Just got back from the West Coast.  Drove a couple thousand miles in a cargo van.  These polaroids will tell the story better than anything else:

Can’t believe I won’t be here for this!  Damnit.

Here are two photos from the last time I linked up with Damas Gratis in Buenos Aires:

Sad day for hip hop and for those of us that grew up with Guru on our radios.

That’s why instead of preaching death in my songs, I breathe life – Guru

Forgot to post a link to this:

That was the subject line from the PE at Budget Travel confirming that I would, indeed, be attending summer camp for the first time in my life.  I was so excited!  Canoes, swimming, cabins, poison ivy!  Fun!  I was 32 years old last August and I had never been to summer camp.  All I can say is, “thank you Budget Travel and thank you Sandy Island.”

Back in February, I got a call from Monocle Magazine to shoot a story for them in Curaçao.  I have to be honest, I had to look at a map to know where I was going.  I fancy myself a pretty well educated guy, so I was a bit shocked that I had NO CLUE what Curaçao was, where it was located exactly, and what it was about.  Thank you American School System.

It turns out, I probably now know more about the island country than pretty much anyone you know.  I’ve met the assistants to the Prime Minister, directors at Central Bank, local businessmen, prominent professors, and lots and lots of taxi drivers.  I’ve driven from tip-to-tip, seen foreign investments, ate street meat at their Carnival, and shopped at their version of Costco.  All in five days.  Oh yeah, I even took some photos while I was there.

It turns out that Curaçao is presently part of the Netherlands Antilles, along with Bonaire, St Eustatius, Saba, and St Maarten.  Later this year, the Netherlands Antilles will be disbanding, leaving Curaçao to be an almost fully autonomous government.  The process of separating from the other countries and cutting some of it’s strong ties to the Dutch Kingdom is fascinating.  A new flag needed to be designed, a currency needed to be decided upon, entire government entities dissolved, others created from scratch, etc.  It literally implies creating a whole new mechanism of governance.  The Monocle focus was on the economic opportunity that will exist once the country “goes live.”  Curaçao sits strategically between the US, Europe, and South America.  It could position itself as a logistical and cultural hub to bridge these continents.  I’m no writer, so feel free to check out the whole story here.

Here are some of my favorite photos from my five days in the island nation.