Bong Street in Santa Cruz

So after handling my biz in the town of San Luis Obispo, I moved along up the coast into Santa Cruz. Pretty chill place. I did my thing promoting locally and showing product to the few shops in town. I can definitely see Bong Street doing business in Santa Cruz soon.

I almost went surfing but, I talked myself out of it since northern California is known for great whites. I know. Pretty sad. I used to live in Florida too. Home of the half-blind and extremely aggressive bull shark. Next time I will. I promise. I spent that night in Santa Cruz.

The next day I worked my way up the coast into San Jose. I dropped off some catalogues at a few shops, got some stickers out, and worked out a deal with Paramount Imports. Awesome shop. I definitely recommend it to anyone in the San Jose area. Not just cause they bought from me, but they do have a lot of really cool items and a huge variety. I got a sweet picture taken with a local reindeer that escaped from Santa’s fascist regime. She’s definitely down with Bong Street.

Reindeer Homosapiens seen walking around San Jose...This one's a hot one!

After that it was onto the San Francisco and the Bay area, where I accidentally spent the night in what they call the Tenderloin. I should of got a hint that it was not a good place to stay when I was walking down the street and some dude blew a hit of crack out walking by. I thought it was ok since I was sleeping behind a government building. I figured it was somewhat safe.

So around 5:00 in the morning, I heard a knock on the outside of my van. At first, I thought it was a security guard or parking lot guy trying to give me the boot. I noticed there were 2 guys standing outside my van waiting for a response. So I said, “What!”, in a very loud voice. They both scampered off like a couple of startled crackheads. Next time, I am going to think a bit before I park. I talked to my buddy about it and he reminded my about a skit that Dave Chapelle did about the TL. I think that is the right link to the video. Not sure though. Yayaaa,,,I survived a night in the TL!!! That’s enough for me.

Strange characters seen in the Bay Area...Be afraid. Be very afraid...

After staying in the Tenderloin, I decided to make my way into the Haight/Ashbury section of San Francisco since it is a must stop and not to mention there are a buttload of head shops. I decided to take a morning stroll to the top of Buena Vista park. Sweet fuckin views man!!! I also met a cool cat that I smoked my spleef with at the top. He hooked me up with this nutty shot of me. Came out a bit dark, so I had to tweek it a bit in photoshop.

I made my way from one side of Haight to the other. And then back again. A few times. What can I say? It’s just so addicting. So I got out all my catalogues and met some cool owners of head shops. I spent about 15 minutes eyeballing and thinking of how I was going to get the money shot of the Bong Street van with the Haight/Ashbury corner sign in the background. Especially when you are not allowed to park their legally.

I finally found someone who was taking their picture of the money shot. She looked like a trustworthy character so I asked her to help me get the shot. She hooked it up and signed up for the STREET TEAM. Check out the shot below.

Bong Street Van on the corner of Haight/Ashbury...gotcha bitch!

After the Haight/Ashbury section of town, I made my way into Oaksterdam and Berkeley. I hit up a few of the dispensaries in Oaksterdam. Not all of them, but of the ones I seen, I wasn’t that impressed so I didn’t get anything. I got spoiled after the one I hit up in Woodland Hills. It is still a very cool thing that the City of Oakland has done with the Measure Z thing.

I made my way around the City of Berkeley next, hitting up local headshops and clothing stores. I wrapped up in Berkeley yesterday and have made my way back to the LA area. I am now just in the process of following up with all the shops that I spoke with on the way up.

I appreciate those of you that have been following my adventures with Bong Street and your support with the movement. I am pretty much closing up this chapter for this trip anyway. I will try to keep you updated with other fun and exciting stories as I continue to push forward with the Bong Street movement…

Until next time, keep the movement movin’ and stay good and blazed…

View from the 101 Highway

While in the Santa Barbara area, I spent most of my time getting out catalogues and promoting my company. I met a few cool heads while in the area and we blazed some good herbs. Other than that I spent a lot of my time getting stickers around and skateboarding around Santa Barbara. Sorry blog readers, no crazy stories while in Santa Barbara. I did however get a pretty cool shot of the van at night.

