A musical few days

Okay, so this entry has almost nothing to do with seattle. It's just our first cloudy day here and it's been a few days full of musical finds that are definitely worth mentioning and I can't help myself.

Firstly, got my amanda palmer package in the mail courtesy of me Ma. Amanda Palmer has been everywhere in the news as of late for her various kickstarter projects that exploded with popularity when she raised of a million dollars. I jumped in a while back and contributed so I could get a cd and book and stuff but her donations continued well past the kickstarter cap of $25,000 to the point where if you donated $25,000 or $50,000 she'd consider it a loan and would actually pay it back to you with interest.

The album itself is really good as I've come to expect from her. She's released a number of videos to go with them including a version of Ewan Mccoll's "When I first saw your face". Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips recorded a version of this and made a video with Erykah Badu. But apparently Coyne released the video before it was edited to Badu's liking and Badu yanked the cord on the project. So Coyne got Amanda to do a different version and shot some new footage of amanda and released that video instead. Both feature naked women so Not Safe For Work (NSFW).

Dare to Compare:

Erykah's

and 

Amanda's

Amanda's album Theater is Evil was released to the public last week and is up on her website for free or for a dollar if you get the deluxe version with a few covers. The singles are "Want it Back", "The Killing Type", and "Do it with a Rockstar". The first two have videos already and the third video is en route also done with Wayne Coyne. None of those are safe for watching in your cubicle. There's also an EP for free download on her website of just those three songs if you prefer that.


Also Released this week was Grizzly Bear's "Shields"  (click the link, hit the "Free download" button. Wait 30 seconds. enter the captcha, and presto! The album is yours!) The album is fantastic and everything you'd expect from Grizzly Bear. Huge walls of sound that seem to stretch out in every direction at once, loads of wonderful harmonies, a few songs with tremendous hooks, spacey far out guitar parts, and pretty quite songs that you put on when you want to relax only to have them erupt halfway through and have you rushing to your stereo to turn down the volume.

The first single is "Yet Again" and is definitely the mover and shaker of the album at first listen. Definitely worth getting...especially since i just handed it to you.

Frank Ocean who has been adding a softer contrast to Odd Future with R&B released a new video for his song Pyramids (again not safe for watching at work!) from his sophomore album Channel Orange. The video is pretty bizarre and has kind of an old samurai/spy feel to it. The song itself is split into two parts so the video follows in 4 parts (that last almost 8 minutes!) that kind of flow considering he does four shots of absinthe at the start of the video. It also has one of the weirdest cameos (5 minutes in) I've seen since Dennis hopper showed up in that Gnarls Barkley video...

He did his first appearance on TV with the Roots as his backup band on Jimmy Fallon for "Bad Religion" that was brilliant and followed it up a week or two ago on SNL with "Thinking Bout You" that started a little shaky but ended strong. The old school arcade games in the back of the stage are a nod to his last album Nostalgia Ultra (available for download from his website) which has several tracks in which you hear him loading cassette tapes into a player and playing and fast forwarding old school video game soundtracks as interludes between the other tracks. Nostalgia is pretty interesting because a number of the tracks are actually other songs that he's created new lyrics for including turning "Hotel California" into "American Wedding" and MGMT's "Electric Feel" into "Nature Feels" but still provides a number of his own original songs.

I'd recommend both of them. Both are pretty laid back listening with a lot of great sounds that nod to hip hop and soul. The intro music behind the bar scene of Pyramids is my favorite track of his called "Pink Matter" featuring the always fantastic Andre Benjamin a.k.a. Andre 3000 of Outkast fame.

Mellowhype, comprised of Hodgy Beats and Left Brain, also of the Odd Future crew, (more what you'd expect from them) released one new track every day last week in anticipation of their new album Numbers. The tracks are significantly stripped down from previous tracks. Left Brain, the producer, is known for psychedelic piano parts and oddly tuning the keyboards used to make melodies (in the typical odd future style). Left Brain also uses a bunch of really cool production techniques such as having Hodgy calmly speak his chorus in the left ear and yell it in the right creating an interesting jarring effect on "64". The released tracks are much lighter and sound more like a hazy summer afternoon compared to the very dark releases that came before (such as 64). Hodgy's rapping is much more upbeat too. You can get all the released tracks from last week here as one .zip file.

Also new this week Gaslamp Killer's first album "Breakthrough" (The song playing here is off the album and is called "Impulse") from Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label. This guy is amazing. Since 2007 he's released ten, hour-long mixes, 3 eps, multiple production credits and compilation contributions and FINALLY! FINALLY! A solo LP release! I first heard about him when I was in Amsterdam in 2008 when this guy chris at Skek, the bar I became a regular (and guest DJ after closing time) at for a week traded me all his music. Found him in a magazine written in dutch so I translated what I could but he seemed like such a weird guy I checked him out when I got back to the states and it was well worth it. Very jazzy and very video game based guy he's just a fun guy. I met him when I was working at Governor's Ball last summer in NYC. He had his signature curly mop and glasses and I seemed to be the only one who knew who he was so I got to sit and have tofu dogs with him and talk about Iggy Pop. He wasn't playing that day but was helping out and sound checking for Benga and Skream. Honestly I wish he had played instead his music choices are much more fun.

