Bull-riding load-in! Yeeeeehaaww!

I know we are a bit out of event order here, as I already mentioned the bull-riding competition, but I think this experience deserves its own image.

There's a lot of things as equally entertaining as watching a rock band load into the arena, but not many things quite as "once in a lifetime" as watching sixty bulls run up the Garden's ramp. I really wish the light would have been better at the top of the ramp to show the "around the bend" shot, but well, it wasn't.

After I posted on Friday, I did go upstairs to catch a bit of said event. Just in case you were wondering, it really was quite silly, but at the same time, fascinating. Cowboys in the middle of New York City? I think I like the event for that reason alone. Simply the fact that it can happen. I mean, these fellas drew a substantial audience too!

On another note, the event was nationally broadcast by Versus, possibly the worst sports network in the history of television. I have a serious vendetta against them for 1) their selection of reporters/commentators and 2) not broadcasting the NHL playoffs in HD.

Uhh eh hehh...

I 've been meaning to get my mini-statement about Versus on my blog for a while now, and bull-riding gave me a way to do that. So thanks Professional Bull Riders Inc.!

Haha anywho, I feel like a good way to end this entry is:

LET'S GO PENS!

Patrick Nissley, lead vocals for Innerpartysystem.

Jared Piccone, drummer for Innerpartysystem.

Sonny with Innerpartysystem Thursday night at Mercury Lounge in NYC.

I took some artistic liberties with these photos as it was a trance/pop electronica show.

It's Friday night and I'm in one of my favorite places in the entire world. I sit here on this Friday evening in Madison Square Garden's production office. My co-workers have gone home, the union-workers have obviously gone home, my boss has gone home and I have absolutely no desire to leave.

To most, the idea of lingering in one's work place beyond the required amount of time is undesirable and often in conflict with the ideas of serenity, fun and excitement. I find myself most excited, as well as calm, when in this venue. In this city, it's in this room that I feel most comfortable. Some may consider it sad, but I consider this small office quite grand.

Although this office is but one tiny room in the alpha-venue that is Madison Square Garden, the number of things that have altered my life here over the past four months is astounding. Not only that, but it's unusual to see a day of work where most of us aren't shedding tears in laughter. It's hard for me to say that I love things, but this... I truly love. I love the people, I love the place, I love the production.

With Cirque's Wintuk wrapped and the cast and crew having all gone back to their respective sectors of the globe, it's nice to just sit here and take in the silence of a season past. You don't ever quite know when you will see any of these people again, if ever, but such is the nature of this business. I get selectively attached, then realize that with the next production, hopefully, comes more great times and more interesting people.

Speaking of interesting people, we have some professional bull riders, a lot of dirt and some pretty feisty bulls putting on an 8-second show upstairs, so I'm going to pack up my things and go check it out. Even if I had seen such a spectacle a thousand times before, the fact that the arena was transformed into a bull-riding pen from a hockey rink, more or less overnight, will never cease to amaze me. To sit and take in this place with each different event has certainly become one of my favorite things to do in New York City. I am extraordinarily fortunate that I can say such a thing.

"My, people come and go so quickly around here!" - Wizard of Oz (1939)


Photo: Taken last night at the Sonny/Innerpartysystem show at Mercury Lounge. Obviously, the photo has very little to do with my ramblings, but you do find brilliance, in shape and color, in the tiniest items on stage. Same idea with this little office in a enormous venue.

What an entrepreneur. I hear he's hiring.

Photo: Perez Hilton displaying his new book, Red Carpet Suicide.

I could be completely wrong, but it seems to me that people who are either in the profession of entertaining or saving lives, most often don't spend holidays with friends and/or families. I'm sure there are many professions that fall outside of both realms that are bound to work these days as well, but for the sake of analysis, let's just run with this. Not that stepping outside of your usual social circles is a bad thing, in fact I'm quite the advocate of such things, but I find the conflicting necessities of each "industry" pretty interesting. I certainly would never argue that they are equally important, but you have one side pleasing the masses and the other taking care of a comparatively smaller group. One group exists to fulfill desires, the other to fulfill needs. Entertaining, saving lives, entertaining, saving lives. Not to tangent, but what's really fun is when the two intersect. I mean if this was ER, we'd be watching a holiday montage, cutting back and forth between a surgeon running with a gurney and the happy nuclear family of a secondary character on either Christmas or NYE. Although those of us in entertainment are certainly not running with gurneys and trying to resuscitate people, we still are creating an experience that I still would deem necessary.

