Friday, March 28, 2008

Pucker Up And Kiss The Asphalt Now

At The Drive-In.

I had many opportunities to see them and I squandered them all.

Just like I did with the three opportunities to see Nirvana.

Never again. Dammit, never again...

Here's Brooke.

At least I didn't squander that opportunity.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Urgency

I'm supposed to hang out with Eric Kroll tomorrow. In typical Eric Kroll style, he hasn't gotten back to me yet. But I'm sure he will. Eric's good like that.

Do I wear leather panties when I meet Eric? Probably not, although I do have access to some.

Working on the Konica half-frame series and sending my book off to rock 'n' roll magazines. And trying to figure out more complicated shit too, like women.

Wish me luck...

I would like to figure out how to take a picture of smoke coming out of my own mouth. Sorry, Chip...

In the meantime, Jade.




"It’s happening soon
It’s happening soon
It’s set has being blowing in my direction

To me it is new
To me it is new
And It’s not gonna change for anybody

And its gonna be our last memory
And its lead me on and on to you

Its gotta be here
Its gotta be there
Its gotta be now or always forever

To me this is strange
This feeling is strange
And It’s not gonna to change for anybody

And its gonna be our last memory
And its lead me on and on to you

Oh kiss me…
Trust me, I never knew
And you were the one
You were the one,
Ooooh

And its gonna be our last memory
And its lead me on and on to you

And its gonna be our last memory
And its lead me on and on to you…"

Muse.

I love these little Radiohead knock-off goofballs. I did their first ever website and they were so damn cute sitting in my office on their first trip to NYC. Man, that Matt Bellamy is a talented musician.

Later that night, they played a showcase in the East Village at Brownies (RIP), where apparently I told Anthony Kiedis to stop being an asshole when he repeatedly kept bashing into me. I don't know, this is just what I was told...

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Spring in NYC...

...is filled with all sorts of shit.

Rotting smells from Chinatown.
Screaming children playing.
Short skirts.
Haircuts.

Leave me alone about it.

A long, slow goodbye...

Monday, March 24, 2008

Model Stuffs

I shot with "Jade Vixen" this afternoon. She was amazing and our trying to shoot together for a year and a half was not a disappointment in the least. She was also wonderfully challenging, beautiful and a really good sport in regards to my shenanigans.

She called me last night and asked me what I wanted her to bring. Now this is a model who has myriad latex, vinyl and dominatrix-esque stuffs, but you know, I like to shoot against type, so I said "Surprise me."

She had done her homework by reading this here blog and brought a leather jacket and a frilly white dress - right up my alley!



This is a shot of her in "the studio" with her stuffs spread out everywhere. A very familiar sight, unless you are working with a stylist who has a warbrobe rack with everything bagged and tagged. But even then, all the stuffs ends up everywhere...

I told her I wanted a candid shot (for this here blog) and she complied.

I would have told me to fuck off.

I leave you with some more QOTSA:

"Where, oh where have you been my love?
Where, oh where can you be?
It's been so long, since the moon has gone.
And oh what a wreck you've made me.

Are you there, over the ocean?
Are you there, up in the sky?
Until the return of my love...
This lullaby.

My hope is on the horizon.
Every face, it's your eyes I can see.
I plead, I pray through each night and day,
Our embrace is only a dream.

And as sure as days come from moments,
Each hour becomes a life's time.
When she'd left, I'd only begun this lullaby."

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Tangled Up In Plaid



"I slipped, didn't mean
Didn’t mean to do it that way
But I blew in on a whim
Gone tomorrow, I'm gone today
Oh yeah

Come, let's play along and let each other lose
A win would cause an alarm
Don't matter to me
Don't matter to you
Oh yeah

I could keep you all for myself
I know you gotta be free
So free yourself

I could keep you all for myself
I know you gotta be free
So free yourself

A self-inflicted wound, your gift
Impeccable aim, can really clear a room
All the bodies piled up in your way
Oh yeah
So bad

I could keep you all for myself
I know you gotta be free
So free yourself

I could keep you all for myself
I know you gotta be free
So kill yourself"

It's Queens Of The Stone Age. A perennial favorite here as far as big dumb rock goes.

Still poignant.

More Jessalyn. But this time, with my father's camera.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Would You Leave Me Alone, My Sweet Simone...



