Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 6:56 pm | By: Radical Russ
[UPDATE: Sorry, test over. It only took us a half hour to find out how bad my connection sounded. However, it was with this cheapo headset I use for Skype. I will be back tomorrow early with the full pro setup to see if it will pass. If not, we'll be back at the home studio. Thanks everyone who helped us test. -- "R"R]
I’m down here in North Portland at the World Famous Oregon NORML Cannabis Café. I’ve got the new 4G wireless connection which has been stellar in tests so far. But tonight I need to run a 2.5 hour test and I need to test multiple callers, just to put the system through a stress test.
So I’m here, at the café, testing the BlogTalkRadio platform from 7pm to 9:30pm tonight (Pacific Time, of course). It’s a test show, so nobody can hear it over the intertubes, but you can call in if you know the secret number (347-994-1810). Cannabis Karri should be along sometime as well. It won’t be a real “show”, we’ll just be hanging out and doing what you do at a cannabis café.
If you want to just sit and listen to the sounds of cannabis café and my rambling, go ahead and call in. If you want to chat, just press 1 at any time and it will signal me on the switchboard.
For extra good measure to test the wireless, I’m also streaming the gamecast of my beloved Boise State Broncos. So don’t be surprised if I suddenly yell “Touchdown!”
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Special: “Marijuana’s Cultural Moment” panel at Drug Policy Alliance Int’l Drug Policy Reform Conference
Moderated by “Radical” Russ Belville
Deborah Small – Break the Chains Executive Director
Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 4:07 pm | By: Radical Russ
It looks like it is a “go” for me to appear at the Drug Policy Alliance’s International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It runs from Thursday, Nov. 12 through Saturday, Nov. 14, and my panel on “Marijuana’s Cultural Moment” takes place on Friday afternoon.
I still have yet to work out all the details. I’d love to set up a road trip where I give my presentations at stops along the way. I think a Boise – Salt Lake – Denver – Albuquerque – Vegas – Reno – Medford trip sounds like a lot of fun, and there are few NORML chapters along the way that could help with the organization. Would be a lot of fun… much more than flying again!
From Showtime’s “Weeds” to the cover of Fortune magazine, marijuana is being normalized and embraced by mainstream culture as never before. It is also an intimate part of various subcultures, artist communities, and political movements. Marijuana’s legitimacy is booming – but so are prohibitionist policies. Why is there such a schism in our society? What does American marijuana culture look like today? Where does pot culture meet pop culture? Who benefits from marijuana’s growing mainstream acceptance?
Facilitator: Russ Belville, National Outreach Coordinator, National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws
* Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director, National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws
* Deborah Small, Founder and Executive Director, Breaks the Chains, New York, NY
* Steve Bloom (invited)
* Ruben Whitmore (invited)
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 11:55 am | By: Radical Russ
I love that you guys love the Stash so much that you go through withdrawals when I cannot produce them daily. I’ve received a few emails and seen some comments to the tune of “you need more help” and “why can’t you get someone to do the Stash while you’re out of the studio”?
Really, they warm my heart, even if a couple of you get a bit demanding for your free podcast. (You know other radio hosts require subscriptions as high at $5.95/month, right?) It lets me know how important this part of my outreach work is. For example, I got an email from “CMoney” who was bummed that I haven’t had many daily episodes lately and that he couldn’t catch the live shows from the conference and Boston. Then he discovered that when he misses NORML SHOW LIVE, he doesn’t really miss it, because there is a podcast feed available through iTunes. To date there have been 12,000+ downloads of our live feed.
More help is coming. As we raise revenue through advertising, I will be able to bring on my LIVE co-host, Karri, to help handle some of the secretarial work of NORML Outreach to free me up for more online media work. Please be patient and understand that we work entirely through donations and NORML’s budget is pretty tight. Also understand that as a non-profit public advocacy organization, we can’t offer competitive salaries to acquire the talent necessary to pull off some of the stuff I’m doing; my skills would garner me twice to thrice what I’m paid now in the commercial radio / podcasting world.
I do it out of love and duty and dedication to the cause of ending adult marijuana prohibition. I’ve made more money before but I had to be miserable to do it. Money’s tight for your house-renting, 11-year-old-beater-car-driving podcast producer, but smiles are plentiful.
Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 9:05 pm | By: Radical Russ
The last thing "Radical" Russ ever did...
That’s Toby “Tigerheart” Grear, 155 lb. mixed martial arts champion and me backstage on the Boston Common at the Freedom Rally September 19. I wrote in my previous post that I was back from the NORML CON, but really, I’m back from Boston Freedom Rally, two days of working in DC and crashing at Keith Stroup’s guest bedroom, and five days of San Francisco NORML Conference.
Plenty of photos are now uploaded and face-tagged at http://picasaweb.google.com/radicalruss. It’s been good not to talk for a day. Heading over to Urb’s place to watch the DVR of my #5 Boise State Broncos (Go Big Blue!)… Holy shit, did I read that right? #5!?! What a mensch to record my college’s game while I’m on the road?
