Albuquerque to Phoenix
113 degrees. That’s actually a temperature that we experienced today. Downtown Phoenix is very nice other than that. The hotel is very nice too, and very affordable, and right across from the Footprint Center, so maybe we’ll come back for a Suns game this winter. But holy shit it is hot here right now. Also, take a trip through the Tonto National Forest when you get a chance, it’s beautiful. We spent a little time in Old Town Albuquerque for coffee before we hit the road and it was nice there too. I’m kinda getting a little burned out with these posts, but it’s perfect timing, because this is the last stop of what has become over a month away from LA. Five and a half hours on the road tomorrow and we’ll be back at Bronson and back to the grind of real life. The final stretch of the year will be upon us and we’ll have to complete our most ambitious project yet, and that’s exciting and scary all at the same time but before we get there I think I’d like to just reflect on this trip a little bit.
It’s really been refreshing to see different parts of the country, and to take the time it took to get home on the ground instead of by air. It reminds you how big the country is and for me personally, it reminds me how much I tend to rush things. This whole year and for many years before that - my whole life basically, I’ve been trying to teach myself patience. I’m the kind of person to think of something, imagine it in my head, tell a friend about the grand plan and then get really, severely bummed out when that plan doesn’t come to fruition immediately. I mean immediately, too, like right when I finish talking about it I get bummed that it doesn’t just happen. People say it all the time but it’s hard for me to accept that the journey is the destination sometimes… and not being able to appreciate that can really put a damper on your experience… and that can be really sad because as far as we know, this is the only chance we have to enjoy this experience, so spending it bummed out is essentially missing the greatest opportunity we’ve been given. There have been a lot of conversations this month with Understanding, Bryana, my parents about the state of this company. We’ve talked at length about what’s working, what’s not working, people have made suggestions, I’ve been trying to think of adjustments, trying to figure out a way to break through, and I often get really overwhelmed and it gets pretty dark. But getting stuck in that mindset, approaching our challenges from that mindset… it’s like shooting ourselves in the foot. I’m limiting myself because I’m looking at it from a negative perspective, and I’m not putting my best foot forward because people are smart and they can see when you’re not feeling what you’re doing, and if that’s the case, why would they want to engage with that kind of energy? You have to find a different way to look at it.
So this is my different way of looking at it. We’re doing everything we said we would, and we’re doing it all ourselves. And it’s going to be a long journey, just like this month on the road has been. And at the end of the day, that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing because we’ll get to see so much on the way there, and that’s the point. I’m gonna try to be patient. We’ll get there when we get there.
Time to get back to Hollywood.
-J.P.
Norman to Albuquerque
The longest day of driving is officially behind us. We’re about 12 hours from home now, and we’ll get there on Monday. I was thinking today about this trip and how amazing it is that I could spend 16 days in transit and only stop in two cities that I’d been to before. That’s it! Everything else has been completely new. While I wish I could spend two or three days in every spot to really start to understand how it feels to be there, I’ve compiled a nice list of places I’ll get back to someday.
That being said, I don’t think I’ll do this stretch of the country in August ever again if I don’t have to. It was over 100 degrees in the car most of the way from Oklahoma through the top of Texas and into New Mexico. We left pretty early this morning to go explore Oklahoma University’s campus for a bit and get our morning coffee there. Football practice was going on which got me kind of excited for football season. I’ve also been watching that Quarterback show on Netflix so I’m anticipating the season a little more than I have in recent years. Anyway, we’re kind of just off the highway by the University of New Mexico, on the outskirts of Albuquerque for the night. We got some really good New Mexican food. I tried Carne Adovada for the first time - very tasty. Understanding finally got to do his laundry. Nothing else too remarkable. Well, actually I think I may have made some break throughs on a few ideas for some adjustments to our social strategy that we can start to employ throughout the rest of the year. Hopefully it will help us connect and engage with more people out there who want to hang out with us on the internet and enjoy the things we make.
One final note that I find at least a little bit interesting is that I’m ready to get home. The same thing happened on the second to last night of the first leg of this trip. I heavily considered just powering through and getting home a day early just to get it over with. We won’t be doing that though. Take it as a sign to stay in the moment. Enjoy where you’re at. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Because I bet once it’s over, you’re gonna wish you had more time.
To Phoenix!
-J.P.
Memphis to Norman, and Like Me by The New Hippies
Well, the rain followed us to Memphis this morning, so we didn’t really get a chance to do any extra exploring around the city. Coffee and puzzles to go for the second day, drove by the Civil Rights Museum (we’re relegated to outdoor activities long as we travel with the dog) and crossed the Mississippi River into Arkansas. Arkansas looks a lot like Kansas. It was a long uneventful drive. Then we crossed into Oklahoma. More of the same. Stopped to get gas. Got back on the road. Passed by a place called Lotawatah. Passed by a big lake a little bit after that. Said that’s a “lotawatah”. Low-hanging fruit. Saw a sign that marked the home of Carrie Underwood, American Idol winner 2005. I remember watching Carrie Underwood win American Idol in 2005. Passed a silo that said home of Toby Keith, played a couple Toby Keith songs. I used to listen to a lot of Toby Keith when I was a kid. We’re staying in Norman, where the University of Oklahoma is, because I figured there might be a little restaurant we could go to and a coffee shop for the morning, but it’s literally 106 degrees out so maybe we’ll take something back to the hotel room (can’t go inside most places because of the dog). It’s only going to get hotter for the next two days so this might be most of what happens the rest of the way home. We’ll see.
