Most of my regular readers know I am a sports fan but I try and keep that stuff to a minimum because I know you guys are here for the photos I take and not my take on the Miami Dolphins and Washington Capitals. That being said, I decided I should probably address what happened the other day since I keep getting texts from people I haven’t seen in years because my face ended up all over the internet this week.

This week has been a pretty awful one. I went to DJ Jess’ memorial where I was served papers for a law suit that I have almost nothing to do with (but still have to hire a lawyer) and on the way home the car that I was borrowing from my parents to help them move got totaled by a guy who was running from the cops. I hurt my back in the accident and had to cancel on a shoot with Indigo Augustine and miss shooting the final Trouble & Bass party for the Village Voice. I went there to try and shoot it but I had to leave after 10 minutes because my back hurt so much.

The next morning I was supposed to go see my Washington Caps play the New York Islanders in the playoffs but with my back so messed up I wasn’t sure if I could go. I woke up that morning in a lot of pain but feeling much better than the day before. I decided to suck it up and go. And that’s when the weirdness began.

My friends and I are loud fans who make up our own chants and are fairly obnoxious but we don’t start fights and we don’t pick on random people. We just go there to have fun and cheer our team. Unfortunately our exuberance made us the target of some particularly awful Islanders fans. Most of them were great to us and bantered back and forth with us and gave us a hard time but in a fun way but there was some shit thrown at us and some vandalism and some stuff said to us that went over the line.

I ended up writing an open letter to the New York Islanders which talked about our day and I sent it to a few local DC bloggers and stuff. I was pissed and I wanted to gripe about my day but I didn’t even put it on the main page of this site. I ditched it over in the rarely updated B-Sides blog. I wanted people to read it but I didn’t expect what happened next.

Within an hour of me writing it it had gone viral. My Twitter handle @drivenbyboredom was the number one trending topic in the DC area. People started writing blogs and asking for interviews. I did a few of them and then started passing them off to the rest of my Caps crew because I didn’t get the worst of it, they did. I didn’t want to be the face of this thing. Today alone I turned down four TV interviews. The whole thing got out of hand.

I got a lot of love from Caps fans and some of the Isles enemies like the Rangers and Flyers fans but I also got message after message from Islanders fans apologizing for the dregs of their fan base. I have no problem with Islanders fans in general – they just happen to be the enemy this week – and it was great how many awesome Isles fans I have met this week.

Unfortunately there is a segment of way too serious Islanders trolls who have been sending hate mail and Tweet after Tweet and lying to the media about us. I have heard the craziest rumors about what we were doing and I did some more interviews to address some of that stuff. I don’t mind any of this. I shoot naked people for a living, you cannot even begin to guess how much hate I get. These trolls are fun for me but they are not fun for my crew. So I am gonna stop engaging and stop doing interviews because I don’t want my fellow Caps fans to get shit for me not being able to shut my mouth.

So this is hopefully the last of it, but I just wanted to link all the articles I can find about us for posterity. Enjoy reading about this super weird couple of days and for all the Islanders fans who aren’t drunken mouth breathing trolls I wish you guys a moderate amount of good luck and if you beat us this series I hope you take it to the Pens or the Rags. Cause those teams I actually hate!

To start with here’s my original Open Letter to Islanders Fans.

Here is the interview we did with Caps Radio’s John Walton. We compared it to an old school WWF style promo where we were going over the top with our anti-Isles rhetoric. It was supposed to be funny but in retrospect it has been used to say we were instigating.

Here is the first Washington Post article and here is the second.

The ESPN one was a good read.

Here’s a guy who called me a pornographer. That was a fun one.

And here’s an interview with an Islanders Blog where I tried to explain what happened.

The NY Daily News article has my reaction to the NY Islanders weak statement.

Puck Daddy agreed with my assessment.

Boomer Esiason talked about us.

And the rest:

Newsday – Sports Illustrated – Deadspin – CBS Sports – Outsports – Ted’s Take – NBC New York – NY Post –

Anyway, what a weird week. But hopefully that’s the end of this nonsense and I can get back to posting photos of crazy parties and naked babes and fun stuff like that. Let’s Go Caps!

After SXSW ended I stuck around Austin for a few days. It saved me a couple hundred dollars on my flight and allowed me to hang out with my local friends and eat food and honestly just chill the fuck out. SXSW is exhausting and it was nice to have a couple days to relax. On my last day in town I went to my first ever rodeo and it was pretty memorable.

