:: EATING BROKEN CHOCOLATE OFF THE FLOOR REMINDS ME OF THE LAST TIME WE SLEPT TOGETHER ::

(photos: glow and the night geese; ghost-riding the whip in a gas station parking lot; I love those abandoned cars; the beaver dam I brush my teeth next too; cute couple meets truck; where a lot of us sleep; dawn is pretty even if you have to start building again in three hours; sometimes life's okay; the puppy I hung out with all night; stripper mannequin; our very own amateur night stripping team; a little amphibious visitor to the boat)

It's been... interesting, lately. And we totally almost won amateur night at the strip club, so close!

- Campfires and ghost jokes.
- Human piles and hangovers.
- Being jealous of people with hot water.
- Sleeping in a pickup truck ain't all that bad.
- Finding a sweatshirt in the road = new addition to your wardrobe.
- Scrambling around in grass taller than I am.
- Getting stared at (politely) whenever we're in public.
- Hinding in the back of the pickup truck (along with a pile of bike parts) so the cops won't pull you over.
- Being concerned about getting ticks and/or staph.
- Showering in the trees, right next to someone's freshly mowed lawn.
- Watching old 16mm films in a warehouse while rain pounds on the metal roof.
- Lightning bugs are kind of magical.
- Having a two-hour "porch conversation" in which I said two words.
- It's kinda funny how nonchalant you can be about waking up covered in ants.
- Playing with a puppy all night that was tied up outside someone's house.
- The problem with snacking on your bounty while dumpstering is that it ends up with that "garbage water" taste from your fingers.
- Taking a group fund-raising field trip to amateur night at a local strip club, and ALMOST winning. (p.s. strip club's can be pretty depressing.)

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MP3:

We've been listening to these guys on the boat a fair bit. Kinda too bad they disappeared.

- Fannypack - Twisted

A band's place in myspace.

:: A FISH CALLED FECAL ::

Last weekend was the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island. I was really hoping it'd be underwater.

Like Tod, I'm abandoning NYC for a little while. Gonna film the Emerica Wild Ride in Northern California for Epicly Later'd over the next two weeks. I should come back with something nice for y'all. So stay tuned.

:: MAKE HEROS OUT OF YOUR FRIENDS ::

An abandoned monastary discovered while foraging for building materials.

The Polaroid Kidd with some plundered booty.

A dusty classroom.

Broken.

Passageway, of sorts.

It didn't look nearly this scary in the dark.

The big theater full of crap, the projection room was kinda cool.

Spew.

And we're out.

Abandoned buildings are cool, even if you almost fall down an elevator shaft because one of your friends ran off with your flashlight.

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MP3:

I love it when these guys do remixes.

• Kanye West - Diamonds (Ratatat Remix)

A band's place in myspace.

:: BECAUSE YOU KNOW NO ONE ELSE WILL ::

This guy used to wrestle bears, now he welds office furniture.

The interior of a restaurant in a grocery store.

We've had some colorful storms come through.

Wet kids watching the lightning show.

Sav-a-lot food stores are good for dumpstering = don't use compactors, yet.

Our borrowed truck laden with scrap wood.

More from mudville on the Mississippi. We've had some intense storms pass through in the last few days, that besides making people's hair stand on end when lightning strikes too close, have also succeeded into turning our work area into a giant mud field. The cons are obvious, for the pros check the last line of the list below.

- Funny thing about living on a boat with thieves, they steal your shit too.
- Getting a boat tour of the disappearing slews of the Mississippi, including the tiny stub that remains of an island where people used to camp, and where a the ashes of a murdered boy were scattered.
- If you need a leatherman tool to do your sewing, you're probably not doing it right.
- I had forgotten how much I hate the combination of flies + open wounds.
- Half-naked dance parties have progessed to fully-naked-and-covered-in-mud dance parties.

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MP3:

The bar we are staying at is a biker bar, as in Harley Davidson and whatnot. So they have a healthy dose of classic rock and country on their jukebox, and blast it fairly late into the night. You're whole experience here takes place with a pounding soundtrack of macho (and sometimes a bit misogynistic) tunes permeating pretty much everything. So when the original version of this song came on one evening, I was stopped what I was doing long enough to soak it in. And then was promptly blasted with some sort of Creed-sounding thing.

- Sarah Brightman - Dust In The Wind

A band's place in myspace.

:: WHEN YOU GET TO THE END OF YOUR ROPE, TIE A KNOT AND HANG ON. ::

I went to Studio B once and took this picture. I took many others, but this is the only one I care about.

