Trip/2023/03/USA
Data Points
From: March 8th, 2023
To: March 16th, 2023
Flying: LATAM, United and Alaskan
Schedule
03/08 — Fly in (From GIG) (Wed)
03/09 — PDX (Thu) ⟶ 4 days
Stayed at The Ace
03/13 — LAS (Mon) (Arriving: Night) ⟶ 3 days
Stayed with friends
03/16 — Fly back (To Gig) (Wed)
03/17 — Arrive (Thu)
Update: Picked a lousy itinerary, so the traveling part was soul-crushing. It took too long for me to arrive, the overall trip was too short, and it felt like I had gone through a meat grinder. At least I met friendly people with great life stories on some flights
Selected Packed Items
Same as Trip/2022/11/USA
Planned Activities
Meet people
Finish a bunch of books
Maybe read something random I get at Powell's
Update: Finally got my hands on the paperback version of Suzuki Koji's Dark Water at Powell's Hawthorne. Finished it too
Sleep
Update: Wasn't as tired as last November.
Continue to solve some bureaucracy quirks
Start my explorations on field recording. I will write about it later
Planned Purchases
Replaced most of my chargers and cables with:
Anker 715 Charger (Nano II 65W) paired with Native Union Belt Cable Duo
This takes care of Lightning and any USB-C needs, providing fast charge for both
It provides a much-needed USB-A port for old-school stuff, like charging the 10k mah USB-A only removable battery of my battered Away Carry-on or the Native Union Belt Watch Charger It. It also provides a second USB-C port for multi-charging
Fast. Not too big
For on-the-go phone/tablet charging with the batteries
For older ports compatibility (like the Carry-on battery)
Trip Log
March 8th, 2023
My flight schedule felt cursed from the beginning. I had to hop around with layovers of 4h+ and three connections.
In GIG (São Paulo, still in Brazil), I found out there was a Tryp hotel inside the terminal. I would later fly to ORD. Without anything to do, I decided to check it out.
It was a weird place, basically an airport lounge to access with rooms attached to it. They also provide access to the only smoking area inside the airport -- 20 minutes for USD 35 for 20 minutes of access to it.
While chatting with the receptionist, I found out that one of my credit card programs granted me access to one room for a single hour, plus access to the airport lounge of it (which costs $200 per person (!))
Since I had four hours to wait at the airport, I decided to accept it, just for the weirdness of the experience. I was able to shower and lay in a small bed in the dark for about 30 minutes.
It was a strange but grounding meditation. I was worried most of the time that my time would run out. I had no idea what time I entered the room or if someone would knock on the door when the time was done -- This feels...kinky?-- Still, in the end, I felt like I was a grain of sand in a tiny and claustrophobic room inside a hotel, a terminal, an airport, a city, and it goes on and on, making everything small and my situation utterly irrelevant.
I also spent some of my “resting” time thinking about how decoration magically defines we perceive and utilize spaces. From the fancy hotel lounge, I could see a classic underground airport corridor made of cubicle walls, long treadmills (for power walking), and places for people to sit and drink overpriced beverages. This what's a classic airport space looks like. Shitty and timeless.
At the same time, the intent of my tiny space was set to look and act like a hotel room. This was a weird place for it to exist, but fake it was not.
This idea took me to the notion of privacy in the matryoshka of spaces. As soon as I locked my hotel room with my key card, it a perimeter was set and bound where I could do things that I couldn't do outside (like shower, sleep almost naked, etc.).
It sounds simple, but it's fascinating how many of these spaces are created and destroyed every second around the world, how they interact with each other, and how different rules for the same space may make it a completely different space.
For example, I decided to pass my free access to the lounge food (deplorable) and asked the receptionist if, instead, I could stay for a bit more in a room. She arranged for me to use the same room for another hour for free (the first hour wasn't exactly free because the card partnership paid for it).
I returned to the same room, laid down, and relaxed with my door locked: again, the same physical space, but now with a different ruleset (a courtesy from someone).
Trippy hall of mirrors.
March 9th, 2023
Arrived in Portland, and both my body and brain hurt. I tried to sleep, but it was 3 pm. I decided to eat something in an eatery I liked. After ordering and sitting down, severely jet-lagged, I found a little person who looked precisely like a very close friend of mine (who isn't a little person) smiling at me inside the restaurant. I smiled at him, and he acknowledged me and left the place. I saw the door opening and closing, but no one got outside.
March 10th, 2023
Getting used to my hotel room. It’s noon.
The room radio was set to https://kmhd.org by default. I like it.
March 12th, 2023
Last day in Portland. I will record some Sonic Mementos, have a long bathtub bath, and pack.
March 14th, 2023
How easier it is to ship toiletries before you get to a new city. My assistant sent everything I needed (shampoo, mouth washer, etc.), and it was waiting for me at the hotel.
March 15th, 2023
Staying with friends is always a pleasure, but I greatly miss my family. Time to get back.
Bonus
Again, I made a spotify playlist with relevant songs