Ever dance with Bong Street on a pale moonlight?

Next day I got started making my way up to San Luis Obispo. A pretty chill town. Not a whole lot going on in SLO but I did meet some cool heads and found a pretty sweet street. See below. Classic.

Bong Street on HIGH STREET!

Welcome to the City of Angels

After Whittier, it was OFF to LOS ANGELES for a taste of traffic, smog, parking meters, and fake breasts. I caught a pretty cool shot of this bridge though coming into the L.A. area. Probably the best thing I got out of my LA experience. Sorry, LA heads, San Diego is just way more chill.

I made my way thru Hollywood. I survived. Just barely. It was a fun ordeal of trying to hurry up and pitch product to store owners and handing out catalogs quickly to avoid having to pay a mandatory $2.00 parking fee everytime you park your car down the strip. Even if its for 5 minutes.

Bong Street in HOLLYWOOD

I did find a sweet dispensary up in the Woodland Hills area. I got dragged up their thinking it was close to Hollywood. Because when you call of course they make out like its just a few exits up. Of course, they want business. I can understand. But I was quite happy with my service I received. I felt like a kid in a candy store.

I did the best I could to hit up what I could find in Hollywood. I got to a point where I just couldn’t take anymore and I had to head west to the beaches of Santa Monica and Venice. Ahhhhh….the beach….much more chill. My kind of people.

Bong Street in Santa Monica

I first ended up in the Santa Monica area. I didn’t really do too much in Santa Monica. Met a couple cool heads. I figured Venice seemed more my type of crowd. But here is a cool pic I took in Santa Monica.

Once I got into Venice Beach, I dropped off a catalogue at a local shop. I blazed out with a cool cat hanging out there. I then went down to the beach area and skated around Venice Beach for about an hour or so. When I parked, I met a few cool peeps that were from Missouri. One of the peeps had some good kush nugs he grows. He hooked up a free good size nug of it. I decided to hook him up with a freebie since he was so generous.

I didn’t spend too much time in Venice as I was eager to get rolling up towards the Bay area.

I am now in Ventura and will work my way up the coast shortly…Thanks for reading the crazy tales of my wandering ass once again….

More to come…I promise!!!

Next on the list was Anaheim, so I made my way east. I hit up a few cool shops along the way that I can see us doing business together. I kicked off the day by working out a deal with Music Revolution. The guy that owned the shop was a cool guy. I think that the clothing will sell well in his shop.

I then worked my way around between Fullerton and Anaheim several times not really knowing where I was going. I dropped off a few catalogs and met some cool heads. I rolled up into a parking lot full of skaters and hooked them all up with stickers.

By nighttime, I was getting restless from driving so much around Anaheim and Fullerton, I started heading east on Chapman because some dudes told me their were some bars down that way in Fullerton that might be a good place to promote.

I somehow got sucked into the city of Orange in the middle of their “Tree Lighting Ceremony”. It was a pretty chill town though. I hung out at a local Irish pub that night and had a pitcher to myself. I ended up meeting some local OC heads and we blazed some herbs in the back of the pub. So that was pretty much it for the OC…EXCEPT

In the morning I finished off with the OC by hitting up J’s Paradise who I worked out a deal with. Awesome people. Sweet shop. I then made my way out of Anaheim and back on the highway.

When I got to Whittier, I headed aways down the main blvd to the first shop on my list, Da Spot. I ended up working out a deal with the owner to try out my product in his store. I also met some cool heads outside his shop that bought a TEE.

I ended up taking a little side excursion on my trip in Whittier to blaze with the dudes I met at the shop. We rolled down a pretty crazy little sideroad and walked this path to a pretty chill smokespot. They blazed some blunts with me and I smoked some bongs with them.

