Seattle: AJ's Day out around Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill is one of the trendier neighborhoods of Seattle, rife with hipsters, indie cafes, local coffee shops, tongue-in-cheek gay bars with outlandish names, a weekly farmer's market, and SO MUCH ART! There's a lot to do around the area, and parking isn't exactly the easiest thing to find, or cheapest if you end up having to opt for one of the long-term parking lots, but there is so much to see and do in the area that it ends up being almost kind of totally worth the exorbitant parking rates depending on what you do or the day you visit. I had a gig to attend to, so I was going to be busy for at least 3 hours, while Antho was free to roam around the area and partake of the local culture. He had a lot of fun and got a ton of awesome photos capturing the colorful vibe and ecclectic nature of the area. 

On our way to get there, we passed this friendly fellow who was happily feeding the gulls. He'd forged a sort of kinship with the birds, and was ensuring they got plenty of snacks on this awkward little bit of corner. We had a nice chat with him before we moved on with the flow of traffic, and I like to think he's carrying on a piece of Ivar's legacy, as the founder of Ivar's was a fan of seagulls, too. 

One of the first things to catch Antho's eye during his explorations were the streetlights and posts, which were predominantly wrapped up in deep layers of flyers. Each proceeding generation of flyer had seemingly just been stapled, spackled, or otherwise smashed on top of the previous generation, causing the heavily trafficked corners to have poles over-stuffed in decaying layers of flapping paper, advertising months, if not years, worth of local events and entertainment. There is no order to the chaos, other than the chronological necessity of the most recent things landing on top of the pile, only to be covered up by the next big thing. 

So it goes. 

Plenty of photos below!

Seattle: AJ's Day out in Green Lake

These days, my job has me scurrying all over the city of Seattle to attend gigs, so I've been getting a lot of time behind the wheel exploring quite a lot of the city's streets. One day I might be out in SoDo working at an LGBTQ+ automotive shop, the next I might be working in a small bungalow in the heart of the university district. I'm not complaining one bit, because what better way to get to know a new city than by traversing it on a day to day basis? Sometimes I even find myself way out in Kirkland or making a special trip into the heart of Occidental Square. Driving through the city has given me the opportunity to witness protests in action, sea-planes gliding into the city, countless squirrels scampering and given me a glimpse into the inner workings of businesses I might never have set foot in otherwise. It's absolutely fascinating, and while I can't divulge too much about any particular place I work in, the surrounding neighborhoods themselves have endless surprises to offer. Given the nature of my work, flexibility is a major plus, and thankfully I consider that to be one of my strengths. Antho, too, has needed to be quite flexible these past few months as we've been sharing the van due to my Volvo being in the shop. After the drive from Vegas, and years spent living in the dehydrated den of sin where temps above 110 degrees Fahrenheit are normal during the summers, and her only form of tending coming from drunk questionably qualified friends of the family, the old girl was in need of some serious TLC. In fact, after getting into her transmission my trusted mechanic informed me that my situation was primarily caused and then exacerbated by the misguided efforts of the drunken sailors who'd poked around the engine prior. The poor mechanic sprained his back and given that he's a one-man operation, that slowed his progress on repairing the old girl quite a bit... Thus, our shared vehicle situation has extended on and on, a fair bit longer than we'd initially intended or hoped, but being flexible is a strength in this life we live.  

When you're always on the go, days can rapidly bleed into each other, a procession of driving along seemingly countless winding little roads, navigating parking in new corners of the city, and cloudy sunrises and sunsets all melting together. Every so often, though, Antho's day off will align well with a gig of mine, allowing him to escort me to my work and then explore a new area. His work keeps him closer to home, after all, so I've seen much more of the city, and I like to try to re-balance the scales when the opportunity arises. I had to spend a few hours working in the Green Lake area, so he dropped me off and went exploring at the nearby parks. He found a Japanese confectionary, squirrels galore, fall foliage in fiery shades of red and orange, and so much more! We hope you enjoy this peek behind the scenes of our adventures. 

Japan: Design Festa Fall 2013, part one

What do you get when you combine some of Asia's most creative artistic minds together twice a year at Tokyo Big Sight? You get a wildly inventive, incredibly diverse array of outstanding talents and creations mingling together, sharing their crafts and selling their wares as part of the ongoing Design Festa Series! As mentioned above, it's a twice-annual festival, occurring in the spring and again in the fall, allowing artisans from across the land (along with nearby countries) to come and share their passion with each other. Meet and greet many of the creative minds themselves, live and in the flesh! Most of who and what I encountered during my visit to the Fall Design Festa of 2013 was thoroughly awe-inspiring, for the precision and sheer imagination or dedication that went into it, while sometimes it was more confounding or awkward, like school girls with fabulously voluminous hair getting railed by a faceless man who appears to be wearing a device intended to, I think, uhh, collect her fluids? 

