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MODERN-DAY MUSE Americana meets hip hop in the music of rising talent Lillian and the Muses
THE WONDER OF DOGS Why we love them so much
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CALIFORNIA SENSI MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2021
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FEATURE
28
Lessons of a Digtial Nomad Here’s what we learned from living on the go—and what we would change if we did it again.
DEPARTMENTS
13 EDITOR’S NOTE 38 THE SCENE Hot happenings and hip hangouts around town 14 THE BUZZ NEW AMERICAN MYTH News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop CBD SIPPERS Try these new cannabis drinks. SUNSET SIPS Vineyard views in Santa Rosa
CALIFORNIA AVOCADO FEST Free music, guac,
and more
CUSTOMIZABLE HIGH
Here’s a peek into the process of musician Lillian Seibert, aka Lillian and the Muses.
48 THE END Asian American locomotive laborers honored with Sacramento mural.
Choose your own temp vaporizers. MARIJUANA FOR MENOPAUSE Manage “The
Change” with cannabis. FLEET WEEK Iconic San Francisco event returns.
20 THE LIFE Contributing to your
ON THE COVER
Lilian Seibert is a breakout musician defining the new era. PHOTO BY HOLY SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY / HOLYSMOKEPPHOTOGRPAHY.COM
health and happiness THE WONDER OF DOGS For
many of us, a life without animal companions would be a lesser life.
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EDITORIAL
Stephanie Wilson Co-Founder + Editor in Chief stephanie.wilson@sensimag.com Doug Schnitzspahn Executive Editor Tracy Ross Managing Editor, Michigan Emilie-Noelle Provost Managing Editor, New England Debbie Hall Managing Editor, Nevada Jenny Willden Managing Editor, California Will Brendza Managing Editor, Colorado Robyn Griggs Lawrence Editor at Large Radha Marcum Copy Editor Bevin Wallace Copy Editor
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Magazine published monthly by Sensi Media Group LLC.
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dwindle, we’re looking forward to fall in California. It’s hard to know what the future holds as the pandemic situation evolves daily, but here at Sensi, we’re focusing on loving life in the Golden State—even when things don’t go as expected. This month in the Buzz, we’re showcasing new cannabis products that look promising for everything from menopause to sleep. While you’re testing them out, flip to our Scene story on Lillian and the Muses to read about acoustically written tunes inspired by nightmares, heartbreak, and lust tracked over with hip hop beats (and the joy of chasing spring in LA). With work-from-home rules extended for many California businesses, now’s an excellent time to read our feature on digital nomads and consider a house hiatus, taking your work on the road. Whether you do van life or camp out at a hotel, a break from your traditional surroundings can be all you need to find the inspiration to create something new or renew your focus. We hope you enjoy this all-digital issue. We will return with a print edition in November covering all of California. Cheers to fall, pumpkin spices lattes, and cozy sweaters,
Jenny Willden @jennywillden
Whether you do van life or camp out at a hotel, a break from your traditional surroundings can be all you need to find the inspiration to create something new or renew your focus.
I N S TAG R A M Pretty things, pretty places, pretty awesome people: find it all on @sensimagazine
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PHOTOS (FROM TOP) COURTESY OF AMASS, MAD LILLY
PRODUCTS SPOTLIGHT
CBD Sippers Here are three new cannabis drinks for you to try—from distilled spirits to dream tonics. Amass Afterdream Make mellow-out mocktails with this cannabis-infused, nonalcoholic spirit crafted from 14 botanicals and eight terpenes blended with 3.5mg THC, 3.5mg CBD, and 3.5mg Delta-8. This quality concoction hails from the California coast, where the cannabis revolution began in the ’60s, and while it won’t get you drunk, it will provide the limb-loosening 14
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relaxation benefits you’re seeking. Price varies / amass.com
Mad Lilly Spritzer Spritz up your sips with this natural cannabis beverage. It blends raspberry juice and floral hibiscus with 5mg of CBD and 5mg of THC for a fruity flavor that packs a relaxation punch. Just 50 calories per bottle. Price varies / drinkmadlilly.com
CONTRIBUTOR
Jenny Willden
Mad Lilly Lemon Dream Tonic Ready your body for a restful night’s sleep with this tonic infused with CBD, THC, and CBN, which all work together to calm your mind and help you rest. Added lemon balm and lavender extracts promote calm and clarity, without the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs. The tonic was the first-of-its-kind CBN-infused product to be released on the California market, and it’s fast gaining popularity among people looking to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. $10–$14 / drinkmadlilly.com
BY THE NUMBERS
300 Approximate number of ghost towns in California SOURCE: drivinvibin.com