"Front street ain’t no place for a boy who
Likes to talk ways that boys do
Unstrung, young, dumb, comfortably numb

I am old as the star who bears you
Black as the bitch who wears you, tears you
Rips you apart and then turns it around

Come on feel me, I ain’t the only one
When it comes apart
We’re gonna have some fun, son.

Give me five minutes
With your sweetest sweetie.
If she’s fine as your missus
Then she’s fine enough for me

I’m right out the window
Of suburban street
And I ain’t slept since Monday
Jump in and ride
We got deadlines to meet
People to use
Lovers to break
Handful of pills
No life to take
River too cold
Oven too high
Bridge of one hundred and fifty foot drop

But there was a day I could say that I loved you
Oh and one evening I cut through Longview
Lifted you up and you turned it around.

Here on Front Street
All the good girls and the boys know
Down in the mine there are diamonds
Down on the street walk the lifeless

And now I know
That you’re through with me
Can I tell you, my love that honestly

Life ‘s a shame
And your hands are stained
Walk in chains
And change your name

Go where you go and forget me now
Take a minute to, that’s all you got
Chase your pain with a shot of rain
Hit with a spade or a razor blade

Come on feel me now
I ain’t the only one
When it comes apart
We’re gonna have some fun, son.

We’re gonna have some fun, son.
Young, dumb, comfortably numb
Give me five minutes
Give me five minutes with your sweetest sweetie"

The last song on the Gutter Twins' "Saturnalia."

Poignant.

Jessalyn from Thursday evening.

Hair and Makeup by the very talented Meagan Marie.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Monday, March 17, 2008

My Tub Is Stopped Up


Big time. Big time enough for a plumber on Monday morning here in sunny Park Slope.

I've got shit in my tub from twenty years ago. Scary. Really fucking scary.

Scary enough that two bottles of Liquid Plumber didn't even make a dent.

Good thing I didn't have plans to shoot Brooke in the tub tonight.

Kristin Anne. In a much cleaner and better operating tub...

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Pool Sharks


What a strange twist of the English language.

Me and my boy Christopher (see link at right) held a table (more or less) undefeated tonight at Fontana's on the LES for four-ish hours.

Surprised us both.

We should have bet money. Or a lottery ticket. Or nuts from the nut machine.

Or something.

My bruised rib has healed. For now...

Bowling in Sunset Park this week, bitches.

Look out.

"Slow down... lean in, call up that feeling
You get when you're dealing, that all too deceiving side of you
Who loves you true, but they'll just forget it, they'll just forget it
That shit'll twist your little mind if you let it
Who love the blue sky, who wear the dark eye..."

Greg Dulli and The Twilight Singers. And Angela Ryan in a dead man's apartment...

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Why Does Evil Trash Come Out At Night?

This is one of the greatest things I've ever read.

Courtesy today by my bestest pal Toby who's been working on a novel about North Carolina rednecks for about 15 years now...(see link to the right). Get writin', Toby!!!

There's a really good chance that I went to High School with this psycho or painted houses with him or...

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/com/605126216.html

I graduated from Apex Senior High in 1986. Not at the top of my class, but not too far from the top either. I was forced to take Drama class by my Honors English teacher Mrs. Mims in exchange for doing my Senior paper as my own Super-8mm take on Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage."

So I did the make-up for "Sweeney Todd" - a lot of blood - which was cool as shit. But then she asked me to "dance" as one of the "Farmboys" in "Gypsy" which I did, much to my chagrin.

(Why the hell was a High School in the rural South putting on plays about a murderer and a prostitute? Nonetheless, obviously it had an impact on my future work...)

But I got to make my film. Me and Jeff and Andy shooting each other with BB guns and a lot of ketchupy blood.

When I showed it in class on my Super-8mm projector with the sorta synchronized cassette tape soundtrack, it went over like "Citizen Kane."

I don't even have a photograph to illustrate this rant. But I do have the film - somewhere...

Rednecks. Rural South. Murder. Whoring. Dancing Farmboys.

Maybe I should dig a little deeper into my creative psyche?

Fuck.

As a placeholder, here's another shot of Katy.

Deal with it...and forgive me. Too drunk, too drunk...

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Coffee...

The first result of tonight's shoot with Katy, an adventurous British ex-pat living here in NYC.



And listening to Mark Lanegan, which is pretty much a constant around here...

Listen. If you want to.

"There was nothing I could do...

