Drive By Press at Bonnaroo 2011

Bonnaroo wasn't unlike what I expected, but I wasn't completely ready for the experience.  Words that come to mind:  Massive Dusty Stoned Survival.

As a working environment, this music festival was a strange proving ground.  It didn't seem as if many of the vendors actually enjoyed the work.  It was simply another stop on the tour.  An oft-heard comment: "I said last year would be the last year."  The event staff were largely local, seasonal hires from the surrounding community.  Some were having a great time, others looked miserable.  The big draw was free entry, and they only had to work 8 hour shifts, where as us vendors pulled consecutive 16-hour days.

Still, the experience as a whole was rewarding.  Almost any feat of endurance gives me a charge.  Reflecting, it sounds so like such an ordeal, but it really wasn't.  I stayed busy.  Ate often and drank plenty of water.  Missed John Waters, but saw plenty of interesting things just staring right out of the booth.  Wore sunglasses almost non-stop.  Had to, or too much dust would get in my eyes.

What a weird place.  They say it rains every year, but not the summer I was there.  Sunny days, here I come!

Evening Investigation

The backyard is a magical place.  Most folks completely lose sight of the great big world somewhere along their journey.  I think a big reason many people use drugs is to bring that magical mystery of being a child back into their life.

Our backyard is full of snails and slugs during the warm months.  Every now and then, there will be a slug bloom.  They'll be everywhere!

These Striped Leopard Slugs are big enough to pet.  Big enough to cuddle if you really wanted to.  They can really get moving too!

What is out there in the darkness?  A trained human eye could see so much more than a photo-  A burned-out fire, a pile of broken twigs, a chain link fence decorated with flecks of spray paint, plastic sheeting laying in the dirt, pieces of the neighbor's shingles...  Imagine what the cat can see.  Tiny insect eyes, death throes, city smells, a caterpillar panting, weeds breaking through the soil.

Giant Leopard Slug Close-ups

Get really close to what you find interesting.

You'll be surprised.

What do you have to lose?  What do you have to be scared of?

Understanding the world around you is a good way to understand yourself.

Contact Sheet

I don't think places are as different as some people think.  Usually there's a bottom part and a top or upper part.  In the middle is where we usually move around.  People tend to build little walls and things so that other people have to move around them, or into them, or maybe something else.  It's kinda like the circulatory system in the human body.  There are all these different ways to go, but after so many twists and turns, you have to turn around to go get charged again.  Places in the world are different though, in that almost everywhere can charge you up.

Wedding Photos

This is a scene from a wedding reception in Wisconsin.  The lake in the background is Lake Michigan.  Lake Michigan is so big it looks like an ocean.  Once I rode a ferry across it with my parents.  It took hours!  It was really windy and wavy that day.  It was really fun to bump into the walls of the hallways walking around for a young boy.  Most of my time was spent at the arcade playing Super Off-Road.  I love that game.  The arcade version has a really cool steering wheel you can totally just spin around the corners.

If you've never played horse shoes before, you should try.  It's a lot harder than it looks.  The pits are pretty damn far apart and the shoes are heavy.  The weight is surprising, sort of like when you pick up a gun for the first time and you're like, "damn, this is really heavy!"

These are my friends Kyle and Amanda getting some of their wedding photos taken.  If I remember, it was windy and not as warm as I would have liked.  I found a giant dead fish on the beach, that was pretty cool.  I took a cell phone photo.  I was pretty drunk.

Kyle is one of my oldest friends.  He is really smart and one of the few people that have come visit me out East.  It was a business trip, but it was still awesome.  I took him and his co-workers to that sweet chill townie almost gay bar in soho I can't remember the name of and then had a long walk from Barcade in Brooklyn to my place on Skillman St. where we built a fire and cooked sausage outside and got more wasted with them.

It was a snowy winter

So this winter was crazy.  New York never got much snow in the years I lived here, but this one year was really crazy!  Emily and I went to Omaha for Christmas.  It was the first time I'd traveled during the holidays in a really long time.  Sure enough, New York got snowbombed and we had to extend our trip for about 4 or 5 days waiting for the airports to clear out.  Omaha was pretty cool though.  There were a lot more hills than I would have thought.

When we got home, there were still a lot of roads that hadn't been plowed.  Even our street, Lafayette Ave, still only had one open lane!  The snowstorm hit the city so hard and so fast, no one was ready for it.  City buses were abandoned in the middle of intersections, cars were stuck all over the place.  There wasn't enough space to throw the snow.  Some sidewalks were more like hallways, pointed towards the main arteries leading to work.

Maybe we worked after getting back, I don't remember.  What we did do was get ready for our New Year's Eve party.  There was enough snow in the backyard to build a giant, u-shaped couch for our guests.  Brian helped me set up the wood stove in the middle to keep everyone warm.  It was so good.

I miss the snow of my childhood.  Drifts went up to my shoulders.  My dog had to hop between our footfalls to keep above the crust.  The neighborhood kids would build enormous snow caves in the piles left in the middle of parking lots.  I could jump off the very top of the playground equipment and not get hurt one bit.