::Sunday market never ceases to amaze::

::this moment 4.3.11::

The making of "Lost In My Mind"

Woo Hoo! It's done!
I got the awesome opportunity to film a small behind the scenes document of the making of the video for "Lost In My Mind" by fantastic Seattle band The Head and The Heart. I saw these folks open for Hey Marseilles (another fantastic pacific northwest band) at the Tractor Tavern back in May of 2010 and have been listening to them and attending their shows ever since.
I shot this with a Canon 5D Mark II 35mm digital SLR camera with a small shotgun microphone mounted on the camera's hot shoe; over the course of 24 hours in Leavenworth Washington 3 weeks ago. I really wanted to capture all the creativity, ingenuity, humor, and hard work that went into this production. The official music video directed by Christian Hansen will be released by SubPop Records this weekend just in time for Valentines Day.

Behind the scenes of "Lost In My Mind" from amanda allen on Vimeo.

::sneak peak @ the production of "Lost in my Mind"

The past couple days found me amongst a small crew of about 10 folks out in the Cascade mountains in Winton, WA just outside of Leavenworth. We headed out with a rickety old piano and 60 house lamps to assemble a set for the video of "Lost in my Mind" by up and coming/blowing up pacific northwest band, The Head and the Heart. This was such a perfect setting for this song, that I gorged myself a bit too much on this past summer, and which is so "up lifting" and inspiring. It was incredibly cold and a bit hard fumbling in snowshoes, burying lamps in the snow and having 2 cameras strapped on me as I was filming a tiny behind the scenes document of the making of the video, and also getting even a bit sunburned out there in the snow at a high altitude for 10 hours. I'm so excited to start working on the editing of my small video and see the finished product of director Christian Hansen-Sorrenson's vision soon....

::brother in arms::

I am not an early riser by any means especially when I've been sick for the past week. This morning I had set my alarm to wake up promptly and tune into KEXP to hear my friend Jack Wilson playing live on John Richards morning show.
Jack is a sorta goofy and nefarious fella in my life. A fantastically talented and friendly guy, living half the year in Austin Texas and half the year here in Seattle.We used to work together couple years ago and although he was a self admitted pretty damn lazy bar back and prep cook who annoyed the shit out of us all I still have a funny fondness for him.
I curled up cozy in bed under my new blankets with the 9am sun coming in the window and listened to Jacks twangy voice coming over the airwaves. It made me so lonesome for the warm winter days I spent in Austin 2 years ago and also the freezing cold afternoon him and I spent last March on the porch of his old house in Seattle the day before he drove back to Austin.
I was shooting photos of him with a camera I was about to sell, and drinking whiskey while he played me some new songs.


" Lets make a photograph, lets make a Polaroid...
I'll stay off the pills, the thrills, I am not a falling star..."

::Lord have mercy on my rough and rowdy ways::

It's December 27th. I feel soooo excited about the new year upon us.
My dear dear friend Xan is in town from New York for the holidays.
Her and I have this tradition we started on Easter 2007 of sending paper boats out to sea with wishes/resolutions/things we want to banish from our lives/things we want to manifest, written and tied up and on board. We braved the freezing rain at the Olympic Sculpture Park, set our feet in the sand and let go.....

::vacation in the city::

After all the Thanksgiving and brief snow storm hubbub I had a little 29th birthday surprise for Michelle. Friday we headed downtown for a for a fun fancy dinner at the Pink Door in Pike Place Market and then for a night's stay at the ACE Hotel. I've been wanting to go there just for fun for months and months and finally had a good excuse. I got caught by housekeeping nabbing some souvenir boxes of matches and condoms off a cart in the hallway and then I accidentally went home with the room key. I suppose we could now just go let ourselves back into room 121 any time we like....

Dear Delancey, I'm impressed

After waiting for months for the perfect time to try it out I finally took the chance last night to dine at Delancey; opened by renowned writer blogger and photographer Molly Wizenberg and her darling husband Brandon. Being the huge food and food photography dork that I am I've been a huge fan of her photo work on her blog Orangette for a couple years now;I was a little apprehensive about it like maybe it wouldn't be as cool as I had hoped. I got a little giddy just walking in the door, like geeking out on a celebrity crush.
Nothing about Delancey disappointed me. Simple delicious wine list and local beers from Pike and Chuckanut Brewing Co, undoubtably the tastiest lightest pizza I've ever had (I even enjoyed mushrooms! huge deal for me!) and the friendliest warmest staff making jokes with us and waving and wishing Michelle and I a good night as we left. Such a lovely spot for a relaxed rainy saturday night in Seattle; Delancey pretty much entirely embodies everything I love about modern culinary culture, simple, delicious, beautiful and unpretentious.

Spring is in the air and in my ears

No wonder this weekend I'm feeling completely run down and am fighting a cold. This past week has had me up late a couple nights in a row taking in some fantastically good local music. Thursday I found out last minute about Horse Feathers from Portland playing here in town. Their sleepy spooky wistful music was perfect for a warm spring evening.
::Horse Feathers:: @ Tractor Tavern, Thursday





::Sera Cahoon:: @ Watertown, Friday
I've loved Sera Cahoon's music for years now. The perfect sort of modern sad country/folk that I absolutely love. It was also amazing that the show was at Watertown (where Sera bartends part time) and it's only 4 blocks from my house. I finally felt like I was really appreciating Seattle again that night.