NorCal and Shill
A podcast where NFT artists tell stories, hosted by NorCal Guy. https://twitter.com/GuyNorcal
https://twitter.com/norcalandshill
NorCal and Shill
Pete Halvorsen - Artist
What happens when an actor trades the bright lights of Hollywood for the immersive world of photography and NFTs? Pete Halvorsen joins us to share his transformative journey—starting from his days in LA to becoming a renowned photographer and NFT artist. With a special Leica camera reigniting his passion, Pete dives into the nuances of visual storytelling and the lessons learned from transitioning to the digital art space. This episode is packed with insights on the evolution of digital art, the ever-changing dynamics of the NFT world, and the crucial role of community and accountability in Web3.
Reflecting on his path from acting to photography, Pete opens up about the mentorship from friends like JDH and Mr. Mehta who guided him through the intricacies of the NFT ecosystem. He candidly discusses the parallels between the dot-com crash and the current crypto market, emphasizing the resilience required to succeed. Pete shares his hard-earned wisdom on security measures, the importance of avoiding scams, and the significance of creating a lasting legacy in the digital realm. His advice is a goldmine for emerging artists navigating the volatile yet promising world of NFTs.
In this episode, we also tackle the challenges artists face today, from burnout to dealing with bad actors in the industry. Pete emphasizes the power of community engagement and the benefits of using editions versus one-of-ones in digital art. We explore the innovative DECA TripTec piece, delve into personal inspirations, and even share a few culinary tips on making smash tacos. Balancing technical insights with heartfelt stories, this conversation offers a comprehensive look at the multifaceted world of NFT art and the endless creative possibilities it holds.
https://x.com/petehalvorsen
https://www.pchpro.com/
Who is this?
NorCal Guy:Who is this guy?
Pete Halvorsen:NorCal and Chill Podcast. Norcal and Chill Podcast. What the sh? What the sh? Norcal and Chill Podcast. Norcal and Shill Podcast. What the sh what the sh NorCal and Shill Podcast. So it's Shill time, NorCal and.
NorCal Guy:Shill Podcast what the sh-. What the sh-? Hey everyone, welcome to the next episode of NorCal and Shill. Today we have Pete Halverson In this engaging conversation. Pete shares his journey from acting to photography, his exploration of the NFT art space and the importance of community in Web3. He discusses the evolution of digital art, the need for accountability and offers valuable advice for emerging artists. Pete also touches on his favorite projects and the significance of creating a legacy through art. Some takeaways NFTs initially seemed absurd, but peaked interest over time. Community is vital for success in Web3. Art should be accessible, not exclusive. Hire your weakness to focus on your strengths. So join me today as we get into this conversation with Pete Halverson on NorCal and Shill. Hey, pete, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?
Pete Halvorsen:I'm doing good.
NorCal Guy:I'm excited to be here finally good, I'm excited to be here finally. I know we it's funny. I just because I feel like I should have had you on a lot sooner, especially after I got that nft camera combo from you which got me on my whole photography journey again. Like I loved photography back when I took it in like 2003 or whatever in college for a couple years and then I just kind of like dropped it. It was film only and then it reunited with that Leica CL, the digital one that you gave me, and I just have been a fan and loved it ever since again.
Pete Halvorsen:Well, it went to a good home, there's no doubt about that, but it was a fun, especially for the time. It was a really cool way the image that I shot and the NFT I created, I combined and put the actual camera with it and, guy, of course, you, you wanted and couldn't have gone to a better home and it's been fun to see you grow with it. Not only it, but it definitely was a stepping stone drug for you to, you know, start your journey and go above and beyond the cl. But it's, it's been fun to watch you as a photographer and as an artist, work your way through and navigate the same way we do and the same way we have. It's been a cool thing to watch.
NorCal Guy:Thanks. Yeah, it's been an amazing journey. You don't realize how much you appreciate photos from a camera until you have that camera, and then you're like, oh man, my iPhone isn't as nice as this one.
Pete Halvorsen:They can make a billboard out of the iPhone photo, but guess what? Like oh man, my iPhone isn't as nice as this one, yeah. So, yeah, they can make a billboard out of the iPhone photo, but guess what Most of your iPhone photos aren't going to look that way.
NorCal Guy:Right, right, right. So, yeah, definitely appreciated, love it Just. I guess you know mainly this is just because of the pictures I get of my kids and that's like a huge part of my photography is just taking pictures of the kids and doing the memories and I just love it it's true, it's true and that's you know, that's for me what leica created was the opportunity.
Pete Halvorsen:This is as I've been shooting like before or during. The iphone has gotten better and better over time, but it was the special moments that I was able to capture, um with a special camera that I always had on me because of its size, and there was a connection to the subject I was taking a photo of, and especially with my kids, and I think you can relate that those images had so much more meaning attached to them than just kind of a flyby burst with my iPhone Right, and those are also ones that I print out. You know, those are ones that I create albums of or you know put you know large photos of it and you know frame them in our house because of that and it just has a special connection to it. And then they, you know the camera itself has those special connections. So you kind of look at that camera and be like, oh cool, has those special connections.
