Former Journalist & Photographer
I am sharing this photograph with two purposes — to celebrate 100 years of the U.S. National Parks and to congratulate my friend Tino and his wife Christina on the recent birth of their first child.
My first visit to a National Park was to Big Bend in 2006 while I was a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin. I went with friend Marc (also a new father) to do some backpacking, and we returned with Tino a year later. That is when I took this image of Tino atop Emory Peak.
It takes something special for me to dust off my SLR nowadays. My dogs — Tillie (left) and Josie — are usually the inspiration. Over the course of ten minutes of a recent evening while drinking wine in the front yard, the girls chased a tennis ball one other before wearing themselves out. So I took a few frames of their fun.
For more photos of Tillie and Josie, follow @tilliebean on Instagram.
If a song mentions “West Virginia,” it will most likely catch my ear. So I’ve put together this list of six songs that aren’t about West Virginia (i.e. “Green Rolling Hills,” “Bottom of the Mountain” and definitely not “Country Roads” because John Denver was full of shit, man), but do mention the state by name.
The original post include only six songs, but here’s a more complete playlist.
This past weekend, my friend Zachary Hunt celebrated his marriage to his awesome partner Amelia. Unfortunately, I could not make it to Austin to celebrate with them. So instead I’ll share this image I took of Zach at the end of our very first Femme et vélo shoot in 2011. Whether it was shooting for Femme et vélo or a wedding, riding bikes or drinking cocktails in front of Dolce Vita, it’s been a lot of fun being friends with this handsome gentleman. Congratulations on your marriage, Zach and Amelia.
Prince changed my life. He is my favorite musician. Purple Rain is my favorite album. Today’s news of his death has left me without words, but I had to at least say that.
Thank you, you beautiful one.
The first show / concert I ever saw was friends’ band in a backyard in Bridgeport, West Virginia some time around 1994. It was the start of many years of being very involved in live music in many ways. I’ve been to a lot of shows over the past couple decades, but only a few of them were documented. I’ve managed, though, to find at least five shows I attended and enjoyed that I’ve found video of on YouTube. Photograph of Fugazi (Pittsburgh, 2001) by me.
Hot Water Music, Indecision, AFI, Sick of It All (Louisville, Kentucky; 2000)
!!! (Wayne, Michigan; 2002)
Fugazi (Huntington, West Virginia; 2002)
Eddy Current Suppression Ring (Austin, Texas; 2010)
Sturgill Simpson (Bakersfield, California; 2015)
I don’t listen to much new music nowadays — due mostly to being lazy and cheap. This year I have been especially out of touch with discovering new artists or checking out recent releases. But between listening to Cheap Trick, The Lemonheads and Garnet Mimms records this year, I managed to listen to these five great albums from 2015.
Royal Headache – High
Steel Nation – Harder They Fall
Charlie Parr – Stumpjumper
Pope – Fiction
G.L.O.S.S. – Demo
I’ve shared a few of these outtakes from Femme et vélo shoots, and here’s another of Lauren. This was my last shoot with FEV.
Having been raised listening to the likes of George Jones, Conway Twitty and Elvis, I love country music. Add in some rock and roll overtones and I love it even more. When I first heard Uncle Tupelo (above) in my late teens, it was like hearing Fugazi the first time — my tastes changed. Nearly 20 years later, a lot of bands and styles of music I’ve enjoyed have come and gone, but my appreciation of alt country (for lack of better term) has only grown stronger as I’ve grown older. So here are five alt country (again… for lack of better term) albums I love and listen to way too often. Continue reading “5 ‘Alt’ Country Albums I Love”
This past Saturday, I photographed the Packway Handle Band, who is currently on tour with Kid Rock and Foreigner. It had been a long while since I had photographed live music, but I was doing a kindness for my friend Dan, who is managing the Athens, Georgia-based bluegrass band. So with Dan I headed deep into the Inland Empire to dust off my camera. The most enjoyable party was shooting the band busking around the concession area of the venue for some Kid Rock-merchandise-clad fans and a group of local pre-teen girls who danced around the band for a solid 10 minutes. I did not stick around for the Bawtidaba, though.
