San Diego, California, United States of America

I'm writing this from the Gaslamp District in downtown San Diego. Today we toured Balboa Park, downtown, an aircraft carrier, Coranado, and Imperial Beach. Somewhere in that I walked in the Pacific Ocean. This is my life.

Rancho Mirage, California, United States of America (2)

Well it is the middle of the night and we have officially survived three days of Coachella. Quite the experience. We saw fanny packs, drugs, drinking, crazy wardrobes, nudity, unruliness, unsanitary washrooms, lung-coating dust, a guy in a purple suit, and so on.

Through all of that we ended up catching 31 bands including:

• Jake Bugg
• Stars
• Alt-J
• Passion Pit
• Local Natives
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Purity Ring
• Foals
• Theophilus London
• Wild Nothing
• Danny Brown
• Dropkick Murphy's
• Ben Howard
• Violent Femmes
• Cafe Tacvba
• Portugal, the Man
• Hot Chip
• Postal Service
• The XX
• Two Door Cinema Club
• Janelle Monae
• Phoenix
• DIIV
• The Gaslight Anthem
• Grimes
• The Lumineers
• James Blake
• Paul Oakenfold
• Tame Impala
• Vampire Weekend
• Wu Tang Clan (who maybe shouldn't be messed with)
• And the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Despite seeing all of these bands, we missed about at least another 100 in total and 40 or so that were on our wish list. But that's the life at a festival.

Anyways, I have a million videos on my camera that I will upload and post. In the interim, photos.

Tomorrow we are going for sushi in a different city. 

Rancho Mirage, California, United States of America

I write to you this morning from my temporary refuge from the incessant thumping of all kinds of music that is Coachella 2013, Weekend 2.

Yesterday was Day 1 of the festival and myself and my sister engulfed ourselves into as many things as we could. Admittedly, the first day of any festival should be more or less to get your bearings but given the lineup, it was my busiest day.

All together I ended up watching Jake Bugg, Stars, Alt-J, Passion Pit, Local Natives, Modest Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Purity Ring and finally Foals. I have two videos that I'd like to share as they are of two of my favorite songs. Songs that you want to sing along to as they are performed, but so great that they take your breath away.

Alt-J - Breezeblocks


Foals - Spanish Sahara


We also ducked our heads into the Sahara Tent which featured DJs all day and some ridiculous lights. Not to mention, so truly loud and intense music. Here's a taste.



And finally, here are a couple of panoramas that I took on my phone.

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Yet another year has come and gone. With that finality, I have been sparked to review the last year but going through my favorite photos and combining them into one easy to view gallery. Just like last year, I managed to get the total number of photos to an even  Top 100. I didn't take nearly as many photos this year and the previous two, but I think there are still some amazing shots I was able to capture. I hope you feel the same way. Enjoy!

Havana, Cuba

Another post, and another place where I'm currently not located. Christina and I made our maiden voyage to Cuba a few weeks ago. We stayed in Havana and spent most of our time exploring the city, visiting the beach or off in the country side. I took somewhere around 1600 photos during the entire trip. This link contains the top 300 and some photos. I promise I tried to narrow it down. Enjoy

New York City, New York, United States of America (2)

Alright, I'm not really in New York at the moment but I think I promised that I would post some photos of our trip there after we returned. Well, it's a different year now so I figured I would get around to that. Please click on this link for my favorite pictures from New York in September.

New York City, New York, United States of America

Alright, 8 days has gone by since Christina and I landed in New York and it's been a complete whirl-wind of subways, shopping, eating and touring.

We arrived late on Sunday night and immediately checked in to our hotel and went for a walk into the neighborhood. Our neighborhood being the theatre district and immediately next to Times Square. For me, this is my second trip to NYC and the first for Christina. So we decided to start (initiate) her off with Times Square. It was pure chaos but it was all the lights and noises you'd expect.

Day two was a complete photo barrage for both of us but started with a new tradition that was bagels for breakfast. Christina discovered a bagel shop that served the best and most (ridiculous) amounts of custom cream cheeses. After that we waddled over to the Hudson River and caught an around Manhattan cruise for some pictures. 300 pictures later (for me at least), it was well into the afternoon and we decided to head down to FiDi (Financial District) to see a riverside park and eventually make our way over to Brooklyn for some night photos of the skyline and Bridge.

