the niki download

5/07/2021

Happy May!

May is high mushroom season in the midwest. Every year around this time I try and fail to forage for Morels. All I ever find is my inbox full of “found this” pictures from friends, family, all sorts of folks… Thanks for rubbing it in.

They find them on golf courses, in old church parking lots and
in their backyards, on accident. I need an accident.

So far, the only success I have had foraging for mushrooms is in my apartment.

I found this Hericium Erinaceus, Lions Mane, growing on my side table.
It was very tasty, sautéed with garlic and lemon, over Pasta Alla Vodka.

I found these Psilocybe Cubensis, Golden Teachers*,
mysteriously growing on a clamp in my studio.

In my apartment, finding ephemeral fruiting bodies is easy
because I make little “jar apartments” for mycelium to live in.

I have always been fascinated by landlords, so I figure I would become one.

Imagine if landlords controlled not only properties,
but entire towns and the daily lives of the townspeople.

I do just that with my jarpartments, which I “knock up” with spores.

With a little time and a little heat,
the spores germinate into mycelium which takes over.

I am a good landlord.

I give my mycelium tenants a bath halfway through their stay with me.

After their bath, my tenants get ready to reproduce.

They put on a slow motion fireworks display.

I eat them whole.*

*LEGAL DISCLAIMER*

*All of this is completely legal, Ann Arbor City Council
made the sensible decision to “decriminalize nature.”

**I can’t sell you any mushrooms,
in the words of Paul Stamets,
“nature provides, I don’t.”

Besides you can grow them yourself and
they will give you a better experience.

***The fact that: it is legal for our politicians to place bets (and win) on the markets during a pandemic, while in office, yet it is illegal for you to have
a certain kind of mushroom on your person, is totally fucked up.

As my ego evaporates, I am realizing how comical it is for a creature with a finite lifespan to presume the they can “own” the land and the assets it provides.

I cant stop laughing. I can’t stop crying. I think we are the products
of alien mushrooms germinating our jarpartment we call “Earth.”

I am throwing in the towel on my jarpartments.

As Alan Watts once said, “Once you get the message, hang up the phone…”

I think I’ll call my friend Rebecca and sing a song. She has the energy of a Saint.

See you next week.

-niki

P.S. all the downloads are here.

WATCH: “Burn” by Decliner, Directed, Edited, Illustrated by Niki

LISTEN: The Culdesac, next week I am interviewing a top DMT Researcher who discovered that DMT is equal to levels of serotonin and dopamine in rat brains.

COMMISSION ME TO MAKE PHOTOGRAPHS FOR YOU
Seriously, I could use the money and you could use the memories.
email me: nikimidwest@gmail.com