Summer 2020: New Album, Road Trip, Interviews, Missed Connections
Experimenting...
I'm piloting my old travel blog again as a seasonal place to submit my news, stories, content, and thoughts. Every moment is an opportunity for new experiences, adventures, chances, risk, and stimulation. Here are stories showcasing my recent opportunities I followed through with:
ROAD TRIP
I signed up for a half marathon that took place in Provo, Utah August 15th with my new friend Joey. We met June 2nd when I got into a bicycle accident on the Cherry Creek Trail which caused me to break my left radial head. Since then we've been good friends and discovered we both have a passion for running. We planned out a 3 day weekend trip August 14th - 16th in Utah.
Prior to our upcoming trip, my roommate Joe and I planned a very last minute road trip to his hometown of Durango, CO. We left from Denver, August 7th and made our way down south. Driving through Pike and San Isabel National Forest, Rio Granda National Forest, and parts of San Juan National Forest made the trip felt much shorter than the 6+ hours it actually was. The first night we stayed in Pagosa, CO with Joe's childhood friend Alex. We had drinks and dinner at Riff Raff on the Rio which was accompanied by a beautiful sunset on the patio overlooking San Juan National Forest. Afterwards, we drove to The Overlook Hot Springs for a relaxing evening. We dipped in, got seltzers and had an incredible view of the town of Pagosa while lounging in the rooftop tubs.
The next morning Joe and I made our way down to Durango. Walking around the strip, exploring the shops, and thrift stores is how we kicked off our day. We stopped to visit Joe's other childhood best friend Jordan. Him and his wife live in a hip trailer park surrounded by lushes mountains. Consuming apricots from a tree in their lot space and watching chickens roam around while the old friends caught up was exactly how I was spending my time. A couple hours later Joe and I drove to Mesa Verde National Park Service. This is something I've been wanting to do since the last time I visited there in March 2018. The ruins, culture, landscape, and overall vibe of the park has a spooky one of a kind feel that is hard to articulate into words. We spent over 3 hours, optimizing every minute by hiking this historic park, snapping photos, and taking in all the beauty. Knifes Edge and Spruce Tree were some of the most phenomenal sites from our journey there. Making our way back to town we stopped for dinner and drinks at 11th Street Station, a hip food truck vendor lot with seating, bars, and games. A couple of beers with some good Mexican food for dinner was a spectacular way to finish our incredible day. We stayed at the Econolodge near downtown, ending our evening in the hotel hot tub.
The following morning, we explored the town more. Getting bagels, checking out old book stores, and enjoying the views. We spent a majority of the day catching up with Jordan and relaxing around town. That afternoon, we hiked Hermosa Valley and had seltzers near a waterfall. On our way down the mountain Joe got a flat and we had to hurry down the steep mountain as efficiently as possible before we got stuck up there for the evening. We safely made it to the bottom of the mountain, changed the tire, and went to Steamworks Brewery that night for dinner. Initially planning on going back to Denver the next day, Joe's sister called him. She told him to continue the road trip and improvise for a fun summer time. That's exactly what we did, after a couple of drinks and delicious portobello burger we stayed in Jordan's trailer. The next morning we planned out the rest of our trip...
We decided to drive to Arizona and explore Sedona, Flagstaff, and the scenic views out there. A pit stop to buy me new underwear from Target, and a pair of shorts, as well as a t-shirt from Goodwill was highly necessary due to our extended trip. We drove through the steaming hot desert for hours, finally making our way to four corners (CO, NM, AZ, UT) monument we discovered it was closed. We continued our trek to Flagstaff where Joe and I indulged in local craft beer from Historic Brewing Barrel. We booked a close by hotel and went out for the night, hitting up local bars and eateries. The next day we drove Coconino National Forest (which is BEAUTIFUL) while making our way down to Sedona. We snapped photos, and explored Devil's Ridge area. Sedona is a tucked away down surrounded by red rocks in the mountains for people that are into hiking in the hot sun and cooling off in a small town to enjoy. We bounced back and forth from Sedona to Flagstaff all day due to Joe leaving his duffle bag at the hotel from the previously night and for more options of places to check out. We ended our evening hiking by Midgley Bridge during the sunset. It felt like a mythical journey having this opportunity to see the red rocks as the sun was going down and being in a quiet area for us to go on our own paths while hiking. That night, we had dinner in Sedona and drove back to Flagstaff and had an incredible experience. We drove fast through Coconino National Forest blasting music with the sunroof down. We booked a hotel and went out bar hopping with the time we had left. The following morning, I opened our hotel door to see someone getting arrested in the room two doors down from us for who knows what?