Where's Willie John?
Dead so long
Born to fall, nothing at all
Who's gonna grieve
When you're gone?
I once believed
I wouldn't bleed

I seen all these good looking women
While I'm getting off the plane
Remember where my baby is
Start thinkin' 'bout my baby

All she ever knew was trouble
And for much I was to blame
But when I heard the news that night
I went down like a satellite

And when my world stood still that night
I dropped like a satellite

She never knew how much I loved her
She never knew how much I cared
I thought I'd get back to my special one
I thought I'd get on a lucky run
Uhhh

I said I'd get back to my special one
I said I'd get on a lucky run
God damn

Where's Willie John?
Dead so long
Born to fall, like nothing at all
Now who's gonna grieve
When you're gone?
I once believed I'd never bleed

But lord I'm all alone tonight
Don't the sun love it's satellite?
Ahhh

Lord I'm all alone tonight
Don't the sun love it's satellite?
I don't know

See...seein' all these good looking women
And remember where my baby is
Start thinkin' 'bout my baby
Remember where my baby is
Start me thinkin' 'bout my baby
Where's my baby?"

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Acclimate

Pronunciation: \ˈa-klə-ˌmāt; ə-ˈklī-mət, -ˌmāt\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): ac·cli·mat·ed; ac·cli·mat·ing: ac·cli·mat·ed
Etymology: French acclimater, from a- (from Latin ad-) + climat climate
Date: 1792
Transitive verb: - to adapt to a new temperature, altitude, climate, environment, or situation
Intransitive verb: - to become acclimated

Changing is hard. Change is good.

I'm changing...whether I want to or not.

It's inevitable.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Some of my Rock 'n' Roll Moments...Part III

- I got my sister really good tickets to see her favorite band at the time, Men At Work. She thought I was god. She's moved on to Radiohead and Ween, which is a good thing.

- Drunkenly wandered into Arlene's Grocery one night and Midge Ure from Ultravox was playing. I was sad for him.

- Drunkenly wandered into the old Knitting Factory on Houston Street one night and John Zorn and Arto Lindsay were playing. I was elated.

- Passed up an opportunity to see Nirvana at Sony Studios do their UNPLUGGED show. Big mistake.

- Turned down a free ticket to see Nirvana play their last show in NYC at The Coliseum (RIP). Ditto.

- Hung out with Vernon Reid a lot. I've lost touch with him, but at the time I urged him to suck it up and make bank with Living Color again.

- My former multimedia company did the first website for Muse. They were cute as hell, and at their first NYC showcase show, this guy in front of me kept flailing around and bashing into me. I got sick of it and told him to stop being a dick. It was Anthony Kiedis and he politely moved behind me.

- As a surprise I took my father to see two of his heroes, Chet Atkins and then later, Les Paul.

- One weekend, Jim Jones, Pere Ubu's guitarist, drove me all over Cleveland giving me a personal tour of the history of the band. I took a picture of him taking a picture of the Rock 'n' Roll hall of Fame, a building, that to the best of my knowledge, Pere Ubu is not represented in.

- I wrote and directed a 35mm black and white film in 1993 starring Richard Hell. We shot in CBGB's Pizza. He was compensated exactly $50.00 and two tuna fish sandwiches. When my gaffer asked me what the film was about, Richard spoke up and pointing at me, said, "him." He was right.



Sundae again. The guitar was given to me by my friend Dino, who has a birthday tomorrow. Happy birthday, man. I miss you.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

All My Dreams Stroll By Unclothed

"It’s all right to take me down
Between the hook and the line I took
It’s all right to drag the lake
And find the things you love
They won’t wait in line to see me float
Asleep above the waves
They don’t wait in line to bring me up
I’ve seen enough today
All my dreams stroll by unclothed
All my dreams roll by unknown

It’s all right to kill the dream
You live. For though it’s not…
Not enough to save you from yourself
The world she loved too much
No this deeper instead even people
And I believe there’s a air when you love
All I see is a dream that lies beneath the love

There’s a way about her; she can make me do things I’m not to do
Cut the line and count to three and morph into another
Start the wheel turning only bring me some things I’ve not seen
Hope from ragged mothers screaming born into another world

All my dreams stroll by unclothed
All my dreams roll by unknown

It’s all right to take me out
It’s all right to take me out
It’s all right to take me out"

The Gutter Twins. My vote for best album of 2008, so far...