In other news, today is the first of three release Fridays in August for Beautiful Idiots LLC. Today, The New Hippies start off the month with their new single “Like Me”. Streams for Wishing Well have been picking up a lot over the last two weeks, so I’m hoping there will be some carry-over and we can begin to build a solid foundation for the band. We’ll see how it goes. Like Me is another song that was born almost seven years ago with Zane’s original demo. Then in 2019 in the midst of my 100 Days endeavor (more on that later) I put in little overtime and recorded a scratch version of the first verse and the hook. The second verse didn’t come until a few years later, and then I added the tag one day by taking one of my ideas from 100 Days and combining it with what I had added to Zane’s instrumental. I really like this one. It feels like an essential part of The New Hippies character - every rapper has a song about being one of a kind, right? So we needed one too. But really, most all those songs just kind of sound like a cry for love. That’s where the outro comes in. At the end of the day, we just want to be loved. Just like me. Hope you enjoy!
-J.P.
Nashville to Memphis
Well, it rained hard all morning and thunderstorm rolled in around 11 am when we went to get our coffee and breakfast so Nashville didn’t really get a chance to redeem itself. Maybe it didn’t want me there. Maybe we’ll have to go back and try again some time. Everybody deserves a second chance right? We went to a place called Frothy Monkey at the suggestion of my cousin and the coffee was in fact frothy and there was a monkey in it. Ok maybe there wasn’t a monkey in my coffee but it was very good. Until next time Nashville.
We drove through torrential rains for about forty five more minutes but when it cleared up it got HOT. And here’s the bad news. We’re headed southwest for the rest of this trip. And here’s the worse news. There’s no AC waiting for us at home in LA. It’s gonna get bad. We made it to Memphis today though, We had a very good dinner at SOB and then walked around Beale St. and went down to the Mississippi River until the heat defeated us. We’ll try again in the morning but it’s going to be about 93 degrees by 9 am and we have about 7 hours in the car. The majority of the rest of the trip may just be about getting home.
On the business front, The New Hippies have a song coming out tomorrow, which is another one that I love. We’ve also been getting a bunch of emails and DMs from people who have heard songs from one of our acts and want to offer services related to digital marketing and Spotify promotion and things like that. On the one hand it’s encouraging because people are starting to hear the music, but I’m a little weary of people trying to take our money for minimal returns. It’s a difficult game. The company we’ve hired now is likely partly responsible for these people reaching out but I’m not sure how much of step up any of these companies are and to be honest, I’m not sure we got the results I was hoping for in this first run. We’ll put a little more focus on that when we get back to LA though. I’m also preparing for what is going to be the most grueling part of the year in terms of recording/writing/producing video/and focusing our attention to our last act of the year. It’s the last push, and it’s definitely going to be the most challenging so far.
Into the fire.
-J.P.
Greensboro to Nashville
We’re about 465 miles and one time zone closer to Hollywood now. We got up and out of Greensboro fairly early because we had our longest drive of the trip so far, but tradition is tradition, and the one we established on our way here was to find a nice place to have a cup of coffee, do the NYT puzzles and map out the day. So we hopped off the highway about 20 minutes down the road in Winston-Salem and enjoyed our morning fare at a place called Remedy. The neighborhood was very quaint, filled with hills and parks and nice little houses. The coffee shop curated a nice vibe - soothing jazz standards and books and comfy couches and a nice view at the tables outside. And guess what. We solved Letter Boxed in two words today. TWO WORDS. I honestly was starting to think I’d never do it. To be honest, I never really cared to do it but my Dad was giving Bryana and I. a lot of shit for solving the puzzle in three or four words so we’ve been on a mission. We went SWINGERS to SQUARELY and I’ll never forget the elation I felt in that moment.
Anyway, Bryana and Un enjoyed some quiche that they swore by (I’m not a big egg guy), we finished our coffee and the rest of the puzzles and hit the road. The drive through the Appalachian mountains was beautiful. I have a soft spot for the woods - they’re very peaceful to me. It was pretty but it felt particularly long. We made it Nashville around 7:00 pm. I have to say this now: Lots of people have told me I have to go to Nashville or how much I would love Nashville, and I know I’ve only been here a few hours at the time of writing this but, I’m not sure why people say that. The city is fine. We had good food at a bar/restaurant in East Nashville, and we’ll be doing some more exploring tomorrow so my opinion could change by then, but I’m not feeling the draw. It’s fine, but give me LA or New York or Chicago or San Francisco or Denver any day. Dinner cost the same here as it would in any of those cities. I don’t know, do they say that because of the songwriters here? That’d be a stretch. People write songs everywhere, and this isn’t exactly my style. .I don’t know, I’ll give it another chance tomorrow. We’re going to spend some time with Understanding’s sister before we head to Memphis. There’s music there too. Who knows what will happen.
