Five-time Grammy Award nominee Ottmar Liebert is German-born. His music is rooted in the traditions of Spain. And he lives in the American Southwest. Somehow, he combines these disparate elements into a guitar-based music with one foot in tradition and the other in a modern, highly accessible pop style.

Though he’s a technically accomplished and ambitious musician, Liebert says that accessibility has always been an aim of his work. He cites his very first release, 1990’s Nouveau Flamenco. Noting that flamenco sometimes “seems to meander,” he says that his brand of the traditional style is different. “I like a strong melody. I like structure: Here’s a verse, and here comes the chorus.” He goes so far as to characterize his debut album—which went platinum on the US Latin Music charts 14 times over—as “very pop.”

Liebert manages to have it both ways: he’s a serious and highly regarded musician who just happens to make music that sounds good to the casual listener. His take on flamenco has even found popularity in the genre’s country of origin, Spain.

“My music was played at bullfights,” he says. “My music was played on TV in Spain in the early ’90s. I think maybe it influenced some people there.”

He’s been a prolific artist ever since that debut. Liebert’s latest release, Fete, is his 30th album. Working with his group, Luna Negra, he continues his road-tested approach of bridging the gap between old and new. Alongside classical Spanish guitar textures, Liebert weaves traditional instruments like upright acoustic bass, accordion and acoustic percussion; saxophone, fretless electric bass and even drum programs also fit seamlessly into
Luna Negra’s mix.

Liebert’s wide-screen approach to music developed early. Growing up in West Germany in the ’70s, he had a front row seat to the new and exciting sounds of the era. In his native Köln (Cologne), “there were a lot of great little clubs that had some amazing jazz musicians coming through,” he remembers. And at the theater run by WDR, West German Radio he often witnessed wildly eclectic bills. He recalls one example: “a troupe from India playing traditional music, somebody from Africa and [German heavy metal group] Scorpions!”

The idea of combining such disparate musical elements stuck with the teenage Liebert. Even though he first heard flamenco when he was 15, the idea of expanding upon it didn’t come to him until much later.

“When I moved to Santa Fe in ’86, people here were playing flamenco and mariachi music,” he remembers. “And I was like, ‘Wow, this is a really neat combination!’”

Prior to his move, Liebert played electric guitar, but he found it didn’t inspire him enough. “I was at the point where things felt like they had to change,” he says. So he dove deeply into studying flamenco guitar, with the goal of doing something beyond the traditional. “I took several years of flamenco lessons,” he says, “and then incorporated that stuff into what I heard in my head.”

Along the way, Liebert developed his signature sound, one that draws as much from Cuban rumba and African musicians, like Ali Farka Touré, as it does from non-guitarists like Miles Davis. From his perspective, those seemingly disparate influences have more in common than one might think. “People see jazz or flamenco as these monolithic cultural achievements,” he says. “They don’t know that traditional flamenco is probably 70 percent Arabic music.”

He explains that there are fundamental similarities between supposedly unrelated musical traditions. As an example, Liebert cites the practice of musicians not playing on the first beat of a measure (“The one is bare,” he explains.) “If you listen to tango flamenco, then reggae and then you listen to salsa, you realize that they’re doing exactly the same thing” with that one-drop rhythm, he says.

And Liebert is fulsome in his support of musical cross-fertilization. “If you want to keep something the way you think is traditional, you’re really stopping all development,” he says. Noting that in the current political climate, it’s more important than ever to celebrate the mixing of cultural traditions, he says, “In many cases, we’re not even aware of how we’ve been enriched.”

Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra
Feb 5, 7:30pm, Sold Out
Carriage House Theatre, Saratoga
montalvoarts.org

I brought my sister out to the city so she could meet the charming, somewhat older Australian man I’d been dating for the past several months. It was supposed to be a fun night out, pub-crawling our way through downtown on a recent balmy summer evening as you got to know one of my favorite siblings. My excitement at the prospect of you two meeting made your behavior all the more crushing. A few drinks into the night, you began making advances on my sister and me, trying to wrangle us into a threesome. Thankfully, my sister’s reaction mirrored me own: revulsion over you apparently leading me on just to fulfill your little fantasy. It’s not even that I’m opposed to the idea of a three-way—but that’s something you earn, negotiate and—I hope—keep completely separate from anyone I’m related to.

