DENVER!
After waking up from an incredible night in Lawrence, Kansas, we said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts of Ample Branches and set off on our 9-hour trek to Denver.
Our directions were simple enough: take two turns, drive 500 miles, take another turn, and you’re in Denver.
Somehow I managed to take ZERO photos from the drive… but I think that was largely due to the fact that we were driving through the desolate expanse of Kansas and eastern Colorado.
It was dark and rainy by the time we arrived, but the city still looked glorious. Our first stop was a coffee shop to do some work and meet up with our beloved friend Nick, who recently moved to Denver from our Raleigh homeland. He was happy and looked great, other than the shoulder he managed to recently dislocate from his body which sort of leaves his right arm dangling. He enjoyed showing it to us repetitively as we drank our coffee.
We then headed to our temporary Colorado shelter, the home of the honorable Matt Slaby. Slaby is a Nordic viking who owns a beautiful house in the hills of Denver. He makes good photos and good wine. He has two cats, both affectionately named “Cat.” He currently has a fish bone stuck in his tonsil. He is also part-owner of Luceo Images, Tim’s photo collective.
We spent night one exploring Slaby’s basement, drinking Slaby’s homemade wine, playing Slaby’s guitars and piano, and harassing Slaby’s cats. A good night at Slaby’s indeed.
Day 2. Tim and Nick went to ride bikes around town, while I caught up on some work I needed to complete for grad school. I ate my first enjoyable salmon dinner of all time at a little Japanese dive, then headed to the venue in which we were supposed to meet up with Bowerbirds & Megafaun.
Well. Tonight’s show presented some complications.
1) Apparently this is some sort of music festival, which apparently justifies a $25.00 ticket price.
2) None of the bands were allowed a guest list.
3) Tim managed to sneak in while helping the Bowerbirds load, and found an extra arm band allowing him unlimited access. I did not.
So I decided that this show I would do without. $25.00 for a show that we have already seen in four states is a little out of my budget, as much as I would have loved to see then again. In addition, Tim was already in, so at least one of us could be collecting material for the blog.
So I went to drink apricot beer with Slaby on a patio elsewhere, where we discussed and exchanged our views on networking and marketing and overzealous wine descriptions.
I headed back to the venue once the show was over to hang out with the folks I had missed. We considered going out and finding some adventure with everyone, but we were a bit tired and wanted to save some money. So we all headed back to Slaby’s where we ended up drinking homemade strawberry wine and playing cards until 2 AM anyway.
Day 3. We woke up late, had one last epic battle with Slaby and his oversized weaponry, and headed on our way. Next stop: Utah.
Megafaun Shenanigans.
Today’s posts are presented by Busy Bee Cafe!
The Busy Bee is one of Raleigh’s newest establishments, nestled in the center of the downtown district. Open 20 hours a day, the Busy Bee functions as a multi-level coffee shop, restaurant, and bar. You can stop by in the morning for fresh baked pastries and renowned Counter Culture Coffee, even stay a while and to use the free wifi and perch at a table in their loft to get some work done. You can enjoy the food menu all day, from tapas sharing plates to gourmet sandwiches to excellent entrees to late-night tater tots (my official post-midnight Raleigh addiction), crafted from local and organic ingredients. And then there’s the bar. Oh, that bar…
The Busy Bee boasts and outstanding selection of microbrews, with a beer, wine, and cocktail menu that changes seasonally. Their second floor bar, also known as The Hive, has its own custom menu for adult beverages, to be enjoyed on their rooftop patio (the only one in downtown Raleigh, mind you) or on the dance floor, usually to the accompaniment of a live band or awesome DJ. The Bee is constantly looking for innovative ways to create unique beverages, and you can usually find a new cocktail infusion being crafted every week. Their drinks are always stellar, and they happen to serve my favorite cocktail of all time: The Sting. It’s a Bee-invented fruit cocktail that involves fresh cilantro and jalapenos. Need I say more.
Tim and I absolutely love this place, and The Bee actually hosted our last Raleigh photography show for the month prior to our phototour. We love everyone involved at The Busy Bee and are so fortunate to always have their support.
Check out The Busy Bee at busybeeraleigh.com!
-H
Our next stop found us in Lawrence, Kansas. I never once thought that this would be a stop on our tour. The only experience I’ve had in Kansas prior to this was when I was touring the country two years ago, frantically driving out of Wichita, straight to Chicago, at 4 a.m., after making the mistake of staying with a man named Hyde, who turned out to be insane. I wasn’t ever planning on coming back to Kansas, with the exception of driving through it on the way to Omaha.
And here we were, sitting in a house a block from downtown Lawrence, drinking beer and playing through stop-motion videos with Megafaun. They were playing a show in town that night and suggested we come along to participate in the shenanigans.
We were all being put up for the night by Kevin Lawrence (of Lawrence) and his bandmates, who had set up the show and were opening for Megafaun. They were planning an epic post-show cookout for us. Beer, beards, and bratwurst. I’m thinking this detour was worth it.
The venue was incredible. Neon illustrations, black lights, pinball machines, spaceships hanging from the ceiling…. it felt like we were all in a comic book. The Megafaun dudes were telling us how talented Ample Brances (Kevin Lawrence of Lawrence’s band) was, but upon hearing them I was really blown away. Their music was so fun and jolly and awesome. And they all multitask quite well instrumentally. I always dig that.
