Faith is a funny thing. You can look at something and just know that it's right, even if it doesn't seem to be at first glance. Now, sometimes, motivation for keeping that faith is found in the most obvious, but happenstance places. In my case? It's been a few things: people, music, photos. I've had a song on repeat for the last 45 minutes and can't help but smile and shake my head at the decimal-point miscalculations I've made. Hey, don't judge, I was never very good with numbers.

I have the lightest feeling in the world, like falling in love all over again, but with something that I've had all along. It's a well-known fact that I frequently reside in my own world, causing me to sometimes not pay so much attention to what people are trying to tell me. What? Me? Not listening?

You're shocked. I know.

You can't put a measurement, a time limit on things of extraordinary value. There's no time bomb, there's no expiration date, and for that matter, there's no expectation. I wrote most of this late last night, but there was no deadline on the posting of this either. Good idea? Bad idea? Whatever. I don't really care. You can't demand things. People make mistakes and I made a pretty huge one. I'm afraid there's nothing I can do to take that back, but it was me who was wrong. Thank God I'm neurotic enough to have kept words I said tucked away, or I don't know that I would have been smart enough to figure this out.

Catching your faith waver is quite scary, but putting it back where it should be is strangely comforting. I don't even care what happens next; I just finally listened to the words being said over and over to me and took notice at how boldly I had ignored them - out of interest in my own, trivial agenda.

If all that I gain out of this piece is to cognitively have the ability to re-align faith, then that's great. If all that you gain out of this piece is to know that it truly is possible to re-align faith, that's great.

As this song continues on repeat, I laugh at myself for being such an idiot. With another smile and shake of my head, I still will say that I've never had more faith in my life.

Photo: One of my random, solo walks through the streets of New York - the birds perching on the left creating a stationary frame, blending with the buildings, for the ones already taking flight in a brightly urban winter sky.

Sophia Bush.

Sophia Bush.

Heather Coleman, Oxfam's Senior Climate Change Policy Advisor, presents at a Cosmopolitan event held in the penthouse of 6 Columbus on Tuesday.

A piece from Joseph Altuzarra's line, showcased at his private event during the Mercedes-Benz Fall 2009 Fashion Week in New York.

A piece from Joseph Altuzarra's private event during the Mercedes-Benz Fall 2009 Fashion Week in New York.

Photo: One of many Barbies on display at Bloomingdale's on 59th and Lexington in celebration of Barbie's 50th birthday.

Just as a heads-up folks, many images in the future will not be accompanied by words/stories. So, if you like any of the images without my written anecdotes and silly ramblings, please just ask me about it and I will be more than thrilled to tell you.

Photo: An early Barbie displayed at Bloomingdale's on 59th and Lexington in celebration of Barbie's 50th birthday.

Annd Stump wins the show!! Woooo!

The next morning, this dog had more appearances than most A-list celebrities. Basically, every network or publication that covers news and/or fluff was at the Westminster Dog Show. I was actually blown away by how many damn cameras there were... and I'm part of the media!

Will continue notes on the dog show at a later date...

Oh Stump. If you only had known what you were getting yourself into as a pup when you walked up to the lady in pearls with a checkbook in one hand and a dog treat in the other.

Happy trails to you, my friend... may your fine genetics earn your owners wads of money for years to come.

Photo: Handler, Scott Summer with Stump, the Sussex Spaniel who won the hearts of the Westminster judges.

(my favorite photograph of the show)

Your Excellency,

I'm very sorry I cut off your fingers in this shot. I was nervous. I promise it won't ever happen again.

Sincerely,

The photographer with the sparkling ballet flats.


Photo: President of the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly and former Nicaraguan foreign minister, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann (left) during a leisurely visit with Logan, a friendly Labrador backstage at the 133rd Westminster Dog Show.

I tried to interview a dog once too.

Photo: Backstage at the 133rd Westminster Dog Show, held annually at Madison Square Garden.

Ma'am, are you aware your dust mop has eyes?

Photo: Backstage at the 133rd Westminster Dog Show, held annually at Madison Square Garden.

Not posting a wide shot of this event would have just been stupid... so here ya go.

Keep in mind, that the FDR Highway is on the left side of the ramp and the East River is on the right. Craziness.

Premiere of the Red Bull Snowscrapers event in NYC

Only the fine people at Red Bull would say, "Hey...You know what would be f'n rad? An urban snowboarding competition... in NYC and you know, we'll call it Snowscrapers, cuz like New York has a lot of skyscrapers and snow starts with S, just like sky, and it's a winter sport in the city... so like... yeah... right on!"

And God Bless each and every one of them. This event was totally rad.

What better marketing plan can you have than to building a frozen nine-story ramp at a 40 degree angle on the eastern bank of Manhattan and catapult the world's 16 best riders down it. I mean, really! What demographic doesn't want to see that? Those that wish to not stand on the bank of the East River when it's 10 degrees out? Haha, nice try, but false.

Usually I'm in aforementioned demographic, so I rationalize shooting this event by thinking that my fingers almost froze off for this shot. Good God was it cold, but worth every shake and shiver. This is New York! You get a sweet gig, you take it! You hear of a stellar event, you don't think about it, you just go!