Day three turned out as a semi-planned crap-shoot hoping for things to come through for us. We started out (after bagels) with the NBC Studio Tour which shortened our lifespan by an hour. (How spoiled are we that a tour of the Nightly News set, Football Night in America set and SNL set is a big disappointment). While we were getting in line for the studio tour we also picked up some stand-by tickets for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. As we waited for the designated time (to see if we were going to get in) we headed over to the Chrysler Building to see an observation deck that didn't exist. After walking away with our tail between our legs we wandered back through Grand Central, The New York City Library and Top of the Rock for some more photos. Then it was back to Rockefeller to see if we were getting into a show taping. After waiting for 30 minutes, we were informed that we were going to get to see the taping. This was quite exciting as I wanted to see the musical guest (Avett Brothers). After waiting some more within the bowels of NBC a young intern started picking young-looking people out of the lineup for some reason. When she got to us, she picked us too. We soon discovered that we were selected to be part of the 'Band Bench' which meant we would get to sit behind the band as they performed. So after getting listen to the Roots (the house band on Fallon) and seeing the entire show we were led onto the set, directly behind the band for their performance. In was surreal to sit back there and watch the show and see the audience staring at you, as well as getting to shake hands with the band members after. By the time the taping ended, we were floating and needed some dinner and laughs at our good fortune for getting to see the performance for free.

Day four after a few hours in the park we made our way back to Times Square to find ourselves some tickets to a show on Broadway. After many changes of heart we ended up with tickets to Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark which was notorious for its high-flying action and potential for danger. After seeing the show and the acrobatic staged fighting between characters, it was apparent that there could easily be a mixup that would cause someone to land on the audience. Anyways, the production was quite stunning even if the content was relatively fluffy.

Dave five was our relaxing day after a few hectic days around the city. We headed up to Central Park for a leisurely stroll to see some of the sights and stop for a beverage an the Loeb Boathouse. While their we took in some of the local street artists, shopping and took even more pictures. After this we dropped our bags and cameras off we headed down to Times Square to buy more show tickets. This time we went for a play called Grace featuring Paul Rudd and Ed Asner. This was a really good experience and interesting to see what actors do in between their movie projects. After the show it was time for an extremely late dinner and a midnight ride up the Empire State Building.

Day six was the first day Christina and I decided to split up. Our individual needs for shopping and photography meant that we needed some time apart. Christina headed for the shopping district near Union Square and I took off with my camera through Chinatown, townwards City Hall and eventually to Brooklyn. We met up in time to head over for some pre-show savoury pies (meat pies!!) then down to Radio City Music Hall for a Bon Iver concert. We had seen them together back in June but they were so good that we couldn't pass up an opportunity to see them again, especially at that venue. The show was as expected, amazing, and we were floating afterwards.

Day seven meant that we were starting to run out of things that we really needed to do and started in other things we decided to include in our itinerary. First stop for us was High Line Park, but before we even got there, we got distracted by a random market underneath the line. Our day was relatively short as we slept in (again) and I went running in the morning, plus our evening plans started early. We headed down to the East Village for a Stars concert at Webster Hall. Following that amazing show, we had free tickets to go see the same band play an after-show at a tiny (100 person) club. This was tons of fun with lots of random songs and laughs.

Day eight started, late, very late. The 3:30 bedtime the night before meant whatever we did that day was going to start in the afternoon. That first task was to catch a train out to the ocean and Coney Island (FYI, not an island). Definitely worth the effort to get our there as it was a combination of a boardwalk, amusement park, pier, beach and sadness that all made for some great photos. After that we tried to take the train to Williamsburg in Brooklyn but ended up on 3 trains and a bus to make it across the borough. Following that it was up to the Upper West side for one last dinner.

Day nine (wait, this was only supposed to be eight) has been brief and included boot shopping (Christina's addiction) and camera store shopping (my addiction). Now we're at the airport. Sad. Waiting for a flight to Toronto. It's been great.

Anyways, if you're looking for photos they will be coming in the next few days as there are several thousand to edit.

Thanks for reading.