Sorry no pics on this post…I was smokin too much…forgot…oops…I got you for LA though!!!

Before I took off I made sure to have the rest of my decals put on the van as there were 2 missing from the first time it was done. The core message of the company. “LEGALIZE IT”. See below. I think it looks pretty sweet.

Legalize it Baby!!!

So I took off on Friday the 5th of December and rolled up to Huntington Beach. I had one small encounter with the law on the way up. Luckily, the cop was a cool guy. He was a military cop in Oceanside. I was trying to find a diesel station and was driving like I was lost. He let me go on my way.

Once near Huntington Beach, I met up with a buddy I met in San Diego thru my old neighbor. Friday night I mobbed the town with him and a few of his friends. I got a few stickers out that night but not too many cause I forgot to grab more before we left the house. Its OK though, I made up for it on Saturday.

The next morning I kicked it off to an early start. I had to find a place to plugin my labtop. As much as I try to stay away from the corporate claws of Starbucks, they somehow got me back here. FUCK!!! Damn Wi-Fi service being so hard to find a free connection. “Come on local coffee shops, step it up a notch. Hook the modern man up with some internet.” Its ok. I suppose I will heal with time.

Once I got my game plan together for the day, I took off down Beach blvd. towards the 405 and then worked my way west. Once I hit up most of Beach blvd, I made my way to Costa Mesa/Newport Beach area and then went back to downtown HB. Once back in Huntington Beach, I hit up the last few shops in the area and called it a day. No big sales for the day as most of the buyers were out for the stores but I met a lot of potential clients and got a lot of catalogs out. I was able to get this sweet shot of the sunset with the van. Check it out.

Sunset on Bong Street in Huntington Beach

I had to give Wahoo’s Fish Tacos a try. Damn travel channel embedding their marketing in my head. Pretty damn good though, I must say. After that, I kicked it in a few different spots to blaze some bowls. I also met some cool heads.

Kind of a crazy little story, but I met this guy named Justin who called me out when I was walking back to the van downtown. He’s like, “Hey, Bong Street, you wanna smoke a joint.” So I’m like, “Fuck it, whatever’s clever.” So I proceed to drive the guy around town for about 15-20 minutes while he tries to find his car. He was a bit drunk and couldn’t remember where he had parked. He ended up getting out to try to find his car and he said he would call me once he finds it and we’ll blaze.

So maybe 5 minutes had passed since I dropped him off and he called back. He’s like, “Hey come back, I found my car.” I said “cool, i’ll roll back.” I get their and he decides that he now does not know where his wallet or his keys are. He was very hastey and frantic wondering what to do at this point. Although it wasn’t my problem, I felt obligated to help the guy out as I would want someone to do for me. I rolled him back to the bar where his friends were so he could try to trace his stuff down. I proceeded to skate around town getting stickers out and around.

Huntington Beach downtown is a small little area so it is easy to run into the same person a few times. He walked over near me when I was chilling at Three Dice Coffee & Surfboards talking to the workers. I just had got done telling the story to the lady at the shop when Justin walked over. He was not able to locate his wallet and keys. He was contemplating breaking his window to get his weed out. I told him to not worry about it and I would smoke him out. We had a sesh and spit some flows to some my beats and then we split up again and I went skating again.

We ran into eachother one more time for the night, this time he said that his girl had dumped him. Rough luck he was having that night. His friends met up with us and they took off for the night and I rolled out of downtown HB for the night.

It was a funny situation, he had kept apologizing for not being able to smoke me out that night. It didn’t bother me a bit. It’s just what I do. Funny part was he actually came thru for me as I was trying to have a little night cap before I went to bed and my lighter died. He had accidentally left his lighter in my van. So homeboy didn’t know it, but he hooked me up at the end of the night so I could blaze…

The universe has a very funny way of bringing people together sometimes…

More to come as I make my way up the state of California…

Until then stay good and blazed and LIVE AND THINK FREELY!!!

