Queen of the Pavement | A stockpile of thoughts, stories and photos from helenadagmar.

More film.

November 6, 2010 by helenadagmar

As I explained in a recent post, I just started shooting film. Here are some more analog photos from my recent adventures.

A trouble detector outside of Aaron’s apartment.

Finding horse (or maybe dinosaur) jaws in Niles Canyon.

Exploring some concrete factory ruins somewhere in California. More photos to come from that later.

Atlantic Ocean.

Pacific Ocean.

Sunset picnic at Baker Beach, shortly after being introduced to a European grocery store in the Richmond. My picnic food consisted of rye bread and salmon eggs, and it ruled.

Ok, so this is kind of crazy. After enjoying shooting film with the Minolta so much, I decided to pick up my old Canon EOS Rebel that has been sitting in my room for a year or so now. It was originally my mom’s, and one day a few years ago, while visiting home, I noticed it sitting in a “$5″ box for the yard sale she was having the next day. I of course swiped it. I forgot about the camera until a couple of weeks ago. A roll of film was already in the camera (I had no idea what was in it), so I finished up the roll, not having a clue if anything would even turn out. I was surprised to see these shots show up in the scans.

These are from Raleigh, probably two years ago, at GraffitiSpark. The guy below, Joe, is now a friend of mine, but I had no idea who he was when I took this photo. I remember loving his art more than anyone else’s that day.

And some more surprise shots from the past…

And here are some shots, taken recently, from the same roll.

The first test shot. The owner of the bike walked up as I was taking this, and seemed a little agitated/creeped out that I was photographing his ride. I complimented his bike and skipped off.

Walking through my neighborhood.

This is jpeg. She’s the newest member in Troy and Shipa‘s family, and we love her. You can even follow her on twitter: www.twitter.com/jpeg.

This is jpeg trying to make Troy into a nice chair.

Aaron + jpeg being bros.

I’m still figuring out this whole film thing… and yes I’m still hooked. It takes me a while to get stuff developed (I’m going to have to start budgeting for film), but I’ll be posting it in clumps here and there. Stay tuned.

END!

Posted in Uncategorized, film · Tagged film, photography · Leave a comment

NC adventures part 2: Introducing Aaron to the South.

October 24, 2010 by helenadagmar

After a long weekend of airport waiting, flying, and shooting/editing photos until the wee hours of the morning, and attempting to catch up with lots and lots and lots of people I hadn’t seen in nine months, all I wanted to do was nothing. And what better place to do nothing than New Bern, NC?

So I hopped into a car and headed two hours east to my hometown.

[This is my all-too-familiar drive between my two home cities, full of tobacco fields, car dealerships, strip malls, and jesus billboards.]

I spent the majority of the next few days doing things I don’t otherwise get to do:

- Eat disgusting/awesome Southern fast food.

- Hang out with my cat (I’m a long-distance cat owner, btw).

- Hang out with my mom and watch Oprah and HGTV.

One of the particularly exciting things about this vacation is the fact that I’m having a visitor while I’m here – my boyfriend Aaron. I’ve never had a visitor on vacation before. I don’t think there are many circumstances where it is possible. But my visitor was to arrive on Thursday morning and I was to spend the rest of my trip acquainting him with the dirty south.

I spend day one showing Aaron all of my favorite hangouts in Raleigh, including Raleigh Times, Morning Times, Helios, Foundation, Busy Bee, Sosta, etc. I quickly realize my enjoyment of Raleigh revolves completely around food and drink.

After a day in Raleigh, I feel that it’s best to head toward the coast for a proper southern experience. We head out onto Highway 70 with all intentions of arriving in New Bern by early afternoon, but end up on a spontaneous adventure to Nahunta Pork Center instead.

Some context: I have seen billboards for Nahunta Pork Center almost my entire life. Billboard after billboard after billboard on Highway 70, all urging me to go to this mythical place. Everyone who drives this highway knows about Nahunta Pork Center, but I’ve never met anyone who has actually been. So… now might as well be that time. We make the turn. We drive 30 minutes off the highway into rural desolation to find ourselves in the middle of what is basically a giant grocery store, full of every pork product you can imagine. We purchase some ribs and country ham (another first for Aaron), awkwardly take photos while the locals stare, and continue on our way to New Bern.

I should mention that we’re arriving in New Bern on its tricentennial weekend. Yes, New Bern is turning 300. The people are excited, and there are lots of festivities planned. Festivities defined not really by San Francisco standards, but by 300-year-old coastal town standards.

[parade photos courtesy of my mom.]

Parades, symphony concerts, fireworks and the like.

