Medical Cannabis Dispensary Review By skunk X dawg

For many, many years cannabis connoisseurs have traveled from Boulder,
from Denver, from Fort Collins, from further and beyond to experience
the quality and the potency of the legendary cannabis of the
Nederland.

Because of local dispensaries such as The Tree of Life at 1 West First
Street, Unit 1 D, this long and scenic pilgrimage by medical cannabis
patients, to the highlands, is bound to continue.

On an unseasonably warm mid-winter day when d-j-ournalist,skunk X
dawg, experienced The Tree of Life the featured cannabis bud on the
dispensary chalk board was - DEATHSTAR.

DEATHSTAR is a 50-50 hybid of Sour Diesel (sativa) and Sensei Star (indica).

It is perhaps the most pungent tasting/smelling bud of the Sour Diesel
stank that skunk X dawg has ever experienced. Other undertones of
taste and smell are burnt rubber, menthol, lemon-citrus, candied
sweetness and rich soil. The smell/taste is a beautiful thing for Sour
Diesel enthusiasts.

Its appearance is also very impressive. It is very vividly green and
orange and covered with a thick frost of tricones.

The effects are all medicinal and include a lasting body relaxation,
mood elevation, appetite stimulation, headache relief and at higher
doses long, healing sleep.

"One-hundred percent of all the dispensary's cannabis is grown by the
dispensary," says Grower Ryan. "It's grown 100 percent organically in
coco and soil.

"Of course a commercial growing operation is needed for a dispensary,
and yet each plant gets a lot of personal attention," he said. "We
aren't cutting corners. We take pride in the quality of the organic
growing and the quality of the result," Ryan said.

"By early spring there will be a bakery here, too," said Dispensary
Manager Brittany.

The dispensary currently sells hash edibles from Sunset Edibles of
Denver. These include chocolate chip cookies, triple dose brownies,
triple dose chocolate croissants, cinammon rolls, peanut butter cups,
heavy hitter chocolates, hard hash candies, and suckers ("a little
piece will mess ya up," says Grower Ryan).

Beverages available at the dispensary include Annie's Chai Tea, Keef
Cola, Keef XXX Colas, Medi-PhyzzCola, Mountain Sunshine Tea, and
Freeze Pops.

"Danny, Sunset Edibles' cook, will be the cook at The Tree of Life's
bakery," said Brittany.

A gram of bud is $15, $12 for members. A sixteenth of an ounce is $23,
$20 for members. An eighth of an ounce is $45, $40 for members. A
quarter of an ounce is $90, $80 for members. A half ounce is $175,
$150 for members. And an ounce is $350, $275 for members.

There are also sales in which a gram is $8, an eighth of an ounce is
$30, a quarter of an ounce is $60 and a half of an ounce is $115, and
$220 for an ounce.

The Tree of Life also carries a full line of strain specific,
bubble-bag ice-o-lator hashish from such strains as OG Skywalker, and
Flo.

And for severe pain there is hash oil.

Grade A hash is $30 a gram, $25 for members. Grade B hash is $25 a
gram, $22 for members.

Also featured on the dispensary's chalk board when skunk X dawg was
there was DJ Short's Flo.

DJ Short has been a cannabis breeder since the time that hippies first
came to the Nederland. His Flo is very nice.

It is 60-40 sativa dominant. It has a beautiful menthyl-like
taste/smell. It is a soaring, uplifting high with good anti-anxiety
medicinal traits.

Also featured on the board was Durban Poison.

Durban is a 100 percent sativa from the Zulu lands of South Africa. It
kind of tastes/smells like poison (but in a good way). The high is
also soaring, motivational, energizing, cerebral, allowing for high
functionality with anti-anxiety medicinal traits.

After skunk X dawg stepped out of The Tree of Life Dispensary into a
beautiful late afternoon, he began thinking of the situation in the
Middle East. He became anxious when he wondered whether Islamic
Jihadists were going to seize control of the revolutions in Tunisia,
Egypt, Yemen, Iran. He began thinking of the latest findings regarding
dark matter, and dark energy and entropy - the heat death of the
universe. He began thinking of the Frozen Dead Guy Festival and began
wondering about whether there would be good weather for the occasion.

