lookin' ahead, no turnin' back

i keep a little notebook with me pretty much at all times. i go through phases where i put a lot down in it -- bits of ideas, scribbles of poems or prose, to do lists, sketches, song lyrics, whatever comes to mind, really -- and phases where i hardly touch it all.

last night, i was looking through my current book and realized it's been almost exactly a year since i started writing in it. i came across a list of things that i wanted to be sure and do. i'd put little boxes next to each item. i must have thought, back then, that it was a list i'd come back to again and again. only, as it turns out, i didn't. i wrote it and forgot it.

but as i looked through the list, i realized that i must have internalized the best parts of it. i wanted to make wheat paste posters (check), i wanted to do some sort of photobooth project (check) and i wanted to start collaborating with casey on video projects ... check:

i heard it was fun

last night, i met seven of my favorite people at the back of the florida room. we spent three hours making signs and running in and out of a photobooth, drinking, eating, laughing, singing -- the sorts of things that have made this summer maybe the best of my life. it would have been a good time no matter the day. but last night, in particular, it felt especially right, maybe even necessary.

anyway, our memorial to summer 2011:

we'll all lay down, and we'll let it go

just a small piece of the memorial to summer made this evening in the photobooth of the florida room.

sun drunk - a summer ep

to celebrate the last day of summer, i thought i'd do something i haven't done for a while: post a seasonal mix. this isn't so much a full-on mix, as it is just a few songs that will probably always sound like summer 2011 to me. you can download the whole (mini) mix here. or you can grab them one by one by right clicking on the song names below. or you can just stream them. so many choices! enjoy.

a real good time - basement babies


ritual union - little dragon


thumbs off - the clean


pursuit of happiness - kid cudi + mgmt + ratatat


balance - future islands


all summer - kid cudi + best coast + rostam

i want to put my hands deep into feeling

i've been unintentionally documenting my summer in textures; casey pointed out the running theme to me. in chronological order:

the cracked crust of a painted hill in eastern oregon.

the cracked crust of a different painted hill.

sand the way tide left it at cannon beach on the oregon coast.

the bark of a tree in the columbia gorge.

the ice of a glaciar just outside of palmer, alaska.

the ground near the bluffs of doe bay on orcas island, off the coast of washington state.

there is no hope for any sleep

a photo taken from the bluffs of doe bay. if this picture were a song, it might be this one:

bedroom eyes -- dum dum girls

and the wild is the best

i'm just about done editing the bulk of digital photos from oracas and alaska, but until then, i thought i ought to throw up a few last polaroids -- all of these were shot in that big beautiful state way up north.

warm in the winter

on my last day in alaska, my brother and i made the six hour drive from valdez back to anchorage. the alaskan country side, at least along the roads we took, is one of the most beautiful pieces of earth i've ever seen. fall had started to set in some, so you had this incredible spectrum of color -- reds, yellows and greens of all gradations -- set against winding rivers and granite (at least in color) cliffs.
as if that weren't enough to make me say "damn" every few minutes (and it was), about an hour or so outside of anchorage, i took a detour off the main highway and drove about four miles to a glacier. there was a short path made of wood and metal planks that took you from a parking lot to the glacier itself.

i walked past the sign that told me to stop unless i knew what i was doing -- even though, of course, i didn't -- and scrambled and slipped over the ice. i just felt like i had to keep going, like this was the only chance i'd ever have to really experience this sort of immense beauty. finally, i came to a crest where i couldn't see a way forward. i stood there, just sort of soaking up the moment, hoping it would be a long time before i'd forget what it was like to be in that place. then i took two polaroid pictures and turned back.

what i have is right here

it looks like i'm finally getting the hang of this new polaroid film from the impossible project. just in time, too, for my trip to orcas island, part of the san juan islands located just off the washington state coast. it's a beautiful place. hopefully these shots do it just a little bit of justice.

 

(clockwise from top left: the view from the bluffs of doe bay, casey on the docks, 
amanda on the docks, allison on the docks, a paddle boat, buoys in one of the island's lakes.)