On The Road
I’ve been enjoying my month long Cali trip, visiting with family and friends and celebrating my five year anniversary of moving from CA to NY. You can check out some photos of what I’ve seen so far here. They were all taken with my blackberry storm because my digital camera is M.I.A.
I’ll post more photos (and a mini doc!) soon, but for now, here are some highlights from my trip:
– Visiting my dad in Madera! I’d never actually seen where he lives or his apartment so it was great to spend time with him and visit the Madera County museum. I often wondered how he has been able to make a living as a water salesman in that area, but this recent Sacramento Bee article cleared that up (and disturbed me) — the counties near my father have horrible water, so many people prefer to buy their own instead of drinking tap.
– FINALLY meeting Alicia Warrington in person! She’s a kickass drummer/all around artist whom I blogged about years ago. We met up in Old Town Pasadena over coffee and it was great to hear about her new project, The All-Girl Boys Choir. Their EP will be released later this fall and I will definitely be supporting them as much as possible.
– Visiting my friend P.Ratt in Long Beach and attending the Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles! We saw O’er the Land, Deborah Stratman’s meditation on freedom and technological approaches to manifest destiny. I would describe it as an experimental documentary, using interesting editing and compelling imagery to convey messages about American politics, family and war culture.
O’er the Land played with J.X. Williams’ L.A., an interesting doc that gave me a peak into the fascinating life of cult filmmaker J.X. Williams.
– Checking out Cinefamily at The Silent Movie Theater! this place had such a great community vibe. We attended the free preview screening of World’s Greatest Dad, a dark comedy starring Robin Williams. There was a Q&A with the director and a few actors afterwards and I was completely inspired.
I am getting ready to embark on a four day camping trip with my best friend and her family in Sequoia National Park. I decided to post an update while I wait for the travel caravan to arrive. We are going to go hiking, swimming and who knows what else. It will be my first time going “off the grid” in about a year, so we’ll see how long it takes before blackberry withdrawl kicks in ;).
In the midst of everything, I’ve also been communicating via bberry email with my fellow senators, discussing what we want for the New School and planning upcoming events. This has been somewhat problematic; It’s been quite a culture shock for me in Cali, spending so much time with folks who aren’t accustomed to checking their blackberry every few minutes and making sure that I don’t offend folks with my incessant need to … It’s probably been good for me to learn how to keep that in check …
So far, this trip has helped me reinforced what I want and DO NOT want for my life when I return to New York. I know what I need to do to achieve my goals. I am going to continue to support Big Brothers Big Sisters, working with The LAMP on media literacy projects, freelancing for companies I can stand behind and most importantly …
MAKE THE SHORT FILM IN OCTOBER! 🙂 My dream is to promote it at SXSW ’10, a fest I have never attended but have always wanted to experience.
Since my new phone makes it so easy, I’ve been reading my friends tweets and FB status updates more frequently than I ever did in the past. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook and have been posting, you should know that I have been taking quiet delight in your adventures and musings. I don’t usually comment but nevertheless, I’m aware and watching …
I’ll post another longish update again when I return to Brooklyn on the 25th. Take care, everyone.
