This digital collage is meant to invoke feelings of adventure and traveling the ether in moments of enlightenment. Take a break from reality and coast along the in-between where your thoughts flflow freely and discovery of the new becomes possible. Come Trip With Me.
SELF CARE IN TIMES OF CONFLICT: FREE VEGAN BURRITOS
Makes 20 vegan burritos.
4 TBS olive oil
2-3 diced jalapeños
2 medium diced onions
2 cans diced tomato
5 cans of beans
Salt/Pepper/Chili to taste
20 flour tortillas
Easily scalable, this is an inexpensive way to have multiple “on the go” meals for yourself or to share with others. Over medium heat olive oil in a large pan and sauté onions and jalapenos until onions are translucent, then add the tomatoes and beans. Heat tortillas in a stack the oven on low. Stir on medium heat for 5-10 minutes, then set on low to keep warm. Take the stack of tortillas out of the oven and roll up burritos with both ends sealed. You can line these up on a sheet pan as you go, then leave to cool and wrap individually to share or store in an airtight container and freeze for weeks.
VIVERE a Poem by Sunray Bernal
CHEECHABLE FUTURE: THE HONORABLE HARVEST
“While a sharp shovel would make digging more efficient, the truth is that it makes the work too fast. If I could get all the leeks I needed in five minutes, I’d lose that time on my knees watching the ginger poke up and listening to the oriole that has just returned home. This is truly a choice for “slow food.” Besides, that simple shift in technology would also make it easy to slice through neighboring plants and take too much. Woods throughout the country are losing their leeks to harvesters who love them to extinction. The difficulty of digging is an important constraint.
Not everything should be convenient.”
-Robin Wall Kimmerer
CONDUCTING AN HONORABLE HARVEST
Ask permission and honor the response.
Never take the first or the last.
Take only what you need, leave some for others.
Use everything you harvest.
Share.
Show gratitude.
Reciprocate the gift.
Sustain the ones who sustain you, and the Earth will last forever.
BOOK REVIEW: Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown
“Awakening a pleasure politics that makes justice and liberation irresistible.” I resonated with author adrienne maree brown the first time I attended the Allied Media Conference out of Detroit. I had heard of their work but hadn’t had a chance to engage. There was a kinship I felt as a fellow military brat, writer, heaux for the subversive, and someone who had a worldly and intensely fast paced perspective at a young age. The book Pleasure Activism, The Politics of Feeling Good, is a manuscript serving liberation, reconciliation, and truth about our individual and collective relationship to pleasure and those who deny us.
Pleasure Activism is a speedy and juicy read through interviews, anecdotes, and interspersed with “Hot and Heavy Homework” assignments. The assignments take a genuine approach to get the reader in touch with an honest perspective of their own relationship with pleasure, politics, and interpersonal interactions. It had really helped me understand concepts of non-monogamy and anarchist style romance more thoroughly. I found insights to identify my own struggle with the idea of someone “owning” me in a patriarchal framework and surviving abuse. It was refreshing to read about other folks’ struggles in this framework and strategies to experiment with language and communication.
Most of all, Pleasure Activism, is a guided inquiry through sensations we experience through touch, substances, emotions, and healing trauma around shame and societal pressures. If you are looking to connect with your “why” and channel your pleasure power with purpose, this book will serve you well. This is a great one to keep around for inspiration too!
BRAVE HEARTS CONCENTRATE REVIEW by Cheech, Seth Sypko, and Vinz Kiffa
BRAVE HEARTS CONCENTRATES
Strain: Peanut Brittle & Brave’s Burger
Grown and Washed by Brave Hearts
Brave Hearts took the opportunity to wash their harvest this summer and did not disappoint. We sat down with local visual artist Seth Sypko and local comedian Vinz Kiffa to taste both offerings from their first hash drop in the Oregon Rec Cannabis market.
Texture
Smooth and fluffy wax, dabbed at 520 degrees F.
Nose
Peanut Brittle: Stank, licorice, anise, light floral lavender, funky leftovers
Brave’s Burger: Burger, nuttiness, organic compost umami
Taste
Peanut Brittle: Cognac, success, peanut butter sweetness, gas and chem notes
Brave’s Burger: Scotch, spicy, funky, earthy
5 minutes
Peanut Brittle: Immediate cranial response like hot pop rocks in your brain or a pipe cleaner for your pineal gland.
