Because I'm in high school again, I'm putting up a picture of Miken. In my mind she invented MySpace. She claims herself that she will probably die with her MySpace account. And I don't doubt that. Although she didn't invent facebook or twitter, she is also on there too. Show her some love and follow her on twitter @miken1818.
Miken
A Gallon of Salt Water
As me and Mason arrive after our long, long drive from lovely Bountiful to our first stop at being Wendy’s in St. George, its beyond death with how hot it actually is outside. It was so hot I think I spent over 10 dollars for a Frosty. So worth it. Back on the road for the city of free love, or, sin. We have no idea of where we are going, or what to even expect of our hotel that was so easily found on PriceLine. But it gets worse, the heat is even hotter than St. George and we’re lost, and there’s construction everywhere. Luckily I learned how to use my BlackBerry and navigated our way there. This is something that came in handy so many times that I’m thinking I’m next to awesome using a GPS on my phone.
We decide to hit the strip and see what actually goes down in this city. We walk, walk some more, then we finally decide that its time for Mason to spend some money. So he decides to gamble. Long story short, He won nothing, and lost everything.
The next day we set out to do something that Las Vegas had to offer, but something that we didn’t know they had to offer. Waking up late leaves room for only one meal a day, so we decide that meal should be Café Rio. The one we decide to go ends up being more than a half hour away which only leads to more bonding time while driving. On our way back, we decide to hit every discount clothing store we see. Yes, we went shopping. And we did it a lot that day. We went into the same store at so many different locations that I swore to myself we wouldn’t go to that store while on this trip, but somehow we still ended up shopping there.
Now that the week is just about half over, what better way to spend the day then to drive all day? So we did just that, drove all day to our promised land, Los Angeles. I don’t really know what made that last hour so long, its either I had to go pee so bad and refused Masons offer to go into an old Dairy Queen cup, Or getting lost on all the freeways and getting on every one, except for the right one. None the less, we reached our goal and found our way.
Fast forward to some traveling time and now to our hotel in Redondo Beach. To just park at our hotel was 18 dollars a day, and wifi cost 10 dollars for every 24 hours. This leads to parking a mile away and trying to find a spot that isn’t scheduled for street cleaning for the next morning and going to starbucks and paying only 5 dollars for a starbucks card for their wifi and another 5 for a frapacino and a muffin for 2 hours to update our lives on the internet.
Wednesday night we end up driving to Hollywood and went to the ROXY on Sunset to see Beardo perform. Met Beardo, Tony Potato, the sexy dancer from Whitestarr, shook Mickey Avalons hand during the Beardo show. Got weird glares from all the Asain fans from Far East Movement, and couldn’t believe someone actually knew who this crazy guy was on stage, let alone I knew all his songs. Mason can testify to our unfortunate luck with the crowd.
For our next day to ourselves after a surreal night from before, we decide to head to Venice beach. A place that dreams come true, or at least a place where you can dream. Upon arriving, Mason gets handed a pair of headphones by a homie and ends up paying him for his crappy rap demo from Atlanta Georgia. I guess its karma put out there, for every horrible crap CD bought some one buys a solid album and the right person gets their lucky break (insert your love for HEMA here).
Driving to LAX we see a fire hydrant break and shoot into the sky and into the power lines. While we were outside in the city you can hear the power lines buzzing from all the water and electricity. We get back on to one of the many free ways and head to pick up Ben from the LAX and got lost walking all the terminals, so we just ended up telling him to meet us. To our defense of how stupid we are and how we did everything the hard way, look who your reading about. Mason, Me and Ben.
Drove from LAX to Redondo Beach using all back roads and tried to find somewhere to eat, so we ate at Fatburger where Mason got the XL and it was gnarly gross and heavy. To burn all this off we decided to walk to all the bars/clubs at the beach. Walked the boardwalk and found a bar to go inside. Im not joking when I say we walked 2 miles both ways in the middle of the night.
We woke up so early the next morning to move our car from our parking spot for the street sweepers, its beyond mentioning what we are actually wanting to do. We end up driving 2 and a half hours down the coast to San Diego and walked into MEXICO. Mason, the only on with the passport is set on supporting every family with his donations to their pancho and blanket products.
In Mexico Mason and I being white, have tourist written all over us. We never knew we had so many friends, “eh, amigos! I’ve been waiting for you all day, come in, come in” We ended up buying 2 for 1 drinks with each drink costing an arm and a leg. First rip off of the day. In this club we are having drinks at, the host keeps trying to tell us we gets free complementary shots. We keep telling him no. No. No. Then he tries to sell his prescription drugs that he can get us a great deal on, and to the best strip clubs in the city, or whatever we want, he has it for us. The music is so loud in this club and this guy is getting so annoying that I am a jerk to him the whole time and he still bugs Mason and doesn’t leave us alone.
