Volume 019, Fall 2020
Words by Ben Giese | Photo by Dustin Humphrey
Children have wild and beautiful imaginations. Their minds exist on the fringes of reality, transcending into the strange worlds that they’ve created for themselves. Worlds made of pure, unfiltered creativity and wonder that most adults can only find in their dreams. As we get older, the frontal cortex of our brain develops to think more logically, and with time those magical worlds begin to fade into dust. That surrender of imagination is an evolutionary trait that helps us adapt to social norms, relate to other people and fit better into society. It’s where we develop rational thinking and structure that leads to the thing we consider “success” – but at what cost?
Often what makes us “successful” is also what makes us less creative. As a result, we’ve become prisoners to our own success. Alarm clock, traffic, cubicle, eat, sleep, repeat. Of course, the comforts of money and success are nice, but the creative spark, the thrill of inspiration and the freedom of pursuing that inspiration are all things that money can’t buy.
Imagination has fueled some of the most innovative minds in history – like Nikola Tesla, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Walt Disney and Steve Jobs, to name a few. Even the great Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination encircles the world.” It’s something that lives within all of us, and it just takes a bit of practice to uncover. Like poet Maya Angelou said, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” So, let’s use it!
For this issue we imagined a fictional story of some friends discovering a terrifying monster hidden on an old dairy farm. We explored the back roads of a small town called Last Chance and contemplated how this might in fact be humanity’s last chance. We traveled to the Utah desert to look up at the stars and find hope in the limits of human exploration. We imagined new ways to explore the rivers of Washington on two wheels and found some hidden fishing holes along the way. We escaped death in the dark corners of Mexico’s cartel land with Justin Chatwin and his band of outlaws. We stepped behind the lens and into the eyes of photographer John Ryan Hebert, and we dove into the creative mind of Dustin Humphrey, who is living proof that you can indeed find success through the pursuit of your imagination.
This moment in history feels like we’re living through a zombie apocalypse. Reality seems to be slipping further and further away as we stare into glowing rectangles that hypnotize us into mass hysteria and disillusion. With each passing day, it feels like we are one step closer to George Orwell’s 1984, which is why we need free thinkers now more than ever. We need people who are unafraid to harness the incredible power of imagination and dream up those beautiful strange worlds. These people might not be able to change the chaos that is happening, but they can enrich our lives with a bit of magic and inspire us to keep creating. And for that we’d like to celebrate them in the pages of this issue.
019 Contents
008 | INTRO Strange Worlds
014 | END OF THE LINE Singletrack & Trout
030 | LAST CHANCE The Alien Among Us
038 | CARTEL LAND Near Death in Mexico
046 | LIFTOFF A Love Letter to the Stars
064 | THE WHEELER DAIRY KILLINGS Legend of the Capra Monster
076 | HERE & NOW Photography by John Ryan Herbert
090 | ALL OR NOTHING Dustin Humphrey
108 | REVERB Music discovery curated by Dustin Humphrey
110 | RESERVE Product discovery curated by Tobacco Motorwear
