Las Vegas Trip 2019 / April 30, 2019 by Bebe Besch

My little sister, Aunt, and I all went down with my mother to Las Vegas, Nevada, to celebrate her 60th birthday together earlier this month. Most of the time was spent lounging by the pool, or grabbing food together, but we did get out and check out a few attractions including the 7 Magic Mountains, the Neon Museum, Mystere by Cirque Du Soleil, and Fremont Street!

My sister and I arrived into Vegas about 1am on a Friday morning and wen straight to sleep - the resort we stayed at had a handful of pools to choose from. The “lazy river” and hot tub could be viewed from our condo.

My mom and Shayna entertained some of the more trendy spots I wanted to check out on our first day, including visiting the 7 Magic Mountains art instillation which was out in the middle of the desert and filled with other tourists by the time we got there.

My sister in front of some old signs at the Neon Museum.

My mom and sister also agreed to check out the Neon Museum (or the Neon Boneyard) where many of the signs that have been retired from the Las Vegas strip go to rest. It was incredibly bright and way too hot to fully enjoy the hour we had at this museum, but it was very cool to see all of the old signs and how they were displayed now. I would visit again at night, if I return again.

The true highlight of this trip was probably visiting with my mom’s cousin Harlen and his family. I had probably met them as a child at one of our family reunions, but that’s so long ago now I’m not sure! We got to visit them at their home where they provided home-made pizza for us in their outdoor pizza oven, taught us how to play bocce ball, and gave us recommendations for the rest of our trip.

On the second day of our trip we decided to go to Mystere By Cirque du Soleil at Treasure Island. The show was a real spectacle and something I’ll always remember. It was just weird enough for me, and I like my entertainment weird! Beforehand we explored the strip and watched the volcano eruption at the Mirage while we killed time before the show.

My sister inside a shipping container at Container Park.

On our final day of our trip, most of the day was spent hanging out in Old Vegas and Fremont Street. It was also Easter Sunday! What a wild way to spend a religious holiday (in Sin City)! It was a fun area that I wish we had more time to explore. We even got to check out Container Park a few blocks away, the concept of which I appreciated. The idea of shops being inside of little shipping containers were something I’d never seen before.

When I’m not traveling to visit friends or for bands, my favorite way to spend that time is with family. I’m so happy we got to celebrate together and explore a new city with these lovely ladies!

Better Oblivion Community Center at KEXP 3.17.19 / March 24, 2019 by Bebe Besch

Last Sunday morning, March 17, 2019, many folks were crowding around the Seattle Center fountain in spandex, ready for their St. Patrick’s Day run. I was there too, but I was getting ready for one of the most memorable KEXP instudios I will ever experience - Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst, aka Better Oblivion Community Center, a new band that combines my current tastes with the old.

Phoebe Bridgers has been popping up everywhere lately, her album Stranger in the Alps (originally released in 2017) has the incredibly catchy single “Motion Sickness” which was a go-to for me in the past couple of years. Her voice is a true one-of-a-kind. There is a lulling mourn in her sound. The harmonies Bridgers creates (she typically will have two vocals of here own layered on top of each other) evoke a story even without the meaning behind the lyrics themselves. She isn’t a tragic soul, but there is certainly a depth and pain in her background. Even in moments that would standardly feel lackluster if they were executed by another artist, the monotony of her sound becomes riveting in its lingering.

Conor Oberst has been around for a very long time - creating music even earlier than when he burst onto the indie/emo scene in ‘95 as Bright Eyes. At his core, Oberst was always a simple sounding singer, but a complex songwriter. His vocals are unmistakable as well, sometimes he sounds like he just having a conversation with someone else, often with a vulnerability as if there’s a tear to fall following his message.

Bridgers and Oberst have another thing in common as well, they both have their own solo projects but collaborate often. Oberst was recently involved in a resurgence of the post-punk outfit, Desaparecidos, which was one of the first live shows I ever photographed for KEXP back in the fall of 2012. Bridgers is also a part of the supergroup boygenius, which is made up of singers Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus as well. All of this culminates in 2019, when Bridgers and Oberst announced their own collaborative effort, Better Oblivion Community Center.

Oberst had previously had Bridgers open for him on another tour, and really appreciated the sad music she was making. He said he believed her music would help people feel better - explaining that it, at least, made him feel better.

The two had been crafting songs here and there together, not sure about whose albums the songs would end up on in the future, when eventually they began to realize the songs sort of belonged together as their own standalone thing. Now we’ve got a mouthful-of-a-band-name an a full LP via Dead Oceans.

The result is much of what you might expect, melodic and somber harmonizations with detailed lyrics. A song titled “Dylan Thomas” speaks of dying on the bathroom floor as a result of a seizure, something that specifically terrorizes me to my core. Such specific story-telling can alienate some listeners, but for me, I feel closer to the artists behind the work if what they have to share isn’t generic.