Megafaun’s set was particularly awesome. They had to cater to more of a party crowd, but it worked out perfectly… the set just turned into a giant burly dance party.
We all finished the show up with a giant round of tequila, then marched back toward the house. I was a bit surprised to see it overflowing with people.
And so the shenanigans begin.
We never cooked the brats, but we made lots of new friends, drank more tequila, ate lots of Doritos, and took photos of beards until 5 in the morning. Thank you Lawrence… my views of Kansas have been redeemed.
Lawrence, Ks. – You could hear adventure calling
Today’s posts are presented by Busy Bee Cafe!
The Busy Bee is one of Raleigh’s newest establishments, nestled in the center of the downtown district. Open 20 hours a day, the Busy Bee functions as a multi-level coffee shop, restaurant, and bar. You can stop by in the morning for fresh baked pastries and renowned Counter Culture Coffee, even stay a while and to use the free wifi and perch at a table in their loft to get some work done. You can enjoy the food menu all day, from tapas sharing plates to gourmet sandwiches to excellent entrees to late-night tater tots (my official post-midnight Raleigh addiction), crafted from local and organic ingredients. And then there’s the bar. Oh, that bar…
The Busy Bee boasts and outstanding selection of microbrews, with a beer, wine, and cocktail menu that changes seasonally. Their second floor bar, also known as The Hive, has its own custom menu for adult beverages, to be enjoyed on their rooftop patio (the only one in downtown Raleigh, mind you) or on the dance floor, usually to the accompaniment of a live band or awesome DJ. The Bee is constantly looking for innovative ways to create unique beverages, and you can usually find a new cocktail infusion being crafted every week. Their drinks are always stellar, and they happen to serve my favorite cocktail of all time: The Sting. It’s a Bee-invented fruit cocktail that involves fresh cilantro and jalapenos. Need I say more.
Tim and I absolutely love this place, and The Bee actually hosted our last Raleigh photography show for the month prior to our phototour. We love everyone involved at The Busy Bee and are so fortunate to always have their support.
Check out The Busy Bee at busybeeraleigh.com!
-H
After the Omaha show we get word about Megafaun playing a show in Lawrence Kansas. This wasn’t on our list of places to go but Brad and Phil promised it would be worth it. They played there a bunch of times before, the venue was awesome and there would probably be a fun after party.
We could hear adventure calling. So we followed…
Just an easy three hour drive down to Lawrence, cake compared to some of the other drives. Once in Lawrence we met up with Megafaun and showed videos, talked about good Asian food and worked out the rubik’s cube, Kansas started off right. Later Helena and I went to seek out some good food. We walked the entire strip up to Free State Brewing Company, recommended by a Kansas friend, only to find the restaurant overflowing with people. So we quickly got some noodles on the way back to the Replay Lounge.
This place was madness. A huge outdoor area with a stage and an inside bar where most of the bands would play. There were also six, yes six, pinball machines. One was on free play. I played a bunch of games and felt pretty confident so I challenged Brad to a game, one on one. He walked up with his Golden State Warriors jersey on and proceeded to own my entire score with his first ball. Failed.
In front of a comic book scene Megafaun took the stage, you could see they had their game face on. Apparently the crowd did too. Lots of people and lots of dancing. The lighting in there was pretty awesome with some green shining on a disco ball, red millennium falcon dangling from the ceiling and some other fun colors which made for good photos.
Then we all partied.
More Omaha and Mustaches.
Omaha Day two.
After a great pizza lunch with Alyssa Schukar we realized it was time for business. The OkayGreat.com mustache project needed to get finished and we were excited. This first photo was from Chicago and of the wonderful Elif, who was kind of freaked out at having a photoshoot in public.
But then we had a better idea of making a video with the fake mustache:
special thanks to:
sarah knaack
tula leonard
Albert E.
tyler ringler
the table at the indian food place
travis R.
Matt Owens
Marilin M.
helena price
‘Lil E
Sherman Dinosaur
photos by Tim Lytvinenko
music by Kevin McLeod
Omaha + Megafaun + Bowerbirds + Awesome
omaha is pretty awesome. got to see the bowerbirds and megafaun for the first time on this trip. i got some more to say about omaha but we just got to lawrence, kansas and megafaun is playing soon. so ill have to get back to you on some thoughts. above are my favorites from the other night.
Hp explores Omaha.
Greetings from Omaha!
This was the first time we actually had a deadline to be in a specific city. We knew that no matter where we ended up in the country prior to this, we needed to be in Omaha by the 22nd, as our friends Bowerbirds and Megafaun, two incredible bands based out of our hometown of Raleigh, were playing a show that night. No traffic jams this time… and we actually made it into town a day early!
This left me the entire following day to explore downtown before the show. The area where I spent most of my time could be compared to Raleigh’s warehouse district or downtown Durham… lots of old warehouses and otherwise giant brick buildings that had been renovated but still retained their integrity. The streets were made of brick and most of the streets had giant wooden awnings installed over the sidewalks with flowers planted on top. Way fun. The weather was a little crumby, but still good enough to snap a few shots.
I stumbled upon a random thrifty antique shop in the midst of my exploring… and was greeted twice by a young hipster lady who seemed too inebriated to realize she had started a conversation with me five minutes prior. I carried on the second conversation as if the first never happened. I’m not sure if she ever realized it. Perhaps that’s for the best.