Goth but don't tell her that.

This is Cholo and he was living right by Mama's in the East Village. For some reason, unintelligible to me, he was ousted from the basement apartment he rented for free. With nothing else to do, he moved all his belongings onto the sidewalk. Just behind him is his home and across the street is is office. Everything was continually rummaged through until one day we didn't see Cholo and the neighbors thought he was dead. We found out later that he was in jail and all his things were thrown in a garbage truck the next morning. Hard luck.

538 Johnson is one of those famous houses in Brooklyn. They used to have shows until this night. Charles also broke his board this try.

These two are probably part of the reason Fucked Up didn't play 538 last night.

I think this kid's name was Jake but he was even harder to understand than Cholo. He was riding his bike wasted and hit a pothole. The only thing he's eaten in three weeks has been grits and soup. I think the busted tooth makes it easier take in thicker liquids.

On Sunday we went to Roosevelt Island, a sliver of land between Queens and Manhattan formerly known as Welfare Island. It appears to be home to a large population of paraplegics and amputees, including Jose on the right. Jose, who I also couldn't understand so well (is there something wrong with my hearing?), used to drink too much and somehow got gangrene. Now he hangs out in the sun on his stretcher where he can fall asleep anytime and likes to smile and sweet talk the ladies.

We went to the island for an outdoor acoustic show. But right next to the grounds was a castle turned hospital that was far more interesting.

Brett Land is man of many talents.

Dirtbag acrobatics.

Back at McCarren the kickball league was in full effect and a band covered Biz Markie with a jug player.

Brett Nelson has hippy moves.

Hotfoot.

FF Weekly's Hottest Couple, Francis and Katie.

They'll now be referred to as FranKat.

From a rooftop in DUMBO.

This just happened. Two firetrucks rushed to the building across from mine and erected a ladder so a fireman could scurry to the top. No fire, no victims, not even a cat in a tree. Must've been a dry run or something.

:: ROADKILL ENEMA ::

Not too much to report. Still on the Mississippi River, still working on the rafts, still building, still sweating.

- Driving a pickup truck with half a floor, no mirrors, a dragging bumper, hard-wired headlights you have to unplug under the hood every time you stop, and a door that swings open when you take a turn just a bit too hard.
- You know a girl has something special when she can pull off looking hot with a fake moustache drawn on.
- Messing up my knee tall bike jousting.
- Watching piles of mayflies writhing and dying en masse all over everything.
- Sleeping on the concrete floor of a giant storage shed isn't as comfortable as it sounds.

Also Chief Mag is hosting two back-to-back rock shows (some secret, some not, some free, some not) on Thursday, June 21st. Check it out.

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MP3:

Sometimes when I'm off traveling around, I miss Brooklyn. All the fun shows, parties, and bike rides. And these guys.

- Parts And Labor - The Gold We're Digging

A band's place in myspace.

:: I COULD'VE JUST DIED! ::

Lesley Arfin compiled a book of her Dear Diary columns from Vice. To celebrate the release they threw her another bat mitzvah.

Amy kicked out all the jams. Throw on some Rod here to set the mood for this post.

There was plenty of He'Brew and yarmulkes to go around.

What a name! So obvious yet so intelligent.

And balloons. And pretty girls.

She's my downstairs neighbor.

She probably learned this from Mr. Wizard who incidentally died this week.

Lissy Trullie gets her caricature made as part of the festivities.

The boy with The Red Balloon fifteen years later with a herion addiction.

Stay cool, Lesley. LYLAS. KIT.

The stripes are stars.

Stilettos...pumps...in...da...club.

Headbanger's Bat Mitzvah hosted by Riki Rachtstein.

Remember that Pearl Jam video where Eddie Vedder jumped from the balcony and crowd surfed? That was so rad.

Ako and Atiba Jefferson run skateboarding.

Beckles supports helium consumption over tobacco any day.

I've honestly never seen Arrested Development but this guy looks familiar.

Ben Cho and David Cross 4eva!

Turning the canvas.

Is that paranormal activity arising from her fingertips?

Matches her dress.

Gavin does this gag where he pretends like he's gonna take a picture of you and the flash fires in his face. He has dozens of pictures of making himself laugh.

:: TIME TO GET SERIOUS, AND STARVE DOING IT ::

An abandoned boat being squatted while we work on the raft.

Ms. Gump & the Polaroid Kidd riding in the back of a pickup truck buried under groceries.

Spiders are big and beautiful on the river.

The raft surrounded by pleasure boats.

