I occasionally have to step away from Hive for a couple weeks to coordinate real world matters and collaborate with other humans. The past few weeks I have been researching protest anomalies, attending protests, helping a friend set up an entire farm, constructing and up-keeping my own grow, and all these experiences were followed by me flying down to Arizona to meet up with some folks at the Jackalope Freedom Festival - a welcomed reprieve from how busy my life has become, and a great chance for @hempress and I to get some space away to hold our own energies individually for a time (we both missed each other but the space did wonders for our relationship after my return to Oregon).
I had a long journey that involved multiple car pickups from people I had never met after arriving in Phoenix (it was 110 degrees that day) to get to northern Arizona where Jackalope is located. Once I arrived, Carmen immediately asked me to perform a set, but I was way to jet lagged and tired to prepare for that on night one. The next evening I told him I would be ready to perform in a few mins after I did a short rehearsal, but when I showed back up around 9pm he had already gone to sleep (no big deal though... will continue this part of the story further down).
To be honest, I started the first couple days of the event forcing a smile and trying to resist being upset about my life circumstances (which has been my norm for quite some time now). By day three or so, my inner-struggle overpowered me and I was finally forced to release it, which for the most part I did while isolating myself in the woods (sometimes you just gotta let it out - being around understanding and supportive people is optimal for these kinds of circumstances).
There was even a solo guitar set that seemed to be playing just for me while I was meditating under a tree one evening. Lengthy and eerie guitar cords were playing on an amplifier that started and ended in unison with my meditation and length of time I was sitting under the tree. It started as soon as I sat down, and ended as soon as I got up and started walking away. No one else I spoke with heard it, and the campground was not that big of an area.
After this much needed emotional release, I started to feel like my true self again, and my fire energy was slowly picking up flame from the embers and igniting it's return to me. As this began, I started explaining more about the Self Owned Souls project to people while our vending was picking up speed, and as always when I expel these details, people were enthralled with the concept (and I once again sold out of every SOS lapel pin I brought with me - even gave away the one on my jacket).
As the day went on, I started to experience the severe neck and back pain that I sometimes deal with, and this time while dropping the line "kratom is the only thing in the world that helps relieve my back muscle tension" to an interested party who was watching me dose it out, I was met with a well deserved scoff from the talented massage therapist that had been vending next to us all weekend with her table and oils. It was at that time when I set up a massage appointment with her (::kock in the head:: - doui!).
I then patiently waited for what turned out to be the absolute best massage of my life (she must have given massages to almost every person at Jack-Fest... some even multiple times, including me). I ate a hot meal with crab rangoon right before the 1/2 mushroom I ate prior to that kicked in. It was at this point when it was my turn on the table. It was some other worldly shit - this woman had majik fingers. Prayers were being blessed over me as her hands were sliding me into different dimensions. This human seemed to have four hands instead of two. When it began, I had rushes of crazy thoughts flooding my brain. By the end, my mind and body felt clear.
SHE TOOK ON THE BATTLE OF FIGHTING A SHADOW HYDRA
"I thought it was more of a dragon!" - Gina
^^^This took mighty force of unforgiving light majik to defeat, and was attacked at every angle to penetrate it's shroud of protection - at it's source located at the base of my neck near my spine. Afterwards she focused more on the lower half of my body/back, and then back to my hands, shoulders and arms (she even worked out the kinks in my grodey feet that were almost black from wearing sandals in the dirt - now that is a trooper and more than I expected). She then worked on my head and re-birthed by body through my face into a new existence (I heard at least one person describe her massages as being placed into a brand new body - I can attest to that).
It took me a while to come back and reorient myself once it was complete. Even more so since I was coming back from another dimension in the dark, after traveling to it in the light - the sun had set at some point during this hour+ long experience. As a result, I was close to freezing when I got up - and I pretty much booked it to the closest campfire (and played with a canna-lollipop while learning about Thistle's horrid hot chocolate and wine/gin concoction)... but not before giving a long and well deserved hug to this talented and powerful healer that I was blessed enough to have met and experience her majik. I also gave her a FAT piece of Brazilian Black Quartz and $30 USD for the service. She invited me to Austin TX to come stay at either of her properties when traveling, and also invited me to perform a festival out there at the end of the month (if I can make it). I have been feeling a hard call to that area - looks like I will be going to a state I never thought I would step foot in.
"I never fell in love like I did last night... Hot chocolate & wine!"
-Thistle - sing it brother. On a side note - people here were EXTREMELY anti-covid regulation (not that I can say I disagree with them). One photo I did not feel comfortable capturing was of this HUGE and LONG bumper sticker on the back of this guy's car that states: "Resist ALL covid tyranny". I did not want to be rude by taking a photo.