By default, of course, when creating a world for someone else, you are creating your own as well. I love working holidays. That's not to say I don't enjoy familiar company, but I really like seeing how other people spend these days. You become a stranger's friend for a few brief hours, a short lapse in time that perhaps they and you will remember all of your life. Will you ever see them again? Probably not, but it's quite perfect that way. You learn just enough, but never too much.


Photo: Rad Electric Violinist at Nikki Midtown on the first morning of 2009 in NYC. I like to call this shot: New Years Eve, Asian with a Violin, Take 2. I think I've just started a new tradition in my 12/31 shoots. See: New Years Eve, Asian with a Violin, Take 1.

Having worked on Cirque du Soleil's Wintuk, my wonderful, wonderful production friends with both Cirque and Madison Square Garden allowed me to shoot the company's winter show.

My favorite part of the show?

Simply the fact that you must put yourself in the mindframe of a child in order for this to make any sense whatsoever. Not following? Well, let's take into consideration that this is a show geared toward children. It's not Alegria, O or Dralion. It's an adventure story about a little dude who wants to find some snow.

Simple? Simple. Now, this kid needs to go through some pretty complicated things to get to aforementioned snow. You know, singing street lamps, ice giants, ridiculously large birds, bendy hula-hoop ice princesses, tumbling tribesman and a pair of ambiguously homosexual robbers. I think somewhere in there, adults get lost:

"Seems like a lot of work for some frozen precipitation."
"What do you mean, Honey?"
"Battling ice giants for some snow?"
"Wait, what ice giants?"
"Those big lantern-like rock things with the strobes?"
"Those were ice giants?"
"I guess."

When you see Wintuk, you have to watch it as you would watch The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. You have to appreciate Wintuk's characters as you would the Rockettes - for what they are, rather than for what they're not. In the Rockette's case, if you try to place the creme de la creme of entertainment in the 1930s in 2008, you end up wondering why you just spent 200 bucks per seat to see a bunch of skinny girls with pretty teeth and long legs tap and kick their little hearts out to basically the same routines for 90 minutes... with no intermission.

Watching the Rockettes, however, as a historic look back to what once was a fabulously grand spectacle is a totally different experience. I've seen it twice and done it both ways. First time? Bored out of my mind. Second time? Had a ball. It's as simple as a tiny change in perspective. You still might not be ok with the price on the ticket, but you can now pleasantly cross it off your "To Do" list. Or if you're me, cross off the "change attitude on Rockettes" line.

Wintuk is the same. Through the eyes of a kid, the show is cool. Through the eyes of an adult, it's a confusing labrynth of storyline holes, physical tricks and special effects. If adults can avoid being adults through the duration of the show, therein should lie the entertainment value. I guess my point is to flick off your "you" switch every once in awhile and have the will to suspend your disbelief in entertainment, or like I do every day, for better or for worse. That's the trick to living a cinematic reality, I think. Life is just as much about perspectives and illusions as theater is, be it acting like a kid to enjoy Wintuk, or hopping back to 1937 to catch the hottest show in the town, oorrrr being a popstar every Saturday night, live in New York City.

If someone tries to tell you that you can't live your life that way, just say, "Try it sometime," faintly smile and hope for the best. For them and for you.

I also fully recognize that anyone who may be reading this at any point probably thinks I'm nuts, but all I have to say is, "Try it sometime."

And umm, now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go look for some snow.

I would be inclined to say that there are very few people who would appreciate the above as much as I do, with the exception of the fact that I took this picture last year, on a ship, off an incredibly remote Thai island after baking over 2000 Christmas cookies for all of us who couldn't spend the holiday with family. Either it really is an international classic, or somebody up there really loves me.

