Last Seen Blogs
Text
2020 IS HINDSIGHT
Yeah, 2020 was a most bummer year. But let’s not forget that some good things happened too. You know, lots of people got engaged, made babies, and other cool things. I can only speak for all of us, when I say we spent 2020 loving deeply, indulging in deep flavors, mastering the art of the fish sauce chicken wing, hosting one too many backyard barbecues, making films, etc. etc. etc. Basically, we aged like stinky cheese. And if this year was a reminder of anything, it’s YOLO bc you could easily die from a pandemic worsened by governmental incompetence and corruption – so be good to yourself and others. I hope enjoy these photos and the nostalgic barrage of flavors. Happy-Whatever-You-Celebrate! Â
A still from the #NeverAlone film series I shot for Pair of Thieves. A deep and reflective project shot with my buddy Andrew Hine, who wrote the music for it. Â
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
Roasted duck shop closes up for the night.Â
Bangkok, Thailand 2015
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
It’s a trip
Got the sunlight, low light, day light baby.Â
Sunday’s are the perfect time to read the NYT and run back through the time portal. Alright, gotta hop on the bike and get a sandwich. be coolÂ
snakeÂ
living roomÂ
sketch
2-0 in billards for the night
blurry lurie
GG parkÂ
dumpling bro date
kicking it on BARTÂ Â
I asked noah to hit me with a photo like the one from space jam where mj is all washed up and he’s walking past the courts and looks through the fence and jumps into a pickup game.Â
I tried searching for that scene on YouTube but couldn’t find it.Â
if you want to listen to this album:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6CO5WbEqpVlmMCB4TRrLNm?si=BiUZdD7pTaKFp0YybzCrqA
0 notes
Text
Is there anything more fascinating on this earth than the city?
Why do millions of people choose to live in a singularly cramped compact place, given the option? In short: there’s real life magic in the city.Â
For years now, I’ve walked around the city like a damn child, taken back by the textures, amazed at the colors, surprised by the sounds, knocked out by the smells. It is so fucking intense if you stop and think about it. Â
I have a thing for cities. I am constantly in awe. Surrounded by buildings 1000 times the size of you. You can get pizza for 4 quarters. Pigeons fly around, seagulls too, rats crawl through garbage. There are parks the size of whole neighborhoods. There are so many people and so few bathrooms. Bright lights and neon signs and ads from businesses that haven’t been there for decades. People are hustling around every corner. Full sized grocery stores that take up whole blocks. Cars are slower than people walking. How does that even make sense? People with all the wealth in the world, walking right past people who don’t have 5$ to their name. Does a juxtaposition on that scale exist anywhere else in this world?
I cannot for the life of me think of a more chaotic place than a city. Could be ancient or modern, Hanoi or New York City. Just as fascinating. Each has a unique flavor on each and every block. Each has it’s own system of order. It might feel like chaos from the outside, in fact it usually does, but I’m telling you–there are rules to that shit. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried to cross a busy street in Hanoi. You might want to have a few beers first. Then try this: walk straight into what appears to be a sea of motorcycles. You’ll feel like moses parting the red sea, motorcycles going around you like a school of fish. It’s crazy.
If you knew me, you’d know I’m all for the peace and quiet of everywhere outside of the city. It’s slower and it’s more ideal. Still I realize that I honestly prefer the endless craze of the city. Where you can’t ever have done it all, no matter how long you lived there. Where there’s always more to be done. It can be intimidating. Also invigorating. Want to have a day? Go walk a block on Market street in San Francisco. Strike up a chat with a complete stranger. I double dog dare you.
Sometimes it smells like roses, other times you can’t breathe because of the stench.
On an average day, you’re walking along and you look up to see a man taking a horse on a walk. Do horses live in the city? Other days, you pass a dog wearing sunglasses. You follow for 6 blocks and they stay on, as if designed especially for his pug face. You see people talking to themselves everyday, some days you pass people at intersections using a megaphone to read bible passages. It seems like the louder they get, the less people listen.