Other than that, we spent most of our time on the water or at the beach or playing with Raphael or eating BBQ. All in all, it was a very very good trip to the south.

Here are a few photos.

See you next year, east coast!

END!

Posted in Travel Stories, north carolina · Tagged 300, aaron, anne, bojangles, east coast, kane, new bern, north carolina, parade, raphael, travel, tricentennial, vacation · Leave a comment

NC adventures part 1: Exploding neighborhoods, broken planes, sleeping in food courts, and Hopscotch.

October 22, 2010 by helenadagmar

Earlier this year (probably March or so), I was stalking Raleigh news (as usual) and noticed that some friends were putting on a music festival. Not like our standard NC music festivals, which involve shitty U2 cover bands as headliners. This was a legitimate music festival, with good, independent, relevant bands. It was to be legitimately awesome. So, naturally, I impulse-bought a $120 VIP ticket.

I guess I’d be going to NC in September.

Months later, everything came together and I was packing my bags to spend an entire ten (!) days in North Carolina. It turns out that The Independent (the publication who was putting this whole thing on) needed some press photographers, and I jumped at the chance. I sold my old VIP ticket (to the much deserving Kelly Reid) and secured my press pass. I was ready to go.

But then things got complicated.

Complication #1: San Bruno explodes.

Thursday night. I’m finishing up with preparations before Aaron takes me to the airport. I’m in the kitchen when I hear… “Uhhh, Helena? I think we may have a problem.”

I come into my room to see Aaron watching the news. Apparently San Bruno’s on fire.

[photocredit: Scott Fong]

I feel like most of you have caught wind (no pun intended) of the news as it since went national, but apparently a giant PG&E pipe exploded underneath San Bruno, setting the neighborhood on fire. Total unworldly catastrophe. I should mention that San Bruno is right next to the airport that I’m supposed to be flying out of in four hours.

We continue to watch the news to see what we should do, and see that the Highway 280 (what we would use to get to the airport) is completely shut down. That puts a bit of a damper on our plans. Hm.

After a couple of hours, we decide to take the scenic route down the 101 to the airport, and surprisingly, we arrived quickly with not an obstacle in our way. We gazed at the burning mountain passing by us as we approached the airport.

Aaron drops me off and we say our goodbyes. I was in.

Obstacle 2: The plane doesn’t work.

I quickly get through security and arrive at my gate with plenty of time before my flight. I’m taking the redeye – I’m to leave SFO at approximately 12:30, and will arrive in Raleigh before noon, just in time to catch all of the Hopscotch day parties, and see lots of old friends I haven’t seen in ages, including the Hometapes crew, who I toured with last summer and haven’t seen since, and who happen to be hosting a 7-hour day party with my favorite bands, people, PopTarts and nachos. Needless to say, I was looking forward to it.

We board the plane, I check my bag at the door (if you haven’t tried it yet, don’t check your bags with Delta! You can just check it at the plane, and save yourself $25), and get settled. I casually glance at the checked bag receipt. Flight 666.

We sit. And we sit. And we sit. We sit for like an hour. Finally, the captain comes on at 1:15 or so and tells us that the left engine is broken, but they’re trying to see if they can “fix it real quick before we take off.” This feels good.

Around 1:30 the captain tells us it’s still broken, but they’re continuing to hack at it. We continue to sit. The engine is clearly shot but we’re just going to sit in it for a while anyway. Maybe it’ll work if we sit in it long enough.

Finally around 2 am, the captain tells us that our flight is in fact cancelled, and we’re all to head back to the front gate to see if we can be rescheduled for another flight tomorrow. I now miss a full day of shooting, as well as seeing all of my friends at the coolest day-party-friend-reunion I could possibly imagine. Fantastic.

Let me tell you, I have a history of exceptionally bad experiences with Delta. Well, maybe they’re not exceptional, because it seems like everyone hates Delta. If you used to be on my old travel-adventure email list, you may remember one of my previous Delta nightmare stories, which actually resulted in me getting a $400 voucher which I used on a vacation to San Francisco which caused me to fall in love with the city and eventually move here.

Anyway.

Delta semi-reschedules me for a 6 am flight. I ask the teller if I’m guaranteed a spot on this flight, because I HAVE to get to Raleigh for a job tomorrow. He says yes and gives me a $12 food voucher for my troubles. THANK YOU DELTA. I walk away, checking my ticket. I’m on the flight’s waiting list. This is all going wonderfully.