We finally leave the club and go eat some real tacos, finally my favorite thing that Mexico has brought into this country, TACOS. Awesome tacos, and great host at this outdoor restaurant in the center of Tijuana makes these tacos taste amazing.
After spending our money on worthless items in every store with the same product, we go into American Apparel. That’s right, a real American Apparel in Mexico. Kind of weird to be honest. No great deals. Exact same prices as the US, but in the middle of the Tijuana you would think you would get some kind of deal.
On our way out, we got some of the best churos I’ve had to date. 1 dollar for a whole bag of them. Awesomenessss. Walking back over to America, I was stupid enough to take a picture in the customs building which lead to having me grab the attention of border patrol right from the start. After they search my camera for my deleted pictures, they ask for what I don’t have, a passport. Awesome, First I’m in trouble for taking pictures, now I don’t have a passport to get out of Mexico. But it gets better, on my way out, since I don’t have any bags, I get patted down and searched because of suspicious behavior. Oh gosh, but fun none the less.
Our homeboy Ben, a brown skinned Spanish speaking Guatemalan native, didn’t have his passport either. So our friend that gets mistaken for a Mexican while in Mexico doesn’t even have a passport to get across. But, somehow he made it out the door before it did. Do I really look that suspicious? Honestly?
Waking up the next day in our hotel, Ben reminds us that he forgot it was the 4th of July. As we head straight to Beverly Hills to pick up Bens cousin, we notice everyone is outside our hotel. Must be the 4th. No parking anywhere and people everywhere. We find Ms. Megan Mark. She leads us our way around and we drive downtown Hollywood. For the rest of the day we just end up going to the Hollywood sign on the hill and going to check out the view of downtown LA. We saw Michael Jackson’s star and that was a feeling all of its own.
After a long holiday we start driving back to our hotel and we see a few fireworks here and there. We hear most of them while trying to find parking a 100 miles away from our hotel and right as we get to the front of our hotel where everyone is, we see the last 5 seconds of the finale. Awesome. As we’re going up the elevator in the hotel, we were accompanied by 2 ladies who are speaking another language. Ben asks if the language they’re speaking is something that he thought he knew, no answer, awkward, then it gets worse, our room was next to theirs, all the way on the other side of the hotel, so we followed them the whole way there and I am pretty sure they thought we were following them. That night we decide to let traffic die down before we head back home. It was midnight when I looked at the time, and we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the freeway. OMG. Traffic owned our life for the first time.
Driving thru the night was ok until Las Vegas where I think the water from the Lemon-Aid Mason drank in Mexico or all the gallons of salt water finally got to him. Every rest stop he had to go. And he had to go so bad, that he wouldn’t go in the same old Dairy Queen cup he tried to make me pee in earlier. Made that last couple of hours longer than I even thought possible. And we were so close, yet so far and home all at the same time.
The End.
Get Ben Out Of Mexico
Last week Mason, Ben and I went down to Tijuana. Unfortunately mi amigo Ben Lopez forgot his passport back into the USA and is now being held there until we can get him his passport. Please pray for him, as he is stuck in Mexico for who knows how long. Thank you.
Spread Love Like Violence
SPREAD LOVE LIKE VIOLENCE
SPREAD HOPE LIKE FIRE
SPREAD TRUTH LIKE CANCER
SPREAD PEACE LIKE WAR
SPREAD FAITH LIKE CORRUPTION
x x x xx X x
Education Time // Matt Costa
Matt Costa, who is of Portuguese ancestry, states his father "worked in airlines" and his mother "was around the house a lot". While young, his family moved to Florida where he "pursued skateboarding and high school on the side". Later the family moved back to Huntington Beach and at age 12, Costa received his first guitar but it was quickly shelved and replaced with a more "thrilling" gift: a skateboard. Costa compensated for his late start skateboarding with intense dedication to the sport and in a matter of years nearly turned pro. In 2003, that path shifted drastically when Matt shattered his leg in a skateboarding accident. The injury required eighteen months of recovery and rehabilitation. During that downtime, Matt directed his energy, passion and talent toward the guitar, writing and recording simple tunes. Initially, a mini tape recorder served as his crude studio. Matt's songwriting later flourished when he invested in a 4-track recorder.