EVENTS SPOTLIGHT
$2.6 BILLION Amount Americans will spend on candy this Halloween
PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT) COURTESY OF MAD LILLY, PARADISE RIDGE WINERY, CALIFORNIA AVOCADO FEST
SOURCE: ngpf.org
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SUNSET SIPS Soak up fall weather with vineyard views at this weekly Santa Rosa event. Break up your work week with sunset sips at Paradise Ridge Winery. Held every Wednesday evening through October 27, this wine-and-sunset event features live music paired with award-winning Russian River Valley wines. Fare from a rotating schedule of gourmet local food trucks fills you up while you take in the sweeping views at this recently rebuilt winery. Tickets available online in advance for $10 for wine club members, $15 for general admission, and $20 at the door (based on availability). prwinery.com
DEGREES CALIFORNIA’S Record-breaking temperature at Death Valley National Park’s Furnace Creek Visitor Center on July 9, 2021
IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL, BRIGHT AUTUMN DAY, WITH AIR LIKE CIDER AND A SKY SO 30,581 BLUE YOU COULD DROWN IN IT.” SOURCE: yaleclimateconnections.org
Highest number of lit jack-o’-lanterns on display at one time SOURCE: usatoday10best.com
—Diana Gabaldon, author
LARGEST FREE MUSIC FESTIVAL Mark your calendars for the return of California Avocado Fest. Whether you’re a guacamole fan or an avocado toast type, you’ll love this festival celebrating avocados in the heart of California’s avocado-production region. Held at Linden Field in Carpinteria on October 2 and 3, the event features 20 live bands and two wine and beer gardens. Expect avocado-centric food menus with returning favorites like zesty guacamole, avocado ice cream, and crispy taquitos. Did we mention that admission is free? avofest.com
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THE BUZZ
CUSTOMIZABLE HIGH Choose your own temperature with these modern vaporizers. Upgrade your vaporizer with Dr. Greenthumb’s x G Roam, a portable vaporizer with custom heating options that allow you to smoke to your exact temperature preference. The Roam delivers water-filtered concentrate vaporization no matter where you go and heats within seconds of activation, thanks to its lithium-ion battery. It was developed for use with concentrates, and you can use its digital temperature display to ensure you reach your preferred temperature and flavor.
PHOTOS (FROM TOP) COURTESY OF HELLO AGAIN, G PEN
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Make “The Change” easier with this new cannabis health product. Brain fog, hot flashes, sleep issues, and dryness can make going through menopause miserable. But Hello Again and its founders (and real life Grace and Frankie team) Patty Pappas and Carrie Mapes are looking to transform that unpleasant experience with a vaginal suppository that uses CBD, THC, and herbal medicine to get you feeling back on track. And while designed for menopause, ladies with periods and PMS can use the product to improve sleep and bring the body back into balance. Price varies / helloagainproducts.com
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THE BUZZ
BILITIES BY STEPHANIE WILSON, EDITOR IN CHIEF
1 STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS STORY: The first time I ever got high, I went to a haunted house.
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’ s Fleet Week This iconic event returns to San Francisco in October.
The long-anticipated return of the San Francisco Fleet Week Air Show is October 8-10 with planes soaring between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Headlined by The U.S. Navy Blue Angels, it’s the only air show in the United States to include a full jetliner—a United 777—performing a fully choreographed act.
2 TRUE STORY: The girl who drove my friends and me that night had a last name pronounced doo-bie.
3 MS. DOOBIE [NOT HOW IT’S REALLY SPELLED] had borrowed her mom’s car that night and picked up me and two other girls on the way to the haunted house on the other side of town. On the way there, one of the girls convinced her to pull off into a cul-de-sac so her three passengers could smoke a joint in the woods all stealth-like—my puff-puff right of passage.
4 THE HAUNTED HOUSE IN OUR TOWN WAS NO JOKE. Kids and adults alike would line up at the spooky house on the hill outside of town to be subjected to fits of terror. Whether they knew it or not, they were there to get high on fear.
5 WHEN YOU EXPERIENCE FEAR, your body’s natural fightor-flight response triggers the release of endorphins and dopamine into your system. When that happens in a safe environment (like a haunted house or while watching a scary movie), the pleasure response is heightened even further. That’s why safe-but-still-so-scary attractions exist: We’re just seeking our next dopamine hit. and my guards were down. I let myself be scared—terrified—at every turn, as did my friends, and the three of us found ourselves huddled in a pile together in the corner of one dark room at the end of the tour, giggling and crying good tears, and giggling some more.