I met back up with Tim and Alyssa, our lovely Omaha host, and we spent some time drinking coffee and browsing record shops (Saddle Creek Records, founded by Conor Oberst, is based out of Omaha… so you can get a lot of their tunes for cheap here).
Next stop: Meeting up with Bowerbirds & Megafaun. They were playing at the Slowdown, the venue owned by Saddle Creek. The venue was nice… very aethetically pleasing and quiet and completely devoid of smoke or grime. Nice change.
The show was great, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, and the show was well-received. We stayed for a bit to catch up with all of them post-showtime, but we were all so exhausted from our own individual tours that we said our goodbyes early and promised to catch up in Denver, when we all reunite.
Omaha day 2 consisted mostly of pizza, beer, and mustaches. Just you wait and see.
WEEK ONE RECAP!
Yesterday officially started week 2 of our cross-country phototour. We thought now would be a good time to recap all of the fun things that happened this week.
Here’s a short photo recap:
Also:
On Friday, we held a contest via Twitter, where anyone who suggested us for #FollowFriday was entered to win a special prize. We created a fun stop-motion to determine the winners.
Welldonetour.com Friday Postcard Giveaway from welldonemedia on Vimeo.
The lucky winners were….. Mary Ellis and Donald Jones! Hooray!
Also:
Our friends at OkayGreat.com created an epic contest of sorts involving us as well. We are basically at the mercy of their voicemail system. Our project for this week: 6 Generations of Mustaches. Head to OkayGreat for more info.
Also:
Here’s the press we received this week… it’s so great to have this kind of support in the Triangle. Thanks to everyone who mentioned us!
GoGoRaleigh: Well Done Media hits the road
30Threads: Raleigh couple to blog about travels across the country
NorthHillsBuzz Copies & Pastes my email (whatever works)
30Threads: Trip delay causes local photographers to take break for Locopops
OkayGreat: First project! First prize!
New Raleigh’s Well Done Media Photocolumn!
Lastly, we want to give a giant THANK YOU to all of our contributors who helped make tour week 1 possible:
Michael Casey
Peter Jurich
Cuthrell Consulting
Thomas Rowe
Annette Stone
Anne Jessup
Barry Barrington
Nellie Lytvinenko
Alicia Conway
Tara Jafari
Charles Gillikin
Ali Pearson
Sal Consigliaro
Chad Evans
Brian Griffin
Emily Hester
Kelly Hubbard
Baxter Miller
Christian Staples
Kate Sykes
Meghan Lassiter
Cheryl & Louis Hahn
Angus Gorberg
Adam Schoeller
DJ Larry
If you dig what we’re doing, click the button below to donate or click here for more info on how to contribute to/advertise with/hire us.
tim’s day 2 in chicago…
Hi! Up until now I’ve been shooting most of the photos and Helena has been doing most of the writing. But now we both will be writing and photoing. Watch for the author of each post to see who did what.
day 2 in chicago…
I woke up with a big day ahead of me. We made it to our first really big city, Chi-city, and there was so much on my list: hang with Common, go see Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Oprah. Well, I did listen to Common and sing his music all day while wondering.
Ok the actual list: Good Breakfast. A quick walk to the cornerstone cafe and a smiley waitress. “Ivana. Its sounds like I wanna. Everyone starts to say ‘I-want-a…’ and I say ‘Yes?’” The turkey avocado was yums. Helena got a salmon omelet so big I called it a football. She ate the entire thing.
Next stop Ukrainian Village to see my old friend Elif. Considering I’m Ukrainian, I’d have to say she lives in the best area of Chicago. So I bought me a one day “Fun Pass” from a check-it-to-cash corner store which upped the days cool points by 6. No maybe 10. I made my way down Western to Elif’s apartment for a quick hello before she went off to work. Made some photos with her wonderful window light before she started to break dance on top of her couch. Crazy. We then talked about her brand new [to her] giant van that she bought the day before. Then she posed with the vehicle’s title.
Wandering came next. I’m a big fan of street photography and all the random findings around a big city. I took the blue line down to the loop and started walking. Final destination at the Bean. I really do miss street photography.
After hanging out around the Bean for a while my tired legs needed a rest. I met up with Helena and we sat in Millennium Park for one of their Monday concerts. Wonderful music. Strings and beat-boxing. Meanwhile I find a photo of the rosebuds show at jackpot. Then immediately said crap and thought “would have been worth it to drive 15 hours to see them.”
rest time. power nap.
Elif finished work around 11 p.m. and we go to a bar in Ukrainian Village, The Bottleneck. Helena, Elif and I buy the Monday special, PB & J (PBR and a shot of Jim Beam. not in the same drink), look at the crazy baby doll heads on the wall and realize we missed the music completely. ha. We walk to another bar to meet up with Angus and Adam. Our progress gets halted by a very rude parking job. The SUV was blatantly in the crosswalk. So Elif keeps walking and proceeds over the SUV. “i mean it was the second of two illegally parked cars and it was entirely in the crosswalk,” she said explaining the simple cause and effect.
This new bar had more of a Ukrainian feel. The bartender spoke broken english and felt like an aunt of mine.
Taxi.
