From the East Coast to the Southern Comfort!

What an journey it's been thus far! NYC marked our half way mark. It's gone by fast, and it's apparent that our level of skill for driving long hours has improved. When we see 800+ miles to go on the GPS we shrug and say cool, not as long as we thought.

Since we're short a man the work load has been pretty relentless. I don't think Matt's taken a driving shift since Colorado. Vy and I split the drive between Denver and Chicago- that was a doozy- 1,058 miles in one day!

The most unfortunate aspect of the trip is the amount of time we have in each city. Our schedule has been a late arrival into city #1, UniPaas videos, venue walk thru, meet and greet, retire to the hotel room- wake up and drive 14 hours to get to city #2 and do it all over again. Nonetheless we're learning a lot, about each other, about the culture and the history of these cities and most importantly, the creative scene.

We've met some fantastic people! NYC was full of enthusiastic transplants that despite the saturation of arts, music, fashion and opportunity were depressed at the opportunities. They were stoked to see RAW emerging there. The heartfelt praise from the New Yorkers was much appreciated. By the time we get to the Meet and Greets, usually all three of us are half asleep- so petite pep talks are a good alternative to a 6th cup of coffee.

New York was fantastically full of multi talented artists. We interviewed MoJo an artistic Sunglass designer, Colorform a multi-faceted arts and music group that includes cello, vocals, guitar and a live painter into each performance. We also met an indie singer songwriter named Corey who knocked our socks off with his singing voice. He broke a guitar string because we was rockin so hard!

While our NYC Director, Dawn chaperoned us around the city we spotted a skateboarding artist with a pair of Manichean legs secured to his head by a scarf! You'll have to watch the documentary to find out more about that one!

After 3.5 days in NY with a snowstorm, a few subway blunders and ice cold miles of walking we were comforted by the short 2 hour drive to Philly. Philly is an incredible city, it was the 3rd city out of all of them so far that I fell in love with (Denver and Chicago are the others). The people there were sweet-apple-pie-kinda-nice. Overly friendly, positive and there was laughter everywhere- comparable to an episode of Cheers. Everyone seemed to known everyone. This was a Thursday afternoon mind you- it wasn't even happy hour yet, so I know for sure it wasn't alcohol induced. There were no angry looks or rude eye shots- just simply shiny happy people.

We made the 2 mile trek to the Philadelphia Museum of art also more famously known as the Rocky Balboa Steps. We got some great footage! On our way we met a lone sketch artist in the middle of a snowy park drawing a historical church. It was a great candid moment.

Philly has over 10 arts colleges and a performing arts high school! Definitely a creative city.

I liked the feel of Philadelphia, but what were the artists like?

We had a fantastic Meet & Greet at our amazing new venue G Lounge. Fox 29 Philadelphia came out and interviewed me about the launch. It's going to be a great show, I know it! The artists were passionate, humble and grateful for RAW. One of the featured artists for the first show told me she felt like she won the lotto. I was washed over with a reminder of "this is why you do what you do".


Frederick our Philly director kidnapped us despite our every effort to sleep before our next day drive to Nashville. Fred knows Philly, that is for sure. We had a few cocktails at a former speakeasy that has been there for over 100 years. I drank a martini with egg white as a main ingredient- surprisingly delicious!

For now we're on hour 9 in the car (about 4 to go)- on our way to Nashville, Tennessee. After 5 days on the bustling east coast, in cities that don't sleep, love to honk and ticket happy cops we're ready for some Southern comfort.

If you or someone you know deserves the spotlight in NYC or Philadelphia email Dawn@RAWartists.org or Frederick@RAWartists.org (respectively)