Things do not change; we change.” —Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and poet
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7 TURNS OUT, getting safely scared with friends is a bonding experience. Science says so, as does my anecdotal experience: Twenty-five years later, those two girls remain my bestest of friends, although I don’t know whatever happened to the girl named Doobie.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SAN FRANCISCO FLEET WEEK AIR SHOW
6 IN MY FIRST-TIME-HIGH STATE, my inhibitions were lowered
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The Wonder Of Dogs For many of us, a life without animal companions would be a lesser life. TEXT LELAND RUCKER
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PHOTO BY RITA KOCHMARJOVA, ADOBE STOCK
I had a dog once that played music. Really. Any time my friend Gil and I got out our guitars, Ricky grabbed a squeaky toy, planted himself between us, and started making noise. He had no sense of time or rhythm—it was pure skronking jazz—but this Belgian Tervuren was into the music. Whenever he heard the Cheers theme on TV, he began, uh, singing along. We have many audio tapes, but alas, no video of him while he wailed. He would be a viral sensation today. It’s been more than 20 years since Ricky died, but I think about him a lot. I think often about all the dogs that have graced my life. No other canine has shown any degree of musical aptitude, though I have tried mightily. But each one has been a good friend, and each has taught me something about myself. I couldn’t live without a dog. They are my companions, friends, and teachers. Humans, especially Americans, are animal crazy. As of 2018, according to Statista, a statistics portal for market data, 60 percent of US households included a dog, and 47 million had a cat. That’s 80 to 90 million dogs, give or take a
few million. Many have both, and that doesn’t count the multitude of fish, rabbits, ferrets, iguanas, snakes, birds, guinea pigs, mice, hamsters, and other animals we keep. Maybe we’re not all Leona Helmsley, the hotelier who left most of her inheritance to Trouble, a Maltese who lived in luxury until she died at age 12, yet we managed to spend almost $70 billion on our companion animals in 2017, half of that on food and treats, and we’re on target to spend more this year. I was afraid of dogs as a child and grew up with the general belief that non-human animals— we are all animals, after all—acted solely by instinct. The difference between humans and other animals, we were told, is that we humans are sentient, conscious, emotional beings, and other animals aren’t. Animals belong to us, the reasoning went. Not being around them, I didn’t give it much thought until I got my first dog at age 27. I’ve never been without one since. A big part of the disconnect about whether animals are conscious beings is that they can’t tell us what or how they’re feeling or how O C TO B E R 2021
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THE LIFE
intelligent they are in a language that, as smart as we are, we can understand. Their “intelligence,” such as it is, might not resemble ours, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. It’s not hard to find YouTube videos that show ravens and crows making complex decisions to get food. Border collies have been trained to distinguish between hundreds of words. Watching the famous video of Robin Williams and Koko the ape interacting, it’s hard not to suggest they are showing genuine empathy for each other while rubbing each other’s bellies and laughing. We can put GoPros on their heads to see the world from their point of view, and The New York Times reported recently that a canine researcher
is performing MRIs on dogs to try to see inside their brains, but there is still no way we can experience life as animals do. That’s a secret they keep to themselves, and it drives us crazy. When I once suggested to a researcher in Yellowstone it would be cool to be inside a coyote’s brain for five minutes, he replied that he would give anything for just one second inside there. Dominion vs. Domination The way we look at animals has changed a lot, especially over the last 50 years, and we are finally coming to terms with animal sentience, or at least the concept that animals have feelings, too. The Biblical injunction comes early, in its first chapter. “And
superior species, and we are allowed to do what we want,” he says. “But dominion doesn’t mean domination.” Religion has played its role, he explains, in passages like the one above that claim only humans have souls. “Another reason is that if you distance yourself from other animals,” Bekoff says, “it allows you to do what you want.” This kind of detachment allows us to control animals, whether God said, ‘Let us make that means shooting man in our image, after them for trophies, keepour likeness,’” Geneing them in zoos, or prosis 1:26 reads. “And let ducing them for research them have dominion purposes. “In terms of over the fish of the sea, industry, you can unand over the fowl of the derstand where people air, and over the cattle, come from,” Bekoff says. and over all the earth, Allowing that animals and over every creeping have feelings changes thing that creepeth upon that dynamic considerthe earth.” ably and begs even more That one word in questions. there—dominion—has That humans are proved problematic. unique was accepted What does dominion dogma for most of hureally mean? Does it man history. Charles mean we humans must Jonkel, the recently exert control over all deceased bear bioloother creatures or be gist, grew up poor but their caretakers? Marc learned to trap and hunt Bekoff is an ethologist at an early age as part (someone who studies of a subsistence famthe science of animal ily. When he went to behavior) and research- school in the 1950s, bear er who has been workbiology was a relatively ing with animals his new field. Jonkel already entire life. “A lot of this knew a thing or two is driven from the view about animal behavthat as humans we are a ior, but he also knew to O C TO B E R 2021
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THE LIFE
PHOTOS (FROM TOP) BY ALEKSANDR MATVEEV; POLOLIA, ADOBE STOCK
CBD 4 K9s CBD is all the rage these days—and not only for humans. More and more veterinarians are learning about this compound and are now suggesting it to their canine patients for pain relief, anxiety and behavior issues, and inflammation, especially in older dogs. A clinical study from Cornell released earlier this year suggests that CBD oil can help increase comfort for dogs with osteoarthritis. My local humane society now stocks CBD products, and my vet says she hasn’t found any real downsides, although she suggests talking with a doctor about medications the dog might already be taking before starting a CBD protocol. There are lots of choices, but one place to start might be Mary’s Whole Pet, a new farm-to-table line from Mary’s Medicinals and Elite Botanicals. All plants used for the oil are grown on an organic, chemical- and pesticide-free family farm in Colorado, and the list of products includes drops (in two potencies based on weight), capsules of different dosages, and a transdermal gel pen for fast-acting relief for dry skin, cracked nose or paws, or surface wounds. One warning: THC, the compound generally associated with the cannabis high, should never be given to dogs. Keep your edible products away from your canine companions. Because it’s federally illegal, no scientific tests have been done on dosage levels for animals. As suggested with humans, start low and go slow to find the right dose. And always remember that every animal is different; what works for some won’t work for others.