In early 2003, Matt's homemade demo began circulating amongst friends and acquaintances in and around his hometown of Huntington Beach, California. One copy found its way into the hands of No Doubt guitarist Tom Dumont. Costa made such an impression that Dumont offered to record more demos for him in his home studio. Those first recordings led to a self-titled 5 song EP that Costa and Dumont distributed themselves. As interest in the EP grew, the two were already deep into the sessions that led to Songs We Sing. Considering Dumont's experience as a songwriter, one might expect him to have taken a more active role in the songwriting process. This however, was no usual mentorship, as Dumont remained behind the control board, offering encouragement, more interested in capturing Matt's talent than in shaping the songs himself. Phil Ek (Modest Mouse, The Shins) applied the finishing touches, mixing the twelve tracks that have become Songs We Sing.
Matt Costa spent the summer of 2005 opening on Jack Johnson's summer tour, playing in amphitheaters and baseball stadiums across North America. He has also supported diverse artists such as Modest Mouse, Pinback, Built to Spill, Gomez, The Vandals, My Morning Jacket, and Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard. Matt joined Jack Johnson for his 2006 European tour. He has also contributed to the Jack Johnson and Friends Curious George soundtrack; The track is entitled "Lullaby" and it features Matt Costa with Jack Johnson. This song was taken from his The Elasmosaurus EP. The soundtrack was released Tuesday, February 7, 2006. Matt toured in South America in November 2007 along with G. Love, Donavon Frankenreiter, Animal Liberation Orchestra, and artist/photographer Jay Alders. Cities they visited and performed include São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Florianópolis.
The video for Matt's first single, "Cold December" can be viewed at his website. It was directed by the Malloys and shot in Ely, Nevada. It was released February 2, 2006. On the 31st of July 2007 Matt released an exclusive new song entitled "If You Took To Me" as part of the environmentally minded polar bear documentary Arctic Tale and its soundtrack. On the 7th of October, Matt released the first single, "Mr. Pitiful", from his new record Unfamiliar Faces. was released January 22, 2008. Originally it was to be released for October 2, 2007, but was postponed. Costa played as a supporting act for the English band Oasis' Canadian tour in August 2008, and again on their Winter 2008 U.S. tour, along with Ryan Adams and The Cardinals.
Things I've Heard.
Jodi told me she had a dream about me. And we were eating quesadillas together. Funny thing is I had one for dinner the night before. Oh how this world works.
Michael Jackson
I know I'm a few hours late on this post, but I seriously need to pay my respect to say the least. Think about it, we all need to do this. I remember everyday in 8th grade listening to the 'Bad" album every morning, then listening to the 'History' album to finish the day. From his dance moves that tried and tried to be emulated, to the music that everyone loved, no matter what it was, Michael Jackson started a lot of trends that changed just about everything.
How about we now talk about something a little bit more serious... Is this the time frame where its possible to see the Beatles songs to be bought back from the name of Michael Jackson, or does the legacy of all the songs die with the man who owned them? It will be interesting to see how much they all sell for, and what actually happens.
All in all, you know you'll miss him, and if you say you don't, then you're the problem in this world.
Dedication
This is dedication to amazing people in my life that come from the east side of town called Holladay. First off, Stu, Stu Heart. A man who is known for his mad skill. When he isn't performing music awesomely in his band The Mange or with our homegirl Marci Thorne, or our main man HEMA, we make forts. We party just about 100 percent of the time and then we listen to music to kill the rest of the time we're together. But if we're not doing any of that we are promoting Viva la Resistance. He's like a blood brother to me, well not really, but I can see us eventually making the commitment to becoming a part of the same pack of wolves we call life. Oh yeah, he plays baseball, Thats something I don't know anything about. But what I do know is he is an uber friend. I would give this man 7 pounds.
Next, the lady in my life I have the pleasure to call Snacks. For about the first million times I would see her around she was eating cheddar Cup-o-Noodles. Did I mention how she has serious street cred and is just about down for anything that isn't lame? However, I have never made a fort with Snacks, I'm sure our time will come. Oh and her style, as you can tell, its next level. Just look at that dress she is rocking, not to mention her affinity for sailor attire we both share with one another.
In conclusion and to tie this whole dedication together, these people know how to get down on the dance floor. The Kool-Aid Social was a memory we will all share together. Awesomeness shared all around.
The Poor & Famous Line
This is the newest graphic tshirt I will be making for The Poor & Famous. Its awesome, you know it is. If you want it, let me know so I can make it for you.
...And how about we start Viva la Resistance. This is for the resistance. This is propaganda people.
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