I hadn’t planned on attending Wondercon. I wasn’t even entirely sure what it was. Then, a few weeks ago, I received a note from my friend Paul telling me he was coming to SF for said festival and had a free pass for me, if I wanted it.

Of course I want it. I’m not sure what I’m in for, but I’ll just go and find out.

It’s funny how I met Paul. Paul’s an artist. In fact, Paul was my favorite illustrator immediately upon discovering his work in 2006. I’d see his work up in galleries around Raleigh, and fantasize about the day I would have it hanging on my walls.

So one day in 2008, I was bartending at Sitti in downtown Raleigh, and a trio of folks come in. They’re my only customers, and one of them is quite talkative, so I engage them, as a bartender (or me, for that matter) does. They introduce themselves as Neil, ____ (who I never saw again and will henceforth refer to as Lou), and Paul.

Over the course of our conversation, I notice that
1) Lou mentions that Paul is an artist.
2) The owner of my restaurant (who is quite a man of status and owns most of Raleigh) approaches paul. Knows Paul. This means Paul may be important to this city or have special skills.

Then it hits me. I may be serving drinks to Paul Friedrich.

So I approach the trio. I ask – “Paul, what is your last name.”

“Friedrich.”

“Heh.”

I mention that I was recently looking at some of his prints to put up in my house. He tells me I can have prints for free (I still refuse to take him up on that offer). I sell them some more drinks. Neil leads most of the conversation for the rest of the night (which I now know is totally normal). Neil leaves me a 3 cent tip (he told me he was going to, I thought he was joking). We’ve all been friends ever since. Seriously.

Anyway, I arrived at Wondercon on the 2nd day. I wasn’t sure what to expect. This is what I found.

Thanks Paul. You rule.

I’m back! Hooh.

A few life upgrades since I last blogged.

Upon entering an unexpected job hunt, I reached out to the interwebs and received an overwhelming response. I am so so grateful for all of the job leads, temp offers, support and connections. I followed my gut and landed interviews with a few of my favorite organizations (a fortunate situation in itself), but knew the minute I interviewed with one organization that it was the perfect fit. Sure enough, the feeling was mutual. Within a week I had landed a new job at theMIX agency.

theMIX is a boutique PR/communications firm that works mostly with social media, technology and digital entertainment start-ups. They share all of my views on the core elements of branding, marketing, bizdev, digital and creative strategy, networking and relationship building… I could go on. The team is super intelligent, savvy and connected, and I am absolutely loving the work I’m doing. I’ve been with them for three weeks now and I feel great about my decision. Life upgrade.

In other news, I’m still taking way more iPhone photos than regular photos lately. If you want to see them, you can check them out here.

I have a few different sets of photos to roll out on here. Here are a few from a recent underground adventure I went on with another new addition to my life – Aaron. He’s an obsessive photo-adventurer like myself. He is also tall, handsome and bearded. Also life upgrade.

I honestly have no clue where this was. After some driving and some hiking, we arrived, took our shoes off and went in for some tunnel exploring. We came back with frozen wet feet and lots of photos.

Ok – more photos to come. END!

So… I realized I forgot to post any photos from February. Oops.

Here are a few that are fun.

MOMA.

Jaguar Love.

Mark Growden.

Meghan & Shalaco.

Laura.

Ernie.

Valentine’s at Dolores Park.

Brandom & Lewis’ roof.

That’s all for now. Hooray for catching up!

Living in San Francisco. I can explore and explore and explore and never run out of places to see or grub to eat or coffee to drink or people to meet or things to do. Still though, from time to time I really miss the road. Driving 8 hours through bumfuck nowhere, blasting mix-CDs with the windows down, with no clue what is really in store in the next city or state you encounter. Those were nice times.

Great short-term solution = weekend road trip!

My adventure cohorts, Dakota and Tara, and I had a loosely assembled agenda: go see David Bazan in some random city that starts with a V, then continue driving southward to Hermosa Beach to stay with Dakota’s friend Brian.

That’s about it. So we packed ourselves into a rental car and headed southward.

First stop: Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Dakota and Tara wanted to ride rollercoasters and eat ice cream.

I happened to be battling one of the more intense hangovers of my lifetime, so I wasn’t particularly interested in either. I bought a hot dog (it’s what my hangover wanted at the time), took a seat at the sidelines and silently observed the chaos.