I couldn't find a link to this album anywhere so I just went ahead and did all the stupid steps neccessary to buy the mp3 album form Amazon. I do not recommend this. It's so much more effort than it's worth. The album is fantastic! Just buy it from somewhere else. Support some smalltime company that could use the help and doesn't make you download a player to download what you bought. Amazon, seriously. I give you money, you give me music. There does not need to be a third, fourth or fifth step involved here.

The album is a great sort of condensed compilation of all his styles. From his work with Gonjasufi to his video game 8-bit sounds it flows very well and has a great sense of humor about it while keeping shadowy overtones. At 47 minutes long it's a quick play but would make great work music if you were playing it in the other room. Haven't given it a serious listen with headphones on but knowing him the sounds probably run pretty deep and would be worth studying.

Flying Lotus who you will hear me praise, at long length, whether you want to hear about it or not, is one of my favorite people in music today. Nephew of jazz legend John Coltrane he is a forerunner in electronic music with a style all his own. He can make me dance, make me close my eyes and relax, make me laugh, and make me want to make more music. He's a complete work horse, producing artists, collaborating with artists, running his own record label, not to mention releasing an unfathomable amount of his own music and giving most of it away for free. His label Brainfeeder is an incredible lineup of artists. Thundercat (one of the greatest bass players in the world!), Austin Perelta (son of skateboarding legend Stacy Perelta), Dr. Strangloop, Miguel Atwood Ferguson, Daedelus, Teebs, Gaslamp Killer, and about 2 dozen other brilliant artists that are innovating soundscapes like no others. I've seen Flylo play twice and both times he puts on a hell of a show.

He's got a new album coming out at the beginning of next month called Until the Quiet Comes and in his usual fashion he's dropping new things left and right in preparation. I read a quote from someone once that said "If you're on the internet one week, and that week has a Tuesday in Already he's released an incredible short film (featuring the voice of Mizz Badu), a video for one of the singles (that looks like Metropolis if it had been done as a cartoon from the 20's in Japan), and a sampler plate of all the tracks on the album. I bought a ticket to see him in October and I am beside myself with glee. When the new album comes out you can believe I'm going to post it here and rave about it.

Finally this week, my most played track, Macklemore's "Thrift Shop". I've sent this to most everyone i know in excitement because it's so hilarious and excellent. Macklemore, is a Seattle native. After listening to his album I learned he grew up in Capitol Hill and went to school 4 blocks from where I live (remember that oprah picture about Ezell's chicken I posted? It's right across the street from that place), in a white middle class family, with both parents, two cars, a swing in his yard, and went to public school never having to get the free lunches. Seems to go against everything that is rap right? He's well aware. He comes out and says it in his song "white privilege". So instead of rapping about coming from the projects, and being broke, and drugs, and gangs, he raps about gay marriage (he's straight but has 2 gay uncles), anti-consumerism, getting a fake id as a kid, george bush, and having a slightly above average penis. He's got a great sense of humor and actually has some decent rap skill. Ryan Lewis, who does most of his music as the producer comes up with a lot of great beats and really catchy melodies. I just scanned down the wikipedia entry for this guy and says every year he has a pizza party and his fans get to prove their love of music by submitting an entry of creativity of any kind in a chance to win tickets to the party where he plays a show. Cool guy. He's dropping a new LP "The Heist" and he's playing here October 9th. Woulda bought a ticket to that show for sure cept he's sold out almost ALL of his shows til november. I'd recommend jumping on one of those tickets cause there's no doubt in my mind it'd be a ridiculous and way fun show.

Just in case you weren't sure he knows how to make fun of himself, he performed at a college in Colorado where he did a set of THIS SONG twice...and that was it. That song, back to back, then walked off stage to mass applause. Legit.

That's about it. It's still cloudy much to my chagrin. But it's late enough in the day that it doesn't matter. I think I'm going to go find a delicious box of unhealthy chinese food for six dollars and learn the names of everyone in there so they'll deliver to our apartment. (apparently we're in some kind of delivery dead zone. Most places in the popular places delivery zones end 4 blocks west of us. Life in Ghettoburbia, what're ya gonna do?)

Miss you all and wish you were all here for a massive cuddlepuddle in the living room on this dark an grey day.

Stay classy!
Wif Love
Travis.

Don't tell me how to have fun!

When we last left our two adventurers they were in the market for a sofa. Thanks to craigslist and a helpful young lady named Karen a most excellent sofa was acquired and after much muss and fuss of getting it up our super awkward and narrow staircase it has settled into it's place in our living room. Video games were played and Rise of Planet of the Apes was watched. And it was good...

Earlier in the day we got some exercise by meeting up with a bunch of guys for a pickup game of ultimate frisbee. A few injuries were had. Dylan got an excellent elbow or something into my side when I jumped up to block him and I tuck and rolled out. Gotta say, it was the most passive game I've ever played. Not the game itself, just the guys. Anytime there was a dispute over in or out or anything of the sort everything would stop and everyone would kind of go "well...i dunno...you want it?...nah you can take it...well alright then." Funny but great guys. Honestly I will never know how pot smoking hippies invented a game with so much running...

Monday was Dylan's first day of work as a construction worker. He got up bright an early and I mean REALLY early, all on his own, after only two alarms, and went to work. I enjoyed my first monday and slept in a lil bit then got to work applying for new jobs. Made and ate lunch over skype with my friend May in Canada who I haven't seen in ages and made a run to the post office. Met up with Dylan at Twilight Exit for happy hour and then rolled home for some damn Adventuretime.

Tuesday was the best day in Seattle yet. Dylan got up and left and I stayed in bed til 1 sending off resumes and emails and doing research on local eateries. At around 2 I wrassled myself outta bed, had a shower, made a salad stir fry and set off towards downtown. My goal was to find an art supply store and I managed to do that after taking a few liberties with the directions I memorized.  

I found a place that is now at the top of my list of food places. I had actually looked it up earlier but didn't realize I was going to pass it and almost missed it entirely. The place is called HoneyHole and they make amazing sandwiches. You walk in and it feels very cosy, lots of wood, a bull skull with red lightbulbs in the eye sockets over the door, italian clint eastwood posters, etc. There's a set menu of specialty sandwiches both meat and veggie that average about 8 bucks a piece (Considered a cheap eat in seattle apparently...$5 is a cheap eat to me but I'm a huge fan of nyc corner stand food so what do I know?) that are about 8 inches long. Every sandwich is on a semi hard baguette toasted but not pressed and loaded with deliciousness. Also they start serving beer at 11 am. so for $11 I got sandwich called the WAVERIDER (in house roasted turkey breast, homemade pesto, melted smoked gouda, red onion, sweet hot peppers, and aioli on a demi baguette) and a pint of Olympia (which as I understand it is the Pabst Blue Ribbon of Washington State.) and was totally sated. It was delicious and I was astounded at the fact that I was FULL! two thumbs waaaaay up.

Found an awesome art gallery that was having a show on art based on video games. Wanted to buy so much of it but had to refrain. Might go get a print or two cause there was a lot of good talent. Asked about working for them and found out the guy I was talking to owned the place. He was the only one who worked there and said he couldn't afford any help. Shucks.

Bought a sketch book and some pens and glue to make postcards and something to submit to the zine fest and had a nice long walk home. Dylan was home and we went down the street and talked to some folks named Stephen, Steven, and Jenn who had a bunch of furniture in their yard and a great dog. I bought a dresser and we balanced it on the roof for the drive home. Got it upstairs and started setting up stuffs before I realized WE WERE GONNA BE LATE FOR THE SHOW!!!

Micachu and the Shapes opening for Animal Collective at the Paramount Theater!

Micachu and the Shapes is hands down my favorite band. I had to listen to each of their albums a good half dozen times before they clicked and I could hear past the noise and the weirdness but it was damn well worth the effort. Mica is classically trained and makes most of her own instruments to get very odd sounds. She even uses a vacuum cleaner in a few songs! I saw them open for Tune-Yards in NYC and was annoyed that no one was dancing to their music. 

Same thing happened here. The levels tonight were pretty off and the room was HUGE and cavernous so I could understand why a lot of people weren't getting it tonight. But the crowd cheered and everyone I talked to between the sets said they loved them. They played a bunch of their new album and a few fantastic songs of their old that had me dancin like a monkey in the middle of the floor and shouting along. Everyone cheered when the songs ended but you could tell who actually came for Micachu because they knew when to clap or when the breaks were coming.

Me in the bar. I punched Dylan a bit too enthusiastically and he used this opportunity to get me to hold still so he could sucker punch my gut. Slapped his hand and it glanced off of me and I STILL got a nice looking picture out of it. AND WHAT! 

Chillin with the two coolest folks in the room, Diane and Andy! 52 and 54 respectively and they were both in love with both bands. They spent a good 50 bucks on merch and I had to run over to take a picture with them. So much respect and they were super sweet!

Animal Collective came on and rocked shit. Like they doooo... I've seen them play twice. Well once and a half really... The first time was in Rome. Animal collective opened for Tv on the Radio opened for Nine Inch Nails. Yeah, I lost my mind when I heard that line up too. That show was incredible and as the opener they had no stage set up or anything. Just them and their gear on a stage in the middle of an outdoor horse race track. The second time was at the guggenheim exhibit they did with Danny Perez. Everyone expected that to be an animal collective show but it was actually a danny perez show with animal collective providing a surreal soundscape for 3 hours. a lot of people were let down but I had a great time walking around the guggenheim listening to the jungle like noises that were coming out.   

Tonight they kicked much ass. Playing a bunch of new tracks off the new album and throwing in a bunch of older ones. The stage was brilliantly designed but I"m having trouble tracking down the artist who designed the layout. On top and the sides were giant rows of teeth that strangely resembled some graffiti I saw in New Brunswick. In the middle giant arches curled towards the center with brightly painted patterns all over them in segments reminiscent of a centipede. The arches were constantly projected on and the teeth lit up in various colors and there was a cloth backing that had different patterns going on. One of the best light shows I've seen in a long while. 