Bed…
Chi-City v.2
Angus insisted that we start off our second day in Chicago with a proper meal. So we took a quick walk to the Cornerstone Cafe, a cute little spot nestled in the middle of a gargantuan 5-way intersection. I somehow championed a smoked salmon omelette the size of a football. I was comatose by the time I got back to the abode.
Tim and I split ways for the afternoon, and I wandered around with Angus and Adam until evening, when we all met back up at the bean. Oh, that bean. It really is more marvelous than I could have ever imagined.
We said our goodbyes to Adam and Angus for the evening so we could get some shooting done. We quickly found ourselves distracted by really nice grass in the park, sandwiches, and a free concert at the pavilion at Millennium Park. Cellos, violins, MacBooks, and beatboxing. The music was absolutely wonderful and I found myself unable to really function other than laying on the grass and letting all of this soak in. People actually live in this place. This type of afternoon is normal and accessible for them. They can do this whenever they want (minus the winter months). I’m still processing it.
So yeah, I’m completely enamored with Chicago. Glad that’s settled. Now moving on in hopes of falling in love with the next city.
Indianapolis, Target, Chicago.
Our second day in Indianapolis was rather uneventful. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
We spent our afternoon in a downtown coffee shop putting together giant to-do lists, attempting to carry out snippets of said to-do lists, and putting together a stop-motion video to announce the winners of our Postcard Friday contest. It turned out pretty neat. You should watch it.
Next stop was Carmel, IN. It’s a little burb about 30 minutes north of downtown. We took a slight detour to drive by Helena’s childhood home on the way.
Our night in Carmel consisted mainly of spending time with the Hahns, eating crepes, petting dogs, researching, clipping, compiling data, writing, editing, emailing, calling, pitching, and watching X-Men 2. A low-key, generally productive night to prepare us for our trek to Chicago.
The drive to Chicago was… scenic. We were kindly warned by the state of Illinois that upcoming road work would have us in traffic that would make our remaining 80 mile drive take approximately three hours. So we took a little detour through… well we’re not really sure. But it got us to Chicago. We stopped at Target on the way, because Helena had a $25 gift card. We felt it was appropriate to spend it on things that would be necessary for tour, such as:
- Animal crackers
- Jolly Rancher gummies
- Four packs of grow capsules (in assorted shapes including aquatic animals, farm animals, and dinosaurs)
- Phase 10 deck
- Lisa Frank sticker set.
All of these will be put to use very soon.
After some more driving and about 90 wrong turns (Helena was driving), we made it to Chicago.
First stop: Sultan’s Market. Tim had been ranting about this place the entire way into the city. Apparently they have the best falafel sandwiches on the planet.
And that they did. Two spicy falafel sandwiches stuffed with cucumber + yogurt + hummus + spicy spice with curry rice to top it off. Good way to start the night.
We spent the next few hours wandering the streets of Wicker Park, and eventually found ourselves in a bar called the Crocodile, that happened to be serving $4 Blue Moon, $4 Dewars, and $4 Jim Beam, all of which comes with FREE PIZZA. We were sold. We ate more food and drank more drinks and wrote more obscenely long to-do lists. Nothing can take us completely away from all of our tour work… not even bourbon and beer and free pizza.
Around midnight, we headed to friend and gracious host Angus’ house, aka “The Whiskey Chest,” for some hangtime. We had full intentions of going out and exploring the city, but next thing I know, we look at the clock and it’s 3:15. I think it’s time to rest.
Next up: Chicago day 2.
Longest day ever: flaming semi trailers, secret Indy speakeasys, etc.
Yesterday was a long day.
We woke up in Raleigh. 7:30 AM. I (Helena) made plans to meet up with Simon Biswas, the road warrior that I wrote about in my previous tour planning post, at Morning Times for a cup of coffee. It only felt appropriate to meet up in the same spot where I first read his email about planning an epic phototour meetup.
Our coffeetime was a little rushed, as Tim and I were supposed to get on the road early, but Simon and I had a jolly time showing each other our tour routes, plans, and music suggestions. We snapped a few window shots and then I headed on my way. I can’t wait to compare tour stories + photos with him again when he stops through San Francisco.
And so began the drive. Driving to Indianapolis. A little far. Yes, we know.
Our original plans for Indianapolis:
- Arrive mid-afternoon or evening
- Eat sushi at sushi restaurant in which my friend Megan works
- Go to Vollrath Tavern to meet up with fellow Raleigh compadres and road warriors Bowerbirds and Megafaun, who had a show in Indianapolis that night.
- See where night goes from there.
After making a quick stop at a coffee shop in Durham to get more work done, we were extremely tempted to go surprise the Flywheel Design crew with a round of Locopops (fully expecting a response of… “aren’t you supposed to be in Montreal or something by now?”), but with limited time and funding in our Locopops budget, we decided it would be best to head on our way. Just know, Flywheel folk, we thought hard about it. Real hard.
Every single drive I have ever made through the NC mountains has been dominated by ridiculous rainstorms. This time was not much different. The storms were spotty, but intense. We’d go from sun to torrential downpour, and sometimes both simultaneously.
Enter West Virginia. Such an incredibly gorgeous state. Last time I was here I was touring with American Aquarium, yacking my brains out from food poisoning I received in Pittsburgh hours earlier. I’ve suddenly started producing body head and have been allergic to garlic ever since.
