Day 7 + 8 on the road! NOLA~

Bright and Sunny Mississippi River

8/16/2014

Had a late start to our saturday. Woke up around noon, had some coffee and made our way to the French Quarter district in New Orleans. It's touristy and loud and crazy and awesome! The houses are to die for, all colorful, balconies filled with plants, palms, ferns, and flowers. Live music on every street corner, and artists selling their work all over the place. It was crowded, hot, and sorta smelly, but hey!…. when in NOLA….

Some local vendors suggested we go to this restaurant called Felix's so we did, and we got some fried seafood platter with hushpuppies. Everything here is fried…. everything. We found ourselves in voodoo stores, funky gift shops, and the open market. It's really something you have to experience for yourself to understand, but this city is so vibrant in every which way you can imagine the word. After a long afternoon of walking around and exploring we made our way back to Tessa's where we lounged for a while.

Interviewing Brian and Maggie

Then we met up with her friends and very talented musicians, Maggie and Brian. They're in a band that is sort of un-named, but they go by "Maggie Belle" (for now). They were kind enough to participate in an interview and play some live music for us at Brian's house. THEY ROCK! [check out this video we pulled from youtube] Contemporary rhythm and blues mixed with Janis Joplin type of vibe- Brian on the piano/bongos and Maggie's got the vocals. Can't wait to include them in this documentary and super content that they are apart of this project! We ended the night early due to leaving early in the AM.

It's been one week on the road and we're already on our way out of New Orleans, it's crazy how fast this trip is moving! But we're are enjoying every minute of it and can't wait to continue… Goodnight, friends!




8/17/14

Hey y'all! Today was 90% uneventful since we were driving the whole time but we did get in a last minuet interview with Jeremy Phipps! He's a NOLA native with a lot to say about New Orleans music and culture. Jeremy also writes songs, plays the trumpet, trombone, and makes beats. He pretty much does it all when it comes to music. Talking to him was the best way to leave NOLA. Check out some of his work here… www.saintbell.com

Other than that amazing bit… We want to take this time to thank our home town friend, Tessa Bitterman for opening her doors once again and letting us stay with her all weekend. Tessa and her partner, Marya showed us around and hooked us up with some great folks to interview. We are extremely grateful for that! Also Tessa's lil man, Booker, was SO happy to see Rosie again and Rosie was SO happy to see her Bookie. Miss ya homies! MUCH LOVE!




The road has been treating us kindly, but we may have been loosing out minds a little bit- as well as gaining heavy southern accent we just can't seem to kick! When we come back, ya'll better be ready :D S.O.S. // S.O.K (save out KIA)!!!



We are now in Huston Texas at the Morty Rich Hostel where we plan to swim and just enjoy our first night in Texas and do NOTHING for a night.

GOODNIGHTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!

Andrea + Rosie
SoapSkeptics

Day 6- 8/15/14

August 15, 2014- day six on the road

We woke up in good ole' New Orleans and went out for coffee and breakfast to a place called Surrey's with our lovely hosts Tessa and Marya. Afterwards Rosie and I went to the Apple store to see what was going on with my laptop- turns out that it is completely busted, but they were able to take out the hard drive and all of my files should be saved! SO THATS GOOD!!

"I saw two ID's, thats enough"

Tessa and Marya wanted to take us to nature, and we were all about the adventure, so we made our way to Jean Lafitte National Park (a.k.a a bayou). It was gorgeous! Spanish moss, trees fully covered in ivy, palms, swamp, marsh, and sunshine! We got there around 4:30 and probably left around 4:45 because we saw two gators, and about 100 Banana Spiders. Google them. When going on a hike, I don't think defending yourself from gators is a normal thought to cross our minds coming from NJ. So that didn't last too long, but it was still beautiful and we got to take some nice pictures. We also went through a drive-thru daiquiri joint! Yep, you can buy alcohol through a drive thru down here as long as the straw isn't in the cup, it's not an open container. ONLY IN LOUISIANA.

Marya cooking and Tessa!

