It’s 2:25 a.m. on Thursday, and I am still hiding out after a week in New Bern. Jet lag apparently will not fade, as I am finding myself up very late and having trouble waking up prior to noon.

I’ve stayed pretty quiet this week, other than shooting a wedding and taking approximately a million photos inside my house, specifically photographing old family photos I’ve dug up from the closet so I can archive them digitally. I spent a lot of time with my mom, brother, and estranged cat, Raphael (who has been living with my mom for the last two years because I’m too scared to fly him across to SF).

This is my mom and my cat.

This is my brother.

The wedding I photographed was that of a good friend from high school, Ellen. Here are a few shots from the day… if you were a guest and want to see the rest of the wedding photos, you’ll be getting a private link from Ellen shortly.

PS – Don’t judge me for my lack of wedding watermark awesomeness. I’ll design a better one at some point in the future.

The family photos I’ve been photographing have been to make THIS:

(You can click the photo to see the whole page.)

I’ve been making memory pages for my entire extended family, including myself. The experience has been pretty freaking amazing – I finally own photos of my Dad (I owned absolutely none prior to this), I saw what my grandfather looked like for the first time (as well as many great-aunts, uncles, and three out of four great-grandparents), have tons of ridiculous photos of my mom and her sisters from the 70s, and have been up with my mom until 3 a.m. every night listening to her tell stories. Honestly, you really need to do this next time you go home. It’s still blowing my mind. I’ll write more about it in the near future.

So tomorrow (I mean today) I’ll be waking up early, and my long-time adventure buddy and ultimate bro Logan (you can click that link to see an old photo of us posing with my childhood piano trophies) is going to pick me up and we’re going to explore the depths of Eastern North Carolina, as we agreed this would be a proper thing for us to do while I’m home. So we’re going to Aurora and exploring fossil fuel pits. I’ll take photos.

PS – I’ll be back in Raleigh tomorrow night, and would like to see all of you RDU folk. You will likely find me somewhere near the intersection of Hargett and Wilmington streets by nightfall, FYI.

That’s all, I’m off to bed.

END!

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.

After awaking from my 15-hour couch nap, I was onward to Phase 3 of my trip: hitching a ride to my hometown of New Bern, NC.

My brother was off work for the night and offered to tote me. He would arrive at 1:00. This would all be great, if my belongings weren’t strewn all over Raleigh.

Most of my luggage was stored at friend Sam’s house, which wasn’t of much use, as I hadn’t actually stayed there at all during this trip. As many of you know, planning while traveling isn’t really my thing.

It would be easy to swing by and pick up my stuff, but unfortunately, Sam was nowhere to be found. So Logan and I decided to go search the establishment most likely to find her in – The Busy Bee. I decided to call brother Kane and friend Erika over to meet us for brunch in the meantime.

We found Sam, and we found brunch. I got a key, and we were on our way to find my luggage.

Upon arrival, I spend a good five minutes trying to get in the front door of her apartment with the key she had provided me, but to no avail.

I try and try and try. Kane asks me if I am sure I have the right door. I tell him he is being silly.

I was definitely at the wrong apartment. I’m sure the crowd of people cooking out outside were a bit confused to see me try to break into two adjacent apartments, successfully entering the second one. I hastily grabbed my luggage and we were on our way.

After two hours of observing eastern Carolina’s brilliantly designed storefronts and billboards, we finally arrived in the homeland to find my mother and my baby catchild, Raphael, waiting for us.

Raphael was my partner in crime in Raleigh. He was my only roommate, and we were serious compadres. I gave him to Kane to babysit while I toured the country this summer, and he soon ended up with my mom in New Bern. I had all plans to fly him over to California upon my settling in, but as I predicted, my mother has become quite infatuated with him and is not so ready to give him up. For now, it is probably for the best, as I will probably be touring and traveling quite a bit in the near future… but I do miss him so so much. He is my precious white monstrous yeti cat child.

Raph apparently has a new fun habit of climbing onto the outside edge of the second-story patio, just for shits and giggles. I’m not entirely sure how he hasn’t died yet. But there’s not much you can do other than just let him do it.

Anyway. Enough about the cat.

My one night in New Bern was great. The three of us ate soup, sat on the porch, played fetch with Raph, and nerded out on our computers together until the wee hours of the morning.