White Christmas (1954), one of my favorite films ever, with Thai subtitles? What are the odds? Furthermore, what are the odds that someone had it on while we loaded the speed boats with equipment for the day's shoot?

This scene plays out as follows:

Betty (Rosemary Clooney): Look, Mr. Wallace, before you go any further, I must tell you - you were brought here tonight under false pretenses. Benny didn't write the letter, my sister did.

Bob (Bing Crosby): Judy?

Betty: Yeah, she figured you'd never come to see us if we asked you and you might if Benny did. It's as simple as that.

Bob: How do you like that, even little Judy there's got an angle goin', huh?

Betty: She didn't mean anything by it, she just-

Bob: You don't have to apologize, everybody's got an angle.

Betty: That's a pretty cynical point of view...

Bob: Oh come, come now Ms. Haynes. Surely you knew that everybody's got a little larceny operating in them, didn't you know that?

Betty: Well, just for the record, I want you to know that my sister and I don't play angles.

Bob: Well, if that letter wasn't an angle, I don't know what it was.

Betty: I don't like your inferences.

Bob: I've got no squawks, no beefs - the kid played a percentage, it worked and we're here. Let's not make a whole big mish mosh out of it... All I'm saying is when you've been around show business for as long as I have, you just get used to people working angles, that's all.

Betty: Mr. Wallace, since the chance of our seeing each other again is extremely remote, I don't think it's important to go on arguing.

Bob: I'll drink to that!

Betty: Be my guest.


Not to ruin the film or anything, but they obviously fall in love. I adore cinema.

Story to come.

Photo: Jamie Foxx jammin' out at Mansion on W. 28th on 12/16/08.

Rolling Stone!!

Sometimes last minute assignments are the best assignments- now if I can only get this in print...

Photo: Bruce Springsteen and fam.

Once upon a time, I went to Mexico and woke up next to Viggo Mortensen.

Ok, so that's not totally true, but I did go to Mexico and meet a Viggo look-a-like who owned a very nice amber shop. That was in my LOTR-loving days, which I am proud to admit, are still running strong. In case you were wondering, a piece of amber was indeed purchased.

Ohhhh Dreamboat Central. Darling... where is your beard, cloak, sword and irresistible perseverance/strength/courage/million other traits that don't actually exist in most men?

Anyhow, tonight I learned that it's really hard to gawk at the film love-of-your-life when you are shooting next to a bunch of dudes all over the age of 35, buuuttt I did anyway. They all just laughed at me. I was ok with it.

What did I have to lose? I had my new hat on and I was feelin' spiffy despite the crummy weather.

Sad to say, no marriage proposals this time, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Photo: New York Premiere of Good, Mortensen's newest film.

So as you may have noticed, this image doesn't have my obnoxious watermark on it. Reason, you ask? This is the first image in a long time that I've taken off-assignment. It's been weird to not shoot things that I love (I mean not that it wasn't exciting to shoot God, er I mean Oprah) and I don't quite know what's been amiss lately. As some of you may also have noticed, this blog has been boorrrrrrrrinng or rather, as Jen Bilec described it with a subtle downward motion of her hand, "downhill."

Well Jen, I couldn't agree more. So now that I'm sure I lost half of my readership, we're going to get this little cupcake back on the plate.

Believe it or not, I've never shot the tree in Rockefeller Center, so I figured, by accident really (a big thank you Bruce Springsteen, his wife and his daughter), that this image would be a festive way to renew. Even in the crappiest of moments, you can't help but be joyous to be where you are when you look at that tree. Not that it's any sort of beacon of hope or something of similar dramatic nature, but it's just a twinkling reminder that things aren't so bad. Not that it's the tree alone, but that it is an icon of a season in New York City.

A symbol of the grandeur, friends, stories, competition and history, reminding you that there is no other place on Earth that could deliver such an energy - if you choose to feel it.

And dudes, I am totally feelin' that vibe.

