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California

a travel blog by Lamignan



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San Francisco day 1

San Francisco, United States


Well, the journey started monday the 20th october 2008 around 6 a.m. I got up, took a shower, called a cab and then there was no turning back. I landed in Heathrow where I had to wait for 3 hours, so I ate a snack and bough me a new camera with what I will document pictures and upload on this blog.
The flight from Heathrow to San Francisco was about 11 hours long and it went pretty quick. The only thing is, I sat between 3 people in the middle row section and it was kinda hard to go to the toilet when everyone was sleeping. (I kinda felt like Elaine in Seinfeld). I really had a bad stomach, you know the kind when you have gas and the "air" inside is really painful. Feels like someone is giving you an uppercut and I didn't dare let it go since there was this cute girl sitting next to me with her hot mom. So I kinda sat sideways getting ready to fart against the American who sat on the other side of me, but when I tried to let it go, it went right back in again.
Then came the snack and I though to myself shit. But the positive thing was that he woke up and I could sneak out after the snack...and I did. When I locked my ass in the toilet, I farted the most silent, but yet longest fart ever made in the history of mankind. Lovely.
Right after that we were ready to land the plane. I was excited and thought to myself that this is not happening, I am not going to spend 2 months in S.F.. It was (still is) unrealistic for me. I took the train from the Airport and when I got off all I saw where bums begging for money mixed with a few asian tourists. Remember, I am traveling with my pink suitcase. I finally found the hostel.
I found out my roommate was french so I got the chance to use my french as well as my English. (The sad thing is that I don't remember his name, maybe it was Pierre?)
I logged on to my computer and wrote to Hollie Stevens, the main attraction of my project. We agreed to meet up the 21th october for drinks. I then went out to have something to eat. I was exhausted. I came back and wanted to go to bed, but before going to sleep I just had to check out my mails. Then Hollie had sent me a mail wich said:
"You want to catch a cab to Cha Cha Cha's located in the mission. It's on 2327 Mission St (between 19th St & 20th St). Meet at 9:45? Does that sounds cool?"
There I met Hollie and one of her clown friends worked there. We all chatted about all kinds of subjects and had a few drinks to many...


permalink written by  Lamignan on October 21, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
from the travel blog: California
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San Francisco day 2

San Francisco, United States


Well what can I say. Naturally there will be day 2 after a day one.
The Hostel I am staying in serves free breakfast, so I kinda imagined that there would be a table with bread , egg and bacon maybe, cereals etc. (how naïve of me). Actually, the breakfast was a big bowl of american style waffle mix, and a waffle iron (or what the hell it is called). I took on some grease and was about to make my first breakfast ever in S.F. and do you know what happened?
When my waffle was done, I was about to take it out but when I opened the waffle iron, that mother fucker was stuck, not because it was burnt or anything, simply because I didn't grease up the iron enough. So I had to use 30 min of my day scraping the waffle makin' machine clean while a few asians were losing their patience and insisted on scraping the rest. So I let them. After the lovely breakfast I brushed my teeth, washed my face (I hope my mother reads that line) the usual and went out to get a phone. If you wish to send a text message and say hi send to this number: +1 415-734-8781. After getting my phone I was suppose to meet Hollie on Baker Beach. She sent me like a few links how to get to a few places (2 different places), I really though that the 2 different places was 2 different ways on how to get to 1 place; Baker Beach. I ended up in Hollie Stevens Neighborhood. I was suppose to meet her there and we would go to the beach together. After a few phone calls and a few hours I finally found my way to Baker Beach. I ended up at this crazy spot with these crazy people surrounding Hollie, but they were pretty cool. They were naked and playing volleyball. I Startet shooting my first scenes that day, and filmed Hollies reaction while she was drinking Norwegian Aquivit, and most Norwegian don't like that spirit. After the beach I met one of Hollies friends, a 47 year old guy by the name of Tomas. He was pretty cool but talked a lot. I went home while Hollie and Tomas went to an event where they got free ribs and drinks, in the meanwhile, I went to a corean resturant to eat dinner. The food really sucked, it sucked so bad that I asked them put my shit in a doggy bag and threw it away. I met Hollie and Tomas later on and we went to a few bars where they played rock. I tried to get a money with drawl but my card didn't work. Had to call my bank and try to fix it, but they said nothing was wrong with it. So now I am excited about my card. Does it work? I still don't know. I went home to bed and fell a sleep like a little drunk baby.


permalink written by  Lamignan on October 22, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
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Video 1

San Francisco, United States


First footage of San Francisco:
http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/10/Hollie-Stevens-tries-Norwegian-Aquivit-592687.html


permalink written by  Lamignan on October 23, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
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San Francisco day 3