Brave’s Burger: Heady AF, euphoric and focused. Full body relaxation.
20 minutes later
We’re giggling and riffing off of the vibe with each other. Mixed the two strains together for a delightful and buttery, sweet and savory combo. FUN!
1 hour later
We headed off to Synth in the Park to watch the performers from the Portland Synth Library. It was awesome to sit in the cool grass at the end of a really hot day and get zoney and smiley with a couple creative friends.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND Brave Hearts concentrates are a real treat and something we like to see on the shelves more. They are distributed throughout Oregon in some of the more knowledgeable dispensaries.
Check out Brave Hearts Private Reserve on Instagram @bravehearts_pr
See the full review on our youtube channel!
CHEECHABLE MOMENT: Royal Rose PDX By Ciara Waters
Back in 2014 the cannabis community was going through a change. Oregon was going from medical to recreational cannabis. I was working at a dispensary during this time. Some of the concerns that I shared with others is that cannabis sold at dispensaries would no longer be regulated and that testing for quality and mold was no longer going to be necessary. As a person with serious health issues, I wondered how this was going to affect me and if the OMMP was going to continue on for medical patients. Some of the other concerns around recreational was that original cannabis strains would disappear and if certain strains were going to get lost in cross pollination or if potency standards and quality would change. I was both concerned and excited. There was a lot of excitement from the public I experienced people coming into the shop to learn more about cannabis. I had experience with growers, I had my OMMP card for years at this point and I was working in the industry. I began to see that this is going to be a very good revenue stream for Oregon not only local business but for our economy as a whole. I started to see the benefits of the recreational cannabis.
I come from using cannabis as medicine and the stigma of just a bunch of stoners everywhere was actually what society needed. For the people who need access to cannabis or didn’t know they needed access to cannabis. The fact that we could take this taboo thing and break down barriers of stigmatized communities. Cannabis is our friend and society would start to realize that cannabis does not hurt the community it enhances it. Plus, the revenue from the cannabis industry would go to Portland Public Schools and that excited me a lot. A good education system is so important to a thriving economy and community. If cannabis was going to bridge that gap, I was all for it. I thought positively that we would be able to help make repairs, remodel schools, pay teachers a better wage and upgrade class curriculum. I feel like this would improve the community in so many ways.
I leaned into how I could be a part of this movement. The problem was that I wanted to provide a product that was healthy, and a product that could be used by every cannabis consumer. But healthy and smoking didn’t really go together.
I had to think about how I could really be an ally and revolutionize the rolling paper industry. I never liked the other brands and using bongs or pipes is not common in the black community and I respect the art of rolling. For myself I wanted a cleaner, better smelling smoking experience and pitched the idea before I had a prototype. My main goal was to have a product that represented my city and give recognition double fold. I believe we have the best cannabis in the country and rose wraps were naturally a perfect combination.
Pre rolls are the easiest and most convenient way to sell to customers. I thought I could infuse my hometown organic goodness with that healthy revolutionary product. I discovered that rose petals offer a lot of benefits, so they not only are healthy for your lungs, but they burn cleaner and slower, enhancing the smoking experience. Becoming a more sustainable and healthier community starts with experimenting with alternative and healthier options.
CHECK OUT ROYAL ROSE PDX HERE
MADE & DESTROY: HAND BUILT BICYCLES FROM THE MADE SHOW AND DESTROY BIKES OUT OF PDX
What is it about passion driven industries and the craftspeople who run them? It is wholesome and gritty, honest work. When we heard the Made Show was bringing custom bicycle fabricators from around the world to PDX this August, we had to check it out! We got a group of community members together for a chill sesh and went on a group ride to check out. Thanks to Biri by Grasse, we were able to smoke some really high-quality hash infused joints and share them with the builders.
It is remarkable what folks can do with metal, gas, and a spark. These bikes are cool, clean, and creative as fuck. Sklar was there representing the smooth lines and Sandwich Mag. Tonic Fab and No.22 were tied with the most remarkable booth designs. Tonic Fab had fabricated an epic plush letter T, not to mention all the hot bikes. No. 22 was a new builder to me, really clean lines, and paint. Their booth was a beautiful composition of an architectural material that sleekly accordioned around their footprint. Henrietta Watts Aero-Rando bike was by far the most fascinating, with a raw steel configuration that we’ve only seen in carbon fiber. Baphomet had some cool braze-on features and decorative elements.