Anyway. The drive was going as planned.
Then, the inevitable traffic jam. In West Virginia, of course. The perfect setting for such a jam. Mountain to left, mountain to right, no exits for ten miles or so. No escaping this one.
Two miles and TWO HOURS LATER, we are quite eager to see the source of such a jam. We mentally prepare ourselves for some sort of measly fenderbender, so we can wallow in the irony just a little bit more.
Turns out it was a semi truck’s trailer that had caught on fire and perhaps exploded. Ok. That will do as a proper excuse for epic traffic jam. We finally pass it by and head on our way.
After a not-so-quick stop hunting for wireless in Raleigh County, WV (appropriately), we check our remaining travel time. Six hours to go. It’s 8:00 PM. Something tells me we’re going to be missing the show. I call the B-birds and tell them that we’ll just to see them somewhere else in the country in a few days.
Fast-forward six hours. Actually, almost seven. We finally arrive in Indianapolis. It’s 2:50 AM. Great news: Bars close at 3 AM here!
So we head to Broadripple, a bustling neighborhood in the city, to meet up with my friend Meghan, just in time for last call. We have a much-deserved beverage, and prepare to call it a night soon thereafter.
But no. There is a treat in store for us.
A certain friend of Meghan’s is opening a late-night speakeasy of sorts for us where we can drink for free, in a certain restaurant in a certain neighborhood of a certain city that we happen to be in. That’s basically as much detail as I can provide you on that one.
So we spent the rest of our night in an unlit, seemingly closed restaurant, sipping free cocktails with a hoard of new Indianapolis friends we had made ten minutes prior. They were all quite ahead of us on the drinking, as they had been drinking for hours, and we had been drinking for minutes, and it was quite funny trying to participate in conversations that consisted mostly of me autopiloting responses to inaudible slurring. Friendly well-intentioned slurring though. Nice folk they were. It was a good time had.
We’re going to spend the next day or so exploring Indianapolis. I was born here, and haven’t really explored it in about 16 years… so me and Indy have some catching up to do. More adventures to come.
West Virginia: Epic Clouds Today
A crazy day of thunderstorms and clouds.
Currently on 64 west closing in on Hurricane,WV
It’s Contest Season!
Okay, so we want to make this tour as interactive as possible. We want to connect with our audience in more ways than just detailing every moment of our lives on a public blog for you to live vicariously through.
Solution: CONTESTS!!
We love contests. We especially love contests in which we are involved.
Here’s our first contest: Follow Friday Postcard Drawing!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Follow Friday, it’s a process on Twitter.com through which people can suggest twitter names they particularly enjoy for other people to follow.
Example: Here is one of Tim’s Follow Friday tweets from today -
newmediatim: #followfriday @welldonemedia @okaygreat @newraleigh @maryellis @30threads @raleighing @luceo @wnfiv @channingjohnson @donaldjones @cophotog
12 minutes ago from TweetDeck
So basically, you start off your tweet with the #followfriday hashtag, then add whatever Twitter names you please.
If you include @welldonemedia in your Follow Friday tweet, we will write your twitter name on a piece of paper, put it in a hat (our designated yellow tour hat, to be precise), and randomly draw two names at the end of the day. If you are a winner (you all are winners, don’t get me wrong.. but in this specific case), you will be mentioned in our blog AND get to pick your favorite photo from the tourblog, which will then be made into a custom-postcard with a fun message and mailed to you!
Yes, we know this is almost too awesome to fathom. You’re just going to have to enter and win to see for yourself.
ALSO: MORE FUN CONTESTS.
OkayGreat.com has put together a contest involving us as well. Here’s some of the details:
Here’s the skinny:
Every week, we’ll ask readers to call in (remember HELLO OPERATOR?) and suggest a project for Tim and Helena to carry out on the road. You can find some sample ideas here.
The project can be anything! Make a movie. Take a photo series. Go on a scavenger hunt. Write letters to all of your friends. Climb a mountain and plant a flag with your name on it. ANYTHING.
The person whose idea is chosen will receive a mystery prize in the mail from Tim + Helena. -There will be a new project and a new prize every week!
Prize winners and thei suggestions will be announced every Monday and the finished project will be put up every Friday.We can’t wait to hear everyone’s crazy suggestions. Put these two to work!
Toll Free: 866-556-9432
You can read the full post on okaygreat.com here.
LET THE CONTESTS BEGIN!
Raleigh… again??
We had been anticipating a first week chock-full of thunderstorms. That’s what technology had been telling us anyway…
And somehow our random ocean excursion was pleasantly devoid of crumby weather. Even up to the point when we had to leave.
We weren’t entirely sure where we were going from here. We figured driving westward was a good start. We said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts, John & Linda Lytvinenko (who are kin to Well Done Media’s Tim Lytvinenko, if you could not have guessed), and headed on our way.
Not having a specific destination was not a huge concern to us. We had plans to be in Indianapolis by the 17th, so anywhere between there and the Atlantic Ocean would be a valid stopping point.
It wasn’t long until we found this mysterious unseen ominous weather. It was conveniently waiting for us on HWY 40. Lovely.
We couldn’t think of anything more logical or ironic than stopping back in Raleigh. What’s another day of dealing with everyone in the streets saying… “Aren’t you supposed to be gone already?” and us responding with “Yes… we’re gone. Totally not here right now. You never saw us.”
