Sensi Michigan October 2021 by Sensi Magazine

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Michigan to decrim psychedelics?

MICHIGAN OCTOBER 2021

WORK FROM HERE The wide and winding road of a Digital Nomad

THE WONDER OF DOGS Why we love them so much

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MICHIGAN SENSI MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2021

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FEATURE

Lessons of a Digital Nomad Here’s what we learned from living on the go—and what we would change if we did it again.

DEPARTMENTS

15 EDITOR’S NOTE 24 THE LIFE Contributing to your health and happiness 16 THE BUZZ THE WONDER OF DOGS For News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop VETERANS DAY The Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency˙steps up for those who served. MUSHROOM BOOM

Michigan’s senators move to legalize psychedelics. ICELANDIC ELIXIR The new CBD tonic from Nordic band Sigur Rós. CANN CAN Rosario Dawson’s cannabis tonic is on the rise. SENSIBILITIES Our editor finds friendship in fear.

many of us, a life without animal companions would be a lesser life.

44 THE SCENE Hot happenings and hip hangouts around town NEW AMERICAN MYTH

Here’s a peek into the process of musician Lillian Seibert, aka Lillian and the Muses.

58 THE END Robert Frost comes alive in Michigan in fall.

ON THE COVER

The life of a digital nomad is not always this easy. PHOTO BY HALFPOINT VIA ADOBE STOCK

SUNFLOWER STATE?

Mayville celebrates the bright flower.

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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

EXECUTIVE

Ron Kolb Founder ron@sensimag.com Stephanie Graziano CEO stephanie.graziano@sensimag.com Jade Kolb Director Sales Operations and Global Recruiting ADVERTISING

Toni Tardif National Sales Director PUBLISHING

Jamie Cooper Market Director, Michigan Richard Guerra Market Director, New England

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Magazine published monthly by Sensi Media Group LLC.

With the Delta variant surging into our lives, it’s

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easy to be terrified of getting the slightest bit sick. But I have a bug on this fine October day, and I’m using it as an excuse to slow down. It’s been a long, crazy summer, what with it following lockdown. My urge was to do every possible outdoor adventure I could, which added up to four different multiday raft trips in three different states (Utah, Montana, Idaho, Utah again), a circumnavigation of the Tetons by bike, learning some bird hunting tricks, fly-fishing whenever possible, mountain biking every spare minute, and, in a way, missing out entirely on summer. You know what I mean: the smells, the breeze, the sun’s particular position in the sky—I’m finding myself wishing I’d sat in one place and took all of that in more. But autumn is here, and with it another opportunity to simply be present, especially in a place like Michigan, with its incredible fall beauty. It might take a little work—doing nothing can be harder that it sounds. Of course some sweet indica helps. Or you can always feign getting a bug that makes you need to stay in bed—even better if your bed happens to be on the back deck. Happy harvest season, people. May you slow down and enjoy this new season.

FAC E B O O K Like Sensi Media Group to infuse your newsfeed with more of our great cannabis lifestyle content.

TWITTER Follow @sensimag for need-to-know news and views from Sensi headquarters.

But autumn is here, and with it another opportunity to simply be present, especially in a place like Michigan, with its incredible fall beauty.

Tracy Ross @writertracyross

I N S TAG R A M Pretty things, pretty places, pretty awesome people: find it all on @sensimagazine

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Thanks to the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MMRA), Michigan veterans in the state now have a cannabis advocate in their corner. A couple of months ago, the MMRA announced a grant of $20 million to fund two clinical trials to study the efficacy of marijuana in treating the medical conditions veterans face. More than half of the money, some $13 million, will go toward examining “the efficacy of marijuana in treating the medical conditions of United States armed service veterans and preventing veteran suicide,” according to grant recipients at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). The other $7 million will go toward studying how cannabis might treat a variety of mental health disorders, including PTSD, anxiety, sleep disorders, depression, and suicidality, defined by the Department of Health as covering suicidal ideation 16

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(serious thoughts about taking one’s own life), suicide plans, and suicide attempts. PTSD, depression, and substance-use disorders are all common among veterans, and the disorders are also significant contributors to suicidality, a MAPS representative says. The money will provide the resources to “align the body of scientific evidence with cannabis that more closely mirrors what is available within state-regulated cannabis programs.” A total of 320 veterans across four sites, including two in Michigan, will participate in the study group. They’ll spend five weeks self-administering inhaled, self-titrated doses of high-quality botanical cannabis on an outpatient basis for treatment of PTSD, says MAPS. It means they’ll be smoking a lot of cannabis. Hey, anything—and everything—to help the men and women of our Armed Forces.