Then he smoked what Terrence McKenna would describe as "a heroic dose"
of DJ Short Flo and Durban Poison.

And then he saw Rabbi Yeshawa (a.k.a. Cheese-Us) at the B&F
Supermarket. And Rabbi Yeshawa said, "be not anxious".

And skunk X dawg was not anxious.

Review of Mountain Standard Time's Debut CD

(This review first appeared in The Mountain-Ear's February 24th issue.
For the full 'Narrative of the Voyage of the Bloody, Snake Chariot',
Cultural Essays and Reviews, books, plays and New York Times stories
by Sam Libby see www.libbyhome.blogspot.com )


No doubt, Mountain Standard Time is strongly influenced by the likes
of String Cheese Incident, Railroad Earth, Leftover Salmon, Split Lip Rayfield,
Disco-Biscuits, Todd Snyder, and that great white whale of musical
influence - The Grateful Dead.

And yet, Mountain Standard Time has entered into a wonderful dialogue
with musical influences. They receive the inspiration of musical
influence and they go on to inspire with something that is all their
own.

Their debut cd, 'Mountain Standard Time' begins with a not
particularly strong song, 'Road Signs'. It starts out with a very
traditional blue-grass, old-timey sound.

And then the song begins to announce, anticipate the musical treasure
that awaits.

With the boosting power of Kyle Stersic's crazy, entheogen-driven,
Dionysian saxophone what starts out as as a kind of roots' music road
ballad is propelled into jazz/jam-grass, upper stratosphere, and then
beyond.

And then it goes back to the roots.

The heart of the traditional blue-grass sound is guitar, mandolin,
banjo. This sound is played in an accoustically beautiful manner. All
band members, Nick Dunbar (mandolin), Adam Pause (banjo), Jeffrey
"Curly Collins" Schroeder (bass) Zach Scott (drum), Kyle Stersic
(saxophone), Stanton Sutton (guitar) are superb, inspired musicians.

And then it gets real string-cheesy.

With the drum, with the sax, with the electronic effects Mountain
Standard Time becomes a big jazz/jam-grass band.

The fourth song, 'Falling Leaves," is nice. The melody and harmony of
Dunbar, Pause, Schroeder, and Sutton are elegant in their simplicity.

Then there's this jam.

You hear the musical influences, and yet you
hear the elaboration on the influence, the musical elaboration driven
by drum, mandolin, saxophone, and autonomous musical vision.

And then there's the transcendent lyric.

The fifth song is 'Fork', written by Schroeder. And it is strong.

It speaks of "another fork another quick decision, said O lord give
me some vision, ...when there's all these things at stake, won't ya
help me know which path that I might take, no how can I go when i know
just what it is that I leave behind, ...in between these two roads I'm
to choose, ... signs of the man I'll be, places I'll see through these
days I may roam, "...now i'm going to hold my head high, ... I know
I'll find my way back home..."

And the lyrics of my favorite song on the cd 'Loving Sound' written by
Sutton speaks to, "...this heavy, weary burdened heart is tied to
setting itself upright, and I've been troubled all my life can't be
worried now, I've been shadowed by the light somehow, and oh i got to
bear this weight its twisted up in fate, to let this love overflow..."

This debut album is a celebration of the spirit/genius of home place -
that place being, here in Nederland, Colorado, here in the Front
Range. The cd evokes this physical, spiritual landscape
"...where the earth rises to the sky..."

When I listen to "Loving Sound" I hear the cascades of Boulder Creek.

And like the band members of Mountain Standard Time I come here from
someplace else. And I feel the sentiment of the cd's title song,
'Mountain Standard Time' about coming back to this place from
someplace else, and seeing the roadside sign about entering Mountain
Standard Time, and knowing that you have come to a place that
reverberates with your own insanity - and you know you belong.