NorCal Guy:So you kind of look at that camera and be like oh cool, I'm so glad I brought it that day and captured that moment for sure, for sure. It's been nice. So I guess what were your first thoughts when you first got into this space, this crypto art space, and you heard about these digital things selling?
Pete Halvorsen:well it was. It was on Twitter, through Twitter, obviously, and it was. I think my first reaction would have been LOL, would have been like what is this? Someone's actually buying a JPEG, like? I just didn't understand. It was just a. Are they buying digital rights to it? Are they?
Pete Halvorsen:You know, because I come from the commercial photography world, where your image is worth a lot and you sell the rights to the image. You sell it over a time period three months, six months, one year or full buyout and then, from a fine art perspective, I would create an image and sell it as a fine art print, or I'd do an edition of it as a fine art print and, um, but I, I still owned it. They only bought this one that I put up there. So I think, well, how, why would I, someone give it all away?
Pete Halvorsen:Um, and then I started seeing some of my friends and people that I knew from the Instagram photography world uh, dabbling or being a part of it in 2021, kind of early 2021. And there were two sides to that. One side were some people that you know they were always kind of sus within the Instagram community and they were always looking for the next big thing and you know whether what trends were happening or you know what brand was paying. They would kind of morph and change into that and so there were some people that.
Pete Halvorsen:I you know I think we nicely called them grifters these days, that they had that but then they were on the other side, so so that was my kind of negative perspective of it originally and were on the other side, um. So so that was my kind of negative perspective of it originally. And then on the other side I started seeing I think one of the big people for me that that created a um validity to it would have been ru and woo. And so when I saw ruben involved, dave krugman, another one, when I saw them involved and selling as well as just talking about it on Twitter, then I became a little bit. It kind of piqued my interest and I went wait a second, okay, there's something more here. Because, you know, ruben not only has a great career as an artist and a traditional photographer, but I also trusted his eye and for him to get involved with something too. So then I softly started kind of sending little questions out here and there, and then I had to sit down with a local friend here His name is Mr Metta on Twitter, but he lives here in Manhattan Beach and he had been involved in kind of crypto on the finance side for a number of years. And then he said, pete, you should be involved in this, and so we had a little sit down over at his house and he took me through the world a little bit and it said you know, this is something that I think your art would translate to and I think you personally would have a good you would. You would enjoy this as well, as I think this is the kind of community that you, that you, would do well.
Pete Halvorsen:And so, uh, I also, at the time, had been friends with um, a guy named jdh on twitter, um, and he just followed me based on photography for years, and but I always realized, or I always looked at his pfp and was like it's a weird, you know bald, like, uh, pixelated, you know, 8-bit, whatever this is. And then, you know, once I understood what the crypto punks were, then I was like, oh my god, oh, he's got, he's got one of those. And then I started, you know, seeing him mentioning more, talking more about it. So then I started talking with him and he was like, absolutely, you know, like I think this is a good spot. This is where the you know art, and one of ones is starting to trend this way, and this is again 2021, um and so he gave me some good advice as far as kind of the area to get into.
Pete Halvorsen:But he also piqued my interest in the gen art side. So I kind of, within a couple of months, my friend Mr Mehta, and then JDH they both kind of on their own helped mentor me a little bit into the space. And I think that is such an important part because I did it correctly, in that, like I got a hardware wallet right away, I learned really quickly, or you know they were able to, especially Mr Matt. I was able to kind of give me a good heads up on scams and kind of things to stay away from and they answered a lot of those stupid questions. But what is this Like?
NorCal Guy:what if I click on, you know like but how is what?
Pete Halvorsen:is you know what? Does this wallet what if I click on, you know like, but how is what? Is you know what does this wallet do and what's a hot wallet and all of those things? So, um, entered my way in and realized that, okay, nfts are actually a real thing and it's something I can do. So that was the long, the long version of what I first think of nfts and how I got there. So so yeah, Nice.
NorCal Guy:Well, you had some good mentors, and that's amazing, and it sounds like you went down the right path, for sure.
Pete Halvorsen:Yeah, definitely from a OPSEC side, I became way crazy about and again I'm always knocking on wood because we've seen everybody, you know, at one point or another you know, get tricked or something happened and all the rest of it's getting really good these days. Because we've seen everybody, you know, at one point or another you know, get tricked or something happened and all the rest of it's getting. It's getting really good these days. But I've definitely saw the way to go about it, the right way, which is not just going willy-nilly into things and start clicking on stuff and trying to get this get rich quick mentality. And that's where people get burned for sure and easiest so what brought you into photography?
Pete Halvorsen:uh, well, taking a couple years back, I guess we'll go there. And I was. I was actually an actor originally when I moved to la, and so I was in commercials and independent films and did a couple small co-starring roles and and so I was in LA doing that and for about 10 years that was my, that was my goal in life. I want to be an actor. And so I worked in town, did that, and about a little over 16, almost 17 years ago, my daughter was born.
