Texas is big. El Paso, Ft. Stockton, and Austin were our stops along I-10. I shot five rolls during the course of our three night stay in Texas — one night in El Paso and two nights in Austin. A few of my favorite photos from the batch are posted below but you can view the all of the photos (there are a lot) on Flickr.

El Paso was a trip – we basically spent the night, got some coffee in the morning, and got out of there as quickly as we could.

We had plans to take the trip down to Marfa, Tx to see what all the hype is about but we literally missed the turn off and didn’t realize until 100 miles later. Instead we stopped briefly in Ft. Stockton for some Tex-Mex and got right back on the road. That actually worked out because it put us on course to meet my pal Travis Trevisan just in time to catch the Youth Lagoon show at Emo’s in Austin.

We arrived in Austin about an hour after the sun had gone down so I gave Travis a call.

He rode his bike over and I spotted him as I was walking back from the Liquor store. The three of us drank a few beers at the La Quinta Inn where we were staying, located right next to the Texas Capitol building, and we made our way out on foot to the show.

Youth Lagoon played an awesome show, but we wanted to get up semi-early the next day and tour the town so we headed back to our room…but not before some late-night pizza followed by shenanigans around the Capitol building.

Meeting up with Travis was honestly one of the highlights of the trip – He had just moved to Austin a few weeks prior and I think both of us were excited to see a familiar face. We’ve never been super close friends but I felt like we had a mutual respect for each other’s decision to leave San Diego and try something else for a while. I had a blast hanging out with him and I hope he didn’t mind being our tour guide for a couple days.

Before we had made the decision to go south, I had visions of a weird small town tour through the midwest, just because I had never seen that part of the country. I had decided early on I wanted to skip Austin, because I had a feeling it would be really similar to San Diego i.e: tight-knit music scene, some cool bars, fun little downtown, indie shops on the outskirts etc…all of which I am far too familiar with to find interesting (that sounds pretentious but you know what I mean). I felt like I didn’t need to see any more of that. For the most part I was right. Austin felt very similar to San Diego to me in many ways. However, it’s familiarity was endearing and I definitely felt right at home. I’d love to spend some more time there.

Oh yeah, and bats!

The next morning we packed up and headed toward the Gulf, passing Houston with New Orleans plotted as our next stop.

Continued next week…
Here’s the link to the whole collection on flickr as they become available.

On November 15th, 2011, I arrived in Brooklyn, New York and opened up the door to my new apartment for the first time. In a bittersweet 30 minutes, my dad and I unpacked my possessions from the van we had just driven for 10 days across the country. We left San Diego on November 3rd, made stops in Tucson, El Paso, Austin, New Orleans, Memphis, & DC and we had a blast everywhere in between. During the trip I took almost 30 rolls of film with my shitty Minolta XG7 and some cheap Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400 color film. Finally, I got around to developing the film and I just uploaded all the photos to flickr. I still need to sort and title and tag them all so I’ll be posting only one or two rolls every week instead of publishing them all at once.

Click here, or take a look at the slideshow below, to view the first couple rolls from the trip taken between San Diego, CA and Tucson, AZ
Eventually each roll of film will be published in a collection on flickr.

My dad and I did a lot of mobile uploads to facebook and instagram and I checked in everywhere on 4square, so it was very refreshing to just snap some film photos and not fuss with uploading/deleting/saving/sharing etc. This trip was amazing and it was a seriously fun exercise to use my film camera.

Slideshow below

Today is the day I put all my things in a van and left San Diego for the East Coast – Brooklyn, New York. For a kid who was born and raised in the sunshine and cool vibes of Southern California, well, this is a big change… and the imminent winter my be telling of that.

I won’t tell you about how much I’ll miss everyone or about all the incredible experiences and people I’ve met over the past few years or any of that, all I want to say is that San Diego has been the perfect stomping grounds for trying new things and experimentation – to hone in and figure out what I love to do and what I want to pursue. Now I’m moving to New York to focus.

Today, I’m embarking on a 10 day roadtrip with my Dad and we are going to have a blast. I’ll keep everyone updated via twitter, instagram and facebook. I plan to take a ton of film photos also, which I will upload to flickr at some point.

Around the 15th of November I’ll arrive in Bushwick and unload the van into my new apartment where I will be living with my girlfriend, Leah Goren. She is the most creative and ambitious person I know, we make a great team and I can’t begin to explain how excited I am for the things we will accomplish together. Our first task will be designing the apartment, building shelves etc. and making it feel like a home.

New York is a big place and I can’t wait to make it my own. I’m excited to start new routines, find a new coffeeshop, see new faces and most importantly, embed myself in a new community.

In pursuit.

When folks add their credentials (PhD, MFA, BLABLABLA) to the end of their name it really makes me want to start attaching fake suffixes to everything.
- Dylan Ousley, WTF

Today is National Bow Tie Day – believe it. So, to celebrate I wanted to take this opportunity to show off my growing collection.

Currently I own a humble assortment of three bow ties. Three is a good number. On the left is a silk bowtie that Leah designed for me specifically to match her dress for a wedding. It’s super light weight, 100% silk with a fun pattern fit for summertime parties.

My very first bow tie, pictured in the center, is a classy blue chambray. It was an early birthday gift, purchased from the fantastic Brooklyn shop  In God We Trust. It’s a go-to choice – looks great camouflaged blue on blue with my favorite chambray shirt, that way it’s a subtle look. “Was that guy wearing a bow tie?” – Yes, in fact, I was.

Finally, the most recent addition on the right is the one I’m currently excited about. It’s of the light weight, 100% wool variety. Coffee brown, dark enough to pull off a formal look, but on the other hand, looks just fine with a work shirt and rolled up sleeves. It’s handmade in San Francisco by Smith Brand Bow Ties.

It’s great to see a brand take enough care in the packaging to add details throughout. I mean, a wax seal, really?… So rad. When it arrived in the mail I kind of obsessed on taking pictures of it. Check out the gallery below for more images.

Charles Bergquist got a hold of an Olympus iSpeed 3 highspeed video camera and has been shooting test footage all over town this week. He invited some friends up to Golden Hill Park for some good old fashioned fruit smashing, egg cracking, Cristal poppin’ & splishy-splashing all to be captured in mind-bending slow motion. I expect there will be more videos of this genre popping up on his vimeo page in the coming weeks. For now, watch me take a bucket of water to the face at 2000fps.

I’ve just come to the realization that all the seeds that come out the plants you eat have the potential to grow into new plants… fascinating.  I started with beans – those are easy. Now I’ve sprouted a cherimoya and a loquat tree. I’m not sure where I’ll plant those yet…

A few months ago I started experimenting with this pattern. I cut the block for this print while I was working in Leah’s Brooklyn studio and I’m excited to see it all sewn up. The Dylan Tee is available for purchase in Leah’s store.  Main influences: Ettore Sottsass, Puffy Cheetos.

Here are some other images & sketches:

Beans, onions, cilantro, lime. Iced coffee. Not necessarily in the same sitting.