Archive for July, 2009
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
My new single, the first off my forthcoming album Human Nature, is available today! It’s called “When We Fight” and you can listen to it and purchase it now on iTunes, Amazon, Lala, eMusic, Rhapsody, and several other online retailers. There will be no actual disc pressed, just digital sales of this single. But the album will be available digitally and on CD this fall.
After the jump below, you will find several web banners and ad images. You know, if you are so inclined to use them on your blogs and Myspace and Facebook pages and stuff. I would be very happy if you did! Banners in different sizes (long and short and sideways and topways and leftwise and foreways) after the jump… (more…)
Sunday, July 26th, 2009
For several years I have been wanting to put together a book of photographs that I’ve taken of my friend Anna. And now, it’s happening.
I met her not too long after I moved to New York. She was a club kid who went to a lot of the same parties I went to, only she dressed up and painted her face differently every single night for years. This “cherubic blonde with a passion for the flash” (from the Village Voice review of my first gallery show) went by “Anna Rexia” before she got tired of the city and moved to the country. Now she’s just: Anna.
As a novice photographer, then a nightlife photographer, then a portrait photographer, I was always snapping her as we got ready to go out. A different face for every night. She has always been my favorite person to shoot: awkwardly comfortable in front of a lens, striking a classical pose and then pulling her nostrils apart with her fingers, simultaneously grotesque and stunningly beautiful. A real girl turned into a real woman who has always known she is special.
It was time for my archives to be pillaged. I selected hundreds from thousands upon thousands of images of Anna for this book. Four years of frequent snaps has given me a really incredible pool of images of her, and I can’t wait until everybody gets to see the collection!
(That’s not going to be the book cover, by the way.)
Sunday, July 19th, 2009
At the moment I am a few miles above the earth on a private jet, looking down over the entire United States of America and watching it go by slowly.
We flew by Mount St. Helens and all the non-volcanic peaks of Washington and Oregon, over the fields and dry stretches of the west, the circular crops, the hills and the flatlands of the midwest. Just a minute ago I looked down over the entirety of Lake Michigan as if it were a foot away from my face on a map. There goes Huron. There goes Erie. Down there underneath that cloud somewhere is my mother in Cleveland. On this plane you can use any device you like, any time, and the windows are very large and so the views are just incredible. I haven’t been able to take my eyes or my lens off the planet down below.
Christian and I are having this amazing cross country experience as the guests of our friend Leslie. We’re beyond spoiled now… and I thought commercial first class was luxe. This is like living in a James Bond movie. We stayed the weekend in Portland, Oregon. Didn’t have an appearance, didn’t have a trunk show, just relaxed and watched movies in our beautiful hotel and ate a lot of good food. Our only real excursion was to a book store, where I bought half a dozen gigantic picture books on ancient art, maps of North America, natural disasters, and the universe.
There’s a feeling that doesn’t leave me when I fly and look out the window, which is that humans were really never supposed to ever be up here. Why should I ever be this high off the ground? Then add on to that that I’m eating halibut and asparagus and Cherry Garcia in my recliner and writing on my computer about how thought-provoking everything is and basically today life is a strange amalgam of Richie Rich and Doogie Howser.
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
I photographed ads for J Shoes last month and really liked everybody there. Johnny and Courtney and both models were nice and easy to work with. Not sure what’s going to be used for print but I am excited to see these images in stores and national magazines! Here are a few of the shots I liked:
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Here are some of the images from the shoot we did for artwork and promo for my album Human Nature coming out in the fall. I love them! There are more to be done, so this isn’t a total reveal! Geneva Simms took these photos.
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Time Warner Cable once again cut out on me at the beginning of one of the very few television programs that I actually planned to watch, the Michael Jackson memorial, which aired today. Everyone else has already complained enough about how horrible TWC’s service and customer service are, so I won’t do that again at length now. The point is, because my cable went out, I had to watch the memorial streaming online at CNN.com. While I was at my computer and thinking and hearing about how Michael Jackson was the greatest entertainer the world has ever known, I went through a bunch of old photos from concerts, parties, and events that I had been to, and I got to thinking about all the incredible people I’ve been lucky enough to come into contact with. The most iconic of them has to have been Madonna.
I took this photo when she came to the Misshapes party four years ago, when it was still small and exciting and before it moved to a larger venue. It was us, a handful of club kids, and Madonna. It wasn’t the first or last time I’d see her in person, but it was the most up close and personal. She arrived to much excitement on the sidewalk outside, made her way in and upstairs to the DJ booth, and got on the mic and told us she wanted to play us a few of her new songs. Songs that were, at the time, unheard by any of us, because they were on her yet-to-be-released Confessions on a Dance Floor.
It was Geordon’s birthday, and I was there with Kathy, our friend Beckie, and Sarah. While Madonna began to play some of the new tracks, I left the group and went downstairs to the bar and listened with excitement. She stayed up there for about half an hour, and then all of a sudden I turned around in the near-deserted ground level and there was Madonna in my face with three or four body guards. As the people upstairs began to follow her downstairs, I looked right at her and said “I love you!” like a startled idiot. She said “thanks, I like your hair!” I took a picture and then she was swept away by security like she was Madonna or something.
My friends found me a few minutes later and Beckie said she was sorry I didn’t get to see the whole thing upstairs. I took out my camera and showed her the photo above. Four years later and I think Beckie’s jaw may still be on the floor.
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
I photographed Carolina Ramirez again last night in some clothes by Christian that aren’t from a collection; they were just for this shoot. She’s not a full-time professional model but she really should be, right? We keep telling her this, so I think she’s finally going to act on it! Hair by Christian, makeup by Lee Ashley Davidson.
I also have to explode for a second and say that while June in New York this summer was entirely gray and rainy, I complained very little. But it’s July now and these clouds need to expel themselves! I want a SUNNY DAY. Not an hour of sun in between clouds, but a morning-noon-and-evening day of sunshine and blue skies! Come on!!
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Just needed to share this video from Unique, a super talented friend of mine who’s about to blow up when his record is released by Def Jam. I don’t think it’s the official music video for his song “Beat of My Drum,” but it’s got the studio track over some performance footage. Get him on Twitter too! (more…)
