I think the LA weather does Portugal. The Man good… Not one person at UCLA’s Royce Hall was sitting… as a matter of fact, as soon as they started, fans rushed the front (including me), and everyone was singing along to John Gourley’s words. They played a mix of a bunch of albums, lots from Censored Colors, Satanic Satanist, and In The Mountain In The Cloud. Every time I see Portugal play, they pretty much put on the best show again and again. Their show for Poketo a couple years back is my gold standard and forever ingrained. This show brought me back. Enjoy the visuals.

I was on stage right… John was on the other end there… I had front row, so, didn’t want to risk it battling my way through the crowd.

I was right in front of the awesome Noah Gersh on guitar and Zach Carothers on bass…

Portugal played with UCLA’s Philharmonia… a mini orchestra…

Our friend, singer/songwriter, musician, actor Goh Nakamura is giving it all, he’s living the dream. His cards are on the table, he’s got nothing to lose, and everything to gain. After a successful run in the indie film circuit with the film Surrogate Valentine in 2011, he immediately set forth with the film sequel to Surrogate Valentine titled, Daylight Savings. Like the first film, it has screened with rave reviews at SXSW and just last weekend at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. He’s been on the road for the past couple of years, playing venues, screening the film, road tripping from state to state… living the dream.

Now, Goh’s got a project on Kickstarter called “The Dream Sessions: Musical Travel Show”. He is dubbing it, the music version of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. He’ll be traveling the country, playing with some of the best musicians, recording, making original music, eating, chatting, seeing what is in their neck of the woods. What sounds cool is that you would not only see the process of art being made and documented, but, in the end, a finished product… a documentary and potentially, an album.

Already, he has musicians Kid Koala, Tim Bulkley, Jane Lui, Art Hirahara, Gary Wang, and Grand Hallway lined up. It’s still a work in progress, more musicians will be added, but, I know Goh, and Goh makes things happen. He’s a man of his word and when he does it, he does it with sincerity and awesomeness.

You can check out the video above or read all about the Kickstarter Project here. If you can give, do it… if you can spread the word, do it. Living the dream.

The Echo Park Craft Fair happened right up the street from us this past weekend. This is a bi-annual event at the home of Rachel Craven. It was a very intimate setting in Rachel’s backyard, her son sold lemondae, a local taco stand was on hand, and dozens of individual makers and quality brands including David Scheid, Me & Arrow, Le Feu De L’Eau, Jo Abellera of Kkibo, Beatrice Valenzuela, and more.

This hill of Echo Park is called Angeleno Heights, known for its high concentration of Victorian era homes in Los Angeles. I’ll save some of the grand Victorian homes for another post… some of them are incredible with carriage homes where they used to keep the horses, now turned into second homes and studios. Love this part of Echo Park, it feels like another world.

A stroll around the Arts District, new art happening, endlessly it seems…

Poketo crew, Joe and Charlie…