First stop: Visit Tim’s brother, Victor Lytvinenko, and his wife, Sarah, at their warehouse. Victor and Sarah are owners of the oh-so-wonderful Raleigh Denim. They’ve lately been busy with shipping obscenely large orders of hand-crafted, custom-made denim to Barneys New York. Not a bad problem to have! We felt like they wouldn’t mind taking a break to deal with yet another surprise Raleigh visit from team Tim & Helena.
A big thank you to Raleigh Denim for making Tim his new short pants. Victor (above) is putting the finishing touches on the jeans. 
rachel.
sarah.
We were thinking about heading to Asheville &/or Knoxville for the night, but our places to stay didn’t end up confirming until about 9 PM. At that point, it was a little late to start driving, so we crashed in Raleigh, one last freaking time. Promise.
Next task for team Well Done Media: Onward to Indy. Bowerbirds and Megafaun await.
Hello Ocean.
So here we are at the Atlantic Ocean.
We thought it would be fun to start the tour here. This way, the tour will be 100% from coast-to-coast, and we can take fun things from the east-side coast and place them on the west-side coast.
Beach stomp.
We walked around for a while, met some fun dogs + people, but were eventually chased off the beach by a dense cloud of flies that would not leave us (particularly Tim) alone. We look forward to seeing them again today.
New goal for tour: Get more photos of Tim.
Day one – Raleigh > Durham > Holden Beach, NC.
Today was the day. We have officially departed for our cross-country epic phototour adventure.
We were a little late getting started (as some of the press reported that we departed on Monday). We wanted an extra day to take care of certain tasks we’d been too busy to finish (such as mailing photos that people have ordered, catching up on emails, actually planning where we’re going, setting up jobs, etc etc), and wanted to take a few hours and relax before we hit the road. So we did. It was great. Good decision.
Our original tour plans for day 1 were as follows:
- Drive to Baltimore, MD.
- Eat at Paper Moon Diner.
- Hang out with members of J-Roddy Walston & the Business (one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen, who happen to be great people. Think… Jerry Lee Lewis meets Kings of Leon meets Queen.)
- Do a photoshoot for Colossus, who happens to be touring through town that day and in need of our company + photos.
We needed to drive through Durham first, as we were meeting up with good friend/rockstar/mind-rocking magician Michael Casey, aka Magic Mike. He had a book to give us. Our task was to deliver it to David Slade of the American Princes once we arrive in little rock. We were ready for the challenge.
We sat with him in Starbucks for a while, talked life, books, and movies, did a couple of stop-motion sequences with him and went on our way. The stop-motion treats we will feed to you later.
We are on schedule. Plenty of time to get to Baltimore. Then we receive a text message from Colossus. They say that their tour van has broken down in Massachusetts, and they are going to have to cancel their show for the night.
Crap. There goes our job in Baltimore. What do we do now.
After some thinking, we decide to go to Locopops.
It’s not the most relevant decision, but it was a good first step.
For those of you who haven’t had the privilege of experiencing Locopops, the establishment serves gourmet popsicles, in a variety of fun, completely unpredictable flavors. Tim and I were relatively unadventurous today, deciding on tangerine-lime and cookies-and-cream, though I usually favor the mango chile pop. Regardless, they were tasty treats. Good irrelevant-to-tour-planning decision made.
We made a quick phone call to our friends over at Flywheel Design, the masterminds behind Okaygreat.com, who have written articles on both of us before. We informed them we were eating Locopops, and they were immediately on their way to join us.
After waiting for a while, we realized we were at two separate Locopops locations, so we took a quick drive to meet them at the pop store close to their headquarters. We hung out with the Flywheel crew for a while, discussed awesome collaboration ideas, and recorded a fantastic stop-motion of the whole group interacting with a cookies-and-cream Locopop. There were also dogs involved. Here is a preview:
So, realizing that we have some tour re-routing to do, we decided to do the most logical thing – go play in the Atlantic Ocean. So here we are, by that said ocean, for a day or so until we decide on a proper next stop. We welcome your input as to where we should go next… we want to make this as interactive as possible. Suggestions? Recommendations? You could probably coax us more easily with a job offer. That’s all we’re saying.
Okay, more fun videos, photos, and stories to come. This is all we’re feeding you for now. Stay posted.
Love,
Helena & Tim
Contribute/Hire Us
We are currently recruiting sponsors and contributors for our upcoming cross-country phototour!
We will be funding our tour by exchanging advertising space and media coverage for sponsorship in the form of cash or product donations.
The current top sponsor will receive a custom banner at the top of the welldonetour.com main page. Front and center, guaranteed exposure with every hit.
Purchasing Ad Space:
• Size and location of allotted advertising space will depend on size of contribution.
• All contributors will be displayed on our Sponsors page, in order of donation amount or value.
• All ads will run until the 2010 Well Done Media phototour (approximately one year).