I will say this about Seattle. Their crowds are so much different from NYC. For starters, there were people buying tickets for this show AT THE DOOR! NYC woulda sold out a month ago which is why I panicked and bought my ticket immediately but I bought a ticket for dylan this morning and found out you can buy them day of at the box office without the extra ten dollars in surcharges and "convenience fees". How awesome is that?! 

Second, there is space. Every new york show i've been too that didn't involve a mosh pit was packed. Over crowded even. and the closer you got to the front the more packed it would get and the more aggressive people would be about their spots. This show, I start moving the slightest bit to the music and people give me room. No one complains, no one pushes me back, they actually move out of the way so I can dance. I remember going to a Bloc Party show in NYC and having a woman in high heels physically stop me from dancing on the grounds that I was going to hurt someone. Let's be honest, the only damage I've caused anyone dancing was splitting this guy's eyebrow open in a Primus mosh pit. Aside from that I might step on a few toes while jumping or jostle people around in an effort to get them to join in but I am not really capable of hurting people by dancing. I'm not sure if everyone just thought I was on drugs and that it was better to leave me be than to cause me trouble (there were a fair amount of people on ecstasy and psychedelics there to be certain) but either way I always found I had enough room to jump around and not hit anyone. ASTOUNDING! 

There were people pushing to the front the whole time and provided they said "excuse me" most people let them on through. I've been to shows where I'm crusing up towards the stage and suddenly this guy twice my size, who would have a clear view no matter where he stood, blocks my path. I tap him on the shoulder and hint "hey man, i'm short, mind if I stand in front of you or get by?" and he'd tell me to fuck off and that he wasn't moving for anyone. At one point in the show I asked three guys if they would mind switching places with me so I could be closer to some dancing folk and instead convinced them to get their hands out of their pockets and start jumping around with me. Great people here, gotta say...

A crazy dancing couple I met in front of me. A ton of people came painted up and they were all the ones dancing the hardest. 

When the lights came up at the end of the show I noticed the ceiling looked kinda like a giant gorilla. I want to go back and get more pictures. This will do for now.

So after the encore the crowd emptied out into the street in typical traffic stopping fashion. I climbed up a street lamp trying to find dylan and he finally picked up his phone. "I'm on 9th and Pike. Walk up the block. Come. Here." he said. After figuring out which direction that was I walk up and see him posted up next to a tour bus. I stop to give a high five to a girl in a matching Micachu shirt then turn slightly and notice standing two feet away from me is...HER! Mica! is standing RIGHT THERE! SIGNING SOMETHING! and two feet beyond her MARC PELL! THE DRUMMER! I run up to Marc who was laughing bout something and stick my hands out to shake his. I shower him with admiration and tell him I saw them play in NYC and that it bugs me that no one dances to his amazing drum beats. He was all smiles and thanks and I asked if we could get a picture. We were missing one of the shapes (keyboardist Raisa) but they agreed. Mica signed an autograph for Dylan on one of the yellow paint swatches and was pretty awkward and left. But Marc was the friendliest guy. I feel like most people couldn't understand what he was saying but he shook my hand and thanked me for buying a shirt. Then wished us the best of luck in Seattle and said "you're off to a great start if this is only two weeks here" Best concert ever. 

I love that i'm taller than a rockstar...

I'm still freaking out about meeting them (literally yelled "I CAN GET HIT BY A BUS NOW!!!!" and ran into the street screaming with glee after they left) it was so huge.

In other news I finally uploaded a song I recorded a week ago and it seems appropriate to post it now. It's pretty quiet so I recommend listening with headphones. I"m pretty proud of how it sounds aside from the low volume and white noise. Need a little practice and tutorial searching to get that down right.

Ode to a Mosquito

I'm feeling inspired. I'm going to record more songs tomorrow. 

ALSO! I have a job interview for a Doggy Day Care! I applied this morning and a lovely woman named Melissa said she read my resume and wants to interview me over the phone in the morning! I'm praying to Jebeneezer that I get this job so I can be paid ten bucks an hour to play with dogs for 8 hours at a time. That would just make my life so awesome I wouldn't care about the constant rain!

I'll keep y'all in the loop!

Wish you all were here!

Stil Glowing!

D&Z

What a week...

oh my what a week...

Saturday and Sunday we had brilliant luck furnishing our place. We hit up some yard sales and got a table and some chairs and some other cool knickknacks. We drove to goodwill and sprung for new mattresses still wrapped in plastic. The only problem was we had no sheets. We ordered some but they decided they were going to come in the mail for a few days so we deflated the air mattresses and slept on top of the plastic wrapped ones. SO much more comfortable but SOOOO much louder. Every time I moved the plastic crinkled and woke me up.

Monday was the first day of training for my job. Naturally i woke up and it was wet outside. Deceptively wet. It ended up being dry by the time I left for the bus but that ended the run for the record of longest time with no rain...

