fast lane.

at last!

first day of summer in London with short sleeves. yay!

red+blue.

i just love when i develop a film and i spot 2 pictures that seem to belong together. on another note, i also love the vegan calzone from the StringRay Globe Pizzeria.

hoax.

because (i feel really tempted to insert the word "unfortunately" here) my life is not all about california, i have some pictures from london that i got developed along with the other films from my holidays.

there's a curious story behind these. well, not behind the pics but about the camera i used to snap these.

some months ago i got an email from Converse to win tickets for some shows and in one of them one of the bands playing was Hoax. i immediately entered the contest and a month later i got a reply saying i had won. great news! so, my friend Afonso and I went to the show - queued for about 30mins to get in, grabbed our beers, saw the 1st band, and then got really excited because they were going to start playing. and then Hoax started playing and we realised it was just some other band with the same name.
a real hoax.

well, at least we got these disposable cameras by Converse. and a funny story to tell.

ps - and that is a vegan chocolate cupcake from Violet, one of my favorite places to drink a tea + eat a cupcake + read a book in East London. it is located near london fields and they make amazing cakes.

sounds of the pacific ocean.

bridge at Big Sur, miguel at Mono Lake.

while i wait for my b/w photos to be developed so i can start my next project i'll post these last pictures from the roadtrip.

Big Sur was insanely beautiful, we got to see the elephant seals, the condors, the waterfalls and the too-expensive-cabins-where-we-obviously-didnt-end-up-staying.
you can really stop, feel relaxed and absorbed by the sounds of the pacific ocean. which i did while finishing reading The Humbling by Philip Roth (not the most appropriate reading for this scenario, id say, but still, it felt really calm and peaceful) in the car while the guys went to explore some desert beach.

summer.

Malibu.

in this official first day of summer
i need a small post to remind myself that summer does exist.
in some other part of the world.

santa cruz.

Santa Cruz.

california.

beach in Malibu, cafe in Big Sur.

taco hell ® luís

Baker.


on our way to LA we stopped by this town to have some food at taco bell. we thought since we were in the US we should at least try it once. worst idea ever. we left taco bell with our hands in our stomaches and felt really sick for the rest of the day. and by the rest of the day i mean until dinner, when we had some other kind of junk food, just not as toxic.
but not all was bad. in this town there was this abandoned motel which was amazing and i could have easily just spent the whole afternoon taking pictures of it. the rooms still had some of the furniture, totally destroyed.
this was one of the highlights of the trip for me. i just love places like this.

tino and friends.

Atiba Jefferson and Mike Carroll. Tino Razo. West Hollywood.

and there was also (a short) time for partying in West Hollywood.
met up with the amazing Tino Razo for some fun time outside the bar, since bars close too damn early. we ve been told we missed a great night there but it was for a good cause, we were then partying in a bar on the other side of the town playing Young Turks by Rod Stewart and some Slayer songs in a jukebox and singing along really loud (which eventually made the owners of the bar turn down the volume. lame.).

sam and kate.

Stahl House's entrance in Hollywood, Silver Lake, West Sunset Boulevard, Venice.

obviously LA deserves more that one post, guys. i left a piece of my heart there (somewhere between venice beach and west hollywood, in case you find it please send it back to me, thanks).
we managed to make a lot of great plans for those 2 days though,
which included spending time with our friends Sam and Kate (who flew from Chicago and Richmond to meet us). these girls are amazing and i just wish i had more time in LA to hang out with them. i feel lucky that we met (3 years ago?) and that we've been able to keep in touch and meet in random parts of the globe every now and then.
as a tourist a stop by the famous wall of Elliott Smith's figure 8 cover shot by Autumn de Wilde was mandatory. as well as a drive up hollywood hills to see the (dream) houses and the views.

la.

Venice Beach, Los Angeles.

my heart skips a bit when i think about LA. 2 days were definitely not enough. must go back.
i wasnt expecting to love it this much.

las vegas.

oh Vegas!
you were exactly what i expected.
onion rings' fight in the hotel room at 4am, margaritas by the pool, crazy waitresses at the obnoxious bar giving us free shots, some crazy chick wanting to make out with me, and that crazy chick's friend wanting to beat up my friend, bruises, a door slammed in my face that knocked me out for brief seconds, and sunburns.
oh yeah, and losing money, i now fully understand the concept of what happens in vegas stays in vegas. they re talking about the dollars.

and thank you Sonny K for taking us to the obnoxious bar and to the most amazing japanese restaurant. best udon ever.

death valley.

Death Valley.

and then there was death valley.
from the fresh green and blue landscapes of yosemite to the rough yellow and brown views at death valley. out of this planet.
miles and miles of road with no one around. just us four and the 120 Farnheit degrees outside.

yosemite.

Yosemite.

yosemite is probably the most beautiful place i ll see this decade.
even now when i look at the photos i have to remember myself that is not photoshopped. it feels like there is a wallpaper as a background for every photo.
while we were there we got the feeling that those big mountains and waterfalls surrounding us were just painted paper and that we were on truman show.
i now know those mountains were real, as real as the pain in my legs after hiking to Nevada Fall.
the landscape, the silence, the fresh air, the wildlife (unfortunately (?) we didnt spot a bear but we did see amazing birds, deers, fishes..), it was just too precious.

sf.

San Francisco.

people in SF are really amazing and friendly. i had loads of fun as soon as i got there,  we almost had a burrito OD (gotta love Taqueria Cancun!) and i also had amazing food at Gracias Madre. will all my reviews about this roadtrip contain references to food (?), you ask. probably.

weather in SF wasn't as friendly though. but thats probably my fault for thinking id be going to California and therefore i should just pack bikinis and shorts. i should have made some research.
if you go to SF and see a taxi driver with a Black Flag tattoo and with a weird crush on amish girls, tell him i say hi. he was the coolest taxi driver we met on this trip. well, the coolest taxi driver i ever met, now that i think about it.
oh, and at Dynamo cafe you get the most amazing spicy chocolate vegan donuts. or i was just really hungry on that morning before heading to the airport. either way, highly recommended.

go giants!