One of many abandoned cars on Ian's farm.

The organ and rifle in the work area.

An old trailer that was converted to a cozy hut, complete with solar powered lights/electricity.

Another abandoned vehicle on the farm in Rock Island.

Drying clothes in the setting sun.

So I had previously mentioned my departure from lovely NYC for the muddy shores of the Mississippi River. Well after a long (and sometimes painful) process getting here, I have arrived in Rock Island/Andalusia, IL. I spent the first few days working night and day repairing bicycles for the crew on Ian's farm. Now I am down on the boat at Ducky's Lagoon and am a smelly, dirty, bloody mess. Even I was surprised how quickly the transition happened. well since I am traveling, I'll start up the "trip list" again. . .

- Stirring your coffee with a saw blade.
- After just one day and I was already filthy, had huge scratches on my arms, cuts on my palms and fingers, and a healthy dose of mosquito bites.
- Working on bicycles and having to step over/around goats, ducks, chickens, dogs, etc.
- You can think you're kinda rough 'n tough, but then you sit down with a friend while she idly relates how she had recently hit a rabbit on the road and proceeded to clean it, cook it, eat it, skin it, tan it, and turn it into a "cute hat with a little face". . . That raises the bar in my book.
- Mosquitos were all over me the first night I got here. But for some reason they all focused on my neck. For the past few days I've looked like amateur vampires have been practicing on me.
- It can be said that bathing in the sink in the dirtiest K-mart bathroom you've ever seen is pretty unsatisfying. Although the dirty looks you get from the fat-man-in-red-suspenders were pretty priceless.
- Taking a shower with one of those solar-bag showers surrounded by derelict cars and trucks and five-foot tall grass.
- One of our crew was knocked off a gate he was climbing when he accidentally brushed an electrified wire hanging overhead. He only blacked-out for a moment though.
- Camping in the shadow of a beached houseboat on the shore of the river.
- Riding in the back of a pickup truck surrounded by plants and buried under groceries.
- Baby goats are feakin' cute.
- Adult goats will eat your clothes.
- Ian, the quiet calm generous can-do man with a farm.
- Getting three times the amount of food I already ate to-go from the grocery store's all-you-can-eat salad bar (to feed people back on the farm).
- Accidentally stealing two CV joints off a not-quite-so-abandoned pickup truck.
- Late-night half-naked raft dance party.

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MP3:

Here's a live version of the The Black Angels covering Black Mountaintops. Black on black always goes nicely together.

- The Black Angels - No Satisfaction

A band's place in myspace.

:: IT'S LIKE THIS EVERYDAY IN PUERTO RICO, JERRY. ::

From 44th to 88th last Sunday, the Puerto Rican Day Parade marched blasting reggaeton and waving flags. They're a proud people.

PR Day is the biggest parade in all of NYC. Three million people.

I learned that there's nothing you can't do with a Puerto Rican flag.

It's like everyone was reading the paper and a parade suddenly appeared.

Wash down your cookies with rum.

Samantha knows how to make friends.

Don't got a Puerto Rican flag jersey? Fuck it. Grab your Spidy suit and red skipper hat and have a blast.

It started with one dude that noticed my camera. Then....

Throw 'em up! Throw 'em up! Throw 'em up!

Marching is for suckers.

Ride with pride.

Dude in the back assured me that he was Timbaland's brother. Show Stoperz Entertainment posse.

Dude pushed his float all the way from the market.

The Puerto Rican Bagpipe Association was playing Big Pun.

Ridin' in a dump truck.

Yo, Shorty! Yo, Shorty!

Works everytime.

Tippin on 4 4s.

Undercovers. Fahgettaboudit, Donnie.

I don't know if I'm more offended by the Coors or the tribal.

:: FROM THE BOWERY TO THE BARBARY COAST ::

While kicking it on Bedford last Monday, someone mentioned a free Two Gallants show at Lost & Found in Greenpoint. Why the hell not?

Two Gallants kicks out some heartfelt jams. Steady Rollin' will be your soundtrack to these photos because the lyrics go, Out waltzin' with the Holy Ghost / From the Bowery to the Barbary Coast.
Live in NY, rep SF.

Hallie met us there. She stretches between both coasts.

Lost & Found has skeeball. But what do you get with your tickets? I didn't see any switchblade combs.

The Goddamn Rattlesnake opened and put together the show.

I tapped toes and poached flashes.

Two Gallants set up on the floor, leaving me to the stage.

There's always that one guy that's really feeling it. He's the one that makes the rockstar life totally worth it.