San Francisco, United States


Fuck Waffles. I went to the store and bough cereals and milk. It came out kinda expensive almost 10 $, what the fuck is that, it is cheaper with beer. Maybe I should rely on alcohol in order to survive? What do you think of that. So far the drinks have been free for most of the time thanks to Hollie. I edited a little video clip from Baker Beach where Hollie tries Aquivit for the first time. Check it out. Hollie called me today and said that she would take me on a tour round the city. It was pretty cool cause people stopped us everywhere and asked stupid ass questions like:
- Sir, if I hang with you, can you find me a beautiful girl like that to?
- How tha hell did that negro end up with a gurl like dat? oowee work it gurl.
- Pete, look at her, who the fuck is she?
- work that ass girl.
etc...

It was kind of fun and 3 out of 4 it was negros complimenting (or call them what you like). We went to the bay and there was this sick museum where they had like old arcade games. Much of it was circus inspired. It was fun. After the tourism stuff we went to a place with a lot graffiti (think the place was called mission). It was a friend of Hollie who had made the pieces. We then went to a liquor store and bought some sky vodka and redbull and headed back to the hostel where we drank and saw some of my art films. We had a pretty good time. Other than that, Hollie invited me to this crazy Goth SM club. Lets pause for a second. I want to talk about that club. I paid 10 $ to get in, and the first I saw was a girl within a fence area getting whipped on her ass (she was wearing a thong). We then went downstairs and there was this huge dancefloor where they played mostly techno/trance/electronica (remember, this was like a emo goth club). Almost all the girls wore corsettes and thong / g-strings with sick make-up. It didn't matter if she was fat or slim, they all wore almost the same thing. I talked to a few of them and met this cool girl by the name Patricia West. She was a prostitute activist who was best friend with a pornstar. (kinda ironic.). So we agreed on doing a interview about her work and beliefs toward prostitution. I also met a chick by the name of Cherry. Cherry and her boyfriend, Dean, are both into porn and we went to an after party at their place which was located 300 metres from my hostel.
We had a few drinks and talked until 5 a.m.
I was just sitting there thinking to myself: "here I am sitting with 3 people who are all into porn. Is this for real?". My project is about the porn industry, how are these people when they are off camera? What is their background? and why do they chose to be in the porn industry? I have to find out more. That is the reason why I am staying here for 2 months. I fell asleep on the couch and Hollie woke me up and said she had to go. She is currently in L.A shooting a few internet scenes. I have the week end for myself so I will try to interview some of the other characters.

P.S: check out new photos in the photo section.



permalink written by  Lamignan on October 23, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
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san Francisco day 4

San Francisco, United States


I came home from Dean and Cherries afterparty still kinda drunk. I went to the kitchen to have breakfast and I saw a girl from taiwan with a perfect waffle. I didn't quite have the urge for Cereals and milk. I started talking to this girl and told her about my problems (my waffle making problems), she had compassion for me so she agreed to make me a waffle. It came out perfect. We sat down and chatted and suddenly there came another girl from taiwan, and before I knew it, I was surrounded by 5 of them. I entertained them and told them false gossip about Norway and Norwegian (that is what love about my second country, little does the world know about it).
After that I relaxed and worked on my blog. I had an appointment with a friend of Darius James, a gentleman by the name D. Scott Miller. I met him for a coffee and we hung out talking about each others projects. It was pretty cool hanging out with him, very smart and interesting character. He took me to different art spaces and showed me around where all the crackwhores and crackhead hang. We went to get D. Scotts wife, and we walked towards my hostel. When I got to the hostel, some people sat outside drinking. They asked me to join them. I was so tired but I am here alone and want to make all kinds of friends so I didn't decline the offer. I went to my room, took a shower, and joined them in the middle of a drinking game. They were pretty amazing people. I met this girl named Nikita who is also an art student and a stripper. She is doing an art project similar to mine. So we decided to make something together. The only problem now is that I don't know if it was the booze talking or if we're actually doing it. Time will tell. The night out with the hostel people reminded me a night out with "normal" people, like going to karaoke and to a regular club afterwards. not a big of deal.
I


permalink written by  Lamignan on October 24, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
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Video 2

San Francisco, United States


http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/10/Hollie-Stevens-gets-picked-up-by-a-stand-guy-593927.html

permalink written by  Lamignan on October 25, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
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San Francisco day 6

San Francisco, United States


To keep this one pretty short, nothing really happened. I went and did a big tour all by myself and found some awesome spots that I will shoot tomorrow.. I found a pimp store and I bought myself a pink dress. I am now going out with some of my hostel friends and see where the night takes us. Will update tomorrow morning.

