Jake Archambo

Driving on a bus, we begin to exit the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik. A modem city with a sleepy one hundred thousand people to make it the most populated city on the entire island. We are driving out to what the Icelanders call the "Golden Circle". The "Golden Circle" is a loop of national park containing the famous Blue Lagoon, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, geysers and the golden waterfalls, Gulfoss. The billboards start to wind down as we travel along the typical highway you would find in America or any other first world country. Sixteen letter words containing symbols I had never seen before and couldn't even begin to fathom how each of them is pronounced start to diminish as we continue along. Before I know it, the six lane wide highway shrinks down to two lanes, with barely anyone on the road. The housing and buildings begin to become more scarce. Dark ancient green moss washes up on the edge of the buildings. It looks like it is slowly digesting these concrete beas...

I give away too much coffee. For free that is. Fully made lattes, mochas, drip coffee, anything and everything you could find in a cafe. Having been a barista for five years now, I don’t think it’s a habit I’ll be able to drop. I just simply like everything that is encapsulated through the act of giving someone a free coffee that’s all. I want to preface by saying not everything is “on the house” when I’m working, but rather, here and there a coffee may slip by. One of the reasons that I wanted to work at this cafe in the first place was because of the generosity and welcoming nature of the baristas that I have been lucky enough to work with since. Whether it be for someone’s birthday, a graduation or even if a customer was telling us about an accomplishment considered to be miniscule like cleaning out their car, we find that good enough reason to celebrate with a free coffee. There is a high value on the relationship between barista and customer making it synonymous to a friendship. ...

My friends and I took a lovely night stroll one night. It was one of the first warmer nights of the spring and we decided to take a walk to take it all in and watch the river go by. We were sophomores at the time so we walked from Kennedy and Burch apartments down past Jundt, where it intercepted the Centennial Trail. Walking through the bushes down as a short cut we had our flash nights and began to make our way down the paved trail with the river rolling along right next to us. Catching up on each other's days we walked down until the river wasn’t visible and began to walk back the way we just came from. All enraptured by the quiet, yet powerful, force that was the Spokane River we sat for a while and watched it flow by. We heard a rustling in the bushes next to us and my friend pointed it out as a marmot, however, this was to be the biggest marmot I had ever seen. We turned back to the river when we heard a knocking against wood. You would’ve thought it was a woodpecker. We loo...

Thee Sacred Souls, the beautiful, soulful, melodic band that blesses our ears every time we listen to them. How can you not like them? I have never not put this band on and received negative feedback. Consisting of three members, Sal Samano (bass), Alex Garcia (drummer), and Josh Lane (singer). The band coming out of San Diego, and popping out with a bang with their first ever song being released in 2020 "Can I Call You Rose?", also being one of their most popular song to day, has proved to be consistent through their first two albums as a group both under Daptone Records. Their music feels like a breath of fresh air that is easily enjoyable and feels like music at its finest. If I had any jurisdiction in deciding what music I would play to someone who has never heard music before in their life, I would ensure that Thee Sacred Souls made the list. To be more specific, my picks would be "Weak For Your Love" or "Easier Said Than Done". Both being phenomenal ...

Up until the week before these events took place, I was fully ready to be one of the people on the YouTube Livestream waiting for Frank Ocean to take the stage. However, it was until my friend from Los Angeles was visiting Spokane, when one conversation led to another and I was invited to Coachella as they had an extra ticket that I could use for free. I had never been to a music festival before, but with Frank Ocean being one of my favorite artists I was willing to book a flight to Los Angeles that week. The week leading up to it, it still didn’t feel real that I was going to see the most elusive and popular artists ever. His first show in seven years with little to no music released in that timeframe. I wasn’t able to attend all three days of the festival, but only for Sunday, the day Frank Ocean would be performing. With a three hour drive there and the three hour drive back we would complete on the way back after the show that would get us back to Los Angeles more towards 4 am, we ...