People are attracted to cities for many different reasons. Some chalk it up to location. Others like the availability of good food. I bet if I walked up to a 100 people and asked them what they like most about the city, I’d get 200 different answers.
If there’s one place you can appreciate through the eyes of a child, I’d say it’s the city. It’s just my two cents, but I think you should go ahead and try it. Walk into any city. Take a bus in. Then look at the scale of everything around you. Try to appreciate just how tiny you are. Take a look the pace of it all. Look down at the street below your feet. Look at all the different faces of the people busily passing by.Â
What do you appreciate most about the city? I’d be curious to know.
0 notes
Text
You cannot buy inspiration on Sunday Vol. 1
0 notes
Video
vimeo
At an Immigration Ban protest in San Francisco, we asked people about the stories behind their signs. #NoBanNoWallÂ
0 notes
Text
40′s were what you used to drink before it was legal to do so. $2.45 and equipped to make you pee 10-12 times. The speed at which you drank it was increased due to the fact that you knew you were in deep shit if you got caught with it in your hand. That’s why when I finished it, the driver snapped it from my hand and launched it out the window. Silence for two seconds and then it shattered.Â
The first time I ever drank a 40 was with Vinny. We hit Arden Way in his Astrovan with sliding doors like we were hitting the nightclub. And we were. We went to a gas station at the corner store across the street the Walgreens where we used to devote whole summers, first in the candy aisle, then in the refrigerators deciding which Arizona iced tea matched our current needs. The gas station corner store was us moving up in the world. Â
Brahim was waiting for us there. He worked at a barbershop in the neighborhood and one of the barbers looked pretty much just like him and happened to be 25, so he took on a new identity pretty early on. He asked what we wanted. I’d drank before, but only once or twice. Vinny probably made the call. The drink of choice that night was Steel Reserve. It tasted like batteries mixed with coca cola with the sugar removed. We cruised down the long open stretch of Arden Way doing what we used to do every weekend, running the heat with the windows all the way down, Lil’ Wayne blaring his raspy voice from the van’s raspy speakers.Â
1 note
·
View note
Video
If I had to call this something, I’d name it “Phone as translator of beauty.”
People enjoy sunsets in all types of ways. I guess there’s not really one way that’s better than the rest. That said, we see much of the world through the lens of our phones these days. It brings to mind a few questions. If our phones are full HD / and our cameras shoot in 4k, what are our eyes? And what’s the value of a memory? And why do we need to keep everything forever? And is that even possible if we tried?
0 notes
Text
a host of other things not to be fucking forgotten
When you spend your days working 9-7, you start to miss certain things. It’s nostalgia for the shit you used to do. For the shit that used to be you. Like the smell of the outdoors. And being able to look up and see for days, not see four walls.
This one’s for those sunny day hikes and weekend backpack trips, and bike rides without said destination, and roadside tacos, and a beer to go when you have to go, and for ocean water that makes you feel like you’re in an ice bath for a split second, and going from cold to hot to hot to cold and having to take off every layer except your t shirt until you made it back up the hill from the beach home and the sand that will end up in between bathroom tiles no matter how hard you try, and the way the rays of sunlight move along the backyard fence, and all the other good things and moments and feelings.Â
It’s o.k. to miss them but please, please don’t forget them. When you just can’t be there write notes about where you’d like to find yourself, again.Â
And when you’re ready and able, get back on that bike, put the backpack back on, pull out that motherfucking camera and get back to those places.
