Cali High

          After enlisting in the US Navy and spending a year at the Naval Air Technical Training Center, in Millington Tennessee, I managed to get stationed close to home at the Naval Air Station Point Mugu’s Search and Rescue Division. While there, I put a band together with three friends and three female Thai background singers.

         During my fourth year in the Navy, and a few years with the band, I got orders to a m...

This week we check back in with Armen Paronyan, CEO of LA Cannabis to talk about the present state of legal cannabis in California. Armen is a board member of the United Cannabis Business Association here in Southern California and we discuss his dealings with state legislators regarding issues of cannabis tax, regulation, and licensing. 

We find out about various bills proposed to make cannabis tax laws less onerous and fairer. We...

         Welcome to Cali High Episode 65: The Gare Du Nord

         This is the fifth episode in a new series called,  “A Work in Progress: A Retrospective of Adventures”.

         The Gare Du Nord is a cautionary travelers’ tale which begins in a rainstorm in Studio City and takes us through Paris, Tunis, and Amsterdam and ends on a Eurostar train bound for Florence Italy. 

         This episode leaves out certain names, or changes t...

Welcome to Cali High Episode 64: Soy Cowboy pt. 1

This is the fourth episode in a new series called “A Work in Progress, a Retrospective of Adventures. In this episode, Cenzo joins the Navy and gets stationed at Naval Air Station, Point Mugu and decides to put a band together. The band, Soy Cowboy, plays its first show, live on Tom Schnabel’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, at KCRW, while Cenzo is still in the Navy. 

         The episode e...

Cenzo meets his new partner Molly and flies to Miami to meet Rick Hershman founder of the now world-famous Rick’s Café Negril.

Next, a chance encounter on the Sunset Strip with two guys sporting dreadlocks, who turned out to be two of the world’s most prominent reggae musicians: Stephen Cat Coore and Richard Daily of the band, Third World. 
Lastly, a blessed memory of smoking with Bunny Rugs.
It is a story of a serendipitous...

This week we visit Rancho Verde Farms close to harvest and talk with my old friend Peter G. Out on the California coastal plains, Peter G has a medical grow at Rancho Verde Farm, where the it gets sun all day from sunrise to sunset. We take a stroll with Peter through the garden and learn some of his clever growing techniques. 

Peter has been a friend of mine for 44 years. We were in an avant-garde band called The Dadas in the late...

This week our guest is Victor Pinho proprietor of Emerald Farm Tours.

Based out of San Francisco, his tours will take you to cannabis farms in Mendocino and the Anderson Valley to see first hand what you may have only imagined. Tours include wine tasting and dining experiences as well and recently expanded bar services for private events. Tours of the farms culminate with stopping at the local outlets carrying the farm’s products, s...

This week our guest is Adam Gross, vice president of Ineffable Records, a reggae label with the world’s leading artists in the field, such as Stick Figure, Collie Buddz, Surfer Girl, DENM, The Dirty Heads and many more. Gross was fortunate enough to join the company in 2019 just as Stick Figure was about to release World on Fire, which Adam parlayed into one of the biggest hits of the modern genre. We talk about the record business...

This week our guest is Carter Reeves, the innovative young singer-songwriter of the band, Surfer Girl. He recently released his first single, Two, a collab with The Hip Abduction, off his upcoming album, Sunrise, due to be released in September. Reeves’ songs embrace the feel-good aspects of surf/reggae culture and at the same time can leave you thinking on a deeper level while his catchy melodies linger in your head. His first sel...

This week our guest is BIG ARSON aka Justin Klaus, a young local hip-hop artist from the 818, who has just released his fifth album at the age of 23 called Keep Going! He gives Cali High a candid look into his creative process for this album, which is tied in with the inspiration and support given by is uncles and dad in pursuit of his goals. Justin tells us how the theme of Keep Going is derived from that inspiration and support! ...

Cali High joins Brett Feldman of WonderBrett at the WonderBrett facilities in Long Beach for an enlightening interview on the history of WonderBrett and the future of cannabis. We talk about growing up in the San Fernando Valley and his early days attending Humboldt State University, and procuring the good herb to bring back to the 818. Brett recalls hanging out with Dre and Snoop, and how he was gifted the original OG Kush, which ...

As planting season draws near, we talk with Nat Pennington about the new strains at Humboldt seed company, the selection and process for making a stabilized strain, improved quality of auto-flower strains, how to save a phenotype with tissue culture, trends in strain popularity and commercial vs. personal seed choices. We also talk about the current problems with the legalization of cannabis in California, and more. Coming from a s...

Considering recent media reports which have described a collapsing cannabis industry in California, due to unfair, over-taxation, we reach out to the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance’s Executive Director, Michael Katz, for an update on this potentially devastating news. We find out why the cannabis community of legacy farmers in Northern California are up in arms about cultivation and excise taxes and other challenges they face. We talk...

Happy New Year from Cali High! 2021 is coming to a close and we’ve put together a little montage of memorable moments from our incredibly talented musical guests! We are immensely grateful to all them for sharing their stories with our audience. And we are grateful to our followers and listeners for the thoughtful interactions we’ve had!

 If you’ve been a little remiss as to watching full length videos, here’s a good place to start....

As Cali High starts 2022, we look back at the year that was in the cannabis industry. We talk with three growers, two NORML people, Two CEO’s, and a fellow podcaster! We speak with Armen Paronyan and Chris Koljan from LA Cannabis Co, Chiah Rodriques of Arcanna Flowers, River Txai Farm and Chaos Herbals as well as the herb documentary, Lady Buds. We speak with Nat Pennington of Humboldt Seed Company about the removal of four dams al...

Rocky Dawuni, our guest for episode 37, has just been nominated for a 2022 Grammy. And so, we are revisiting our episode with Rocky for your holiday entertainment!  After our interview with Rocky, his latest album, Voices of Bunbon, was nominated for a 2022 Grammy in the category of Best Global Music Album, and this is his second Grammy nomination. 

Dawuni is a Ghanaian singer songwriter and while his roots are in the African styles...