$500+
• Long (590 x 100) ad banner displayed at top of blog/between blogs (see above)
• Giant (300 x 300 pixels) ad banner display on welldonetour.com main page sidebar
• Ad banner, links, and detailed promotional write-up of your product/service on our Sponsors page (you may provide it or we will create it for you)
• Automatic qualification to sponsor an individual tour day (see more info below)
• Highest level of exposure throughout multiple website locations
$250-$499
• Small (300 x 100) ad banner on welldonetour.com main page sidebar
• Link + mid-sized promotional company write-up on Sponsor Page (you may provide it or we will create it for you)
$100-$249
• Text link ad (Similar to Google Ads) welldonetour.com main page sidebar
• Link and short promotional company write-up on Sponsor page (you may provide it or we will create it for you)
Under $100
• Link or name mention on Sponsor page
You can also sponsor a specific day of the tour!
We are going to have daily expenses on our tour, which could include but are not limited to:
• Fuel for our vehicle (this will take up the majority of the cost)
• Fuel for our stomachs
• Shelter
• Beer
• Miscellaneous things necessary to keep us alive and looking awesome.
So we’re thinking that we’re going to need an average of $107/day to cover travel, life, work and emergency expenses… basically to get where we need to go and function from day to day.
So. For $107, you can choose a specific day’s blog that you would like to “Present.” We will feature you in the blog post you sponsor. We will write fun, friendly, informative things about your company/product/service/you, and you will have heavy exposure to our viewers, especially on the day we post your blog.
However, I think the funnest part is getting to pick the blog you want to be YOUR blog. It could be our New York City blog, it could be our Dinosaur, Utah (yes, it exists, and yes, we are going) blog, it could be one of the days where we meet up with the Bowerbirds and Megafaun on their national tour… it’s up to you. You just have to pick the day you want before someone else does.
You will also be featured in the Sponsor page under the “Blog Presenters By Day” section.
$500+ sponsors are automatically qualified to choose a day to present! Hooray!
SPONSORSHIP PACKAGES
• Sponsorship of a specific tour day + Small (300 x 100) ad banner on sidebar = $175 (Save $33)
• Sponsorship of a specific tour day + Large (300 x 200) ad banner on sidebar = $300 (Save $57)
By sponsoring our trip, you are providing us with the resources to make this the most effective media project possible, allowing us to maximize online traffic, thus maximizing your exposure to a target public. We also plan our outsourcing our media through a variety of other outlets, including relevant blogs, newspapers, online and print publications, and press releases, which will provide your product/service with additional means of exposure to an extensive public.
We will also be offering photography services on the road. We can shoot anything and everything. Portrait/headshots, promotional shots, live shots, you name it. If you would like to set up a photoshoot when we come through your town, please email us at info@welldonetour.com or call us at 252.670.1482(Helena) / 919.210.7351(Tim).
Here are some samples of our work:
You can find more work from us in our photoblogs. Go take a gander!
For those of you who would simply like to contribute in small ways, just buy us a beer instead. Donate $3 (we’ll drink PBR), $5, $8, $10… whatever. Any little bit will help and is much appreciated! Your names will also be listed in the “Bought Us Beer” section of our Sponsor page.
Donate here!
Additional info about who we are.
Additional info about the phototour.
About Well Done Media:
As Well Done Media, we utilize photography and experience-based travel to create innovative media campaigns connecting products, services and brands to relevant publics.
In other words, Well Done Media creates photography/video projects from the road, in real time, outsourcing these projects through an extensive variety of online, print and social media, creating and fostering a public of dedicated followers. This method of non-traditional outsourcing enables Well Done Media to act as an awareness liaison, connecting products, services and brands to a hip, youthful, tech-savvy public in new ways that traditional PR and advertising can’t.
Well Done Media is designed to accompany national tours, particularly in the arts, music and travel industries.
Other than that, we at Well Done Media simply wants to share our adventures, experiences, and stories with the world. Stay tuned to our website to see where we end up next.
Who We Are
Hi! We are Tim and Helena. We are the superteam that makes up Well Done Media. We are based out of Raleigh, NC and San Francisco, CA.
This is Helena.
Facts about Helena:
Graduated with a BA in Public Relations from NC State University.
Pursuing a MFA in Photography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA.
Helena has performed PR/marketing for American Aquarium, theblackTshirt, and Lulu.com. She specializes in marketing through online/social media and networking, press release/creative writing, editing, and small-team management, and is versed in a variety of PR platforms.
View Helena’s Blog.
Follow Helena on Twitter.
This is Tim.
Facts about Tim:
Graduated with a BS in Computer Science from NCSU School of Engineering.
Member/Part Founder of Luceo Images
Tim can program in these languages:
AS3, AS2, HTML, Javasript, JQuery, PHP, CSS, C++, JAVA, Wordpress
Tim has worked for these publications/companies:
ESPN The Magazine, Sports Illustrated, New York Post, Tumbling Colors, Raleigh Denim, NCSU, Bon Iver, The Rosebuds, Merge Records, Verses Jeans, The Concord (N.H.) Monitor, The Midland (M.I.) Daily News, ESPN International, ESPN.com, The (Raleigh) News & Observer, The Cary News, The Albuquerque Tribune, WireImage, CaptiveAire, HBO, SAGE Collectibles, CSTV.
View Tim’s Portfolio Site.
View Tim’s Photography Site.
Follow Tim on Twitter.
As Well Done Media, we utilize photography and experience-based travel to create innovative media campaigns connecting products, services and brands to relevant publics.
