This week, many friends of mine are all around the world exploring the beaches of the coast, the tourism spots of the city, and the photo opportunities of the international trek. This is the first time in four years that I have not been able to experience a Spring Break (one of the many sarcastic “joys” of growing up). In some recent conversations with recent graduate friends, I realized that when the real world hits us, we all need those times to get away from home, the office, responsibility, and every other adulthood task that you can think of. For students, it’s Spring Break. For us, it’s “needing to get away for a weekend”. That was my weekend.

On Friday afternoon, I organized the perfect scenario for my weekend. Friday night was spent around home, spending time with a few friends, shooting pool at a local spot, and staying up late with my roommate discussing ways that we could improve our street cred. Saturday morning came too soon, as I traveled to Cincinnati to meet up with my sister and her husband. Who knew that Don Pablo’s still existed? As children, we would drive an hour and a half every year to the closest Don Pablo’s restaurant for Stephanie’s birthday. Thanks to Newport, KY our childhood was relived.

My sister and I both grew up in an artistic, creatively-inspired home. I still recall my mom’s various decorating adventures, from painting sweatshirts to decorating pretzel sticks for large-scale events. Dad was always out in his garage crafting up one of his many projects, repairing our vehicles or building his own. I really believe that being around these atmosphere’s was what enabled Stephanie and I to be very interested in creative experiences for work. Granted, I was not blessed with the clean handwriting and amazing drawing skills of them, I have always desired to be in a career that allowed ridiculous amounts of creativity and innovation. For the first time in many years, my sister and I were able to experience art together, sharing our thoughts and observations as we explored the Shepard Fairey exhibit at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. Shep is one of my favorite artists that I have experienced, a unique mix of underground propaganda and focused, intentional art with a purpose. The overlying theme of his work seems to be simple: question everything.

Beyond that, I was able to see some of Fairey’s cultural iconography and political revolutions. I plan on going again and am encouraging everyone to check it out. Definitely worth the trip.

The capstone of the day was the last-minute decision of my friend Brooke and I to drive 4 hours to Louisville, Kentucky. Our purpose: John Mayer. He played in Columbus on Friday night and many friends were able to constantly upload Twitter posts and Facebook comments anticipating the event. No one was able to say the same about the Louisville. After hearing about the concert for weeks, I decided on Friday afternoon to pursue the concert. Minutes later, tickets were bought. It was my first John Mayer concert and I can say with confidence that I plan on going again. His music was wonderful, his words full of emotion. The crowd was dynamic, however the opening act of Michael Franti was suspect. His excitement was powerful, but he admitted to being a one-hit wonder. “We recently had our first entrance into the Top 40 thanks to all you fans. Actually, we’ve never even been in the top 500,000 before now.”- Michael Franti

The poster below was my favorite piece from Fairey. It was a poster print created entirely of text, arranged in bold and normal text, creating the Andre the Giant image that created OBEY Propaganda. In this text, Fairey is speaking directly to the audience in a clever, manipulative way. He talks about marketing ploys, how advertisers get you to do what they want, and the power of control. About halfway down the text, Fairey tells the reader to stop reading. But a few lines down, he states the obvious, that the reader can not stop reading, simply because they were told not to keep reading. But by doing this, he has won because he actually wanted the viewer to keep reading. As confusing as it all sounds, the entire image is ridiculously clever, witty, and extremely relative to media. He truly understands advertising, marketing ploys, the human mind, and our personal desires.

And of course, no trip to Kentucky is complete without a stop at a local grocery store to pick up a case of Ale 8, Kentucky’s finest.

See more of Shepard Fairey and the story behind OBEY here.

Follow John Mayer on Twitter for random comments, great humor, and the life of a cocky celebrity here