Five minutes after arriving at this concert I still had no idea Billy Bob Thornton had a band.  I was given a ticket to “A Celebration Of Music In Film” at Sundance by a press liaison who was trying to do me a favor for covering the Yes Men premiere for the Sundance Institute because the Wire Image guy showed up too late.  I had no interest in going to this “Celebration” but they were pouring the Le Tourmont Vert Absinthe I was working for at the party, so I figured I would pop in, get a few product shots and move on to the other parties I had to cover.  When I got in this pretty rocking twangy country band called The Boxmasters were playing.  People were watching, but no one seemed too animated.  Everyone was just sitting down listening.  I took maybe five pictures from the back of the room before their song ended and the lead singer began with his between song banter.  That’s when I realized that Billy Bob Thornton was fronting the band.  He started in about how he moved to LA to become a singer and that he got into acting by accident and that it was a terrible choice.  He went off on the film community, Sundance goers, critics and film as a medium.  He said the only movies he watches are movies with his children.  He started bitching about how in his day movies cost 35 cents and you got to see a double feature and you were happy about it dammit.  None of this critiquing bullshit from some no talent critic.  This tirade lasted about 10 full minutes before he told the audience that clearly anyone who showed up to his show was not one of the aforementioned film losers and that if he saw a single person out there with their arms crossed judging him he was going to come out into the audience and fight them.  I think everyone believed him, because with in a few minutes everyone in the room was dancing, myself included.  After smoking a pack of cigarettes on stage, making out with random girls in the audience when he got off stage, playing drums and ranting between songs, it was very fucking clear to me that Billy Bob Thornton is a fucking bad ass and someone you should not cross.  This is a good look for a tough rockin’ country band.  Speaking of good looks, check out the photos of the drummer.  The man looks like Clint Eastwood with Jim Jarmusch’s hair. Imagine what that dude was up to 30 years ago.  What a complete bad ass.  The steel guitar player was just too amazing for words and the dashing guitarist looks like a rockabilly version of John Flansburg.  Like I said, it was a good look.  This combined with the fact that one of the dudes from ZZ Top was watching from the side of the stage, made for an intense experience.  I am glad I was at the right place at the right time.

So seriously check out the Boxmaster photos here.  They might change your life.

So finally I have found a day to relax. I have been watching old Aquateen Hunger Force episodes, catching up on 30 Rock and The Office and watching the season premiere of Lost. Later my friend is going to come over and we are going to watch a movie. And I slept for 8 hours. I did wake up from a dream very upset that I wasn’t going to play in the Super Bowl, but I guess that’s just how it goes. I am going to Philly tomorrow for no reason at all, and I will be back in NYC, ready to start working on this site again on Monday. I have so many photos to get up, it is going to be nuts. I am shooting a photo booth at Cain next week and hosting Trash Friday. And possibly shooting a look book over the weekend. I can’t wait to see you kids again. Let’s fuck shit up.

I have had a bunch of my Sundance photos show up on the internets, mostly the photos I did for Flavorpill, but a bunch of stuff none the less. I figured I would link it here and continue relaxing instead of doing an actual update. So enjoy, and a nice photo of a still sexy 72 year old Robert Redford talking to Andie McDowell who I have had a crush on since I saw Groundhog Day for my 13th birthday party.

Ashton Kutcher On HollyScoop 

Bossip On Kim Porter And Russel Simmons (Here Too)

Pop Culture Madness Le Tourment Vert Celebrity Sightings

Zach Gilford Interview

World’s Greatest Dad Interviews

Lauren Lee Smith Interview

Robert Redford Photo

IN 2004 I had just seen the movie the Yes Men.  The movie was about 2 guys, coincidentally enough, The Yes Men.  They pose as spokesmen for large corporations and either go on TV and apologize for those companies, or satirically exaggerate the positions of the company often with hilarious results.  So I get a call from my friend Miguel.  He asked me if I had ever heard of these guys because they were staying at his place.  Evidently his roommate was good friends with Mike from the Yes Men.  So my friend Teddy and I joined the Yes Men and Miguel and several other people for dinner.  After dinner we went on a prank run with them.  They had  huge bus painted with George Bush’s face on it.  The idea was that they would go around the country pretending to be Bush supporters and make people agree wholeheartedly to the most evil parts of his political agenda.  Teddy and I dressed up as a cowboy and an oil sheik and got on top of the bus and danced while they gathered a crowed and made them pledge to go to any war no matter what, never have an abortion no matter what, and give up the 4th amendment in order to prevent terrorism.  After it was over I decided to give the Yes Men this giant inflatable cowboy costume I had.  I thought they could use it on their US tour.