 My boss was this 43 year old guy named Rob. A very large dude with a curly eggshell mullet with the tips blonded out. He was one of those guys who seemed almost too nice to the point where you don't really trust him because he's being so supportive. I realize that was his job and he was sposed to be that supportive in order to get people to stick with the job so I tried my best to be friendly back. He did have two ukeleles in the office and let me play them whenever we had a break so that helped.

The job is simple: Be funny and charming and convince people that they need to sponsor a child for about a dollar a day. For their $30 a month the child gets food, clothes, medicine, shelter, and an education and in return for your sponsorship you get a package with a picture of the kid, info about the area, stationary that you can write to your child and they can respond in their own hand, and a big warm, fuzzy, feeling that you've done some good in the world.

The first day it was me and the only other guy who signed up learning the pitch and practicing it. To me it was a script or a comedy routine and after 4 or 5 run downs I pretty much had it. The other guy, who looked to be my age but was in fact fifteen years older than me, couldn't seem to get it down. I helped out where I could telling him to pretend it was a story he was telling me instead of a bunch of information. That seemed to help a bit but he still couldn't remember the info. I found out after that he had other things on his mind like having to go see his attorney later about a car crash he was involved in and after that his physical therapist to deal with the back and leg pain he was experiencing from being hit as well as having pain from two teeth that needed to be pulled out of his mouth. Tough guy for dealing with all that AND trying to do this job.

Second day we got put in the field. We met at the office with the three girl who make up the rest of the team, Maya, Monique, and Kacie. All wonderful human beings and a handful of fun. We rode the bus to our respective spots together and Rob set Monique, the other guy Terry, and myself up downtown each on a corner and said "Do Work." I drank about 6 cups of coffee that day and didn't get a single signature. Rob loved my enthusiasm and dancing (once the sun went behind the buildings it got SO cold and SO windy SO DAMN FAST! and i still didn't have long pants so i had to keep warm somehow!) and said I'd get it eventually there was no doubt.

I met Dylan at a bar three blocks from our house called Twilight Exit. Pretty funky laid back place. They have two pinball machines, a joust machine, Street fighter, and a photo booth as well as 1.75 PBR drafts from 4-8. I got a beer and a shot of whiskey to warm up and ordered a Twilight Burger because 4 hipsters in front of me all ordered em. (*Note* When I mention hipsters in this blog do not assume they are the same as NYC hipsters. Thus far I have met a lot of people that I would immediately tag as hipsters because of the clothes they wear, of bikes they ride, etc. but the startling difference here thus far seems to be that none of them are assholes. That NYC judgmental bullshit doesn't seem to have made it out here. The closest I've come is my yelling out my window at a guy on a fixie bike and him flipping me off before I made it clear that I wanted to tell him that he had five bucks sticking out of his back pocket and he was sure to lose it. Then he actually rode up to the window and apologized and thanked me. I'm going to an animal collective show on tuesday and I expect it to be flooded with hipsters so I'll further my research there and report back.) Now a Twilight Burger having not read what it was before I ordered it is a big ol burger (that you have no say in how it is cooked. Chef's preference) with grilled onions, covered in two pieces of cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, two strips of bacon, two pieces of  jalapeno peppers, and cream cheese.

That's right. Cream Cheese.

So apparently Cream Cheese on hot dogs is a Seattle Pastime (Tried it. Is awesome) and it was so good they started incorporating it into other foods. I thought it was weird too but I tried it at our friend Ricky's place Cafe Racer (go there. is also awesome) and inhaled the damn thing.

So Dylan and I each got a Twilight Burger that came with one side (When I asked the bartender Siral how the fries were she replied "they're good but you want tots." I looked to the hipsters next to me and they all agreed so I went with tater tots instead of fries. Boss move for the win. ) We each killed our food and drinks and at that point, having stood on my feet from 9 am- the moment I walked in the bar at 7 and having to be as happy as a worker at the Wonderful World of Disney  made me dead to the world. Got home and immediately passed out at 8. Of course I woke up again at 130 and totally threw off my sleep schedule but that's whatever.

Wednesday I went back to work a bit fuzzy. I got teamed up with Maya to go out on our own. Maya was an awesome 20 year old with long blonde dreads some of which had been dyed blue, she wore tights that had Magritte like clouds on them and had a really outgoing adorable personality. She also wore upper playground gear or some of my favorite artists so we got along pretty well. I kept her spirits up and she kept mine up as we worked the art school crowd in front of Whole Foods on 15th.
The highlights of that day were few but excellent. I met a really cool girl named Margo who had an even more awesome white pitbull named Cuddles who fell in love with me. I hung out with the pair of them for a good fifteen minutes talking and scratching Cuddles before Margo asked if I was going to try to sell her a child. I told her she had been really cool and friendly to me so I wasn't going to pitch her and she relaxed a bit more. Her friend came back and the two of them dragged Margo clawing and barking away from me...I miss that dog.

The second highlight was running into Riley. I met riley the weekend before on the wooden boat ride we took. He was from Sacramento going to Cornish (the art school by whole foods) for Acting and reminded me a lot of my old neighbor Nathaniel in that he was tall, very laid back, had a super deep voice, and loved laughing. We got along pretty well but it slipped my mind to ask for his number so we could each have a friend in this city. And then he walked by. I walked up to him and said "You...I know you". He didn't recognize me and said "yeah okay and kept walking but I could see there was a little *tink* of recognition so I walked up to him. I said, "no...I KNOW you," and instantly his face LIT up, he jumped a foot off the ground and yelled "HOLY SHIT!" then broke into a huge smile and ran up to me. Slapped fives, he gave me a hug and was just so excited to see me as was I. It was really the first time I'd had that experience of seeing a familiar face randomly in a big city here and I assume it was his too so we were both just way hype. We trade numbers and agreed that we were going to hang out.
I didn't pitch Riley either and after he left to go to class and I was still basking in the glow of an awesome hug I started thinking.
"This job is great because I get to walk up to people and do my best to get them to lower their city defenses. I get them to smile, to laugh, just do ANYTHING to acknowledge my existence and then do my best to be charming and make friends with them while I still hold their attention. and the ones who stop are so nice because they already know what I'm up to the second I say 'hello'. But they stop, they hear me out. They smile. They laugh at my jokes. And they know it's coming. The hook. The line. 'Now all I need is your Credit card number." And you can instantly see the corners of their smiles drop a little. Their eyes glaze a bit. The bond has been broken. Their trust in me betrayed. They know me for 30 seconds and trust me enough to tell me their names and let me into their lives a little bit and I make friends with them them and do my best to convince them that I'm being genuine and really want to be their friend and then turn around and let them down. That's the only part of this job I don't like. I'm turning my brand new friends into pigeons. And even though they're doing a good thing and it is a good cause and they are saving lives, on a personal level, I'm still trying to sucker them into giving me their money. I'm selling them a good feeling instead of just giving them a good feeling like I do when I make them laugh...I don't like it."
And as all this swirled around me I just started dancing in this square and asking everyone that passed how they were doing. "How was your day sir? You doing alright Miss? You doin good man? Cool. Keep on bein cool." Every once and a while people would stop and take out their earbuds or stutter step for a second as if thinking "wait, he's not going to try to sell me something?" and I'd just smile and ask them how they were again.

I didn't pitch again for the rest of the day and just kept doing my best to make people happy instead. Maya didn't end up getting any signatures that day either and the other girls I think managed only two total so nobody minded that the new guy didn't get anything done.

That night I wasn't as exhausted as I was excited. I got home to find out UPS had tried to deliver our internet modem so Dylan and I rushed off to pick it up and swung by Target to get some sheets. We got home, tore open the plastic on our beds, tore open the modem got it all set up and spent the evening craigslisting furniture and torrenting tons of movies. We played a game or two of Catan, a board game I bought for the apartment, and called it a night.

Thursday I woke up and just didn't want to go to work. I was in good spirits I just knew my heart wasn't going to be in it. Dylan drove me to work and I played some ukelele and chatted with the girls before heading up the street to canvass. I was meandering and saying good morning to the university students and then a woman stopped. I think she knew a head of time the whole spiel but asked me what I was doing and seemed genuinely interested. Kind of in a mothering type way just seemed like she was in the market for a new things to care over. I pitched her and after lowering the price from 35 a month to 30 got her to sign up. I told Maya (who was working with me again) and she hugged me telling me she was so proud of me and that I was going to be an awesome canvasser. I stewed in that for a few minutes then ripped my shirt off, threw my Amurika hat on, marched up to the office a block away, put my stuff down on a chair neatly, told Rob I quit, and left without waiting for a response. I went for a walk through the University campus expecting him to run after me and talk me out of it but he didn't come so I swung through the art building and grabbed a bunch of pamphlets and flyers and job listing tags then called dylan to come get me.

As soon as I got in the car and told him I instantly felt better than I had since the beginning of the week. I didn't have to con anyone anymore. I could go back to making friends not trying to sell people a fake friendship. I was elated and spent the rest of the day on craigslist checking up furniture and jobs and redoing my resume. Dylan got home from running errands to tell me he got a job as a construction worker (SO PROUD!) and we went to twilight exit for happy hour.
There we sat down at a table of folks and started making friends. We met a few folks but forgot most of their names. Stuart and Jason were two guys who were carpenters that I met and I picked jason's brain because he was an artist as well. He told me galleries in Seattle don't employ art handlers they outsource to places like Arttech so not to waste my time dropping off resumes (which saved me from hiking all over downtown the following day!) and some other useful tidbits. Stuart then invited us to a party his friend was having. His friend had just got back form Snowboarding in Pakistan and was doing a slideshow of the trip. Dylan and I both agreed to go but ended up getting there after the pakistan slideshow. We saw the 2nd feature which was a vermont trip from july that was also stunningly beautiful and met a few people, made a few friends, and headed out. The whole crowd were snowboarders or somehow involved in something similar and were all really friendly relaxed people and it was great to find that crowd.
Went home feeling like I had a great day and slept better that I had since moving into the apartment.

