My friend Nicholas Gazin AKA the Toilet Cobra AKA Nick Gazin had an art opening at Mishka’s 350 Broadway store.  I don’t have to tell you that Nick’s art is fucking insane, you can clearly see that for yourself. The dude is just a sick fucking artist and seems to be everywhere these days.  He is the Vice Comics editor and shoots and writes Dos and Don’ts for them (including a bunch of the ones I shot).  He designs t-shirts and blog for Mishka.  He shoots photos and was somehow named by L Magazine as one of the best photobloggers even though he was borrowing my camera at the time (he finally gave it back).  And the dude draws shirts and flyers for every fucking rad band.  If Nick can keep up this pace he is going to be a legend and people are going to start comparing him to Raymond Pettibon even more than they already do.

As far as the show goes he had a ton of work on the wall from illustrations for magazines to sketches to paintings.  The show was as packed as I have ever seen an art opening at Mishka.  Ellen Stagg’s shows seem to bring a lot of people out but Nick doesn’t have the advantage of porn stars hanging out at his openings.  I was only at the show for a little bit but it was a great time and hopefully he sold some arts.

You should clearly click here to see all the photos from Nick Gazin’s No Escape show at Mishka’s 350 Broadway.

My friend Cortne Lanier had an art opening for a series of paintings called Beasts & Burdens at the clothing store Billy Reid last Thursday.  She is an amazing painter who I met in college when she was using the darkroom to develop prints that she was painting for a show.  She was in the MFA painting program at VCU when I was an undergrad photo major.  She is one of the few people I have stayed in touch with since leaving Richmond, VA and it’s always great to see her when she comes to NYC for shows.  One of the images in the show was based on an image that I took of my friend Vicki naked in the snow last winter.

I just shot a few pictures of the art in the show for her personal use, but I figured I would do a little post about it for you guys.  So I don’t have a full gallery or anything but a few of my favorite images are below. The musicians below are Bennett Sullivan & Thomas Bailey who were hired to provide music for the event.  They were pretty great.  If you are interested in any of Cortne’s art you can head over to Billy Reid on the Bowery or you can contact Cortne via her website.

So as you should know by now I am in LA and one of the things I am very excited to do here is to go to Jessie Lee’s benefit thrown by the Darling House on Thursday. This is a big art show featuring a ton of amazing artists.  We did this same show in NYC at Beauty Bar and made a ton of money for Jessie Lee and sold a lot of art work.  Also the party was fucking crazy and I took some awesome pictures, you should check them out if you haven’t seen them yet.  I have four arts in this show and if you are in LA you can buy them each for $40. In fact ALL the art is $40! You can get work from big name artists for less than a bag of coke! Plus you will be helping out a rad girl.

I hung out with Jessie Lee last night for the first time since her accident and while she looks great can get around and take care of herself she still has a lot of brain damage that make it impossible for her to work and hard to deal with life. She has a lot of vision problems, she has a lot of social anxiety problems and she has only been able to sleep abour 4 hours at a time. She is actually going to be at the show tomorrow but only for an hour.  If you come and you don’t know her if you talk to her make it just a “hello” or something because she is having a lot of anxiety problems talking with strangers.  The doctors say she is going to fully recover but it could take a full year before she does so we have to do what we can to help.  Please donate some money and if you have made a donation please donate some more.  I know I am going to buy another print tomorrow…

Anyway, here are the full details about the show.

Studio Servitu
322 Los Angeles St. Suite 301
Los Angeles, CA 90013

8-11PM – $5 Donation

I am leaving town for a two week trip to Vegas and Los Angeles, but don’t worry I have plenty of stuff to update the site with while I am gone.  I still have two parties and two naked girls left over plus some surprises. I will even try to get an update up before I leave tomorrow so I don’t leave you guys hanging. That being said I have a few things I wanted to mention that I figured I could put all in one update so I get this important stuff out of the way before I leave town. So let’s get into it…