1 note
·
View note
Text
Two Of the All-Time Greatest S.F. Natives Get Married In Golden Gate Park
The city is for everyone, but getting married in Golden Gate park–well I think you should have to provide some sort of SF credentials. None of the, I’m a local I live around the block type stuff, that’s simply not going to cut it.Â
This is for the one’s who live and breathe San Francisco air, in ways most will never understand.Â
That comes through in a lot of different aspects of life. Knowing which baseball diamond might be open on the off sunny Saturday and knowing where you can get good and cheap dim sum in its most popular hours.Â
This particular wedding was pure magic, in the purest of senses. For me, part of it was my parents showed up, which was nice of them to do. The wedding itself, was low key and captured the way these two live. They said their humble, beautiful vows and walked off to a classic Sandlot tune.Â
Not all that long ago I caught Jenny and Andrew in the outer sunset on a magnificent day. The first thing I noticed, Andrew wasn’t wearing any shoes. That made me smile. It’s not that I would expect him to be doing anything differently, Andrew is just more himself than most people I know to this day. On that particular morning, I was able to reroute my plans and spend the day at Jenny’s aunt’s beach house and subsequently at the beach.Â
We laid back and vegetated in the sun, then ran into the water. Andrew told a few stories, because that’s what he does. I’ve started to be able to tell when one’s coming. It’s at that point I listen up because I don’t know too many storytellers like Andrew. He told me that there’s an SF dolphin club, which is for people who are committed to swimming in the ocean. They go out in groups and pay a monthly fee to get access to towels and stuff. Turns out jenny’s aunt was a member. Sounds kinda like masochism to me.Â
Anyways, you don’t meet too many people in your life with a genuine passion for living, the way that Jenny and Andrew do it. They keep things incredibly simple, full of love and light.Â
0 notes
Text
The boys run free in Greece
One way to get the ultimate feeling of freedom is to lose it and then gain it back. For example, you break your leg and can’t walk. While you’re down you never forget how great you had it before and when you’re back on your feet you have a sense of freedom you may have never felt before in your whole life.Â
We spent two weeks on an organized trip in Israel. By the time we signed out of the program and were on our own, each of us did a bit of a double take. Is it cool if we walk in the road? If we stay up until 3? If we go full throttle on shitty atv’s not meant to do more than 20 mph that aren’t so stable on downhill stretches?
And like that the boys were on their own. So for 5 days we did exactly what we wanted, at all hours. Abe would have an idea and say, “you guys, I heard of this awesome thing. We HAVE to try it.” Most times Noah and I would look at each other, let a second pass and say, “sure, let’s do it.”Â
Early morning struggles
The eagles has landed
First look at the sea
From up top
The Greek Mix
Crushing everywhere, yet rushing nowhere
0 notes
Text
Travel-in Southeast Asia
vimeo
If you ever get the chance, book a flight somewhere and don't plan too much. Then take the slowest form of transport to get around. It will be nauseating at times, but whatever window you're looking out from is a window into a world you'd never otherwise see. It's the best kind of motion picture there is.Â
I took the slow route through Southeast Asia and filmed + edited this short film on my iPhone.
0 notes
Text
The Legend of Lone Star Swan
Sunset steep
Chinatown spa
Fell St. smokeÂ
Mission Chinese Grocery
Linens and things
Produce delivery
Religious somethings
I don’t know the pigeon man’s name, nor have I ever spoken to him, but I am aware of his legend. I’ve seen him at this bench many times covered head to toe in pigeons. The way I see him, they are perched on both of his shoulders and resting on top of his head. He has a relationship to them and it’s symbiotic. He provides them with food so they stick around. What does he get from them? It’s hard to tell exactly, but for starters: companionship. When he’s with the pigeons he isn’t alone, he’s surrounded by living beings. In the center of his own inner circle he’s king. Maybe he can connect to them in a way he can’t with humans.Â
After a quick Google Search, I found that the pigeon man goes by “Lone Star Swan and saw him performing a surgery on the same very bench where I photographed him. The surgery consisted of him patiently removing a wire caught between a pigeon’s toe. I found he was also the subject of a documentary, “Schizophrenia” by Roger Wolfe in 2010. In another life he was John Ratliff, a talented news reporter, family man and documentary film director.
Lone Star Swan Documentary
At the start of the film Lone Star Swan says, “pigeons are advanced human beings, ancient wizards reincarnated without hands, so man couldn’t put them to work.” I’d care to guess that he knows many things that ordinary people don’t.Â
I saw that Lone Star Swan has a mural in his honor, on the backside of the Mission Alley Mural. That’s how you pay homage to a local legend.Â
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
2016, or the start of anyways
0 notes
Text
Homeless in Super Bowl City
How would it feel to be told you’re not welcome in the city where you live?Â
vimeo
2 notes
·
View notes