We spent hours at Slider Rock State Park swimming in a river, hiking in the nature, and jumping off a cliff into 10ft lake. It was magical laying in the sun on hot red rocks watching people jump in. After hours passed, we decided to make our way back to Durango as for our time was running out and I needed to get back to Denver to be ready to make my way to SLC with Joey for our half marathon. On our way back to Durango (6+ hours) we drove through the desert as the sun was setting, stopping for incredible rock formations and views. We did an improvised photoshoot looking badass in the desert from the car's rooftop window. Listening to Baltimore comedy podcast Cum Town and snacking our way back. Finally making it to the hotel, we crashed out and woke up the following morning for our next destination: Great Sand Dunes National Park. A place I highly encourage everyone to Google. I had only been once before when Kim and I did a road trip there in March 2018. I had been craving to go back again for quite some time and that became a reality during this trip. Hiking up mounds of sands, watching people toboggan down, snapping photos of the beauty, and taking in the overall surrounding was incredible.
Later that night, we made our way over to my friend Aaron that lives in Colorado Springs. He is a very special friend of mine, previously in the band, Chairlift known for their single "Bruises". Aaron is an incredibly sweet and humble person to be around. We met him in the Trader Joe's parking lot to shop for snacks and beverages together. He invited us over to his friend Kyle's house for the evening as for he was dog sitting there. We caught up over drinks, veggie dogs, and spicy chips. It was an amazing experience having the three of us hanging out and storytelling for hours. After probably too many drinks, Joe and I made our way to ColoRADo Adventure Hostel to call it a night. They comped us a private room due to all the work I had previously done within hosteling. Waking up to a beautiful sunny sky in the Springs, Joe and I rushed back to Denver to get me ready to leave for SLC.
10:00am we finally arrived home after an unforgettable road trip around the mid-west. I swapped out clothes, showered, shaved, and overall cleaned up fast! Joey arrived at 11am and just like that with only an hour of being home I made my way back on the road. Unfortunately, we were immediately on a time crunch due to having to pickup our race packets by 7:30pm in SLC. We planned our ride there as we were driving with the mindset of very little time for gas or bathroom breaks. Driving for almost 8 hours with a very limited time to spare definitely provided a sense of bonding over urgency and priorities. This gave me chills, it was adventurous and fun. Going through Wyoming, we saw signs for a place called Little America and their New Deli (is that a county?). My initial thought process was it was a tourist trap of rest areas using different names of countries to appeal to all types of people on the road. This later became an ongoing joke. We briefly stopped in Little America for a gas fill up and bathroom break. Unfortunately, I didn't get the full experience that time, but we did return which I will get more into the magic of this astonishing landmark later. Continuing our time on the road we listened to the Rich Roll podcast, music, and talked about life. The later part of driving through Wyoming before entering Utah was very scenic and refreshing to see after days of taking in the sites of Colorado and Arizona's beauty. Finally making it to Provo, UT we rushed to the running store with 19 minutes before packet pickup ended. Unfortunately, Joey put in the wrong address and we were in the opposite side of town. We called the store and requested they hold our race packets till we got there (an extra 10 minutes). They agreed and we got them!
Checking in at the hotel was next on the agenda. We booked at LaQuinta and had an AMAZING view of Utah Lake from our window. We celebrated as any two 30 year old lot lizards would do by drinking craft sour beers in the parking lot watching the sunset over the lake. It felt magical, but our night wasn't nearly over. We made our way to downtown Provo for dinner and drinks. We got pizza and asked around where the bars were. The locals informed us they didn't have too many bars at all. There were only two on the main strip, we shot pool, downed some locals beers, and explored the scene. The second (and last bar) we discovered a board game called Book Of Mormon Quest *Google it*. It's like monopoly, but very much religion driven with trivia questions relating to their history and if correct you roll the dice and continue your turn. We basically got drunk and played that in the middle of the bar. A drunk bro came up to us while playing and asked what the next question was, we gave it to him, he got it right! Meanwhile, Joey and I kept on guessing the answers till one of us made it the celestial kingdom of mormonism. After a good fill of beers, we made our way back to the hotel at 1am. We discussed our plan to either take the bus up to the mountain for the race or drive to the race starting point and figure a way back to the car later (which is what we did). By 2am we finally went to sleep and woke up at 5:35am for the race.
