September to Remember

The last 30 days have been jam packed!

I ended my month of August by picking up my limited run of only TWENTY-FIVE prints of my Kendrick Lamar portrait and was ready to list them online for you to own. Of course, life happens around art and I quickly found myself in probably the busiest month of my life with a whopping total of only 6 days at home(Count Tyrone Rugen could count those on one hand!). A mixture of jobs and wedding related things took me from Phoenix to Medford to Palm Springs and finally Orlando; I've barely had time to catch my breath let alone sell products online.

So now as I sit in my Orlando hotel room, staring at the tallest points of all the amusement parks I'm not going to, I want to give everyone the opportunity to put their thumb on their own copy of my KL portrait before waiting for me to get home. That's why I have decided to have a pre-sale! Grab your print this week and when I get home I will ship my little heart out on October 3rd.

Click here to head to my store and get yours!

(If you haven't already, check out my time-lapse process video in the post prior to this one.)

Living in Seattle

Oh beautiful parody.

Amazon has a video they've made to showcase how GREAT it is to live in Seattle. It's a sure fire way for them to haul over more bus fulls of coders to help raise the price of rent for everyone else.



YOU GUYS, IT'S SO EASY TO DO ACTIVE THINGS IN WASHINGTON. I'm so glad she was able to move away from god-forsaken Southern California where there are NO ACTIVITIES EVER.

Fortunately for us, there is SubPop Records, who felt the need to parody this gag-inducing "propagamazon".

Yes, Seattle is a beautiful city, but go live in Tacoma ya jerks! They could use the development.

Greece Monkey

About 2.5 weeks ago I got back from a 2 week trip to Greece. I've posted all my photos to Flickr to share with the group that went on the trip with me, but I have selected a few that I particularly like to post here. I took about 1000 photos, so choosing favorites was not an easy task.

Click to continue on to photos

iGroovie

I finally got the curage to try my luck with the newest iMovie. Finally. Not so bad once I understood it. I might add I'm also using iPhoto after shunning it previously. Hey, it got better.

Steezattle

Here I am again

Is this real life?

Ok so back to my day to day. This marks the end of my Seattle latte excursion.

Latte 6

Monorail! The "original bike messenger coffee house," as I've been told. It sure lives up to its name though. Outside was a plethora of bikers all ready to take off, with their walkie-talkies in ear shot. This place is just the right size and in a pretty good location to get all the people on their way to work or just in town for the convention center.

The espresso in my latte was really rich and had a nice taste to it. With a handfull of tables outside, this shop was much like Vivace with it's ability to sit on the street, enjoy your cup, and people watch the shit out of everyone that walks by.

Latte 5

Victrola. A nice place in a nice neighborhood. The looks of the place reminds me of most It's A Grinds in CA with the big art on the wall (a little overpriced, but I don't know the artist), and the dim lighting and lots of seating. The atmosphere is really nice and all their food looked really good.

One thing I noticed was that the foam was a really enjoyable consistency. Really good micro foam which made the drink taste extra frothy and creamy.

Next stop, Monorail

Latte 4

Bauhaus. Yum yum. Really good latte and an awesome custard filled chocolate donut. With its classic look, Bauhaus looks like an old library with an old timey book ladder and everything.

Also, it has a pretty sweet view of the space needle from the second floor. Quite the location if you ask me. Not only this, but their souvenir t-shirts picture a cafe racer (apparently their logo) along with the coffee shops name. I went downstairs to buy one but the line was out the door so I said fugg it. I plan on going back later to get one, shwing!

Latte 2 & 3

Yesterday was caffeinated. Our first stop was Stumptown Roasters. I got a small latte and Chelsea got, what she claims is, the best vanilla latte she's ever had. Hard to disagree with her, it was pretty dern good. Also, I love how this place looks on the inside.

 After some site seeing and a lunch at Gasworks park, we headed to Lighthouse roasters for a good sit down and a drink. I got a latte of course and Chelsea got a chai. I didn't get any art in my foam, although I did see it getting offered to other customers. LOCALS ONLY BRO. But really, I think they were just doing it for to go cups.

After reading some tips on Foursqaure, I couldn't leave without trying an Americano. I was warm enough already so I got it over ice, which still held up to its acclaim on FS.

Today we venture to Bauhaus and whichever coffee shop may tickle our fancy throughout the day. I could use one right now.

Latte 1

We made it to Vivace today. It's only about a mile from where I am staying, but it marks the first coffee shop off my list. Excellent latte. Plus a great atmosphere for people-watching while you drink.

Tomorrow it is Lighthouse or bust

Im back

So I'm back in Seattle, but this time I am armed with a list of local coffee shops. The 3 baristas I work with are all from Seattle and know all the best shops here. I asked them for a list of shops and I plan to hit them all for a small latte. There's about 7 on the list as well as an amazing and authentic cuban restaurant. I am only here from today until Thursday so you know what that means; coffee for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I can't wait.