Nothing prepared me to fall in love though. There it was, the Cerberus CXS by Destroy with the throwback triple threat triangle of a GT and a touch of gritty class by adding clearance for wider tires while still maintaining track specs.
I had a real, she will be mine, moment.
I went to the fabrication studio after the event to talk custom and process. Destroy is a cool studio tucked in the back corner of local cycling component machinist factory, Chris King. They share the studio with a couple other boutique fabricators. We were greeted by the lead welder, Tod, who also works at the factory. Tod is a rad dude who has stories. I always can appreciate someone who is genuinely engaged and interested in what they do and the world around them. Cool vibe all around.
We talked about the reasons for custom. Most folks will go with prefab frames, but utility features like braze-ons for racks and cages can be custom placements. Another reason for custom is fit. If you are taller or shorter than average or have mobility concerns, you may consider a custom geometry for the most comfortable ride. While I’m personally still deciding where to focus my next bike build, I dream of the Cerberus CXS every day.
MEGATHERIUM MIND by Seth Sypko
For a number of years, I have sat with ayahuasca. I’d dip in from time to time with a well-established psychedelic community at a mountainside compound in the southernmost reaches of Oregon. Socially speaking, this scene was a real step outside of the ol’ comfort zone for this closet-goth art boi. But I’d recently quit my life as a career alcoholic, had a boatload of trauma and was in search of healing.
Getting to this location was a pain in the ass. I was a non-driver and rides to participate in this decidedly niche activity were sparse. So, this one time that I knew that I needed to sit, I booked a seat on an Amtrak that would get me kinda close to where I needed to be. Within 60 miles at least. Not bad. Could be a pretty easy bike ride, not counting a clunker of a climb right at the end. I dug around for info on cool routes but really only got suggestions for some dreary highway style riding. But almost by accident, I spotted on a map what looked like a national forest road that would very nearly connect the dots in a most elegant way. At least in theory.
There it was. I loaded my bike up with gear, rolled the bike onto a train and spent the day blasting my way southbound with a rough plan in mind. I set off the next morning through rolling farmland to catch my connector a ways down the road. 10 fairly chill miles in, I hung a sharp right off the main road and began my ride in earnest. Really didn’t know what to expect here. Google street view hadn’t covered this area and I figured it’d be a craps shoot. To my delight, I was met with a tidy ribbon of almost pristine pavement of just barely a car width and one hell of a line of sight while still offering enough turns and undulations to keep things interesting. All sorts of cool flora, lava field type stuff, spectacular views of Shasta, and not a single vehicle for miles. I took my time and savored the solitude. The route I’d chosen slowly climbed over 30ish miles, leveling out at a series of lakes just north of where I’d eventually be spending the next couple of days. I hung out by the water for a few hours. It was rad! There were pelicans. Who knew?!
The sun was setting, and I hustled my way down to my meditation spot, this big ashram built overlooking some unknown-to-me valley. Checked in, stowed my bike, found a comfortable spot next to a fireplace and chit-chatted with some of the attendees until dusk and the start of the ceremony.
This wasn’t my first time sitting with this medicine, but despite some significant experiences, I didn’t feel like I’d done much heavy lifting up to this point and had been contending with some real spiritual and emotional bugbears. They say the medicine gives you what you need, and I guess I needed to be thoroughly wrung out this time around! The stars came out and we collectively got down to it. Knocked back a healthy serving of ayahuasca and waited for the night to begin. I don’t remember much up to this point, but the familiar tingling in my temples as the trip unfolds. This is usually where I start wondering if I’m doing it right or if I should consume more. In that moment, the person next to me erupted in a coughing fit, spraying me with a malevolently viscous energy that stuck to me like tree sap. Almost instantly a field of flaming eyeballs filled the room. That was that. I bounced outta there and made it only a few steps outside as I was confronted by a hovering vision of a metallic owl surrounded by giant pythons twisting around a cruciform of shattered marble. The shadows of primordial creatures hung from the trees nearby. The owl and I had a conversation. I cried. A lot.