RACE DAY, I got butterflies in my stomach of excitement and thrill (or perhaps that was all the beer from just a few hours before). We only probably slept 3ish hours after a long drive to Utah and a night of drinking. However, I'm thinking screw it, this our time to shine. Clothes on, shoes tied tight, and on our way to the Provo Canyon Mountain to run 13.1 miles. A group started to gather as the sun started to rise up. 10 minutes before the race started, my stomach started to hurt. The bathroom line was too long, so I improvised by going in the woods. Rushing back to the start Joey and I ran fast, vey fast. We passed many people from the start by running below 7 and 1/2 minute miles. I had a great pace and felt good till 4.5 miles into the race, my stomach started to hurt again. I ran into the Porta Potty, took care of business and ran right back out. Then again, I got sick 2 miles later. After, I hit the 10k mark I knew I couldn't stop anymore. Thus brought me to rush through the rest of the race completing at 1:50:44 according to Strava which placed me at 21st place out of over 100 people. However, the results were slightly different due to me stopping to use the bathroom twice. All together, my timing and results were still something I was happy with. Joey finished before me and we met at the finish line. Celebrating with our new medals, snapping photos, snacking, and catching up with one of the earlier runners we convinced him (Adriane) to give us a ride back to the car.
Back to the car and then to the hotel, we showered then laid in our beds for a couple of hours past checkout time. Our bodies were sore, I was super chafed and too exhausted to do much about it. Realizing we've exceeded our time and needed to move on we packed up and made our way to a vegan Vietnamese restaurant called Vegan Sun. In a delusional state, I thought our host was the coolest/charming/most adorable person I ever met in my entire life.The food was incredibly delicious and helped bring us both back to life. After our meal, we made our way to Salt Lake City to spend the rest of our trip. Checking out local breweries, exploring downtown, and going to a park to see the overview of the city is how we spent our time. Sporting our finisher medals at the breweries, we definitely had good conversation with the locals over drinks. Once we ate dinner and stopped by a liquor store we made our way to our camping destination for the night.
Great Salt Lake, we drove 40ish minutes west to camp right on the lake itself of Salt Lake City. It was much more desert like than we anticipated, but still very cool. We setup our tents, made a fire, and drank beers under the stars. Almost 20 hours of being awake together, we ended our day by hanging out next to the fire. Truly an amazing moment in my life, the feeling of accomplishing another half marathon with a good friend while being on the road for over a week was awesome. The next morning, we dipped in the lake itself and dang it was salty! Shortly afterwards, we hit the road heading back to Denver while listening to gangster rap *Slim Guerrilla - Instagram Pimping*. On our way we stopped in Little America for the magic of novelty gifts, hilarious trucker t-shirts, and 75 cent ice cream cones. We spent over an hour exploring this mythical paradise land where lot lizards and chipmunks can live in peace and harmony. Finally making it back to Colorado, we stopped at Horse Tooth Reservoir. Watching the sunset from a huge overlook on a massive reservoir was astonishing. We jumped in the water in our boxers as the sun was almost all the way down. Afterwards, we went to his friend Doug's house to eat pizza and drink beers. A couple of hours there, we made our way to my apartment. My roommate Joe was sitting on the porch, Joey and I joined him. The 3 J's talked about our trips and at midnight Joey said goodbye. Just like that, I slept in my bed for the first time in 10 days.
A dead body...
Dating in Denver is like no other city from my personal experience. You meet people, you briefly date/hookup, you move onto to the next person in a week later or less. I don't mean to come off that pessimistic, but even 303 Magazine noted how rough the dating scene is here in the Mile High City.
I went on a date in late May with a girl that will be known as A in this blog for privacy. A and I met at a patio bar on S Broadway, it was a okay date. To be honest, I wasn't too interested, but always enjoy good conversation. We closed out after a couple of drinks and she asked if I wanted to go somewhere else. I said no, I was feeling tired and ready to go home. She seemed disappointed and asked if I wanted to go to her apartment which she said was in the Country Club Towers. This surprised me because this is some of the most expensive property in Denver, one of the best neighborhoods, and tallest buildings in the city. I agreed out of curiosity. Her and I walked there and as soon as we got there, she confessed that she didn't actually live there. She lived next store in a much smaller apartment. However, she had a plan for us to get us onto the rooftop's pool. As someone was walking in, the electronic door opened and she ran inside. I followed after her till the front desk agent asked what we were doing. She claimed she had left a bag inside her friends house and needed to get it. I later found out this friend was someone she previously went on a date with. We catch the elevator up to the pool and relax in the water with a beautiful overview of the city. Security arrived after 20 minutes of us lounging in the pool. They kicked us out and at this point I figured I was going home after this.
After getting kicked out, A requested I walk her dogs with her since it was late. I thought it was kinda wild the experience we just had, but I was still curious about this risky behavior and agreed. We made our way to The Hungarian Freedom Park and there was a heavy presence of police as soon as we arrived. Caution tape prevented us from walking directly in the park, so we walked around it. That's when we saw a dead body laying next to a car. It appeared to be a murder because there was blood inside the window and forensic team collecting evidence. It felt intense and weird experiencing this for a first date. A and I went back to her apartment I said goodbye and walked back over to the scene to do my own personal investigation. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to conclude what exactly happened. I researched the news to see if there was any word, but there was nothing.
