Menu

Questions: Not a political identity quiz

  1. [wet dreams] Have you ever woken in the middle of a dream and it was so interesting that you tried to go back to sleep to finish it? Where you able to?
  2. [you are beautiful] Is wanting to make out with yourself egotistical?
  3. [keys] My letter ‘p’ is sticking on my laptop keyboard. This isn’t a question but it is annoying.
  4. [twang and drawl] What does an American southern accent sound like to non-English speakers?
  5. [coy] Have you ever winked at a stranger? Have you licked your lips at a stranger?
  6. [pee play] One of your family members has an interesting fetish. Guest what it is.
  7. [eternal] If you could turn back time to Trump’s election night you’d have the power to live forever.
  8. [iodized] Have you ever tasted someone else’s tears?

Impossibilities: Down is up

Painter Lindsay Pickett bends perspective, channeling the surrealists and M.C. Escher, folding urban skylines and bending roads to where we don’t know up from down, designing a pleasant, mind-expanding chaos.

From this Hi-Fructose article: “To create a warped landscape or some other kind of impossible reality the chosen idea or theme must create one impossible landscape and for that, the lighting has to work together and not look too much like a collage,” the artist says. “This is often the longest part of my studio practice as finding ideas can take time. The two or more landscape images must blend together in a subtle way. A lot of my ideas also come from some films of the science fiction genre. Especially when seeing films that have a lot of cinematic scenes in them. Whereas such images are mostly created on computer, for me I like the challenge of creating something impossible by hand. I find it much more challenging and stimulating. This is also where I feel my work stands out.”

Road Trip: Spotify designs your Soundtrack

Spotify, in collaboration with Google Maps, launched Soundtrack Your Ride to make full ride-length mix tapes to complement your roadtrip. Enter your destination, answer questions like “what’s your drive vibe”, “who you traveling with” and “what’s your ultimate driving song”. Sounds fun, now where to go?

Deep: More shower thoughts

Reddit’s Shower Thoughts is a crowdsourced collection of miniature epiphanies, and here are some recent submissions. This is part two of these posts. For part one, click here.

Since plants are alive, vegetarians value consciousness, not life. u/Polar_Beach

The number of people who are older than you can only get smaller. u/HarsherThanFiction

It’s amazing how Hollywood still perpetuates that it’s ok for women to hit/slap men and it’s funny or acceptable. u/tom_is_the_bomb

Your fingernails are naturally color-coded telling you where to cut u/fake-yam

Dirty dishes are so much grosser in cold water than in hot water. /ProperSauce

If humans were a nocturnal species instead of diurnal, we’d probably see dark as good and light as evil instead of the other way around. u/divsky

A paper cut is a trees glorious revenge u/3460jordt

We find dogs kind of simple that for years they continue to get pleasure from the simple act of chasing after and retreiving a ball, yet humans for years continue to get pleasure from the simple act of watching a dog chasing after and retrieving a ball. u/princeofropes

The more a person’s laugh doesn’t sound like a laugh, the more they’re laughing. u/HolyNovie

Maybe flies are actually your reincarnated relatives attempting to get your attention u/Nest-egg

Sloth is arguably the “best” sin to commit as it prevents you from practicing the other 6 deadly sins /Leadric

Willie Nelson is the Snoop Dog of country music. He is featured in like every other song in the genre, loves weed, and has a complicated history with the law. Hell, they even both wear pigtails! /jwcarpy

Your teacher or professor most likely copy and pasted the “No Plagiarism” clause in your class syllabus. u/imamuffin18

Being able to control volume is essential to comfort. But have you ever noticed that you only have one volume in your head? Whether you are reading something IN ALL CAPS or something that describes a peaceful moment- it’s at the same volume. Go ahead. Try to yell in your head. Now try to whisper. u/lgill423

Best way to test a ouija board it to have blind people use it. /alotofno

People who “don’t need to do drugs to have fun” would likely have way more fun on drugs. u/Red_Powerade

Being a baby must be traumatizing at times. Imagine going to sleep in your house and you wake up at Target. u/Please_Wave

Amazon.com is seriously missing an advertising/business opportunity be not saving the Amazon. u/WiggleFriend

Needed: Public pot consumption spaces

In the early 2000s I Busabout-ed across Europe and spent brief but quality time in Amsterdam. This was in the days when magic mushrooms were sold in Dutch head shops but I was more interested in the pot cafes. They provided a public chance to meet strangers who also enjoyed exploring their head, philosophizing, laughing, discovering patterns, chilling. I’d walk in, there was often a cigar box of pre-rolls to choose from, I’d sit near other customers and enjoy the atmosphere and companionship. There was no need to pass the joint because everyone had their own. This was long before vaping displaced joints as the indoor pot vehicle of choice. There was something raw, hippyish and charming about the slow-motion speed of the cafes. After laughing and perhaps having my mind blown by whatever conversation I was privy to, I’d walk to a museum, perhaps to experience Van Gogh’s Starry Night in stoned 3d glowing liquidish form. On mushrooms I imagine Starry Night it was even more magical, but on weed it was still glorious.

Years later I moved to the Northwest, US and was infatuated with Vancouver, Canada. There was/is an aptly named cafe called the New Amsterdam, the “world famous smoke friendly cafe”. You couldn’t buy pot there, but people brought joints and bongs and sat at community tables. It was an ideal additional activity item for an evening out, somewhere between dinner, bar, club or whatever. I admit I felt like a tourist and a moocher (I didn’t have easy access to pot), but I still was captivated.

As medical pot took shape in Seattle I was privy to private vaping lounges. They had dabs for $5, volcano vapes for personal use, and a dispensary attached. At these, I found excellent music, but because they weren’t for the general public, it didn’t feel to me like as natural of a public experience. Perhaps I came at the wrong times, or perhaps they were just figuring things out.

However, as recreational marijuana was voted legal, the lounges were forced to shut down which was a shame. I want to hobnob with stoners in public but we are resigned to consuming our weed in private, away from other folks. Lounges are beginning to pop up, but not where I live.

In California, try: https://potguide.com/california/marijuana-social-lounges/

In Vegas, check out: https://potguide.com/nevada/marijuana-social-lounges/

This Guy: Listens to Free Bird for the first time

This fellow, who goes by NOLIFESHAQ, claims he’s never heard Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” and records his first listen. He gets the song’s ethos immediately and feels the long-ending flying solo in a deep, passionate way. NOLIFESHAQ is a pleasure to experience. I want to be his friend, although I’d probably just sit on his couch and listen to him espouse whatever he wants. His energy and enthusiasm is bottled contagiousness.

Linked from BoingBoing.

Profit: The medicalization of psychedelics

Will psychedelics be reduced to an elite product that enhances status and feeds egos, as yoga and meditation have been found to do in some Western contexts?

Geoff Bathje

If you read this blog regularly, you’ve probably ascertained that we at TripOut believe the statement “capitalism is problematic” is objective truth. This article from chacruna.net attempts to synthesize the arguments against the profitization motives in the medicalization of MDMA and Psilocybin.

Image: Christ Driving the Money-changers from the Temple” by Theodoor Rombouts. Credit: http://www.kmska.be/nl/collectie/catalogus/