We wandered around for a bit, snapped some shots on the beach, & prepared to head on our way.

We arrived in the small city that starts with a V by nightfall. The venue was a lovely place. A lovely empty place. We were wondering if we were going to be the only ones here.

Sure enough, it filled out, but we easily weasled our way to the very front to watch David Bazan, one of my favorite songwriters of all time, serenade us from three feet away. One of the better moments of my life.

Being in the front row with a fixed 85 mm lens, I could basically take photos that framed his forehead only. I could have backed a few feet up into the crowd to get some better shots. It was definitely one of those moments where you decide whether you would rather have the better experience or a better documentation of your experience. For once, I chose the former.

So then we drove to Hermosa Beach. It was another 4 hours or so to drive. It was also midnight. But we wanted to do it anyway. So off we went.

We arrived in Hermosa at approx. 4 am. We tried to contact our host, as he told us to call him when we arrived. No response. Dakota proposes we sleep in the car.

Nope. Didn’t come all the way to SoCal to sleep in a damn car. So we decide to go find the apartment he described for us. We find said apartment. We knock. No answer. So… we try the door. It is open. We sneak inside.

We are not entirely certain that this is the right apartment. We could possibly be breaking into a strangers home. We check a utility bill on the counter. Not in her friend’s name. Fantastic.

The bedroom doors are open. Dakota peers in bedroom one to see if her friend happens to be sleeping in it. Definitely not her friend. Even better. I convince the girls to hold on and at least let me charge my phone before we have to run away.

Fortunately, in the second bedroom we found our friend Brian. I had already set up my bedpallate on the floor. I didn’t care whose apartment we had invaded, I was going to sleep in it.

And so we did.

We all woke up late. Brian conveniently lives a block from the ocean, so we took a quick walk down the beach, ate some brunch, then headed back to prepare for our trek home.

Only a quick 9-hour trek home. This may be a chore to some, but I absolutely love the road, so I was elated. Not to mention… we’re driving up the coast of California. There could be worse ways to spend your day.

Hooray roadtrips!

So. I’ve been elusive lately. (sort of)

My life has been hella busy for the last few months. I have a bad habit of devoting way too much time to productive activity, and I have spread myself a bit thin. I had to put my standard activities on hold for a while – things like creative elaborate photo blogs. Or taking photos to put in said photo blogs.

However, I did find a new activity that seemed to be a perfect fit for my new change in lifestyle: taking iPhone photos and microblogging.

I’ve been taking iPhone photos for a while, but recently became obsessed with it. There is something so appealing about being able to whip a camera out of your pocket and discreetly shoot whatever is right in front of you. I’m also really into the lo-fi quality of the photos I create with said camera.

I created a Tumblr a few months ago to have a place to put these photos (I don’t think this blog is the right place for them), but didn’t really use it. Then I figured out how to upload straight from my phone in real time, and all of a sudden I’m Tumblr-blogging like a madwoman.

So if you want to know what I’ve been up to, a good place to check is definitely my Tumblr blog: http://www.helenadagmar.tumblr.com. Twitter’s a good place to find me as well. You’re welcome to continue checking here too, of course.

I’ve had quite a few significant changes in my life lately. Some good, some…

Well, now is a good time to tell you how I view the world & my life in a nutshell. I’m a storyteller. I live to have epic experiences, then share those experiences. That said, when I began writing publicly (starting with my travel email list in 2007), I started viewing all of my experiences as one of two things: 1) Good. 2) Ironic. (note: there is no “bad.”)

EVERYTHING falls into one of these two categories for me. Both are integral parts of storytelling, or in my perspective, a rich and fulfilling life experience.

I won’t go into a ton of detail over both the epically good and ironic events that have occurred in my life as of late, but here’s one that is particularly relevant right now:

I’m unemployed.

Porto Franco Records & I have parted ways. It’s okay though. I don’t regret a bit of working with them, and I have learned SO much about my preferences for future employment. I’ve now been able to reach out publicly in regard to my job search, and have been BLOWN AWAY at the amount of feedback I’ve received. Within days I have three interviews at three companies I would LOVE to work with, as well as a plethora of other job opportunities, recommendations, and temp work offers. My fears about being homeless have subsided. All seems like it will be well.

On the plus side, I can finally update my blog! Expect lots of old photos to pop up in the near future.

Looking forward to sharing great news with all of you soon.