Pete Halvorsen:And when my daughter was born, my wife and I made the decision that I would stay at home with her and I was like all right, I'm going to put acting on hold, I'm going to stay at home with her for the first year of her life. And my wife was going to work and I was going to kind of get this um up and going, and at the time I was like, well, but I'll still be able to do auditions and I'll still be able to kind of like have my toe in the industry. But little did I know that um, as as I was raising her uh, as for that first six months year of her life, I started to uh take the camera around with me a little bit more and I'd always shot kind of amateur. I didn't, I didn't shoot professionally at the time, but I started as I was shooting. I was taking photos of where we were in Manhattan beach. I was taking photos of her and I had friends who were professional photographers who were saying, like Pete, you have a really good eye, like you're shooting stuff really artistically, that you, you just you have a sense of what a good photo is, composition wise, and what would make something entertaining. Uh, you should look into doing this. And I was like, oh my gosh, you guys are say that to everybody, you know, stay at home, dad, make him feel good, you guys are all out doing your thing, yeah. And but then I thought, huh, you know what I actually do like this, and it is kind of fun to tell a story. That which is what I was doing as an actor tell a story, but in a single image, and be able to say, okay, well, what is this image you're gonna tell an audience? What does it tell me and what am I expressing through this, this? So, whether it was just, you know, sunsets at the pier or some birds flying overhead, or my daughter kind of taking her first steps on the sand or those types of things I would always shoot it with. With that in mind of the composition or the lighting.
Pete Halvorsen:I started to kind of self-taught myself. They are self-taught myself. That's a phone. I taught myself a little bit in that way. But I also had the bones of filmmaking in my past, because originally I graduated from film school before I got into acting. So I had a little bit of that or I had a lot of that idea of what it took to tell a story on the other side of the camera as well. So yeah, that was kind of my entrance into photography.
Pete Halvorsen:And then I had a couple of lucky breaks early on where friends who worked in ad agencies or worked for brands gave me a shot to take photos for them and work gets work in that industry. So as I got some early work, I was able to promote it a little bit and get and grow At the same time. Instagram at the same time. My career started to grow.
Pete Halvorsen:Instagram was growing and because of my past within technology and I understood, um, kind of where that was going, I was able to seize on that early and be an early adapter there and, um, grow it and grow my account, but also just understand that this this was changing not only on the physical photography side, but also on the commercial photography side, where brands were going to all of a sudden shift to needing a lot more content because their feeds were going to need to have images, and so I was able to be in early there there, which created a lot more client work for me. Um, not only just um. That influencer side was a always a a door open into having a conversation with the brand which created the, the brand work for shooting for them.
NorCal Guy:Right, that makes sense yeah, so I'm curious what jobs have you done, like those grunge jobs back in high school before?
Pete Halvorsen:yeah, the fun ones, so I I originally I would say no, they, they are. That's what you learn a lot of life through those grunge jobs. Uh uh, I worked at a restaurant. I, I, I feel as though everybody should work at a restaurant at least once in their life. I feel like it's like a um, it should be a national service that they do.
Pete Halvorsen:And it doesn't need to be a long time, but just to understand how a restaurant works, um, because you then have so much more empathy towards going to a restaurant for the rest of your life, because you understand the roles that everybody plays, you understand that the food's late. It's probably not the waiter's, it may not be the waiter's fault, it could be the expater's fault or the chef's fault there's a lot of different things that can go on and so I loved my time in the restaurant. So I worked in the restaurant for about two and a half years in high school and then in the beginning of college, um did you know weighted tables and um did that. And then, while I was in college, um I.
Pete Halvorsen:One of the fun jobs I did was lost prevention, uh, which is when you dress, you're like an undercover shopper and you bust people for shoplifting. Oh wow, which was give a kid 19 years old, give them pepper spray and a badge and handcuffs and you tell them, like you know, it was a wild time. This is, like you know, the mid-90s, mid to late 90s. And so I did that and found out that I was not going to have a future in law enforcement, because I think my, uh, my heart was too big. I doesn't feel bad for people.
Pete Halvorsen:Oh you probably needed it. So my, my arrest rate wasn't as high as the other guys. So, uh, but I also felt like um it was. It was. I made good money as a college and college for that. But, uh, and then my final job in college was working for um.
Pete Halvorsen:I took an internship at sony pictures and I was working for an on-site uh graphics design company that did all their um, all the home entertainment advertising materials for vhs boxes at the time and they were shifting into dvds. But that on-site team was based in Cupertino and they actually ended up being. They were called CKS and they were like a dot-com. They were an emerging digital new studio and when I became an intern with them, it was like the office, it was like that kind of feel to it, it was like straight office. It was like that kind of feel to it. It was like straight out of all the characters that were there.
Pete Halvorsen:But then they asked me to come on. So I came on right when I graduated. I came on, had a full-time job there as I was starting my acting career and but it was a good, it was good to have income like that. But it also opened my eyes and this is 99 ish um to the tech world and sushi lunches, and we had massages every week and we had herman miller chairs and it was like what a time to be alive, to be, you know, 22 years old and you know stock options. All of a sudden they were like oh, yeah, no your employee stock purchase plan is great, 15.