I really like this picture. Not a bad image for being part of the media circus.

Image: Susan Taylor, editor of Essence, and Oprah Winfrey on 12/2/08.

Have you ever seen Neil Sedaka and Katie Couric mambo?

No?

Oh, well you probably weren't at NYC's Juror Appreciation Day then.

I have two favorite parts about this picture... who can spot them? Ok fine, I'll just tell you:

1. the reporter's (left) old school fedora with his press badge in it and
2. Nathan Lane's (right) face.

Despite all of his fabulous roles, I just wanted him to sing "Springtime for Hitler" or "Hakuna Matata." Really, either would have been fine.

Although he didn't sing, he was still a riot. Naturally, he did a little monologue that had the courthouse rolling on the ground with laughter. Oh man, so darn funny. I had the privilege of sitting at his feet the entire time, catching each expression this fellow made.

Who knew NYC's Juror Appreciation Day was going to be so fun!

Who wants to come with me next year??

Katie Couric is so smiley! This woman was made for the Today Show.

William Beckett, front man for The Academy Is... photographed at the Roseland Ballroom on 11.19.08.

The Roseland is another NYC venue definitely worth checking out, just f.y.i.

Ahh... so there IS a shred of masculinity tucked away in the KEDs, long hair, *NSYNC shirt, absurd powerpop lyrics and jeans tighter than my wet suit. Good to know.

Travis Clark, front man for We the Kings.

It's 5:30 a.m.

I can't sleep.

Productivity? Sure.

I enjoy this image.

I wish Fab would shave.

Photo: Rodrigo Amarante, Fabrizzio Moretti (also the drummer for the Strokes) and Binki Shapiro in their newest band/project, Little Joy.

Little Joy's myspace

Jesse Malin opening for Butch Walker on November 13, 2008 at the Blender.

I was so excited to cover this show for Getty because I hadn't seen Mr. Malin since I left NYC this summer. It's always nice to see a friend do what they love, while you do what you love.

Jesse Malin's myspace

I heart this dude.

Jesse is just .... ahh I don't really have words, but this should sum it up: The first time I met Jesse Malin we ended up sitting in one of his East Village bars, Niagara to be exact, talking about music until 7 in the morning. The conversation, of course, stemmed into other things like old films and various histories, but every word he said matched what his eyes said, which was, "I love this conversation." He wasn't talking to talk and I wasn't talking to talk. I was loving it too.

He is such a beautiful, complex character that I find conversations with him to be irresistible. So if you happen to stumble into Manhattan and need a place to hang, I'd highly recommend paying a visit to "the Mayor of the East Village" at one of his fine establishments: Bowery Electric, Niagara or The Pizza Shop.

Coverage of Butch Walker at the Blender on November 13, 2008 for Getty Images.

Butch Walker's myspace

Butch Walker.

This fellow has some pretty decent tunes. I don't care for a handful of them, but the ones that got me thinking, really got me thinking. I can't recall the words or the title, but one of them had this sap's eyes a bit watery.

Cue laughterrrr.... now.

Coverage of Butch Walker at the Blender on November 13, 2008 for Getty Images.

Edie Falco at the 10th Anniversary Reunion of the Warren Leight play that launched her acting career, Side Man.

Her role as Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, has lead to numerous awards in the acting field including three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two SAG Awards, AFI's Award for Female Television Actor of the Year and the Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Drama.

Wow. That was some boring writing, but for as cool as Edie Falco is, Opening Act is even cooler. I am such a sucker for bringing in and sustaining arts programs in public schools.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would stumble upon Perez Hilton while waiting for Gerard Butler to show up at a Halloween party. I really don't know what kind of turn my life has taken, but it's pretty darn humorous.

Perez also used these images on his, um, quaint little blog: http://perezhilton.com/?m=20081101

Coverage of the Antilia's preview of Carnival for Getty on 10/30/08, featuring Wyclef Jean, Shaggy, Mad Stuntman, KES and Rupee.