Love, hp

I think the phrase “magnetic zero” is absolutely genius, particularly as a band name. Not self-deprecating as much as just… owning your shit. After spending a few years strongly involved with the music industry, either through touring, or promoting, or actually getting paid to work in it, the phrase really resonates with what I’ve observed, seeing a full range of folks on the spectrum of artist vs. entrepreneur. Now, I’m not implying that an artist isn’t an entrepreneur. In my brain, a utopian world exists where artistry and entrepreneurship, instead of often being polarized on a spectrum, would coexist, happily together always. It does for some, but not nearly enough for me to sleep well at night.

Anyway. I could write about this forever but I’d rather just post some fun photos of a show I attended recently.

AB & The Sea, The Watson Twins, & Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.

At the end of their set, E.Sharpe invited a crowd of folks on stage. I was expecting an epic dance party to ensue. Instead, he had everyone (several hundred folk) in the ENTIRE venue sit down (amazingly, everyone complied). He then sang us a lullaby. What a way to end one of the most epic stage performances I have EVER seen.

I know I’m long overdue for some posts. More is on the way!

END!

Bowerbirds visit! Hooray!

Phil and Beth are homies from Raleigh, NC (the town from which I moved to come here). They were part of a wonderful friend group who made summer 2009 the best I’ve had yet. They play in a band called Bowerbirds, and they are good. Very, very good.

They were to play The Independent on Thursday, and I happen to live a couple of blocks from it. Perfect grounds for reunion sleepover time.

The show was lovely. Julie Doiran opened, and this photo does a good job of describing her. Her voice is absolutely beautiful and she is hilarious. She apparently got her boots from North Carolina. I am not one bit surprised.

The birds have a new addition – Dan “Yan” Westerlund. I had not met him before tonight, but I traveled around the country with his brother this summer, who is in Megafaun, who was touring with the Bowerbirds at the time. I have also stayed with his best friend in Tuscon, Arizona. Worlds colliding.

Will Hackney from Trekky Records also came along to tour manage and guest on mandolin and vocals. I had never met him before, but we both weren’t sure how this was possible, as we shared many many friends while I lived in NC.

We spent the rest of the night having a slumber party, drinking white russians and catching up on life. Come morning, we were up and ready for adventure.

All of us except Phil and Beth, that is. After a couple of hours of waiting for them to rise, we decided to greet them at the bedroom door with a morning song about breakfast. They finally got up.

We grabbed a tasty breakfast at Kate’s Kitchen, passing by Beth’s new favorite store – Silky Touch. Then we headed to Alamo Square, a block away from my house, to run around and reminisce about Full House.

We tumbled down the hill for a while.

As we all got back home, Beth and I went out into my jungle yard and I photographed her new dress and bonnet, compliments of artist Monica Canilao, while the boys packed.

With that, I reluctantly sent them off to continue their trek across the US. It was difficult not to jump in the van with them.

Seriously, go listen to them right now. bowerbirds.org. That is all.

END!

This has been the most interesting of weeks.

Some of you may know that one of my (many) life dreams is to tour the country teaching workshops about the new music industry and building your web presence to take best advantage of evolving technologies.

Some of you may also know that I’m a pretty hardcore believer of building preferences through experience, then focusing on what you want and things inevitably manifest themselves in some form or fashion to be exactly that.

Anyway, such thought processes worked again. I found myself teaching at the SF Musician & Promoter Workshop on Monday night.

Never did I expect that to happen so quickly… not because I don’t know my shit, but rather because I just moved here six months ago and didn’t expect to meet people with similar mindsets and creative intentions in such a quick time frame. That said, I also didn’t know I’d be working at a record label and flying around attending conferences + festivals and working with artists and creatives for a living so quickly either.

The workshop was led by industry expert Corey Denis, and taught by Corey, Dustin Mitchell, Ali Watkins, Jessica Zollman and myself. The turnout was great, and it was nice to see some faces in the SF music and tech industries, both new and familiar. I’m stoked to begin working on the next round of workshops and seeing how this develops.

The rest of the week’s excursions consisted mostly of shows. It was SO NICE to get out and actually see live music for a change! Sometimes I get so busy working on the business side that I forget to relax and go actually enjoy music. It’s nice to sit back and listen again.

It all started with a wonderful little solo act accompanying my dinner at Gracias Madre in the Mission.