Huh. But hey, just because it might not necessarily be my cup of tea doesn't mean it isn't a well-crafted piece of art that will titillate someone else! 

But anyway, here are some sweet elephants, in case you're feeling a little disturbed by the blatant hentai above. Remember, though, that these pieces were all publicly displayed for all to see inside of Tokyo Big Sight, so the artist wasn't trying to hide their creation from curious eyes. In fact, completely the opposite! This event is all about getting your work seen and sharing it with others. One of the coolest things about Design Festa is that it's not limited to one particular type of artistry- if you're into cosplay, there were many people milling about in costumes, from furry to space alien, steampunk pirates to mohawk and studded leather sporting punks. All are welcome, and all art is respected. It's a wild experience, and pretty psychedelic when you stumble down some of the more performance arts-oriented groups laden corridors, but do your best to keep your wits. I know it can be hard with the Japanese rope bondage demonstration in one corner, and the friendly lolitas in the other, but there's a lot to see here!

Given just how much there actually is to see here, I've broken this post into several different posts, and it's still pretty photo heavy. I didn't want to exclude any of it, though, because it's all so fabulous!

I hope you enjoy~

Art: Downtown Location Scouting

Unfortunately for the two of us, this year got off on a bit of a rough start. Both Antho and I have fallen sick with different ailments affecting different bodily functions or areas at different times throughout the first few weeks of January, meaning one of us has generally been under the weather for the majority of this year so far... whether that means projectile vomiting from the stomach flu or wheezing and gasping for air with a chest cold, it's been an arduous chunk of time. Even so, we've still managed to drag ourselves out of bed and get out on the town and squeeze in some scouting for locations that we could potentially use as a background to photograph our tie-dye because I'm a relentless perfectionist. It can be rather tricky doing product photography like this as you want to highlight the item itself that's up for bid while also creating an interesting and visually striking image, one that stands out from the competition and communicates the vision and personality of your brand. It's been a long, curvaceous and informative road since we started our Etsy shop back in late 2015 but even with all that we've learned and improved over  time there's always ample of room for growth and improvement left yet. On this trip we spent our time downtown looking for locations with decent lighting and interesting features that photographs well. These were some of the winners this round through. Vegas is quite fortunate in that the last few years has seen a wide-scale embracing of murals and public art throughout downtown and the arts corridor along with some surprising spots in the city, leading to some incredible usages of architectural space to create beautiful designs. There's no shortage of stunning murals to choose from, along with all the intensively designed exteriors (and interiors) of the casinos abundant throughout the city. On this particular outing we also happened upon a demolition in progress, so those photos will be included as well because I don't know about you but I personally find the construction and deconstruction of buildings fascinating, especially the megalithic casinos that perpetuate and profligate throughout Las Vegas like an incurable form of herpes that brings in buttloads of money. 

Heading to the Tenderloin

After two nights at Casa Loma, we had to pack up and prepare to move on to another hotel for our third night. Rather than stay in the same location for the entire trip, we thought it would be more interesting to spend some time in different neighborhoods during our stay to get a more thorough feel for the city. Before leaving Casa Loma, we utilized their shared showers... The last time I used shared showers was when I was in Kyoto's 9hour Capsule hotel, so this was a bit different to be certain. :P

San Francisco Haight Street

Haight Street is a haven of art and culture overflowing with colors and eclectic creations. Famous landmarks include the Grateful Dead house on 710 Ashbury, which we made a pilgrimage to on July 10th (7/10) at 7:10pm, but I digress, this post is about the rest of Haight street!

The area is known for being a bit "hippie-dippie", which is perfectly fine by us. 

Personally, I LOVED all the murals and street art adorning the buildings in the area.

I think every city really should have an area where they let the creativity flow freely…

Places for artists of all varieties to commune.

That was more or less the vibe I got on Haight street, so check out the photos below !

San Francisco Casa Loma

Our first two nights we stayed in hotel Casa Loma! We were booked into a room with two twin beds, which was fun. Through the window behind Antho was a beautiful church which held within a surprising secret…

Leaving Las Vegas July 8th, 2015

To celebrate our one year anniversary Antho & I ditched the scorching summer heat of Vegas for the cooler breezes of San Francisco for 6 days. It was an all around wonderful trip! As you may have noticed we really like to travel fairly often having gone to Los Angeles in April and hitting spots like the Whiskey, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, and Union Station as well as having gone to L.A. last fall. It's always nice to explore someplace new and when the tickets are going for as low as $44 it's pretty budget friendly. Hopefully we'll be celebrating our anniversary with new locations for many years to come!