Who Dat (MIH 11)

We are in Austin, TX. We got here late Sunday night and then had a little adventure looking for Star Seed’s Café, which was “close” to where we’re staying.


But apparently close in Austin means several miles, not like close in S.F. which means you can walk to it. Soooo we ended up at Denny’s- but it was a totally rocking Denny’s all decked out fifties style with a big outdoor patio… it was cool, we swear. We’ve been slacking on the blog the last couple of days. We’re staying with Jeremey’s friend Shannon of Banana Farm fame...



and Shannon's girlfriend Amy (Buckshot) of the Texas Roller Girls. They’ve got a big tournament this weekend so if you’re in the Austin area go out there and show them some love.

Shannon and Amy just moved into a new spot and don’t have the Internet. So right now we’re lurking at Clementine’s Coffee on Manor using their free wifi.


Austin’s been pretty rad; we shot our first story on the road, Austin Craft Mafia. Now, there’s a ton of ladies who are part of the Craft Mafia… we shot three of them. The first was Hope Perkins who does amazing portraits of dead rappers.


She did not do one of Mac Dre for Jeremey…


(but she said she’d do it for $250.)

...Oh yeah and we saw the most bizarre bug outside of Hope's place...


If anybody can name it, we'll let you donate fifty bucks to us.

Tina Sparkles was next. She showed us how she makes the coolest guitar straps in the world. Last but not least was Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching who was gracious enough to let us interrupt her incredibly busy day to interview her and shoot her operation. She has so much stuff going on, we’re truly grateful that she let us bug her for a couple of hours. She dropped some very thoughtful and intelligent commentary about D.I.Y. culture on us and she even hooked Abby up with an embroidery kit.

Thanks ladies. And look out for some tidbits from those shoots coming soon.

We spent part of Monday night at a New Orleans Saints Bar with Shannon and some other Austin folks watching the Saints get stomped.


So then we headed to Long Branch to numb the pain. Everybody keeps telling us to go swimming in one of the creeks here, but we didn’t bring swimsuits and Wally World was a huge disappointment. Next stop Savers…

Oh yeah, and the Queso is rocking.

Get in the Car (MIH 10)

Oh what?! Our first vlog from the road. This is a taste of the first couple of days of our journey. We'll be hitting you up with vlog updates every week or so (or to the extent that we can edit bits on the road). These are not the Make It Happen stories, just a glimpse of our travel experiences, so that everybody can see what dorks we are. Enjoy.

What Scrilla Really Means (MIH9)

You may have noticed the “Chip In” button over to the right. You may have asked yourself, “Why in the world do they need $50,000?!” We were pretty shocked too. When we set out to partake in this grand adventure we knew it would be expensive… What we didn’t know was how much we’d have to go into debt. Since getting a business loan was a bust, we were forced to pull out the ol’ credit cards, high interest and all. We’ve basically reached the limit on our current ones purchasing equipment, and have utilized our parents’ generosity to their fullest extent. Before the trip started we saved up as much as possible at our Current TV jobs all while taking on extra Freelance work… but it was impossible to reach our goal. So that’s why we decided to put up the donate button. Help us get rid of our debt! We’re not expecting to actually get all $50,000 we need- but anything… one dollar, 20 dollars or 5000 dollars (ha)… anything will help. This is truly an independent endeavor… so we are completely and utterly grateful to those helping us along the way.

If you’re curious to see how it all breaks down… see below.



Further Breakdown:

Cameras:
The Canon Camera Packages include a Canon XH-A1, Wide Angle Lens, Shotgun, Camera Backpack, Lavaliere Mics, .3 Ultra Fisheye Lens, Extra Batteries, Camera Light, and Accessories.

Computers & Hard Drives:
The Computers are used consistently on the road for blog updates, email, story correspondence, research, and editing vlogs. The Hard Drives will be used for all the stories, projects, raw materials, footage, etc. (Video takes up LOTS of space).

Storage:
We decided to get rid of our apartments so we could save a ton of money. Now we pay only $200 a month to store all of our belongings!

Gas:
As we all know, gas is super expensive. Since being on the road we've seen prices from $2.55 to $3.80! We’ve factored in bit more money in this area on the chance that prices continue to rise.

Food:
Grocery stores are the way to go! We’re mastering the art of Supermarket Road Food. It’s cheaper and healthier than going out and … well, as much as everyone loves Taco Bell… Safeway and Trader Joe’s will always win in our book.

Motels:
We’ve planned to shoot in cities where we can crash at friend’s houses. However, there are places where we don’t know peeps (Georgia, Philly), plus the random stops we must take between long distance destinations. We’re limiting the motel staying as much as possible.

Combined Bills:
This includes our monthly minimum credit card payments, cell phone bills, health insurance, student loan payments, and car insurance.

