The days are slowing as we get closer and closer to our departure. Everything has been ready since I came back to Olympia from my hometown of Sequim after working my a** off the past 2 weeks. It’s all good though, de Botton says “The key ingredients of happiness are not material but stubbornly psychological.” So really, if i’m happy or not, it’ll all just be in my head anyway. He also said that “the beach initiates the feeling of happiness…”. Im being teased by happiness, while I work to make money so that I maintain my happiness in California, but really, I’m just going to decide if I’m happy or not while I’m there which I probably will because i’ll be at the beach.

In The Art of Travel there were been two things that have led humans on their journey. The first being the search for happiness. I haven’t played with that idea before. I’ve been thinking that this trip will give me the most things to experience: the most time, the most connections, the best setting, the homies, the ease of travel and comfortability, I guess I hadn’t really thought “will it make me happy?” de Botton wrote about how Xavier de Maistre went on a journey around his room and had as enjoyable a time as any. Our perception of things, and I don’t mean if we look- what we see, but the feeling we get about what we experience is what births thought. Regardless of circumstance we, as humans, are going to have an opinion about everything that we experience. The phrase by the author, “Journeys are the midwives of thought”, suggest that we are going to have a jaded view of things if we just get used to seeing what we see everyday. We’ll have our experience, we’ll give our two cents about it and that will be that. But if we allow ourselves to adventure and to go beyond, these actions are going to guide our thoughts, and if we are always on the search for happiness, guide them to allow all moments to be happy. This is why Humboldt says there is importance in “having the right question for the world”.  It is our mindset that will decide where and what and who we see on our search for happiness because its the variable that changes, and the variable we control. With the right question i can be lead to the right answers.

The second thing Alain de Botton brought up in The Art of Travel was that “humans desire to possess beauty” by understanding it, and the “only way to understand it is to express it through art.” This book flows nicely with the way my thoughts are evolving on the matter of this trip. I am searching for happiness on this trip. I’m looking for ways this trip can help me to be successful. I know that people have been successful in this place by being inspired by the beauty of the city, the beach, the people. They captured that beauty and represented it through art, art that I have experienced again and again. From pt. 3 On Art the author says “Works of art influence us in where we want to travel.” I think this is very accurate especially in regards to the music I listen to. My first album I purchased was The Young and the Hopeless by Good Charlotte (LA) and the last album I purchased was To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar (LA). Not to mention all the albums in between which of my 124, I would say, 40 at least are Southern California. But now its my turn. I wish to be inspired like so many before me and to allow myself to express the beauty in the this place through art. Ive learned in the past year how to “not draw but see” the world I am experiencing through sketching and composing. They are the areas where I can be the most creative and expressive.

Entering into this next chapter of my life it will be important for me to be aware. As this Journey unfolds I need to remember the things I have learned from this book. starting first and foremost with mindset. A positive mindset will lead a positive life. On my search for happiness, success and beauty, the only thing that can hinder me will be myself. The fight will come like it always does, but it is important to have the right question of the world and the journey will guide me through the caves and over the mountains of this thought process like midwives.

Your art is to be the praise of what you love.

Sometimes when planning trips nothing works out. No one wants to give you work to get out on the road. No one is getting back to you to house you in the city your where your destination lies. But last minute everything can change, and though I am sad to say I will not be going to Chicago, I am pleased with the way things have been lining up for Los Angeles/San Francisco.

It took one last minute iMessage conversation to change course 2000 miles from our (Me and Steve’s) initial origin of study. I was prepared to head to Chicago with no accommodations planned for my first night and no set price tag on the trip. I had an idea, a couple books, an interest in Blues and Rock n’ Roll, but no real structure. As soon as I had put the pieces together and got feedback from my connections, I knew I had made the right choice.

In the span of about three hours I got ahold of my best friend’s dad, William (Bill) Stromberg, who is a composer in LA, let him know what my plans were and asked about suggestions regarding places to see the most cutting-edge artists express the avant garde. After that Keaton, my friend (Bill’s son), texted me to let me know about what he’s been working on and I let him know about the field study. We will be spending time in Northern LA with him making music and all that jazz. He is musician/producer/x factor finalist. After thinking about how long I could stay and how to pay for food and other expenses I got one more text from an old employer who needed work and was interested in helping me cover the majority of my trip cost for some jobs around the house.

So, now I am to develop a new reading list and research question.

The real big intentions I have for this project are to immerse myself in a culture, and let myself become lost. See where I resonate in the city. What am I connecting with, what are they connecting with? Who am I connecting with, who are they connecting with?  How do I connect and whats the result? I want to be a consumer and a producer I want to be apart of something and I want to be a bystander. The result I hope to have is an experienced music project. Music supported by visuals: video, graphic novel, sketches, website posts, interviews, etc..

This trip is loosely structured. Both connections that we will stay with have lives too and as our locations change the things we will see and experience will change too. The trip has potential to be very diverse with a possible, couple day/week trip to see the SF scene. As with all things, the opportunities will be what I make of them. It’ll be important to have an open mind and positive attitude but as I see it there isn’t anything much better than being able to get credit for traveling so lets get this show on the road.