And then I composed myself and went back inside. It was calmer than when I left. Folks were chugging away on their trips, and all was fractals and energy grids from there on out. One of the creatures from the trees appeared in the window facing me. Illuminated in the moonlight, it was an ancient giant sloth, a megatherium if you’d believe it. Which is wild. That’s the animal, though long extinct, I’d identified the with the most as a child. And it was my guide for the rest of the night, acting as a mirror and a conduit. Helping to show me the things that I’d been needing to see. There was a lot more that happened that night and through the next evening’s meditation, but there’s really no need to get too much further into it. It’s like listening to a detailed account of a stranger’s dream. You know the vibe.
So yeah, after a pretty wild weekend digging deep into the psyche, maybe a thousand calories consumed over three days, a couple of hours sleep at the most and feeling downright crisp, I said my goodbyes, helped with the cleanup and loaded my gear back onto my bike, ready for whatever. I had an offer for a lift home from a close friend that was passing through a nearby city sometime within the hour. 10 miles of steep, twisty descending. White knuckles and a rictus grin as cross winds push me from corner to corner, floating over cattle grates and through dried out ranch land. Pigs popping out of the grass, happily running alongside. Pretty sure we’re all going to die before they disappear around another turn. Feeling completely out of control and wondering when the fuck I’ll stop descending, I drop into a cutesy little town, where my pal, parked next to an expensive looking cafe is patiently waiting for me. I feel crazy. We grab ice cream and head on home.
OPEN TO EXPERIMENTATION: PDX Summer SESH Organizing Community and Creating Meaning
We are bridging the gap between local consumer and commercial interests, and this summer we had a party to get folks together. The PDX Summer SESH was an epic gathering of community members who are contributors, readers, and supporters of enhancing our collective quality of life. We want to see accessibility and high standards in the quality of products and services we all interact with. If the goal is to live the highest quality of life, let’s define it together.
There are many toolkits and frameworks for community organizing. We utilize the same principles in organizing as we do in our marketing approach. It is always in the streets first, talking to people and meeting them where they’re at. We love to get as many local organizations involved as we can. The sooner we understand our collective needs, the sooner we can actualize the solutions. Having a party is always a great way to see members of the community who show up. It is also a great framework to see where any gaps are in outreach and impact.
Creating access to cannabis consumption is a challenge, but important. Cannabis as a culture is an intersectional entity that spans ecology through social justice and everything in between. We should acknowledge that connection and the way the plant can cultivate mass empathy. We need to prioritize kind spaces and kindness towards each other in the most urgent ways possible. Global scale economies may dictate how the capitalist market exists but has struggled and failed to hold space for the socialist market (Note that it isn’t either/or, both economies exist at the same time and always have.) However, if everything with cannabis slams sideways back into prohibition, you bet your ass nobody is going to stop smoking weed.
So, we gather. The PDX Summer SESH had a great turnout of 125 community members, and we raised enough money to make this a sustainable offering. In an effort to normalize consumption we try not to place the focus on weed but celebrate our freedom to have access to it. When you go to a Cheechable event, we advocate for consumption but always encourage that you bring your own. We produce events to celebrate the community and creativity that comes from it. At the Summer SESH we had Dick Fitts open up with some space bass for your face, then DJ Colin Jones hit the turntables for some throwback dance tunes to warm the stage for Tigers on Opium, our stoner metal headliner who totally ripped! A limited group of vendors included Liberation Institute, Bleached by Josh, J.R... Token Butter, Honeybee Lemonade, Trip Chocolate, Green Out, Kynx by Brynx, Blunts by Mel, and Royal Rose PDX.
Special THANK YOU to our Sponsors, Apis Labs, SESH Creative, Kalya, Alibi Cannabis, Cannabuzz, Joe Brown Caramel Corn, Mushpocalypse, Organics to You, Underscore Video, and Utokia.
We hope this inspires more gatherings and expanding of sesh circles while having important conversations within our communities. Anyone who consumes cannabis is welcome to join our consumer advocacy group, this is a place to get to know a network of consumers who are motivated around social access and prioritize quality in products. SIGN UP HERE!
