Thursday, June 28, 2007

Gravity Always Wins


It wears me out.
- Thom Yorke

The photo is of Kristina.
She does not wear me out.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Truth, Part IX


"Remember the weight of the world
It's the sound that we used to buy
On cassette and 45..."

Spoon's Britt Daniel, from "I Summon You" from their masterpiece, Gimme Fiction.

Their new album comes out next Tuesday, July 10th, the same day I go back to my "Pain Management" Specialist to access the situation in the 4th Lumbar nerve region.

I'm gonna buy that damn Spoon album on the way home that day (if I can walk) and listen to it and give it a fair shake.

I didn't much care for the single I heard on KCRW (see link to the right) recently. But Britt might not like my photography either. And I’m okay with that.

In last week's New Yorker there is a medium format (with borders) shot of them by Cass Bird. It is excellent and really communicates what the band is all about at that given moment. They were open to what the photographer wanted to do, and it shows. I just took a look at their new album cover on their website and it's a black & white shot of the band on stage, or rehearsing, or in the studio, or something. Anyway, I would love to shoot them.

Working on it.

Note to self: Spoon...

More Storm. One of my favorite portraits that I've taken. Maybe Britt would dig it. Maybe not...

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Generically Specific Update



- Thanks to all the well-wishers about my back, leg, sciatic nerve, epidural, medication, insurance coverage, locomotion in NYC, handicapped access areas in the city, general malaise. I am much better, thank you. I had a lengthy phone conversation with my "Nerve Specialist" (great name for a band) and he asked me the following questions: What was your pain level when you initially saw me on a scale of 1 to 10? I said, on good days an 8, all other times a 9. What is your pain level now, on a scale of 1 to 10? I said, about a 2. He said, well, that’s pretty dramatic. I said, I guess you are right! Stay tuned. 2 is still pain.

- I tried to jump out of an airplane on Saturday somewhere in Pennsylvania. They cancelled it Saturday morning due to "high winds." That's not something you want to argue about, stomp your feet about, be an asshole about. Kinda like when you are on a flight and they ground it due to "mechanical failure." I'm super okay with that. Thank the lord they told us instead of just crossing themselves and taking off (this does happen!) I love watching the dickheads that get really angry about all of that...there should be a "special plane" for them...

- I shot the LAST EVER "Chair" shot last night and it was incredibly gratifying. There is nothing like ENDING a series! Champagne toast (okay, it was Brooklyn Lager) to Sibyl and Lorraine and her Mom! So off the 29 shots go to the gallery guys...

- Music? Just got the new Marilyn Manson, The White Stripes and Rufus Wainwright. After a first listen to all, it's Rufus in 1st place, Brian in 2nd and Jack and Meg in a distant 3rd...

- Why doesn't Morrissey just get his shit right with Johnny Marr and suck the corporate cock and do The Smiths' Reunion and make bank? I'd go. Several times. Really - name another "must-see reunion" after The Pixies? I dare you..

- I REALLY miss Frank Zappa and Bill Hicks. And Amelia Earhart. I feel sorry for us.

- Lorraine with her swimsuit ON!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

My Baby's Got the Bends...



Kim on her Upper East Side balcony one night in May.

Radiohead from their Bill Hicks dedicated album "The Bends."

Testing...testing...1...2...1...2...

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

HIP


Pain sucks. Makes you second guess some things and makes you miss out on a lot of everything. Sure as hell makes you confront your mortality. And your insurance carrier.

MRI fee - $1,200.00
Cortisone Epidural - $1,500.00

I am an outpatient. I am thrust onto the streets of lower Manhattan into the blinding, steamy sunlight, without so much as a thank you, come again. Most patients never remember an epidural as childbirth follows, which from what I understand, pretty much trumps anything else, epidural or no epidural.

But I felt a man slide a 6" needle into my spine and flood it with sweet steroid. Then, just for shits and grins, I saw it on the x-ray monitor when he was done. Yep, a 6" needle. It was right there in stunning black & white.

Anyway, I am an outpatient on the streets and as I walk towards the 6 train, I can feel that needle and the Novocain needle (a mere 2" one) before it. Phantom needle sensation.

I wonder about sitting down on the train as it will bend my body at a 45 degree angle and that, I think, might break the needle in me.

The theory is this: my left sciatic nerve (as a result of repeated lower left back trauma) is being traumatized by some muscular swelling that the cortisone will relax. The theory continues that this is successful in 99% of the cases and I am a "clinical" example. The theory leaves me with the promise that I should feel "dramatic" results in three days. Well, nothing dramatic has happened, although there has been a noticeable lessening of the nerve spasms that would make me want to amputate my left leg.

As I stated at the outset, this kind of experience makes you want to do nothing. So I haven't done anything.

Darenzia, damaged, from last July. It was too hot for a neck brace...

Testing...testing...1...2...1...2...

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Climbing to the Upper Decks (Before They’re Torn Down)


The title is ripped from the front page of the New York Times. My "homepage" which sounds crazily enough, kinda like my "homeboys."

It's a decent enough article about the "new" stadiums here in NYC, which have been all the con-tra-va-see, as the Brits like to say.

I prefer their pronunciation. It seems less, uhmmm, controversial...

WFMU is right on tonight. Dave The Spazz had an amazing show and now we are headlong into "Coffee Break For Heroes & Villains" with Noah (and actually it's Michael G. subbing for Noah) and it is just rocking my ass.

Some weird cover of "Mother's Little Helper" started it out and man, it just gets better...and better.

Check out the link to the right - WFMU, Jersey City, New Jersey, one of the last remaining readily available FREEFORM radio stations IN THE COUNTRY.