First off, I got canned from my day job a few weeks ago. Its a good thing though. My energy was screaming for me to leave. I could go into a shpeal about how my immediate manager warned me if I was to write about this job in my blog or on my website, legal actions would be pursued. I started to write about it, but I would rather take this in a positive direction and not waste anymore energy on you or even thinking about that mindless fucking job. I got better things to do with my time. PEACE OUT!

So after that just been coming together with my resources and putting a lot of time into this catalog which is nearly wrapped up and ready to go on the road. Moving forward as planned.

Bong Street Van

(In case you haven’t seen my van, ITS A TANK…its not hard to see, is it?)

“A RUDE AWAKENING”

BUT within the days that I was working on this “I WAS AWOKEN BY A LOUD FUCKING BANG!!!”. It was on a Saturday morning. I had stayed up late at a buddies house in PB the night before so I decided to just the leave the van where it was parked and sleep their for the night. That was a mistake. “Fuckin looney ass drivers!”. So yeah, at 6:30 am on Saturday while im sleeping on my bed in the back of my vehicle, some dude passes out at the wheel and proceeds to crash into the rear driverside of my vehicle. He wasn’t drunk supposedly.

I wake up like a bat out of hell, first thing i’m thinking, get the guys plates, since this is PB and drunks hit and run all the time down there. I got the guys plates. Noone was hurt but his car was fucked. Mine looked mildly damaged on the outside but his front wheel was hanging off of his axle. I figured I should start the car just to test my alignment.

It turns out he hit my van so hard in the back that he destroyed the gearbox which controls the steering. Of course the dude didn’t have a valid license or insurance so I dealt with it on my own insurance just to get it handled. I am working on re-couping my deductible from the guy. Hopefully he comes thru on his end.

So long story short I was kicked out of the van for a few days while I had to wait for an adjustor to come out from my insurance company to look at the vehicle. Luckily, I got a free rental car while I was waiting to get my vehicle back from the shop. I was buzzing around town in a Honda for a week. Pretty fun on the turns and quite speedy but not the same “homey” feeling you get from the Bong Street van.

Now that I got that taken care of, like I said I am just wrapping up the printing on the catalog and then its “GO” Time.

I will probably spend the first few days in the San Diego area making sure I have my bases covered and have hit up all the local retail. After that I will move forward NORTH, into the Los Angeles Area and then up to San Francisco, and then Humboldt if all goes well and if I have enough gas money…I will try to keep this blog updated as I travel up the state.

Until then just sit back and enjoy the experience!!!

Never gets OLD...Sunset Cliffs

LIFESIZE BONG SEEN WALKING AROUND IN OB…

Halloween was fun. I didn’t go all out though. I just went and chilled down in Ocean Beach. Hit up a few pubs and bars. I was hanging out at this Irish Pub in OB when all of a sudden I saw the guy that was dressed up as exactly what I wanted to be. He was dressed up as a BONG. Someone beat me too it. Oh well. I got some sweet pics taken with homeboy and he rocked a Bong Street sticker on himself the rest of the night. I think I should talk him into being my mascott or something. Cool dude.

So not a whole lot new here on Bong Street…Just continuing to push forward with the plans at hand. Still plannin to roll thru the state and open up business throughout California. Humboldt is the final destination on the voyage.

I got a few new stickers in. They are pretty fuckin sweet. Been slangin shirts on the road. Running into some cool heads.

Other than that haven’t been doing too much other than hanging out at the cliffs, playing guitar, writing some flows, and meditating a lot. Good times and many more to come!!! BONG STREET WILL BE ROLLIN THRU YOUR TOWN SOON!!! GET READY!!!