Pete Halvorsen:You, it's great, 15%. You can just sell it every. You know I'm like what is this? Like free money? This is nuts. So, um, and then E-Trade was blowing up and com was happening, and so it was like it was a. It was a fun moment. So there I was working on the movie lot and we were doing that and I was trading and know, making money and losing money, and then all of a sudden, it all came down and crashed and the dot-com happened and I absolutely lost my shirt on it and it was a.
Pete Halvorsen:It was a great opportunity for me to have that, that really hard lesson young, earlier in life, as, as you know, 20 years later, seeing the same similar things happen within the crypto world, I was like I've been here before, buddy, I know, I know how this, I know how this, this, this thing plays out, uh, but I also know how this thing plays out and we'll talk, you can talk more about later. It's just like, hey, out of that crash came your amazons, came your googles, came your yahoos and, you know, apple exploded, all of it. And that's what you know, I think, also has attracted me into what we see now within nfts as well as the crypto side to things, is that there is going to be a future here and it may not look like what we see right now, but this is the future, and a strong future. So it's just about hitching your horse, you know, or hitching your wagon to the right horse on the way out to be a part of that, to get find your amazon or find your your google, right, uh, but yeah, so that was my, that was those are my crazy jobs.
Pete Halvorsen:And then, uh, like I said, when I was did acting and then did some other odd jobs. So after the dot-com crashed, I was acting full-time and then some of the other things I did, just because I had my tech um background a little bit there. Um, I was doing it for a a-list movie stars because I got tied in with that through pr, through a pr firm that I worked with and they knew that I was. So I worked with, like michael bay and josh brolin, diane lane, um, ashley, judd, like at the time I would go and they'd be like I don't know how to use my mac or I don't need to use this, and I'd come in and teach them how to print or help them get all their passwords in order. So that was another wild, weird job, and when you're an actor, you just pick up anything you can do.
NorCal Guy:Nice, I like it. It's good to hear. It's good to hear those. What are the best things about Web3 today?
Pete Halvorsen:I think one of them is the people is community, and sometimes that gets overused or it kind of sounds glossy, but I really I wouldn't still be involved to the extent that I am if it wasn't for the relationships that I have made over these last three years and people that I've become invested in their success or our success, and believing and having the same common thread of where we feel this is going and doing that together, because otherwise you burn out quickly on your own, absolutely. You know you are, you know you'll burn out. The biggest things that I saw and again even within the Instagram community and photography is how important community is to success for the individual, but as a whole of the community as well. So one of the things that I've loved about this is that intersection of art, technology and then the finance side and having that kind of three-headed dragon work together to push us forward. With that being said, there's the darker side, or the grifter side, to where it ends up. You take one step forward and it's two steps back, you know, and that can be absolutely frustrating.
Pete Halvorsen:We've lost a lot of friends, lost a lot of people along the way, people you and I both know that all of a sudden have completely disappeared. You know from the scene who. I didn't think you know. I thought they were fully invested in this. This is like going to. They were going to be part of this, this growth, and they're gone and everyone's got their own life right. Everyone's got their own free free will and choice to do what they want. Or, you know, they got to make money for their family one way or the other. So I don't fault them for that.
Pete Halvorsen:But there is one. There is those, or there have been those surprises along the way where I thought, oh man, you know, this guy's in it with us and let's go, and then, right, poof, gone. You know, um, you know, and so those are the kind of things that this is the bear market creates, that that lean and mean, uh, mentality, and it's not, it's not there for everybody. And and I said I remember thosecom days as well, which were very similar in in, in, in the pain side of things. But I also feel like there's so much more of a personal you have so much more control of of what you're doing within Web3. Like I can create. I don't need permission to do that. I don't need to go create an LLC to get you know a VC's permission to create a com and get customers or whatever I can create, and then through these people that we know individuals, not companies that we know we can create together and also spread the word and spread messaging through social media, which we have been able to do.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, for sure. Now. Do you have any concerns about where digital art, or any thoughts about where digital art and NFTs are going to be in five years and concerns as it grows?
Pete Halvorsen:I mean the same concerns that I think I had maybe three years ago, in that there is always. It's such a cyclical, you know, right Up and down. So it's. I think the bones are all here and I think things like what 6529 is creating with SEAS and being able to onboard people correctly, with guardrails to help it be done safely, that it takes time and you know, I I wish it was there in 2021 or 2022 when I was onboarding friends and I was trying to be the same mentor that my friends were to me, but then they would just. You know, I got an email from OpenSea, I think, and somebody wanted to buy my you know, and I clicked it and everything's gone. Can I get it back, or who?
NorCal Guy:do I contact and it's like there is no, get it back, it's done.
Pete Halvorsen:You know it's gone and you know you're your own bank, so you know that's gone too. Yeah, they robbed your bank and that's it. There's no FDIC insured yeah, you're done. And those are the parts that, as we exploded, there were so many normies that were brought in, which I was excited about and I was bringing them on board as well, because I was like, oh, this is great, people are going to succeed in this, we're all going to succeed together.
