Happy 4/20!

April is 420 Month at CelebStoner.

Take the 420 Quiz

Which answer correctly explains the meaning of 420?
a) the number of chemicals in marijuana
b) a police code for "marijuana smoking in progress"
c) the number you get when you multiply 12 and 35 (see Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women")
d) number coined by San Rafael High School students for the afterschool time to get high

A 420 History Lesson

"Back in 1990, I covered the Grateful Dead and Deadheads for High Times," explains CelebStoner publisher Steve Bloom. "At a New Year's week show in Oakland, I received a flyer that talked about 420 - both smoking at 4:20 and celebrating as a group on 4/20. High Times published that flyer in the May 1991 issue. The author of the flyer contended that 420 was a police code for 'marijuana smoking in progress.' For the next five years that was the accepted definition of 420."

The Original 420 Flyer

"420 started somewhere in San Rafael, California in the late '70s. It started as the police code for Marijuana Smoking in Progress. After local heads heard of the police call, they started using the expression 420 when referring to herb - Let's Go 420, dude! After a while something magical started to happen. People began getting stoned at 4:20 am and/or pm. There's something fantastic about getting ripped at 4:20, when you know your brothers and sisters all over the country are lighting up and tokin' up right along with you. Now there's something even more grand than getting baked at 4:20. We're talking about the day of celebration, the real time to get high, the grand master of all holidays: 4/20, or April 20th. This is when you must get the day off work or school. We are going to meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais. Just go to downtown Mill Valley, find a stoner and ask where Bolinas Ridge is. If you make it to Marin you will definitely find it. Helpful Hints: Take extra care that nothing is going to go wrong within that minute. No heavy winds, no cops, no messed-up lighters. Get together with your friends and smoke pot hardcore."

'The Waldos' Credited for 420

In 1996, Bloom continues, "a person calling himself Steve Waldo contacted High Times claiming he and five friends of his had coined the term while they all attended San Rafael High School in Marin Country north of San Francisco in the early 1970s. He had proof (letters, posters, banners) that they had come up with the term. So High Times named the Waldos the founders of 420."

However, the Waldos didn't come up with the idea of a stoner holiday on 4/20. The Deadheads did. And 20 years later, 4/20 has taken on a life of its own.

420 Photo Contest Winners

Matt Levan of Thornton, Colorado is the grand prize winner (he wins a Gravity Vortex bong and The Slammin' Salmon dvd). Check out the rest of the winning photos here.

Snoop Dogg - The Fillmore at Irving Plaza, New York, NY
Cypress Hill - The Warfield, San Francisco, CA
Willie Nelson - Topeka Performing Arts Center, Topeka, KS
Slightly Stoopid - Stubb's, Austin, TX
Devin the Dude - Warehouse Live Ballroom, Houston, TX
Sublime with Rome - The Palladium, Los Angeles, CA
Doug Benson - Acme Comedy Comedy, Minneapolis, MN
Sarah Silverman - Barnes & Noble, New York, NY
Ngaio Belum - The Punch Line, San Francisco, CA
Oaksterdam University's Spring Cup - Oakland, CA
Oly 420 Cup - Olympia, WA
Philly NORML Fundraiser - The Blockley Pourhouse, Philadelphia, PA
420 Film Fest - Calgary, AB
'How Weed Won the West' L.A. Premiere - Paramount Studios, Hollywood, CA
'Cheech & Chong's Hey Watch This!' - opening at select theaters
420 Celebration - Los Angeles, CA
'Green Day's American Idiot' - opens on Broadway
7th Annual MN NORML 420 Show - Cabooze, Minneapolis, MN
Seattle Hempfest 420 Members' Social - Cedarwood Dome & Hookah Lounge, Milton, WA
Stoned Red Addicts 420 Party - San Diego, CA
AZ4NORML 4/20 March - Tucson, AZ
420 Rally - Union Square, New Yok, NY

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Phish 3-D 4/20 Screenings

The concert movie Phish 3-D, filmed at Festival 8 last October, opens Apr. 30. But on 4/20, phans in nine cities - Boston, Burlington, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Raleigh-Durham and Washington, DC. - will get to see advance screenings of Lawrence Jordan and Eli Tishberg's film.



Source

Albums Coming Out on 4/20

Cypress Hill - Rise Up
Kottonmouth Kings - Long Live the Kings
Willie Nelson - Country Music
Devin the Dude - Suite #420
Xavier Rudd - Koomyun Sun
Roky Erickson - True Love Cast Out All Evil
Merle Haggard - I Am What I Am
Apples in Stereo - Traveling in Space and Time
Ozolmatli - Fire Away
Sevendust - Cool Day Memory
King Britt - Intricate Beauty
Earl Greyhound - Suspicious Package

Where's the Biggest 4/20 Event?

It's a toss-up between Boulder and Santa Cruz. Large crowds of students at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of California at Santa Cruz congregate on their picturesque campuses and smoke out en masse at 4:20 on 4/20.

What's CelebStoner Doing on 4/20?

After spending the last two years in Boulder (and loving it!), CelebStoner celebrated 4/20 in the Bay Area at the release party for Cypress Hill's first album since 2004, Rise Up, at the Warfield in San Francisco.

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