Lisa Haagen: Another Show!!

Lisa has another show!! She will have a show Thursday, March 3rd, 7:30pm at Chuckanut Brewery.  This venue is open to all ages, and serves great food and beer. Since Lisa's last show she has continued to sell more CDs, and receive much applause for it!


As a reminder, she also has a show on March 9th at the Honeymoon! So many chances to see her perform! Be sure to make it to at least one.

Also, if you have not purchased her CD, she did upload two more songs to her band profile page. Go have a listen!!

Update on High Street Collective video

So yesterday before my post the video a little over 300 views, right now it is at 401 views. Help me and my friends by going clicking this link and watching the video!! This group of riders are very talented and if they were able to get video of the day their fan base and awareness would increase dramatically!!! Spread the link to your friends! Lets see if we can get the views to over 600!!

Fresh Tracks

               My friends mentioned in a previous post, High Street Collective, recently finished a new video last night! This video is even better than their other one! It’s the second film they have published since Dale purchased his new camera, and the increased quality is definitely apparent.  The video captures the essence of the Pacific Northwest, with the clips of beautiful scenery and bald eagles,  while still showcasing  Justin’s talent and the excitement of downhill mountain biking. This edit features some great shots of the Bellingham trials highlighting new fallen snow and the bald eagles. Justin and Dale were the only two on the trial for most of the time laying down fresh tracks.

Justin and Dale at the top of mountain

 The featured rider in this video is Justin Feldhaus. Dale Shahan filmed Justin riding over a period of two days, for about four hours each day. The filming consists of locating the section of the trail desired to film, then setting up the camera and the necessary equipment.  After the camera is meticulously set up, it’s time to ride. But it’s not quite that simple. To get that perfect shot the rider has to climb back up the trial, and ride back down until they are satisfied with the shot.  I’ve seen the raw uncut footage, one of the benefits of being friends with the filmers and editors, and it can take a handful of tries to get that perfect shot. Sometimes, though after five tries, they decide it’s just not meant to be and move one.    

Dale climbing a tree trying to get the right camera angle

  

                Once they are satisfied they got all the shots they need, then it is time to edit.  Editing consisted of approximately five grueling hours of sorting all the shots in a fluid order and placing in transitions. Perhaps the hardest part though was choosing the song. I heard them arguing between a couple different songs, and watched the edit to each song. This is such a hard choice because the songs needs to matches the feel of the edit, and the scenery, and needs to somewhat match the pace of bike. It is nearly impossible to have a song that matches a ride completely. After arguing between two songs for almost a day, they finally settled on was “Mine is Yours”, the Passion Pit remix of the song by Cold War Kids.

                Dale filmed and edited (with some help and input from Justin), this video. Dale has only recently started filming and editing, only since January to be exact. He is very talented for almost no training and previous experience. Dale has also been riding mountain bikes for about nine months. Currently he is not featured in any films because he films all of his videos, but he is hoping to teach some of his skills to his fellow riders so he can be filmed too. Dale has a page on PinkBike and Vimeo. He also is the main contact and creator of High Street Collective. Dale designs t-shirts also, they are quirky and funny, be sure to check them out on their facebook.

                The featured rider, Justin, is the one who got his whole house into mountain biking. Having been riding bikes since he was only four years old, his passion and devotion was transcended onto his curious roommates. He has recently gotten two of his other roommates into riding. After their first ride at Galbraith both these roommates purchased mountain bikes.  Justin has been road biking, and BMX biking since he was young, but only been devoted to mountain biking for five years. His first encounter with mountain biking was with his dad when he was 12.  Justin frequents trials in Bellingham, such as Galbraith, and enjoys taking trips to Seattle to ride Duthie Hill. He loves flying down the trials, it is just him and nature and his bike. Justin favors the fact that mountain is an individual sports, and it is up to you to push yourself as much as choose.

Watch the video at pinkbike!!!

Lies

The other day I was able to witness an artist in action. I saw a man (I was told to not mention his name) spray painting his signature piece. He spray paints around the Seattle area. I saw him start the small section of the garage, that was originally painted purple. The three others sides of the garage feature murals from various artists who have lived in the house or are friends with someone in the house. To start, he outlines the word "lies" in white, and then continued to fill it in with different colors and add cool effects surrounding it. I definitely like the piece, and I find it to be a good addition to the garage.