Some of my Rock 'n' Roll Moments...Part II

- I ran into Giant Sand on the corner of Spring and Broadway after seeing them the night before at The Knitting Factory. They asked me where a good place for beans and rice was and I directed them one block south. That place is now gone.

- Michael Stipe "invited" me to see his band (I can't remember it's name) at The Garden. I declined.

- I photographically documented some friends of mine recording their second album at Smart Studios in Madison, WI. One night Butch Vig and I had a few beers and he told me he was looking for a female lead singer for his new project called Garbage, or something.

- Peter Murphy lit my cigarette and asked me what I thought about this whole "releasing music over the Internet thing." I will never forget him lighting my cigarette. A perfect English gentleman.

- At a Neubauten show, some kids kept looking at me and then finally one of them came up to me and asked me if I was Steve Albini.

- At a Shellac show, I was scared to talk to Steve Albini. Even though I did. He was abrasive.

- I filmed Eugene Chadbourne (Shockabilly) in a cameo as a Television Evangelist for a film I was making in 1988. I'll never forget him pulling out a wad of hundred dollar bills he had in his pocket from the gig he played the night before and ad-libbing, "God loves money!"

- One of my many Art Directors, Tony Reonegro, at the time, designed the backstage passes for the Grateful Dead. I went to a show at The Garden with him and since he was all hooked up, he asked me if I wanted to meet the band. I said, "no."

- I kissed Patti Smith's hand. She asked me what my name was. I told her. She said, "Thank you, James." And smiled.

- I saw Iggy at an in-store appearance at Tower Records. I hung in the back. On his way out he was flailing and jumping all around, Iggy-style. I said, "Hey Iggy!" and he stopped. Then I said, "You chaned my life." And he took my hands and said "What's your name?" I told him. He said, while still holding my hands, "James, thanks a lot, I really mean it." Then he started jumping around again and was gone.

More to come...



Sundae, yet again. She IS rock 'n' Roll.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Some of my Rock 'n' Roll Moments...

- I saw Frank Zappa perform live eight times.

- I photographed Jarboe from Swans getting a tattoo in the East Village.

- I got drunk at The Bottom Line with John Doe from X.

- I got drunk with Mark Eitzel (American Music Club) and Kid Congo Powers (Cramps. Gun Club, etc..) and Mark hit on me.

- I was in the audience when Bowie performed on the Conan O'Brian Show.

- Tom Waits handed me his cup of Red Zinger Tea.

- I urged my friend Carl to give Roger Miller (Mission of Burma) a drawing of his, which Roger used on his next album , sans Carl's credit.

- I introduced a girlfriend to Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows), one of her heroes, and the three of us had a great conversation.

- Adrien Belew used to call me and my friends "those guys from North Carolina."

- I told Tommy Stinson, after a Replacements show, that they charged too much ($12.00) and he apologized. I was kidding...

More to come...



Sundae, again. She holds a special place in my photographic heart, and I would love to get her in front of my camera again.

Lord, I Wanna See A Revival Tonight

Mark Lanegan and The Soulsavers.

Listen.

And besides that, it's the weekend, folks, let's party.
Really, let's party.
Let's party.
Party...

"I used to love and take the Southern Special, when the Summer rise and fall, now I take the National. Some say this Highway Seven is a long and lonesome road, don't ask me little Rosa, what direction I don't know."

More Soulsavers.



Going back into the archives tonight, 'cause I feel that way.
Sundae St. Laurent.

"In every kingdom a rain comes falling down..."

Monday, March 03, 2008

Nice Simple Things



This is my friend Juliet. She popped into town yesterday and we got to spend some time together. Even got to give her billiards lessons. A lovely afternoon/evening spent with a good friend.

An out-take from the "Chairs" series.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Cigarette Burning, Wine Waiting...

I'm reading "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" - the Warren Zevon biography supposedly written by his ex-wife Crystal.

It's sad. It begins with his death. On the way to White Plains, on the train the other night, I started crying...

I saw him live twice, way too late. Both times at the Paradise in Boston.

My friend Toby saw him tons of times, and he compelled me to see him when I could.

Warren is right up there for me with Thompson and Bukowski.

Forget "Werewolves Of London."

Listen to the rest.

"It's been a good night, not saying good night, jus' sayin'."



Here's Meagan Marie again. Fucked up negatives and all.