The first thing is the most important. I have shot a number of events that featured the Disgraceland Hook Squad. This is a group of crazy kids who do suspensions and flesh pulls and all sorts of other insane shit involving sticking giant hooks into themselves and running around like mad men. You can’t help but love them.  Several of their members got into a car accident back in July and while most of them are recovered one of the people, Spliff is still in the hospital and needs financial help so he can raise the money to move from Texas to NYC.  They were in Texas when the accident happened and they have had to stay there all these months.  They have found a treatment center in NYC that will take Spliff but it’s going to cost a huge amount of money to bring him home. They need to get back home now because his wife Jill, who was also in the accident, is about to have their first child.  She needs her family and friends help to raise the baby and also take care of Spliff so they need to get home before the baby is born. My friend Doug who introduced me to Spliff and Disgraceland has written this blog with a lot more details. You can go there or to Spliff and Jill’s website to donate money.  So many people came out for Jessie Lee when she got injured, I hope you have a little more in you to donate to another friend of the Driven By Boredom family.

On a much happier note I am in a group show at Shadow’s Space art gallery in Philly.  Shadow’s Space is the sister gallery of Fuse gallery in NYC and I am pretty excited to be showing there.  The group show is called “Paper Trails” and it is curated by NYC graffiti icon Chris “DAZE” Ellis.  DAZE and I collaborated on some work for a show a long time ago and I was really glad he thought of me when curating this show.  Unfortunately I am not going to be able to make the opening on Friday because I will be in Vegas but I know a bunch of people from Philly read this site so I hope you guys check out the show. I have four 11×17 photos in it, all shot on 35mm, and they are all of girls naked in public on the streets of NYC.  They are pretty rad.

While we are here I guess I should talk a little about my trip too.  I am headed to Vegas for the weekend to shoot the Adult Entertainment Expo, the AVN Awards, the Consumer Electronics Showcase and all the goings on before and after these events for the Village Voice and the LA Weekly. I might actually skip the AVN Awards and for some reason I haven’t heard back about my CES press credentials yet but I’ll play it by ear when I get there.  I never know what the hell I am doing in Vegas but I do know that I booked a two bedroom hotel suite for myself for some reason so I am going to have some fun either way. After Vegas I am headed to LA for just over a week.  I don’t really have any plans but I think I found a place to stay and I have set up shoots with a bunch of girls. I am going to be doing some more work for the LA Weekly and hoping to shoot some random parties while I am there.  There is also a benefit for Jessie Lee on Thursday which I will be blogging about next week. I am also going to see Jessie Lee for the first time since her accident as she is finally moving to LA the day before I get there. The whole trip should be a lot of fun, a little bit relaxing and hopefully very productive.  It better be because it will be a miracle if I break even on the adventure.  Either way I will be updating DBB often while I am gone so keep coming back. Also, I will be updating my Tumblr with previews of all the crazy shit I am shooting while I am in LA so you should probably get on that.  And of course following my Twitter while I am adventuring is a fucking given.

Finally, I figured I would leave you guys with something fun.  If you have ever wondered to do the secret handshake pioneered by NY nightlife icons like Ninjasonik and The Death Set there is now a how to video which will teach you the handshake. Looks like the “Slap Slap Slap Pound Up Down Slap Snap” handshake is not so secret anymore. You no longer have any excuse not to be down. Get on it.

My last night in Miami proper was a pretty fun one. I had a photo shoot on a beach with a hot naked girl (coming tomorrow I hope…) and then I tried to drive to South Beach to get some food with some friends. I tried to park for over an hour before just giving up and driving down town for this Exhibitalia party that Fiat and Fader put on.  It was a bunch of Italian art and some of it was really good and some of it was really really bad. I was asked to shoot the thing for the Miami New Times but I was also excited to go because Nick Catchdubs was DJing and I love that dude.

