanthropic end, AC’s first giveaway is a short story contest. Artists Collective and Walkabout Jones request your best submissions, no more than two-thousand words. A $1,000 first prize and publication in Walkabout Jones will go to the winner. The entry deadline is January 31st. For additional guidelines, mail Artists Collective at artistsforaccess@gmail.com

| Filed Under Announcements | 5 Comments

Dad

Posted on November 14, 2008

| Filed Under First Person | 14 Comments

We

Posted on November 9, 2008

Walkabout Jones likes to talk in the third person, since this allows us to feel big and powerful and occasionally omnipotent. But the truth is we’re very small, with one full-time guy and family, friends and gracious people volunteering their time and talents to move this project forward. We’re a long way from where we aspire to be, but hopefully you’re beginning to get a taste of the kinds of stories we would like to publish on a regular basis.

But this week….well. I’m relocating from San Diego back to Los Angeles, and there just isn’t time to update the site. In addition to moving, we’re getting ready to launch Artists Collective, a medical marijuana delivery service that will raise money for the arts. More on that later, but sufficed to say, there are many chainsaws being juggled, and since the goal of Walkabout Jones is quality over quantity, I want every story to get the attention it deserves. So bear with me, and us. Let me get unpacked and settled in, and we’ll be back with more original content in the next few days.

Nanu nanu,
Dann

| Filed Under Announcements | 3 Comments