I sound so cheesy, but I couldn't believe how much fun I was having at this event. Shaggy was hysterical and in killer shoes, Wyclef was super nice... so much so that I kinda have a crush on him and the Caribbean food, music and atmosphere was just what I needed on a chilly October night.

When I'm more awake, I'll write some more about this crazy shindig.

All I wanted to do was wear one of these things... well that and get up and dance with Wyclef... is one (or both) of those things weird?

Oh man... Shaggy (far right) wassss tooasssted and outrageously funny. I loved every second of it.

Clearly, the hosts (left) found him as amusing as I did.

CMJ Music Festival Coverage in NYC, October 21-25, 2008 for Getty Images.

Photo: Coheed and Cambria

CMJ Music Festival coverage in NYC.

Photo: Coheed and Cambria

P.S. - Terminal 5 is a sweet venue. I'd probably even go see New Kids on the Block there... oh wait... they're playing a sold out show at Madison Square Garden.

Uhhh, excuse me? WHO is buying those tickets???

CMJ Music Festival coverage in NYC.

Photo: Ebony Bones

CMJ Music Festival coverage in NYC.

Photo: George Clinton

I love the fluidity of this material - texture and color.

Photo: A piece from Csilla Somogyia's preview collection at last night's joint fashion show with fellow designers Malan Breton and Jacqueline Quinn.

Arriving in New York City in a torrential downpour is always great. Particularly when you have to double-park to unload your crap into an apartment building with no elevator. Let's see... rain... check... (haha, rain check) possible parking ticket... check... absurdly fast sprints up the stairs... check... broken antique mirror .... annnnd check. Nice work, Alli... moron.

Break a leg?

Haha, despite my idiocy with the mirror, I think I've made a fine start at warding off seven years of bad luck. And if I haven't? Well, there still will be brunch on both Saturday and Sunday for the next seven years, so who cares.

Photo: Simple, semi-static shot of a wig mannequin, taken on one of my frequent strolls from Midtown to Gramercy.

All right, so we went the train-tracks route... whatever. Don't judge.

I mean, nothing like a 4:30 a.m. shoot to get your blood flowing. I'm pretty sure none of us slept for the better part 25 hours. Why 4:30 you ask? To get that look on your subject's face.

I really, really like this image. The peace on his face, the loose cigarette, the tight grip. Really, all it's missing is an on-coming train, but perhaps it's the waiting that makes his face calm and his grip strong.


In this photo: T-Funk, styled by the lovely Ms. Lindsey Tervo-Clemmens.

Building character with no faces.

A teaser image from the latest project. I'll get some others up soon.

I've been a lady of few words recently, so I hope, at least, that one of my favorite Lester Bangs passages will suffice.

Regarding Dylan's Blood on the Tracks:

“I only really wanted to play this record whenever I had a fight with someone I was falling in love with. I concluded that any record whose principal utility lay in such an emotional twilight zone was at worst an instrument of self-abuse, at best innocuous as a crying towel and certainly was not going to make me a better person or teach me anything about women, myself or anything else but how painfully confused Bob Dylan seemed to be. Which was simply not enough.”

Model: Jody Gayle
Stylist: Lindsey Tervo-Clemmens
Make-up: Rachael Ryan
Hair: Ali Pace

Back whenever this shoot took place, I chucked these images aside and I'm really not sure why. Well, I do know why, but let's just leave it. It's always funny when you re-visit a project and you see things that didn't initially appear to you. Sometimes, it's better that you don't see them in the beginning... for whatever reason, I love these images now.

Model: Jody Gayle
Stylist: Lindsey Tervo-Clemmens
Make-up: Rachael Ryan
Hair: Ali Pace

Model: Jody Gayle
Stylist: Lindsey Tervo-Clemmens
Make-up: Rachael Ryan
Hair: Ali Pace

Ok, so I'm really bad at taking long breaks. Or maybe, it's just because too many funny things happen all too frequently.

Take the above photo for example... in all of its low-res glory. You will most likely never see a cellphone cam post again, but consider the subject. No idea? Well, let's start from the beginning.

