Landscape Art Print on Society6

I had some requests, so I finally got some of my travel landscapes up on Society6. As far as frame + print goes, the price cant be beat. Most of these are from last summer when I put almost 6000 miles on my car(s), stretched my vagabond muscle, got real intimate with cruise control.

My brother came to visit, and I gave him the grand tour of California including Yosemite, Big Sur and the Californian coast. Then my friend Mie and I drove from Virginia to back to California mapping a ton of locales I'd always wanted to see, including Colorado, New Orleans, and Utah.

These landscape squares would look super chic in your bathroom!

America: Prairies

Crossing America. We've reached the midway point. Catch the south in this post.

8:45 PM Outside Dallas, Texas: Some BBQ that I want for lunch every day.
I have the strong suspicion that Dallas freeways are the worst in the country. I've driven in a bunch of cities, but I never fail to miss exits here.We were miles outside the city and still the ramps were these huge disorienting clover leaves with only a few cars on them.

9:12 AM Backpacking hostel, Dallas, Texas: What do people do in Texas? Watch Cowboys football all of the time. No, not really? Yes. Really. Maybe. I'm kidding. We were in Texas less than an hour when we walked into a room full of people watching a Cowboys football game. A guy asked me who I was rooting for, and I said, "well, you know I don't really watch football."

He said, "That's what pretentious people from Los Angeles say. When you know they watch it. Everyone watches it."

At that time an Australian guy walked by wearing a shirt with a big Australian flag on the front. I liked it, but to all of the haters who say Americans are the only ones who wear their flag with pride while in other countries, you're wrong.

In the morning, I struck up a conversation with an older sailor who was newly off of a Kibbutz in Israel. He wanted to convince me to start harvesting wild herbs from city lots and even showed me a website to guide me in the pursuit. As we were leaving he shook my hand and said awkwardly, "May you find G-d," then mumbled, "sorry I have to say that."

2:42 PM Moore, Oklahoma: Site of the massive EF5 tornado in May. We literally got off the freeway and this is what we saw, didn't even drive a block. This was once a residential neighborhood. Very sad and very shocking to see first hand.

Most of the houses were abandoned, some were being rebuilt. This stretch of Oklahoma has got to be the most banged up area in the country, the heart of Tornado Alley. Bascially they are hit with major tornadoes every other year, and in 1999 another EF5 with the fastest wind speeds ever recorded (318 mph.) You wonder why people still live here, but I suppose you cannot underestimate the meaning of home.

The tornado this spring caused more casualties than any other this year. There were still signs and donation depots all along the main road. What's crazy, the El Reno tornadoes hit just a little over a week later and only about 30 miles west. Some of the world's best stormchasers were killed in the widest cyclone ever recorded (2.6 miles.) I imagine it just looked like a huge thunderstorm, you couldn't even tell it was spinning.

Striping away the humanity, there is something about tornadoes that is terrible and fascinating at the same time, like rogue waves and swollen waterfalls. I'm not saying I'd be a storm chaser, but I can see why people do.

6:46 PM Kansas Prairies: Miles and miles of Milo. The grain feed for animals

9:03 AM Mentor, Kansas: Catching up with my good buddy Hugo, who I haven't seen since he was a puppy back in Virginia. Corgis are the best.

Gorbet the cat, suspicious at first.

I just woke up, no one told me that my hair was all messed up. Hugo is ashamed to have his photo taken with me. Come on, don't be like that. Catching up with David; I practically lived at their house when I was a teenager. His daughter was my best friend. He and his wife were like my second parents.

10:02 AM Downtown Mentor, Kansas: Random things that happen when you are on the road. Going on Kansas access cable, checking my teeth for bagel.

Catching up with one of the wolfpaks. Remembering the family trip to New Orleans, the one in which David knocked me into the trash can. So good to see old friends.

The Denver folks were giving the prairie a lashing. I imagine it's difficult for young people or any people to live there long term. But we'd never seen this part of the country. I had painted a picture in my head from the Wizard of Oz, what I read of Grapes of Wrath and storm chaser clips from youtube. But actually being in the Breadbasket has been enlightening.

Prairies last forever.

America: Southland

I've been back for a few weeks from the major cross country trip that I took with my good friend (Mie.) We managed to hear some fierce ghost stories, see some great friends, and unbelievable scenery. We were very lucky to be able to take this voyage. Here's my attempts at capturing a slice of it through Instagram.

6:30 AM Driveway, Virginia: Cleaned the snakes, mice, spiders and mildew out of the car. Only about 3000 miles until our destination.

10 AM Asheville, North Carolina: I've been in the melting pot of Los Angeles for a while now; diversity of people is an afterthought. Maybe that's what struck me most about Asheville. I've always heard about how wonderfully progressive and forward thinking the city is, and maybe it is, but man it was homogeneous.

3:12 PM Ocoee River, NC/Tennessee border: Some Olympic signs pointed us to the river, so we checked it out. Feeling like a spider on a shower curtain. There was a bridge right over a stretch of churning rapids. We could see white water rafting crews setting off way up river, so we got a closeup as they navigated the rapids. I was mesmerized by the looks on their faces, some terror, some pure elation. I was snapping away, which led to capturing this crew and their major wipe out.

4:34 PM Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station, Alabama: I cannot get behind nuclear power. Even after hours of discussion and attempted persuasion. I get it, you get a lot of bang for your buck. But the bang is practically infinite when there's a fallout. I have a hard time believing, with all of the inspired minds in the world, that clean energy on a massive scale is impossible. More than innovation, I have a feeling big money is the road block.