Lord of the Dance

May 1, El Squid Roe, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

There is no question, this guy made our night



We all contemplated whether or not this guy takes home girls frequently. Half of us said yes and half of us said no. The way I see it, if you are having a good time at a bar, being outgoing, and getting girls to dance with you then you are most likely getting some action 60% of your nights out. Girls go to bars to have fun, take off their shoes and dance, and if you can get into that mix for a night then you're in. We agreed that a long term girlfriend was probably out of the question for this guy but he did use his power of the dance to lure my sister into his tractor beam of funk.



I'll stick to my wall flower technique though

Adios

Im outta here. For the next week, starting tomorrow, I'll be soaking up some sun in Cabo San Lucas, while simultaneously shooting a wedding......with a camera.

It's ok my first trip this summer is to work....

...and it's ok my mask isn't movie quality.

How I Spent My Spring Break

Seattle: April 7 - 11

Here are my select photos from my lovely spring break in Seattle

Areevadairchee

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve

Save the whales and save the wetlands

Me and Ryan took a sweet trip to the Bolsa Eco Reserve yesterday. I had never been before, so i checked that one off my list. Im not gonna lie and say it was a riveting experience full of wild animals and crazy shrubbery that you've never even heard of, but it was nice to be there. It was very relaxing and nice to just walk a be surrounded by water and a plethora of birds whose main focus was to stab the ground with their beaks. It was pretty quiet but it gave a great view of the beach and the surrounding houses from the top of its first hill.

 

Don't even think about bringing your dog on the trail....or your motorcycle....or your car....or your horse....wow or even a bike? damn. Oh well. I guess all of those have potential to kill birds right? Oh and apparently it's illegal to feed wildlife in CA. Who knew. Can I reserve the job of wearing a cops uniform and arresting old people at the park feeding the ducks? "Hey man, Im doing 9 for stabbing a guy....what are you in for?" "Well, i took some bread....and I fed some ducks!" "Whoa man you're crazy!"

Here is a big garbage catcher. The trash runs down this stream and all the garbage gets caught by this big yellow net before it can go out into the open water. I hear it's usually backed up with trash before some team comes and vacuums it up. I saw that an orange cone had managed to bypass this customs station for garbage.

Oh boy did we learn about birds. Bird birds birds. If you want to see birds come check out this place. We must have seen 500 birds, 1 lizard and a squirrel. Diversity conquers all. Our animal chart here promised us rattle snakes and coyotes and big foot but we never saw them. I don't think the animal flow chart should include animals that may only come out when the place is closed..... or that don't exist.

Here are some tractors that were on the beach. Making dunes? I don't know. Neat picture though.

Here's that squirrel I talked about. Pretty exciting huh? And here's a pic of some guy.

Bottom line, is the reserve is beautiful. But that's all it's got going for it....well you know, besides populating the ocean with 80% of it's fish. It's a nice place to come and relax while walking, maybe even catch the bird photographers in their natural habitat.

12 hours, 72 miles and $3.15

What started as a night of empowerment and good intentions turned into never ending night out in LA.

Day of Walk pt. 4

Here are my select photos from my day of walking from El Dorado Park to Portfolio coffee house.

Great way to start off my Friday the 13th walk....dead duck

Spring and Woodruff

Sad

Streep sweep ballet

empty

cheaters

I love these things, the guy rides on a tiny unicycle on the back of his mower

truck plus two paramedics following, including sirens

Photo lab? i had no idea

photo: RGK

juice break: poop boost, swine flu immunity boost

toothpicks in olives

2nd street

boat launching crew

Ha

Ocean

Island in the sun

So lonely

aww thanks

museum of WHAT??!

oh.

Honor Vets End War (and suck it?)

half way to hell?

Apparently I was so relieved to make it to portfolio I didn't take any photos once I made it inside. But the bottom line is I DID make it. During my long walk I enjoyed my unique view of the city. The trip wasn't very people oriented since I walked from noon until 4 on a friday, leaving most people at school or their jobs. Next time I'll probably walk on a weekend. Although, walking on a friday let me see where my city is the busiest while most are indoors. The usual group of older men were partaking in a few rounds of El Dorado park disc golf. Street construction continued leisurely. All the moms shopping on bellflower, students walking around CSULB, joggers at the beach, people walking their dogs (and others dogs) down 2nd. Open Sesame was having its lunch rush and two strangers were discussing their ideas at The Market. The day was beautiful and even those less fortunate than most were sitting and enjoying it, holding all of their possessions and appreciating the comfort of a park bench. Some families were having a BBQ at the Bixby Park and their grilled chicken consumed the beach air. Once in Portfolio I noticed the abundance of young people either in good discussions with their friends or knee deep in computer work. As I joined them I shared their satisfaction in sitting and drinking caffeine, but with a little bit more of a feeling of accomplishment.

I'll post some sketches I did of the people I saw later.

Day of Walk part 5