I Saw You is an anonymous “man on the street” column. Email your rants and raves about co-workers or any badly behaving citizens to iSawYou@metronews.com, or send to 380 S. First St, San Jose, 95113. Submissions should stick to about 100 words.

]]> https://activate.metroactive.com/2019/10/i-saw-you-sister-act/feed/ 0 https://activate.metroactive.com/2019/02/pot-shots-weed-belong-together/ https://activate.metroactive.com/2019/02/pot-shots-weed-belong-together/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2019 22:29:44 +0000 http://wp.blvdscms.com/activate-metroactive-com/?p=123292
Valentine’s Day has long ditched its historic Roman Empire roots and now simply enriches Hallmark execs, but many people still don’t seem opposed to a day that encourages eating tons of chocolate and having sex (hello, life goals). The anxiety of gift shopping undoubtedly contributes to V-Day’s rep as the most hated holiday…]]>

Valentine’s Day has long ditched its historic Roman Empire roots and now simply enriches Hallmark execs, but many people still don’t seem opposed to a day that encourages eating tons of chocolate and having sex (hello, life goals). The anxiety of gift shopping undoubtedly contributes to V-Day’s rep as the most hated holiday around, but don’t trip on what to buy your boo this year because Pot Shots’ gift guide will cover your ass from that sneaky henchman Cupid and his quivering bow.

Whether it’s a “toke-n” of your affection in the form of a simple joint or a full-fledged Banana Kush bouquet, flowers of the cannabis variety should top any stoner’s Valentine’s Day wish list. Massive arrangements of weed flowers, adorning a bong with a simple red rose or filling an empty chocolate box with some buds are all thoughtful gifts for the cannabis enthusiast, but the Internet also has a number of ideas for rolling a romantic next-level jay.

Get crafty with your chronic and light your love’s heart on fire with a multipronged heart-shaped joint dipped in hash oil and kief, or roll one up with a heart-shaped paper filter or in a gold cone from Shine Papers. The blingy blunt wraps are made from 24-carat edible gold leaf, which the company says “stays on the ashes” and is “not statistically significant in the severity of any adverse effects” from smoking (a cited study supports this conclusion). Because they taste, smell and burn the same as any other rolling papers but cost much more, Shine’s megasize, megawatt products are best for a special occasion like V-Day or your cameo in a Wiz Khalifa video.

Some chocolate is always in order for Valentine’s Day, so make sure it tantalizes your taste buds and other senses with a nice dose of some THC, CBD or both. There are many canna-chocolate options, but some great labels sold at San Jose dispensaries include Bhang, Kiva, and Defonce (fun fact: Defonce uses the traditional asanoha, or cannabis leaf pattern from Japan, on its products). If it’s your first time experimenting with edibles, try taking no more than 5 or 10mg per hour until establishing your limit; marijuana is an excellent aphrodisiac but too much THC can be a buzzkill on a day all about being in the mood (no worries about overdoing CBD, however, which is non-psychoactive).

Keep the fires stoked later with some canna-infused lube; they’re basically topicals with weed but these pot products are some of the hottest on the market and in the bedroom. Velvet Swing, sold at White Fire in San Jose, takes about 20 minutes to kick in and reaches full effect in 40 minutes, lasting up to four hours. Each bottle has 100mg THC and 33mg CBD, but the company says you won’t get high “unless you use it anally or orally.” So, while it’s technically not an edible, using it on select body parts probably counts. 