Yesterday was a great first day of not working. I woke up and made pancakes and dylan set off to drop paperwork off to his construction job he starts monday. I did some resume sending and cleaning and remembered that today (FRIDAY!) was the day that my two big boxes of stuff from my ma were coming! I ran downstairs and taped a note to the front door with my number on it (we have no door buzzer of any kind on our building. the doorbells are outside our individual apartment doors but the front door to the building locks automatically. Stupid right?) telling him to call me if he showed up.
The boxes came about an hour later and it was like christmas morning. I ripped open the boxes to find clothes! Art! Siverware! Blankets! XBOX! MY PROJECTOR!  Just elation in two big brown boxes. The only bad thing in the box was a framed print I bought in mexico had the glass smashed. An easy fix. "DYLAN! We're going to Lowes!" Dylan needed to buy tools and such anyway and we decided to mount the projector on the wall permanently anyway so we needed wood and such so we set off. Wood for projector shelf, tools for dylan, as many paint swatches as my pockets could fit for wall decor, a new sheet of plexiglass cut to fit my print's frame, and a few other things later our apartment was looking awesome. I checked craigslist again and found a free couch that had just been put up and I told dylan to call the girl and be charming. We managed to talk her into giving it to us and borrowing her cousin's truck to deliver it for $20 saturday. High fives were had all around.

Skull an cross bones in a heart made of paint swatches.

What does this weekend hold for our two adventurers?

A sofa!
A Flea Market!
MOVIE NIGHT!
MORE FUN THAN HUMANS SHOULD BE ALLOWED HAVE!

Miss you all tons and tons and tons.

Puttin in work!

It's been a ridiculous first week.

We painted our rooms blue and learned that Dylan does not know how to use a roller properly.

       

We went to a trivia night at the recommendation of an OKCupid girl who also went to Rutgers and moved here. Never met her but we did take part in the trivia. We signed up as 'Jersey Boys' and entered one round before we realized we needed help and teamed up with Drew and Megan. 

With their help we tied for 16th and we whooped and hollered when they called out 'Jersey Boys' came  in last place.

We went to our first Seattle Concert at Neumos. Purity Ring!

They're a duo guy does all the beast girl does some fantastic singing. The guy had this rig set up. See those lights in front of him. Each one of those is a little cage with a white fabric cover hooked up to a pressure pad. Every time he hits one they light up and produce a pitch. think a the piano from BIG if it was a drumset made of birdcages. It was a great show and i cannot recommend it enough. They played every song that they had and the show STILL ended at 1130. It was odd going to an all ages show but I guess it's something I'll have to get used to. I did have some gay hipset guys rubbing up on me and one of em with a big moustache kissed the back of my neck while I was dancing but he disappeared after I told him I wasn't gay. Every other time I've told a gay guy I wasn't gay they explained to me "Oh you totally are, you just don't know it yet" so that was a pleasant change.

We got ourselves full sized mattresses to put in our rooms but have no sheets to put on them as of yet. so we've been wrapping ourselves in blankets and sleeping on the layer of plastic. Comfortable but loud. Sheets are definitely on the to do list.

We met up with our new friends Clara and Hope. I met Clara through my cousin Zoe in New York and she moved out here about the same time as us. Coincidentally she lives ten blocks away from us right around the corner from Oprah's favorite chicken place, Ezell's. 

We tried to do the thursday night art walk with Clara. The art walk is an awesome event that takes the first of every month where all the galleries downtown open their doors. Lots of openings. Lots of cool art on the streets. When we were here in April we hit some galleries and i bought an awesome painting but this time around we sat drinking and lost track of time missing the event entirely. So naturally we went exploring the area for some food and found quite possibly our new favorite drinking spot, Ivar's. They have happy hour from 3-10 and during seahawks games it's happy hour all day. The only problem is the walk home is about a mile up hills stacked on top of hills on top of hills. After a couple beers and some scotch and sodas it didn't really affect us but my calfs definitely felt it the next day.

We did see some pretty cool local art on the walk home though!

Still roarin and exploring. Stay tuned for more Pilgrims!

Wish y'all were here!

Seattle, our home.

So we got into town, got a slice of pizza, and called our friend Larry. Larry is, the man. We met him on Couchsurfing and he hosted us when we gave the Northwest a tour in April. He picked us up from the airport, took us to 50 cent Wing Night (which we're headed to tonight before the Purity Ring Show), gave us the grand tour of seattle acting as a super informative tour guide, put us up for three days, and took us snowboarding 45 minutes outside of seattle. The dude is legit. He agreed to put us up if we could get to the bar he was headed to for the Cougars game. After much ado and without any help from smartass phones we found the bar and Larry. Had some beers, had some food, met his Marine Vet buddy Glenn (I did a sketch of him that he said he was going to get framed) and watched a disappointing first Cougars game then headed to Larry's place. We spent the next day or two trying to run errands and being redirected here and there. Larry meanwhile was hosting 6 people the next night. All cool folks all being fed white russians by Larry. Sarah and Andrew were two folks from Fargo, Minnesota who were traveling in an RV from coast to coast before moving to Denver. Frederick was a student from Denmark taking some time off to explore Seattle. We gave them a lift in the morning before hitting up coffee shops and reading classified ads to find jobs and places to live.

