Every year I split my South By Southwest adventure into two parts. The second week, which starts today is music week and total hell. I work 20 hours a day, take thousands of photos and never sleep, but I tend to make more money than any other week of the year. But the first week is sort of a vacation. I work for the Village Voice, who let me do whatever I want, and I get to shoot movie stars, eat BBQ and watch a bunch of movies. After 10 years of this I have so many friends in Austin and the SXSW Film Fest is pretty much my favorite event of the year.

For my Voice gallery I set up a bunch of mini photo shoots with actors and directors and then I also shot a few red carpets. I will get the red carpets up this week if I have a minute to do so but I wanted to get these portraits up because I am really happy with them and I think you will dig them. My insanity starts tonight but I have a few hours before I have to start working.

The highlight of this gallery is actually for a SXSW Interactive but it features a bunch of movie/tv stars so I am keeping it in this gallery. It’s the cast of JASH the comedian run new YouTube channel from Tim & Eric, Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera and Reggie Watts. I am a fan of all of them so it was great to get a chance to shoot them. I knew Reggie back when I first moved to NYC. I didn’t know if he remembered me but when he realized I ran Driven By Boredom he started talking to me about the naked girls I shoot and told Tim & Eric they needed to see my site. It was a pretty good look and I have loved Reggie’s stuff for years so maybe he and I can do a real shoot because he is the most photogenic human alive.

I got to shoot the stars and director of Milo a film about a monster that lives in Ken Marino’s ass. It sounds completely terrible but I have heard nothing but amazing things about it and I cannot wait to see it. Evidently it is absolutely hilarious. My friend Joe Swanberg (who’s film Drinking Buddies seems to be the talk of the festival) told me that the director Jacob Vaughn was really good and it stars hilarious people in Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs, Steven Root and another comedian I know and love Kumail Nanjiani. Ken Marino was of course on The State, the last great sketch comedy show and directs pretty much the greatest thing on the internet, Burning Love. Gillian Jacobs is on Community which is one of the weirdest and best shows on TV. She aslo happens to be totally not ugly and was the nicest person I met all week.

My favorite photos I took were for the film Short Term 12, another movie I hear great things about. I got to shoot Brie Larson, who is in pretty much every film at SXSW, and John Gallagher Jr. John is one of the stars of The Newsroom which is the best new show on TV. If you haven’t seen it stop fucking up and steal someone’s HBO Go password immediately. I got to shoot them by the river and it made for some lovely photos.

I got to shoot M. Blash and Chloë Sevigny for their film The Wait. I have had a crush on Ms. Sevigny since I was 15 and I actually was kinda star struck around her which hasn’t happend to me in a long time. I shot her in a plant. It was really important. The first photo I took all week was of Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere. There is a documentary about him called “We Cause Scenes”. I have been an Improv Everywhere fan for a long time and I noticed him at the convention center right after I picked up my badge. I also got to shoot Paul Walker and the director of Hours. Paul was really excited and knew all about my 35mm camera which I was not expecting. You don’t expect the star of Fast and The Furious 6 to be a camera nerd. I shot my friend Davy Rothbart who runs Found Magazine with two of his Medora documentary stars. He spent a season with a high school basketball team in a dying town in Indiana. The film looks really phenomenal as well. I also shot Josh Duhamel, the star of the film Scenic Route. He seemed like a really good dude unlike Adam Brody from Some Girl(s) who pretty much acted like I didn’t exist. His co-star Mía Maestro was lovely though and I very much want to see the Neil LaBute film.

So yeah, that’s a huge write up, but I really like these photos so you should look at them.

Click here to see all my South By Southwest Film Festival portraits!

As we speak (or as I type) I am on an airplane headed to Austin, Texas on my way to South By Southwest. This is not just any SXSW for me; it is my 10th straight SXSW. I started out traveling to Austin when I managed a dance pop band called The Gaskets. After the Gaskets broke up I started going as a member of the media, covering it for the last six years with a camera in hand. This year I am going to be EXTREMELY busy and I will be on the road for at least two weeks. I have a feeling that I won’t be able to update this site as much as I would like to so I wanted to put this post up. I WILL be updating my Twitter, Instagram and most importantly my Tumblr. I will be posting highlights from every day on Tumblr so check over there if I am slow to update this site.

