Road trip

This tag is associated with 4 posts

Weekend Drive | Sohight & Cheevy – ‘Travel Anthem’

Posted by Jasmine McGee ⋅ November 1, 2012 ⋅ Leave a Comment

Boy, oh boy! If you’re in search of that perfect anthem for a weekend drive or a cross country road trip, then I highly recommend you peep Sohight & Cheevy’s “Travel Anthem.”

I heard the track in a mix I was listening to across the country, and let me tell you, I totally couldn’t get enough of it! It made driving 11 hours a day seem like a total breeze. I love driving long-distance anyways, but the “Travel Anthem” really soothed those sour moments of road-trip agony. Ya know, those moments when you just want to teleport to your destination and take a nap. Yup, I had a few of those visions, but I stayed strong in my drive from Maryland to Colorado.

I don’t plan on taking another road-trip until I move to California in January, but you can sure believe that I will be getting my hands on Sohight & Cheevy’s “Travel Anthem.” Not only is the original track good, but the remixes are pretty sweet; grab the remixes on the Travel Anthem EP being released next week on the 5th.

Next Time You’re in Nebraska, Stop By King Kong for Gyros, Phillies, and Huge Burgers! (thinksoul25.com)

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Next Time You’re in Nebraska, Stop By King Kong for Gyros, Phillies, and Huge Burgers!

Posted by Jasmine McGee ⋅ October 23, 2012 ⋅ 1 Comment

Whew, it feels so good to finally lay down, put my headphones on, and blog away. You may have noticed a lack of posts the past few days, and the reason being is I’ve been driving across the country; long four day drive from Maryland to Denver, Colorado.

I wasn’t alone on my journey. My mom and dad drove the truck with all our furniture in it, and I followed behind them in the car. So basically every single day I drove about 8-10 hours, with only a few short stops for rest. Yeah, sounds exhausting…and it really was. In the midst of the trip, so much stuff happened, including the headlights going out on the car. Even when we replaced the bulbs at Walmart, they still couldn’t figure out what was wrong. So at night time, I had to hold the brights on (switch wouldn’t stay on by itself) for about 2-3 hours. I drove with one hand, and boy I was so over it!

This wasn’t my first time going across the country on a massive road trip. Most of my life has been spent driving/moving back and forth from Colorado to Maryland, with short stays in Virginia and my birthplace, Columbus, Ohio.

So it wasn’t my first cross-country roadtrip, but it was my first time eating at King Kong in Lincoln, Nebraska. You heard that correct, a restaurant named King Kong. Awesome, right? So here is the situation, basically right off of i-80 you’ll spot this huge gorilla in the air and below it is a sign that says it all. Yup, the sign lets you know that not only can you get gyros, but they have phillies, steaks, and burgers! And not just a small burger, nope, you get a KING KONG BURGER. Seriously, the burger is massive!

Sadly, I didn’t take a picture of the burger my dad ate, but I did take a picture of my gyro. And I must say, it was absolutely delish! The last good gyro I had was from this cool food truck in Manhattan, and since then I haven’t had a pretty good one. Hey, some of them food trucks can really throw down and the food taste better than restaurants. Sometimes, not all. Some food trucks suck!

Anyways, so was it worth driving through Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illionois, Iowa, and Nebraska just to stop by King Kong for some delicious food? HELL YES! It’s so worth the drive. King Kong is awesome! And the decor of the restaurant has vintage King Kong posters, stuff apes hanging from the ceiling, and in front of the restaurant are mini King Kong statues. The entire restaurant is truly an experience!

So next time you’re in Nebraska, stop by King Kong for some good mood food!

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Parisian Groovin | J’aime la musique house français

Posted by Jasmine McGee ⋅ March 2, 2012 ⋅ 1 Comment

I absolutely slept till noon today. No shame. I was up all night on the phone consecutively from 10pm to around 3:30am. I ended up catching up with an old friend (I’ve never met) from the days of Myspace chatting, and then I had to talk to one of my favorite friends who still lives out in Colorado (oh, how I miss him dearly.) We talked on the phone for quite some time, and then I ended up talking to someone else till about 3:30am. Basically just catching up with a lot of people last night. On top of that, everyday this week I was helping my brother move stuff from his apartment to ours since he officially is moving back to L.A. in a few days. So, I was uber exhausted from the entire week, which explains my laziness today.

I’m still going to have a lazy/chill Friday, but at least I got up, took a shower, and now I’m laying down in my bed before I work on school work. But now that I’ve finally risen from my slumber & started my day, I decided to spend some time looking for some new music. It’s been about a week since I’ve stumbled some good new music (aside from house.) So I headed over to YouTube and saw that one of the channels I’m subscribed to decided to upload a track by a Parisian artist named Darius. I had never heard of Darius, but after clicking on video & after and heading over to the official Facebook page, I was hooked.