keep his opinions about animal intelligence and sensitivity to himself because, as he explained it, that wouldn’t help get you a degree. In those days, he said, you didn’t talk about that kind of stuff out loud, and it wasn’t until he graduated that he was able to pursue his real studies. Bekoff has worked with and written books with Jane Goodall, perhaps the best-known ethologist for her work with apes. When they started writing about animal sentience, they ran into the same kind of resistance for questioning established beliefs. “For a long time, Jane and I were kinda sideshows,” he admits. “We got heavily criticized for talking about the emotional lives of animals. But I basically really believed in what I was doing and kept doing it.” Bekoff ’s view of dominion has more to do with stewardship than domination, based around the concept that humans, the dominant species, are charged with taking care of what we have. And though humans might consider themselves more intelligent than animals, we really have to try and see things from the animal’s perspective. “It’s not how smart an individual
animal is, it’s what they feel,” Bekoff says. “We’re all smart in some ways, but there are different types of intelligence. Rats are really smart. Maybe not as smart as humans, but they have emotional lives just the same.” Companion Animals What does this have to do with the way we interact with our dogs? I scoffed originally when the city of Boulder, Colorado, changed the word “owner” to “guardian” in its ordinances almost two decades ago. It’s nothing more than a symbolic gesture, one of those “only in Boulder” things, I told myself, agreeing with a city attorney who at the time called it “social engineering.” I have since come to appreciate the distinction. Ownership, as noted above, suggests that you can do whatever the hell you want, and, at its worst leads to behavior that obliterates all distinctions and leads to atrocities like dog- or cockfighting. Thinking of yourself as a guardian instead of an owner suggests a different way to approach your responsibility toward your animal companions. One of the best places to learn about dog behavior is dog parks, the O C TO B E R 2021
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PHOTO BY SERGII MOSTOVYI, ADOBE STOCK
THE LIFE
fastest growing segment of city parks these days. Most major US cities have at least one, and they have become a kind of a cultural phenomenon. In his new book, Canine Confidential: Why Dogs Do What They Do, Bekoff says dog parks are like rich petri dishes of dog culture, working classrooms for human/ canine understanding and citizen science on the subject. “They’re gold mines for learning about both dogs and people,” he writes. “Visits can serve as myth breakers or icebreakers. For hours on end, the interactions never stop: dogs are watching dogs, people
are watching dogs, dogs are watching people, and people are watching one another as they care for, play with, and try to manage their dogs.” I’ve spent some time in dog parks in the last few years, and Canine Confidential, which is written in a casual, conversational style, reinforces the things I’m learning and pushes me to learn even more. “Life is very vivid to animals. In many cases, they know who they are,” says Carl Safina, whose Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel is a scientific and observational study of elephant, wolf, and whale interaction and societies. “They
know who their friends are and who their rivals are. They have ambitions for higher status. They compete. Their lives follow the arc of a career, like ours do.” Thinking about animals in that context provides a much better way to look at my dog. Rather than drag her away when she wants to spend time sniffing at a certain spot or chastising her every time she gets into a scuffle, I try to see it from her point of view. It’s taken me a long time to realize that, if we just allow them, dogs can be our teachers and not just our pets. We can learn a lot from them. I have had an exceptional-
ly difficult time with my dogs’ deaths. But I have also come to realize that, hard as they are, those deaths are a reminder that life is precious and that grieving is a part of it, too. It’s their final lesson for us, and it’s a big one. Though I’m still looking for another dog that can make music like Ricky, I’ve learned that every dog is unique and special in its own way. We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go, and it can never come too quickly for Bekoff. “The bottom line,” he says, “is that if we’re going to make change, we need to recognize sentience.” O C TO B E R 2021
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TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE
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LESSONS FROM THE UNEASY HIGHWAY
PHOTOS OF AIRSTREM BY LEE STONEHOUSE
What I learned as a digital nomad—and what I’ll do differently next time.
from San Francisco, and families from Seattle—younger adults with full-time jobs and no interest in pickleball or water aerobics. Watching the rain pelt the couple next to me as they wrestle with their sewer lines, all I can think about is how these new nomads (“newmads”) are going to make finding a place to park the Flying Cloud—already next to impossible because RV infrastructure hasn’t kept up with the number of vehicles on the road—impossible. Even before this influx, reservations at state parks and desirable RV resorts needed to be made months in advance. It’s the week after Memorial Day. I’m screwed. On the radio, Kenny Loggins sings “Celebrate Me Home,” a ballad lamenting the uneasy highway.
