Denver! Denver is rad, so far. Omaha was good, too – but I got bogged down in shit for a while and it’s nice to be in a town with friends, mountains in the background and a copious amount of scary drifters. I feel at home.
My route so far:
More after the jump…
So. These last couple of weeks sort of got away from me. Work got busy and emotions sort of ran off on their own for a little while. But, back to it – as forward is the only way to travel.
My journey thus far:
So, if you don’t know already, I’ve gone through some big life changes over the past few months. And sometimes with big life changes, it becomes necessary to get out, experience some new things and go on adventures.
Thus begins, “Jon Goes West.”
Over the next several months I’ll be embarking on a journey westward from New York. I’ll be stopping in places familiar and not-so-much and writing about it along the way. I’ll be staying mostly in rooms found via AirBNB and my stays will all be of varying lengths. Hopefully it’ll be enjoyable for all.
My first stop is in Huntington, WV. More after the jump.
Hi guys!
As some of you may know, I’m making the trek out to Los Angeles in January to LIVE THE DREAM. I’ll be trying my luck in the city of angels for an undetermined amount of time and am looking forward to the adventure.
Starting January 1st or 2nd, I’ll be getting in my car in New York and driving across the country – all 2777 miles of it – by myself. It’s crazy – but EXCITING.
So as I do this long solo drive, I’m going to need a lot to occupy my time. I’ll be listening to podcasts, audiobooks and my own labored breathing after ingesting too many bags of Funyuns. This will be fine, but there’s something a little uninspired about that. And then I thought of a fantastic idea, but it needs your help:
Make me a music mix.
It can be any kind – meaningful, fun, experimental, romantic, energetic, depressing, inspiring, erotic, blah, blah blah. I could know you very well, have met you once, or never met you at all. This is why this is FUN.
I’d love to have several to digest on my way out there. I’ll listen to each one carefully (or carefree-ly, if it’s so needed) and write about them all. It’s a 40+ hour drive, so I don’t expect I’ll be able to fill the entire time, but if I can even get a quarter of it it’ll be amazing.
I grew up in the days of cassette tape mixes that quickly gave way to CD mixes. I learned early on that the song selections and order of songs is so important to a mix and how it is to be perceived. But I also recognize just fun, music discovery mixes can be great, as well. So present yours however you’d like it to be consumed – just make sure you let me know.
It can be on CD or send me MP3′s. I prefer CD’s, obviously, but it’s not necessary. And provide a tracklist. If you do want to mail me a CD, email me at jon.s.price AT gmail DOT com and I’ll give you my address.
This trip is going to be an amazing experience and I hope I can add your soundtrack to it.
Most times it seems like the Internet was designed for negative feedback. People take to the interweb with a passion when someone has wronged them, online or IRL, with such a ferocity that it can be a little intense. Sure, you can find a lot of positivity, but judging by YouTube comments and Twitter rants, there’s a lot of angry people out there. (And, I should say, rightly so in many cases – the power of the Internet having to do with social change is pretty impressive. IN GENERAL.)
But, this time, I want to say something positive:
JETBLUE IS F-ING AWESOME.
JetBlue has been my airline of choice for some time now – the TV’s alone make it worth the price of the ticket – but on my recent JFK –> MCO travel, I feel like they went just the right amount of “above and beyond” to truly stand out.
Our flight was delayed about an hour due to “mechanical problems” and we were forced to wait around for updates. Even the pilots and flight attendants seemed a little in the dark as to what exactly was happening. Eventually they let us know that our plane wasn’t going to be ready in time and we were now waiting for a new plane to arrive from Sarasota. The total time for the delay ended up being more like 90 minutes than an hour.
The flight itself was probably the bumpiest I’ve ever been on. The “fasten seatbelt” sign was turned off for all of ten minutes during the 2 hour, 30 minute flight and the flight attendants had to hold off on food and drink service for a good portion of it.
So through the delay and bad weather, how did JetBlue respond? By giving us free drinks, free movies AND a $25 dollar credit on a future flight. Was it a ton of free stuff? No. Was it more than they probably needed to do for the circumstances? Sure was.
Delays from JFK are more common than on-time departures and no one can control the weather (except this guy), so I really didn’t need or expect them to make it up to us. BUT, it was an extremely nice gesture for a company in an industry full of dick-ish companies that LOSE CHILDREN and BREAK GUITARS.
So, with their super-pleasant gate staff, amazing gate-check policy (it’s so easy to gate check my guitar, drop it off outside the plane door, and pick it up right there when I get off) and fantastic customer service, JetBlue should be the industry standard of how to run an airline.
Seriously, nice work.
Zombie Wars!
I was lucky enough to part of a really cool project recently, Zombie Wars!
Zombie Wars is an iPad app / Comic / Experience that allows a user to take a photo and put him/herself IN the comic. Image Metrics, the company putting this thing out, has pretty amazing imaging technology that can render a photograph and place it into the experience.
One of the things I wanted to do as the writer, was create a compelling story that provides the reader with a great reading experiencing more than just a cool piece of technology (and trust me, the tech is REALLY cool). I hope I did a decent job with it!
On art duties is a great Australian artist, Wayne Nichols, colors by our old MAGUS friend Charlie Kirchoff and concept design by my good friend and former H2Awesome! drummer, Kurt Bieg.
Check it out if you have an iPad 2! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
“Hi Jon. I’m your blog and you haven’t written in me since July. Why oh why haven’t you written in me? Have your all your fingers been cut off making typing impossible and voice recognition software isn’t quite good enough for your high, high standards? Maybe you forgot how to process language and communicate only with crude hand signals that only Rebekah and apes can translate. Maybe you’re dead. If the above situations have not occurred, please come back and write in me. I’m ever so lonely. And if any of the above situations have occurred (especially the last one) please accept my deepest condolences.
Thanks,
Your Blog”
I was lucky enough to be a guest on this week’s Midtown Comics Podcast! I joined Thor Parker to talk about MAGUS and H2Awesome!
Check it out if you like hearing about cool things like Nerd Rock and Comic Books.
I was thinking today about the history of “Nerd Rock” and what that meant. Not sure what conclusions I drew, but I realized that one person in some ways started (and if not started, at least brought it to the mainstream) what we now think of as “nerd rock” or “geek rock” and has managed to stay relevant – Weird Al Yankovic.
It’s fun to listen to old Weird Al records because they all serve as a unique product of their time – sort of summarizing what the popular music trends were at the time that record was released AND saying something witty at the same time.
He released a new record this summer, and this, by far is my favorite track from it. It also has an amazingly dark video done by the guys that did Happy Tree Friends.
That’s it. Enjoy the video.
The ideas Rebekah and I generally fall into one of three categories:
1. Great.
2. Average.
3. Terrible.
The challenge you’re about to read about spent time at #1 and #2, but ultimately stayed firmly at #3. I’m sure worse ideas exist in the universe, but there definitely aren’t many.