Realizing that we are both leaving town for NYC in a matter of days, my dear friend Melissa and I decide that we are going to be as Pittsburgh as we possibly can be, prior to our departure. So with a day-of phone call to Buccos pal, Bryan Minniti, our first stop is PNC Park to catch one final baseball game, one final pierogi race and one final... concert??

Oh yesss folks, without knowing it, we out Pittsburghed ourselves! Guess who was playing a post-game show on the field? None other than... ready??

LYNYRD SKYNYRD.

Regardless of the fact that most of the people had no idea that a majority of the original members of the band are deceased, PNC Park was SOLD OUT. Granted, REO Speedwagon or Styx would have been better, but uh, they already played last season.

We must have been asked 70 times if we were there to see the concert or the game, to which Melissa would reply "the game" and I would naturally say, "the pierogi race." Either way, we received looks of disbelief. How could we not be there to see faux Skynyrd on a stage smaller than a homecoming parade float?

That's what you gotta love about this place though... Pittsburgh was lovin' every minute of it.

On a final note, I have an uncanny knack for consistently missing the pierogi races... every ... time... I go. It's basically ended in heartbreak and tears every time, but on the bright side, the Pirates won, I really enjoyed the game, and my newest solution to breaking this bad pierogi streak is to be a pierogi.

Anything's possible kiddies, dream big or go home.

Photo: Skynyrd's stage set-up

This little blog is taking more than a few days pause in prep for the move back to NYC - looks like the falafel won after all. I do certainly apologize for the lack of a photograph, but hope that Mr. Bukowski's words are a fair substitute, if not preferable.


the area of pause
charles bukowski


you have to have it or the walls will close
in.
you have to give everything up, throw it
away, everything away.
you have to look at what you look at
or think what you think
or do what you do
or
don't do
without considering personal
advantage
without accepting guidance.

people are worn away with
striving,
they hide in common
habits.
their concerns are herd
concerns.

few have the ability to stare
at an old shoe for
ten minutes
or to think of odd things
like who invented the
doorknob?

they become unalive
because they are unable to
pause
undo themselves
unkink
unsee
unlearn
roll clear.

listen to their untrue
laughter, then
walk
away.

The best picture of Los Angeles I have ever seen/will ever see. One that I'm actually jealous I didn't snap myself.

This is the cover of Matt Nathanson's newest album, "Some Mad Hope," which, might I add, is doing astonishingly well.

I say that with as much praise as I possibly can because this dude hit the road harder and longer than anyone I've ever met, reaping very little from his life-consuming travels. I remember sitting with him at a dive pizza place in Green Tree, Pa., when I was about 19 years old, talking about the future of music over a sun-dried tomato pizza.

I admit at the time I wasn't sure what would become of this musician, because I wasn't sure how much longer he would last. He was funny, charming, talented, but I had seen so many of those types already and watched each of them slowly, but surely, toss in the towel. Well, either that or I just wanted to punch them in the face because they whined so much.

"LISTEN! STOP BE A PUNK (BLANK) (BLANK)! YOU'RE GOING TO PLAY THIS VENUE ON A TUESDAY NIGHT TO 5 PEOPLE AND YOU'RE GONNA LIKE IT OR I'M (BLANK)'N DONE!"

Ehh heh hehhhh yeeahh... well I never said that exactly... or did I?

Anyway, regardless of what you think of his music, if you are in this line of work, you can take a few lessons in dedication and devotion from him. Heck, even if you aren't on stage, this can be a bitch of a business to be in. I came home just the other day, buried my head in a pillow, and wanted to just disappear...

But what I actually did instead of disappearing was sort through my album collection, each CD physically in my hands, and remembered why I do these crazy things. I popped in "Consolers of the Lonely," took my hands away from my face, and rocked out.

In the end, it's really funny how hidden this track of life can be. I mean, my friends, and even significant others, really haven't the faintest idea, from age 17 to now, of all that's happened.

The crazy part is that it's only been 6 years and it's felt like an eternity. A perfectly imperfect eternity indeed, but time is certainly relative. If that much happens in 6 years, you better believe I'm pumped as heck about the future. Uncertainties are the game. Making sure you walk away from every day with a story worthy of print is the challenge.