Extra Living Expenses:
This equals about $200 dollars a month for unforeseen expenses. Not completely necessary, but saying we needed $49,000 seems a little weird. Adding the thousand made it a nice round number. Plus, who knows what could happen on the road.



We’ve had 11 contributors so far and we can’t thank each of you enough.
Updated 10/15/07
Thank You:
Paloma Ramirez
David DeLuca
Nancy & Mark Joslin
Angelo Hjelm
Randy Lavoi
Tim and Hollis Berendt
Conor Knighton
Dan Stoneberg
Heather Berendt
Neil Cocker
James Horsfield

Roadkill, Roswell, Rain, and the Road. (MIH8)

It’s been a long three days since Las Vegas. We haven’t had the best of luck arriving at tourist destinations at a reasonable hour. For example: We managed to pull up to the Grand Canyon Park Entrance at dark, we arrived in Roswell less than one hour after everything (even restaurants) closed, and we missed traveling anywhere near the Marfa Lights because of a severe storm. The good news is we didn’t die in a flash flood. And we have some pictures from our adventures.

To our surprise (somehow we didn't realize until we were basically there) we drove over the Hoover Dam.



We stopped in Seligman, AZ, home of the Route 66 tourist capital.



The couple stores that line the main street are filled with memorabilia and cheap tourist trinkets. Don’t worry, we avoided purchasing any license plates or key chains with our names plastered on them. Jeremey however, bought a vanilla milkshake from Delgadillo’s Snow Cap Drive In. It was amazing. Oh, and we also drove past the Roadkill Café.



Roswell was, well, dead. Apparently there are no signs of life (alien or human) after 5:00pm.





The storm hit us between Roswell and (what we hoped to drive to) Fort Stockton. There was lightening on every side of us, thunder always getting closer. The rain was pouring buckets that seemed to splash in lakes on the increasingly invisible road. Luckily we found a small picnic area, and parked it behind a semi truck.



I was certain we were facing death by flash flood. No civilization for over 48 miles. Jeremey’s phone had no service- mine was spotty at best. Thankfully, we got through to Jeremey’s mom who informed us that we were about to hit a break in the storm. If we pressed on for 40 minutes, we might criss-cross through the calm, and make it out. Well, since you’re reading this blog, you know the ending. It was scary… but we made it to Pecos, TX, and gave up driving until the morning.

Yesterday was a thrilling and exciting day of driving across Texas. The good news is you can drive pretty fast.



We arrived in Lake Charles, LA late last night to pick up… a CAMERA! Jeremey’s Dad, who is an entrepreneur himself, came to our aid and gave us the funds we needed to get our second camera. We are incredibly thankful for his generosity.



…This is Jeremey’s dad standing over his Christmas feast.
Thanks so much Dad (Randy).


Tomorrow, we head to Austin...

TeamVegas (MIH7)

Since leaving Monterey (or more accurately ghetto, Seaside), we have driven 540 miles. With a quick stop for gas in what Jeremey dubbed “Extortionville” (aka Coalinga: “We charge $3.45 for gas because we can”), a pit stop for roadside nectarines, a traffic jam in Bakersfield, and dinner at a Mexican-Taxidermy-Restaurant in Barstow… we made it to Las Vegas. Surrounded by Pawn Shops and Wedding Chapels, we are far from the luxurious Strip. Nevertheless, this end of town has it’s own style, however grimy and worn down it may be.

Today we went for a nice jog in Freedom Park... and now it’s work time. We're putting together a short vlog for ya. Tonight, Jeremey will get to experience Vegas for his first time. Lake Charles might have some nice casinos, but I’m pretty sure they don’t have Royal White Tigers that prance around with two dudes in spandex.

Also, be sure to click on the new buttons at the top. You can now check out our map, as well as our loose schedule. We will be updating the map with the google "blueline" so you can see where we've actually traveled. Let us know what you think!


On the Road- Somewhere between Bakersfield and Barstow:

No Sur! (MIH6)

At approximately 9pm on Saturday, September 15th, we, TeamJaded officially left San Francisco. After three days of packing, hauling, moving, storing, cleaning, and again packing (the car), we embarked on the official “Make It Happen” road trip.

At approximately 10pm on Saturday, September 15th, we, TeamJaded arrived in San Jose, CA. We were tired. We needed sleep. We needed to say goodbye to a good friend… and return a vacuum. Our friend Marika was kind enough to let us crash at her place and this morning we awoke ready to hit the road.

And by this morning we mean about noon, and then some time after Safeway Sushi, looking for a Sprint store (Jeremey’s cell phone broke) getting lost in the means streets of San Ho, and repacking the back seat of the car, (believe us, it’s gnar), we left San Jose headed for Big Sur.