PHOTO COURTESY OUTSITE.CO
My summer gig on Orcas Island just fell apart after a week. I don’t know where to go. I’ve parked my Airstream at the Deerwood RV Resort on the outskirts of Eugene, Oregon, so I can figure things out. It’s raining. I know that’s what it does here, but every drop feels personal. I’ve been on the road for two years, traveling from San Diego to the San Juans, with detours to Spain and Mexico and Michigan and a few stops to see my kids in Denver. I’m gritty. Campgrounds have just reopened after the early pandemic lockdowns. A startling number of Cruise America rentals are filing into Deerwood, tentatively driven (and more tentatively parked) by a whole new class of RVer: techies from Silicon Valley, gay couples
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PHOTOS (FROM TOP) COURTESY OF AIRBNB; BY MARTAKLOS VIA ADOBE STOCK
As I sing along, “and I never know where I belong,” I start crying. I don’t want to do this anymore—ricocheting from place to place; retreating to hotels and Airbnbs when living in a trailer gets claustrophobic, then moving back into the trailer when other people’s rules get claustrophobic; bunking with friends to ward off loneliness; falling in love with other people’s dogs and having to leave them. I need a home to go home to again. I’ll sell the trailer to one of these newmads and settle down near my kids for a while. Think about what mortgage I’d been paying on an just happened. Figure out how I’ll appreciating home in Boulder. A Sprinter van would have givdo this better next time. en me a lot more freedom and Here’s what I know. mobility, and I hope to try one I WON’T BUY ANOTHER for an extended trip (they’re too AIRSTREAM (OR ANY RV). small for me to live in full time, This is hard to admit, because my though lots of people do). I can nomad dreams were so wrapped rent one for somewhere between up in romantic ideas about tour$70 and $700 a night, meaning I ing around in an Airstream, but could journey for two weeks in a the shiny trailer never sparked the basic wagon for around $1,000 or kind of joy it should have for all the most tricked-out, badass mothe money it cost—and kept on bile out there for about $10,000. costing—in aftermarket products, Either way, I’ll spend a fraction of ongoing maintenance, licensing, what it would cost me to buy, outinsurance, gas (my truck avefit, license, insure, and maintain a raged about 13 mpg when haulvan of my own. ing), and hookups at campgrounds and RV resorts (when I’LL EXPLORE CO-LIVING. I could get them). On the West RVing wasn’t for me, but I did like Coast, the minimum per night in a how easy it was to meet people campground where I felt safe was in RV parks and campgrounds. $55, and the nicest parks run well There’s instant community when over $100 a night. When I was travelers circle their wagons (and lucky enough to book a parking there’s a hot tub). I didn’t realize spot for a month, it cost around how much I needed that camara$1,600—about the same as the derie until I spent a month in an
Airbnb on Bankers Hill in San Diego, where I knew no one. I made a couple unsuccessful attempts to connect with humans—a coworking space, Tinder—and spent a lot of time alone. (Loneliness, it should be noted, is consistently the number-one thing that causes digital nomads to give it up and go back home.) O C TO B E R 2021
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Digital Newmads
My mood and perspective changed completely when I moved to a co-living house on the beach in Encinitas, the surfer paradise just north of San Diego. I got to chat with fellow travelers over coffee in the morning and share sunsets with them in the evening, and everyone was respectful of each other’s work needs during the day. It felt like college again, but with people who have been to cool places and done inspiring things. As more people discover co-living, its popularity has soared— even through the pandemic. Rates at Outsite and other companies that offer private and shared rooms in houses around the world have skyrocketed since I stayed in early 2020 (like everything, I guess). Coliving.com, a sort of Airbnb for co-living houses, offers some more-affordable options.
I’LL STAY LONGER IN FEWER PLACES. In two years, I spent a week or more in 24 locations. That’s not 32
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the way to do this. According to a survey conducted this year by the website A Brother Abroad (abrotherabroad.com), digital nomads overwhelmingly prefer to stay in one place for about six months at a time. Longer stays let you relax and get to know a place, embed in the community. They’re also easier on the body (travel takes its toll), a lot more conducive to getting work done, and more affordable (long-term stays are cheaper, and getting from place to place always costs something.) I’m working through my commitment issues. Next time, I’ll stop and stay a while.
I’LL BUDGET. I recently read the average digital nomad spends $1,875 per month, or $22,500 per year—and I was incredulous. I consistently spent double that, sometimes triple in expensive California. I wasn’t prepared for how much everything cost. Next time, I’ll be more responsible. It’s not that
PHOTO BY HALFPOINT VIA ADOBE STOCK
Digital nomads (aka digital gypsies) are people who use technology to do their jobs from anywhere on the planet. According to the Jerusalem Post, you have to move locations at least three times in a year to qualify. And workers are doing it in increasing numbers. • The number of digital nomads in America has gone up by 49 percent, from 7.3 million in 2019 to 10.9 million in mid2020, a study by Emergent Research and MBO Partners found. • There are 35 million digital nomads of every nationality living and working across the globe, according to a 2021 survey by the website A Brother Abroad. • While vacation paradises from Anguilla to Bermuda to Costa Rica to Dubai are all attempting to lure remote workers with year-long visas and incentives, Mexico is home to the most (14 percent), followed by Thailand and Portugal, A Brother Abroad found.
restrict their citizens’ rights, though, so I doubt I’ll ever check that box.
I’LL BRING MY OWN WI-FI.
hard—I don’t even have to learn QuickBooks. Apps like Destigogo and The Earth Awaits are available to help me calculate where I can afford to travel based on my time frame and how much money I have. Radical.