Pete Halvorsen:And then, I think, the market and the people, and there was a lot of things that were in play there, but it just burnt a lot of bridges real quick. It had burnt a lot of people out and a lot of people got, you know, really their whole view of crypto was killed in one fell swoop, and so building that back up is going to be a lot harder, which is, like I said, one step forward, two steps back, and I feel like we're still not getting that momentum back just yet. But it's a journey. It is, and I'm definitely in it. I see the value long term, right. As for art, you know, for for commerce, I see how you know this is gonna change the banking industry ultimately, but it's. It's not gonna be done without a fight, without kicking and screaming from the mainstream side of things that doesn't want things like that disrupted for sure, for sure.
NorCal Guy:What would you like to see more of in this Web3 space?
Pete Halvorsen:I mean, I think I kind of touched on it earlier, but I think accountability is something that I've. I've struggled with the amount of people that I've seen burn other people or and never been held accountable for that, and they just kind of move on to the next project and I see them again and succeed or, you know, do a rehash the same thing, they just did, do a rehash the same thing they just did. Even from the art perspective, from the art side, I've, there's been a number of artists and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do clutches, hot takes here, but there's been a, a spicy hot take. But there's been a number of artists and some of them that are still involved in the scene that you know I they haven't been good for the space, they've been good for themselves, and so it's tough when you see that and you see those succeed. And then you see others who aren't succeeding, who are maybe not as outward or not as good as marketing at marketing.
Pete Halvorsen:So I think from that perspective I would love to see a little bit more accountability or justice side, you know, be a little more even, yeah, from that perspective, and also just continue to cut out the cancers of the scammers and I mean it's just that part of it's just such a tough. You know even you saw it heavily in the meme coin craze that just happened over the last six months and how they would and will always win at the end of the day. I mean, you're dealing with people who this is what they do, and you know it's tough to just know that they were able to stack more ETH or SOL or whatever they were dealing in at the time because they found a formula that, at the end of the day, was just ripping other people off and succeeding. So that's tough to see and that's something I wish changed For sure.
NorCal Guy:I'm curious your thoughts on how you use editions versus one-of ones and how you work with them together.
Pete Halvorsen:Yeah. So I've always looked at editions as an opportunity to get my work out to people who wouldn't normally buy my work, and I've also used it as an opportunity. Or and I've also used it as an opportunity, I think, the last edition I did last year, again creating a larger base but also creating an opportunity for the collectors that already had reward them for that but also say, hey, you already like my work, maybe you'll find someone else that will. That maybe isn't, maybe they're early in the space or they don't have, you know, a lot of ETH to spend or those types of things which worked out pretty well. It was a cool way to kind of expand it and I create for editions with that in mind. Of like, when I'll create an edition, I've only done, I want to say, three editions and they've all been 25 or less, so I haven't done anything from a large format side, and that's just right for me. That's just how I've always felt is a good fit for what I do, but I will keep it within the same genre.
Pete Halvorsen:I think the DECA piece that you purchased was the TripTec and was a pretty cool way to do things, but I also created it as a bidder's edition and with that and I'd never done a bidder's edition before With that I used my new style of journaling and I created the film strip and I had AI as well as my doodlings around it to do some storytelling on it and was able to give that out. I think there were 10 bids on it. So I did like 10 10 of those editions, yeah, and so that was a cool way and I and I love the tech of that these days to be able to track who has them. Um, and you know be able to have this kind of like you just saw, I think the deca had the score you know being able to, you know who has the majority of my stuff. You know, additions count for this much, one-on-ones count for this much, and it's an interesting way to kind of look at your, your, your collector, your collector, your collective community. So Right, for sure, For sure.
NorCal Guy:So switching it up a little bit. If you were an animal, what would you be and why if you?
Pete Halvorsen:were an animal, what would you be, and why? Wild one, I think. Well, I love the ocean, so I immediately kind of think about ocean. But I think about what I've done in my life so far and I think maybe an octopus, because I feel like I've been a multitasker and I've also been able to kind of like manipulate into, or chameleon type into different areas and change skin as needed to, you know, be in the corporate world, be in the tech world. I was an actor doing that and so within that I've been able to go with the flow. You know the current changes. I'm able to just write it and okay, this is, this is where the industry is going now, like, let me, let me jump on board and not fight it. And then you know the multitasking side to things stay atat-home, dad, photographer, artist, you know, all of those things at once means extra hands and tentacles, I don't know, maybe too deep of an analogy, but anyway, that's. Yeah, I think, if I would put myself in the ocean and be kind of a multitasker like an octopus.
NorCal Guy:Nice, nice. That's always my go-to answer as well yeah, oh, it is.
Pete Halvorsen:Yeah, yeah, I like it all. Right, it's a good one. It's a good one balancing the uh, balancing thing. You seem like you feel like you're the guy that's like you got a ledger in one hand, right camera in the other, maybe Leica around your neck, maybe a metazon so do you have a favorite food?
