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!

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!

One month and three days. That’s fairly large fraction of the blog’s entire lifespan. I used to freak out if I hadn’t posted in 36 hours. I also used to have slightly more free time.

Anyway, enough about that. I’m blogging again! Hooray!

A few highlights from the past month in Cali:

I officially began work for Porto Franco Records, full time. I still am having a hard time believing that I’m getting a steady salary to do what I love.

I’m particularly happy to be working with this label for a number of reasons. For one, I have a good bit of creative responsibility in my job, which means I have a good bit of creative freedom. Second, the label has a good taste in music. The owners are Russian, and you can hear their tastes translated in their decision to host an eclectic catalog of artists, ranging from indie, folk, americana, blues, jazz, balkan… all with the common characteristic of artistic integrity and stellar musicianship. Third, the label is open minded to not only adapting to the changing industry, but adopting innovative business and marketing models in the interest of finding a long-term solution to the issues in traditional record industry. I spend every waking moment studying the industry and evolving technology, and they want to work with me to find ways to use these new innovations to our advantage. DREAMY!

I’m working on a number of projects for them, but my main focus for the next few months is in the realm of branding, online presence and content overhaul, among developing some really neat projects both online and within the Bay Area. We’re aiming to have the new website up by February, which is exciting. In the meantime, you can check out the existing one here.

Follow us on Twitter, too! We just redid our account: twitter.com/PFRecords.

Also – I’m not going back to grad school (I’ve been in school for an MFA in photography). It was pretty difficult balancing full-time grad work + full-time job + all of my own projects (hence the blog hiatus), and I ended up half-assing pretty much all of my endeavors in the effort to keep all of them in my life. That said, I need to simplify things a bit and hone-in my concentration toward the most relevant projects – work, blog, photos.

Note that I still include photos as a relevant project, as I am still obsessed with photography and I have a blog that runs off of photos. I just can’t afford to build up my debt going through a grad program that I can’t put 100% into, because that would defeat the purpose of going to grad school. And… I have a job that I love. Also a purpose of going to grad school. Achieved.

Anyway. More fun stuff – I attended SF Music Tech in early December. It was, as the name implies, a conference where those involved in the tech and music industries can get together to discuss current issues and ideally brainstorm innovative ideas and solutions. I will say that the discussion of (and/or griping about) current issues largely outweighed the brainstorming of solutions, but it is certainly hard to steer a conversation toward resolution in panels that have a 30-minutes cap, so it’s understandable. There were a number of great startups present that shared new apps that answer to the evolving needs of the industry, including a new facebook music app by my friends at Involver. I met a number of great people both during and after the conference, and am looking forward to attending again. Ideally I’d like to soon get involved with the planning of the conference… with just a little more structure and direction in the panel sessions, there is a huge amount of potential for this to become an extremely productive, content-rich event with a huge amount of utility.

Also in recent news:

- My friend Brandom moved to California, and has been living with me while he’s looking for a place to live. He was a friend of mine from Raleigh days, and I frequently come home to find him and other-Raleigh-now-in-SF-friend Dakota in my room, usually playing cards on my bed. It’s really great. I hope they continue doing this after Brandom finally finds a place.

- My roommates Hoa and Cyndie both had birthdays recently, but Cyndie was kind enough to have her birthday party before I left for NC for the holidays. It was a bacon-and-bourbon themed party, and, in typical Helena fashion, I ate so much bacon that I ended up in bed sick after only drinking half a glass of bourbon. Priorities.

- Brandom and I went out to eat my last meal in California before flying back to NC. We walked to a Japanese restaurant down the street, where I ordered a big bowl of rice with an eel filet on top. Next thing you know, I have swallowed an eel bone. It is stuck in my throat. I can feel it. It is piercing my tongue every time I swallow. I panic. Run to bathroom. Attempt to find bone. No luck. I sit on floor and prepare to faint. Also no luck. I finally reach down my throat and find the bone sticking out of my tonsil. In my attempt to get it out, I accidentally push it all. the way. into my tonsil. GROSSEST INJURY EVER. PS – It never came out and remains inside my tonsil, where it will eventually dissolve. Also gross.