After our attempt to embrace Louisiana's nature, we went to buy some supplies for Marya to make us some real real jambalaya. We learned about the TRINITY: celery, onion, and bell pepper. DAS IT! This jambalaya was the bees knees. Tessa and Marya invited a few friends over and we got to hangout and meet some cool musicians and friends from all over America. The cool thing about New Orleans is that it attracts people for so many reasons, so although it's in the south, you meet people from PA, CA, VA, WA, and all over the place! This city has more culture than any one we've seen so far. It's a hub for art, music, food, and life!

After dinner, we went to the Hi-Ho Lounge and listened to some percussion jams by BATEBUNDA [check out their Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BateBunda] SO MUCH DANCING! It was the best! Then we walked to Frenchmen to see some other friends play some more funky jams. The night ended around 3 am, typical Friday night in NOLA according to Maggie, one of Tessa's friends who was leading the adventures.

We're starting our day off late today, but we have some interviews lined up and art markets to check out, so stay tuned!

Thanks to those who keep following our blog and adventures! Please feel free to share with friends and family! So happy and fortunate to be able to use the power of technology for good and be able to share this eye and mind opening experience with you all!



Peace

Andrea + Rosie
@SoapSkeptics

!!!TOMORROW FRIDAY 13 2014 SoapSkeptics WILL BE ON THE RADIO!!!

SOAPSKEPTICS WILL BE ON AIR @

WRSU RUTGERS RADIO 88.7 fm

10:15 PM

STAY TUNED AND HEAR ABOUT OUR ROAD TRIP AND KICKSTARTER!

Peace,

SoapSkeptics

andrea & rosie

New Artist Perspective Interview about Art and Culture with Boat Shoes, a local musician from Metuchen, NJ.

Artist Perspective: Boat Shoes

Boat Shoes is an experimental musician who is more commonly known as Jon Johnson. SoapSkeptics visits his home in Metuchen, NJ and he talks with us about the cultural music of hip hop he grew up with, it's transition into more electronic psychedelic sounds, and how he sees the music game transforming in the future. Boat Shoes also talks about how he makes music, what inspires him, and how he imagines America to be coming into a state of openness with society and new "weird" things are to come!

Check out more sounds from Boat Shoes at: www.boatshoesz.bandcamp.com

SoapSkeptics is an art group made up of Rosie McNeill and Andrea Garcia. We are traveling across the country in August 2014 to meet with more local artists [of all mediums] and discuss how culture and society shape the ways in which they make/view art.

Keep up with what SoapSkeptics is doing:

Blog: soapskeptics.blogspot.com
Instagram: @soapskeptics
Facebook: facebook.com/soapskeptics.1
Youtube: youtube.com/soapskeptics
Vimeo: vime.com/soapskeptics
Email: soapskeptics@gmail.com

Help us make this project possible- visit our Kickstarter Campaign to help us reach our goal of $5,000
kickstarter.com/projects/1793708100/soapskeptics-traveling-across-usa-to-film-art-and

Taking A Break From Work Is Good For You

We have been busy busy the past few weeks, getting our Kickstarter Campaign launched, continuing to interview local artists, edit the films, and creating creations to sell at our local art festival, June Bug!

We decided to take this glorious day and spend it at Round Valley Park in New Jersey. 

GO THERE BECAUSE IT IS AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL! The water is crystal clear, the trees are radiating good vibrations, and the air is just too good to not breathe. It's always good to get out of the office/studio/home and just explore somewhere new with good friends, and some sandwiches. 

***

Now, we must continue on our work! 

We have a couple "Artist Perspective" 

videos coming to ya'll this week:

One is with SEEMORIAH, a very passionate multidisciplinary feminist artist from New York City. She gives us interesting opinions about living in New York City as an artist and as a Puerto Rican woman. 

Second, we have Boat Shoes, a one man experimental band who uses cacophony at it's finest. He talks with us about being from a small town in New Jersey with little cultural influences, how hip hop shaped his interest in music, and how/why his interest has evolved over time.

Interview with The Black Cadillacs