The next day I spent my last New Bern meal at none other than Carolina Bagel (yet to find bagels that compare, even in San Francisco), then took a final walk around downtown with the family, shooting some glamour shots here and there. I’m getting them to work on their sweet model poses while I’m gone. All of us will be pros by Christmas.

(PC: Annette Stone)

Goodbye, North Carolina. I love you, but west coast is calling.

END!

Hello all!

This has been a very productive week for me so far. I have some important updates to share with all of you. I will explain further below.

But first, here some photos from the past week’s adventures:

A few days ago, I went over to help friend Mark work on his particularly large project of renovating his abode. He is currently building a rather large addition to the back of his home, and I, wanting to pacify my need for being around architecture and construction, offered to help. However, my homebuilding/welding knowledge and physical strength is limited, so I offered to make sandwiches and take pictures instead.

So I did.

How to open a can of Dew with a nail gun. By Mark.

My valuable contribution to the project (other than sandwiches).

While you’re at it, check out Mark’s loverly band, The Bowerbirds. You will be pleased.

Yesterday I spent some time running around both downtown Durham and downtown Raleigh. Stop 1 was a trip to see the Durham Bulls play for friend Eric’s birthday. Hot and schweaty and fun.

Durham tracks jump.

Then back to Blue Martini for a staff jump.

And so began our hike around town to climb and jump on everything possible.

This immediately led to Todd’s plight from the trash can to the pavement resorting in ACL problems for the remainder of the day.

Todd remained on the ground whenever possible.

We had quite an audience for this shot. A few angry cars as well. Oh well. We do what we want.

Ok, now for the important stuff.

First of all, my work has been selected for display at the Busy Bee for First Friday!!! This is a huge deal to me, and I am so excited to be an official part of the First Friday arts scene for my last month in North Carolina.

(photocred: New Raleigh)

Second, I have acquired a second travelmate for my trip across the country.

(photocred: Tim Lytvinenko)

His name is Tim Lytvinenko, a photographer based out of Raleigh. I remember seeing his photos and reading great things about him long before I met him. (His track record includes being touring photographer for The Rosebuds. Lucky bastard. Read what they have to say about him here.) I eventually met him and let him write about Ukranian beer in my Moleskine book before I ever knew he was THE “photographer Tim.” I pieced it all together eventually. He gave me some great advice when I was putting together my grad school portfolio, and I still owe him about 800 beers for it. And now, he will officially be part of my gigantic cross-country photo/blog/video adventureproject. With me+Logan+Tim together for an entire month on the road, I can’t even begin to fathom what we’re getting into. It’s going to be absolutely ridiculous.

That said, I have decided to make Friday’s photos a collaborative project with work from all three of us, in order to help build a buzz around our upcoming project and give people an idea of what we’re all about and what adventures we’ve managed to get ourselves into in the past.

The photos will go on display this Friday (June 5th), and we’ll be present for a casual reception of sorts beginning at 6 p.m. This will give you plenty of time to come by, meet us, take jumping photos with us, get some grub (either at the Busy Bee or one of the other 10 great restaurants around the block), and continue on with your First Friday plans. Regardless, take a minute and pencil in a time to come visit us that night.

Check our our First Friday Facebook event HERE.

Read what OkayGreat.com has to say about our show HERE.

If you haven’t had the chance to read about my cross-country project that will commence in approximately one month, read about it in my previous blog post here.

That’s all for now! Stay tuned for more updates to come.

hp

Last night and tonight have been relatively uneventful, but fantastic nonetheless. Logan finally came into town yesterday. Noren and Lauren Lenney, two Washington friends who I spent time with last year, drove Log to the hostel, picked us up, took us out for pizza (me and Dakota just watched, because we ate free noodles at the hostel), then brought us back and left.

It’s sad that pizza time was the only time I will have with them this year, since they are some of my favorite people, but they do have school this week, and they still had to drive all the way back across the state to the desolate shithole of a college town they call Spokane. It was fun while it lasted. We talked about going out, but ended up in bed by midnight (3:00 your time).

