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…

It was pretty incredible being in the same room with the legendary Jimmy Cliff. First, an interview followed by an intimate, acoustic session at Sonos Studio. He talked about his days of rebellion, hanging out with Joe Strummer, playing with Jimi Hendrix, and making music before it was dubbed reggae. When asked how he was able to hold on to his moving voice over the years, Jimmy answered, “just staying positive”.

Our friend and writer Julie Wolfson invited us out to this event. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to see this first show at Sonos Studio. The space will hold events, lectures, listening parties, sound installations, and music performances. First Jimmy Cliff, up next is music by Bleached and a dj set with Questlove. I have a feeling there is going to be some great stuff happening at Sonos.

Also coming up is an opening for Luke Fischbeck’s interactive, sound installation. Below are images of the installation. Each of the ropes trigger sound when you touch or move through them.