So now it’s 2:30, and I’m stuck inside my own airport. What do I do now? I give Aaron a call, despite the fact that there’s nothing he can do about it. Apparently he thought I was the alarm clock, because he “snoozed” me twice. I call my mom, because at this point I’m delirious and apparently don’t mind being a late-night calling asshole, but she didn’t answer either.

Man, it’s a pretty awful feeling being stuck in an airport overnight. You sort of feel homeless. Since security was closed until the morning, I couldn’t even go into the gates to sleep. I trudged into a tiny food court at the front of the airport and settled into a booth to sleep.

[this is the view from my regal food court bed.]

My mom calls me a half-hour into my nap to tell me that she was already expecting this to happen, as her horoscope told me that my flight would have complications and that it was all happening for a good reason. Susan Miller‘s on point ya’ll, just sayin’.

Fast forward to 6 am. My name is finally called as the last one on the waiting list as I gobble my shitty twelve-dollar breakfast panini, compliments of Delta. I hop on my flight, finally en route to North Cack.

I arrive around 5 pm. My mom and Barry Barrington (that is her boyfriend and yes that is his name) pick me up and take me home to rest for about 15 minutes. I try to make myself look slightly less homeless, then head straight downtown to begin shooting. I’m feeling a bit strange, having only physically laid down and half-slept for one hour in two days.

Hopscotch night one was rad. I saw approximately one million people I haven’t seen in nine months. I saw lots of incredible bands. I got to spend time with my best friends. Hopscotch night two was about the same, and I was fortunately a bit more rested. I won’t get into much more detail, mostly because I was in zombie mode and don’t remember much of it, but here are some photos from the weekend.

Broken Social Scene

Americans In France

Panda Bear

Atlas Sound (my favorite performance of the night)

Raekwon

The Rosebuds

Sharon Van Etten

Bear In Heaven

Spontaneous appearance by Helping Hands Marching Band during Public Enemy

Megafaun

No Age

The Love Language

NC adventures part 2 to come. END!

Posted in Travel Stories, north carolina · Tagged airport delays, americans in france, bear in heaven, broken social scene, concert, downtown, hopscotch music festival, layovers, megafaun, music makers, north carolina, panda bear, raleigh, sfo, the rosebuds · 8 Comments

Film stories.

October 21, 2010 by helenadagmar

I shoot film now!

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. I’ve become somewhat bored with digital, or bored with something… I’m not exactly sure what. Regardless, I felt the urge to try something different in photoland.

So, for my birthday, Aaron bought me a Minolta x-370 while we were at the flea market.

Since then, I’ve been taking all kinds of photos with it, and it’s been a pretty epic experience for me. It’s hard to explain, but I sort of explained it on Flickr recently:

I just started shooting film, and it is a totally different ballgame. My brain is processing it completely differently.

You have to relinquish control of your work – “control” being the ability to look at your digital camera and know that your shot is as guaranteed as a successful upload to your hard drive.

For someone who holds the documentation of life experience perhaps higher than the experience itself, this is hard to adjust to. For me, moments not documented are moments lost. It sounds a bit extreme, but that’s just how my brain works. I’m sure there are folks out there who can relate.

Knowing that shots are not guaranteed is seriously an emotional roller coaster for me. But damn, film is fun, and (so far) way more satisfying.

Anyway, here are some film shots I’ve taken over the last couple of months, with some stories to go with them.

This is the first successful shot to come out of the Minolta. Aaron, Dakota and I were at friends Troy & Shilpa’s house for a barbecue (side note: I can’t believe I just wrote “barbecue” instead of “cookout.” Am I officially a west-coaster now?), where we met this great little dog named Boobies. He was a stoic little guy, despite being absolutely frozen and shaking like crazy. I let him sleep inside my jacket for a while, and he managed to warm up a bit.

This came from a roll of film that was in the camera when we got it, so I wasn’t sure if anything would come out. This is the only photo that did.

This is actually from Aaron’s holga – he let me steal it and run around downtown with it for a week. I actually really love shooting medium format, and hope to have a med. format camera by next year.

These were from an adventure day in the Mission. This is also when I realized that ordering “web scans” from the photostore equals “really shitty really small yet still really expensive scans.”

This is Aaron without a beard!!! A rare and elusive creature, beardless Aaron is.

This was a really foggy windy day in Alamo Square. I had to sit down to avoid getting blown over. The photostore told me to use this Tungsten film and cross-process it, and this is what came out. I think this is when I fell in love with film.

Working with manual focus & a really shallow depth-of-field is hard. Usually I just point my camera at something and my camera will focus on whatever’s in the middle of my image, I adjust accordingly. Not with this. I have to guestimate the distance that will be in focus, and just hope that something works out when I get the film back.