As for this girl and I, we went to Arapahoe National Forest two days later. Hiked on some big mountains with her dog and drank beers up top. The following day was my aunt's one year anniversary of her passing. We made dinner at A's apartment together and I spent the night. The next day, I got violated by her dog in the oddest way possible. I'm going to save you the TMI for this blog. I told her and she informed me this dog does that to "all the guys". We had breakfast together, and just like that it was both time for us to move on as per usual within the Denver dating scene.
Craigslist: Missed Connections:
Striped shirt at Dailey Park, 7.29 (Baker) was the title of my Craigslist: Missed Connection ad that I posted. My friend Joey invited me to play spike ball with him and his friends that day. I saw a girl continue to stare at me during the duration of our game. She looked interesting and I felt compelled to say something to her, but by the time I was finished the game she was gone. The next day, I posted that ad and received a reply from a girl claiming to be her. I requested for her to identify the scene or what I was wearing. She did both, she described my blue shorts and white Denver Art Museum shirt and even mentioned the self defense class next to the group I was with.
This felt spooky, but in a fun way. We chatted briefly through email and exchanged information. Still skeptical about meeting a stranger from Craigslist, I Googled her. I discovered some interesting information and judging from her poetic text messages describing her life and saying someone that she use to date quote: "called Thomas" that resembled me, it still felt odd. We text back and forth a few times, but have not met up yet due to me being on the road and her previous commitments as well. I'll report back later if this Craigslist meetup ever comes to fruition.
A few quckies:
I played Underground Music Showcase 2020 livestream from my living room. Almost 900 viewers have tuned in. As well as Quarantunes, Smallsongs, 7th Circle Music Collective, and Apartscape (unofficial Artscape 2020) live stream Check out my full UMS set here:
UMS: WATCH tHiS v i d e o
I was interviewed on a few podcasts, each episode includes an unreleased (before our album release that is) new The Shaky Experience track at the end of all episodes. The podcasts were:
My music video "Verbal Escalation" by Pelvis Presley was featured on Bmore Music Tv
Interviews:
I host a radio show at 92.9FM / 89.3HD3 KUVO local. I've had lots of new guests with compelling stories including, Life On Planets (Kitsune Records), Area 15 CEO/Founder, Vinyl Williams and much more.
Possibly most notable is Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. I interview him on COVID, protests, global warming, and the future of our city. All interviews can be enjoyed in the link below.
Listen here:
p.s "The internet's busiest music nerd" aka The Needle Drop Retweeted my Dopy Body interview!
Music recommendations:
Cut Copy - Freeze, Melt
- beautiful minimalist electronic music with soothing vocals. This album easily could win album of the year for me. The first two tracks are kinda meh for me, but the other 6 take the cake for me. My favorite tracks are "Rain", "In Transit", and "Love Is All We Share".
Buscabulla - Regresa
- Spanish vocals, with clever melodies. I use my imagination when listening to the tracks of what the songs could be about. This album is spicy and provides a sense of grief mixed with joy in a perfect way. Favorite tracks: "No Sabemos". "NTE", "Vamono"
Dope Body - Homebody
- Experimental, chaotic, garage rock! You can definitely feel the energy translated from their live set into this album. Great album to run to, easily my favorite release from their previous work. It also has some road trip vibe elements to it. Favorite tracks: "Johnny Bag Of Smoke", "Sour Apple", "Back To Back".
The Strokes - The New Abnormal
- Primarily a sad album, has a lot of strong feelings and emotion in it. If you're a long time Strokes fan or a new fan it still has a few bangers in this release. There's a major sense to me that the band is trying to convey a message of sorrow for our current world that basically became an album. Favorite tracks: "Why Are Sundays So Depressing", "Bad Decisions", "At The Door".
We Are Scientists - I Cut My Own Hair (single)
- This band always delivers, always. It has a more technical guitar riff, a very distinct bass line, and solid lyrics to make this track a hit. The music video is also a great addition to their notorious satirical videos of the band cutting their own hair during quarantine. Highly recommend this track, looking forward to this track possibly being featured on a new album.
The Shaky Experience new album "More Famous Than Food" is here!
Genre: art punk/thrash rock
Features: me - vocals/guitar, Thom Merrill (in Hawaii) - drums/backing vocals
Favorite tracks: Chesapeake Body, Organized Crime, Scouts Honor
Listen here:
N E W Music VVVideos:
Earthquake Hands - people dancing in Hawaii
Contemporary People - Thom swimming in a bowl of soup
Scouts Honor - an iPhone screen capture lyric video, p cool stuff if you ask me
If you have any questions, feedback, or you just want to say hi, reach out to me at:
Instagram: @jameslane1989
Twitter: @jameslanee
Thank you for reading!
(jumping off a cliff in Arizona)
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