Special thank you to Matt Knapp and Esteban Ortiz, of Underscore Video and Mat with Brightcam Productions for video production and great vibes!
2022 Q3 INDUSTRY REPORT
“Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”
~ Margaret Mead
Psychedelics
Home grow and community networks are thriving over the service center framework. In 2021 I remember walking into my local market and seeing mono-tubs and mason jars in giant stacks because everyone and their neighbor was starting a little grow. I did during that time and would yield about an ounce a day. It did disrupt the market price for mushrooms for a while. They have since stabilized, and the home grower has prevailed. In Portland we have mushroom supply shops to make the process and information about tek and genetics more accessible. WIN!
Cannabis
HAPPY HARVEST EVERYONE! We are definitely stoked to see some gorgeous nugs this winter. I am kind of looking forward to seeing who is on the landrace trend and support that heirloom lineage. We love our sun-grown farms and the delicate dance they perform as the rains start to roll in and the “choptober” memes start rolling in… but I digress.
WE FUCKING WON AND IT IS A REALLY BIG DEAL!!! March 2023 a new regulation came into effect that stated all cannabis products had to be tested for Aspergillus. If product failed, it could be remediated through chemical, UV, or irradiation and tested again. For small farmers, paying to double test multiple quantities of one batch could have meant their entire profit for that harvest. While it might have been a drop in the bucket for large scale grows, it was devastating for the small farm.
It was further discovered that the group Medicinal Genomics, who lobbied for this strange regulation, was backed financially by an anti-drug organization towards this effort. What’s more is the remediation company, VIST was selling testing and remediation processes with greatly inconsistent results, and gambling with farmers’ livelihoods. The science was bad, and the solution is even worse.
WE WON THOUGH! A group of farmers and a cannabis trade group filed a suit with regulators citing unfounded reasons for the Aspergillus testing requirement. Both regulator groups conceded, and a pause was put on the testing regulation and started to accept flower into the market that had not passed within the window of the active regulation. This is a HUGE FREAKIN DEAL! This sets a precedent that the industry can demand quality-oriented regulations. This means we can see better products and standards vetted within the industry and craft standards.
Connect with us on social @cheechable_world and keep up with advancements in evidence-based science for cannabis regulations.
Interface
AI has come under scrutiny as a professional tool since the mass adoption of ChatGPT and programs of the like. Artists with original works are outraged by the blatant plagiarism contained within the artificially produced visual and written compositions. In September the Authors Guild filed a suit against OpenAI regarding the chatbot’s production of derivative works, according to NYT. Authors involved in the suit include Grisham, Franzen, and Hilderbrand. As digital tech advances the ethics of content becomes murkier. Gatherverse is an excellent resource to view the latest products in immersive tech and ethics in emerging tech.
REVOLUTION AS A CONCEPT
This edition of Cheechable is REVOLUTION! It is time to reclaim space and our communities. This time next year we will all be drowning in political campaign rhetoric. We want to prepare our minds, bodies, and spirit before we slow melt into polarity and sociological manipulation. This edition contains political self-care pieces, critical thinking tools in turbulent times, activists and advocacy work to support community, true disruptive technology, and safety measures in social media.
This book is a call to ACTION.
We are calling upon all of humanity to get in touch with the big picture. We are calling for a REVOLUTION. We are here to talk about cycles and spirals and alternatives to the status quo. We want the world to accept that accountability = love and workshop the pathways away from the war machine. We can act like our existence is an anomaly or mystical coincidence or evolutionary inevitability; like we don’t know. But we do know! We know these cycles; we sense them and deny them. We are meant to be in-tune with nature, only now our contemporary cycles have been channeled into sales funnels and lifestyles identified and prescribed by marketing. Let’s dive into where we’ve come from, where we’re at, and how we want to lovingly revolutionize.
Another revolution around the sun. Becoming unbothered. This is a concept that emerged late this summer. This epiphany came rushing in as I bemoaned the upcoming election year and preemptive propaganda. Same old shit. Same old shit? Same old shit! We already know how this is going to turn out. Campaigns churn out polarizing rhetoric and empty promises, the status quo responds in outrage or hope, or whatever equally polarized response is appropriate. Even worse, genocide and apartheid are exploited with impeccable timing and reactions of outrage from the source of oppression.