I suppose it’s hard for me to get away from house, because every time I go on these hunts for new music, I end up finding music within the genre of house or EDM (electronic dance music.) So when I started listening to Darius, I realized that I had found a new favorite French House artist. I’m still madly in love with the sounds of L’Étranger & Louis La Roche, but Darius is pretty massive. He is just yet another one of the Parisian artists to add to my list: Bob Sinclair, Dimitri From Paris, and Darius.

When I say “Parisian” I don’t just mean the origin of the music, but I also am referring to french house. It has this unique disco vibe, but then it’s infused with a pop-ish electronic sound. Not only is the music reminiscent of the disco days, but the overall vibe is this timeless class. For instance, take a look at the picture of Bob Sinclair & Dimitri From Paris below, that picture is just a symbol of how timeless & effortless a lot of their french house tracks are. Well, a lot of Bob Sinclair’s old tracks have that vibe. Most of his new stuff is….eh, not so great. I miss the old Bob Sinclair. But that’s an entirely different blog post.

So when it comes to French House, I’m in love with a lot of different tracks. And today, the sounds of Parisian grooves are the perfect anthem for my ultra chill Friday. I’m over here jamming to Darius, Dimitri From Paris, Louis La Roche, L’Étranger, and some other unique artists I found on soundcloud. So if you happen to be a fan of the nu-disco vibes of French House (also referred to as French Touch), then check out some of the tracks I found below. It’s nice to shuffle between soulful house & the Parisian groovin’ of French house. When I’m in a timeless mode, then I set the mood to the sounds of Paris. I close my eyes and daydream about the city of lights & the music pulsating throughout the sky. J’adore la musique house française. C’est merveilleux! (Oh yeah, I studied French…so I know some.) Even more fitting for the occasion!

Napoleon IIIrd – The Unknown Unknown (L’Étranger Remix)

OMG, it’s insane for a track to be this good! You can download for free too….so download it!

Dubwiser – Slowly (L’Étranger Remix)

L’Étranger – Falling For You (Original Mix)

Une chanson magnifique! (A wonderful song.)

L’Étranger – Touch (Original Mix)

Darius (Official) – Original Mix

All these tracks are awesome, but my favs are: Maliblue, Road Trip, & Falling In Love.

Disco House | Jazzy Eyewear – “The Renaissance(Les Loups’ 1979 Remix)” (thinksoul25.com)

Bon Voyage

Posted by Jasmine McGee ⋅ August 7, 2011 ⋅ 3 Comments

ThinkSoul25: Thoughts of an Urban Nomad is more than just a blog about pop culture and things I like, it’s a lifestyle essentially. I consider myself an “urban nomad” because I am constantly traveling the country (soon to be world) and taking in massive amounts of visual information.

Literally every year, I’m moving to another state, another city, or a new apartment. I’m moving in a few weeks to another city ten minutes from where I stay now. I’ll still be residing in Maryland, just in a different city with a different vibe.

I love constantly moving around, but I understand that there is nothing wrong with having stability. The DMV may not be the most exciting place in the world for some folks, but compared to Colorado and Ohio, it’s great! Yet, it doesn’t have to be the only place I frequent. As an urban nomad, it’s my duty to continue traveling and see the world. It’s my job as an active individual, to explore new places and document the culture I collect along the way. A lot of the things I’m into are due to my past experiences and interactions with people along my road trips across country.

I’ve driven back and forth the country so many times with my family and sometimes with just my mom (like when we moved from Denver to Maryland in January.) I love taking road trips and driving across the different interstates, but one of my favorite pastimes is taking the Amtrak. I wouldn’t be an urban nomad if I didn’t utilize all types of transportation in order to reach a scenic and vibrant destination. I’ve taken the Amtrak a few times from Pelham station to New York City and from D.C. to Charlotte, NC. The most exciting aspect of the trips have always been the interesting people I encounter. The stories are priceless, Hollywood couldn’t script them if they wanted to.

I still haven’t visited abroad yet (not even a trip to Canada) but until I start working on my passport paperwork, I will put my efforts into taking train rides across the country. My new urban nomadic plan is to start taking more Amtrak trips. My first trip is going to be on the scenic Adirondack Route. I’ve already begun planning to take this trip in October and documenting it with my digital camera, Macbook, and video camera. I was originally planning on going alone, but luckily I have cool parents that love to travel as well. They don’t want to go on some of my other potential trips, but they have always wanted to ride the Adirondack Route in upstate New York.

It is one of the most scenic routes along the Amtrak Northeast routes. The trip is well under 300 dollars and there are a lot of places to stay along the way. It will be my first trip on this new nomadic plan I have. In the next year, I plan on documenting more destinations, cultures, and publishing them right here on my blog. It’s taken me some time to get settled, but now I’m ready to lock up house, grab my essentials, and travel the world. A lot of these journeys I will have to experience on my own until I find an adventurous travel companion, but that’s okay. I want to be able to look back on my life and say I had a lot of great journeys. Every time people see me, I want them to be able to say bon voyage! I’m not sitting still and letting life pass me by, I’m grabbing my Amtrak ticket and seeing the country, then upgrading to flights and seeing the world. Now that is what being an urban nomad is all about!