When I got there Nick was nowhere to be found but there was plenty of meat and sticks and I ate a bunch of meat on a stick and took photos for a while.  It was sort of empty and seemed kinda lame for a while but then for some reason Pharell was there. I asked him if I could take his photo and he said no, but he shook my hand and introduced himself.  I told him I was a fan, and I am, and he told me that I could take a picture of me and him together. I don’t really take pictures like that but he made it seem like this was something we had to do, so I took a picture of him and I with my little point and shoot 35mm camera.  Later in the night when I was outside on my phone he came out and thanked me for being cool about not taking his picture. I appreciated that and while I haven’t bought the last two N.E.R.D albums I do still wear trucker hats from time to time… so respect.

Later Nick showed up and brought his Fool’s Gold partner Atrak with him and Atrak brought his brother Dave 1 of Chromeo.  Roofeeo from the Death Set showed up with his girlfriend and Matt & Kim. I finally met Matt & Kim which seemed a long time coming because we have so many friends and they were pretty awesome.  One of their crew was this dude Taylor who is actually roommates in LA with my friend Annaliese who runs Gods Girls.  Small fucking world. I also met a NYC graffiti artist named Fumero. I had shot his work for Unseen NYC and I recognized his work on his t-shirt. We had a good conversation and I hope to get him involved somehow with Unseen.

The party was fun and the meat on a stick was awesome but soon I was in my rental car with far too many people.  I had an entire band in the passenger seat (Matt & Kim) along with Matt’s brother, Taylor, Roofeeo & his his girlfriend in the back seat.  We went to the Miami version of Bardot where Matt & Kim were doing a DJ set.  I hung out with those kids for most of the night and unfortunately could not take photos in that club.  At some point we met up with some guys from Fader who took us to Electric Pickle which was pretty dead but their was an amazing taco truck parked outside. By this time Kim and Matt’s brother Fletcher were so wasted it was amazing. She could barely walk and  Fletcher kept taking off his shirt. From that point on it is kind of a blur but I ended up with a film canister full of wine, we hunted for chickens, scared several people at Wallgreen’s and listened to Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair” five times in a row.  I ended up getting back to my place around 7am.  It was a pretty fucking good night.

Click here to see the photos form the Exhibitalia party that started the night off with free wine and delicious meats.

The New Dealers Art Alliance thew a party on Thursday night during Art Basel.  I was assigned to it by the Miami New Times. I honestly had no idea where I was or what it was for or what I was doing there.  I just took pictures and drove myself crazy because I didn’t get any cell reception at Canyon Ranch, whatever that was. I did see The Cobrasnake there so maybe the party was something worth going to.  I still really have no idea. I spent a lot of the time talking to a girl who I went to high school with. She was in my brothers class, a few years below me, so I don’t remember her too well but she told that I once bench pressed her in the hall of my school.  That sounds like a super jock thing to do which is an interesting image to associate me with. I did play football but I was a punk rock kid so I am not sure how this bench pressing thing translates. Plus I had a bad shoulder so I maxed out at 150lbs when I worked out. Also Kolkoz DJ’d. Not my high school but the NADA party.

Okay, this is the most random update story ever so I am just going to go. Click here to see all the pictures from the NADA Art Fair Party at Canon Ranch in Miami.

Last night at Beauty Bar 20 erotic photographers came together led by JM Darling and Darling House to raise money to support our injured friend Jessie Lee. By now you should know all about her injury but if you are coming here from some other site linking in just to see some crazy naked party pictures, then you can click here for a recap of what happened to Jessie Lee. There were a ton of amazing photographers work on the walls and a ton of it sold.  My pictures were sort in the dark which is my excuse for only selling one print. I sold it right after I moved the lights so you could see my prints so I feel like my argument is somehow valid. I bought two photos myself a picture of my ex-girlfriend doing coke with a 400 pound black man taken by Bob Coulter and this picture taken by Lithium Picnic. Unfortunately for me someone walked off with the prints, hopefully accidentally, but I hope to get them back somehow.