Today we did as much exploring as possible within walking distance. This visit is a bit complicated, because Logan and I have explored most of this part of the city before, but Dakota is new to the area. We took D back through the main spots, including the waterfront, the aquarium, the EMP, and the space needle… but we only paid to see the aquarium, since the best thing about the EMP (Experience Music Project) building is the exterior of the building itself, which is free, and going up to the top of the space needle is not worth twenty bucks when you can pay only four bucks to go to the top of the Columbia Tower. I’m broke, so I prefer this method of tourism.

We explored the SAM (Seattle Museum of Art) sculpture park, since the SAM itself is closed on Mondays. It’s right on the bay, and the view is awesome. It’s also right beside Pier 70, the building where the participants in Real World Seattle dwelled.

Speaking of celebrities, Logan introduced me to the concept of “microcelebrity” today. A subtitle of celebrity in which one is well-known by anywhere from a few-dozen to several thousands of people. These types are becoming prominent due to the internet – blogging, Myspace and Facebook profiles… many people are microcelebrities without even knowing it. If everyone on my mailing list actually read these, I think I could qualify.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-12/st_thompson

We headed back to our favorite grocery/deli, where I made another friend who was friends with the friend I made yesterday. This grocery sells a ton of 22oz. local brews, so we each bought two and headed on our way. After spending dinner money on beer, we wanted to find something cheap. Everything in the market is closed. We walk to 2nd street. Everything is closed. We walk to 3rd street. We walk and walk and walk and finally find our saving grace among a plethora of homeless crackheads and shady pubs: Mom’s Teryaki. Glorious. We stuff our faces and head back to the hostel, where we are currently enjoying our local bottled brews.

By the way, me and Dakota are sick. Somebody is always sick when I am in Seattle. Last year, Logan was dying of some sort of deathly fever, but he was a trooper and didn’t let it get in the way of our adventure. I was diagnosed with the flu on Thursday, and Dakota has just been really sick, but we are both now in that awkward hacking stage that is somewhere between death-sickness and recovery. We are the people that everyone in the lounge stares awkwardly at us because we are constantly hacking our lungs out.

I don’t know if any of you guys have been flu tested, but I wish the process on no one. Let me fill you in. I was sitting in urgent care on Thursday, waiting to figure out what was wrong with me. In walks nurse with an 8-inch Q-tip. The physician looks at me with sympathy. The nurse proceeds to insert half of this Q-tip into my face through my right nostril. I am not exaggerating. I have no idea how so much of this Q-tip entered my head, but I am fairly certain that it was poking somewhere between the back of my eyeballs and my brain. She repeats the process in my left nostril. I am also fairly certain that this q-tip was also doused in either battery acid or fiberglass, because it felt like she was trying to sample tissue my frontal lobes. It was the most painful five seconds of my life. I almost never cry when I am in pain, but by reflex, I immediately began snotting and sobbing all over myself. I am getting a flu shot from now on.

I am about 20 oz. behind my travel mates because I have been writing, so I need to get back to business before we go explore the bars of Seattle. Hope all is well on the east side… I will fill you in on whatever shenanigans we get into tonight.

Hello! This is the last bit of writing from the west coast. I rececntly just got back from rummaging around the bars and pubs in downtown Vancouver. Our trip to Canadia almost did not happen, since Julian left his birth certificate on his microwave last week, lost it, and forgot to search for it until 1:00 this afternoon. After a couple of hours, he finally found it, and we made it over to B.C. It was very rainy, but by about 9:00 or so it cleared up enough to wander around and remain relatively dry. Canada is neat, but.. it’s just like America. People honk a little more, and green lights blink, and I am a legitimate customer in a bar, but other than that, same old thing. I had a good bit of fun.

Bellingham has been great. It’s absolutely beautiful here. Perhaps I
have already mentioned that, but I feel that you should be reminded. Did I mention that this is the most Norwegian place ever? Julian lives in the Norsemen apartments, for christ’s sake. My air mattress in his living room has been surprisingly comfortable. It’s been a nice break from my four days of extreme city life.

So tomorrow we leave the west coast. I am not ready to come home. We fly out of Seattle around 1pm western time, stop in St. Louis for a bit, then arrive back on the east side late tomorrow (Sunday) night. Back to reality.. actually checking to see if I had any assignments to do over break, then frantically finishing all of my scholarly crap before I get myself into some real trouble. Ah.. home. I’m sorry that you guys can’t live vicariously through me anymore, but at least you can see my face and experience my fabulous life in person again. I hope you can live with that. Love, hp

END!