Unfortunately a week later their bus broke down and I never heard from them again… Until Sundance…

I saw that the Yes Men were premiering their new film.   I didn’t have time to see it, but I did have time to go down to their press wall and bug them about it.  I walked up to Andy and said “Hi, I am Igor, I met  you in Richmond, Va. You stole my cowboy costume.”  He remembered who I was and was sort of laughingly apologetic.  He gave me a bunch of copies of their fake New York Times in trade.  Evidently they are going for a lot on ebay.  When I saw Mike from the Yes Men, he felt even worse about it.  Evidently he lost the battery pack and didn’t want to send it back to me broken.  The good thing to come out of this was that they turned the idea of the inflatable suit in to a big part of their new movie, The Yes Men Fix The World.  They pretended to be representatives for Haliburton and they announced to the world that they had created a large inflatable ball that protects you from danger in the event of catastrophic global climate change.  It looks like a giant tick or something, as you can see below.

So after the press meet and greet I had to leave, but they invited me to the after party.  I brought a bottle of Le Tourment Vert Absinthe with me and everyone proceeded to get super wasted.  Anyway, it was fun times.  Check out the photos.  And note the photo below of the dog who tried to attack the SurvivaBall.  It really works!

Ah, my first proper Sundance post… with many more to come…

My friend Joe Swanberg is a great director. I have talked about this on DBB a number of times. He emailed me the other day to ask if I was going to be at Sundance. I was, so he invited me to a breakfast/ panel he was on with Steven Soderbergh. They were announcing IFC On Demand’s new Festival Direct. Festival Direct is on demand movies that come out at the same time that they premiere at a film festival. The first 5 films are premiering this March at the SXSW Film Festival. One of those movies is Joe’s new film, Alexander The Last. When it opens at SXSW it is going to be on IFC at the same time. Janet Pierson, the producer of SXSW Film, was there to explain her decision to work with IFC On Demand as was Jonathan Sehring of IFC. Pierson is the wife of John Pierson who along with making Spike Lee and Kevin Smith famous, was one of my little brothers favorite college professors. Joe was at the event to talk about why he decided to forgo a festival run for on demand and Soderbergh was there to talk about releasing a big budget movie like Che On Demand while it was still in it’s original theatrical run.

To read more about the press conference click here, but to se my photos of the event, click over here.

I have been so insanely busy at Sundance that I haven’t had time to shower much less update, but I had to give a shout out to my main man Barack on his big day.  I am getting on a plane in a few hours and headed to DC.  I was going for the inauguration but I won’t make it in time.  It’s okay, it will still be great to be in DC and hopefully I can party with some people. I am staying with my parents for a day and hopefully will have time to get a good update together.  In the mean time, read my original endorsement of Obama from way back in February and watch this clip of the speech that got the ball rolling just over 4 years ago.

This place is nuts. So much more fun than last year. I am completely stressed out but getting some good shots. I am working primarily for an Absinthe called Le Tourment Vert. They are the main spirit sponsor to the festival so we get a lot of access to cool things. Last night I was at a party at Tao with Sting, Paris Hilton and Russel Simmons. That was pretty nuts. I have shot a bunch of celebs; the three aforementioned, Amy Poehler, Kim Porter, Wesley Snipes, Guillermo del Toro, Jeff Dowd (aka The Dude), Monique, Kelli Garner, Jason Ritter, Brett Rattner, Aaron Paul and a few others…

Many of these images are being serviced to media and things so I can’t post galleries yet, but here are a few photos that appeared on the Flavor Pill blog. Flavorwire also posted some of my photos from opening night party, but I didn’t run my batch Photo Shop filter through them so they are all upsettingly dark.

So yeah, here are a few celeb shots to hold you over until I get to the rest of the photos in later updates.

So day 3. I laid down for about an hour before I checked out, but I didn’t sleep. I packed all my shit up and walked over to the AEE. It was pretty dead because most people had left town after the Awards. This made for the best photos. I could get stars attention better, and there were less photographers to get in my way. I just walked around and talked to people I knew. I bonded with Satine Phoenix and I think I started to bug Stoya. I met this girl from my dads home town who gave me a blow job in a can. It is like a Flesh Light but disposable. She said it was better than a Flesh Light. I haven’t tried it yet. I might, but I am sort of terrified of the idea. An older lady who was working the concession stand flirted with me and gave me a free water because she liked my belt buckle. She was kinda a MILF. Also, I actually waited in a line to meet a porn star. Nina Hartely was signing autographs and giving hugs. I really wanted a hug from a legend and her line was short. She hugged me and asked me about things and told me to make sure to wear gloves and a warm coat during Sundance which is something that my mom has been telling me every day this week. She is the perfect MILF. (Nina, not my mom you asshole.) After the AEE was over, I said my goodbyes and drove off into the sunset. Headed west to Los Angeles and a new adventure…

Check the photos from Sunday. These photos actually have some nudity in them. It was the last day and no one cared if they got kicked out for showing too much skin. So I finally got to shoot a photo of Dana DeArmond’s boobs. Amazing.

