My time in LA has been beyond ah-mazing! Yesterday afternoon me and Christie, her roommate Kelli, and my new crazy awesome friend Brandi Chun had the adventure of a lifetime! When driving to get some food we saw a random rummage sale on the way and all of us felt the irresistible attraction of the rummage. We found this awesome leather jacket and photo shoot ensued. I can’t even handle how awesome yesterday was so I’m just going to get it out and write out all of my incandescent joy. Come to think of it though, everything that has happened since I touched down in LA Friday night has felt that awesome! Everybody told me to be on my toes and get ready for the absolute insanity when I got to LA, but nothing could be more opposite. I walked off the plane without the feeling of anxiety, stress, or even really excitement. It just felt as I was. I was so in the moment and in complete peace that each step I was taking, each breath that I was borrowing was exactly as it should be. This feeling of complete confidence in my totally unplanned and unknown week in LA was only magnified the moment that I meant Christie and her incredible roommate Kelli. Within moments of introducing ourselves we were joking and laughing with each other like old friends. And sitting here 3 days later in Christie’s studio apt using Kelli’s laptop and eating our shared Chinese food from last night I know that I have found another family.

I used to wonder why there is this fire in my blood for the road. Not that I want anything from the road except to be on it. To feel the wind in my hair and the soft familiar thrum of the asphalt singing beneath my feet. In the process of finding these unlooked for but immeasurably beautiful friends I have finally understood what it is that I have chosen to live like a wander lusting gypsy for. It is the instant inexplicable bond formed between like-spirited individuals that were tailored perfectly to fit into a loving community together. I started writing this entry with no agenda except to communicate that Christi, Kelli, Brandi, and I had an insanely fun time finding little treasures all over LA yesterday, but even as I write about these pleasurable experiences I am understanding that this trip to LA has shown me the deeper motive behind the way I have behaved for so long. With this realization in hand I feel as if I have become an intrepid adventurer crossing the lands in search of this irreplaceable treasure. Not a chest of gold or an ancient artifact, but something so paradoxically immaterial yet so immensely necessary to all things material. I seek my friends. My confidantes. My allies in this endless war to retain the ability to listen to our heart whisper our passions to us against the forces that would seek to isolate, confuse, and beat us down.

Right before I started writing this Christie and I were talking about the idea of community. We agreed that when you have found a community of true friends that everything becomes everyone’s. A person in true community begins to empathize in a way that when one of us hurts then everyone is hurting and when one rejoices so does everyone. This is what our Friends Living Room Tour is all about. Christi, Kelli, and I have become such incredible friends that it made us think about all the friendships we have over the US that make us feel the same way. We want to take this opportunity of downtime between creative projects to share moments and create bonds of authentic community with the people we care deeply about. Creatively we never want to stop doing what we love no matter what the end is, and in our friendships we never want to stop loving no matter where our home is.

My parents and friends kept asking me why I was going to LA and what my purpose was. I never had an answer until right now. I came to LA to understand community, and now I am going to travel America sharing that community with the most incredible people this world has to offer.

 - Luke Torgerson