Jimmy Award winner Jenny Wine performs at the National High School Musical Theater Awards held at NYU's Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City on June 29, 2009.

Taryn Sprenkle from Hershey, Pa., performs with other 2009 Jimmy Award nominees at the National High School Musical Theater Awards held at NYU's Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City on June 29, 2009.

Bad day at the office, Cor? Way to shank 80% of your golf balls into the shrubs on the left. No worries though - it was probably the weight of two radios attached to your venue lanyard that was throwing off your pro game... or perhaps the thought of Steven Tyler's rider. Who knows. I still think you're great.

Photo: Crew recreation at our beloved Post-Gazette Pavilion in Burgettstown, PA. The object circled in red in the lake is the floating green - flag and all. Often a resting post for the venue goose.

Phish crowd, take 2.

(Both shots are unfortunately pocket cam. Boo.)

It's Why I Am...

Week overview annnd go!

Wednesday: Work Earth, Wind & Fire at Madison Square Garden - at MSG 'til 12:30, hop a train home, pack my bags. Immediately head back to Penn Station to hop a train out to Long Island. Jordan picks up. Leave for Burgettstown, PA, home of my favorite concert shed on the planet to hit up the Phish show. Outrageous. Glowsticks. Everywhere. Hippies. Dancing. Everywhere. Dude dressed in full-length cloak with 4-ft plastic sword. Only to our left.

Encore: No cell phones. Only lighters. Hmm. Wonder why.

Guitars. Trampolines. Vaccuums. Acapella.

Show ends. Introduce Jordan and Scott to the greatest thing ever: The infamous calorie parade - aka the Harvey household's kitchen island post mom's dinner party. You want, we got it.

Bed 3:30 a.m.

6:30 a.m. - in Bilec's car heading back out to aforementioned concert venue for DMB load-in.
7:30 p.m. - the greatest moment of my life to date occurs.
11:30 p.m. - back to hotel to drop off itineraries, as band/crew is heading to Europe.
2 a.m. - forget clothes/shower stuff (idiot) - must head home rather than stay at venue.
8 a.m. - DMB day 2
2:30 a.m. - finish up load-out.


To sum it up, every week is the best week ever.


Photo: Phish crowd at Post-Gazette Pavilion, 6/18/09.

Due to excess traveling and assorted work/fun, you will find a semi-boring interim post below. AC, professional ("unavailable"/short/incredibly witty) dreamboat, I mean anchor, for CNN.

Anderson Cooper.

I owe a lot to the handsome fellow in the center, not to mention the fact that I adore him to pieces. As you can probably tell by the expression, the crouching and the bulletproof vest, Chris Hondros - photojournalist extraordinaire - often places himself in insanely volatile positions in order to make your newspapers/sources a much better and much more realistic experience. And yeah, sometimes he photographs bees and it's equally as cool. His work is as beautifully real, as, well, he is.

When I go for lengths of time without having a good heart-to-heart with this man, I get sad.

Then I steal photos from his Facebook profile.

And post blogs about him.



Photo: Chris and two colleagues during a battle in Liberia.

Hilarious.

Chris Hondros, ladies and gentlemen, naturally shooting from somewhere he was definitely not supposed to be. I wish I could claim credit for capturing this brilliant moment, but alas, I cannot.

My newest endeavor? Sailing the Hudson.

A piece from Caroline Seikaly's evening wear collection, showcased at the Cooper Square Hotel in NYC.

For those of you unfamiliar with Bob Gruen's name, you may be familiar with his classic image of John Lennon on a rooftop in NYC, taken in 1974.

If you like this image, I highly recommend checking out some of his live concert work. Bob has photographed, well, pretty much everyone - I mean, I could type out that list, but it would just be a silly waste of time. That being said, my personal plug for someone I admire so much is a request that you please go check out his exhibit at the MoMA called "Looking at Music: Side 2" running through November 30, 2009. Heck, I'll even go with you! Again and again and again.

As if there wasn't already enough incentive to go, Bob personally nailed his exhibit straight into the walls of one of New York City's greatest museums. Classic. Just. Classic.

Vera Ramone King (Dee Dee Ramone's wife) and one of my personal favorites and friends, iconic rock photographer, Bob Gruen.

Mariah Carey in an interview before attending the Fresh Air Fund Gala, held annually at Tavern on the Green in Central Park.

Press line "greeting" Mariah Carey prior to the annual Fresh Air Fund Gala held annually at Tavern on the Green in Central Park.

I LOVED this record store.

I obviously was easily lured in by the shop's name and the dude with the over-ears rocking out in front of the Dark Side of the Moon poster. Me? A sucker for good branding and cool people? Nooo... Before I stepped in, I immediately struck up a conversation with aforementioned fellow, learning that the musical haven I was about to enter was and has been the largest independent record store in Boston since 1978. Impresionante, folks.

Ahhh, my favorite type of store on the face of the Earth. The local record shop, where you can literally blow dust off some of the albums to unearth a gem of a piece of music. I'm actually spoiled with the amount of these I have in New York, so it's always really cool for me to explore what other cities have to offer, including my hometown - so don't worry, Dave's Music Mine on the South Side of Pittsburgh, I certainly have not forgotten thee.

Sadly, since I was on a brisk walk in between the Hatch Shell and Fenway, I didn't have much time to stop and peruse, but let me tell you, if you are ever, EVER in Boston and consider yourself a music afficianado, be sure to flip through everything - just to see if they have that piece of vinyl you've been searching for since the 7th grade. It's an outrageously cool place.

DMB semi's window. I'm still in love with the design of the firedancer. If I were to ever get a tattoo, this would be it. Smaller than a nickel, black ink, right below the hairline on the back of my neck.

If you kids don't know, the firedancer came from DMB's 5th single off Crash, "Trippin' Billes":

"We are all sitting, legs crossed round a fire, my yellow flame she dances
Tequila drinking, oh our minds will wander to wondrous places..."

Make sense? I thought so.

As it was Fleet Week these past few days in my beloved NYC and as it is Memorial Day, I felt that this was a fairly appropriate image to post. Modeled after the famous image above, "V-J Day in Times Square", "The Kiss" statue stands next to the USS Midway in San Diego as an icon of the end of World War II as well as a testament to classic romanticism.

There is much discrepancy as to the legitimacy of the photograph, but to those skeptics, I say "A pish posh to you, Good Sir!"

Who cares if it was posed? Who cares if it was manipulated? Who cares if this unsuspecting nurse did or did not slap the young sailor post-shutter? Sure, I'm as big an advocate of a photo with a story as probably anyone, but it's what this image symbolizes that's the important part - which has, in turn, because the root of it's popularity. I'll be damned if something like this moment can't exist.

More to come soon. I'm on a train heading to Boston and I need to put the headphones on and look out the window for a while...**

** (5.27.09) On second and third thought... I'm just going to leave it this way. I will, however, link you to the wiki article on this photograph. Not that wikipedia is credible on most occasions, but this is an interesting read. Good history, folks, good history.

PHOTO: "The Kiss" Statue in the lovely San Diego. Despite the May Gray in the background, I was lucky enough to have the sun graze the faces for a few minutes while I found my angle. I love it.

Skull vomiting octopus tentacles a good look for me? I think so.

This, as I wrote about a few months ago, was the main piece for Lovesac's "Dads and Grads" campaign. While it might not make total sense, bottom line was that they still were going to paint my back. And that's awesome.

My experience is now hanging in store windows across the country, which, I think is pretty cool too.

Oh and also, this ad has managed to start a discussion about sexism, which is pretty hilarious:

If these don't crack you up today, look again tomorrow.