Tuesday, October 26, 2010

36 Years Ago Today


I met my best friend.

Not my soul mate, well maybe, but in a different way, although I suppose he is one of the only people I actually could live with. But a best friend. Chris Patrick's 10th birthday party (Happy birthday, Chris!). 4th grade. Cary, North Carolina. Briarcliff Elementary School.

Thirty-six years ago today. Thirty-six years ago today. Fuck. Thirty-six years ago today.

I remember, he asked me to hang out at his house and watch movies later that week - we only lived down the street from each other. He had just moved to NC from Georgia, his Dad had gotten a job at the now conglomerated Burroughs-Wellcome in the Research Triangle, Durham.

His family - Linda, Cary, Shannon and Ashley - became my surrogate family, as I spent as much or more time there as I did at my own house. They adopted me and I happily adopted them.

I taught Shannon and Ashley how to fold pizza even though they laughed at my 'monster feet' (still have them, albeit a little rougher and more monster-like). Linda used to order us canisters of Charles' Chips - pretzels and barbecue potato chips - which we would devour in the afternoons and evenings after school. Linda could cook her ass off, just like my Mom, and I still have some of her recipes.

Cary would entertain us/scare us with his garage turned into a drive-in - a dual 35mm theater, where we would thread up "The Alamo", "Thunderball" and our favorite of all time and the holy grail, "Where Eagles Dare."

And then there was the Halloween Roger Corman Vincent Price-era marathon - "The Pit and the Pendulum", "Tales of Terror" and "The Black Cat". And a butt-load of Charles' Chips and Coca Cola.

We built forts, hated girls and made movies. Yep, made movies. Our parents encouraged it, and I hope they remember that - it informed who we are today. You can see it in my photos and you can hear it in his writing. 8mm 50ft. reels, exposed sequentially (in camera) dropped off at the K-Mart Fotomat on Maynard Road and picked up a week later and strung through projectors and editing bays.

Even though we've headed our separate ways, we've always had the same sensibility, more or less, about film, music, pop culture, and the people we've grown to admire, love and spend time with.

Toby, you mean the world to me. So do Jennifer and Presley and your family. You know that. I'm proud to have you in my life. I know we've put each other through some bad times, but that's what friends are for - especially best friends.

I love you. And that pretty much sums it up.

Some of my favorite memories:
- Walking those stupid dogs for middle school money and tying them up to a tree while we did other stuff
- Every Halloween monster movie marathon that we ever stayed up all night watching
- The Tom Verlaine show at Tramps that you came to NYC just to see with me
- The Doylestown Princeton Record Exchange excursions
- The 'Jaws' conference call
- Presley releasing a balloon for my Grandmother
- Seeing X with Presley and Lauren at The Cat's Cradle and Billy Zoom kneeling down and playing to her, Presley, all of 7 years old, and her 'fan girl' phone call from the car after the show to Mom at 1:00am

And too many others to possibly mention or remember.

Let's make more. We've got time...ok, buddy? Thanks for emailing me today and reminding me.

I'm lucky to have a best friend.

Cover Star: Me and Toby, Texas, 1980 - 16 years old. We were reading Hunter S. Thompson and were listening to this:
Headlining Band: KC

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

Monday, October 25, 2010

I'm Practicing My T-Rex Moves...


'I look good in a glass pack
I look good and mean
I look good in metallic sick wraparound blackout tease
I scud along the horizon, I drink some sweet tree tea
I get high in my low-ass boot-cut jean
I like being seen
I look good with my drink-eat-no-sleep, take-a-leap longevity
I get high on my attitude, latitude, 1973
I'm in deep...'

Shhhh...

Cover Star: T & A
Headlining Band: On guitar, Ladies and Gentlemen, Peter Buck! Witness his seven very poignant notes...

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

Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Hero Killed The Clown


Won't make a sound. Silence for now...

Cover Star: Ms. Austin
Headlining Band: Mr. Smith. Poor, dead Mr. Smith...

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

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Keep In Mind One Thing...



I was talking to Phil yesterday afternoon at CMJ and we discovered our mutual love of Frank Zappa. And we both agreed that perhaps the best Zappa lyric of all time is:

"MUSIC IS THE BEST." From Joe's Garage, Part III.

I've made no secret of the fact that since I AM NOT a musician, I 'make music' with my photographs. I don't know how I do it, but I do. There's some internal mental convention I've adopted that allows me to do that. Every photograph sings, and if they don't, well, you'll never see them.

