Exclusively for OS by Chris Goldstein

While in New York City on 4/9/2010 I met up with my friends Steve Bloom from Celebstoner.com along with Danny Danko and Rick Cusick from High Times Magazine. Danny and Rick are also very active NORML Chapter leaders at Empire State NORML and NORML-NJ.

Christopher David Freitag, a friend and trusted photographer who was along for the day, took a whirlwind tour of the High Times office. Although brief, it was no less intellectually and spiritually moving as the experience of visiting that fine publication always proves.

That afternoon we took on an interesting photo mission: National  NORML purchased a 15 second animated advertisement for the CBS Super Screen on Times Square. It runs 18 times per day on a schedule, or so we thought. We were aiming to get there by the 4:11PM airing and get a picture in front of the giant cannabis leaf ad. After a quick (and cool) cab ride with a Senegalese driver, we arrived on site at 3:50.

No one really goes to Times Square with any real purpose, it's kind of a hang out for tourists and massive crosswalk for locals.  But here we were searching among a vast quilt of building-suspended screens for the one where the NORML ad would appear.  Here's a cellphone pic of us scouting:
It turned out to be almost directly over B.B. Kings Blues Club, which was coincidentally ( and rather fortuitously) where Steve Bloom was meeting us anyway. We were assembled and on time, everything was going well. Freitag set up the image and we practiced aligning ourselves under the sign (practically IN 7th Ave).  Another cellphone pic:

This pic has now been circulated far and wide. This giant legalization message almost didn’t happen because CBS originally rejected the content. After a petition drive from the site Change.org, to their credit, CBS allowed the ad on the screen.