Blind Faith

It's an amazing experience going through the archives...and thinking about the next book.

A drowned world. No, a burning world. Whatever, TBD...

Listen and enjoy.

I always find my way 'home' ~

Cover Star: Burning World
Headlining Band: Swans, covering a band that Eric Clapton and Stevie Winwood were once in.

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

Lipstick Lesbian

Heh...

Cover Star: Dani gifts
Headlining Band: Berlin & Sigue Sigue Sputnik

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

Isn't She?

I'll miss you.

I'd like to thank everyone who came out to my Birfday celebration last night. And everyone else that sent well wishes from England, ect, et al. You know who you are and it means the world to me.

KISS to you all. Big KISS. You made me forget the miserable and embrace the future.

And really, that's all there is...

Until next year. Or tomorrow.

Everything goes.

And she's always pretty in pink...

"She buttons your shirt
The traffic
Is waiting outside
She hands you this coat
She gives you her clothes
These cars collide."

Cover Star: Photobooth-ish
Headlining Band: Furs

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

Stimuli

"Pull my daisy
Tip my cup
All my doors are open
Cut my thoughts for coconuts
All my eggs are broken

Hop my heart song
Harp my height
Seraphs hold me steady
Hip my angel
Hype my light
Lay it on the needy"

- Allen Ginsburg & Jack Kerouac

"Happy birthday, dick"

- Anon

Not So Clever Vs. Clever

The new cover of Rolling Stone Magazine:


Not clever. Derivative. Cliched. Stupid. Predictable. Retarded. Idiotic. Embarrassing.

And don't even get me started about the Rolling Stone Jim Morrison quote...

As a photographer. Matthew Rolston should be ashamed of himself. Except at the deposit window.

This, however:


Dwarves, "Blood, Guts and Pussy."

Subpop records, circa 1989. Micheal Lavine, photographer. Visionary, hero and bad-ass.

Obviously, I'd stand behind Mr. Lavine in line to shoot the morons from "True Blood." But if he bailed, I'd be available.

The world sucks on the eve of my 32nd birfday...

...is THIS what we have to look forward to?

Then, fuck it.

Cover Star: blood
Headlining Band: Dwarves

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

Loose Lips Sink Ships

Fast and hard.

Cover Star: Melinda
Headlining Band: Fantômas

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

I Got Two Armfuls of Magazines For You

I'll bring them over...

I can waste your time.

Cover Star: Emily
Headlining Band: The Phantom Five

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

I Just Watched You

How close am I to losing you tonight?
You just closed your eyes...

East Coast hurts. Sunburned.

Cover Star: Sarah
Headlining Band: The National

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

Unintentional

I guess beautiful women standing on chairs is ingrained in my psyche.

She said, "I was wondering if you'd have me stand on a chair" when the shot was complete. Which took me by surprise.

My office, soon to be abandoned, now documented. There's tons of stuff to peruse in the background. And the foreground.

You gotta show her where you stand...

...predictable motherfucker.

Cover Star: Kelsey
Headlining Band: The Avengers

James M. Graham, Website
James M. Graham, Tumblr
James M. Graham, Monograph

Stay Down Champion, Stay Down...

"I got up, got in a car
Said 'I don't think I'm gonna go very far'
Just take me one time around the ballroom slow
And take me home."

Cover Star: April
Headlining Band: The National

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

Week of the year: 31 of 52

Quit my job, stopped taking pharmaceuticals, stopped paying people to listen, saw a Basquiat documentary with a new friend, listened to a bunch of The National, drank some whiskey, some wine, some beer, shot two models with a camera, celebrated no birthdays, didn't sign my lease, looked at apartments, talked to an anthropologist, a ballet artistic administrator, a restaurant manager, several bartenders with the gift of pardon, received an early birf present - a book with the inscription "I hope you like scantily clad women covered in blood in loin cloths as much as I do!", bought tickets to a show in November, read my horoscope, watched "It Might Get Loud" again, played Jenga at 1:00am, didn't get arrested, talked to people on the phone from all over the world, avoided stupid and pointless messages, traps and snares, hiccups and missteps, repeated mistakes, smoked less, and thought about the next thing.

Still thinking about the next thing. And listening. Always listening...

Cover Star: Jerome Lester Horwitz
Headlining Band: Ms. Phillips and Mr. Wareham

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

My Mind Is On The Blink

I can't stop my brain, you know it's three weeks...

Cover Star: 2009
Headlining Band: Mr. Chilton attempting to channel Mr. Lennon, unsuccessfully and then arguably successfully.

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

Stiff and Pissed and Lost and Loose

Unemployed yourself, did you? Couldn't take the shit amymore, could you? Well, good for you. Did you feel great? Elated? Like the way you feel when you know no matter how painful it's going to be, and you do it anyway? It's important to say 'I quit' at 10:14 when the potential of 'You're fired' looms around that 10:15 corner, isn't it?

Yeah...

All the more reason for you to batten down the hatches against the strong winds of melancholy and keep the culture of blame and finger pointing far away from you. Far away from you. Look, you are too old for that shit. Way too old. And look, ALL of your friends approve, and that's important. Right? You did something that perhaps a lot of them might not just have the guts to do. So, bravo, Sir!

But...

What are you going to do when they change their minds tomorrow, call you back, say that they thought about it for a couple of days and have realized that they made a mistake and beg you to come back? They might even say that you were the best person they ever met for the task. They might even cry. Offer you more. Rub your feet. They might fucking kiss you.

Anyway...

You should stop going to therapy. It seems like you're handling things pretty well on your own...I mean, the Earth spins around the Sun and all you're looking for is a little comfort before the sky goes black and the air stops circulating, aren't you? Just a little solace? Some antiseptic? Some warmth from the global freezing? And who is anyone to think that they can advise you on that? We all await the same fate, want the same shit, and hurt. Some of us better than others. At least you know what you want.

Oh, there's more than that? Do tell...

Cover Star: Michael Grapin & the wonderful Candace Nirvana
Headlining Band: The National

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

A Slow, Dumb Show For You

"You know I dreamed about you...for twenty-nine years, before I saw you."

THAT'S a great line. A REALLY great line. But check this out:

This song has the word "dick" and "shit" in it - "shit" twice in the same couplet. That's hard to pull off. But they do...Matt does. Listen.

It also has this line in it:

"I want to hurry home to you, put on a slow, dumb show for you and crack you up."

That's also a tough one to to pull off - sounds like something that would come out of Puppetworks (shudder) - but god damn, these guys do that well. Pull it off, I mean, not puppets (as far as I know). With accordion, no less. I think it's completely and entirely romantic, and I mean romantic in italics, romantic. You know?

Romantic.

And this one:

"God, I'm very, very frightening. I'll overdo it."

He ain't talking to a higher power, which I can identify with. I can also identify with overdoing "it" and being "frightening."

I missed you for twenty-nine years...

...which means I've had seventeen good ones.

And 6am was a part of the good years.

Cover Star: Thongs
Headlining Band: Boxers

James M. Graham, Website
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James M. Graham, Monograph

I'll Wear Her Clothes Until She Comes Home

Although I don't know how I would look in that dress.

Brooklyn wasn't so bad, was it...?

"Put the pervert in a suit, take him out and light him up.
Get him out of your system, and warm your brand new bones.
Sweep him in a shopping bag, call a car and take him slow
Through NoLIta. Driver, surprise me."

Cover Star: One of the most beautiful things in the world.
Headlining Band: The National

James M. Graham, Website
James M. Graham, Tumblr
James M. Graham, Monograph