Trip Stats

So here are the grand totals:

Travel

I spent 23 hours and 52 minutes on 9 flights and covered 8565 miles in that time for an average speed of around 360 miles per hour.

I visited 10 cities (Long Beach, Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Washington DC, New York City and Brooklyn) and marked 13 pillows with pomade. I caught up with countless friends and made a number of new ones along the way.

Photography

I took 5800 photos for an average of 187 photos a day. 2165 of those come from the 2 burlesque shows I had the pleasure of shooting.

Camera breakdown:

  • Canon PowerShot G10: 611
  • Sony Alpha 700: 4782
  • iPhone 3GS: 316

I got a lot more out of my iPhone than the numbers would indicate. I enjoyed shooting little things along the way and the iPhone was always the camera on hand. I didn’t enjoy the G10 as much. It was good for in the plane shots and self portraits, but I didn’t get much out of it otherwise.

City Breakdown:

  • Long Beach: 195
  • Seattle: 539
  • San Francisco: 1755 (918 at Hubba Hubba Revue)
  • Chicago: 834
  • Boston: 241
  • Baltimore: 96
  • Washington DC: 255
  • New York: 1885 (1262 at NY Burlesque Fest)

Next step is going through all my photos and publishing the best. I’ll also be telling tales from the adventure as I remember them. I had a great time and couldn’t have done it without help from my friends, family and sponsors, both here and around the country. Thanks everyone!

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Nathan Black, October 18th 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized

Genuine Heart

Genuine Heart

One of the things that was set in stone for this trip was a visit to Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo in Boston to get tattooed by Ram himself. Normally Ram has a long waiting list, but since I took him to the Salt Lick just out side of Austin, we have been fast friends. He knocked out my BOS tattoo in record time, but I wanted something bigger.

So, the night before I hop the plane out of Boston, he has me come down to the shop at closing time, 10pm. We spend a while talking about the concept and he gets to drawing. By 2am and several revisions later we have it. A clock work heart with the genuine auto parts logo across it. Ram likes to take his time in the design stage since that is when it is easiest to make changes to the art. Once it goes down on the body, it really doesn’t change much from there.

Originally the concept was to include a banner that read “Sadness” after the Shambhala concept of the Genuine Heart of Sadness, but looking at it I decided that it would be better for me not to have to bear a banner across my heart that read sadness. That and I didn’t want to have to explain it every time someone saw it.

We shaved my chest, laid out the stencil and were ready to go by 3:00am. What followed were some of the most painful hours of tattooing I have yet to endure. The backs of my knees were bad, but relatively speaking they were quick. Ram was steady and wasn’t drilling for oil, it was just a rough place to get tattooed. I kept breathing and tried not only to keep from sqirming, but to lean into the pain. Just accept it and let it flow. I nearly ground my molars into dust, but I made it through.

I crashed at Ram’s place that night and woke up to his dogs crowding me off the couch:
Genuine Dogs of Sleep

Adorable.

I then got to meet the kids and then off to the airport on 3 hours of sleep. But what a great tattoo. I ended up shaving the rest of my chest so that the chest hair would at least all grow back similar…

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Nathan Black, September 29th 2009 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Tattoo

Flight Log 7 – BOS to BWI

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BOS to BWI

1 hour, 31 minutes
368 miles
Seat 11B

So tired. Was up until 7am getting my chest tattooed. Still aches and hurts. I hope the coffee I drank to keep my limbs moving is over powered by the engine drone. At this point I am the sort of tired that aches and feels a bit puky.

Luckily I pulled through it and am recovering nicely in Baltimore. Details on the big tattoo to come.

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Nathan Black, September 29th 2009 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Flight Log

BOS Tattoo

BOS Tattoo

And the carnage continues. BOS is down and was designed and applied by Fat Ram of Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo. Ram is an awesome artist, skater, stick fighter, shooter and tattooist. I have no doubt that anything he applies his incredible curiosity towards will be mastered. As he  worked on this tattoo he talked about how this was a great “mass-hole” tattoo since it was correct both from the cartographer’s standpoint, but also the Boston typographical love of the Red Sox.

He also mentioned that he didn’t mind “being the best tag on the arm.” Bold words indeed. Judge for yourself, personally I like ‘em all individually, but I think their real magic is as a set representing each piece of the trip.

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Nathan Black, September 29th 2009 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Tattoo

Flight Log 6 – ORD to BOS

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IMG_11472 hours 13 minutes
864 miles
Seat 4A

Got to the airport in plenty of time, this time. The plane was late arriving so the flight ran 30 minutes late. It was cool since I got to hang out with a pair of lovely social workers from Boston who gave me a bunch of tips for this leg of the trip. The flight itself was very straight forward. By the numbers if a bit rushed getting us all on there. Even with the rush everything was up to the standards I have come to expect from JetBlue.

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Nathan Black, September 24th 2009 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Flight Log

The itinerary is mostly done

The ItineraryWhoop!

Looks great guys. I’ve got the itinerary nailed. Got the flights booked. A very nice lady named Sharon helped me out over the phone. Everyone at JetBlue has been really awesome and excited about people travelling. Sharon said that most of the people she has helped book have been consumer fliers like myself instead of business folk. I can’t wait to meet fellow fliers in the air. Should be a great trip.

Here is the itinerary as it currently stands:

Sept 8 – 9 Long Beach, CA
Sept 9 – 13 Seattle, WA
Sept 13 – 19 San Francisco, CA
Sept 19 – 23 Chicago, IL
Sept 23 – 27 Boston, MA
Sept 27 – Oct 2 Baltimore & DC
Oct 2 – 8 New York City, NY
Oct 8 – ? Austin, TX

I haven’t quite nailed down the Baltimore and DC sections of the flight plan, but everything esle I’ve got dialed in. Can’t wait to see everyone!

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Nathan Black, August 19th 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Plans