Us with Sarah & Andrew and Frederick in front of the Deez

Walking around in Capitol Hill I got stopped by a canvasser with blonde dreads named Casey. She was really cool and really outgoing. I always have to stop to talk to them because I know how bad that job sucks but I generally don't donate to them. They usually seem appreciative that I stopped to talk to them and don't hassle me about not giving. Casey was that case. She even told me I should come work for them. They had a 12 dollar an hour base pay as well as commission for signing people up. I agreed and she wrote down an appointment for me to get interviewed. The selling point was when I asked if I should bring a resume and she said bluntly "we're not gonna look at your fucking resume, are you kidding me man?" We laughed and she gave me a hug and wished me luck.  What I didn't realize was the appointment was for 4 o clock on Labor day and there was no one there to interview me. Gotta follow up on that...

We were taking a break from apartment seeking at a coffee shop and while I was reading the hilarious "musicians wanted' ads (funniest one was 'midget wanted for ball slapping metal band. must play upright bass. gnome costume a must'. kid you not.) Dylan says "come on. let's go". Refuses to tell me where we're going and just pulls into a parking lot on the other side of town. There's a guy waiting at the door to the building and I just assume he's a landlord. He takes us upstairs and shows us this place that is INFINITELY better than any of the other piss smelling, undersized, over priced, run down, beat apartments we had seen in Capitol Hill. It was a two bedroom place, small kitchen, coated wood floors, lots of windows, 2 floor building for a grand a month. Had washers and dryers in the basement, had a small parking lot, the building was SILENT, and the landlord was a character. His name was Shaw/Shawn (still not sure) but we've taken to calling him Shawlord. He's an Iranian by way of Arizona who went to school at UofW in 77 and has lived in our area since. He lives a few blocks away with his family (so the neighborhood can't be too bad) and we chatted with him that turned into a political conversation with lots of laughing. Good humored guy and after little deliberation we signed a lease. He immediately took us to lowes to get a shower curtain and keys copied then took us out for drinks at his favorite neighborhood bar. It became very clear that he was a force to be reckoned with. He was very generous boarderline too much. Bought us a round and when we had finished insited on another. I turned him down on the second so I could be DD. By the third round I told him no again and he bought me a whiskey before I could say no. A friend of his came over and we got to see them interact. The pair were ridiculous but you could tell they were old friends.

Shawlord on the right and his friend on the Left.

Dylan and I eventually made out escape from the drinking lot and went back to Larry's to grab our stuff and hit up target for air mattresses and blankets. We both desired greasy crap chinese food in a box and found a place at our local bodega owner's recommendation. It was sub par as far as crappy chinese food goes but we were so excited it didn't matter.

The next day (sunday) we had plans with Sarah and Andrew to go for a free wooden boat ride. I dragged Dylan out of the tent and threw him in the car.

We picked up S&A and managed to get there early enough for a reservation on a noon boat.We grabbed some breakfast at a place that specialized in Biscuits and Pies. I got a fried green tomato with bacon cheese and an egg on a thick buttered biscuit. Was Seriously good. They also had a pig out front with chalk to write on him. Went on an hour boat ride on Lake Union that was very calming and may be a regular thing.  

                                                           Seaplane landing on Lake Union

The rest of the afternoon was set for exploring and supply gathering. A long drive searching for a different target led us on a long trip around seattle that we eventually gave up on and went back to the one by Larry's house.

We found a coffee shop with internet and the goodwill and got our internet fix and some dishes and stuffs.

This is our neighborhood.

 Next episode: Our rooms go blue! Bar Trivia Night! Friends! Adventures! Mattresses!

Oh! And now we have an address! Send us things!

Our home: 2700 E. Yesler Way. Apt 204. Seattle, Washington. 98122.

Thinkin of ya. With Much love!

The Last Stretch

Woke up in El Rancho and threw our stuff back in the car. I looked across the street to see where we were and saw the motel we COULD have stayed at.

We set off with Dylan in his usual prime directive of finding coffee above all else. We found this really cool breakfast joint and ordered breakfast. Dylan got a breakfast sandwich with an extra egg in lieu of meat (he's trying to give up red meat and doing pretty well at it) and I got a mediterranean breakfast wrap. The styrofoam smelled a little funny when i got the boxes and I opened them up to find this

FRUIT! I hadn't had fruit in ages. And it was perfectly ripe. Orange slices, pineapple slices, honey melon all of it just fell off the rine. MMM SO GOOD! And the coffee was excellent. Finally a turn in the luck.

Eggcellent

We got on the road and were in high spirits. It was the final stretch.

After none too long we saw it.

SO CLOSE!!!!

Dylan insisted we stop to take a picture in a town called Moses Lake. Apparently one of his friends was trapped there with a broken car for two weeks. So we took this for him.

We kept on keeping on as the landscape just got more and more green.

More trees.

More mountains.

 More 

And then...the gateway.

WE DID IT!

Some 3000+ miles in a 1991 Geo Prism through trial and tribulation but we did it y'all!


I know I"m really behind in this but the next entry will be very exciting. LOTS to tell everyone!
Won't have internet for a few days but we'll see what we can do about getting this updated proper.

Miss you all!