So its been a chillaxidated last couple of weeks since I updated this. I am actually enjoying this living out of the van thing quite well believe it or not. There is a few inconveniences I could do without, but overall I am making the BEST out of it. Still addicted to the Cliffs…Its too relaxing. It keeps attracting me there like a vortex. It’s not quite Sedona, but it has a certain magic of its own. Great place for musical inspiration. I love to play my guitar there or write lyrics.

Overall, I haven’t had too many crazy experiences. Ok, well maybe a few. But only so much that I can talk about on this. Just been smokin some good herbs and hangin with good peeps. Meeting some new people here and there. I have been saving a bit of money that I am using to put into the company. I got 1500 stickers on the way. Expect to see these slapped up around your town soon. Especially if you live in California.

I will be saving money for about another month or so I can make this trip across California before the end of the year. Bong Street will be rolling all the way to HUMBOLDT!!! So keep an eye out for us anywhere in between. This is about the movement and I will do everything in my power to keep it moving.

Ran into some random cool cats I know here in SD that picked up some gear. Its always good to run into like-minded people that are not afraid to speak out to make change.

Also met new heads while chillin in OB. I met a dude that came up to my van when I was blazin and knocked on the side. Kind of spooked me at first, but I think I spooked him more when he realized that I was in it and I rolled down the window. We bullshitted and smoked. He ended up grabbin a tee for his buddy cause I guess he just broke the guys bong. Not a bad start. I hooked him up with the “word is b0ng” style. We both saw it fitting considering the situation.

This wasn’t from recently but I love it, so here it is…Much mOre to cOMe!!! Until then KEEP THE MOVEMENT MOVIN and STAY GOOD AND BLAZED!!!

I’m trying to get this blogging thing down…I think I may have got it. We’ll see. Anyways, this blog is going to be dedicated for now to the adventures of myself livin in my van but also to the progress made with Bong Street. SO HERE IT GOES!

Week One (9/13-9/20)- My first week in the van was a bit challenging although their is a certain since of liberation that comes with removing a few of those “walls”.  I spent most of my nights in Ocean Beach near the Sunset Cliffs area. Incredible place.  No matter how much time I spend there I still can’t get enough of it.  I also got my new captains chairs in the Bong Street van. Much more comfortable.

During the middle of the week I decided to try camping out in my work parking lot. I made it Wednesday night but the security caught on by Thursday as I was rudely awoken from my sleep with a pounding on my van door. I tried to explain that I work here and go to work in a few hours but the guy wasn’t having it. I had to move into the street for the remainder of the morning.

Other than that, I went to Street Scene on Saturday. It was pretty fuckin awesome. I ended up getting in for free to the concert. I offered homeboy at the side gate a shirt to get me in. He let me in but he couldn’t take one since he was military. Cool fuckin dude. So I got to check out two of my personal fav’s, Del the Funky Homosapien and Atmosphere. Both sets were great. Both groups kicked some freestyles live. Also, I got to check out Soundtribe for my first time. Pretty sweet. I sold a few shirts and got some promo done. I traded a shirt for a disc with a Boku, one of the rappers that rhymed with Del.

I ended the night with some good ole San Diego carne asada nachos, a couple bowls by the cliffs, and then parked the beast and called it a night. WEEK ONE SURVIVED. Hey mom, Im not dead yet…

Welcome to the first official BONG STREET BLOG. I will try to keep you posted on all the progress of BONG STREET and also the LEGALIZATION MOVEMENT!!! Also, be sure to check out the new BONG STREET GEAR for 2008!!!

So 2008 is a kickin’ year so far for BONG STREET…

• FIRST off the van is up and rolling…be sure to check it out!!!

BONG STREET VAN!!!

• SECONDLY…I got to see one of the first reunion shows that CHEECH and CHONG put on here in San Diego. Amazing!!! I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to see them together again.
  

AND I got a PIC taken with CHEECH AND CHONG with TOMMY CHONG wearing a BONG STREET shirt…hell motherf#@kin’ yes…TOMMY CHONG ROCKS!!!

Tommy Chong wearing BONG STREET!!!