I still can’t believe this photo actually turned out. It was shot with my film Minolta, with a manual focus lens. After some time awkwardly holding out my left hand in front of my face, using my other hand to hold the camera to my face and adjust the focus to my left hand simultaneously, I finally measured up a distance that I hoped would be about equal to what I’d need for a self-portrait… a total guessing game. Did that make any sense? I also should mention that during this process I was standing on a giant, unstable rock, beside a river underneath an overpass in the middle of some random canyon in California.

In summary, this experience was much more awkward than it looks.

This was sitting on a rock in Niles Canyon. I sometimes go on random adventures with Aaron. He’s a street art & graffiti photographer, so we go on elaborate hunts for awesome pieces, and, in this case, we were sick of shitty weather and hunting for sunlight. This put us under a bridge next to a river somewhere in the middle of nowhere (I was standing on the same rock in the above photo). It was super hot and sunny – a nice contrast for the weeks of cold and fog we’d been having in SF lately.

These are Aaron’s bike and plants.

I also have some shots from my recent North Carolina visit, but I’ll save those for the next blog.

END!

Posted in film, san francisco · Tagged aaron, analog, film, minolta x-370, mission, niles canyon, photography, san francisco · 2 Comments

Portland visits San Francisco: Adventures with Yogi and Party Boy

October 21, 2010 by helenadagmar

I’ve been going to Portland a lot lately. And by a lot, I mean two times. I’ve had the opportunity to meet a ton of amazing people (I already knew Portland served as home to many amazing folk, but damn, you guys just keep coming). This includes Yogi and Party Boy.

Yogi and Party Boy are both long-time friends of Aaron‘s. They live in Aaron’s former Portland apartment, and we usually crash with them when we visit their town. So, when it came time for them to visit San Francisco, I naturally offered to return the favor and house them for the weekend.

Why my house and not Aaron’s?
1) My house is huge. I can house an 8-piece band in my living room with minimal discomfort. Done it.
2) I am centrally located in San Francisco, nestled ambiguously between Hayes Valley, Lower Haight, and Divisadero. There is delicious coffee, beer, fried chicken, burritos, grocers, diners and shows within walking distance.
3) I live beside Alamo Square. The Full House park. You know what I’m talking about. This one. Token visitor treat.
4) I have a jungle yard. Minimal exaggeration here.

Day 1 Objectives: Eat a burrito, make/consume vat of sangria, have jungle yard bonfire.

Come Friday evening, Yogi and Party Boy arrive. We grab a quick burrito at Little Chihuahua, then head home for treats. I had assembled a giant vat of sangria – my first batch ever. After some research, it seems that the internet really likes this recipe, so I tried it out:

1/2 cup brandy
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup frozen lemonade concentrate (didn’t use this, but I’m sure it would be tasty)
1/3 cup orange juice
1 bottle dry red wine
1/2 cup triple sec
1 lemon, sliced into rounds
1 orange, sliced into rounds
1 lime, sliced into rounds
1/4 cup white sugar (optional)
2 cups carbonated water or ginger ale

I also added a shitload of blackberries, because I happen to enjoy blackberries.

[photocred: Ramon Bataller] [This is not my sangria, but looks like it.]

Night one was nice. I haven’t really entertained since I moved here (I used to quite often in Raleigh), so it felt good to assemble a few folk in the jungle yard for a bonfire. There were more Portlanders in my yard than San Franciscans, by far.

Day 2 Objectives: Shop, meet a bulldog, eat another burrito, ride the most dangerous taxi in San Francisco, crash a boat party benefit.

Day 2 was an interesting day.

We started our day off with a visit to the Mission. We stopped by Benny Gold, where Yogi made business deals, Party Boy bought a hoodie, and I made friends with a bulldog. We then ate our second burrito in a 24-hour period.

After stopping by a few more stores, we caught a cab toward Pier 33 to meet our friends Dave and Mark, who were doing a trade show.

Our cab driver was somewhat young and reckless. We should have known that this would be a rough ride when the driver was casually speeding down giant residential hills at 50 mph.

We begin to approach an intersection. A car is stopped, trying to turn left. We are behind it, approaching. We don’t appear to be slowing down. The car is getting closer. We are going to hit this car. We are definitely going to hit this fucking car. I’m in the middle seat. Unbuckled. I’m definitely going to die now. Does the driver not see this?

Aaron clues the driver in. The driver looks up to finally notice our cab 4 feet from smashing the back of this other vehicle at 40 mph. He jerks the wheel to the right and we swerve around the stopped car, barely missing it. And I mean barely.