Pete Halvorsen:a favorite food. You know what it changes, I think, more recently I'm into these. My son has become a Blackstone chef and so we've got a Blackstone for Father's Day and he loves to make smash burgers. But then we found smash tacos, and smash tacos have been the current hit of the summer for us and, as we've had friends over, everyone's loved them. So smash tacos or smash burger, but you do it with a taco the summer for us, and we've had, as we've had friends over, uh, everyone's loved them. So smash tacos, but you do your smash burger, but you do with a taco and you actually smash it into the uh, okay, the tortilla, yeah, and then you have all the fixings for a taco, but it just, you know, uh, crusts. The same way you do with a smash burger, but now you're doing it with a tortilla on the other side and it's, it's awesome. So I'm going to do with a smash taco, oh, okay, all right, so okay, so for better understanding.
NorCal Guy:So basically, is it basically a smash burger but a taco, a tortilla on top of it, and so it's flat and then, you like, bend it into a taco, so so the meat is like a taco too. Exactly.
Pete Halvorsen:So yeah, but you put the ground beef on the taco, on the tortilla, smash it the same way you would kind of burger down, flip it once, smash it again on the other side, and they cook pretty quick. And then you've already got it all buttered and greasy and all the good stuff and then take that tortilla off and then you bend it and then you put all your fixings inside of it and then yeah, yeah, that sounds delicious, sounds amazing.
Pete Halvorsen:It's really good it's really good and but the one thing pro tip on it is it goes quick, so you got to have all your condiments ready to go. It's not like go make them and then go, because you want to get it off that grill and you want to get it all in and you want to eat it hot. So smash taco 2024, summer 2024. Sounds good.
NorCal Guy:What's the best piece of advice you've been given, or like a mantra that you kind of live by?
Pete Halvorsen:I mean two things. One, from a personal perspective, is be the best part of someone else's day, and I think that's been a fun way to live life, because you wake up in the morning and you go. I'm going to encounter maybe five, maybe 20 people today. What can I do? It may just be a hey, how you doing, look them in the eyes with a smile. It may be, you know, holding a door open for somebody that may be buying you know, someone's Starbucks. They're behind you or something.
Pete Halvorsen:What are those little things you can do to be the best part of someone else's day? And I mean, if you can achieve that once you killed it, I mean it's great. But if you can do it a couple of times a day, I mean think about how much kind of joy that that creates in the world. So that's kind of a personal mantra that I love to live by. From a work perspective, great advice that I received a long time ago, which was hire your weakness, because we all have them and you could struggle through doing your bookkeeping or your organizing or whatever, like something that's holding your business back or holding you back. You could struggle through it or you could hire someone to do it correctly well and allow you to do the things that you do well and to put your energy in that. So hire your weakness would be on the business side.
NorCal Guy:No, I completely agree with that. That's like the only way to do it. Your life is so much better when you hire stuff out.
Pete Halvorsen:Your family gets to see who you are Spend time with your kids. Yeah, it's not struggling over spreadsheets if you're not a spreadsheet person or whatever.
NorCal Guy:Right now. I feel like you touched on this earlier, but advice for artists joining this space yeah, uh, I number one.
Pete Halvorsen:I'd say slow down. You know, like, like, don't see like someone doing a big sale and be like, oh, I need to get my stuff minted now. And, like you know, I saw a lot of that happen, especially during the bull run. People were just like, yeah, I did everything, every photo they've ever taken, and, you know, trying to sell any, anything and everything they can.
Pete Halvorsen:I would say, slow down, think about it from a long-term perspective.
Pete Halvorsen:Think about that 10 year, 15 year, 20 year, 20 year window. Um, I mean, I, when I look at crypto and I look at empties and I look at what I'm doing, I'm wanting to build a legacy. I'm wanting to build something that, you know, grandkids, great grandkids, can look back at the way that, uh, you know, we look back at photo albums now, um, of of artists you know, or going to museums and see I want to have, I want to have a legacy, I want to have things that are intentional, what I meant, what I sell, I want to have that be the story. So I would say, take a step back. The other big thing is just having a mentor or a peer group, that that that you can trust, because trust is a really difficult thing when it's faceless, like a lot of crypto is, but so just surrounding yourself with people that you can trust, as well as mentors that have been there before that can navigate you through the technical side of things as well as give you solid feedback from an artistic perspective. Right, that's solid.
NorCal Guy:If you could live or move anywhere, where would you live and why, which I feel like is your current location?
Pete Halvorsen:Yeah, man, it's crazy because I think about when I live in Manhattan Beach and it's like people come here to vacation. People come here, and when you live where people vacation, you feel I'd feel very lucky about that, uh, but it also, um, when it's where you live, you kind of just get used to it. Um. So I'd say, ultimately I'd love to have, um, other houses like Hawaii, maybe a place in Paris, something that you can separate year-to-year, depending on whether what you have going on climate-wise to say, great, I want to spend X amount of time here. But also, as an artist, where am I going to get fed? Where am I emotionally being fed? And I think those are the types of places that I've always come back from or go to and become inspired to shoot and create in that type of environment.
Pete Halvorsen:But yeah love where I live, so it's really difficult to like. I love to travel, but it's great to come back home.
NorCal Guy:For sure, for sure. So do you have any questions for me?
