Gravity Always Wins

It wears me out.
- Thom Yorke

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

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...

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!

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...

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...

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

White
noise
for
now.

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"