The party was a ton of fun as you would expect from a party filled with nude models, burlesque dancers and way too many cameras. The night started off pretty tame and art show like but after a few burlesque numbers including some serious nudity from Stormy Leather and Madame Rosebud and a lot of booze people started getting wild.  I did a mini topless photo shoot with Burning Angel mom and party host Joanna Angel and Dastardly Dave posed for some shots with a sexy lady. There was various random nudity and making out and good times all around. I just wish Jessie Lee could have been well enough to make the trip.  I am sure when she gets better we can throw another party that she can get naked at too…

Anyway, these photos are clearly very NSFW and very much worth looking at and if you would like to donate to help Jessie Lee that would be really amazing of you. You can do so by clicking here.

And without further ado, click here to see all the pictures from the 20 American Erotic Photographers for Jessie Lee show at Beauty Bar.

A while ago I blogged about the soft launch of Unseen NYC. I reached out to friends and fans of this site to submit street art and street life pictures to Unseen and you did not disappoint.  Well, after a few weeks of gathering content Unseen NYC officially launches today!

So let me refresh your memory…

A few years ago an old college buddy of mine, Rick Ramos, launched a website called Unseen Denver. It was basically a Denver based street art site but Rick sees street art a bit differently than a lot of people. Rick isn’t really interested in graffiti and he is not active in the street art culture but he loves the little things that people don’t notice that make Denver a more interesting place to live. He posts a photo a day that people from around Denver submit of street art and graffiti, but also things like notes and signs and snow drifts and cracks in the sidewalk and moments that make Denver home for those people.

I had seen Unseen Denver before a while ago but it wasn’t until recently that I took a good look at the site and realized how interesting it is. I asked him if he had ever thought about branching out and making Unseen sites in other cities. He told me he would love to but never had a person to really push the site in other cities.  Enter me.

I have been reaching out to you guys and my friends and fellow photographers to get them to submit images to this Unseen NYC project and it has already been pretty fantastic. The blog was just a few photos on a blank page but we still received a TON of photos and have already been blogged about on the NY Times and Sundance Channel blogs. It’s pretty clear that if Unseen Denver could have so much success that the New York version is going to me 10x more amazing. We have way more people, way more art and way more streets and cracks for art to hide in. Unseen NYC has no choice but to be huge!

So last week Rick redid the layout so Unseen looks like a real website now. We added a few posts about street art happenings in the city and we stared adding a bunch more content and as of today Unseen NYC is officially ready to roll!

So this is it. This is your re-invitation to check out the site. We really want you to submit photos! You can also follow Unseen NYC on Twitter or join us on Facebook or you could even become a blogger for the site!  We really want to find more people interested in writing about this stuff so hit me up if you are interested in joining the team!

And please… do us all a favor and visit Unseen NYC!

As you guys know by now my friend and Burning Angel model Jessie Lee was badly injured in a car accident.  If you need to know the details you can read my write up here and of course check out her fundraising site HelpOMGitsJessieLee.com.

On Monday photographer JM Darling has put together a pretty impressive collection of erotic photographers who are going to be selling their photos to raise money for Jessie Lee. On top of being able to get relatively inexpensive photos from amazing photographers like Bob Coulter, George Pitts, Holly Randall, Dave Naz and Lithium Picnic you will also get to see Madam Rosebud and Stormy Leather get naked in fantastical burlesque performances.  You can also get photos by friends of Driven By Boredom like Ellen Stagg, Steve Prue and Chase Lisbon… PLUS… photos by the legendary Nate “Igor” Smith from DrivenByBoredom.com.  Yes that’s right on top of the huge list of legendary photographers who have come together to raise money for Jessie Lee, you can get photos taken by yours truly. You clearly cannot miss this event.

We will be at Beauty Bar Monday night from 8-11 PM and the event will be hosted by the amazing Joanna Angel who unfortunately was driving the car during Jessie’s terrible accident.  The cost of this event is only $5 and both the cover and part of the bar go to raise money for Jessie Lee.

This is a huge group of amazing photographers that I am honored to be a part of and we have all come together to help support a girl who has been a muse and a friend and I hope you guys can come out and help as well. It should be a very fun night.

Also we will be doing this again in LA in January and I will be out there for it. So if you are on the wrong cost I will see you in Jan!

Click here for more info via the Facebook invite!