Pete Halvorsen:Yes, I do. I actually wrote down a couple small ones, sweet, sweet. One of the things is how did you become so technically savvy?
Pete Halvorsen:Because I mean things like this podcast and stuff you've created a really cool, as we've gone through this, the, you know your emails and kind of the preparation for it. You know even the technical side to creating the actual podcast itself. Where did that come from? That come from. And then, on the same point, like from an interviewer's perspective, who do you look at as who you admire as interviewer, and is that something that you thought about as a kid growing up? Did you enjoy listening to interviews or watching interviews on tv? Did you ever think that you'd be doing this kind of thing?
NorCal Guy:uh, that's funny. So I always like kind of played, enjoyed playing with tech and stuff. I don't feel like I'm like super techie, like as in, like I'm not a dev at all. Uh, that's always something I've always wanted to. I thought it would be good to learn, but I never did um, so I like kind of dabbled to a certain level and then I can't go any further. But a lot of it is just I find something interesting and then I just go and read and watch videos and just learn about it and then get better at it.
NorCal Guy:So that's kind of like how I learned all the different things for this podcast and I never actually thought about doing a podcast ever until I don't know it was in towards the. It was like it was almost three years ago now to this date. Like I remember like, oh, I feel like I should, just because I felt everything was long-form interview and I'm not. I'm a stay-at-home dad for the most part as well and I don't want to like have this podcast just playing for like two hours like on the speakers or have my earbuds in while I'm with my kids and I'm like I just I wanted something that was more short form, like 45 minutes or less type of thing, and I could like get through something and not have to like spread it out over a week almost to get through it. So that's what kind of what I was going for.
NorCal Guy:Um, as far as like what I who I would listen to, would, I guess, would be like I had a lot of respect for Tim Ferriss and his interviews and, um, like Joe Rogan, but, um, you know, those are both long-form podcasts and so I went. I just had to go figure out like okay, like how many questions equals about how many minutes, and I wanted to pick questions that would kind of give us, or people the audience and myself more info about the person a little bit deeper about the person, as quick as possible. So that's kind of like what I was trying to go for.
Pete Halvorsen:Cool. And then the last question I had on that was you. Immediately, as I've gotten to know you, I clicked with you and you're a very positive person, as am I, so it's like I saw that right away and kind of as we talk. Not everybody's that way, especially in this space, there's a lot of cynical people. With that being said, when was the last time something happened in this crypto space that pissed you off, that made God mad, like?
NorCal Guy:mad. That's a good question, I mean. I mean there's different things. I mean I feel like you don't have to name any names it doesn't even need a person.
NorCal Guy:It could be a thing that happened uh, you know it, you know it just, whether it's people that are, you know, act like a single trader, but they're mainly, you know, the front for a fund or something and, like you know, the whole space loves them because, yeah, but it's like yo, that's like a fund, it's like a group of people behind that single person type of thing. It's kind of funny. Or like people that buy art every week with gambling sponsorship money.
NorCal Guy:And that's just hilarious to me because it's like, oh, it's going in my collection.
Pete Halvorsen:It's like, no, it's going into your side wallet and you're not even paying for this and you don't even pick out the art anymore.
NorCal Guy:You have someone else picking up the art for you. Like that's just hilarious to me and, yeah, the fact that everyone just is like I don't know it's funny.
Pete Halvorsen:Well, and again, I think that to me goes back to the lack of accountability side to things, to where if someone's benefiting from it, they're more likely to just be like, oh, it's fine, it's not a big deal, let's move on because they've benefited from it. And there's, you know, rather than like honorably saying, like calling it out for what it is, seeing it for what it is. And you know, I, I think I've appreciated like 787 as he's come on the scene. You know, yeah, yeah, I think his takes are going to get, uh, less and less spicy as he's becoming a little more mainstream, but I appreciated people, like his voice kind of came in to where there's. A lot of times I'd be like, oh, he's right, no one ever called him out for that. They're like, oh, shit and so.
Pete Halvorsen:But again, I think we're such a small space in that way that we also understand or know so much of the nuance behind the scenes about who some of these accounts are, who some of these people are, and and also what skeletons are in their closet. I mean, and that's the part that like, hey, man, this is, the wallets are there and I think there's going to be a reckoning at some point. There's going to be a reckoning at some point is what I feel. At some point, as we continue to grow, there's going to be an opportunity to look back and say this guy who is now running whatever fund or thing this is, was involved in this really shady shit that happened, and here's all the transactions that are on the blockchain forever. So someone's gonna have to answer for that, and I think everyone's still kind of in. Even in the bear market is in that honeymoon phase of saying like forget about that.
Pete Halvorsen:That was a misunderstanding. Is what that was Right we?
NorCal Guy:forward. Yeah, yeah, so good times, yeah, good times. Do you have any other questions?
Pete Halvorsen:no, I think those that was a good I like that. I like that. I like that last one. It was good to get you on the record about what something that upsets you in the space because, again, like I said, you're a positive guy and I appreciate that. But don't stop being a positive guy because that's to me what makes guy who he is positive guy.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, I'll throw one more out there. I actually didn't even drop this one because it's like a non, but if you follow, the wallets. You can see who it is, but it's um uh what was it last?