Big Sur was going to be a night of rest in a beautiful place, then perhaps a morning run on the beach before we really set off across America… But it turns out Big Sur is for bourgeoisie rich people and the cheapest “cabin” was a hundred and fifty bucks, the most expensive that we found was fourteen eighty-five… “that’s in hundreds” the booth boy sneered at us, and then asked us to drive around the booth rather than turning around in the parking lot and disturbing the rich people.

So we back tracked to Monterey and landed our selves in the less than fifty bucks a night Economy Inn. That’s right, Hotel Coupons. Find ‘em at a gas station near you.





Oh yeah, and we ate Chop Suey… It tastes exactly like Chinese food.

That’s it for the first day of Make It Happen. Stay tuned for blog and vlog updates. We’ll be shooting our first on-the-road story next week, we can’t wait to tell you all about it.

Thanks for the people who’ve been donating money (you know who you are, big Dan Stoneberg) we wouldn’t be living large at the Economy Inn without you.



And also thanks to Neil Cocker for the blog shout out and the donation.

The Final Countdown (MIH5)

The past week has been utterly hectic. From attending a friends wedding in another time zone, packing up the apartments, contacting and confirming stories, figuring out all the last minute details, all while trying to get in the final hits of our favorite SF spots; we are facing exhaustion before we even hit the road. Our calendar is a mess of crossed off lists that somehow continue to pile on more errands each day. Finding a storage unit, buying car supplies, travel food, atlases, boxes, forwarding addresses, getting a business PO box, fixing the AC (it’s fixed!)- Somehow, it’s all getting done.



We’ve managed to sneak in a bit of time to enjoy Green Apple Bookstore, Café Venice, and El Toreador before we leave. However, these next two days are going to be tough. Everything needs to be packed and put into storage- hopefully I can muster up the strength to help Jeremey move his couch to the Uhaul!

We’ll be hitting you up with our route soon. There’s a possibility we might have to re-route for a few weeks – Last night Hurricane Humberto hit in Beaumont, TX and the all up the Louisiana-Texas border (Lake Charles escaped the worst). And although being from Colorado I know nothing personally about Hurricanes, Jeremey’s been given the heads up about the chance of another one hitting the same time we’ll be in Louisiana. We’ll be keeping an eye out. Hopefully everything will be safe- the last thing Louisiana needs is another storm.

The heat goes on... (MIH4)

We’ve been reaching out to quite a few stories these past few weeks- from Austin to NOLA to NYC. We’re really psyched about some of the responses we’re getting, and looking forward to meeting the people behind the emails. One of the stories we just recently contacted is the Lost Film Fest. Jeremey and I have yet to see the spectacle ourselves, however, we know this is going to be an awesome shoot. Scott, the mastermind behind Lost Film Fest said they’re in the process of booking a pretty solid show (with some amazing attendees, but I’m not sure if we can disclose that yet!). We’re hoping to line up our schedule to sync with the performance (which will be in Philly). That means we wont be shooting this one until mid-November, but time will fly.

On a side note, a few weeks ago we made a quick trip to LA. It was here we discovered our air conditioner didn’t work in our two-week-old (used) car. You NEVER need AC in SF, so for those two weeks we were oblivious to the impending heat-monster-Honda. But let me tell you, while driving south on the 5 with the windows down, we were not happy campers (I actually hate the term "Happy Campers". I apologize for using it). So our car is in the shop right now… think good thoughts that they will fix it (cheap) and we wont have to sweat our way across the country.

Only 11 days 'til we hit the road.

And it Begins… (MIH3)

Huge news for us, we’ve decided on a rough route. …Which has a few detours to Jeremey’s hometown for a couple of weddings and a reunion. We’ll be posting that shortly. We also sent out feelers to a bunch of our friends, hitting them for insider info on their towns, story ideas, and couches to crash on. Then we started our story outreach and emailed dozens of potentials… and we even got nibbles from some really talented people in Texas, the Austin Craft Mafia. It looks like they’re down to work with us, and we’re really excited to shoot their story… especially since it includes portraits of dead rappers. We’ve got some other cool stuff cooking in Austin, but none of it is confirmed, so we’ll let you know when we know.

Last but not least, you may have noticed that in our first vlog, there are some shots of skaters. That’s because our first shoot was right here in San Francisco, the Lowcard Story. Lowcard is a D.I.Y. skate ‘zine in San Fran that has developed quite a following all around the country. More importantly, it’s built up a pretty solid skate community in S.F… which is a huge accomplishment in this city full independent skate “cells.”

We wrapped shooting on Lowcard Friday morning, with the option to do one extra shoot before we leave… if we think we need it. We’re really excited about this piece and we’ll upload some teaser clips as soon as we have all the footage captured in the next couple days.

(Also notice the naming convention at the top: MIH3, meaning this is the third Make It Happen entry. That way once we’re on MIH2447529083475, you can gauge just how far we’ve gone.)

Making it Happen…