Anyway, in honor of my 10th at SXSW I wanted to give you a little break down of some of the highlights of the last 10 years. Austin is crawling with musicians and celebrities so this list is going to sound a little (okay, a lot) name droppy, so I apologize for that in advance. Just don’t read it if that sort of thing is as grating to you as it is to most people. I am going to include some links and photos to keep you guys entertained while I am busy taking photos 14 hours a day. And if you are going to be in Texas over the next two weeks hit me up! See you guys in a food truck line! (Read the article)

My dude Hannibal Buress turned 30 years old yesterday and decided to throw a party at the Knitting Factory. Last time I was there was for the premiere of Hannibal’s Comedy Central  special Animal Furnace. This time there was less comedy and much more hip hop. The night started out with hip hop legend Prince Paul DJing. After that things got real weird with Hip Hop Karaoke NYC taking over. I am not a big karaoke fan but when I do it I am always tempted to do some old school hip hop classic but I have seen people fail miserably when trying to do songs they think they know every word of. Now try that while holding the lyrics in your hand instead of timed out on a screen and you are in for a disaster. It was a pretty amazing train wreck although some people certainly stood out.

Halfway through the hilarious hip hop karaoke Hot 97’s Cipha Sounds showed up. He was DJing after the karaoke but he rolled in with Action Bronson and Questlove. Quest very begrudgingly did a song at Hannibal’s insistance and he kept slowing down the track. “This is why I am a drummer. I stopped trying to rap 20 years ago.” It was pretty epic. Action Bronson enjoyed himself a bit more and did two songs including A Tribe Called Quest’s Scenario with Cipha, Hannibal and Hannibal’s insane cousin Percy. As you can see if you click that link it was epic.

After that Cipha Sounds DJ’d and although he properly killed it the crowd began to thin out as you might expect at 1am on a Monday night but the jobless people who stuck it out were in for a rare treat. Hannibal really upped the weirdness game of his 30th birthday and did a 15 minute version of his 70 second “Gibberish Rap” and invited Mario, Alvin of the Chipmonks fame and Spongebob Squarepants to join him. It was in the top 10 most surreal moments of my life. Oh, did I mention the ballet dancers? Yeah, that too. It was a supremely weird and awesome way to end the night.

Click here to see the bizarre photos from comedian and gibberish rapper Hannibal Buress’ 30th birthday party at the Knitting Factory.

Ps. I gave Hannibal a $5 Arch Card for his birthday. Never say I am not a good friend.

Ever year the Adult Entertainment Expo is held in Vegas leading up to the AVN Awards. This year I was working on a behind the scenes photo documentary for the very important photography journal Hustler Magazine. As such I didn’t have a TON of time to hit the AEE but I did spend some time there because I had to capture some of the madness. (Plus I owed the Village Voice, LA Weekly and 9 other sites a photo gallery from it.) Anyway, the convention is always a weird clusterfuck of fans and industry people trying to get autographs, get work done, sell stuff and get laid. I use it as an opportunity to find new models, talk to friends I only see a few times a year and get weird photos of weirder fans interacting with half naked girls. Honestly the highlight for me was that I made it the entire weekend without having to photograph Ron Jeremy.

I am headed back to NYC today so I am gonna make this quick, but I think you guys will enjoy the photos even if you don’t care so much about porn stars. Discounting the nudity there is lot’s of weird stuff here. Enjoy!

Click here for the NSFW photos of the 2013 Adult Entertainment Expo at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.

The 30th annual Adult Video News Awards were held Saturday night at the Joint in the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, NV. I have been covering the event for several years and I think this year was the smoothest and well done of the ones I have attended. The awards in the past have been a little tedious but I had a great time at this one. My ex-girlfriend and still good friend Kimberly Kane presented all three performer of the year awards and she killed it. The homie James Deen won performer of the year again and a bunch other people I know and don’t hate won some things. Burning Angel won some shit too. Driven By Boredom was nominated for best photography website but we sadly didn’t win, which probably makes sense because the site isn’t really a porn site despite what my parents think.

Tyga played Rack City and a bunch of other songs and the winner of the transexual performer of the year tried to blow him on stage and their was some nudity and weirdness and good times. I took a ton of photos and you should look at them. I would probably talk more about the awards but Vegas was fucking insane and exhausting and I have to drive back to LA now even though I have no idea where I am going to stay. Huzzah. Congrats to everyone who won! Pics from the Adult Entertainment Expo coming soon!

Click here to see all my NSFW pictures from the 2013 AVN Awards at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas.

Every year I get invited to the Miami Dolphins Web Weekend. It’s a gathering of people who run Miami Dolphins fan sites. I know that sounds insanely nerdy but it’s pretty much the highlight of my year. You can probably stop reading now. But seriously, it was awesome. The first night we had a dinner at the team training facility where Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin and Phins great Sam Madison came and talked to us. The next day we packed care packages for the troops as part of some veterans day community service. After that we went back to the training facility for a tour and guest speakers. We got to talk to Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland and CEO Mike Dee and we watched a documentary on the undefeated 1972 Dolphins with the legendary running back Jim Kiick.