And now.

A BIG.

FUCK YOU!

To CLEAR CHANNEL! etc...

Anyway, here's Heather. The negative is really dirty - gotta talk to my lab about that...

And here's Jagger/Richards:

"Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she's not really ill
There's a little yellow pill"

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

A Noir Novella


Storm contacted me and said "You, me, now!"

I shot her once before. Not with a gun, but with the glass and the chemicals. She had wigs. The wigs looked good in 35mm, I thought...

Apparently she thought so too, so I said "okay!" Would any sane man say otherwise?

I met her at a "fuck motel." We hugged and went inside after paying the man sixty bucks for our "pleasure."

She took off her clothes as I polished and cleaned my lenses.

I asked her if she was ready and she said, "Yes..."

We went at it. We winged it. We made it happen. We did everything and...

...we exposed the film to the light.

Storm's in Hong Kong now.

I miss that dame.

...but she left me this to remember her by...

Monday, June 11, 2007

Like a Fingerprint

I'm the only one that can take a photograph like me.

There is no other human being that can shoot a photograph in my style.

I won that. It is relative, like most of the rest of my life.

When I look at my photographs, I think of me.

Although I may try, really hard, and study really deep, I cannot take a photograph like anyone else.

My style is my own, and it is ever evolving. God bless it. And I don't even believe in God.

When I die, and I will, sooner or later, but eventually...

I hope my photographs are like my fingerprints.

But more permanent, as my fingerprints will turn to ash really quickly and be spread somewhere where I do not care.

Never to click a shutter again, but look, I did! Once.

No picture.

Just words.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Time Shiftin'


I DID NOT watch "The Sopranos" tonight.

I do not have cable television. I do not have satellite television. And I don't watch television on the Internet or my non-existent iPod. Why? Because I do not trust myself. I got other shit to do with my life rather than watch a bunch of crap digitally pixilated and fed into my house.

"The Sopranos" is not crap. It's arguably the best television show ever written NOT about outer space.

I watch "The Sopranos" on DVD, which means that I watch it after everyone else with HBO does.

I love "The Sopranos."

And godammit, I do not want to know what happened on "The Sopranos" tonight UNTIL I see it on DVD about, uhhh, a year from now...

Shit. Maybe I should write to HBO and see if I can get them to speed up the DVD release schedule a bit. Like THIS Tuesday!

The photo is of Heather, from last night. She's cool as hell and WILL NOT call me tomorrow to tell me who got whacked and who didn't.

Oh, for Christ's sake...tomorrow's gonna suck.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

She Stares Into Space Like a Dead China Doll


Elliott Smith, from his masterpiece "XO" and one of the most depressing songs ever written and performed, "Waltz #2 (XO)." then and now, in retrospect...

"I'm here today and expected to stay on and on and on, I'm tired, I'm tired."

Just on the jambox right now, and really not related to anything visual except this:

Rebecca, from last night in Tito's "studio."

I used to run into Elliott a lot in the East Village. His body odor stench was hard to miss. I saw him at Brownies, Tramps, on Ave. A., on Ave B., at some restaurant on 5th Street and at Irving Plaza where he was on stage.

Like Mr. Smith, all of these places fall under the category of dead and long gone..

Sure he had a death wish, but case closed?

Really, Portland Forensic experts - he stabbed HIMSELF?

Really?

"God don't make no junk but it's plain to see he still made me"

RIP

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

A Silhouette of Sweet Regret


Not really...

Exhilaration is more like it...

I shot Nerlande tonight and we just winged it. The Mamiya totally jammed up after the first roll, which means I will purchase a new 120 back tomorrow from B&H (if they have it) and throw my faulty one away...like in the fucking trash.

Anyway, she was a great sport, and a goofball, and hilarious, and beautiful and provocative - all at once.

Here's the first shot of her from our shoot.

The title is from Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers' "Powder Burns" which is playing right now.

Have you all heard The Afghan Whigs' "Congregation" ?

Well, if not, you better buy it right godammed now!

Monday, June 04, 2007

Female Photographers


Here's the latest in my series...

Autumn. (See link to the right).

She's a very talented photographer (I don't link to a bunch of nabs, yo!)
She knows "everybody."
She's cool as shit and a great sport.

And she likes her wine...

I like Autumn.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

'Cause There's Nothing Else To Do


"Why don't you shut the door
And close the curtains
Cos you're not going anywhere.
He's coming up the stairs
And in a moment he'll want to see your underwear.

I couldn't stop it now
There's no way to get out
He's standing far too near.
How the hell did you get here
Semi-naked in somebody else's room?
I'd give my whole life to see it.
Just you
Stood there
Only in your underwear.

If fashion is your trade
Then when you're naked
I guess you must be unemployed yeah?
Cos once it's underway
There's no escaping
The fact that you're a girl and he's a boy.

I couldn't stop it now
There's no way to get out.
He's standing far too near
How the hell did you get here
Semi-naked in somebody else's room?
I'd give my whole life to see it.
Just you
Stood there
Only in your underwear.

If you could close your eyes and just remember
That this is what you wanted last night.
So why is it so hard for you to touch him
For you to go and give yourself to him?

Oh Jesus!

I couldn't stop it now
There's no way to get out.
He's standing far too near
How the hell did you get here
Semi-naked in somebody else's room?
I'd give my whole life to see it.
Just you
Stood there
Only in your underwear.

I want to see you.
Want to see you only in your underwear."

The title is a line from Pulp's "Common People." The quote is Pulp's song, "Underwear."

The photo is of Storm. In her underwear.