PHOTOS (FROM TOP) BY CMOPHOTO NET, PEGGY ANKE VIA UNSPLASH
I’LL GET MAIL SERVICE. I never got counted in the 2020 Census. I was having mail sent to a friend’s house in Boulder when it happened, and the letter with the code I needed to get counted online never made it to me. There was a lot going on at my friend’s house, and forwarding my mail wasn’t a priority. I get it. I chose to use my friend’s address not because I was worried about my mail—I pay my bills and do most transactions online anyway—but because of all the things attached to an address, from health insurance to vehicle and voter registration. I like having Colorado plates and voting in a blue state. But next time, I’ll spring for a professional mail service like PostScan Mail or Earth Class Mail
Finding reliable Wi-Fi is digital nomads’ number-one complaint. Being able to hotspot my phone was a lifesaver when I started traveling in 2018, but it never gave me all the bandwidth I needed to work and watch Netflix. I was constantly data starved. The good news is, portable Wito sort, scan, and shred my mail, Fi technology (like all technolothen send digital copies and forgy) has improved exponentially ward important documents (like over the past couple years, and the Census letter) and checks (I now I can buy a high-speed pormay have missed a few of those, table hotspot like the Skyroam too). Most of these companies are Solis, which can handle unlimited in Texas and South Dakota, which data and up to 10 devices. have low income tax rates and I’ll also research Wi-Fi speeds loose residency requirements, and before I plan an extended stay in they can also help me become a another country because some citizen of one of those states even don’t have the bare minimum to if I never live in them. I’m not support remote work, and this down with the way those states is beyond frustrating. The Digi-
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I’LL BRING MY OWN COFFEE. If coffee doesn’t matter to you, you can skip this section. (I’ll never understand you.) Too many times, while staying at Airbnbs or dog sitting or visiting friends, I found myself in a kitchen in the morning without a way to make coffee. It seems unfathomable to me, but apparently some people are not caffeine junkies and they overlook this morning ritual. I put together this kit to make sure I never have to wake up without caffeine again: • An Aeropress (a plastic tube with a plunger that makes an excellent cup of coffee) • A stainless steel reusable filter for Aeropress • A portable immersion heater (a
little clip you put inside a cup to heat water) • Ground coffee • Powdered milk (I like my coffee brown)
didn’t fit into my Airstream. That wasn’t entirely true. I stashed furniture with my kids and friends, and I had to rent a storage unit for the bins full of memorabilia and photographs I couldn’t let go. I cursed my sentimentality every I’LL BRING MY DOG. month when I paid that bill. My Catahoula died right before I Even after spending months hit the road. I borrowed a friend’s purging almost everything I toy poodle for the first leg of my owned, I still carried around journey, but when I had to give him back after four months, lone- things I didn’t need and never used, detritus that weighed liness set in. Not having a pet me down and cost me—in gas to makes traveling easier and gives haul my overstuffed trailer and in you more options—just watch baggage fees when I transferred how many available rental propclothes I never wore into a big erties drop out when you filter for “pets allowed”—but extended pink suitcase to travel by air. Everything I need to live my travel without a best friend was life, full stop, can fit into a carunbearable for me. The first thing I did when I land- ry-on suitcase and a backpack. That’s what I’ll take next time, ed in a home again was adopt a no matter where I go. Unencumsenior Shih Tzu. He’s grumpy but adaptable enough to travel. I’ll plan bered. No excuses. my next journey around his needs.
I’LL BRING LESS STUFF.
I’LL WORRY LESS, APPRECIATE MORE.
Before I set out, I bragged about getting rid of everything that
At least, I hope I will. I’m always working on this one.
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Lillian Seibert, aka Lillian and the Muses, is bending genres, combining Americana and hip hop to craft songs for a new sensibility. And in the midst of the pandemic, the Vermonter hit the road for California in search of endless spring, collaboration, and new visions. Here’s a peek into the process of a musician who is breaking ground for a generation on the rise. TEXT DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN
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PHOTO BY GOLD WING PHOTOGRAPHY
New American Myth
PHOTO BY HOLY SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY / HOLYSMOKEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
After drivinig 10,00 miles and spending three months on the road, Lilian Seibert found her muse—make that Muses. A musician, photographer, and videographer who was raised in rural Vermont and studied at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, the 24-year-old Seibert records and performs as Lillian and the Muses, but the pandemic hit the up-and-coming
talent hard, as it has so many performers. And like so many other musicians faced with the isolation of COVID-19, Seibert created art in the midst of it all. Lillian and the Muses combine song and sight; Siebert often sees the visual narratives of songs as she writes them. So the Vermonter headed to the sunny sands of Los Angeles to film videos of “Cigarettes” and “Devil
in the Details” from Lillian and the Muses new, eponymous EP. The plan was to collaborate with Alissa Lise Wyle, a friend from Berklee who creates as Holy Smoke Photography (holysmokephotography.com) and chase spring across a country slowly awakening from the pandemic (“Spring” is also the title of Lillian and the Muses first single, which features a video shot back home in Burlington, Vermont). So Seibert and her father converted a van, and she was off to California for a few months before chasing spring back to Vermont. O C TO B E R 2021
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Growin g the Industr y.