We have an opportunity to become unbothered. As counterintuitive as it seems, unbothered doesn’t mean uninspired or uninformed, it can embody the aspiration to focus. We have an opportunity to focus on our collective needs and disconnect from the war machine. We can choose to be unaffected by war campaigns and become informed in local community action and driven to affect the change we want to see in the communities we live in.
We hope to inspire change and celebrate what we get to. Humans are beautiful, resilient, we want what’s best for the collective and the individual. We do not want to reinforce polarity; we aim for neutrality and stability. We aim to be unbothered.
EARTH JUICE by Seth Sypko
Technological advancements and urban decay as the byproducts of capitalist evolution.
TECH WOMB by Anja Zeilinger
Tech Womb by Anja Zeilinger
We have a difficult relationship to the technology we create - excitement gets mixed with fear, dependency, dystopian feelings and the question what being human actually means when we rely more and more on the machines we build.
I created this digital collage not as a statement or approval but as an illustration of my questions.
Why do we feel to anxious of our own creations? Things that are not human but come from human minds? We often seem to think that this distance is vital for our self-conception, but is it? Or can it be harmful?
CHEECHABLE FUTURE: SELF CARE
As the principal futurist at Cheechable, I like to share my toolkit with other creators and problem-solvers. A lot of being in business is about stress mitigation and making decisions. Here are some simple tools to help get you out of the box and into some fun and fruitful experimentation.
IMMUNE BOOSTERS
Our food isn’t the only thing that nourishes us. We consume substances in the form of drugs/ medicine and environmental particulates and our body has to process all of it. We start with sight, smell, touch, and sound. Think about when pollen is in the air. Which sense does it trigger first? For me I usually sneeze and then see the pollen on the cars or floating in the air. I would say that even though the experience would seem to start with smell, it actually begins with touch. My body has sensitivities to certain pollens, when they touch my skin or I breathe them in, it causes an action and then a chain reaction across the sensory board. This is just one example of how we can learn how to “digest” our experiences in a more connected way.
Body scan meditations are useful for checking in with your body, internally and externally. When we don’t realize how much discomfort we are managing on a daily basis, we adapt to that pain. Adaptation can lead to overcompensation, which throws everything off balance.
Emotional marking and sensing help connect your logic mind with your emotional triggers. It helps you look at these mechanisms and learn how emotions can escalate in your experience. Start with joy and play with that. Then when you start to understand where those sensations are and how to read them, try to move into some more challenging territory like shame or fear. Be objective and allow yourself to surf the challenge until you get a better understanding of your emotional flow.
Feeling with all of your senses, much like body scanning, can help connect you with the way your body processes information. It is all information, data, that you get to decide what to do with. While it is easy to become overwhelmed with so much information coming at you, it is also manageable once you form a cognitive connection with sight, smell, taste, touch, sound, and sensing.
Massage, specifically lymphatic massage, will help connect your mind to your body and boost your immunity. There are three spots to hit when you are feeling like you are in a slump. The side of your neck between the back of your ear and down to your shoulder, Under your armpits, and down the sides of your torso. Massaging these areas will help distribute your lymphatic support and make you feel more energetic.
These can be applied to your relationships with people, objects, and environments. You can use this to explore the way your body processes energetic flow through your regular experiences. I have found it has helped navigate experiences that are undesirable in food/substance, societal norms, and developing a strong sense of self and purpose.
TREAT YOURSELF
Sometimes you want to celebrate a special occasion or just don’t feel like figuring something out at home. Since the pandemic onset, I have looked at experiences outside of my domicile differently. I tend to have more investment in what I spend my time on outside of my home and give it my full attention. I like it to be special because we are all deserving of this intention.
We had a fantastic cannabis dining experience with The Nomad Chef, Travis Petersen, who curated an infused prix fix menu. I had the vegetarian menu which was closely aligned with the omnivore counterpart. There is a misconception that cannabis consumers only want to buy the cheapest deals. The truth is, that is what the dispensaries offer as value, consumers are more dynamic than that. People are looking to invest in experiences and quality. Chef Travis definitely comes through.
See where the Nomadic Chef Travis will pop up next! the_nomadcook