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Went to Russia with my buddy Justin Moshkevich for the World Cup this past summer. Here are some shots from that trip. 

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Been a second since I’ve posted and since then I’ve gotten a new camera, the Fuji TX2, and the VSCO filters. Got a chance to try these things out over my father-n-law’s wine pick up party this weekend (he’s a wine maker) in the Willamette valley. April and I also got to spend some time in Portland to see her hometown friends. Maciek and Haydn’s baby, Frances, was a particular treat. 

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A couple of weeks ago I had the distinct pleasure of having my bud, Joshua Sanchez shoot a music video for a track from an upcoming record of mine. Devon Ross was kind enough to be the start of the show and with the help of Samantha Urbani, Zooey Jolivet (who took these photos) and of course April Cuneo, we made something pretty cool. Excited to put it out in the next few months.

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The second leg of my trip was in Japan with April. It was her first time and it was incredible to feel the excitement I had had now emanating through her. After endless shopping and one epic sushi dinner with our friend Kohta, we left Tokyo for Kyoto. We never managed to see a geisha, but we did stop at my favorite antique store, Maiko antiques. I’m happy to admit we now have one of those good luck cat statues. After Kyoto, we headed for the art island of Naoshima. The Bennese Art House, our hotel, would prove to be the most luxurious stay of our lives. Another gem was the Lee Ufan Museum, a little ways up from the hotel, which was also the most beautiful museum I’ve ever been to. I think Robert Wilson would appreciate it. A ferry ride, and several trains later we arrived in Hiroshima. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which we attended on a rainy day, rounded out our vacation by giving us some much appreciated historical insights - both of us enjoy learning more about World War II and that time period in general. I’m happy to report though, that Hiroshima is a thriving and beautiful city, with some really wonderful restaurants - try Guttsuri-an! And with that, we returned to Tokyo to meander through Golden Gai and karaoke with our new friend, Yusuke!

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This summer I decided to return to Asia for vacation (er, work-cation). April couldn’t make it to Japan over the holidays, so of course I would need to return there so that we could experience it together. As a bonus though, I decided to fly out eight days early to Korea. My dear friend Michael decided to make the journey with me, despite the formidable plane ticket cost (bless him), but fortunately when we got there we were greeted with very reasonable food & accommodation costs. With the guidance of my friend Eugene we were able to hit some wonderful spots between Seoul and Busan, including the Everland Theme Park and The Demilitarized Zone (that random fuzzy photo is of North Korea’s P’yonghwa-ri through binoculars), but admittedly I took very few photos. I blame this on the copious amounts of makgeolli and Korean BBQ we consumed along the way. Korean spas also don’t make for great photography locations (I suppose that depends on who’s talking). And with that, here are some of the snaps from Korea, part 1 of summer work-cation 2016. 

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Kohta visited us from Japan. Thanks Kohta.

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Final snaps from April’s birthday in Mexico City.

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First set of snaps from April’s birthday weekend in Mexico City!

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Last night in Tokyo!

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Some shots from Kyoto.

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More snaps, this time from Nara and Kyoto.

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A few more photos from Ise and Nara, Japan

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a few snaps from my first couple o’ days in Tokyo

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Some shots from a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend in Seattle this year.

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Here are some shots from my third Body Double rehearsal. I’m excited to start playing out in this new city of mine. Photo-d are my dear friends Rick Smith and Kevin Fey. We’re looking for a legendary drummer. Is that you?

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After leaving Mount Zion National Park, we used our last 24 hours to, of course, head to Vegas. But, with still a bit of history curiosity in us, we took a quick detour to the Hover Dam.

Did you know that the Hoover Dam provides 50% of the energy to nearly all of the South West? The Dam was truly a site to be seen, and its effect on the region (which incidentally also includes Mexico), spanning power to flood control (apparently areas by the Colorado River would dangerously flood regularly) were incredible. This sort of thing makes you question why there isn’t a visible police presence in the area. 

After the Dam it was off to our final diversion, Vegas.

April brushed up on her Craps, a game I would just then learn, and used the better part of 3 hours to only lose 100 dollars - a feat I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish playing our previous amusement, Black Jack. We then sat in the sports section for some quick chicken fingers. April would make frenemies with a pack of guys rooting for Green Bay while she rooted for the Sea Hawks. The Hawks won and like that we were off into the night to make our way to Los Angeles.

Four and one half hours later we arrived at our Airbnb house that would be our residence for a couple months to come. T’was only in the morning that we realized that this house was wonderfully painted in shades of green, buttressed by plants of seemingly infinite variety all well situated on a wonderful hill in Silver Lake. 

We had finally made to LA. And while April’s face my say otherwise, we were happy. 

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After spending possibly the least inspiring night of our trip in Sedona, we made our way to the Grand Canyon. Millions of Americans have made their pilgrimage to these hollowed grounds over the years, and we finally came to understand why. The shear expanse of the canyon, is enough to silence the din of thousands of tourists meandering to your sides, and that is certainly an achievement. 

We did half the Bright Angel Trail, which proved to be plenty exhausting on such a hot day, returning to the rim rather pleased with ourselves. As our reward, we headed to one of the fancier restaurants in the Canyon and had an overpriced mediocre meal. It didn’t matter, the Canyon was gorgeous. 

Not sensing that driving in the dark to Mount Zion would be a wise choice, we ended up spending the night in the canyon as well. Moose would great us in the dusk. The following day we made our way to Mount Zion National Park, where we would stay at a resort spa, this was to be our one trip extravagance. 

The following day we made a point of waking up early, very early, and heading to The Narrows. In all honesty, I was not quite of the faith that we would be able to conquer said Narrows - I’m not a fan of cold water. But alas, with our water hiking shoes we made our way, nearly in the dark through the mouth of trail. 

In many ways, our entire journey had let us to this hike and for those of you who haven’t done Mount Zion yet, I truly hope you get to experience it at some point. The trip, in the dawn, with no people around was breath taking. We were even graced with the company of a baby fawn for our first leg. 

Upon our return down the narrows, with the sun beaming directly above us, it appeared like someone had cut the bolt locks to the park as a mass of people, young and old made their way up the trail. A sigh of relief: thankfully we had not been so lazy to wake up late this morning.