I never used to but lately I've loved going out west. The change of scenery, weather and people is a wonderful retreat from my day to day here in New York. This year I was asked by Glam Media to attend Coachella and capture style trends and cut together short videos. Being in Cali was fun but I didn't really know how I felt about Coachella this year until I was on my way back. My brothers, Ali and Ammar, picked me up from the airport when I got back and the first thing they asked was "How was Coachella?". My usual response is "Dude its was a blast, I had a great time. Hashtag EPIC." but just hours earlier I was reflecting on my Coachella experience and came to the conclusion that I had an ok time, and this is what I told them. They responded with "But your Instagram made it look amazing". I'm not really sure why I had an ok time this year, could be a number of the following things:

• I wasn't in the mood.
• The fact that it takes about 45 minutes just to walk into the festival and when the day is over it takes about two hours just to walk out and get home.
• Maybe I'm getting too old for this shit.
• The line up wasn't really all that exciting to me. I'm not an Outkast fan and they kind of sucked, seen Nas & Skrillex perform way too many time to be excited about it, Pharell is eh (so over that Happy song). Saw Arcade Fire last time I was at Coachella and LOVED them so no need for a repeat performance. I don't even know what the fuck Muse is. And so on.
• You would think it's because I was there by myself, but the truth is that was the only thing that I enjoyed about this experience - being alone.
• Could be that I'm just over this whole music festival thing.
• Some of the stages were so close to each other that the sets started to conflict a little. And then some of the stages were so far that you missed half of the performance you were walking to/from just to catch it.
• It's way too hot during the day and my skin isn't sun friendly.
• Drinks are so damn expensive.

Anyway, I don't want to get it twisted, I didn't have a terrible time. I got to see a bunch of good people I hadn't seen in a while and did have pockets of some really good times ie: Girl talk. I was just trying to illustrate that just because something looks epic on Instagram doesn't really mean it is. That's the manipulative power of imagery - this is why Instagram is so successful. No matter how mundane or lifeless of a time you're having, you can always find the right angle or moment to tell the lie you want people to believe.   These are my lies:

I never used to but lately I've loved going out west. The change of scenery, weather and people is a wonderful retreat from my day to day here in New York. This year I was asked by Glam Media to attend Coachella and capture style trends and cut together short videos. Being in Cali was fun but I didn't really know how I felt about Coachella this year until I was on my way back. My brothers, Ali and Ammar, picked me up from the airport when I got back and the first thing they asked was "How was Coachella?". My usual response is "Dude its was a blast, I had a great time. Hashtag EPIC." but just hours earlier I was reflecting on my Coachella experience and came to the conclusion that I had an ok time, and this is what I told them. They responded with "But your Instagram made it look amazing". I'm not really sure why I had an ok time this year, could be a number of the following things:

• I wasn't in the mood.
• The fact that it takes about 45 minutes just to walk into the festival and when the day is over it takes about two hours just to walk out and get home.
• Maybe I'm getting too old for this shit.
• The line up wasn't really all that exciting to me. I'm not an Outkast fan and they kind of sucked, seen Nas & Skrillex perform way too many time to be excited about it, Pharell is eh (so over that Happy song). Saw Arcade Fire last time I was at Coachella and LOVED them so no need for a repeat performance. I don't even know what the fuck Muse is. And so on.
• You would think it's because I was there by myself, but the truth is that was the only thing that I enjoyed about this experience - being alone.
• Could be that I'm just over this whole music festival thing.
• Some of the stages were so close to each other that the sets started to conflict a little. And then some of the stages were so far that you missed half of the performance you were walking to/from just to catch it.
• It's way too hot during the day and my skin isn't sun friendly.
• Drinks are so damn expensive.

Anyway, I don't want to get it twisted, I didn't have a terrible time. I got to see a bunch of good people I hadn't seen in a while and did have pockets of some really good times ie: Girl talk. I was just trying to illustrate that just because something looks epic on Instagram doesn't really mean it is. That's the manipulative power of imagery - this is why Instagram is so successful. No matter how mundane or lifeless of a time you're having, you can always find the right angle or moment to tell the lie you want people to believe.   These are my lies: