Two girls making somethings out of nothings with their hands.
This summer we hope to embark on an epic cross country road trip, interviewing all kinds of artist along the way in order to make a documentary about art and culture in America today. OUR KICKSTARTER IS UP AND RUNNING! follow us and stay informed!
Instagram: @soapskeptics
Facebook.com/soapskeptics.1
We hope everyone had a safe, healthy, thankful and happy THANKSGIVING!!
We are surely stuffed and ready to continue our editing process.
This week we began organizing files, images, and objects collected to scan for our BOOK! That's going to be the easy fun part.
Still working on editing interviews, we have been struggling with actually figuring out HOW we want the documentary to flow. But first order of business is to just finish editing the individual interviews. Here is one we finished last week, Maggie Belle, a band based in New Orleans. Influenced by Jazz, Soul, Rhythm and Blues, their sound is distinct and full of passion. They invited us to their home and shared some really interesting points of view on culture, music, and life down in New Orleans.
Enjoy and feel free to share :)
stay tuned for more updates!
www.soapskeptics.blogspot.com
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.
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!
Today was yet another great day. We woke up in Atlanta and now we are about to fall asleep in New Orleans but let us tell you all about what went down today! First we had awesome breakfast burritos made by the one and only Hannah Holst (thanks, girl!) and then we were back on the road heading towards Mobile Alabama. The south continues to amaze the both of us with their beautiful landscapes and outrageously friendly communities! We met up with Ally Clements who has been living in Mobile for most of her life and makes beautiful jewelry out of animal bones. Ally is always on the lookout for roadkill because thats where she gets her bones from! This girl is pretty badass… she finds these dead animals and tries to use every part she can to incorporate it into her work. If the skins are salvageable shell keep them for other projects, like practicing her taxidermy, or just as a nice conversational decoration piece but her main focus is on the bones! She has been really pushing the art community in Mobile to become more lively and explosive. She will be at the RAW ARTS festival down in New Orleans next week- so if any of you viewers are in the area, look out for her boutique jewelry made of bones.
You can also buy her beautifully crafted gems online at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BarelyBonesBoutique
Now we are staying in New Orleans with a friend from our hometown in NJ, Tessa! It's gonna be a fun weekend down in NOLA. Can't wait to share it with ya!
Keep up with what we're doing on Facebook and Instagram as well!
@soapskeptics
Facebook.com/soapskeptics.1