He drops us off, apologizing for “almost killing us” as we step out of the car. It’s cool, dude.

We arrive at Pier 33 to see Dave and Mark. Dave and Mark are touring the country right now for Keen/Clif Bar, and happen to be here for the weekend. Dave tells us that he has an adventure for us if we’d like to participate.

We’re listening.

Two hours later, we’re casually strolling onto a yacht, fully equipped with endless piles of meat, cheese, olives, bread, veggies, SUSHI, and OPEN BAR. Yes, we are semi-crashing a benefit cruise. Only semi-crashing because Dave made donations in our name. Crashing nonetheless because we really have no connection with this thing whatsoever. But yes, I will still drink your alcohol and eat your sushi.

The cruise was a success. It was three hours of scenic touring and gluttony, and we only got a few dirty looks by fellow attendees. I’m hoping that won’t be the last bay cruise I have the opportunity to crash while I’m living here.

We closed out the night with another jungle yard bonfire, then rested up for a big day 3.

Day 3 Obejectives: Use Jeremy Fish’s toilet, ride in a pirate van, go to Trader Joe’s for the first time ever, find Yogi a poncho, sit on grass while Wu-Tang raps for me.

Day 3. It’s Rock The Bells day.

The dudes have been planning this day for a while. I had no intention of going (though I wanted to), but Aaron bought me a ticket last-minute. Thus, I found myself Sunday morning at Cafe Trieste in North Beach with the dudes to meet our friends Kate and Jeremy, and begin our quest.

Next thing I know, we’re all tucked into Jeremy’s pirate van, heading to Rock the Bells.

[photocred: Aaron Durand] [this is Jeremy's sweet van.]

How many of you have seen a hardcore rap superconcert next to Google’s campus? I suggest you try it sometime.

The weekend finally came to a close, and we bid our goodbyes to Yogi and Party Boy. Until next time, dudes.

Posted in san francisco, visitors · Tagged benefit, benny gold, boat party, crashing, dangerous, party boy, pirate van, rock the bells, san francisco, sangria recipe, taxi, yogi · Leave a comment

Birthday times.

August 10, 2010 by helenadagmar

Hi! It’s been a while.

It’s my birthday! It’s days like these where you can’t help but to spend your entire workday (other than eating cupcakes) daydreaming about how another year has flown by and how much has changed over that course of time.

Let’s think about it. One year ago, I was touring the country with two boxes of personal belongings, a camera, and about 40 bucks to my name. I was a bit nervous about the fact that I was attempting to move to San Francisco with only those 40 bucks to my name. However, when I am determined to do something, I always somehow pull it off, so I put the worries aside for a night to drink tequila with Tim, Bowerbirds, Megafaun and Huggins in a hot tub in the Arizona desert. It was a good birthday.

I’ll be having a relatively unadventurous birthday this year – I’ve spent the workday in my office, and I’ll spend my night drinking beers on the back porch of a bar in the Mission with friends. No hot tubs (I may be speaking too soon), no tour, no parties in random states. I’m actually kind of okay with that.

I have an incredible job, with a salary, that I enjoy. I have stability. I have a roof over my head and a jungle yard. I have an amazing dude who I go on adventures with. I have awesome friends who I go on adventures with. I live in a rad city with an exhaustive amount of things to do and eat and see. I drink less. I eat better. I sleep better. I’m healthier physically and mentally. Things have changed and, while I miss the ridiculous adventures and stories from the road, I wouldn’t change what I’m building for a minute.

That said, I need to post more!!! And I promise I’ll start posting more soon.

I have so much to write but I won’t get too ranty. For now, I’ll just post some photos from my recent adventuring.

Posted in Uncategorized, san francisco · 1 Comment

Wondercon.

April 28, 2010 by helenadagmar

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.

Posted in san francisco · Tagged 2010, paul friedrich, san francisco, wondercon · 2 Comments

Upgrades & underground adventures.

April 26, 2010 by helenadagmar

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!

Tagged aaron, adventures, california, theMIX agency, tunnel, underground · Leave a comment

February in April.

April 4, 2010 by helenadagmar

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!

Posted in san francisco · Tagged brandom, cafe du nord, dolores park, downtown, ernie, jaguar love, laura, lewis, mark growden, meghan, noise pop, rumble, san francisco, sf moma, shalaco, skyline, tenderloin, valentines day · 1 Comment

SoCal Road Trip.

April 4, 2010 by helenadagmar

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!

Posted in Travel Stories · Tagged beach, boardwalk, dakota, david bazan, hermosa beach, live, pedro the lion, photos, road trip, santa cruz, show, socal, stories, tara · 3 Comments

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