Tick Tock They Won’t Stop

A “cultural guerrilla” group in France called Untergunther broke into the Panthéon in Paris and over a few weeks fixed a historic clock that has not worked since the 1960’s. They then told the administrator of the Panthéon about it and they were soon charged with the crime and the administrator was fired. The charges were dropped in court and Untergunther said that they will keep trying to restore Parisian historical items.

Klausmann and his crew are connaisseurs of the Parisian underworld. Since the 1990s they have restored crypts, staged readings and plays in monuments at night, and organised rock concerts in quarries. The network was unknown to the authorities until 2004, when the police discovered an underground cinema, complete with bar and restaurant, under the Seine. They have tried to track them down ever since.

Members know Paris intimately. Many of them were students in the Latin Quarter in the 80s and 90s, when it was popular to have secret parties in Paris’s network of tunnels. They have now grown up and become nurses or lawyers, but still have a taste for the capital’s underworld, and they now have more than just partying on their mind.

“We would like to be able to replace the state in the areas it is incompetent,” said Klausmann. “But our means are limited and we can only do a fraction of what needs to be done. There’s so much to do in Paris that we won’t manage in our lifetime.”

Read the rest of the article here.

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F Is For Funny Face

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken. For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

Here is a trick:  If you can’t get a good photo out of someone ask them to make a funny face.  Everyone looks good when they are trying to look bad.  If someone isn’t photogenic, they will be if they have their eyes crossed and their tongue out.  They also won’t complain about how bad they look in your pictures, they will just laugh about it and make it their myspace default.  A funny face should not be compared to the “Ugly Face” which is created by motor-boating your lips while shaking your head from side to side in order to freeze the mouth in a most hilarious fashion.  While this is also a great trick for making people look awesome, it is much harder to get people to play along.

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Alexis Janicki: American Hero

My friend AJ from way back in the day got arrested for jumping the White House fence. I read about this in the news, but I had no idea it was him until he sent me a myspace message today and I found this video on his profile:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXEfPvbxP_Q[/youtube]

While this video is extremely heartfelt and I feel for every single person who has had to fight in Iraq, but he was not always so heroic…  Although in some weird way Janicki may be some sort of bizarro world hero…

From the article:

The agents scour his service record. It shows that he joined the Army in 2000, when he was 18 years old. Growing up in Alexandria, Virginia, Janicki had rolled with a posse of slackers. They threw beer and weed-fueled bashes at an older friend’s apartment. He quit school and earned a GED. They spray-painted graffiti in Georgetown; Janicki’s tag was “Hero.” One day, he walked into an Army recruiting station hoping he had found a place to belong. The desire to join an alpha crew overwhelmed him.

“I figured the military was the same close-knit group, just more legal,” he recalls.

Evidently I too rolled with this so called “posse of slackers.”  Only I don’t remember much beer at those parties, mostly Special K, E and Cough Syrup… maybe the occasional baggie of meth.  I actually broke my straight edge in that apartment, smoking crack out of a light bulb just so I could say that I smoked crack before weed or drinking beer.  Although I didn’t touch anything again until I got drunk for the first time several years later on my 21st birthday.

I found this video today of him fighting a Teddy Bear on New Years eve 2000 at the same apartment with the same slacker friends. I always thought this was strangely funny and now I have a reason to post it.  Also, featured in the video is my “friend” Dylan who is now fucking this girl who got me jumped about a year ago and spread lies about me supposedly molesting her… I have done a lot of things in my life to get jumped before, but I didn’t do shit to her. I guess it is karma and thanks for taking my side Dyl… you’ve only been one of my best friends for a decade. Way to let mediocre pussy get in the way of that.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZwo8p53abQ[/youtube]

Lastly,  I posted this video of him setting his face on fire a few months ago. It is probably the best thing I have ever put on youtube.  Enjoy the hell of it again…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmgIeq3SSuA[/youtube]

God that is hilarious.

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Bye Bye Day By Day

When I first moved to Richmond I was trying to make a Driven By Boredom movie. I told this girl in one of my photo classes about it and she introduced me to her boyfriend Dave Stewart who was also making a similar movie. I really liked what he was doing and I started running their website for a while. I also gave them all my footage… about 30 hours of footage… about 2 minutes made it into their film Teenagers From Mars… They then made a second film, Teenagers From Uranus, which a few clips became huge on youtube. Anyway, Dave and his partner/director/editor Will Carsola are moving to LA to make it as huge stars or something. I just happened to be in Richmond the day before their party and I ran into Dave at a bar and he told me about his party. I decided to stick around so I could take some photos and see a lot of people I hadn’t seen before. When I got there I realized Richmond has a hell of a lot of talent, aside from Day By Day I ran into two of the best illustrators I know, some pretty well known musicians and a bunch of people who are just doing good shit for Richmond. Richmond as a city seems to be fighting the art community tooth and nail, but it is good to see that some people are fighting back still.