Update: We ended up at a bar and were all really drunk ( If you don't like my work ethics then fuck you... :P )

permalink written by  Lamignan on October 25, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
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San Francisco day 5

San Francisco, United States


On day 5, nothing really happened until 6 30 p.m. Before that I wrote blog and edited video. But I met up with Mari, a good friend of mine from Norway. We was going to go to a concert, I never remember the name but there was me and one more black guy at the spot, so it speaks for itself. The rest of the crowd looked like weed smokin hippies. Before the concert we went and ate Chicago style pizza pie. It was pretty good but I only had 1 piece of the pie. We discussed a lot about my project about what I will mention in the blog when the time is right. So keep reading my blog and you will know what the hell I am doing here. Anyways one of Maris friends, a girl by the name Cathrine, is an Norwegian reporter for a news paper called "Dagbladet". That is probably one of the most sold newspapers in Norway. She though my project would be good for the newspaper. So we have to see how that goes. But back to the concert. We went there and the whole arena smelled like weed. There were 3 bands playing all together. I guess we can call the style indie rock or alternative rock or something. My problem was that I was sooo tired that this kind of music didn't really help on my mood. I literally fell asleep standing a few times. You probably think : "how is that even possible"? Well imagine that you are sitting in a chair and you suddenly dip of and you kinda get electro shocked before you open your eyes again. When that happen you don't really put your whole body to sleep, I mean you're still sitting up while your dipping off. I guess it is the same thing but instead for sitting I was standing. I went home round midnight and totally fell asleep right away.
So it was kind of a boring day, but at the same time very interesting. It was so nice meeting Mari again, and her friends were totally cool. (even though we all were kind of tired.). It was one of those bizzarre nights.


permalink written by  Lamignan on October 25, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
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San Francisco day 7

San Francisco, United States


Today was kinda cool, Nikita and I went for a long walk talking about everything from arts to consperacy theories. We passed through the real China town. Not the tourist one, but the part of C.T where you can get dinner for 3.50 USD and still don't get sick. We found a park in little Italy and sat there and chattet for a while, planing projects together. Oh for those who don't know Nikita, I guess I mentioned her earlier in the blog, she is a british artist that is doing her assignment her in San fran, just like me in a way.. We were hanging out waiting for this artist to call us, but he never did. I wrote a mail to this legal sex-club and asked if I could come over and do an interview and if they could give me a tour.
Well that was my sunday.


permalink written by  Lamignan on October 28, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
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San Francisco day 8

San Francisco, United States


For some reason, the last few days has been not that interesting writing cause nothing really happened. I feel like I have to do something wild (could be a new movie David goes wild) in order to keep entertaining my fellow blog readers, cause lets face it. This is the best blog out there, Imma funny muthafucka right?. Anyways back to my day, So much happened today and I got to film most of it. Like there is this guy who stands on the beginning of Powel Street with this crazy sign that basically say: "Stop having sex, stop with your whoring cause you will then go to hell". I think it said that Jesus will punish you or something. It was crazy cause he was arguing with 1 religious group that said that Jesus will forgive and everything, and then a 3rd guy came over and were a part of the argue, what the hell, I might as just upload the film so you can see for yourself. I took the BART (train, underground or whatever) to mission 24th, and I went there to film the graffiti on the wall, suddenly this guy came and started talking to me about the walls. He asked me where I was from and he started talking about the History of Norway and russia etc. I will upload clips from that segment to. But while we were like talking this young guy came on skateboard and he was a graffiti artist. So in a way, one of my side project will be about the graffiti scene in San Francisco.
Hollie came back to town so I went to her place and hung out. We then went out to a bar and hung with D.Scott. It was kinda funny, I met this young rapper and as we talked it turned out to be Fillmore Slims son. That was kinda cool. We agreed to do an interview but he wouldn't give me his number, but he saved mine. I hope that he will contact me. Cause the Graffiti part could be a great film to exhibit with the bay area hip hop community film. And even greater would be if I could do a segment with Fillmore Slim (He is an ex-american pimp, Snoop Dogg is going to be playing the role of Fillmore Slim in his next movie. If you still don't know who he is, google him or rent American Pimp). We then went from that bar to the ChaChaCha, but it was closed, so we went to a bar around the corner, a bar called delirium. It was a blast. I came up with this sick theory that Darius has plans for all of us. I mean I make video art, Hollie Stevens is in the Porn industry and D.Scott is a writer... and we all know Darius... does it make any sense? And another thing is that I met Darius and he hooked me up with Hollie, I also met D.Scott through Darius. And we found out that we formed a D (triangle) when we stood at the bars. Hm maybe Darius has like evil plans for us, Like he is Charlie and we're his angels, What is our next ass ignment Darius? ... We ended the night around 1 a.m.



permalink written by  Lamignan on October 28, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
from the travel blog: California
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