The West Coast blues tradition is built upon the styles and achievements of blues greats and is heavily seasoned with a liberal dose of good, old-fashioned rock & roll. Palo Alto-born guitarist Angelo J. Rossi—known to fans as AJ Crawdaddy—is a product of that tradition and has been a fixture of the local blues scene for decades.

Rossi, who plays Redwood City’s Club Fox this week, began his formal introduction to the blues at age 17, almost by accident. He bought a ticket to a Chambers Brothers show at Winterland. “They canceled, and a fellow by the name of Albert King came out on stage instead,” Rossi recalls. He was immediately impressed. “This big guy had a Flying V [guitar] that he played left-hand and upside down.” King launched into one of his signature tunes. “He played ‘Crosscut Saw,’” Rossi says, “and that was that.” The blues had officially won Rossi’s heart.

That same year, Rossi’s mother bought him his first serious guitar, a brand new Epiphone Riviera. Rossi had already proved to his parents that he was committed to playing, so after used a rented instrument for some time, he was thrilled to receive an instrument of his own. The gift took on special meaning, as his mother was suffering from cancer and died the next year. A half-century later, Rossi still owns and plays that treasured electric guitar.

“I fell in love with the ‘three Kings’ – Albert, Freddie and B.B. King,” Rossi says. “I saw B.B. King open for the Rolling Stones in 1968. He tore that stage up!” Growing up in the Bay Area,, Rossi took every opportunity to see his blues heroes when they came through town. He was especially inspired by bands that included a horn section; that approach would greatly influence the direction Rossi would follow in his own blues journey.

Along the way, Rossi’s musical path found him playing in musical idioms well beyond the blues. When rock band Pablo Cruise wanted to add more musical muscle to its sound, the group recruited Rossi on guitar and vocals. Working with the band in studios like Sausalito’s famed Record Plant, Rossi became friendly with a wide variety of artists. “It was basically a family unit,” Rossi says. “Everybody hung out together, got stoned together, and worked on each other’s records.” Rossi’s backing vocals can be heard on Jefferson Starship’s Freedom at Point Zero album.

Still, his commitment to the blues remained strong. Even when onstage playing breezy, soft rock hits like Pablo Cruise’s “Whatcha Gonna Do?” and “Love Will Find a Way,” Rossi provided bluesy texture to the music. “Whenever I play, I always ‘blues’ something up,” he says with a laugh. “I just get sneaky. I have that ability to be able to sneak the blues in, no matter what genre I’m playing.”

These days, Rossi maintains his own studio, The Cave. And it’s there where he has recorded two albums to date under the AJ Crawdaddy moniker. The records—2015’s Vaporized and Slow Cookin’ from 2017—display Rossi’s love of the blues as well as his skill at showcasing the genre’s various styles.

“I try to make well-rounded records,” he explains, “ones that aren’t just steeped in traditional blues, but that also touch on Chicago, Kansas City and even West Coast blues. Because I’m a West Coast guy!”

Rossi’s music also draws from the jump blues tradition, a late 1940s style that music historians describe as a missing link between big band swing, blues and rock & roll. Both in the studio and on live dates, Rossi uses a horn section—featuring select players from the region’s blues scene—whenever he can. But when he can’t, or when the music calls for something different, he calls old friend and harmonica player Jim Durrants. “Think of the harmonica as a poor man’s horn section,” Rossi says with a good-natured laugh. “It’s the ‘Mississippi saxophone.’”

Rossi has deep friendship with many in the Bay Area blues scene, and that’s a key to his popularity and success. Most of the musicians who play with him have been bandmates for more than two decades. “We’re playing blues, and that’s a simple language,” he says. “And it’s a very fun language.”