-J.P.
Washington D.C. to Greensboro
Day 2 headed west is in the books! I got a pretty good workout in this morning in D.C. and we had a nice breakfast down the street from the hotel at a place called Emissary. Then we headed over to get a dose of American history. We did a nice walk through the park and saw the Lincoln Memorial, The Washington Monument, The Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, the World War II Memorial and even the White House! We skipped the Capitol Building, The Jefferson Memorial and the MLK Monument because they were a little too far away for our schedule. We sang whatever Hamilton lyrics we knew and Understanding also sang as many American songs as possible for everyone to hear. I got some fun photos that I’m looking forward to getting developed, except for the White House. The White House view was through a fence and it would’ve been a really shitty picture so, whatever. To be honest, I really enjoyed our walk through the park today, but I was hoping to feel more inspired than I was. The memorials were quite grand but I don’t know, I was hoping to feel something deeper than I did.
I found myself thinking about it again in the car after we left. The men whose Monuments and Memorials we walked by were working toward something so much bigger than themselves. Sure there’s a valid argument to make about the morals of the time and the problematic aspects of the foundation of our country, but had they not done what they did I might not even have the opportunity to bring that up. They established a foundation for hundreds of millions of people to build upon, and a built a nation that created the opportunity for everyone after them to chase their dreams, just like they did. When I look at this company, I hope to establish a legacy that can outgrow me, support and facilitate the dreams of generations to come, and bring people joy in their lifetimes. I’ve been complaining about the idea of having to find a supplementary job next year or find more composition or soundtrack work because it will force me to divide my time in a way that I’d rather not, and it doesn’t get me excited like building this company does, but I have to remind myself of my ultimate goal. I’m not comparing the specific sacrifices I’m going to have to make to the sacrifices of the forefathers of the United States, but I am comparing their dedication to their dreams to the dedication required of me to achieve mine. I have to also remind myself that it’s not just about me.
Anyway, the drive to Greensboro consisted mostly of a beautiful tree-lined highway. I’m excited to get to Nashville tomorrow. I guess I’ll keep following this dream wherever it takes me.
J.P.
Hopewell Junction to Washington D.C.
Back on the road! Willie Nelson would be proud. Maybe. I don’t know Willie Nelson. He seems nice. Anyway, after about two weeks in Hopewell Junction we began our journey back home. We spent a week longer than we expected to at my parents house, mostly because we were having such a nice time and there was no need to turn around and rush into 3,000 more miles of driving. It really was very nice to spend a little extra time with my family and some friends from home. Every time I go back the gravity seems to get stronger. Maybe one of these days I’ll go back for good, but for now we’ve still got some business to attend to on the west coast. So this morning we packed up the car and headed south to our nation’s capital.
First though, we had to pick up our third voyager Understanding, at his childhood home in central New Jersey. If you watch any of season 3 of the Wu-Tang show, it’s the red house featured throughout the season. Unfortunately we had a little mix up in our schedules and Bryana and I had to find a way to kill sometime before Un got back and was ready to go, so we headed to Princeton to have some lunch. It was my first time there and boy do I wish I was smarter sometimes. The Ivy League? That’d be pretty sweet ya know? We got some sandwiches at Hoagie Heaven and walked over to the campus to have lunch on one of the lawns. Lots of beautiful stone architecture and we even got to see where Einstein used to teach. I was going to look for that pond in Oppenheimer but Un was ready to go and I didn’t want to get to D.C. too late. So we left Princeton for Millstone and the Avengers were assembled.
It’s only about three hours from Un’s house to D.C., so the drive was fairly easy. So many tolls though. It cost about 20 dollars to get here, which I think is kind of absurd. It took us all of fifteen minutes to drive through Delaware so like, is it even real? We played the theme song from The Wire as we drove through Baltimore. Driving through D.C. itself felt a little strange for a reason I can’t really put my finger on. I think it probably has something to do with the juxtaposition of all these colonial mansions from the establishment of the United States and newer luxury apartments and retail spots. I don’t know, I’ll have to spend more time here. Tomorrow we’ll get over the the National Mall and see some of the famous monuments before we head out.
Seven more days ‘til Bronson. Here we go again.
-J.P.
The Way Back
Well, it’s been a nice little change of pace being back in Hopewell these past couple weeks, but nothing is forever. We’re mapping our way back today. Understanding is joining us. I think I’d be a little more excited if it wasn’t so freaking hot. But here’s to eight more days on the road. Headed back to Hollywood. I’ll keep you posted.
-J.P.
Fleeting Thoughts
Here’s a list of titles I saved because I thought I had ideas to write about but I forgot literally all of them.
What’s the Worth?
Is it For You or For Me?
Pickles on the Side, Please
50 is a Lot
Selfing in the Modern Age
Stretch or Die
So, yeah. That was that. I thought they were good ideas. You know what? A couple are coming back to me. Maybe I’ll get to them later, because I already did this. Life is fleeting. Here today, gone tomorrow.
-J.P.