In other words, Well Done Media creates photography/video projects from the road, in real time, outsourcing these projects through an extensive variety of online, print and social media, creating and fostering a public of dedicated followers. This method of non-traditional outsourcing enables Well Done Media to act as an awareness liaison, connecting products, services and brands to a hip, youthful, tech-savvy public in new ways that traditional PR and advertising can’t.
Well Done Media is designed to accompany national tours, particularly in the arts, music and travel industries.
Other than that, we at Well Done Media simply wants to share our adventures, experiences, and stories with the world. Stay tuned to our website to see where we end up next.
Tour planning updates – 7/8
Hey folks! Welcome to the Well Done Media tour blog!
Tim and I have been hard at work preparing for our tour. We are in separate cities at the moment (he is currently in Raleigh, NC, and I am hiding out in New Bern, NC on a hiatus for productivity), which could have made planning a bit difficult, but we are making huge amounts of progress in very little time! It’s quite exciting.
Right now we are:
• Finishing up building the products page, where we will be posting media for sale that we create on the road. We already have some shots available for purchase in the shop, so take a gander if you’d like.
• Compiling giant lists of media to contact, in the Triangle area as well as the regions we plan to visit on our tour. I’m going to be contacting (approximately) millions of blogs, newspapers, and other online/print media and publications to get some serious coverage on our project, and will be continuing this process on the road.
• Compiling giant lists of potential sponsors… basically comprised of those who I think would benefit most from exposure to our projected public – the hip, youthful, tech-savvy folks who have a love for photography, travel, music, art, food… basically everything that we love and plan to cover while on the road, as well as folks in the Triangle area (that’s Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, NC, for those of you who are unfamiliar), as we’re anticipating a lot of online followers from our hometown region. (If you are interested in sponsoring or donating, however much or little, save me some time by contacting me! helena@welldonetour.com)
• Building a sponsorship profile at groupable.com, this really neat online platform that works as a liaison between those who sponsor and those who want to be sponsored. Genius! Feel free to check out our Groupable profile. You can just as easily find all of the information on our site, however, on Groupable, it all is consolidated quite nicely.
Anyway. Enough about that. I want to tell you a story about this guy named Simon Biswas.
Photocred: Simon Biswas
Simon is a photographer based in Jersey City, NJ. [Check out his incredible portfolio here.]
Simon is planning on driving across the United States on a phototour this summer. He is planning on leaving the same time we are planning to leave. We basically planned the EXACT SAME TRIP without having any knowledge of each other’s existence.
A mutual friend of ours, Adrienne [read her lovely foodblog here], noticed this, and referred him to me. So he emailed me.
It went directly to my spam folder. I never check my spam. I probably haven’t in half a year. And I happened to check it for the first time FOUR HOURS after he sent me that initial email. Fancy that.
So we’ve been exchanging information and plans and advice regarding our separate phototours, and obviously plan on having some sort of epic crossing of paths, because all of this is too crazy not to do something like that.
So far, we’re planning to meet up in NYC, bid him farewell as he begins his leg of the phototour (he is going clockwise, and we are going counter-clockwise). We will meet up again in Little Rock, Arkansas (somehow both of us have a ton of contacts there who all happen to be amazing people), then meet up again in San Francisco. It will be fun to see how our separate tours develop, and I will be regularly keeping all of you posted on where Simon is and what he is doing in relation to where we are and what we are doing.
Read Simon’s photoblog here.
Also:
We’d love to hear your feedback regarding the site, suggestions/recommendations for our travels, good places to go, people to meet, things to see/eat/do… Shoot us an email at info@welldonetour.com or leave us a blog comment. We’d love to hear from you! Seriously!
Ok, that’s all for now. More updates to come!
H
About The Tour
In July, we will be setting out on our first cross-country photo tour! We are so excited we can barely stand it.
This tour serves a variety of purposes:
1) A vision quest of sorts. We are photographers in search of inspiration and adventure. We want to expand our horizons and repetoire as creative writers, artists, and photographers.
2) Creating an extensive media page, providing our online public with a way of living vicariously through our travels in real time, by viewing and participating in the media we create.
3) Taking Well Done Media’s objectives and extending them through a national ground network and international web exposure.
The tour could take one of several routes, which will be be determined in real time as the tour progresses:
We welcome any suggestions or recommendations for places to see, people to meet, and things to do. We’d love to hear from you! Shoot us a line at info@welldonetour.com.
We will also be extending photography services on the road. If you would like to hire us, purchase advertising space, donate or otherwise contribute to our tour, click here for more info and work samples.
About Well Done Media:
As Well Done Media, we utilize photography and experience-based travel to create innovative media campaigns connecting products, services and brands to relevant publics.
In other words, Well Done Media creates photography/video projects from the road, in real time, outsourcing these projects through an extensive variety of online, print and social media, creating and fostering a public of dedicated followers. This method of non-traditional outsourcing enables Well Done Media to act as an awareness liaison, connecting products, services and brands to a hip, youthful, tech-savvy public in new ways that traditional PR and advertising can’t.
Well Done Media is designed to accompany national tours, particularly in the arts, music and travel industries.
Other than that, we at Well Done Media simply wants to share our adventures, experiences, and stories with the world. Stay tuned into our website to see where we end up next.
As Well Done Media, we utilize photography and experience-based travel to create innovative media campaigns connecting products, services and brands to relevant publics.