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This adventure I’m on never seems to die down. Couldn’t be more grateful. A short film I produced named UYUNI played a few more film festivals in places like Columbia and Iceland (totally wish I could have gone!) My friend Nirvan got his awesome new website for The 1 Second Film launched! My friend Ondi launched her new documentary We Live in Public, which is now on DVD! And I got a nod on Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools blog ! PS, Kevin has his new book out now! My friends Rich and John from The American Dollar released another genius album! “Atlas” http://theamericandollar.info/

Sometimes life feels like what I’m doing while I am living, but a lot of the time, life is what happens while I’m making plans. The idea is from a John Lennon quote. For me, I very rarely get to see the people that are the most important in my life. I live at such a fast pace some years, that an entire year goes by without the proper communication or hugs with the people that inspire me that most. As my main mission here is to inspire others, I don’t often spend the time I should finding people or things that inspire me. I am infinitely grateful for those people who inspire me. You truly make my life more fulfilling. I got to briefly see Alison and Bryn in March. Two people I love dearly.

For the month of March, I knew I was gonna be out in Austin for this year’s South By Southwest (SXSW) and I also knew that I wanted to attend the US premiere of UYUNI at the Cleveland International Film Festival, and I knew I wanted to visit some friends in Toronto. I also knew that it was time for my Jumping Book to get made. So I crafted a super fantastic Jumping Book Tour!!!!

I set up a new website for the book at www.jumpingbook.com, created a flickr group for people to add their own jumpshots to the collage in the back of the book, a facebook fanpage for the book so I could keep people up to date with the project, and launched a fundraiser on IndieGoGo. I quickly created a video for the project and jumped in my car.

I sent out a quick announcement that went something like this:

In order to make this book happen, I will be traveling all over America to get some of the remaining needed photos for the book. If you would like to help with getting the book made check out: www.jumpingbook.com

Here’s the video:

In order to really do justice to my epic Jumping Book tour, I really need to get some of the great photos and videos I shot edited together. I hopefully will be able to do that at some point, but for now a quick blog recap of the journey will have to do. Here’s a taste of my epic journey:

The epic roadtrip led me first to Phoenix to do some jumpshots with Clintus, and the guys at Gangplank. Then I headed to Austin where I met up with my friend Rachel and her Austin friends and went hiking around Hamilton Pool which was so super awesome.

I then headed to SXSW!!! I have written a whole blog about it here.   SXSW blog

After the crazy awesome week at SXSW, including some great jumpshots with Brian Shaler!!! and meeting up with Matt Brown and Anna-Lynne Williams of Trespassers William, I headed south and met up with Sara Janssen and her awesome family, then down to Houston to visit with my grandma and family there. It was great seeing them! We went to the Houston Rodeo at Reliant Stadium and saw the Eli Young Band.

Leaving Texas, I stopped by for a quick jumpshot with April from Rocket Science Shorts, then up through Arkansas, where I got to visit with my friends Tona and Landon and their beautiful daughter Daisy! Then on to Nashville for a few days with Ashleigh and the Nashville friends. Then on to Indiana to meet up with Erin and her lovely family. Then I met up with my grandma’s brother, who is also a photographer. So we out for a day of shooting. Then I met up with fellow inventor Jeff Cook.

Then after a long 20 hour drive, I finally made it to Cleveland for the US premiere of the short I produced called UYUNI at the Cleveland International Film Fest! At the last minute I saved the day, and with the awesome staff of CIFF, I got the film to play correctly. It was super awesome to see the film with an audience. Got some great feedback (all compliments =) Then I headed to Toronto, and stopped along the way at Niagara for a jumpshot with Eric! While in Toronto, I hung out with Ayz and his family, met up with Gayle, met up with Kyron, and also met up with the Mugglesam family! Sam made a super nice video of the visit =)

I left Toronto, sad to be leaving so many awesome people.  On my way to NYC, I stopped for lunch with Delaine Dacko, the lovely sister of Ryan Dacko, the team behind the documentary Plan 9 From Syracuse (which I helped shoot the final day of.)

I finally made it to CT to shoot some jumpshots with Hannah and Nathan (the two younger siblings of ATDS collaborator Jamie Dee) I then spent a few days meeting with a bunch of the ATDS team.

Then I headed down to New York City, stopping by to visit more family on the way. I made it to NYC just in time for the NYC gallery opening of Philippe Halsman’s JUMP book. I even got to do my own jumpshot surrounded by Halsman’s jumpshots on the walls of the gallery. I also got to meet Philippe’s daughter Irene Halsman, which was a complete honor.  While in NYC, I met for dinner with my old uncle Tar, then I got to meet up with my friend and fellow youtuber Caitlin Hill, met up with my friend Erik Paulsen (who did some music for the original SIMILO,) and did an awesome tour of WABC, met up with a few of the NY based ATDS collaborators, Tarynn, Clay, and Katheryn, and I also got to spend a couple days with my Italian family, Simona, Max, and Viola.

I then headed to DIY DAYS where I met up with various people in new media. Ted Hope gave the keynote introduction. There were many great speakers talking about social media, and storytelling etc. I tried to twitter “@” a bunch of the people I met up with that day: … Now at @diydays #diydays w/ @tedhope @lanceweiler @bnewman01@getstoried @1basil1 @noahharlan fun day! #diydays many friends: @bchirls @karlj @girlgamy @anitaondine @paulrachman @saskiawb @GoGoSlava & @fhta alumni!: @zekezelker @zaffi. While there, I met up with several ATDS Board of Advisors as well. I also got to meet up with my friend Hannah Bailey (who was in the awesome documentary American Teen) to do a jumpshot!

On April 5th, I posted this twitter:

My 93 Honda Accord just crossed the 200,000 mile mark! bam! http://flic.kr/p/7QYZzT

After leaving NY, I was on a pretty crazy schedule trying to make it all the way back to LA to shoot a wedding, but I had a few people to visit along the way =) First stop was in Illinois to visit fellow photographer Ben Geyer and his awesome family. Then I headed to Chicago to meet up with friends Tiff Tate and Wendy Alas. Then on my way to Minnesota, I got to shoot jumpshots with Ashley, Leslie, and then Ross Heintzkill.

After a bizarrely long drive, I finally made it to Minneapolis, Minnesota!!!! Michelle and Jeremiah have been friends of mine for many years, but I rarely find myself in Minnesota, so it was so great seeing them. I then headed south to Sioux Falls, SD to meet up with Angela and her awesome Electric Pulp team. It was a blast shooting with them. We even got ice cream =) Angela and Stefan have a new iphone/ipad ap out now as well.

I then traveled through Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada, visiting my friend Jess, my friends and inspirations Trevor and Austin, two of the guys from from Mammoth Media, my friend Sascha, more family, fellow jumpshot photographer Rick Smith, and friend Kacey Cash, before making it back to LA for Krissie and Mike Lynch’s wedding.

The final jumpshot of the tour I shot at Mike Lynch’s wedding!!!

So after about 35 days on the road, I met up with hundreds and hundreds of people along my tour. I shot 11,700 photos total, and a bunch of video. I have posted 2400 photos here.