Listen, Listen to the Holler

Retouching like a madman, trying to get them damn CDs in the mail. Just finished up Sherice and amongst her shots were the first shots taken with my new MF Mamiya. Good god, they're gorgeous - there's nothing like quality glass and a big ass negative (you can quote me on that).

I suddenly have the urge to watch "The Big Lebowski."

I am ignoring most requests for shoots and putting the governor on my own desires. I've got a short list of models I've talked to about shooting something that are game any time I am, but I'm gonna wait for inspiration. Something...the next thing...something.

Also, I'm finishing up the shots of Melanie from the other night. Working with her is so simple, no prep, no pre-production, no worries. She's cool enough with me to just let stuff happen and a wonderful sport. I basically just had her "work" the living room chair in her apartment. As soon as she started flippin' and flyin' around, I knew we were onto something. I think the results are interesting, and that's really all that matters to me.

Maybe that's the reason for my creative break. Melanie was so easy and few and far between of them are. The folks on my short list will be, I think, and if not, Julia will be. She's a genius and throws it right at the camera. That's exciting to me now, but maybe only in a low energy, lazy way. The muse comes and goes in waves - I think mine is in the Caribbean right now...surfing and drinking Coronas.

I'm also feeling the responsibility of taking my photography to the next level, which quite frankly goes against my nature. So I have to manufacture drive and focus (no pun intended) and get it there. Now's the time, fucker...

That said, I've got a meeting with a gallery here in Williamsburg that has a national presence on Friday. I met the owner at his show in Los Angeles back in November and the dude already likes me. That's much easier for me...

Maybe I should take some beer...

The photo is Melanie in the chair - one of many shots. If you squint, you can see Sanders' large format camera in the background and his scanner right in front of that. Pure documentary.

The title of this spew is from a REM song.

“A man had a house, he built a wall down the middle of it, he had an apartment on this side, he had an apartment on this side. up. In this apartment he had furniture, clothes, food, books... a cat. In this apartment he had different food, different clothes, different furniture, different books. And a gerbil. ...No that's not true. He would live over on this side for a while, until he got tired of it, then he would take off his clothes and put his books down on the counter, and he'd move over to this side for a while until he got tired of it and then move back over to this side and he flip-flopped back and forth until he died. When he died they went into the house and they crawled back in the back apartment, back in this closet, over here... And the whole closet was filled, floor to ceiling, with -- this is my story, c'mon you guys... This is true, by the way, this is incidentally a true story. Peter can confirm it for you. Must be getting old.... When he died they went back in this part over here and in the closet they found these books piled up, from the floor to the ceiling, packed in, and it was this book that he wrote and every single copy of the book that was ever printed was in there, he never gave one away or showed it to anybody so nobody ever knew that he wrote it. He just kept it there. And the name of the book was Life and How to Live It."

- Michael Stipe, L.A. Amphitheatre, September, 1986