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PHOTOS BY HOLY SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY / HOLYSMOKEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
THE SCENE
Lillian and the Muses may just be hitting the scene, but the music hinges on the crest of a wave of young artists who are not afraid to mash up genres. Trained in opera, Seibert centers herself in Americana and is influenced by a line of Green Mountain State stars she saw growing up, including Grace Potter and Anais Mitchell. But the new EP puts hip hop beats down under multi-layered vocals. It’s a unique sound representative of Gen Z’s streaming and genre-bending sensibilities but grounded enough to be an ear worm for any genera-
tion. Seibert took the time to talk to Sensi about her art, process, and, of course, muses. You are a musician, a photographer, and a videographer—how do the visual and the musical come together in what you do? I see them as intertwined. I can’t really have one without the other—at least in my mind. When I’m writing, I’m doing it from a place of a vision or a story, and, to do that, I need to be picturing it. So when we are making music videos, it’s a process of bringing that initial vision back to life. The video is very important to me—almost as much
as the music. I grew up with a lot of Americana and outlaw country, so I am heavily influenced by stuff like John Prine and the glam of Dolly Parton. Then there are current artists I’ve always been into like Rachael Price from Lake Street Drive and Lana Del Rey, and there’s a great Norwe-
gian singer Aurora who I really love. A lot of those groups focus on pretty dramatic retellings of music through a video. How do you think about transforming a song into a video? It usually takes the form of sitting down and listening to the song on repeat with my eyes closed until I can picture every second of every frame. Then I just write it down like a crazy person. I just start scribbling. I have a tendency to know exactly how I want the shot to be done because I’m familiar with lenses and framing. So I usually come in with an O C TO B E R 2021
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THE SCENE
You are a videographer yourself, but you hired LA-based Alissa Lise Wyle of Holy Smoke Photography to make videos for the songs “Cigarettes” and “Devil in the Details” from your new EP. Why? So this is funny. Alissa and I have completely opposite styles when it comes to video. But I absolutely adore that; it’s why I hired her. I wanted what she can do, and that is not my specialty. It was one
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of those things where I could outsource to someone who’s awesome. And I was happy to do that because I appreciate her work. As far as shooting my own stuff goes, I’m a big proponent of anybody who can do everything on their own—make their own beats, sing their own stuff, shoot their own video—but I’m really focused on community. I would so much rather have specialists and people who are invested and excited in my work to create something you can all be proud of instead of trying to go it alone. It was exciting be-
cause I was going to be able to give Alissa more wiggle room with a narrative. I’m always trying to structure everything perfectly, so that everything’s cohesive and the little nods to each moment make sense in a storyline—but with “Devil in the Details,” there’s a lot more room for metaphor. It’s much more aesthetically driven, loose, with imagery that can be interpreted however the audience wants to interpret it. That gave Alissa a lot more freedom. I said, “Okay, these are the scenes that I’m picturing. You go crazy and
have fun.” That was great because, I really want to give the artists I work with a chance to make something that they are proud of, not just something to which I’m looking forward. Who are the Muses? Are they your band? So I am Lillian and the Muses. The Muses name is derived from Greek mythology, and the idea of different muses for poetry, music, art… I’m very much of the mind that the world around you influences your work. So I think of myself as Lillian and the music is something omnipresent. That being
PHOTO BY HOLY SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY / HOLYSMOKEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Excel spreadsheet with a second-to-second time code. Then we take it from there.
THE SCENE
PHOTO BY HOLY SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY / HOLYSMOKEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
said, it’s also great when I have people on stage with me; they suddenly become the muses. The music takes on a more acoustic, soft Americana country sound to it, much truer to my roots. You say you are influenced by Americana but, in the studio, you’re bringing a new twist with hip hop. How do you see that working, and how do you like to meld those very different influences? I try to not be too precious with each song that I write. I think a song can be produced by so many different people and have a completely different sound. On the EP I just released, the beat maker is Jarv, a rapper and producer based in Vermont. He had been intrigued by the idea of taking my acoustically written, pretty, country-inspired music and seeing if we could make it kind of classic hip hop and see where that would go. So we just started playing around with it, and we found stuff that we really liked. We started mixing in a lot of my layered vocals, which added a completely different texture. It maybe pulled us a little bit away from classic hip hop, but much more into
my own sound. I’m just trying to do my best to pay homage to what I know is my sound and also try on different hats while I’m doing it. I’m not afraid to try a new genre or a new producer because who knows? It could sound awesome. It could sound awful. It’s like cooking—give it a try, add something. It might seem weird, but I’m sure the first person who put salt on chocolate said, “This has gotta be nuts.” And, to spread out the influences even more, you studied opera in college. Is that still a big part of your music? Opera prepared me for my work now, but it’s definitely not where my heart ended up. That being said, you can definitely hear it in the layered vocals in some of the work I’ve done. There are some pretty high operatic things happening in the background. There’s a sweet spot in my life for opera, but specifically choral music has always been something that I adore. I started it in middle school and didn’t stop all through college. I was so inspired by the layering of many, many voices, which is reflected in my music when I do all this vocal layering. I love that O C TO B E R 2021
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THE SCENE
feeling of a choir, how it can be so immersive like an ocean, an overwhelming presence. When I’m writing, I write almost everything a capella in lieu of instruments, with vocal melodies that I just layer on top of each other. Sometimes, I take that to some of my bandmates and they’ll just interpret it into chords and play instruments instead of the vocal melodies. In some cases, like in “Spring,” we just keep the vocal melodies and that’s the heart of the structure of the song.
