This is it y’all. The savior from all that summertime sweating and fretting, NiKE7UP swoops down from his nest of finely shredded pop songs to drop some next-level electro on your head. The cooling, icy twinkles of the awesome audio manipulator’s newest mix will have you revisiting your celebrity crushes of the previous decade. NSYNC at half-speed and echoed into a trance-like bumping mantra of all that is good in the universe.

NiKE7UP represents for me everything I enjoy about dance music. His mixes are savvy, playful, and weird as can be, cultural disseminations packaged tightly in bubble wrap. With older material scattered across the net, although most of it is on his youtube and myspace, you’re bound to find some undiscovered goodies he’s done. This July mix is a murderer and that lowers my attention span and increases my serotonin as it spirals onward.

I can’t really dance at work, well I guess I could but I care what others think of me, so rolling around in my chair pretending I’m scooting into my desk over and over again is gonna have to do. ♡^_^♡

By this time, most people have probably heard the legend of Pittsburg Pirates Pitcher  Doc Ellis hurling a no hitter in 1970, while under the influence of LSD. Back in 2009, the folks over at No Mas released a classic animated clip highlighting Doc’s exploits, which also served to convey his tale to folks of the modern era. Anyway, since the premiere of the animation, Ellis has become somewhat of a folk hero amongst my circle of idiot-friends, as well as an icon for college-aged heads nationwide.

So when I saw this recent video posted at Deadspin, I wasn’t necessarilly shocked that somebody would try to pull off a stunt of this nature. I was more surprised that AJ Daulerio was the guy to do it. Daulerio is one of the renegade editors over at Deadspin, who just so happens to be the fellow that jammed 12 thousand bucks into an envelope, before using the cash to purchase Brett Favre’s dick pics last summer. If you find yourself to be a sports fan, you probably either love or hate this guy , considering the media bonanza that he caused. You can read a full article outlining that fiasco over at GQ, if you felt so inclined.

Anyway, Daulerio recently ate some acid himself, and tried to throw a no hitter playing as Doc in the X-Box 360 version of MLB 2K11. As you might imagine, AJ didn’t fare so well, but came away with some pretty entertaining footage none the less. Be sure to check out the original Deadspin post, written by Daulerio himself, where he describes the loopy trip he took while trying to conquer the task.

Well alright then! No need for much of an intro. Just so you know, these videos were done entirely off the cuff. We had no plan. We just shot a bunch of stuff, and now I’m going back through and editing it. I mean, look at the fucking piece of cloth I have rubberbanded (should that word be hyphenated?) over the mics on my Zoom recorder. If I had planned any of this I would have got a proper-lookin foam windscreen on there as my first order of business.

When I sent the last video to my pappy he said that it didn’t give him any idea of the High Times Cannabis Cup at all. Yeah, you’re right dad. I should clarify that wasn’t the point of these videos. The point was just to give people some tangible ideas about who is involved in these things. I’m just trying to put some faces names and stories to this whole weed thang, nahmsayin?

Necro – I Need Drugs

Aphex Twin – Vordhosbn

Ease DaMan – Opiate Pilates

“It’s an internet inside the internet.” That’s the way this glistening amulet of a website was first described to me leaving me no choice but to respond with “what?” and “why don’t I know about this?” as I proceeded to chart a course toward the sensory secret society and visual info-dump that is ScannerJammer.

Needless to say, I registered instantly and with about only a thousand, or so, active users (never more than a few actually on the site at once) it’s now plain to see why I had no clue that this subterranean collection of dynamic chatrooms existed, operating on an advanced dreamlike wavelength unlike any other online forum I’ve ever encountered.

A hidden treasure of the web, the ScannerJammer network enables and promotes user interaction via electronic mediums whether it be embedded YouTube clips, self-produced cam transmissions, animated gifs, or hypnotic soundbytes. Consisting of various rooms, with the section Feederbleeder even channeling and posting a direct feed of our very own Bloglin among others, SJ compiles songs and videos providing a collage of outsider interests and enabling itself to be fused with dump.fm and tinychat forming a colossus of media exchange. Self-promotion is both sanctioned and supported on the site, making for a constant incursion of information and homespun videos endlessly piling on top of one another forming a barracks of URLs .

Not only is there a basic chatbox for real-time discussions but also a playlist and videoscreen that translates links into auditory and visual representations within the interface, knitting together a compilation of posted content. As the ever-shifting background images and crude, sparkly remnants of the Geocities and Angelfire internet age eek by, the offbeat patchwork of submitted matter and customizable profiles revolutionizes the way we share ideas via computers. With ScannerJammer all is accessible, no distinctions drawn, and everything and everyone conjoined in a sea of stimuli.

I guess there’s not much to say. The video does plenty of talking. There will be at least one more of these videos, and maybe more. Man, I can’t stop eating Trader Joe’s cinnamon almonds. Anyways, the High Times Medical Cannibus Cup here in San Fran was pretty agreeable. There were about 60 booths, which included an outdoor area where smoking — but not photography — was permitted.

There was a really good mix of people, it was a lot like a sporting event. I met some new folks, and saw some familiar folks. You can see the winners from the cup here. And check out my column on Vice to read more. And last but not least enjoy the video/pictures which are courtesy of Dreaded Photo. There are no accurate captions for these photos, so it’ll just be a game of lookin ass stoner when it comes to the folks who won. Hit the break for some pictures from the Cup.