Anyway, when I got there the place was just packed and although it was good to see people I was not having a great time… but then around 1 am the bartenders poured everyone in the bar champagne at which point everyone started pouring it on everyone and throwing the glasses at each other. Dave and Will jumped up on the bar for a photo and the place just went out of control. The fact that Soulja Boy came on at that very second helped too… After that the bar became a mad house. People were jumping on tables and off booths. People were spilling beer on each other and silly string was sprayed all over the place. It was the most fun I have had in Richmond since I moved to NYC. I am so glad I stuck around for it. Also Richmond Magazine was doing a piece on Day By Day and their photographer didn’t show up, so they hired me to shoot a ton of photos of Dave and Will…. So if you notice that half the pictures are of two insane bearded men, that is why. Richmond is going to miss you guys… Photos go here.

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G Is For Go Go

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken. For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

I am not a big fan of go going.  For someone who is obsessed with girls and spends a lot of time taking half naked photos of them, I am strangely opposed to girls dancing around in their underwear.  I don’t like strip clubs, I don’t like burlesque and I don’t like go go.   Maybe it is jealousy but I just find something gross about making your living based on your looks.  Seeing someone spend two hours doing their make up drives me insane and watching a dozen guys drool over a go go dancer makes me queasy.  That being said, I tend to make friends with go go dancers and it always gives me something to photograph.  I feel slightly creepy shooting go gos, but they make for good content for this site.  I seem to be friends with nearly every go go dancer south of 14th street.  I don’t know what it is.  I get along real well with strippers and porn stars too.  Sex workers are just my people and I love them… even though I think go-going is a dumb party gimmick.  My fault, I hope you will still pose for me…

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Abduction, Satanism, Brain Washing In Arkansas

Now this is weird. The mayor of Centerton, Arkansas resigned the other day becuase he discovered he had been living a lie.  Years ago he claims he was abducted by Satanists and brainwashed.  He was living under an assumed name for nearly thirty years.  He only came out about this because his old family contacted him because he started a website about his old life. Wtf?  Evidently Mayor Ken Williams took a truth serum that made him realize he was actually former preacher Don LaRose.  Of course… Why didn’t I think of that?

As Williams regained his memory, he said, he realized that he had a wife and two kids but that he had decided to leave and take on a new identity to protect them.
“I had no choice. The choice was to watch my family killed before my eyes or go with these people, and I chose instead to run,” Williams said.

Wow.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0NnWKxQ5uE[/youtube]

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Thanksgiving Trip Home: Days 2 & 3

So let’s see… After hanging out with Abby I slept all day and then woke up and drove to Richmond, VA which is 100 miles south of my parents house. I lived in Richmond for almost 6 years before I moved to NYC. I got there pretty late and met up with my friend Brian who’s house I am crashing at. I hung out with his Hooka smoking roommate. This dude smokes hashish all day long. He told me he smokes 5 bowls to himself a day. I find that sort of amazing. I hung out with those guys for a while and then went to NY Deli per my last post. I partied there for a whole 30 minutes and then watched Videodrome and went to sleep. The next day I woke up early and went out with my friend Jamie and took photos of his ’81 Rabbit. Then I drove around Richmond visiting all my old friends at work. I saw my high school girlfriend who gave me my first Polaroid camera. She was the first person I ever took a naked photo of. Amazing. I then hung out with my old and dear friends Christine and Brittney who pretty much hate me. And then I went to Empire for DayByDays going away party. That party was amazing and I will have a post for it as soon as I get back to NYC. I took some crazy fucking pictures and they will be up Monday. None of this is intresting, but the photos Monday will be. So yeah. There are some boring photos of all of this here and an amazing photo of one of my best friends Barry below.

PS. No Favorite Things post this week because I am out of town. Sorry.

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I Is For Ice

The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken. For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.

Shit.  I missed I.  I went straight on to H.  We can’t forget I.  I is for ice… as in bling… as in bling bling.  I want to see your grills… ya, ya, ya grills… Got a sweet gold watch like mine?  I’ll shoot it.  Got your name in diamonds around your neck?  I will shoot it.  If you have sweet LLCoolJ style name rings, you better believe I will shoot it.  Excess is the name of the game and while I find it absolutely disgusting to spend $1500 on a purse, I find it absolutely hilarious to spend that much on a necklace, or some fake teeth or even a wonderful golden hoodie spun from gold fibers assembled by small children in Southeast Asia!  How the hell could we forget I!  I is for ice and ice makes for sweet photos.  Show me those rocks!

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Jamie Lay’s 1981 Rabbit

Yesterday I was woken up by my friend Jamie.  Jamie is a big Volkswagen guy.  He was happier than I was when I bought my VW GTI in 2004.  He took me to the convenience store store, All Star Market, that he and his girlfriend own.  He buttered me up with free roast beef and got me to accompany him on a crime spree.  We broke into a park.  Well, we just drove on the foot path.  I am pretty sure the cops would have just asked us to leave if they caught us, but it was somehow dangerous none the less.  He wanted photos of his car in a setting that looked like “English countryside”.  I took a bunch and I hope he can use them for something.  His Rabbit is fucking sweet.  The end.  Look at photos here.

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