Okay.  So here we go.  Day one of my Vegas trip.

I woke up sick 5 minutes after I wanted to leave my apartment to go to the airport.  This was not a good start to my 2 week adventure.  Luckily I had packed the night before and I was out the door in under 15 minutes.  I made the plane before they even boarded.  5.5 hours later I landed in Las Vegas with about 5 emails, 2 voice mails and several texts about my attempted trip to Sundance.  I was waiting on one big gig, so I had not confirmed the two smaller ones that I was stupidly counting on.  By the time I landed one of the two had pulled out, and the other needed confirmation in the next 30 minutes.  I called the bigger gig and it did not look good.  So I had to cancel. So with that, my Sundance plans were shot within a half hour of landing.  So I got my shit together and headed over to the rental car place, who charged me over $100 more for their car than they promised via internets. And then they told me if I wanted to return the car a day early, they were going to have to charge me even more money. The guy was a total prick.  When I told him that it was insane to charge me more money to return the car early, he looked completely confused.

So then I get to my hotel… “Hi Mr. Smith.  So you are checking out Sunday and you wanted double beds smoking?” “Um, I wanted one bed non-smoking.”  “Oh, I am sorry, we can do that for an extra $70 a night.”   Jesus.  I get to the room and I start coughing at once.  It is the most horrible smoke filled room I have ever encountered.  After sleeping there one night, I woke up with my eyes burning red and I had lost my voice.  And the sheets were not made, the shower and the bath run at the same time and the room was very small.  And I had paid $10 extra a night for a better room.  I can’t imagine how bad the cheaper room was.  So, fuck the Imperial Palace.  Don’t stay there. Ever.

So I finally get my shit together, do the press check in and get on the floor of the Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE).  This is just a huge room filled with booth after booth of sex related things.  Mostly porn companies in the front, but towards the back there are booths for hookers, strippers, sex toys and a lot of ugly clothes that only the biggest manor of scum bag would wear. (Discounting the rad kids at the I <3 Vagina booth).   Kid Rock was there and he spent the whole time taking picture after picture with porn fans.  It was sort of impressive how much shit he put up with.  I met a bunch of people and saw a lot of friends.  One of the girls I met was a stripper from Vegas who was pretty rad and we snuck off to my hotel and took some dirty photos.  They will be up one of these days.

As far as the photos go, a few notes.  I edit my photos normally on my PC.  I have a program set up to do a batch thing that does a few things to the images to make them look nicer.  I attempted to do the same thing on this laptop and they did not come out very well. Combine that with the fact that don’t really know how to use my new flash as well as I should and the photos are a bit on the shitty side.  Still, they are pretty fucking nuts, so at least you got that.  There is technically no nudity on the floor, but these shots are still pretty blatantly NSFW.

Click for photos.

So I said yesterday that I was going to get these photos up today, and by god I will. Unfortunately I spent ALL DAY figuring out my Sundance plans. I had to find a place to stay (it is going to cost me $700 to be there for 5 days!) and figure out my flights and all that stuff. Then I shot Burning Angel’s own Envy (Amore on Gods Girls) in the insanely creepy Motel I am staying at. The light was not quite good enough to shoot without flash, so I didn’t get exactly what I wanted, but there are probably some good shots.

Anyway, the Burning Angel party was at Beauty Bar in LA. I like the space, but not as much as the one in NYC. They also played a lot of aggressive house there which would make BB’s NYC Michael Stewart start punching people. The party was fun, not much nudity, but a bit… so NSFW. This French Canadian porn star told me I was beautiful* and a local girl got insanely drunk and pretty much decided I was the best thing ever. Luckily her friend helped her get her shit together and my guess is she made it home alive. They were rad kids. She wants to be a Suicide Girl… I told her to talk to Joanna instead. Speaking of SG, Zui Suicide was there and we bonded. She’s from VA and evidently she is on some reality show featuring Paris Hilton that I have never heard of, but I am sure I should have. After the party, I went to the Circle Bar and didn’t talk to Regan Reece even though I am sort of in love with her. Okay, I have really shitty internet and lots of things to do, so check out the pictures and I will get back to you as soon as I can with the write ups from the rest of the Vegas trip.

Oh yeah, special shout out to the local Vegas version of DBB, IndieKrush.