A little i102fly on the side of the road. I want to build a crazy flying machine.

7:05 PM Huntsville, Alabama: Cicadas everywhere. They were so loud when we pulled into a residential street that it drowned out our stereo CD Cicada Sounds Vol. 1.

11:12 AM Crystal Caves: Alabama: Had no idea that Alabama had caves, much less these magical sets. The tour was nice and relaxed too. They turned the lights out and for a minute we were praying this was not Deliverance Pt 2. We were able to walk back at our own leisure, enjoying the caves in solitude, definitely the way to go.

The entrance they say is the largest natural cave opening in the US, so batman has these gates to keep vandals out at night.

The Bayou, Mississippi: This is where the alligator comes out of the water and takes your camera. The sun sets on the swamps. I've listened to too much CCR, I love the bayou and the Creole slice of life.We passed through Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Biloxi, Miss: We drove through the gulf cities and saw many concrete slabs where houses used to be. I think this line on the building is where the water was.

8:54 PM Lake Pontchartrain, LA: This isolated mammoth storm descended on us as we were crossing the long bridge into New Orleans. Only blurry red lights all around us. I just kept having irrational visions of the water rising from either side, so I stayed in the middle lane, like that would help.

10:21 AM New Orleans, Louisiana: Garden District. The prettiest city in the US.

11:38 AM Lafayette Cemetery, New Orleans: Old but not that old ~ some graves from 1960s & 70s

1:21 PM / St Louis Cemetery No1, New Orleans: The statute where acidic Peter Fonda confesses all of his mother issues in Easy Rider. They had to film illegally, because the Catholic church forbids (or forbid, don't know if they still do) filming in their cemeteries. Movies with New Orleans cemeteries always used Protestant ones like Lafayette. This one was especially creepy because it is much older and holds the supposed tomb of a voodoo witch that is all marked up with ritualistic xes. I'm superstitious so I didn't take any photos.

6: 52 PM French Quarter, New Orleans: This is supposed to be the most haunted house in the US. A sadistic society lady brutally tortured her servants until one found a way of burning down the house. Looks like real estate office now. Spook factor is low, but I don't think I'd go inside. Fun .. or weird fact: Nicholas Cage owned it and just recently sold it. What do you want with this place, Cage?

8:05 PM Garden District, Louisiana: A haunted guest house, formerly an orphanage in the 1860s when orphanages were called Asylums.

8:15 PM Garden District, Louisiana: I was taking some slow exposures of the hallway when one of the managers walked by. He asked what I was doing, so I explained that I was a paranormal investigator. See any orbs? Anyway he told everyone in the hotel and later that night I had a line of people giving me testimonies. One woman said she had a demon chasing her, but she locked it in her old trailer. I didn't sleep at all that night.

6:23 PM Shreveport, Louisiana: I was disappointed by the food in New Orleans. I think I was trying too hard to find the best Cajun possible and kept striking out. Anyway, we were redeemed in the last Louisiana town before Texas. Two huge plates of oyster (for Mie), frog legs, blackened catfish, and étouffée. My last meal might be here.

London Shows

I'm back from England and Sweden! So here's a little bit of the shows. It's been two weeks, but feels like a month or two. Right now I want to relax and... not drink any more tea. haha. I usually say relax with a mug of tea, but I can't hold any more tea. I've consumed my quota between the British and my British amiga in Sweden. I'm still buzzing with Earl Grey. Anyway, tea aside. The shows came off great. I'm always relieved when stuff doesn't go flying.

Elizaveta: costumes, hair, make-up styling by Missy W. and Ali Friend on Bass

New York

Since we are heading to London in two days, I thought I'd better put up some New York pictures before they are irrelevant. I have special attachment to the Big Apple, but returning I always get a flashback of how difficult it was to live there.

From the airport straight to Harlem  The cab ride turned in to a really long ride with traffic. 

I put on some Kings of Convenience to revel in the nostalgia. 

NYC certainly has Los Angeles nailed as far as architecture goes.

Rehearsal space at a nice brownstone in Harlem. 

We all sat in the kitchen downstairs talking about music while the violins were sorting things out above us. The owner of the brownstone is a drummer; he has a band that released an album called "Salt of the Earth." That pretty much sums it up.

Lipstick transfusion stat! Someone lost vital fluids on this coffee mug.

In the presence of greatness. Viva Supergrass.

Entering Williamsburg. Home of the mustache. 
I personally think that we are over saturated with the current mustache trend. 

But then I think one of the least attractive traits in a guy is trendiness. Is this a double standard?

En route to the Bronx

Switchboard at WFUV

Excellent rusty carpet

Rita Houston interviewed Elizaveta and listened to a set from the upcoming album. 

Rita's voice was so soothing, I lapsed into a magical dream state. 

I took off later that night to meet up with Caitlin AKA Geek the Sheik. 

We spent the evening at an idyllic hang out trying to hatch travel plans.

Cait and her friend Marcar (I'm a fan of that name)
* I've later learned that his name was nowhere near Marcar,
apparently I completely made that up, ha!

 The stage at Dominion has a spiral staircase up to the artist lounge.

Dominion show, which I treated as a college reunion. Most of my good friends from school came out. It was   fantastic and frantic seeing them all. So whirlwind that I didn't even get any pictures. Terrible! But my friend Kelly came all of the way from Philadelphia to spend 2 hours together before taking a train back to work in the morning. She's crazy and an irreplaceable friend.