Austin Tassletine

COACHELLA! A festival with good bands in the middle of the California desert. What more could you ask for?

Well, it turns out a couple of things. Like, being able to park your car near the venue and not have to walk 40 mins to get to it. Or how about being able to drink some beer and watch a band instead of having to stay in a fenced off beer garden? Or not having to queue up for 3 hours to get in? Picnic in the cars were okay, but missing bands because of how far away the car was and how busy the security points got wasn't okay.

Still, it was amazing, I just like complaining. Devo. Vampire Weekend. Phoenix. Grizzly Bear. Beach House. LCD Soundsystem. It's all good.

I must say at this point, all photos so far are courtesy of Sarah-Jane Louise Boardman.

Susan Chaffinch

Blue Jam

Roadtip around the mountains to Palm Springs!

After about 7 hours of driving through hicksville, and 2 donuts later we arrive at our condo in Palm Springs, where we will be staying for the whole weekend of Coachella festival. Palm Springs is the strangest place. Though it does have a restaurant called Fisherman's which served the best fish tacos I have ever tasted.

On The Hour

Santa Barbara! I want to move here. It is my spiritual home and I don't feel right being away from it. I think Santa Barbara needs an English tea room. I'm gonna get on that.

Shiva.

Extracts from the tour diary, West coast East coast trip 2010.

Endless Shovel

The next day we wake to fresh coffee, strawberries and muffins left out for us by Richard. He's already gone to the beach to walk his dog, Max. We get up, get ready, and head out for a day of wandering around Santa Barbara.

I wanted to come here on the trip because I had heard so much about this place. Sideways, The Birds, Big Wednesday and many other films have shown Santa Barbara to be the epitome of the California style. They weren't wrong. Ultimately the most laid back place I have visited, you've got amazing beaches on one side, the Santa Ynez mountains on the other, a massive college to the north and one of the prettiest towns in the centre. I want to live there one day.

We went to the botanical gardens, the mission, wandered all over the centre looking in shops and drinking coffee, then in the evening we wandered down the harbor to eat fresh seafood in a cozy little place at the end of the pier. We head back to the motel we are staying in that evening (didn't want to impose on Richard) as we know we have a long drive ahead of us tomorrow, just under 300 miles around the mountains and avoiding LA traffic to get to Palm Springs the evening before Coachella festival.

Gone To Earth.

I vowed to keep this blog up to date this year, but I didn't anticipate getting stuck in the states, or coming back to a huge work load and staying up 24/7 watching the news in anticipation for a good outcome from this election. Which hasn't happened.

Nearly a month away from university and I have so much to upload on to here. I think I am going to upload the photos and drawings from my trip in sections of places that I visited, intermixed with work I have been doing since I have been back in the UK.

After flying in to LAX, hiring a car and having no idea what the speed limit was, how to drive an automatic, how to use the petrol pumps or indeed which type of petrol the car took, we headed north on the Pacific Coast Highway and stopped off in a shady motel for the night in Santa Monica.

The next day we drove to Malibu for the day and then on to Santa Barbara. It took a little longer than expected, as it's impossible to drive over 50mph on the PCH. So 6pm we roll in to Santa Barbara. Sarah pulls the car over in front of an art gallery and I run to the visitors centre, but it's closed. When I return to the car a man comes over. Turns out we've pulled up outside his house, which is a huge old building that he has converted into a flat and an art gallery. He offers us his place for the night, for free. We look around. Surf boards. Golden Retriever. Roof terrace. Beers. Hand made furniture. Could this be more perfect, or Californian?

We stay up late talking of traveling, politics, art, films, literature. The owner's name is Richard and he tells us that he bought this building when he was our age and has slowly built it up himself into one of the best laid out houses I have ever seen. Jet lagged, we hit the hay and plan to spend the day roaming Santa Barbara tomorrow.