After that were the “Webby Awards” which are awards given to the best Dolphins websites. The Dolphins added a new category to the Webbys for the best community related site after former Dolphins president Eddie Jones who passed away recently. I thought my site Dolfans NYC had a chance because we have raised a ton of money for charity and have had a lot of press lately. We ended up winning not only the Eddie Jones award but also an award for best features and content. It was actually an incredibly proud moment for me and my partner Michelle.

The next day we woke up and headed out early to tailgate at Sun Life Stadium. We eventually headed inside the stadium where we watched warm ups from the sideline and then took our seats in the “Locker Room Club” which are amazing seats that are on the field right behind the endzone and then you can walk back into the stadium and watch the players come in and out of the locker room. Before the game the owner of the team was brought over to us so he could tell us how much he enjoyed our tailgate party in NYC a few weeks ago. I ended up on the Miami Dolphins Instagram account shaking his hand. It was pretty cool.

After that a game was played and we don’t need to talk about that. Let’s just say it was not the highlight of the trip. Anyway, I posted a bunch of photos from the weekend and you should look at them.

Click here to see all my shots from the 9th annual Miami Dolphins Web Weekend!

Once again I come to a blog full of nightlife party pictures and naked girls to talk to you about the Miami Dolphins. I know it doesn’t make any sense but aside from being a photographer I happen to run the largest Miami Dolphins fan group in the world. No big deal. My friend Michelle and I founded Dolfans NYC, the New York City Miami Dolphins fan club. So yesterday when the Dolphins came up to New Jersey to play the New York Jets we brought out the welcome wagon. We bought 200 tickets, loaded up two charter busses and threw one hell of a tailgate. It was amazing. We filled two sections of MetLife stadium and were so loud you could hear us on TV. The Dolphins organization even paid us a visit with owner Stephen Ross and minority owner Fergie (yes, that Fergie) came out to the tailgate. Dolphins CEO Mike Dee, Dolphin legend Nat Moore and a bunch of cheerleaders joined them. Dolfans NYC is probably the most successful thing I have ever been apart of and this was by far our best event.

Our fans were nice and buzzed on the 12 bottles of rum Sailor Jerry provided for our tailgate and we were talking smack to Jets fans all game. The Dolphins kicked the shit out of the Jets and we were pretty much the only fans left at the end. Let’s Go Dolphins was the only thing you could hear in the stadium.  It was better than Christmas. We got out of there and were back to our bar, Third & Long, by 5:30pm in time to have a victory drink and get back home before the Subway closed for hurricane Sandy.

Speaking of, not sure what is going to happen when this storm hits so I might be without power or internet for a while. So if this is my last update for a few days I hope everyone out there is safe and has a mostly enjoyable break from real life if you are stuck inside for a while.

Click here to see all of my pictures from the Dolfans NYC tailgate and take over of MetLife Stadium!

If you want to know more about my thoughts on this Comic Con or whatever just read what I wrote in Comic Con Part 1. I have my mom visiting, 500 zombie crawl pictures to post and seven gigs this week so I am gonna make this short and sweet. I didn’t think the pictures from Saturday were as good as the photos I shot on Friday. I think I just got burnt out. Comic Con is exhausting. Check out these pictures of fat shirtless men and random celebrities (there are some hot girls if you click through to the gallery) and then come back tomorrow for some insane zombie madness. See you guys soon…

Click here to see all the pictures from Saturday at the 2012 New York Comic Con at the Javits Center.

I have shot all sorts of weird conventions and festivals in my life but I have never photographed a full day at a Comic Con. I went to a few as a kid but nothing like Comic Con in San Diego or even like the Comic Con that happens to be happening right now at the Javits Center in NYC. I did once sneak into NYCC a few years ago but I was only there for about an hour and I didn’t get the full experience of thousands of nerds in a room holding giant fake weapons.

Yesterday I got to enjoy that madness and I am headed back today. I am not sure why I think it’s a good idea to go back after I exhausted myself today taking photos of kids in costumes of video game characters I will never play. I also ended up spending $40 which I probably shouldn’t have and I spent about 30 minutes trying to get a damn cab when I should have just taken the Subway home. But yet I will return today because nerds are God damn photogenic and I appreciate devotion and obsession even if it’s to Japanese tentacle rape comics.

Plus I have a bunch of friends who will be there. The guitarist for my band is an animator for Super Jail and is doing a pannel. My dude Hannibal Burress is also doing one for China, IL. Nick Gazin, Lamour Supreme and Greg Mishka are involved in some madness over at the giant Mishka booth. Buff Monster and his dude The Sucklord have their trading cards and are releasing toys. And on top of that I have some friends who are just there nerding out for whatever reason, like my friend Chloe who was dressed like a giant sting ray.

Anyway, I am gonna head back into the city for one more day of this Comic Con madness. So check out Friday’s batch of photos and I will be back tomorrow or Monday with today’s snaps.

Click here to see all the photos from Friday at the 2012 New York Comic Con at the Javits Center.