PHOTOS BY HOLY SMOKE PHOTOGRAPHY / HOLYSMOKEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
What do you most want listeners to get out of your work? The music has to speak
for itself. You can talk music all day, but you can’t really explain a sound or a feeling. So I’m excited to fi nally have this debut project out so that people can get a feel for it. I’m excited to incorporate more live instruments in the future as well. The sound of the pedal steel is something that I’ve been dreaming of for years, and I’m so excited to integrate it into my music. What’s next? I’m going to be putting out more music, more singles that are going to accumulate into an album. I’m excited about exploring some more
of this kind of acoustic space and tracking some of that music, because, you know, muses are flying in and out. I want
to make sure that Lillian and the Muses continues to be a malleable voice that grows and changes. LISTEN UP Check out Lillian and the Muses’ EP on Spotify and catch the videos for “Spring,” “Cigarettes,” and “Devil in the Details” on Lillian and the Muses YouTube channel or on the website. Follow Lillian and the Muses on Facebook and Instagram.
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P R O M OT I O N A L F E AT U R E W C I H E A LT H
Best of Both Worlds The founder and CEO of WCI Health, Dr. Lola Ohonba is on a mission to educate those who are suffering about the science behind plant medicine.
B
orn in Nigeria, Dr. Lola Ohonba has a unique perspective on plant medicine. She understands traditional uses—that deep knowledge passed down through generations—but she’s also a Western-educated pharmacist, a biologist and chemist, trained in hard science. Her desire to share that perspective spurred her to found WCI Health after a successful career in the mainstream pharmaceutical world. “After the passage of the Farm Bill,
you saw CBD everywhere,” she says, “and I felt like there needs to be education in the space. Education is the key.” WCI Health does just that, drawing on the experience Ohonba (Dr. Lola, as she’s known) has in both worlds to help dispensaries, who want to use botanicals, cannabis, and psychedelics as medicine make the right decisions. And she has become a prominent voice in the effort to destigmatize plant medicine as a public speaker as well as the author of the bestselling
book A Pharmacist’s Guide to Cannabis: Perspectives of a non-conformist clinician and the host of the podcast Let’s Talk Plant Medicine: Cannabis, Psychedelics, and Pharmaceutics. Beyond advocating for new perspectives on alternative medicine on these platforms, Dr. Ohanba is seeking to bring diversity and inclusion to the space. “I preach equity,” she says. Dr. Ohanba suffered from a disability that limited her movement as a child, and that experience gave her a unique empathy for those who feel as if they have no hope when it comes to finding relief from debilitating conditions. She’s especially focused on those with disabilities and those who served in the military and suffer from mental health related disorders like PTSD. She defines equity as making sure anyone in need is equipped with the knowledge to find healing. “Very few people have the background of knowing how plant medicine works and how conventional medicine works,” she says. “I’m able to break it down to the average person’s level without the medical jargon. I can say, ‘This is medicine, and I have science to back it up.’”
WCI Health Plant medicine education wci-health.com O C TO B E R 2021
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THE END
Murals That Matter
Asian American locomotive laborers honored with Sacramento mural. Los Angeles artist Lauren YS began painting murals eight years ago and currently focuses her work on narratives surrounding the Asian American community and issues like antiracism, environmentalism, family, and feminism. Her piece We Built the Tracks We Travel On is an homage to the 12,000 Chinese immigrants who built the western section of the Transcontinental Railroad, which began in Sacramento, from 1863 to 1869. It depicts a railroad worker wearing a traditional douli—a sun hat—who carries the final Golden Spike that was driven in at the railroad’s completion in Utah. YS wanted to honor the Chinese laborers who took on this grueling task to connect the nation and speed up cross-country transit from six months to one week. She also painted the mural to raise awareness of the challenges these laborers faced, including sinophobia, anti-Chinese senti-
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ment, and exclusionary legislation for their demands for equal pay. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States, and it set the precedent for anti-immigration laws that still plague the country today. “Congress passed the Exclusion Act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white ‘racial purity,’” says YS. “The truth is that America has a long history of discriminatory behaviour toward Asian Americans, yet Asian Americans continue to contribute a rich wealth of diversity, culture, power, and memory to the fabric of American infrastructure.” Sacramento runs deep with the blood of immigrants, and as the grandchild of immigrants and someone who travels often, YS values showcasing their trials and forbearance in California’s capital.
PHOTOS BY MIKE STALTER FROM JUXTAPOZ MAGAZINE
TEXT JENNY WILLDEN