PHOTO BY CHUANCHAI PUNDEJ, UNSPLASH

Michigan Cannabis Industry Ponies Up for Veterans

CONTRIBUTORS

Emilie-Noelle Provost, Tracy Ross

BY THE NUMBERS

$171 MILLION Michigan’s cannabis revenue in the month of July, making it the third-largest American cannabis market, according to New York- and Toronto-based canna company TerrAscend

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Michigan Senators Lead the Charge to Legalize Psychedelics

Michigan Senators Jeff Irwin (D) and Adam Hollier (D) have introduced a bill to legalize the possession, cultivation, and delivery of an array of plant- and fungus-derived psychedelics like psilocybin and mescaline. If their bill passes, it would amend state statutes to exempt people from criminal penalties for such activities so long as they are not “receiving money or other valuable consideration for the entheogenic plant or fungus.” With the intro, Irwin tweeted that there is medicinal value in entheogenic plants and fungi: “These plants and fungi have religious significance. And these substances are relatively safe and not prone to abuse. Let’s stop wasting time and money making more victims of the War on Drugs.” It’s politics though, so who knows how long it’ll take to get ’er done.

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Number of questions potential jurors in the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot case had to answer before being chosen for the jury in September. Among them: Have you ever blown up a bomb? The suspects facing trial are quite the bunch. Let’s hope they get whatever they deserve.

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THE BUZZ

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Question: Why is Michigan the best American state in the month of October?

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The smells. Apple cider, pumpkin donuts, crisp leaves, fall rain.

I’m torn between nature walks through vivid trees, perfect bonfire conditions, and the abundance of fruits and vegetables (and flower!) available.

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The color of fall in northern Michigan is heaven on earth.

Cider mills and fall camping are dreamy.

Because it’s too damn cold to want to be there in the winter.

Advertising Consultant Traverse City

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CORY BOOKER AND ROSARIO DAWSON: CANNABIS’ NEWEST BEST FRIENDS? Actress Rosario Dawson, best known (say some) for playing the role of Ahsoka in The Mandalorian, has a new mission in life, and it’s a lofty one. In August the 42-year-old actress announced that she is joining the board of a California-based marijuana beverage company called Cann, which produces low-THC infused seltzers and is backed by investors like actress and Goop founder

Gwyneth Paltrow and actress and comedian Rebel Wilson. Dawson’s love partner also happens to be Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), who is working to build support for a bill he’s sponsoring to federally legalize cannabis. If Booker’s bill passes, Dawson’s soda could be sold all over the country—and wouldn’t that make people more patriotic? O C TO B E R 2021

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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.

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. 6 IN MY FIRST-TIME-HIGH STATE, my inhibitions were lowered 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.

PHOTO BY AARON BURDEN, UNSPLASH

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.

Sunflowers in Michigan in October?

In Mayville (Not Unlike Mayberry), Yes.

Out-of-staters may think it’s freezing in October in the Mitten State, but in-staters know that for 30 years, the town of Mayville has held its Sunflower Festival from October 6 to 10. It’s about as down-home as you can get, with opening ceremonies honoring the festival’s Citizen and Junior Citizen of the Year, a cornhole tournament, and a high school football game followed by fireworks on the athletic field. On day two, hit up the pancake festival for three bucks a kid (adults are $7); take a few laps at the RC Raceway; test your axe-throwing skills; and catch the Wildcat Hall of Fame Inductions at Mayville High School Auditorium. And wrap it all up on Sunday with a 5K run for the longer-legged, a fun run for the kids, and a Community Praise Concert and Ice Cream Social at the Mayville Museum. In a time when everything seems so dark, with climate change breathing fire in our faces and flooding in the streets of New York City, who doesn’t want some type-one Field of Dreams fun? O C TO B E R 2021

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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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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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PHOTO BY RITA KOCHMARJOVA, ADOBE STOCK

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

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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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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 38

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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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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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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.’”

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Frosty Times

O hushed October morning mild, Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild, Should waste them all. The crows above the forest call; Tomorrow they may form and go. O hushed October morning mild, Begin the hours of this day slow. Most people associate Robert Frost with Make the day seem to us less brief. New England—but the four-time-Pulitzer Hearts not averse to being beguiled, Prize-winning poet spent three years as Beguile us in the way you know. Release one leaf at break of day; the University of Michigan’s first Poet At noon release another leaf; in Residence and wrote some his most One from our trees, one far away. the sun with gentle mist; famous poems while in Ann Arbor. As Retard Enchant the land with amethyst. things settle down and become sublimely Slow, slow! beautiful in fall, it seems the right time to For the grapes’ sake, if they were all, Whose leaves already are burnt with frost, revisit his poem October. Whose clustered fruit must else be lost— TEXT ROBERT FROST For the grapes’ sake along the wall. O C TO B E R 2 02 1

PHOTO BY YI LIU, UNSPLASH

Full fall foliage at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a good reason to visit the Upper Peninsula this month.

“AND INTO THE FOREST I GO TO LOSE MY MIND AND FIND MY SOUL.” –John Muir

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