These sing with the baritone of a, say, Mark Lanegan.

And that man can sing at my first gallery show and/or funeral. Mark?

Cover Star: Ms. Star
Headlining Band: Mister Lanegan. The man does LOVE a waltz...

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

Thursday, October 21, 2010

If It All Amounts To Nothing...


She was right.

To quote Mr. Bowie, five years.

Too fast, too soon, but friendship prevailed. And a bunch of other stuff. Time now is making up for time ill spent. Time now is an investment. Time should always be an investment.

No one's gonna be around forever, now is the time to sing, or five years from now. Although five years is scary. Five years was never scary before, but it is now.

Everything is walking out the door, literally, leaving cash in it's wake. There are those that would nod, smirk and judge. There are those that wouldn't think twice. There are those that would think twice, then not say a damn word.

We're not those people.

Now's the time - the time is now. Or five years from now. Or four...

I know what looks good on you.

Cover Star: Ms. Star
Headlining Band: Mister Cocker & Band

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

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Come On - Sing Again!


Fuck. Life is strange. I wanted to post a photo I took of my old friend Xavier in my NYU dorm room in 1986, but I can't find the negative. I will though - it's right here somewhere - and I spoke to him tonight for the first time in 25 years.

We saw Tangerine Dream together that summer. And survived film school boot camp.

Weird, but good. Take a note. Weird, but good...

Stay tuned.

Cover Star: Jackie, in the woods of rural New Jersey
Headlining Band: Mister Cocker & Band

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

Friday, October 15, 2010

Sweetness...


The greatest song ever written about...

Thanks, Bradley. I was only joking.

Cover Star: Socks
Headlining Band: The Smiphs

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

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Alone at the Station...


Tell me something that you want. Tell me something that I can give you. Tell me something that will keep you from disappearing, unlike me. Tell me something.

Anything.

Cover Star: Naomi
Headlining Band: The Airborne Toxic Event, live...for my friend Trish, and all of you.

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

Monday, October 11, 2010

I Find It Kind of Funny...


A deadly hail storm in Park Slope.
An email from Germany.
An apartment in disarray.
A seminal restaurant closed.
A drink with friends, past and present.
A new watch.

October, 2010.

Cover Star: Naomi
Headlining Band: Michael Andrews & Gary Jules

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

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Angry China Blocks Prize Celebration


Click here

Nobel Prize and you're gonna take it away?

China - grow up. Own the world. You already do...

...and give me a job photographing your world.

'After a brief scuffle, the men and women were led away, leaving Mr. Mooney alone with a roomful of police and the crumpled portrait of the Nobel Prize winner on the floor. Out of curiosity, he asked the young officers if they were familiar with Mr. Liu. “None of them even knew who he was,” he said.'

China, listen to more Velvet Underground. Now. Trust me...

Cover Star: Brooklyn at sunset, in the back of a car window
Headlining Band: Alison

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

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Chase the Costumes She Shall Wear


The city wears shiny clothes and is always one step ahead of you. Always elusive, always beckoning, something to be reckoned with. Something to drown one's five senses in, something to experience. A flame to touch, a mile to swim, a flirtation with excess at every new wardrobe change.

I haven't been to the city in almost a week. I used to laugh at the old ladies in Queens or Brooklyn when I lived in Manhattan that said, 'Go to the city? Why would I?' but now I get it. Everything I have here in Brooklyn, save for some people I miss, is right here. You don't have to always take advantage of where you live. Not always. Not all the time.

At home, it's easy to stay out of people's way, out of their business, out of their lives. It's easy, as I've said, to be a recluse, to focus, to concentrate, to drop off the face of the earth just for a short while.

Eight pints of water a day. Two and a half home cooked meals.

Next week: Movement.

Cover Star: Shiny, shiny leather
Headlining Band: The VU

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

Monday, October 04, 2010

Radiant Darkness


Reclusive.

In a word.

Invisible.

In another.

Distant, solitary and alone.

Thinking, reflecting, thinking, considering, thinking, watching, thinking...

Thinking.

It's been a long time since all this thinking has been thought.

What makes YOU feel good? What makes YOU whole? What makes YOU happy?

Hunh?

Cover Star: One of Diana Eng's Fall Line
Headlining Band: The National

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