AJ Crawdaddy’s Holiday Party
Dec. 26, 7pm $7
Club Fox, Redwood City
clubfoxrwc.com

“Hey, wanna get lunch?” Yes, you, of course I want to get lunch—I just don’t want to get it with you. You suck. Everything you have to say is some insipid circle-jerk about your car, your house or your wife. I hope she’s banging your neighbor and complaining about how—even though you got a raise at work—you can’t get one in the bedroom. Stop trying to tell me about your boat every time I go to the bathroom. I’m trying to pee, you dolt! The only time I want to hear that boat is if it sinks with you in it. I hope you get eaten by a shark, you twatsicle. You asked me out to lunch yesterday and I lied about having packed one that day. So it must’ve been awkward seeing me on my way back from your favorite taco truck without you. I hope seeing me helped you realize that nobody likes you. Because sure, you have a Porsche and live in S.F., but that can’t fill the void of your empty personality.

I Saw You is an anonymous “man on the street” column. Email your rants and raves about co-workers or any badly behaving citizens to iSawYou@metronews.com, or send to 380 S. First St, San Jose, 95113. Submissions should stick to about 100 words.

]]> https://activate.metroactive.com/2018/12/i-saw-you-table-for-one-please/feed/ 0 https://activate.metroactive.com/2018/12/pot-shots-the-flying-high-club/ https://activate.metroactive.com/2018/12/pot-shots-the-flying-high-club/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2018 20:08:28 +0000 http://wp.blvdscms.com/activate-metroactive-com/?p=122949
Loading your stash box will keep your holiday more chill than the North Pole when dealing with South Bay seasonal traditions like three-hour parking lot clusterfucks at Valley Fair, but watch out if you’re traveling this weekend with your cannabis. Adult use of marijuana is now legal in California, but that doesn’t…]]>

Loading your stash box will keep your holiday more chill than the North Pole when dealing with South Bay seasonal traditions like three-hour parking lot clusterfucks at Valley Fair, but watch out if you’re traveling this weekend with your cannabis. Adult use of marijuana is now legal in California, but that doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all; whether reaching your destination by plane, train or automobile, laws, rules and regulations still apply when traveling with that good green Christmas tree.

Marijuana is banned under federal law, so traveling with it by airplane or railroad is technically illegal, even among the 420-friendly West Coast states like California, Oregon and Washington. But some airports have their own favorable marijuana policies; Los Angeles International announced earlier this year that passengers may carry up to 28.5 grams of weed through security.

Last year a spokesperson also told the S.F. Weekly that SFO “doesn’t have a specific policy” on cannabis at their security checkpoints and usually defers to local law enforcement. San Jose Mineta International Airport reps didn’t return several calls for comment. But according to their website, marijuana is not allowed inside checked luggage or carry-on bags (although one guy arrested at Mineta earlier this year for smoking weed on a flight clearly gave no fucks).

Sneaking weed on planes isn’t new. A survey of 1,001 people by Strato Jets found that a third admitted to bringing something prohibited onboard, with marijuana earning the top spot for most-smuggled item.

The staggering array of discreet products like vape pens, THC oils, balms, tinctures and edibles eliminates the need to fly with any flower. But if you’re worried about being caught with anything, apps like Leafly, Nugg, Budly and Eaze will connect you with local dispensaries and delivery services so you can safely stock up at your destination. One dispensary, Airfield Supply Company, is even conveniently located right down the street from Mineta.

Some people eat edibles before climbing aboard, often to alleviate anxiety associated with flying. A long flight is an ideal time for consuming edibles because the liver metabolizes and converts regular ol’ THC into its more potent cousin, 11-hydroxy-THC, which does a better job crossing the blood-brain boundary and produces a longer, more intense high than smoking. If you’re new to edibles, maybe don’t try them for the first time on a plane. But if you do, try to have more of a clue about what you’re doing than, say, the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, and stick to 5 or 10mg an hour until you find your tolerance limit.

In an industry flush with the good green and cold hard cash, a number of foreign “ganjapreneurs” are making American dispensaries offers too good to refuse. Several San Jose pot shops including Harborside recently sealed some dank deals with different investors from Canada, where cannabis stock is legally traded on the market. Harborside completed a $200 million (Canadian dollars) reverse takeover in August with Toronto-based Lineage Grow Company, which will give the marijuana mammoth “access to capital required to facilitate Harborside’s expansion plans in California and the contiguous western states,” adding it to a small but growing list of dispensaries throughout the state with white market investors.