Earnest gentlemen singing valiant ballads to engaged onlookers.

It's the finale: Sniff the drummer's butt. Goodnight, Cincinnati!

:: THE BEST TRAVEL EMBRACES ENTROPY ::

(this is kind of the opposite of what the rest of my summer is going to be like, photo from the NY Press cover shoot)

So I am headed off for the summer, again. I'm presently on my way to rejoin the Miss Rockaway Armada on the Mississippi River in Andalusia, IL. I will be trying to post from the river, but am not sure how that will go down. Hopefully there will be tales of daring-do and lovely landscapes to share. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, here are photos from last summer: 1, 2. I have a feeling Bryan and friends will have your NYC summer covered, no sweat (or a whole lot of sweating, rather).

Also, I will be showing photos from last year's voyage at Spencer Brownstone Gallery in Soho (NYC) as part of the show 'Til I Die which opens on July 12th.

Upper Playground recently published the photography book "Backyard Shakedown," which has a few of my photos in it, along with some of my favorite photographers, Boogie and Jason Fulford.

And in case you ever wondered where one goes with his family to celebrate his birthday in Cleveland, mystery solved.

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MP3:

Dark Dark Dark is a new band formed by members of the aforementioned Miss Rockaway Armada. They have a lovely gypsy-gumbo-haunted-carnival-sea-chanty feel, and I dare say that this song feels classic even on the first listen.

- Dark Dark Dark - Junk Bones

A band's place in myspace.

:: WE ARE NOTHING
BUT MEMORIES
AND SECRETS ::

(Yo Majesty and CSS performing at Irving Plaza in NYC more photos here)

I went to see an old friend of mine perform with her band at Irving Plaza last weekend. We used to joke about how one day her band would get really big and she would come tour the US in a big bus and become a celebrity. We used to think it was pretty ridiculous, but fun in a "if-I-won-the-lottery" way. Well watching her headline at Irving was pretty much the realization of this joke/dream. And it was amazing to witness, at least for me. So congratulations, it really happened.

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MP3:

Think about the title of this post, and then the relevance that photographs play in it.

- Bishop Allen - Click Click Click Click

A band's place in myspace.

:: FUN&GAMES ::

Since moving to NY, I've never worked so much in my entire life. Folks really put in the extra hour to afford the exorbitant rent and overpriced drinks. I've started to think of my days in terms of shifts and between two jobs and an internship there's nary a shift for play. But when there is, I happily engage in the fun & games.

The lofts at 538 are always up for fun.

This one's the swing shift.

Lots of hanging out.

McCarren Park is always fun. There's an old pool that was built by the WPA during the Depression. It could accomodate 6800 bathers. Now it's empty and dirty and they have shows there in the summertime.

I'm not sure but I think massive games of Twister go down here. I hope it was drained before they started that.

We weren't the only ones who hopped the fence to get in. The girl on the right has the first digital camera ever and I'm sure she's taking much better pictures than I ever will.

Bloomberg wants to demolish it and put in a regular old Olympic size pool. I say fill this one back up, dredge the dead rats and needles, and put on some Beach Boys. Pooooool Party!

There weren't even kids playing in this one. Just old folks watering the asphalt.

Gotta work with what you got.

:: THROWING A PARTY ON A SINKING SHIP ::

(photos from the remnants of the 1964 World's Fair in Queens, more here)

So a friend of mine is very ambitious, and on occasion he will throw a dinner party in abandoned hard-to-get-into locations in NYC. The last dinner was in the remains of the 1964 Worlds Fair in Flushing Corona Park in Queens. If you've ever driven past Laguardia airport, or seen the first Men In Black movie, you know what I am talking about. Huge saucers on poles, and an arena/coliseum thing (the New York Pavilion) with a ceiling of rusting wires that looks like it is left over from The Warriors. I have wanted to get inside these places for years, and have done my own sniffing around, but to no avail. I have to admit that it was a bit of a dream come true to get to explore inside these rotting bizarre beasts. One particularly strange find was inside the arena. There are rooms inside the outer walls, and in one room appeared to be a sort of squatted practice space. There was still a drum kit, a keyboard, and sound equipment. Someone also found a demo cd and the drummer's diary. Pretty weird considering how run-down and creepy it was in there. But maybe that's just cause I went back later by myself to check it all out. There were performances as well, including slack-rope acrobatics from the huge metal globe in the middle of the park. This is the sort of thing that makes living here worth it. Very cool. Thank you, you-know-who-you-are.