Ok. Now time for pictures! Some randoms from my last weeks in Cali.

Ok. That’s all for now. More updates to come!

END!

Here are some photos from the week… the first few being from Kelly & Jim’s engagement shoot (more of those to come when I find the time to finish editing), the latter being from me frantically running around my neighborhood doing a color assignment for homework that I put off until the morning it was due (being busy has its downfalls).

I have some great news and updates coming for you, but I’ll wait until next week to announce them. Things are good in mi life though, as crazy and hectic as it is at the moment.

Also – My mum flies into town today! I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am. So begins a weekend of adventuring with my soul-twin who happened to birth me.

END!

Tara and I decided that we would adventure to Pumpkin Fest on Saturday afternoon. I heard there would be a giant pumpkin, and I enjoy all food products involving pumpkin, so I figured it would be a good way to spend my time.

Backed up in a surprising large amount of traffic en route to the festival, we slowly creeped by independent farms, adorned with vast expanses of pumpkins and usually a central funhouse, equipped with whatever pumpkin-themed funhouses could possibly have. It was quite enticing. However, we continued on, assuming that this was simply a preview of the general awesomeness that was to be the actual Pumpkin Fest.

We finally arrive in downtown Half Moon Bay, and we follow the crowd toward the festival. I want to stop at a coffee shop on the way.

So we order two iced pumpkin lattes (it’s only logical). We are waiting patiently to receive them when we are approached by a stranger.

Enter Zephyr.

Zephyr was kind enough to, without hesitation, provide us with detailed descriptions of surrounding pumpkin farms that are far more interesting than the festival itself. It was quite enlightening.

I asked to take his photo, wrote my website on a napkin for him, and we prepared to head on our way.

Next thing we know, Zephyr is joining us for our entire festival experience.

The festival was certainly interesting (though not remotely as interesting as we had hoped), and we ended up cutting our walkabout short. We said our goodbyes to our new friend Zephyr and headed on our way.

We couldn’t help but stop at the strange pumpkin fields on the way home. We also happened to find ourselves in a giant dinosaur sculpture park as well. Just another Saturday road trip.

Sunday I found myself on Treasure Island (that is really the name of the island… it sits in the bay between SF and Oakland), thanks to fantastic lad/production superstar Will Chase. Performances of note: Grizzly Bear, Beirut, Decemberists, Walkmen, Flaming Lips. Environmental details of note: Incredible SF skyline view, fun colored lights illuminating everything, pirate ship wagon, and air that was really fucking cold. Great time nonetheless.

Lastly, mustaches. In Sonoma Valley. I really don’t have much to say about them, other than it felt right at the time.

Thanks to Tara, Elaine, and Greg for being my extremely reluctant models.

I was going to do these for a history homework assignment, so I tried to make them look a bit dated. I ended up scrapping them though.

And the extras:

END!

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!

I’m particularly proud of this set. I’m not used to shooting people, and it still makes me nervous, but I see myself getting better at it, and I’m excited to share these.

I will warn you now – if you are easily offended by all that is unfamiliar to you, just don’t view this blog. Okay? Okay.

END!

Instead, I thought I’d post my favorite photos from this summer’s phototour, as well as a couple of photos that I never posted. As much as I love San Francisco, my heart aches for the road.

Enjoy!

There are all from my six-week phototour with Bowerbirds + Megafaun. If you haven’t actually looked at my tour site yet, just go do it. I bet you might like it. All of Tim‘s wonderful photos are there as well. Click and enjoy. www.welldonetour.com.

Hopefully a new blog post involving SF photos will be up tomorrow, depending on if I find this elusive camera charger. Until then…

END!

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

I’m starting my MFA program at the Academy of Art in San Francisco in September.  These are the photos that got me into grad school.