From the YouTube description:
Bay Area artist Jay Nelson has always been into building tree houses, and now he does it for a living. Starting a few years back with a couple of installations in local art galleries, Jay, who has no formal carpentry training, taught himself how to build the imaginary structures that were floating around in his head. We talked to Jay about how he has been able to turn his passion into a business, learning more about his philosophy of life and his definition of success.
This is the pilot episode of “Working Title,” a collaboration between KQED and Little Paper Planes, hosted by Kelly Lynn Jones of LPP and Andrew Martin Scott, co-owner of Needles and Pens. Through this program, which will include videos, interviews, articles and essays, we will explore how local artist entrepreneurs are re-inventing the American Dream, creating alternative economies and redefining success in the Bay Area. Stay tuned.
Good stuff about a good dude.
This was done a couple of years ago….and, already, he pondered how people pursuing an artistic (ie possibly lower income) pursuit could afford San Francisco’s escalating rents.
That’s a real conundrum.
How do you afford to live in a place….that was made cool by the kind of people who (ultimately) can’t afford to live in a place?
Artists are the ones that the investment bankers want to live in the same city with.
You can buy access to proximity if you lack the talent for admission.
If you aren’t artistically cool, you can at least be a lifetime tourist of cool.
You might not know how to build the vehicle, but maybe you can afford a ticket if you have enough money.
Creativity isn’t always something that brings in the big bucks….but, until it’s gone, it sure is nice to be surrounded by.
I watched the beginning of this and thought, “OK….but when do I get to see the van?”
They were cooking in their kitchen….and it looked nice enough to be someone’s apartment.
That’s nuts.
Pretty nice kitchen.
These folks are up in Toronto.
Man.
I like Toronto.
We have had a chance to use our passports….once.
One time.
But, one of the places we went was Toronto.
Toronto!!
So great.
How many of these Dylan Magestar videos am I going to use on this blog?
Probably as many as he publishes.
That’s the trouble with good…you spend some time with it if you can….even if it starts to look goofy when you share too many of them.
Here’s a profile of a former investment banker who traded his business life for living in a van.
Here’s the description from the YouTube video:
Jeff Duke was studying to be an investment banker, caught up in only desiring to make money, after coming to a realization that he wasn’t living the life he wanted he decided to sell everything and travel.
I bought a tent at a thrift store a while back….told Jenny it was a two-man tent….turned out it was a four-man tent….good deal.
Until we use it, though, it’s just another thing we trip over in the back room.
You have to use a tent for tripping….not just for tripping over.
This guy has a nice van….and runs the clothing company “Lifestyle over Luxury”.
Check it out at this link….here!
Nate was sitting on my lap watching this with me….asking questions like, “whats a ‘rig’ ?” that were hard for me to answer.
(I’d told him that this van was a cool “rig”….and he wanted to know what a rig was.)
When I told him that these guys were going to South America, he said, “OK?”.
That’s a good response when you really think about it.
Why do any of us do the things we do?
What’s the deal with that?
Why would somebody need to put together an impressive “rig”….and then take off for a different country?
Because “it’s there”?
This is still a cool “rig”….and it’s good to travel and see and experience new things.
You can see a new thing a couple of feet behind your house if you look with the right kind of new eyes.
You can be amazed everyday if you let the wonder in.
You don’t have to travel far to be amazed.
But….I’d like to eat a taco from a Mexican food cart someday.
I’d like to be amazed in a place that took me a while to get comfortable with.
I’d like to expand my comfort zone.
Wouldn’t that be something to have a massive comfort zone?
MASSIVE COMFORT ZONE!!! THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!! HUGE!!
(You can find out more about these guys featured on the video and their travels through the world at www.trailsurfers.net .
The squirrels are out heavy these days….and, sometimes, it’s hard to miss hitting them with the Mail Jeep.
I haven’t hit any….but it’s hard to avoid them.
Yesterday, after missing the latest hyperactive and seemingly suicidal rodent that was carrying a walnut across the road, I thought about damage and intent and….