With all of this being said, I was completely floored to shoot the Better Oblivion Community Center performance at KEXP last week. Both performers were incredibly humble, as expected, yet still I had nerves creeping up on me because both musicians were so big to me for different reasons. Phoebe Bridgers probably is my favorite female vocalist at the moment, and Conor Oberst brings me back to an age where I was discovering music for myself for the first time - truly discovering it, as the internet was ever powerful and relatively new at the time of my teens.

Both Bridgers/Oberst and co. were perfectionists. The session started a bit late as all of the technical details were sorted and made just right. Once all was ready to go, the band ran through “Dylan Thomas”, “Didn’t Know What I Was In For”, “Little Trouble” (a new song that the duo jut released) and “Easy / Lucky / Free”, a Bright Eyes cover, which the group recorded twice to get just perfect. Bridgers opted for a mic only for this song, and got closer to her counterpart by offering her mic to him while he tended to the guitar work.

Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers with Jim Beckmann and Cheryl Waters of KEXP.

After the session, I was able to grab a few portraits for the station and got to talk a bit about Seattle and our music scene state right now with the duo. Bridgers reminisced about past years spent at the Bumbershoot music festival at the Seattle Center. Oberst asked for me to mimic a dramatic fish-eye portrait of them (at the top of this entry) as he had been really loving the fish-eye look his friend had been using in their press shots that were recently taken. I gave it a try and he gave me a hair flip.

Phoebe and Conor were two of the sweetest musicians I’ve ever gotten to shoot. Their album (that I’ve currently listened to more times than my favorite band’s recently released album) is going to be a classic among the 2019 releases. I’m really hoping there is much more to come from this pairing, and it’s not a one-off thing - they both have so many projects, but there is something special about this combo and the eloquent, sad songs they have created together.

Check out the entire performance from KEXP below (you may spot me in the wide shots of the full studio doing my thing!):

Record Breaking Seattle Snow - February 2019 / February 13, 2019 by Bebe Besch

On February 3, 2019, the beginning of the “Snowmaggedon 2019” started in Seattle, Washington. If you don’t know, we don’t usually get much snow in Seattle, and when we do get a significant amount (or really even a small amount), it can affect the city and surrounding suburbs dramatically. We’re a city of hills next to each other, and we don’t have the infrastructure or resources to properly account for a lot of snow. Most people in Seattle also don’t know how to drive in the conditions, either.

In any case, when we get more than a couple of inches, the city essentially shuts down. “Snowpocalypse” is another phrase we use when a snowstorm really takes off in Seattle. In this case, we got 4 snowstorms in less than 10 days, and we broke a few serious records - this was the snowiest month in Seattle in over 50 years.

The first “small” round of snow begins to fall on 2/3/2019.

We didn’t get a ton of snow on the first round, but it was enough for school closures and a real Seattle snow-day. The kind of event we get every few years where we get a decent amount of sticking snow, and can have a little fun in it.

The first round of snow didn’t last too long, it began to fade away in typical fashion from Downton Seattle.

Come Tuesday, 2/5 things were disappearing, but word was getting around of the upcoming new snowstorm we would be receiving on Friday, 2/8. Everyone had the same idea - rush to the supermarkets on Thursday evening and stock up on supplies and food to survive the upcoming weekend and impending snow. Shelves on grocery stores all around the city were wiped clean, and so began Bananagate (bananas were one of the first things to completely disappear off of store shelves when people were stalking up).

Sure enough, the snow hit sharp on Friday afternoon, and myself and coworkers were flooding out of the office to avoid getting stuck downtown in the new snowfall, of which there was a lot!

One of my favorite things in my neighborhood - the light cube!!! I decided to go take photos of it for the first time in the snow.

Already getting a little stir crazy on Friday evening.

Having drinks at our favorite bar in the neighborhood - Joli, we were so happy they were open this weekend.

Finding bananas with one of my best friends.

Come Sunday night, 2/10, the 3rd snowstorm arrived and the city had received an incredible amount of snow by Monday 2/11. I believe my neighborhood had about 14”, but that’s after some melting and new snow had fallen. People in Seattle suburbs or the convergent zone were looking at much more snow, and talking about their amounts in feet. The Snoqualmie Pass also closed down as it received 53” inches of snow in 48 hours.

Despite there being a 4th snowstorm on the way on Tuesday, Monday felt like the biggest moment of snow amounts for the city, as there was some rain and melting expected between Monday and Tuesday. I decided to get out and get a few more neighborhood shots of the snow on Monday while I still could:

The 4th snowstorm came, but by Tuesday afternoon, the rain came down. Finally, the snow began to melt, and as I’m writing this, even most of the slush on my street has gone. There are still piles of snow and plenty of ice on the side streets, but it appears we are out of the 10-day storm at this point, at least in proper Seattle. The rest of the surrounding areas are still dealing with some pretty difficult conditions. The snow was pretty, and it was an awfully exciting change of pace, but I think I’m good on the snow for a few years again.