First Show? Two Thumbs Up!!

I walk into the Undergound halfway through the opener, Barefoot Brothers, and see the lead singer Alex with his shirt off. They are jamming to their reggae-like tunes and the audience is engaged and listening closely. I browse the audience and see a large amount of people,  a very rough estimate of about 80 people. Barefoot Brothers ends on a cover of “Wagon Wheel”, which they did a terrific cover of. The crowd applauds with much enthusiasm. The mood is set, and the crowd is ready for another round of great music. After Barefoot Brothers clears the stage of their equipment, Lisa starts to set up her keyboard and of course her blue guitar. The blue guitar is quite fitting considering her first album, which her first offering for sales was at this show, is Baby Blue. The time is 8:53 and Lisa is ready to take the stage.

Lisa opens her show with her song “Stars”. She explained she felt it was fitting to open the show with this song since it was the first song that she wrote and actually liked enough to share with friends. For the next hour Lisa plays a couple songs on her keyboard, and many on her guitar. The audience is mesmerized and listing attentively. Being that I am her close friend and attend many of her open mics, I find myself singing along to almost all of her songs, and look around to see her other avid fans mouthing the words. She ends her first performance on Champion. She ends on this song because she says it is her mom’s favorite song. Her parents drove all the way up from Vancouver, Washington to see her show! After she ends the show and leaves us with a few words, she announces she will be selling her album at the front stage. A huge crowd rushes and gathers at the front to get their hands on one of her CDs Lisa estimates she sold a total of 26!


Lisa Haagen’s first show: Great Success!!





Her album Baby Blue features 13 of her original songs.
1. Stars
2. Fall
3. Baby Blue
4. Wasting my Breath
5. Running in the Dark
6. Finally
7. Dancing on the Moon
8. Otherside
9. Want
10. Ode to Being a Prude
11. Over You
12. Sink or Swim
13. Ember


The songs on her album have a slightly different sound because she is able to include drums, piano and bass guitar, usually at open mic she only plays the guitar. Despite this, they all sound amazing and her beautiful voice is showcased in her first album. It is only $5!!

Sink or Swim

Go to Lisa Haagen’s Facebook right now!! Now!!!! Do it! Go to her band profile tab and listen to her song Sink or Swim!!! Just a little preview of her album.


Alrighty, so this is an exciting week!! Open mic at the Underground Coffee House on Tuesday per usual! And Wednesday is Lisa Haagen’s show, with Barefoot Brothers opening!! Barefoot Brothers go on at 8, and Lisa goes on at 9!! Despite that ridiculous amount of awesomeness, Lisa is releasing her album at her concert. Let me remind you that all these shows are free, so there literally is no reason not to go. And if you are thinking that you have too much school work, you are wrong. I will be doing my homework there. So bring your homework, bring your friends, and have a nice Wednesday night.

All right that is all folks. Hope to see ya at the Underground. I will be posting stories and pictures from the show also!!!


As a reminder Lisa also has a show at the Honeymoon March 8th!! So keep your calendars clear for that event as well.

Bellingham Celebrities

Kyle Maltz.

So my friend, Kyle, well he is talented, talented in a different arena. Perhaps the arena of having a fun and exciting life. Ha. Well he is talented at making movies of his fun adventures, such as mountain biking, skiing, cliff jumping and playing with his dog. He has a YouTube channel with all his videos there and Facebook Fan Page, for him. Pretty darn cool. He also graduated from WWU last spring, and recently got a job!!! good job!! So basically he wants to be a Paris Hilton… sorta…. He doesn’t want to be annoying and rich for no reason, and he didn’t inherit some ridiculous lump sum of cash because of his last name. But he basically just wants to be known for being him, so perhaps the Bellingham version Paris Hilton- sorta. Maybe make an empire out of his name…. ha not exactly.


He is in the works of developing a Groupon-like website. It offers one hot deal of the day, every day! The difference is these coupons are centered around universities and businesses that college students frequent. The website if CampusPinch, it is not up and running yet, be will be soon!!! Spread the word, these deals are going to be awesome!


Here is a cool video:

Awesome Video

My friends that I was bragging about in my previous past, the High Street Collective, just posted a new video. Take a look!




Becuase I have hunch the video may not post here is the link