Then progressed to Hemlock Tavern a few days later…

Silian Rail

Boomsnake (I love everything about what this band is doing – go to their website. Now.)

Worker Bee

I just noticed that every single subject that night was wearing red. I knew something seemed more repetitive than normal…

Next – Family Folk Opry w/ Kyle Field (Little Wings), Matt Adams (The Blank Tapes), Kacey Johansing, Moomaw, and Mark Matos (Mark Matos & Os Beaches).

There are plenty of photos from Thursday’s Bowerbirds show as well, but that’ll wait until the next post. To tide you over, here are some typical orphan photos from the week:

That’s enough photos for one post. END!

I took a quick hiatus from my North Carolina hiatus to visit New York. I had originally planned on being in NC for an entire month over the winter, but ended up planning this mini-trek within that month. It was literally a vacation within my vacation. It’s an odd concept. Maybe you’ll try it sometime… probably not.

I was actually going for more productive purposes… primarily for the APAP (the Association of Performing Arts Presenters) Conference in Manhattan, to represent Porto Franco Records. It was an exhausting, work-filled week, but I managed to come away with quite a few great experiences and new friends under my belt.

NYC Highlights:
- Immediately remembering how it feels to have your facial extremities being eaten off by ever-present winter New York temperatures
- Falling completely in love with New York all over again despite these ever-present winter New York temperatures
- Meeting folks with similar outlooks on the new music industry (so refreshing and validating)
- Forcing myself to speak in front of groups of industry professionals 10-30 years my senior
- Feeling validated when I was introducing concepts to them that made sense
- Murray’s Bagels and their selection of 16 types of smoked fish
- Conversationally life-altering lunch with Mark Schoneveld
- Walking along the Highline and realizing I desperately miss innovative public use of modern architecture and I must live in NYC at some point in the future
- Seeing and catching up with Mariana Garcia, Matt Bauer, Mikey Lythcott, Brooks Wood, Mark Woloszyn, Greg Galant, Sam Rhodes, Masa Tanaka, + more.
- Mikey’s roof (as always)

And some photos. I didn’t shoot much, as it was freezing and it wouldn’t take long before my camera froze. But here are the few I actually took from the week.

See you soon, NY. xoxo

Raleigh phase 2 was all that I love about Raleigh. My friends make adventure.

This particular adventure was centered around the birthday of my dear friend Tim Lytvinenko. If you kept up with my blogs this summer, you know that Tim toured the country with me with Bowerbirds + Megafaun, and he takes care of Raleigh for me while I’m in California. He’s a kickass web developer and is doing some incredible work with Luceo Images (who happen to be showing in NYC right now – go find them if you’re in the area). You should check them out.

Anyway. For Tim’s birthday:

- A big group of compadres gathered at Tim’s for an epic curry feast, courtesy of his family.
- We kicked around a large ball containing ice cream ingredients until ice cream was formed. Flavors: avocado and Guinness. Yum.
- One full, we all sat down and began a white elephant gift exchange of sorts – the only real difference being that, instead of people picking gifts, ladies were picking men.
- Once men were drawn/selected, the pairs were matched up and handcuffed together. Yes, you read that right.
- All of us, once handcuffed (there must have been at least a dozen pairs), headed to the bus stop to be shipped to the one and only Glenwood South to do what we never do… go dancing on Glenwood South. Destination #1 = The Pourch. (punny, yes.)
- We quickly dominated the club, dancing in attached pairs, sometimes getting creative and find ways to interlock multiple cuffed groups of people into one giant dancing human mass.
- It wasn’t long until we all got kicked out. No big reason… just for being handcuffed.
- We then found the R-Line, which toted us to our favorite downtown neighborhood, where we only had time to run to Landmark and Busy Bee, where we danced, still handcuffed, til the bars closed. People began finding ways to disconnect, but Chad and I were determined to be the clustercuffs winners and stay hooked together until approximately 3 AM. We deemed ourselves winners until Logan and Stefanie arrived and were in fact handcuffed the longest. Assholes.
- Then we all danced around Tim’s living room until 6 in the morning.

Normal birthdays FTW!

Ok, here are some photos. I didn’t bring my camera downtown, as it’s not really possible to take photos while handcuffed… you’ll just have to imagine the chaos for yourself.

Raleigh adventures, I love you. Please don’t ever change.