I never talked to Matt again after splitting that pie, but if I had to guess, I should say that that was part of his thought process as well. When so much satiates such a short time, there is no need to fear anything that is to come. If you love it and have the strength to stick with it, it will serve you well in a variety of forms, but perhaps not the one you expected.

You bail? You are just one of the many, many, many, many who bailed before you.

Dude's right though... definitely takes some mad hope.

Let's talk about a few things here:

1. Have you ever had a place that literally, every time you walk in, you find someone new and interesting to talk to? I must say, I'm not a regular at many places for the obvious reasons, but both Dish and the Shadow Lounge consistently offer grand stories and epic personalities. Now, these establishments are almost night and day, but strangely enough, can have very similar vibes, just by the types of people they attract... which is still night and day, but of equal caliber.

Haha, I bring so many bands/people into Dish that by now I should be earning commission, whereas with the Lounge, I feel like I should be shelling out more just for the sheer fact that it exists.

2. Unlike the trend that it is to hate the words "moist" and "panties," I squirm when the words "potential" and "connection" are used in an emotional context.

A) If something has potential within a sentimental context, there's more than 1 reason why it isn't working. Example: "I love this project, because it just has so much potential."

B) If you have to tell someone how you feel by claiming there is a connection, please read the dictionary or even better, step outside, whether it takes 30 seconds out the back door or 3 months in Russia, and come back with a spark of originality. Example: "After all this time, isn't it strange how we have such a connection?"

Cue eyebrow raise.

3. Sometimes detours are just what you need. Quite literally.

The Liberty Tunnels were closed last night on my way home from the lounge and really, it was pretty late and all I wanted to do was get to my bed. Perhaps on another day, Paul and Art's prior 20-minute serenade of lyrical genius would have been enough, but it just wasn't working out that way. So, naturally, if you can't go through the mountain, ya gotta go over the mountain. Over the mountain, of course requires a drive past the overlooks, which allow for arguably the best views of the Burgh's skyline.

So I parked, walked out to the overlook, and just looked and listened for awhile. City lights, the breeze, illumination of all three rivers, the 50 different sounds of a train... Normally all of these overlooks are filled with families and couples, but it was late on a Sunday night and I was the only soul out there. In retrospect, it's probably a good thing because I was leaning over the railing like Rose was leaning over the bow of the Titanic. Endings weren't on my mind, but the universal prospect of beginning and the sheer wonder that this whole city was built by generations of hands. My thought process was then onto the progression and regression of man in general, but we'll save that one for a rainy day.

Pittsburgh takes a lot of crap, mostly out of ignorance, but there is so much to this city. I'm not going to generalize and say that everyone who grew up here has a strong, steady work ethic or that everyone knows what family and friendships mean or that they value every second of life, but I would like to. I would like to, but I would be lying.

I was planning on a "4.", but I think that's enough out of me. I will just say, that this city taught me a hell of a lot.


Photo: T-Funk, Shadow Lounge Sage/Transcendent bassist for no less than 4830423 bands.

So wait, what happens in the music world when there is a lull in a big production?

Um well, let's see... most likely you take some time to practice your golf swing, rocketing balls into the nearest lake, courtesy of the venue's finest drivers, irons and wedges.

Or perhaps you take a hap-hazard joyride on a golf cart, or maybe, if you're feeling really spunky, you take part in the rager that Tommy Lee is throwing in his dressing room. After he's blown out all the electricity backstage with his ridiculous sound system and after he's quit his relentless, yet rather melodically psychotic drumming on the dry wall, you might be lucky enough to go "bus surfing" with him and not get arrested on the spot... but really that's just a dream... only a few superstars get to do that.

There you have it, some typical down time.

Wait, what was that? I didn't hear you...

HA! This is as real a job as they come baby.

(Photo: Bilec and her rad shoes on our make-shift teeing ground, gearing up to cream a ball into the lake during some Motley Crue lag time)