I don’t have a great system for how reuploading old content is going to work. Unless someone pays me to dig up a specific event, so far the idea is just to open a random folder and see what’s inside and if it’s good, post it. For this first ever Vintage DBB post I decided to dig into the 2009 folder because that’s the earliest time period when I thought my event photography was actually good. I have a ton of earlier photos that I will post eventually, but I figured we should start out with some technically sound photos. The first folder I opened was today’s date, but it was sort of an atypical night, so I picked a date randomly, 6.25.09. Until I opened the folder, I had forgotten that I have that exact date tattooed to my leg.
It turns out, 6.25.09 was the day Michael Jackson died. Now it’s pretty clear at this point that he was a monster, but when he died Leaving Neverland hadn’t come out and while there were allegations, I still loved his music, not enough to get a tattoo of him, but he was the first artist I ever listened to that wasn’t forced on me by my parents. Thriller was the first album I ever owned. When he died it didn’t really have any impact on me, I don’t really like any of his music written since 1987 and it’s not like he was putting out new stuff. But for some reason I just though it would be funny if I got a Michael Jackson tattoo that day. I was kinda joking about it, but when a friend from the NY Post hit me up asking me if I knew of any memorial parties she could cover, I told her I might get a tattoo and she told me she would cover it if I got it, and suddenly the joke wasn’t a joke anymore. I went over to Fine Line Tattoo and got a dumb Michael Jackson tattoo while a photographer and writer from the NY Post watched. They never ran the story…
After I got tattooed I went over to Anchor bar because my friend Josh, aka The Fat Jew, hired me to shoot a party he was throwing. Kid Cudi was there for some reason. I don’t even remember what the party was exactly, and honestly what I wrote at the time gives me no additional information. I do remember that he never paid me, but we made it square when I had him play santa for my Christmas card that year. In my post at the time I said I didn’t really know anyone at the party, but I found a bad photo of my friend SERF before I knew him and a few photos of my buddy SAME who we lost back in 2020. Going back through my archives I keep finding photos of friends before I met them, and photos of way too many friends who are no longer with us.
Speaking of no longer with us, after Anchor Bar I went over to Lit Lounge and the very first person I photographed there was my old friend and roommate Alex Magnetic. Alex was one of my all time favorite humans and was living with me when she died. Her death impacted my life in such a profound way and it was just a few months before the pandemic, which also altered my life in such a profound way. I feel like I am an old man now and I didn’t feel that way before she died. I think her death was the official end of my youth, even though I was 39 at the time.
I don’t have a ton of shots from Lit. I think it was for the party NC-17, but not 100% sure. Jeremy Bastard was DJing, but maybe it was just a special MJ night or something. My blog gives no indication. The only real thing of note that night was that I went home with twin sisters, and when I say I went home with them, I just mean they crashed at my place so they didn’t have to drive to New Jersey or wherever they lived. What’s wild is that forever I had one of their bracelets in a bedside table drawer, hoping that I would figure out who left it there. Well 16 years later I finally figure it out but I finally threw it away when I moved, and I am not in contact with those girls anymore.
Lastly, I should mention that future throwback posts probably won’t be this long, but I just felt inspired since it’s the first post and I had a lot to say, but I am excited to go back and tell old stories and relive some of these memories. Also, I should mention that I registered vintagedbb.com which will just redirect to the Vintage DBB posts on website, in case you ever want to see what new old stuff I have posted. You can also check the @vintagedbb Instagram account as well. Now go check out the photos from the night Michael Jackson died below.
