Inspired by Mariana's photo blog post about South by Southwest, I have decided to create a photo post of my own about the events of our week in Austin. We spent a week in Austin interviewing bands for our Indie Trip. The experience was amazing (even though our RV had broken down and we spent a good portion of our time in the original Whole Foods because it was easy to walk to and had free internet access). I've learned a lot on this road trip already... one thing being that I am much more passionate about photography than I realized before leaving. So, please enjoy these photos and let me know if you were at SXSW!
Approaching the dam:
What a damn good dam...
Claire, the Texas native of our group, informed us that there was a necessary and slightly bizarre stop that we should make on our way to Austin called Marfa. Marfa is a little town in western Texas with an unusual history. Marfa was founded in the early 1880's as a railroad water stop and later used as an Army training grounds in the 1940's. The town remained a sleepy destination until Donald Judd, a minimalist artist and visionary (in my opinion) moved to Marfa in 1971 and began to transform the town into a Mecca of the art world. One of the strangest things about Marfa I noticed was it's architecture. Rather than tearing down and rebuilding modern looking museums and galleries, Judd (and now the Chinati Foundation, which has maintained Judd's vision since his death in 1994) took the existing buildings of the town and transformed them internally into art galleries and studios. Store fronts are painted white for the most part, which gives the town an eerie and unassuming aura.
On our way into Marfa we drove along a deserted highway with no streetlights. It was dark out and the surroundings were empty except for one ironic and unusual building - Prada Marfa.
Prada Marfa is not a working store front, but it does work as something that will make any passerby think twice about the open roads of Texas. We stopped to take pictures and laugh at the irony of Marfa, Texas before heading on into town.
As if the night wasn't already interesting enough, we set out to view the Marfa Lights, the mysterious and unexplained lights seen near U.S. Highway 67. Some attribute the lights to ghosts, others to cars driving on the highway. Whatever they are, we saw them in all their glory and I have to admit, we were all a little freaked out. There is something exciting about seeing something unexplained in person.
The following day we walked around town. We visited Ballroom Marfa, a space for art and culture in Marfa where we saw, of all, a RV installation by Paul Villinski. We ate some delicious pizza at Pizza Foundation and met Lorna Leedy, the owner of Fancy Pony Land - her fun clothing line. We were fortunate enough to set up an interview with her and she told us about her journey from art student to clothing designer. I really like her work and she has inspired me to continue working on my Etsy store. We also met Phoenix, a yoga instructor, while in Fancy Pony Land. He was kind enough to teach us yoga on the roof of our RV at sunset. Shanti, shanti Phoenix.
Shanti, shanti everyone.
After leaving L.A. and it's series of unfortunate events, we couldn't help but wonder if the rest of our road trip would be weighed down by misfortune. We headed to Las Vegas next, the place where Lady Luck either turns a cold shoulder to her courters or embraces them with open arms. I am happy to report that Lady Luck willingly took Ray, Mariana, Claire, and I and offered us a symbolic cup of tea - namely Cirque du Soliel's The Beatles LOVE VIP treatment. I contacted Cirque du Soliel on a whim about booking an interview, not really thinking that anything would come of it... so much so that I didn't tell the rest of the team about it. So, imagine my surprise when I received a phone call the NEXT DAY while perusing a thrift store about booking an interview. Cara, Cirque's publicist, set everything up for us and arranged an interview with one of the performers. We were planning to leave the following morning, but agreed that this awesome opportunity was definitely a worthy enough reason for us to stick around. We met up with Cara at the entrance to LOVE, not sure what to expect, but pumped to talk to Alicia. 
...and then she took us backstage...
After the interview Cara was nice enough to offer us tickets to the show! We were SO excited and the experience was absolutely wonderful. If you're ever in Las Vegas, please, please, PLEASE make sure that you see this show... it's beautiful.
Am I bragging? Maybe a little... but more so just feeling inspired to share this amazing experience with the World Wide Web.
Las Vegas is an elusive place. A quick glance will tell you that it's all glitz and glamour. Having little experience with Las Vegas myself (I spent nine hours there two summers ago on my drive from California to Connecticut and came out on top with a note worthy $9.00 worth of winnings), that was how I saw Las Vegas for a long time. It's only now, after my second trip to the city, that I understand that Las Vegas has a darker side.The RTN team's mission in Las Vegas was to book a few interesting interviews and to take in the city's colorful nightlife. We did end up with a few interesting interviews (actually, they were pretty incredible) and we did enjoy the nightlife until hours of the night that no one should be awake for, but we also did something we didn't expect - we went away from the main strip during the day. I know that going outside of the main Las Vegas strip doesn't sound like something worth writing about, but the experience was actually very eye opening. Life outside of the strip seemed oddly sad. In a city that millions of people visit a year, one might expect there to be more to Vegas than just one main artery of traffic, but life outside of the strip was pretty empty and sad.
This trip to Vegas also allowed me to do something that I didn't do on my last trip - talk to locals. The first was a harmonica player named James. He moved to Las Vegas a year and a half ago to accept a job promoting gambling at the Bellogio. When the job market crashed, he was left without a job with a family to support. His background is in photojournalism and he does some freelance work in the area whenever he can, but his main stream of income comes from playing harmonica on the Las Vegas strip. He moved from New York to Las Vegas and told Ray (a fellow Roadie) and I that he can't wait to go back to the east coast. He told us that the drug trade in Las Vegas is running rampant and that the city's mayor is corrupt. He also said that Las Vegas is a "soul-less city" that just cares about making money. What a different perspective of Vegas.
The Roadtrip Nation Spring '09 tour is in full swing! We've left California behind and are on our way to Las Vegas. Our two days in California were scarred by a series of unfortunate events. Things just didn't seem to be going our way and we were all at a loss as to why.