Unfortunately, I had another gig to run off to, so I didn't actually shoot the competition, but the light was just where I wanted it to be for the practice runs, so I wasn't too bummed. Besides, if you didn't get a chance to go down and check it out*, Red Bull Snowscapers airs on both NBC and MSGTV on Sunday, February 15th at 5 p.m. EST.

*One of the funniest/coolest things about NYC is that I bet 7/8 of the population had no idea this event was occuring. On that same note, the West Side Highway could have been hosting a chorus line of tap-dancing elephants and none of us on the East Side at this event would have known about it either! Well, that's a lie... I obviously would have known about that, but you get my point. What a frickin' cool place.

Note: This shot also looks way cooler with the proper color read. Sorry about that guys!

Some sick air.

Reminds me of a scarecrow.

I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I'd sit, and think some more.

Seriously Firefox? One day I'll fix your RGB profile... Just in case anyone was wondering, this pic is sick in full color.

But hey, whatever. Riddde the wave and gooo with the flooowww.

Del Cheetah of the Sex Slaves being awesome with the assistance of his height and that burning ball of gas* positioned right behind him, mid-head-bang.

*Just because I've had a few questions about this: it is NOT in fact a burning ball of gas, but Del Cheetah's blonde hair catching the color of a pretty hot light, producing said effect.

Oh Hi Baby!

Eric13, my favorite of the Sex Slaves. Their full out rock show is outrageously fun, but I will say that I'm quite glad that I had the great and unexpected pleasure of hearing them acoustic last weekend. It's kinda the same idea as KISS: Unplugged, but BETTER.

Super fun guys.

If you've been with this blog before, I'm generally all about the hands. For some reason, I prefer this shot without.

Del Cheetah of the Sex Slaves last night at Webster Hall.

"Listen to the stage manager and get on stage when they tell you to. No one has time for the rock star bullshit. None of the techs backstage care if you're David Bowie or the milkman. When you act like a jerk, they are completely unimpressed with the infantile display that you might think comes with your dubious status. They were there hours before you building the stage, and they will be there hours after you leave, tearing it down. They should get your salary, and you should get theirs." - Henry Rollins

There have been a lot of true words spoken about the cogs and the sprockets of live music, but those above? Uber true. Close to the heart and it couldn't make me more excited. Those words were handed to me on a piece of paper last Thursday night in the arena production office of Madison Square Garden by a well-known NYC promoter.

"Make a copy. Keep it."

To set the scene, Kings of Leon were in town and Bowery Presents had just released 1,000 more seats to the public for the growing band from Tennessee... to open the stage past 270 degrees. And if the band didn't have so much A/V in their show? It would have been a group of brothers + 1 from Tenne-frickin-see selling out their first Garden gig at 360 degrees.

Aforementioned promoter then sat at his desk and just kept saying, "Who the fuck are the Kings of Leon?"

For starters? Sold. Out. That's who they are.

Being a fan, but nowhere near obsessed, I went out on the floor, mid-set, to see if I could figure this out.Who the fuck were the Kings of Leon? A trend or finally a band that will have some popular longevity? Standing 20 feet away from the stage, amidst a sea of enthusiastic, but harldly melodic fans, I found out the somewhat anti-climactic answer. The Kings of Leon are simply a rock band.

Now don't undercut the word "simply," but don't discount it either. I still had chills running up and down my spine ("Closer" is a stellar live song). The Kings of Leon are a rock band that might not be Zeppelin, but who sure can put on a show that's been missing from our music scene for years, save about 3 other bands grossing enough to sell out venues like MSG. And per the usual at the Garden, I desired to be nowhere else, but in that moment. For all of you Atlas Shrugged fans out there, this is my version of Dagny Taggart's railroad.

I've been fortunate enough to have nature show me some of the most stunning things I've ever seen, but to watch something purely man-made, built by you and your friends, that stops your heart and holds in your breath is equally as awesome. You want to be as close to that feeling, that moment as you possibly can, so much so that when you let that one breath that's so tightly locked in your lungs go, your heart resumes at 10 times its original rate. To call it sexy would be true, but the greatest understatement that could possibly exist, well, in my reality at least. I don't even have a word to describe how deeply I wanted to be closer to that moment. When you feel like this toward a person, your desire is to make love to them, but with moments? These moments are intangible, unless of course 1) you share those moments with someone who sees it the same way or 2) you are a band-aid (no, not groupie).

Neither of those two things were true Thursday night, so all I could do was look around and wrap myself up in thousands of fan faces, lighting design and a solid live show pumping through the speakers. Without standing with them, I saw the stagehands, the promoters, the electricians, the caterers, the teamsters and a group of 4 dudes up there making the arena floor shake. All of them with the power to elicit such deep emotions in the even the most reserved types of people.

I know a lot of them don't see it like that, particularly not many hands, but I do.

So my idea of wild success, Tim Parsaca, is to be able to produce environments that make people feel as I did on Thursday night. And as you always say, "We break the first commandment here every night." It's a wonderful feeling, isn't it?

Working this show was the beginning of 43 straight hours of being awake. 26 of them being some of the best hours I've ever had. If it's possible to be subtly hit with a ton of bricks, well that's what happened. If I start talking about why, this entry won't ever end, so if you want to hear a good story sometime, ask me about my first 43-hour experience.

Skies are beneath me
I see a storm bubbling up from the sea
And it's coming closer

"Closer"- Kings of Leon