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Junkies will stuff their veins with absolutely anything in order to garner any sort of nerve-deadening high. Homemade synthesizations and chemical cutting have, since who knows how long, been prevalent in the drug game and brought the danger factor of dependency to new heights. At the turn of the 20th century, a doper used to be able to stick a needle in his/her arm and know that what was about to course through one’s bloodstream was mostly, if not all, morphine. The rise of the more affordable designer drug has changed the art of using in a big way, causing instantaneous overdoses and irreparable brain damage.

This is not to say that ecstacy and cocaine won’t put you six feet under if you do enough of it but what these drugs do have going for them is time. They are tried, tested, and true yet offering no guarantee on a bad batch or a pesticide infused shipment. Russia is now facing the backlash of a disgustingly harmful synthetic opium substitute named Krokodil, the Russian word for crocodile. Living up to it’s treacherous title, the formula is reduced from gasoline, hydrochloric acid, paint thinner, and red phosphorous, has the ability to turn you into a green, bloated, reptilian-looking shadow of your former self.

The uprising of this killer concoction has probably bumped Moscow down a couple notches on the list of most desirable travel/vacation spots. Krokodil usage has become such an epidemic in the Motherland that rehab locations, work camps, have opened specializing in breaking the lethal habit. Cooked up in dirty apartment laboratories, the crowd-pleaser causes human flesh to die and fall right off the bone with rot causing infection and gangrene. All the posers are better off sticking to their measly bowls of K2 and Spice cuz Krokodil is for the big boys, some real-deal amputee type shit.

We’ve all heard it, or experienced it: “Weed makes me sleepy.” There are some strains that will definitely have you feeling more sleepy than others. But, weed that makes you want to go to sleep? Well, that is most likely weed that has oxidized. Yes, oxidized, just like that brown apple, and that decanted wine. The simple continuous assault of oxygen breaks down cannabis’ cannabinoids, and the change in molecular structure causes these compounds to take on different effects.

All cannabinoids are derived from CBG. CBG is the fundamental cannabinoid, and depending on how it breaks down — which chains in the carboxlyic group are broken — you’re gonna get different cannabinoid compounds that have different effects. The one that is most commonly known is THC. THC produces the psychedelic high, and also contributes to analgesic (pain reduction) effects. But, when THC oxidizes it breaks down further, and becomes CBN. And, much of the current research is suggesting that CBN is what makes you sleepy.

It makes sense: smoke some regs — which are certainly not stored properly — and you’ll get tired. Smoke some choice flowers that have been stored properly and you’ll be a lot of things, but sleepy probably isn’t one of them. More importantly you may want to consider properly storing your cannabis. That means you want to keep it in an airtight jar, away from the light, and away from high temperatures. Just tryin’ to take y’all higher.

There are hundreds of drug documentaries circling around the internet and being shown in independent theatres everywhere. You’ve most likely seen one about weed, cocaine, or LSD while flipping through cable television. For with all this exposure filmmakers still have not dared to craft an informative official documentary that tackles the subject of opium farming and the world’s heroin market. Opium, as a means of getting high, is not as blatantly represented as some of it’s more socially acceptable kin, yet it deserves a fair shot at an accurate narrative within the media machine

Synthetic forms of opium have permeated the prescription drug market from coast to coast. From a soft powder to a cooked down liquid and even a solid pill, opium is a chameleon that begins its existence as a flower, the poppy, a gift from Mother Nature not unlike other mood and mind-altering substances.

Raw Opium is about to hit the streets bringing with it an enlightening look at the commodification and distribution of the drug as well as it’s healing and destructive powers presented through face-to-face interviews with junkies and medical professionals alike. It’s about time that a fearless, educated, and unbiased presentation of the drug’s ability to feed and clothe workers in an opium plant as well as impoverish millions of addicts each day.

Many a war have been fought over control of the crop, civil wars in Afghanistan, domestic struggles with DEA officials and dealers/smugglers, as well as avaricious doctors who give it away like candy to the highest bidder through low-hungry clinics, solidifying its place in the pantheon of profitable harvested goods. The documentary reminds us that the prevalence of heroin, morphine, and other opioids in American culture has endured the test of time as it is still held in “high” regard in the medical field for it’s painkilling properties.

The marginalization and misconception of opiates by popular culture has made it a virtually untouchable topic of investigation….until now. Canadian director, Peter Findlay, asks us to see opium for what it is, an economic force with the capacity to drastically change lives for better or worse. Heroin is hip again, now get jive to it.

There’s been a lot of recent excitement over Terence Malick’s newest film, Tree of Life. It’s the first since 2005′s beautiful but extremely oversimplified and pat retelling of the Pocohontas story, The New World, and it looks like it’ll explore themes in keeping with Malick’s oeuvre on the whole – expect a visually-staggering film centered around the connection between humanity and nature, which is the most important thing to ever exist to anyone and everyone, etc. etc. preachy etc.

Fox Searchlight, which is the studio distributing Tree of Life, also seems intent on furthering the idea of keeping things all-natural, based on this tweet below. LA stoners, can you go see Tree of Life and report back on how totally pretty it was?