Photograph by Matthew Taylor Ruggieri

Photograph by Matthew Taylor Ruggieri

I’d consider myself a nomad, a drifter, an experiencer, a dreamer. I’ve followed the changing colors of New England leaves and the waterless lengths of the southwest deserts. I’ve taken the 10 from El Paso to Los Angeles and appreciated the orange cast from the rocky New Mexico landscape. I’ve found beauty along the way in the slightest of things – those that passed by too fast to grab a camera. I drove up the lengths of the Pacific Coast Highway last night – alone – to, once again, attempt to understand the allure of a west coast sunset. I am not sure if I am just naturally comforted by the Pacific, the weather or the dreams that surround it.

I have often questioned my desire to explore and dream. I tend to drift – make friends and lose them, explore cities and leave them behind. I have come to accept this and have told myself that I am only learning. After all, appreciation of something is impossible without loosing it or leaving it behind…

Part Two… coming soon.

Check out an awesome teaser video that my friend Nick Keating made for my sister’s new jewelry venture, de Cali.

Added to The Media Collective website!

There has been all this rave recently about music videos with low production values ($99 music videos, etc.).  It is hard to judge a music video, however, because many times its production value determines how many people will see it.  But now-a-days, if you’re a kick ass rock band that gets no plays on MTV, who are you kidding anyways?  I have no idea what the budget was for Metric’s “Sick Muse” video, but it doesn’t seem like much.  Whether the budget was low or high, the video makes Emily Haines look just as bad ass as she really is.  There is nothing more fun than watching the band really get into making their video.  Having fun with the art.  Maybe this will be what makes them get seen?

I saw Metric at the Wiltern two weeks back and they put on a captivating live performance which was paired flawlessly with an astonishing, yet somewhat overwhelming light show.

So, I got suckered into purchasing tickets to see Metric open for Phoenix at the Greek Theatre on September 16th.  My seats are perfect and I cannot wait for this performance.  I highly suggest that you check this band out if you haven’t already.

Yesterday was my first day off from work in a couple of weeks so I’m spending the day outside.

Here is a groovy song that I came across for a fractured economy…

Emil & Friends – “Downed Economy”

There is something quite settling about Maude’s character in Harold and Maude.  She is so gentle and humble, yet so bold and exciting.  She is so confident, so audacious, but so aware.  She is so positive – such a dreamer.  Such a believer.

A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they’re not dead, really. They’re just… backing away from life. Reach out. Take a chance. Get hurt, even! Play as well as you can. Go team! GO! Give me an L! Give me an I! Give me a V! Give me an E! L. I. V. E. LIVE! …Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room.

- from Harold and Maude

“One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.”

- excerpt from The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

“Fish,’ he said softly, aloud, ‘I’ll stay with you until I am dead.’”

- from The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway