So I am doing a little bit of work for The Fashion Spot during this fashion week and last night I was on my way to cover a Patricia Fields party in Midtown. But right before I left my house I got a text from my editor there telling me I needed to get over to the John Varvatos store because Guns and Roses were doing a private set. Yeah, that’s right, Guns and Fucking Roses were playing for like 200 people in the same location that CBGB’s used to be.  Fashion Spot was on the list and I just had to go over there and drop some names.  Of course when I got there it was at max capacity and they weren’t letting anyone in. I was cold and frustrated and about to give up when I saw that the bouncers were all wearing PBR hats.  I knew that NYC PBR rep Dan James had to be inside. I hit him up and he came out and they still wouldn’t let me in.  He wasn’t sponsoring the event but he had a bunch of PBR shwag.  One of the bouncers asked him for another hat and he traded them hats in trade for letting me in.  That was a huge move. It almost makes up for him being a Jets fan.

So after an hour of waiting packed like sardines in a 120 degree clothing store Guns and Roses made the stage… Well at least Axl did, I am pretty sure none of his backing band were actually in Guns and Roses, but I didn’t really give a fuck. I met Slash at Sundance last year so I’m all good.  Guns and Roses were pretty much all I cared about in 1991.  In the late ’80s and early ’90s all I listened to was rap and metal.  And by rap I mean shit like Young MC and Run DMC and by metal I mean Poison, Motley Crew and G’n’f’n’R.  I wanted to see Guns and Roses with Metalica in ’91 so fucking badly but my mom wouldn’t let me go with all my friends.  Well, if I had told my 11 year old self that I would be two feet from Axl Rose singing Sweet Child o’ Mine I would have lost my shit.

Now, admittedly 20 years later it’s not quite the same thing.  There were 200 people there instead of 20,000, Axl has put on a few pounds and my enthusiasm for ’80s hair metal is not quite what it once was, but I was still pretty excited.  I told a girl next to me that I was going to take off after 25 minutes, but Axl fucking brought it.  I stayed for the entire set and it was nearly 2 hours long.  Brooklyn Vegan has the set list if you care.  Speaking of set lists, I escaped with Axl’s set list, so that was pretty fan boy of me.  I think it’s probably the only set list I have ever taken.

Anyway, the show was actually really great.  They played some of the new stuff that people didn’t really care about, but they played the hits and they did an AC/DC cover which was great. Axl was much more relaxed than I imagined him to be.  He was joking around the whole time.  People waited hours to see them and actually a ton of people left before he even showed up.  Because of this people were calling him “Asshole” when he got on stage.  He was joking about how he had never heard anyone rhyme Axl with Asshole.  He just took it in stride.  He was actually really hilarious. He kept smiling the whole time. He was clearly having a blast, joking about someone had stolen his shirts. He was not nearly the Asshole Rose I assumed he would be.

I have to say it must be sort of weird for him to be playing for a bunch of people who don’t really give a fuck about being there.  There were a few serious fans but most of the people were just fashion week types and people who have the pull to get into some exclusive G’n’R show.  A lot of people sang a long to the hooks on the hits, but the bouncers didn’t really have to keep any screaming fans from tearing his clothes off.  Even when they finished their set to Paradise City the crowd just sort of started filing out instead of demanding an encore.  The band had to run band on stage before the crowd left so they could finish their set. It could have been sort of awkward and embarrassing but Axl just kept going and he fucking killed it.

It was really great seeing Guns and Roses on a $5000 PA.  By the end you could barely hear the vocals. It was like they were playing in an actual punk club.  At once point Axl excitedly screamed something about playing CBGB’s.  It was sort of epic. Again, I just wanted to say, before I finally go to sleep, that despite the sound system, and the shitty crowd and the heat and the fact that he is old as hell, Axl really put on a great show and I could not have been happier to have been there.  I figured when the entire 1990s passed without me seeing my one time favorite band that I probably was not going to get the chance, but here we are a decade later and I was shooting them live from 5 feet away.

Lastly, it was insanely hot in there and I was shooting over people’s heads and I was generally a bit disappointed with the shots I got, but none the less, there are some images here that I think really capture the night. I hope you dig them because this show is something I am going to remember for a long time.

Click here to see all my pictures of Guns and Roses at the John Varvatos fashion week party.

Ps. I forgot to mention this, but I sort of have to say something about it. On the same table where Axl kept his beer, he also had a box of tissues and he kept going over there and using them between songs.  I am not sure he would have had a box of Kleenex on stage with him 20 years ago, but if he had the sniffles you have to admire his dedication.

Ps. These were posted on TMZ.

PPs. GNR Fans… these images are available as 16″x20″ archival art prints. Contact me for details.

Hey, I just wanted to share this poorly photographed street style video with you.  I probably should blog about fashion more often than I do since I know a lot of people come here to see what the kids in NYC are rocking, but I rarely do.  This video has nothing to do with what the kids in NYC are wearing, but what the kids in Richmond, VA are getting into.  As you may know I lived in Richmond for 5 years and still have a lot of friends there.   One of those, my friend Roberto is working for the school newspaper of my alma mater (VCU) called the Commonwealth Times. He called me the other day to see if he could get a track from the band I managed called The Gaskets for one of their street style videos.  The song on the video is called Structure Fire and the band broke up before it was ever released.  However, you can hear a demo of the full song on their defunct myspace page.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeZEtzrZ_tc&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

So I have managed to get on the press list for the WIRED store for whatever reason so I decided to check out another one of their parties.  I figured it would be good content for the Village Voice.  The event has something to do with global climate change, Kofi Annan and male models, but I am too tired to figure out how all that goes together.  Hopefully this link can explain some of it. I tend to be pretty interested in things without vowels.

Anyway, model Jamie Burke’s band Delilah played as did Theophilus London and Dan Black.  Mark Ronson supposedly DJ’d but apparently showing up two hours late for a 3 hour party was a mistake on my part.  I am actually pretty into Theo London after seeing him twice now (here’s pics from last time) and Delilah was not as bad as you would expect from a band fronted by a male model.

The publicists gave me a list of celebrities that RSVP’d several of which I know personally.  I made some inquires and found out they never actually RSVP’d but I guess convincing press to show up to your events is what publicists do. Not that I am killing myself to shoot celebs anyway, but it makes the Voice happy to get galleries like that. One celeb that did show up trumps pretty much everyone they had on their list. Abel fucking Ferrara.  If you don’t know anything about him, look him up.  He is pretty much the quintessential New Yorker and one of the least apologetic directors of all time. When he found out that the equally unapologetic Werner Herzog was remaking Bad Lieutenant he told him he could “Die in Hell”. Getting to meet him was an honor and makes taking photos reality show stars feel even more empty than it actually is.

I didn’t shoot a ton of pictures from the night because aside from showing up late I spent a lot of time watching Ease Da Man harass models, put Mishka stickers on everyone/everything and shove as many CK One samples into his pockets as humanly possible. I also spent as much time as possible flirting with a rad cocktail waitress who mildly resembled Sasha Grey (The picture of her holding olives does not do her justice, but it is really funny). All and all despite a severe lack of sleep and a mild lack of things to take photos of I had a pretty good time, and I am pretty sure everyone else did since the place was still packed at 1030 when they started kicking everyone out.

Anyway, if you want to check out the pictures from the WIRED Tck Tck Tck party click here.

So I have to plug this event.  On Thursday Mishka is releasing their 2010 calendar.  This brings about a meeting of all sorts of people I love. Let’s start with Mishka.  Since I spend $0 a year on clothes (Not including shoes…) most of my wardrobe consists of Mishka stuff.  I shot a look book for them a while back and now they give me all the eyeball related garb I could ever want.  I really dig their clothes and the stuff they are doing, like the Creepy Touch web series that just finished starring my man Toilet Cobra.

Next you have the photographer, the lovely Ellen Stagg.  If you were to design the perfect girl for me she would pretty closely resemble Ellen. She is super hot, totally insane and an awesome photographer. Plus she runs her own porn site. How can you not love that.

Thirdly, you have the naked girls in the calendar. The girls are hand selected from Ellen’s stable of alt chicks an adult models including Suicide Girls, Burning Angels and Gods Girls. My home girl Joanna Angel is on the cover and my ex Nicole is in there somewhere I think.  Nicole actually happens to be October of the 2009 calendar so as I type this her nipples and her are staring back at me. It also has Justine Joli who might be the most adorable thing on Earth.  The only time I met her we talked for less than five minutes and still managed to graphically discus our sex lives.

Oh, the other awesome thing about this party?  It is two blocks away from my house in Southside Williamsburg.  You bitches are gonna have to get on the J train if you want to party with porn stars. So come out and check out out takes from the calendar, meet cute girls and buy some shit.  We can party at my house after. It should be a good time.  Info below:

This is the third time I have shot the NY Couture fashion show and I think it keeps getting better.  Cassie is a friend and their photographer Steve Prue is one of my favorite photographers to run into. Their clothes are absolutely insane and while I am pretty sure you have to be an anime character to wear them, they make for great photos.  Due to my bum knee I mostly avoided the crowd and shot just the show and the VIP/backstage area.  My girl Contessa and Rock of Love’s Angelique “Frenchy” Morgan hosted.  The band Ultraviolet Sound played the after party.  Fun times were being had, but I dipped out early to ice my knee and cut all my hair off.

Click here for the New York Couture Spring 2010 fashion week show at Webster Hall.

I met a girl named Bob on a bus.  Bob Bland and I were headed to DC on a DC2NY bus and we sat across from each other with a table in the middle for people who need to use their computers during the ride.  I am not sure either of us ever turned ours on and we ended up talking the entire trip.  More than a year later Bob and I are friends and when she opened up her new art space in Williamsburg I photographed the party.  So when she had a fashion show for the Spring ’10 line of her company, Brooklyn Royalty, she asked me to come by.  At first I didn’t think I would make it because I am on injured reserve and all… but the Arsenal is in my neighborhood and it has an elevator so I figured I could make it.

When I got there no one downstairs knew how to work the freight elevator so I had to walk up 4 flights of stairs.  When I got there I sort of wanted to die, but I managed to tough it out and see the show.  It was quite a lovely affair and I was glad to be there.  After I spent 30 minutes waiting for someone to help me with the elevator but it wasn’t working so I had to hobble back down the stairs.  5 cab drivers pulled over only to ask me if I was going to the city and then the drove off.  I managed throw some crumpled up paper in one of their windows, but I was still fucking pissed off.  Finally a cab driver saw me hobbling about and drove past me only to do a U-turn and come back for me.  He was an Italian dude named Frank and probably only the third native speaking cab driver I have had in the exactly three years I have lived in New York. He was pretty amazing and bitched at me about the price of sneakers.

Wow. I just realized today is exactly the 3rd year anniversary of me living in Brooklyn.  Happy anniversary NYC.

Click here to see all the pictures from the Brooklyn Royalty Spring 2010 fashion show at the Arsenal.

So have you guys ever been on Model Mayhem?  If you are not aware, it is a site where people who want to be photographers and people who want to be models try to get famous, get fucked, or at the very least take naked pictures of each other.  While there are certainly some actually amazing photographers on there, and a number of actual agency repped models most of it is a cluster fuck.  There are all these male models who send comments to girls like “I wanna pose with you baby!”.  And I am sure a lot of photographers even more lecherous than I use it to see actual naked people.  I have shot a few girls off the site, but mostly it has been a waste of my time.  That being said, their forums are fucking amazing.

The forums seem to be almost completely unregulated and people are so hostile in there.  I mean if you want to know if your work at all holds up, go on those forums.  Those people will rip you a new asshole.  Watching wanna be models/photogs ask for advice on there is so good.  People will just tell them to quit now and never look back.  It is phenomenal.  After spending some time in there one day I came up with an idea.

I want to, as a joke, very seriously attempt to become a professional male model.  The thing is, while I am at least moderately cute, I am in fucking horrible shape, my skin seen the sun in a decade, clothes don’t fit me and it is very clear that I should never, ever be a model.  That being said, I do have one thing going for me… I know a lot of really amazing photographers.  So here is the idea.  I want to go to some of my friends who are pro-photogs and have them take really great photos of me.  Then I will start a Model Mayhem account as a model and then go into the forums and ask people for advice.  Now I am about to post some pretty funny photos with this post, but the only ones I will put on MM will be ALMOST serious shots.  I am going to post photos that while funny to you and me and everyone who knows about this will be believable enough for everyone else to think I am serious.  I am going to go about it in a really serious way and not give up until a) I think it is no longer funny or b) I get an actual paid model gig that doesn’t involve gay sex in any way.

I had been talking about this “becoming a professional male model as performance art” idea for a while, but when I was out in LA my friend Robyn Von Swank was teaching me some photoshop tricks.  We grabbed her camera and spent 10 minutes outside shooting some photos.  She touched a few of them up for me as I watched.  She did a pretty half assed job on them cause we were just fucking around teaching me stuff, but still, they are all good enough to pass for attempts at modeling work.  Most of them are too over the top for this project, but the ones of me leaning on the car are pure gold.  So now I just need a few more “looks” and I can start this hilarious plan I have.

So if any of my photog friends/fans out there, want to shoot me for the benefit of this really stupid project, let me know. I will keep you guys all updated if I ever follow up on this. When I have told people about this idea about half the people just stare at me and the other half think it is kinda brilliant… so let me know how you feel about it. If people think it is amusing, I will actually try to follow through…

But for now enjoy some of these shots that Robyn took of me and make sure to check out her website, because she is a really great photographer, despite how silly/half assed these shots are.  All the photos Robyn took can be found if you click here.

Just a little SXSW update….

Things are completely nuts. I am shooting 1000 photos a day, 17 hours a day. I have been on my feet from noon to five every day. Total fucking madness. I haven’t taken a shower yet, I am sleeping on a gross couch and I haven’t made out with anyone in days, but I have taken a lot of rad photos, met a ton of people and my arms are covered in wrist bands. My cell phone keeps dying, my Twitter keeps fucking up and my text messages keep disappearing. I am shooting stuff for Brooklyn Vegan, Flavorwire, The Village Voice, Inked Magazine and as of today the Vice blog. The first published stuff is up today on Flavorwire… Check that shit out. I have seen the Circle Jerks, Ninjasonik twice, Lucero, Semi Precious Weapons, Juliette Lewis, Daniel Johnston, Hearts Revolution about probably 50 other bands. It has been nuts. It is going to take forever to get these photos up.

Anyway, I just wanted to give a shout out to AirWalk who gave me these free shoes. I pretty much only wear high tops so I was pretty psyched I could get some high tops. I used to wear AirWalk back in the day. Have you guys ever read Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. There is pretty much a whole chapter about the rise and fall of the brand. But they are bringing shit back, doing the branding, getting the name out. They are bringing back some retro styles. They got some low top boots that they did for the Beastie Boys. Pretty sick shit. Anyway, check out the kicks I got. Hopefully I can score some free pants tomorrow.

Okay so I got some new Jordans and I like blogging about the shoes I get so there is a picture below.  But the main point of this post is a little site update. I spent an insane amount of time doing my taxes and getting shirts ready to send out and I have not started packing for SXSW.  My insurance company is fucking me to the wall and I have to deal with that tomorrow.  Then I go to Texas and I have no idea what my blogging situation is going to be.  So, let me tell you this.  This site may be slow to update over the next 7 days, but I am going to have some great shots from Austin, so at least get excited for that.  N00dz update tomorrow then I am out of town.  Speaking of N00dz, if you are a girl who wants to be naked on my website, and you are going to SXSW, drop me a line.  Let’s be productive.