A few months back, I joked with my dad about going to see both of our favorite football teams in the same weekend. The idea didn't seem so crazy to him, so we booked the trip. We met in Atlanta, rented a Camaro (of course), and headed to Alabama to watch Auburn obliterate Arkansas 56-3 on a beautiful Saturday night.
The next morning, we flew up to Philadelphia to watch the 5-0 Vikings take on the 3-2 Eagles. As Vikings fans, it was pretty rough wearing our jerseys in the stadium, and the ending was even worse. The Vikings lost, 24-10. A friend of mine was able to get us post-game passes to meet some of the Vikes players. Dad got to meet his favorite player, #55 Anthony Barr. You can't win them all, but it was a great weekend of football with my dad.
My family has always been important to me. I moved across the country 4 years ago to pursue a career in the entertainment industry, but that hasn't stopped me from visiting them as often as I can. This time, I went back the the hometown for a family friend's wedding. It was good to be home.
I got the opportunity at Y&R to do a video piece on one of my favorite artists, Skizzy Mars. I started listening to his music back in 2011, and it was really cool for me to come full circle and have access to him and his team in the way that I did. One of my good friends Travis put the project together and we traveled to Texas, LA, New York, and Philadelphia to create what I consider my favorite video in my time at Y&R (edit: it ended up being my "swan song" at the company).
"God never made an ugly landscape. All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild." - John Muir
A few of my best friends from high school often take trips together since we all have scattered and live in different cities. Here are some photos from our recent trip to the Bay Area, specifically to San Francisco, Muir Woods, Yosemite, & Big Sur.
Just got back from SXSW and it was a blast. This was my second trip to the Austin, TX festival with Young & Reckless, and it was a good one. 4 days of non-stop music, exploration, & food in a city I've grown to really like. As always we stopped at Terry Black's BBQ, Y&R's favorite road food destination.
We worked with a lot of up and coming artists down there, including 21 Savage, Skizzy Mars, Kehlani, and THEY. We'll be working with Skizzy Mars moving forward on a documentary-style project, but for now here's a recap video and some photos of things along the way.
We stayed at the Hilton Austin while we were there. It's almost unfair to review a hotel during the chaos of SXSW, but this Hilton was excellent. I was there for 3 nights, and the service was great. The staff was was very hospitable amidst the thousands of guests in town that weekend filling the lobbies in search of unused outlets and free wifi. Big credit to and the hotel and its management. I wouldn't think of staying anywhere else in Austin, not just for SXSW but for any of my future trips there.
My family lives on the other side of the country, and I don’t get to see them as much as I wish I could. This past weekend, my mom took advantage of the 3-day weekend and flew out to see me. She came a couple years ago and we did a good chunk of things around LA, so this time we wanted to do some exploring outside the city.
I left work a little early on Friday, and we headed about 2 hours north to stay the night in Santa Barbara. Technically in Central California, Santa Barbara is a Mediterranean climate and sometimes promoted as the “American Riviera” (the contrast of the mountains next to the coastline gives it some great views). We spent most of the day on State Street, the name for the main drag in SB that’s famous for its pedestrian friendly shopping that lines both sides of the street. After that, we went to Stearn's Wharf, the main pier in Santa Barbara.
We checked out the Santa Barbara Mission, too.
Sunday we went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market, then headed down to Orange County to the Anaheim Packing District to eat crepes.
On Monday, we woke checked out Laguna, Newport Beach, and Huntington Beach before heading back to LA.
It was great having my mom out here, and spending time like that with her was long overdue. It’s great to show her a piece of my life out here. In the words of Michael J. Fox, “Family is not an important thing. It's everything.” And I’d listen to someone who can travel back in time.
Went out to Aspen, CO for the Winter X Games this past weekend and it was a blast. I've been to Colorado several times before, but never in the winter, and I've never snowboarded fresh powder.
Had a lot of fun with the Y&R crew. Here were some of our exploits:
