My travel philosophy
Your next trip should leave you feeling thoroughly fulfilled.
I’m on my second film festival circuit and after a dozen cities, I feel confident in what I’m about to share with you. Here’s how you have a great trip, wherever you’re going.
Bring along a point-and-shoot camera
The photos in this post come from a $30 thermal-print camera off of Amazon. I love this camera — it prints photos on receipt paper that you just tear off and give to people. While being so low-effort to almost be disposable, they actually carry a physicality and candor with them that digital photos never do so long as they only remain digital.
When I travel, I love taking photos of people and being able to give it to them right then and there.
Hire a photographer for a mini-session
Do a quick instagram search for a photographer who lives in the area and hire one of them for a quick hour-long session. It’ll probably be around $200-$400.
What you’ll get out of it is not only a selection of new photos to update your profile pictures and your press kits, but you’ll also get to meet a local artist and get to know them through their work.
I think that last bit is the most rewarding — as artists, I feel like our opportunities to really get to know each other are far and few between. Social media carries a low-fidelity cultural connotation of “self-promotion” and “algorithmically rewarded-ness” that just gets in the way of making a real human connection. I even feel weird watching someone’s entire body of work on social media because it feels like stalking — especially if this is how I’m first getting to know you. How horrible is that — that, as artists, our ability to connect is so stunted?
Hire a photographer. Trust me.
Eat somewhere based on a local’s suggestion
While you’re making friends with aforementioned photographer, get their insider’s scoop on where to eat. Hell, maybe you should make your determination on who you’re even hiring based on whether you think they’d know where to eat. I’m just saying, human culture is so engrained and reflected in cuisine and I’d hate to get a lackluster picture of a community because I couldn’t find the right place to eat.
Go to a local sport event
There’s one facet of the mainstream-culture that I think we should be loath to lose, and that’s the great American culture of sports.
When visiting a town, make time to go see a local sports team. Major-league if you can afford it, minor-league ain’t so bad either, and if all else fails, make it to a sports bar for a good matchup.
New York City has sports bars across the metro area devoted to a specific sports team or city. I witnessed the Miracle in Miami at one of these bars, and last month, I finally made my pilgrimage to Bailey’s Corner Pub, the NYC sports bar devoted to the Detroit Lions. The friends you briefly make as you boo the refs and cheer the victories go a long way to making it feel like you’ve gotten your hands around a city.
Enjoy the local art scene
I’m mainly going to film festivals, so I’m kinda getting my fill there, but even then, I would suggest going to a concert or something comparable. Many of our smaller towns and cities suffer from immense brain-drain as talent leaves for places like LA and NYC. Take the opportunity to support local artists, even if you’re not from town.
My brother plays drums for a few bands in Chicago and it was such an awesome experience to get to see him perform. The music itself is great, meeting musical artists from town is inspiring, and the wealth of experience is invaluable.
Go to a unique museum
When I went to Cleveland in 2024, I had some time to kill before the eclipse. I decided I would go to the house featured in “A Christmas Story,” delightfully maintained as a museum for the film. These are the kinds of gems you get the opportunity to visit when you’re traveling to a new town. Don’t miss it.
On the same trip, I got to go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — just another can’t-miss opportunity.
Always visit a friend
The city is its people. Social capital is what makes cities what they are — if you had no value for human connection, what are you doing in a city?
So if you’re visiting a town where someone you know is nearby, make the effort to see them. And if someone is coming to your neck of the woods, try to do the same for them. To me, it’s the ultimate value of a trip — did you get a chance sit, break bread, and catch up with friends old and new?
It’s also why I love to cold call people just to chat while I’m driving long distances — so if you get a call from a 917 number, it might just be me.
Caution: there’s probably an obscure German compound word for this, but you may just fall in love with a town in the middle of uncharacteristically perfect weather.
I find any town during the Autumn to be sublime — enjoy it. Enjoy dressing in layers, visiting a local cafe, and taking a sunset walk in breezy weather, but beware the siren-song: a brutal or yucky winter may be just around the corner or perhaps the summers will be unbearable.