They’re “technically acquiring us but to acquire us, they have to issue so many shares that we end up taking control of the company after the transaction is done,” said CEO Andrew Berman in an interview.

Harborside stores aren’t closing, and products and service will remain the same. “We love the Bay Area and those locations and are very much committed to that,” Berman said.

Another Canadian cannabis firm, Golden Leaf Holdings, secured one of the city’s Sweet 16 dispensaries for $7 million around the same time as the Harborside sale. Its identity remains a secret, but Golden Leaf said in a statement that the mystery storefront will be retrofitted into another branded store called Chalice Farms. Many of San Jose’s pot shops are rumored to have been solicited by their neighbors to the north, according to Sean Kali-Rai, president of the Silicon Valley Cannabis Alliance.

“I think they’ve all been approached, and some by more than one company,” Kali-Rai said. “This really feels like the early, early days of the dot-com boom or something. There’s so much energy in the air, deal-making going on.”

A dearth of cannabis licenses in Silicon Valley has lent to some “pretty amazing” dispensary evaluations, but Kali-Rai is doubtful that cities like Milpitas and Mountain View, both which recently approved pot clubs within their borders, will flatten those prices.

“If you just add up all those cities that may allow it, you’re hard-pressed in Silicon Valley to get to 60, 75 licenses,” he said. “Scarcity is absolutely driving the value and also the address; there’s only one Silicon Valley.”

Lighting up a joint is now legal in some form in 30 states, but posting your smoke sesh could still get you kicked off social media. As draconian as it sounds, that’s what some users on Instagram and other platforms say has happened to them. Seattle-based photographer Bess Byers, who has more than 94,000 followers, started a petition to protest her IG account @imcannabess being shut down twice in August. More than 15,000 people have signed the petition, which asks Instagram to update their terms of service to “reflect changing cannabis laws,” “stop targeting legal businesses” and “end the censorship and suppression of cannabis content.”

Byers’ weed-themed account, which features shots of grows and people toking, was eventually reactivated after it was “disabled by mistake,” but another cannabis activist had her hemp cafe’s account disabled around the same time. When it was reactivated, Jodie Emery told Marijuana.com that she received the same email as Byers stating her account was shut down “by mistake.” Instagram isn’t the only platform accused of censoring marijuana content; Loaded Up Entertainment was deleted from YouTube earlier this year for posting weed-related videos, including one about the best munchies to eat while stoned.

Numerous Bay Area dispensaries have had profiles for years without any issues, raising questions of what makes these companies act on certain accounts. YouTube prohibits videos that show “drug abuse, underage drinking and smoking,” but videos showing how to manicure homegrown buds are arguably more informative than pro-drug propaganda. Facebook also has inconsistent criteria for ganja; Weedmaps is greenlighted to promote themselves on Facebook, but last year the social media giant got in hot water for deleting the pages of several licensed dispensaries in Alaska.

Spotty guidelines have pushed some canna-thusiasts to create their own platforms; Mass Roots is a hybrid of marijuana news and dispensary advertising platform that bills itself as a social media website, but an even newer network just popped up. Smoke Network plans to stop reefer censorship with blockchain technology somewhat like Bitcoin, letting weed content be safely stored without any chance of removal or revision by outsiders. They also promise to reward people who contribute to the network with cryptocurrency; upvoted users also receive part of the network’s daily rewards, encouraging further participation. The network is currently giving away free SMOKE coins for registering; those interested can sign up at Smoke.Network.

With many parts of the state reaching 100-and-fuck degrees this summer, chilling out next to the AC with some ice-cold suds is a no-brainer. Several companies have come to the rescue this summer with THC, CBD and terpene-infused beverages so that overheated marijuana enthusiasts can have their weed and drink it, too.

Cannabis bevvies originally took the form of sugary sodas until more health-conscious products started popping up in dispensaries over the past few years. The latest wave of reefer refreshments includes San Diego-based Cannibiniers, which this summer launched Two Roots Brewing Co., “the world’s first line of CannaCrafted non-alcoholic THC and CBD infused craft beer.”

The lineup features a lager, stout, IPA, sonder and wheat ale, all of which the company states “emulates the rapid onset of alcohol” but without the hangover and humiliation of that one vomit-involved Lyft ride home from Cinnabar that your friends promised to never mention again. Molson Coors Brewing is developing a similar product with Canadian weed producer The Hydropothecary Corp. north of the border, and local brewer Lagunitas sells Hi-Fi Hops, an IPA-inspired “hoppy sparkling water” beverage, at Airfield Supply Company and both Harborside locations.

Only Province Brands is actually brewing with bud, though; most cannabis beers just have THC or CBD oils added to them, but Province uses all parts of the plant to create a unique product with 6.5mg THC in each bottle. Two Rivers also sells infused cold-brew iced coffees from their Just Society label for those who love a little cuppa canna in the morning.

Their blood orange, chamomile and peppermint teas will also have you throwing a Mad Hatter-style tea party in no time. Herbal tea blends from women-owned Bay Area company Kikoko have made headlines lately for their effects on alleviating anxiety and giving people a boost of desire in the bedroom.

All of the beautifully packaged products are available for your next high teatime at Caliva, Airfield and Buddy’s Cannabis. “Microdosing is becoming a big thing,”  Buddy’s Cannabis owner Matt Lucero said. “Kikoko is one of our best-selling new items.”

Marijuana isn’t poised to take over happy hour just yet. Edibles are still less than 10 percent of Buddy’s store sales, with drinks comprising just 1 percent of that demographic. But even the alcohol industry doesn’t seem threatened by legalization.

Since the recent legalization of marijuana, it’s been easier than ever roll up a joint and get high with some friends. But the growing cultural and systemic acceptance of pot smoking doesn’t mean the rules of the road are any less lax; it’s just that enforcing them has been complicated.

Unlike alcohol intoxication, which can be measured in blood alcohol content, the presence of marijuana in a driver’s system doesn’t necessarily indicate that they’re not OK to drive. But an Oakland-based company may have figured out a way to clear things up for law enforcement trying to police stoned driving.

Founded in 2014, Hound Labs created the first pot breathalyzer, which the company says can accurately detect whether a person consumed the drug within the past two hours—the peak time frame for intoxication.

The breathalyzer then displays results within minutes. Hound Labs co-founders Mike Lynn, a doctor and reserve deputy sheriff, Jenny Lynn, an entrepreneur, and Kuni Oh, a patent attorney, say their invention pulls double duty by measuring alcohol impairment as well. “We are trying to make the establishment of impairment around marijuana rational and to balance fairness and safety,” CEO Mike Lynn explained to NPR.

Currently, law enforcement in California and throughout the U.S. rely on field sobriety tests or simple observation to catch signs of marijuana use. But stoned drivers could often avoid detection by popping a breath mint.

Officials say driving under the influence of cannabis is getting worse. According to a 2014 survey by the U.S. Department of Transportation, nearly a quarter of drivers tested positive for at least one drug that impedes safe driving—a concerning increase from the years prior.

Though there’s still some debate about what THC levels in a person’s breath, blood or saliva cause functional impairment, several states that have legalized the drug also set their legal guidelines for driving while high. In Colorado, Illinois, Montana and Washington state, motorists with a THC blood concentration of 5 nanograms or more are considered too high to get behind the wheel, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Nevada and Ohio, the statute sets the threshold at 2 nanograms.

Hound Labs plans to roll out a series of pilot programs with police departments this fall to test the new breathalyzer. That said, better to stay safe than sorry. Bum a ride from a friend or do what any responsible person would do and call a Lyft.