Smoking Doobies at The High Times 2002
Doobie Awards for Conscious Music
by Preston Peet- for DrugWar.com
(all photos by author)
The New Riders of the Purple Sage
Sept. 27, 2002
Having the dubious honor of being the only High
Times writer I personally know of who has had his pot confiscated
at the door of a High Times event by overzealous venue security,
(at the Stony
Awards held March 3, 2002, at B.B.
King's Blues Club in Times Square, Manhattan) I was not at
first particularly thrilled to find that the 2002 High Times Doobie
Awards for Conscious Music event was being held at the same venue
a mere 7 months later. Paranoid and overly cautious perhaps, I
carefully placed a couple of joints into a plastic bag, stuffed
the bag deep inside my boot, then proceeded to the awards show
with my All Access pass prominently hanging around my neck. I
needn't have worried, arriving and entering without a hitch whereupon
I was treated to an evening of music and social consciousness,
interspersed with hilarity and optimistic stoner flare.
David Peel makes a point
"The mainstream doesn’t really recognize conscious
lyrics and music. What’s primarily different about this awards
show is we’re looking for the Bob Marleys and the John Lennons,"
High Times editor in chief Steve Hager told DrugWar.com "We’re
trying to celebrate people whose material is not catering to the
lowest common denominator but is actually trying to raise people’s
consciousness. If you look at what’s going on today, there’s nothing
conscious going on at any of the awards shows, or in their music.
You won’t find anything conscious in Britney Spears' music. In
fact, it can hurt you in the business if you try to be conscious.
Therefore, we’re celebrating those people who are trying to raise
people’s awareness as to what’s really going on."
Stoner Rock Album of the year winners High
on Fire
There were numerous highlights during the course
of the evening, above and beyond the delicious scent of great
pot wafting throughout the hazy nightspot. Bands, actors, and
activists took turns onstage, many obviously having sampled an
herbal doobie or two beforehand. Shannon
McNally was on hand both to accept her Doobie award for Best
Female Artist. Dave
Chappelle, comedian and star of numerous films, including
the hilarious stoner classic, "Half
Baked", Fab
5 Freddy, Jackie
"the Jokeman" Martling, Earl Chin, founder, producer
and host of Rockers
TV, the longest running reggae show in the US, David
Peel, and the cast of the upcoming Comedy Central flick "Porn
and Chicken" were just a few of the luminaries who made
appearances handing out Doobies onstage.
Sean Paul proudly shows off his Doobie as Dave
Chappelle
congratulates him on a job well done
"It was overcrowed, a full house, which is
always a sign of success," said High Times senior editor
and Doobies Executive Producer Steve Bloom. "The goal is
to celebrate the music out there that is marijuana friendly and
counter culture in spirit. That is the main thing, to get people
to recognize it more by us giving awards. Next, our personal goal
is to get it to the point where it will one day be broadcast.
It’s tough to work in a vacuum where we do a show for 500 people.
We want more people to see what we’re doing. We think it’s a show
not just for New York audiences, it’s a show for a national audience.
It’s about national bands from all over the country, not just
New York so we’d like to break it out. Our plan is, with all the
work we do in terms of video production and shooting of the show,
we’re getting ready for Prime Time. We’re going to attempt to
find a partner out there in cable land. We figure that with shows
like this we have to build it and bidders will come. We know we
have a controversial subject with both the Doobies and the Stonies,
but that’s what we‘re about. We like to push the envelope."
High Times senior editor and Doobies
Executive Producer Steve Bloom
Stoner Rock Album of the Year Doobie winners, (for
their album Surrounded
by Thieves) High
on Fire, played a blistering set of aggressive headbanging
rock. Jazz group Lettuce
turned their amps up loud and blew the room away. Pot Song of
the Year Doobie winner Sean
Paul performed his winning song, "Gimme
the Light." Headlining the evening were winners of the
2002 Doobie Lifetime Achivement award, The
New Riders of the Purple Sage, playing publicly for the first
time together in 8 years. They played a number of country-rock
numbers, including the title track from their legendary 1973 stoner
album Panama
Red, to the thrill of many in the audience who got up to dance.
The Cannabis Cup
Band played some genuine reggae from the heart, filling the
house with a peaceful vibe to end the evening.
Smoke gets in the eye...
...as Lettuce kicked out the jams
Although he was not able to be there in person
to accept his award, winner for Most Conscious Artist of 2002
was John
Trudell, spoken word artist, one of the founders of the American
Indian Movement and a participant in the take over of Alcatraz
Island by American Indian activists, from Nov. 1969 to 1971. High
Times played a video montage featuring some of Trudell's work,
in one of the more political moments of the evening. Another overtly
political moment, other than for the entire event itself, was
when NORML Executive Director and founder Keith
Stroup stepped up the microphone and urged the packed room
to take their enthusiasm out with them and help stop the War on
marijuana, stressing the importance of pot smokers and users coming
out of the closet about their use, to show that smoking pot is
not criminal or weird, it is normal.
DrugWar.com editor and High Times editor at
large,
Keith Stroup of NORML,
and Dan Vinkovetsky, Marketing Coordinator High Times
The event, officially the third High Times Doobie
Awards presentation, was one hell of a lot of fun. Last year's
Doobie Awards, scheduled to be held at the now defunct Wetlands
in lower Manhattan on September 12, 2001, was cancelled due to
a terrorist attack mere blocks away, although the Doobie awards
were given to the winning artists.
The Cannabis Cup Band ends the night on a good
note
Be sure to please visit High
Times website to see all the award winners and find out who
else performed.
The gritty and engaging MC, Joe Rogan, host
of Fear Factor
High on Fire backstage high
Kyle Kushman, High Times Cultivation Reporter
High Times senior editor Steve Wishnia
and NORML's Keith Stroup
a perfect match
How some in attendence perceived the event