The next day was amazing. After vending for a bit, I headed out with a group of folks to the nearby lake where we ate an amazing vegan pick-nick courtesy of the camp kitchen and Leaf, and we were able to swim, cool off significantly, and wash off most of the caked-on dirt from our bodies (no sun screen or soap in natural water bodies folks - they pollute the ecosystem).
A few folks wanted to swim nude but we were warned that the police were called the other day for someone doing just that in this location, and they stormed in like bats out of hell for it. Since this was the case, one homie who did not bring anything to swim in decided to pull some "clothing" from out of the muck of the lake, which served as his indigenous tribal gear for swimming (pictured here). We even had a wild hamster pop out of the ground and hang out with us while we were eating.
This is where things got really cool
Before coming to Jackalope, I was tossing around the idea of traveling with a few artist friends to somewhere in Mexico to get away from everything, eliminate distractions, and concentrate on manifesting new musical projects and music videos for about a month - we just weren't yet sure exactly where in Mexico... or when.
Later that evening I was asked to play some music on a speaker at our campsite. I started with some old school conscious tunes, moved into some newer Dub FX & Sahida Apsara, but eventually I started throwing down my own tunes and rapping as loud as I could so many could hear from a distance. Slowly more and more people started gathering in our area, and eventually a homie known as Yahweh asked me to throw on some instrumentals (which I had a few brand new ones with me I had just purchased the day before leaving for AZ), and then people just started free-styling. One of the other folks free-styling in this circle was named Torin (from the band Runes of Neptune) who I had met earlier when I wasn't having such a good time. In the middle of all these funky jams and delicious vegan chili, Torin was approached by Thistle who handed him something. It was at this point where Torin spoke up and said something along the lines of "Thistle just gave me a stack of silver quarters to come play at his campfire.... the man gave me silver! I got to go" - at which point we all made our way to the final big fire of my experience there, which was filled with original jams and a couple covers that crossed a variety of genres and displayed almost everyone's musically creative talents. It was a fire circle to remember, and a perfect way to wrap up my time there.
The next day I paid for one final massage from Gina which was much more painful and intense with the deep tissue version, which really took out my knots (at least two treatments are required with my back, neck, and shoulders the way they are). Afterwards I ate what little fruit I could find and said my goodbyes to everyone I met while collecting contact info. The music networking I experienced there was paramount. I was able to get a couple new artists involved with the Self Owned Souls collective, and was even able to set up a couple song collaborations with Torin (he will be coming up to Portland to record vocals in a couple weeks).
When I told Torin about the Mexico-music trip we were planning, not only was he 100% down to travel and collaborate with us south of the boarder, but he even suggested an area of Mexico to do it in that we ended up landing on for our final destination - Tulum. With all the cenotes, ancient Mayan temples, beaches, artistic wooden statues, proximity to Playa de Carmen, and the arts and culture festival happening in November that was rescheduled from April because of covid (the month we had planed on going to Mexico earlier in the event), we have the video sets for the making of a crucial music video, and a hella fire beat to go along with it (already wrote the chorus for it). November is also when the rainy season ends in that area, which should make for crisp air, ideal temps, and lush vegetation for the videos and our souls.
So instead of getting to perform on the dope 100% solar powered tow-behind trailer stage (the main stage for Jackalope), I instead potentially manifested an even better collaborative experience at our own campsite/kitchen - time to buy portable performance equipment!
It turns out that my life circumstances are actually quite phenomenal - realizing this after experiencing Jackalope has helped me become more aware of the fact that there are actually many other humans that care about more than just themselves (and talented ones at that). Not that I did not realize this by being on Hive (most of you are A+ humans), but experiencing this in real life had much more of a personal impact which was much needed at this time in my life.
Keep your eyes and ears open for these projects I have been working on all year. My Power of Truth album should release sometime in September or October, the ELAmental Forces music video is set to drop in November right before we leave for Tulum, the Self Owned Souls platform should be up and running sometime in December or January, and then we should be dropping our new music videos and documentaries from our journey in Mexico on the SOS site and elsewhere around the same time.
I will also be publishing a more in depth article about our Tulum trip as our tour-sight list finalizes. So far Perk (SoCoLo), Lyfe, @ELAmental, Torin Frost, @KennysKitchen, and @Hempress are coming with us. HMU if you want to collaborate on this trip and throw down on a rental house.
Stay tuned - into the right frequencies
Click here to hear my single: Shift the Focus on Soundcloud from my upcoming album: Power of Truth
Click here to hear my un-mastered sample of No Consent
My debut conscious Hip-Hop album The Hex Wrecker is completely free for download on Bandcamp & Soundcloud (click the links to go to my music on those platforms), or CLICK HERE for download instructions.
