The WYEP Summer Festival was sweet. That's really all I need to say, but I'll give you three reasons why, just for good measure: 1. The stage was positioned perfectly in front of the city, 2. The guys let me crawl around on stage during the shows and 3. Let's be serious, where is my favorite place to be in the entire world? That's right - in front of a thumping speaker with a camera.

I call this shot, "Al and the Bridge" - pretty original huh?

I normally don't do this, but this picture obviously wasn't taken by me. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, though I think this one is worth more than that.

How 'bout that Cameron Crowe.

Oh hey Sinead.

WYEP hosted its 10th annual World Cafe taping session at the Warhol Museum on June 22nd and 23rd. Hosted by David Dye, the tapings of Jon Check, Kim Richey, The Ike Reilly Assassination, moe. and Sinead O'Connor will be aired nationally in July. Check out www.npr.org for more information.

I didn't post pictures of all the sessions, so if interested:

www.joncheck.com (not only does he have a great soulful voice, but he happens to be the sweetest kid in the world)
www.kimrichey.com

Caroline played so beautifully that for the first time since 7th grade I wished I still had my cello.

Chuck Garvey of moe. at the World Cafe taping Friday night.

Probably the best full-band acoustic jam session I've ever heard. I really cannot get over it. Rob Derhak and Al Schnier of moe. (Do I add another period?? hmmm ...)

www.moe.org

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you Mr. Ike Reilly!

www.ikereilly.com

Between each World Cafe taping session at the Warhol Museum, I had an hour to explore the life and works of Andy Warhol. The last time I was in this museum (close to 10 years ago), I can tell you that I didn't really get Mr. Warhol and I can, with confidence, say that I still have no idea what ran through that man's head on a daily basis. Cool place though . . . and, as expected, I spent a lot of time playing with the "silver clouds" that Matt describes as "instant kid". Although everyone knows that I don't need much provoking, everyone who entered, no matter how old, ran around like there was not a care in the world. I think that's the art in that room.

"I like boring things." - Andy Warhol

Hopping the tour to Cleveland was one of the best things I've done for myself in a long time. Playing at the House of Blues with Ari Hest and Julian Velard, the Damnwells, as usual, rocked a stellar show.

As you can imagine, three days of nothing but solid rock music generated way too many images to post. Despite not being able to post everything, I was, however, delighted to learn that multiple band members share my affinity for Scrabble.

In any case, I tried to post images that got away from some of my earlier stuff, but still embodied that "great show" vibe. Maybe it worked, maybe it didn't. All I know is that I shot both shows with only a 50mm (again) and that this shot of Alex needed to be posted.

Do yourself a favor and check these guys out: www.thedamnwells.com, www.arihest.com, www.julianvelard.com

Ted and Matt. I'll think of a caption later.

The Damnwells were in town last Tuesday to play the Rex Theatre and to make my life infinitely better.

(Dave Chernis - guitarist, Alex Dezen - lead singer, Matt Hammon - drummer, Ted Hudson - bassist)

It was probably Dave's tuning skills that enabled him to play in "no less than 567 bands" before joining the Damnwells.

Carlo and I finally went out did what we had been planning to do for a long time: a shoot of one of our favorite cities. Starting on East Ohio Street, we visited the coolest camera shop in Pittsburgh - Bernie's Photo Center. These guys know everything about cameras, so I'm sure you can imagine how often I frequent it. Just go in and ask for Frank - tell him I sent you, haha.

Then we hit the North Shore, the cultural district (with an impromptu outdoor jazz concert by Heinz Hall and a delicious Thai dinner) and Mt. Washington by way of the Duquesne Incline. Finally coming full circle at the end of our six-hour shoot, we went back to the North Shore to capture the city at night from a different angle. Carlo has some beautiful shots because by this time I was already walking on my hands and doing cartwheels on benches. Carlo, however, stayed very professional.

The evening turned into one of my favorite memories of Pittsburgh, but really, no surprise there.

Shot: Baseball game at PNC Park from Mt. Washington

The West End Bridge from the west side of Station Square.