Pete Halvorsen:cox the cox the oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, last cox, I think is probably a better way to say his name.
NorCal Guy:Yeah, but yeah like to drop all this art, say you're gonna do this, say you're gonna reveal, say yeah, and then just do none of it.
Pete Halvorsen:That was a wild ride. That was a wild that was leading up to New York and the whole NFT in NYC, yeah, but again, those are the spaces, these are the things that just happen.
NorCal Guy:That was leading up to.
Pete Halvorsen:New York and the whole NFT in NYC, yeah yeah. But again, those are the spaces, these are the things that just happen. And you go like are you kidding me? Like how are we supposed to grow this space when these kind of things just like happen in plain sight? And then it doesn't necessarily get called out from a larger scale, but it is what it is. We will overcome with our positive vibes.
NorCal Guy:Right, so do you have any projects you're working on or anything you'd like to tell us about?
Pete Halvorsen:Yeah, so I've been. I've been working on a couple of different concepts for a while and this is the it goes back to the whole. You laugh about the building side, like where you've been, you building a building, and about the building side, like where have you been? You're building and building. And the thing about this space which is so interesting is that as you're building, tech changes. Tech continues to change, and so I was working something on the Artblocks engine and I was excited about kind of building it out that way.
Pete Halvorsen:And as the space has changed and as, uh, the tech continues to change, I I've my perspective on things changes as well, and I've always I've loved, loved gen art. Gen art was one of my first kind of loves in the space and I spent way too much time on gen art. It just is what it is. I have a great library, I have a great vault now because of it, but, um, uh, not maybe the most financially uh smart decisions headed through it all, but I love the art, so maybe it was, it was a great financial decision because I love the art, uh. That being said, uh, art blocks engine um, I was fancying myself or wanting to kind of find a way that I could uh utilize gen art within my photography and within this new style that I created. So I still have that in the works and I'm still messing with it with Raven, who's an awesome generative artist, and we've been talking about collaboration for a while on that.
Pete Halvorsen:But recently Batsoup was on a podcast and he was talking about, hey, this bear and the way it is, and you know, artists just need to keep creating. So, uh it. It resonated with me as I heard him talking about that and um, and so I'm just going to start to uh produce and and create the pieces that I. I was similar to what I was working on with the gen art side, but just without it having randomly generate. I'm just going to create the pieces the way that I see them, the way that I envision them, and then, if, down the road, I do want to end up going the generative art route with some of these, with the artbox engine, then, um, I, I have an avenue that I know how I want to do that, but as of now, I'm like I don't want to wait anymore. I, I really want to be a part of creating in in this environment, and I think the bear is a good space to do that.
Pete Halvorsen:And then, as we've now talked about how, uh, prices and everything have changed, I think that's the side for me as well, that I want to, um, look at that with a whole new perspective and say, okay, this, this is, this is art that I want to be out there, I want to be minted and obviously I want it to be collected, uh, but I don't want it to be exclusive to the point that, you know, there's no one can afford it, so that that to me, is not the right place where we need to be in a bear. It's probably not the place we need to be in the bull as well. You know, it's like everyone's perspectives are changing on that. So in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to start to release those and excited to kind of get those into the wild as well as just get kind of feedback on it and start to create again and start to actually mint those.
Pete Halvorsen:So mint those ones that have been sitting on the hard drive, sitting on my tablet, because they're kind of a mixed media approach and it's in the same vein of, uh, peter Beard's art and the similar to the, the Paris one that, um, I sent out as an addition last year, um, which is just like a uh, a way for me to journal, a way for me to tell the story beyond just the image, so that my photography is the canvas, and then, on top of that, I use my own pen, draw on it. I use AI as well and institute AI within the borders and within the actual journaling itself, so I'm able to create more of a story than just that single image. That single image is my canvas and then I create on top of it. So I'm excited to put that out there and see, see what's what. So, nice.
NorCal Guy:Well, I am looking forward to that. That'd be good, Cool, sweet Well good to finally chat. Yeah, yeah, it was great. I enjoyed our conversation. Oh, it was great to meet you face to face, you bet. I hope you have a good rest of your day. Thank you so much for your time you bet I'm sure.
Pete Halvorsen:I'm glad that my like a CL is now your like a CL that's in good hands.
NorCal Guy:So it's been amazing. It created an addiction. That's the problem. I love it, though.
Pete Halvorsen:I love it though. I love it, I love it, love it. Thanks, appreciate it, guy.
NorCal Guy:Who is this? Who is this guy?
Pete Halvorsen:Who is?
NorCal Guy:this guy? Who is this guy?
Pete Halvorsen:Who is this guy? Who is this guy? Norcal guy. Norcal guy. Norcal guy. Norcal guy. Norcalguy, norcalguy, norcalguy, norcalguy, norcalguy. Norcal and Chill Podcast. So it's chill time. Norcal and Chill Podcast. What the what the Chill? Norcal and Chill Podcast. So it's chill time. Norcal and Chill Podcast. What the what the Chill.