Confessions of a Weed Addict

Getting stoned out of my mind made me a monster marathon runner, but not invincible. [View in Browser]( [Esquire Sunday Reads]( [I Was Addicted to Running High. It Almost Cost Me.]( I Was Addicted to Running High. It Almost Cost Me. It’s a blistering hot morning in downtown Denver, and I’m running as fast as I can. Harry Nilsson's “Jump Into the Fire” is playing at full volume on my headphones as I dodge traffic, turn cartwheels, and leap over park benches. I’m about to enter my second hour of running, and I'm stoned out of my mind on marijuana edibles. The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" comes on and a narcotic rush shoots up my spine, exploding into gooseflesh across my body. I’m pinballing around the city, effortlessly traversing miles between one park and another, running lap after lap before jumping back into traffic. There is no discipline involved here. No fitness goals. I’m not even tracking my distance or time, but I feel ready to chase down a fucking gazelle. Up until the age of 30 I was the least athletic person imaginable. But for the last five years, I’ve been regularly loading up on cannabis chocolates and sprinting through the city, feeling weightless as I leap up steep hills and tackle distances I never thought possible. The combination of music, stress, and weed blend into a euphoric stew that has somehow turned me into a runner. And a troubled addict. [Read the Full Story]( [MORE FROM ESQUIRE]( [It's Pedro Pascal's World Now]( It's Pedro Pascal's World Now “I am going to kill you.” Pedro Pascal says this to me with a smile, which doesn’t mean that he’s joking. You do not want Pedro Pascal to want to kill you. And it’s not because he has convincingly played some cold-blooded killers onscreen over the past several years. No, what you—all of us, apparently—want is simply more Pedro Pascal in your life. Because if you’re like 99 percent of the population with access to premium streaming TV right now, you can’t get enough of him. And you want him to be your hero or your fashion muse or your pal or maybe even your daddy. He’s a sex symbol and a serious actor in one friendly but unknowable, cuddly but perhaps slightly dangerous package. One of one. To say that Pascal is having “a moment” doesn’t quite do justice to the kind of exceedingly rare, career-transforming period of cultural resonance that he’s experiencing. After spending much of his twenties and thirties living the life of a struggling actor, Pascal, at forty-eight, has suddenly been propelled to a lofty new level of fame. His face has been familiar for years. There was the short arc on Game of Thrones that ended with his character’s memorable skull-crushing death, for instance. And his role as a relentless DEA agent for a few seasons on Netflix’s early prestige-era Narcos. But his life has been changed by a pair of blockbuster TV series: This winter he captivated viewers in the role of Joel, an antihero survivor in a postapocalyptic America, in season 1 of HBO’s runaway hit The Last of Us. Then he returned for a third season playing the title character on Disney+’s The Mandalorian. In one he defends a surrogate daughter in a world ravaged by fungus-powered zombies. In the other he protects Baby Yoda (aka Grogu) from Imperial Forces and other threats. [Read the Full Story]( [Nine Orchard Is Our 2023 New Hotel of the Year]( Nine Orchard Is Our 2023 New Hotel of the Year On one end of the travel-fantasy spectrum, there is the blissed-out, blue-skies-and-beaches vacation. The stuff postcards are made of. Nothing wrong with seeking that. Toward the other end is the kind where you imagine yourself as a neighborhood local. You tap into the rhythm of the vibrant daily life in the blocks around you and feel as if you’ve merged with a hipper, alternate-universe version of yourself. That’s what Nine Orchard, our 2023 Hotel of the Year off our Best New Hotels list, will do for you. We know the “hotels for locals” shtick, where there’s a lobby filled with folks on laptops. This is not that. Nine Orchard is more about creating the fantasy of residence. It starts with your room number. 4L, 3G, 8A. You might think you’ve stepped into someone’s apartment: Each room has an appreciation for the analog—the handmade ceramic lamps, the paintings from local artists, the Devon Turnbull Ojas wooden speakers that tune in to stations curated by DJ Stretch Armstrong and Turnbull. You’ll want to hole up and write a memoir here. [Read the Full Story]( [At Long Last, Rae Sremmurd Return]( At Long Last, Rae Sremmurd Return What’s five years, anyway? Well, five years ago, Donald Trump was in only his second year in office, A Quiet Place had just debuted as the number one movie in America, Drake’s “God’s Plan” was winding down an 11-week run as the top song in the country, and Rae Sremmurd were readying the release of their acclaimed third album Sr3mm. A half-decade later–an eternity for today’s attention-deficit hip-hop fans, who impatiently flood comments sections with “Drop that shit!” when asked to wait even weeks–Rae Sremmurd’s Sremm 4 Life is finally here. Even better: The long-postponed LP is, start to finish, the brothers’ best yet. “I don’t ever wanna go back to the hood, you feel me?” he explains. “I don’t want to go back to being broke. And I know what got me outta the hood. This right here. This music. So I’m in the studio as much as I can be.” But riding that wave left Rae Sremmurd on dry land. Speculation had already begun that the brothers might be parting ways when Sr3mm’s release was accompanied by two solo albums, Jxmmi’s Jxmtro and Swae’s Swaecation, and it only grew in the fall of 2019, when Swae went on tour as a solo artist supporting Post Malone, playing a set that was at least half Rae Sremmurd songs. In 2020, Swae reminded fans in a tweet that he and his brother were “two individuals” and “different types of artists.” “Can brothers ever really break up?” some wondered. (See: Gallagher, Noel and Liam) Jxmmi pushes back on the idea that the duo was ever at risk of ending. “There wasn’t never no split in the group,” he asserts. “I just wanted to work on myself. I felt like there was ways that I could be a better entertainer. That’s what I took the time to work on, and I feel really that’s what’s brought us to this fourth album, for real.” [Read the Full Story]( [Bootcut's Back (Alright!)]( Bootcut's Back (Alright!) Yep, it’s happening. The thing you thought would never happen. Bootcut jeans are here again. But there’s no need to panic. This is a kinder, gentler bootcut than those bell-bottomed, bedazzled disasters from back in the day. In classic washes with a subtle flare at the ankle, these jeans aren't too far off from your favorite straight-leg denim but still different enough to give any outfit a little oomph. Pairing a blazer and jeans is a standard move at this point, so safe that it sometimes feels like a snooze. But when you throw bootcut jeans and pointy boots in the mix? It’s a wake-up call, a jolt of energy that transforms the snoozy into something, well, kinda sexy. Sure, you could wear the combo to the office and notice the Blazer and Jeans 1.0 guys hiding their legs under the conference table in shame. But it’d work even better on date night, when it can be properly appreciated by your partner in crime. [Read the Full Story]( [Our Favorite Hotels of All Time]( Our Favorite Hotels of All Time New hotels are incredible. We love them. Look over here where we just revealed our forty-nine favorite of just-finished or fully-revamped properties. The sheen of each is undeniable. But scouring for some place new is just one way to travel. Some of the very best properties in hoteling have been hosting travelers for decades. They've become synonymous with their city, the sole reason for many to visit a town at all. We want to honor those places too. Welcome to Esquire's Hotels Hall of Fame. So what is the criteria that makes an establishment eligible for this list? Well, the doors have to have been open for five or more years for consideration. (You'll find one property on this list that has been at the top of its game for five times that, and another that debuted way back in 1910!) But it's not just having been in business for a half-decade or more that makes a place Hall of Fame worthy. They also have to have become constants in their community—defining or shaping the very region in which they stand. Being great for any span of time is hard work, doing so for years on end is downright remarkable. What's more, though, is that for these five hotels, there's no end in sight to their reign. [Read the Full Story]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection]( esquire.com ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019