Tomorrow, Fresh Stash with highlights from Boston and San Francisco. Plenty of budly nugs of audio for your listening pleasure over the next two days. Then Thursday I’m back in the air (ugh) to Madison for the Harvest Fest, so no Stash, and off to Lambeau Field on Friday, so no Stash then, either. But on Saturday you get live audio from Madison at a time to be announced with the benefit of me figuring out some of the audio difficulties.
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 8:10 am | By: Radical Russ
Any budding activists (pun intended) who would like to meet up to discuss forming NORML Chapters around N. Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, and Delaware can meet with me tonight in the business center at the Best Western Dulles Airport at 8pm. It is located at 45440 Holiday Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-9411. Sorry about the late notice and the strange location, but it is the only time and place I can possibly meet people before flying out to San Francisco.
If you’ll RSVP me either by comments here or a tweet to @RadicalRuss or a txt to 888-7RADICAL before 4pm Eastern, I’ll grab you a retro NORML t-shirt just for showing up (yes… it’s a bribe! ) – just tell me your size.
Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 8:55 pm | By: Radical Russ
Show 004: Three special episodes live from NORML National Conference!
NORML’s new talk radio program, NORML SHOW LIVE, will be streaming for three days at the 2009 NORML National Conference, “Yes We Cannabis”, live from the Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Francisco. These special three-hour episodes will be available at live.norml.org at the following special times and archived for download later just fifteen minutes after broadcast:
Thursday, September 24
11:00am – 2:00pm Pacific Time
Friday, September 25
11:00am – 2:00pm Pacific Time
Saturday, September 26
3:00pm – 6:00pm Pacific Time
The show will be hosted by “Radical” Russ Belville, but with very limited commercial interruption and the occasional narration. After the shows broadcast remotely in the difficult wireless environment of Portland’s Kelley Point Park and the noisy backstage of the Boston Freedom Rally, Russ is excited to present an indoor event that will take its audio directly from the conference PA system.
Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 8:50 pm | By: Radical Russ
I don’t mean to keep leading you on, really. I was all packed and ready to go with a podcast recording tonight. Just one last task – to create the photo wall backdrop for our NORML Conference media room. Had to be turned in tonight, so fix that up real quick…
…and of course, this would be the time my computer goes on the fritz. The studio PC, that is, which is the only machine where I have my Adobe CS3 software that includes Illustrator for making that huge 8′ x 10′ graphic. So I troubleshoot and fix the problem and get the machine booted up and build the graphic and FTP it off to San Francisco. Great. Now just sync up my BlackBerry one last time before I record the show…
…and of course, the BlackBerry Desktop Manager picks this time to crash in the middle of a sync operation, wiping out the data in my BlackBerry address book. This requires a reinstall of the program and moving my Outlook file back to its previous location. Now that’s fixed and my BlackBerry is back…
…which leaves me just enough time to schedule a NORML SHOW LIVE test so that Karri and I can practice her call screening in Astoria while I’m on the road, and then maybe get six hours of sleep before catching the 7:30am flight from PDX to Logan, during which I’ll go through my over 1,200 unread emails from the past two weeks.
But I will have to set up NORML SHOW LIVE in my hotel room in Cambridge, so that will allow me to record a podcast tomorrow for a Boston Freedom Rally preview. I’ll get some of the MassCann guys on the show to tell you all about it. Plenty of tweets, pics, and vids will show up all these next few days, so watch the sidebar.
WakeUpDead: @Russ, I dont think that wireless is going to work out for the show, it was choppy and studdered just like last week. Hardline may be the only way. Puff [...]
WakeUpDead: A MINI Spof, Lock up your Weed, in 18 years that is. Really Man congrats! Greatest days of my life when my kids were born, hell yeh, great news [...]
BenJaMin: Late night Stash!!!
SneakerPimp: heres a bong rip for spof
RevRayGreen: errr test over....
RevRayGreen: on hold..
RevRayGreen: @RR I'll try and lob a call to you.....
SneakerPimp: where is the first field of cannabis gonna be?
SneakerPimp: !
Radical Russ: Breaking News: MrSpof's wife's water just broke! A MiniSpof is imminent!
SneakerPimp: oh russ its not my fault that i dont understand choppy word:stoned:
SneakerPimp: @Mrspof congratulations tell us all about it tommrow
Radical Russ: OK, test over. Sorry. Only needed a half hour. Be back tomorrow afternoon.
slash5city: don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west
thaistik: Local Crime Stoppers notice.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Pot shop burglars sought
Crime Stoppers is looking for information on the suspects who police say burglarized a medical marijuana dispensary and stole cash, drugs [...]
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
Want to chat live with “Radical” Russ at the Cannabis Café?
Boise State Broncos. So don’t be surprised if I suddenly yell “Touchdown!”
on Friday, so no Stash then, either. But on Saturday you get live audio from Madison at a time to be announced with the benefit of me figuring out some of the audio difficulties.
) – just tell me your size.
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
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