Actually, what I thought was that I was glad that the squirrel ran out of the way.
The other ponderings came a little bit later.
I saw the squirrel….and couldn’t do anything but keep a straight path and let him respond to me.
If I had swerved, I would have killed him….probably.
I see dead things on the road all the time….snakes…squirrels….turtles.
Sometimes even a raccoon or an opossum.
Sometimes even a deer.
And….sometimes even a bear.
Sometimes…..no….that’s enough of that. You get the picture.
The weirdest thing I’ve seen, though, is someone swerving to hit an animal.
I’ve even seen people swerving to hit something that’s already dead….like they were saying, “HAH!! THAT’S RIGHT!! YOU DEAD!! DON’T MESS WITH ME AND MY CAR!!”
That’s a perverse thing….swerving to hurt.
I guess that what I started thinking was that if we….or…a person…just stays the course and doesn’t veer off too violently into other people’s lives….no matter how odd or erratic their path is…the chances of damage are pretty small.
At least we have a chance of getting out of the way if they stay on their path.
We have a journey that we’re working on completing.
We all have a path….and if it’s straight or meandering is pretty irrelevant.
It’s our path.
It’s our own.
Now, sometimes, a person seems to be so disappointed with something that they can’t help but veer off into our path.
That’s swerving to hurt.
They hurt….so….they hurt.
They hurt the people around them.
They’ll take you down if you don’t see them coming.
You and your nuts…..will be taken down by someone swerving to hurt.
How do you see that one coming?
You can live in anything.
We live in house that is pretty comfortable.
We’re used to our house.
But….you can live in a travel trailer, too….and drive it down the road if you want a different view.
One thing that I was thinking about when I watched this video is that when you pack for a journey, the amount of stuff that you need isn’t really all that different for a 2 day trip than it is for a 2 week trip.
When we go somewhere, and it’s for a short weekend, it seems like we pack a bunch of stuff.
The minivan is full of us and our luggage.
That’s nuts.
Why do we need so much stuff?
But…when we pack for a longer trip, it seems to be the same amount of things.
Anything you do a lot and for a long time gets “dialed in” eventually.
Knowing exactly what you need to get down the road is a real accomplishment.
I read that it costs 4500.00 (dollars….American) to rent an apartment in San Francisco.
Of course, that’s San Francisco.
Who wouldn’t want to live in a van if you could avoid paying that much for rent?
Here’s another van video…and, surprisingly, one of the less attractive van builds I’ve seen.
It’s a work in progress, though.
One thing that she did say was that a family of 6 would need more than a van.
Hey! That’s me! When they call out, “PARTY OF 6!! PARTY OF 6!!” it’s us they’re yelling for.
If I can’t be happy when I get in the minivan to go somewhere, I’m not going to be happy when I wake up in some strange place after sleeping in our van.
You’ve got to bring your happy to the vehicle.
You have to learn to be a happy hub.
Here’s a short film about photographer Albert Watson.
This film answers the question “what do artists do all day”.
Or, maybe, what does this artist do all day.
This looks like part of a series….”What do Artists do All Day”.
Check it out on YouTube.
Spending my time watching these videos keeps me from thinking about making any art myself.
It’s another good distraction to add to my repertoire.
Here’s a profile of a 1992 VW Bus that was purchased in South America….and then driven up to Alaska.
It’s a weird combination of a bunch of old parts…a Frankenstein bus that doesn’t look like any 1992 that you’d see in the States.
You have to get way down by the equator to find a bus like this.
Listen to him talk about rebuilding the engine 11 times in the time they’ve owned it.
That’s a testament to the…..well, that is a testament to ….something.
These old buses may not be the best vehicles.
They require a lot of attention.
The guy who wrote “How to Keep your Volkswagen Alive” (John Muir) said something like “be kind to your a**, for it bears you”.
That may be misquoted…it’s been 30 years since I got my copy of his book greasy, but I never forgot that.
You have to feed the donkey.
You have to care for the donkey if you’re going to ride it.
If you look up “Kombi Life” on YouTube, you’ll get to see some of their misadventures.