Before the rodeo I was promised pig racing so my buddy Mike and I got there early but unfortunately missed the last pig race before the rodeo by about 15 minutes. We still had some time to kill so we hit the petting zoo and a bunch of carnival rides. It was $1 ride day but someone gave us a free ride wristband so we went on rides until I was ready to puke (probably the deep fried Oreo’s fault).

The rodeo itself was fairly interesting and for some reason we got our seats upgraded which was nice. The cattle roping shit is pretty wild and the little kids riding sheep, aka mutton busting, was amazing. During the bucking part of the rodeo someone got their head kicked in by a horse which was fucking insane. We thought he might have died but I didn’t find any news about it so I figured he was okay. The bull bucking was kinda disappointing because no one managed to stay on for the full 8 seconds but there were a few wild moments.

The highlight of the day was honestly the petting zoo. I really need to get a bunch of goats to hang out with. Not sure they would do super well in my New York apartment but I guess you don’t know until you try. Does Amazon offer Prime shipping for goats?

While I was at the rodeo I shot a roll of black and white film and another roll of snap shot 35mm color stuff. The color work is pretty mediocre but I think you guys will like some of the black and white stuff. Let me know what you think. Maybe I will dedicate more of my life to the rodeo…

Click here to check out all the 35mm photos from the Austin Rodeo!

You can file this under stuff you don’t care about.

I have done so much weird shit in my life that you probably wouldn’t expect based on everything else about me. I was thinking recently about creating a resume featuring just the stuff I have done that isn’t related to photography. The #1 thing on that list is founding the world’s largest Miami Dolphins fan club: Dolfans NYC.

Today Dolfans NYC released two videos from the events we through around the NY Jets/Miami Dolphins Monday Night Football game in December. My Dolphins won and we through one hell of a tailgate so I was happy even though our season was all downhill from there.

It took us a while to get the videos together but they are finally out. The first one is from the Dolfans NYC pre-party we through the Sunday before the game. A ton of people were in town from all over the country so we wanted to show them our bar Slattery’s and have some fun. It was a pretty good time.

The second video is the tailgate and footage from the actual game. We had 1200 people sitting together and it was a pretty amazing time even though it was fucking freezing. A ton of Dolphins players shouted us out after the game. It’s a pretty great feeling knowing that you impacted the game in some small way.

I know 99% of you don’t but if you want to know more you can read my post about it over on Dolfans NYC or go back and look at the original write up I did on DBB with my photos from the events.

Now even if you don’t care about this shit you should watch the second video. It’s a pretty impressive thing we have built. Enjoy, or something.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BOZBJOgWTc[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cL83QrWl04[/youtube]

The #MetLifeTakeover that I throw every year when the Miami Dolphins come up to play the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Of all the things I have ever done in my life it is probably my most successful. My partner Michelle and I have grown our fan club Dolfans NYC to become the biggest Miami Dolphins fan club in the world and the #MetLifeTakeover has become an event on every insane Miami Dolphins fan’s calendar.

I have no idea how to explain it to people who don’t know about this part of my life but Michelle and I bought and sold over 1000 tickets to a football game and you could hear our club loudly on the Monday Night Football broadcast. Several players Tweeted about us after the game and the head coach mentioned us in his post game press conference.

Dolfans NYC also through a party the day before at our bar Slattery’s with former Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler and rapper Solo D. We raised over $3000 for charity and this adorable thing happened. The next day we set up a massive tailgate at MetLife (sponsored by AquaHydrate!) and threw a pretty great party despite the freezing rain. The Sailor Jerry rum and hot cider helped. Also the Dolphins won so that was nice.

Anyway I know 95% of you don’t care about this stuff but I am going to Art Basel in Miami tomorrow so next time I update it will probably be Miami related stuff you DO care about. If anyone needs a photographer at Basel get at me. I got a pretty free schedule.

Now, if you want to read more about these events you can click here to read about the #MetLifeTakeover and you can click here to read about the pre-party.

Click here to see photos from the #MetLifeTakeover pre-party at Slattery’s Midtown Pub.

Click here to see the photos from the 2014 #MetLifeTakeover at MetLife Stadium.

I spent the weekend in Miami and photographically I don’t have much to show for it but the Miami Dolphins fan club that I run won three awards including an award honoring our club’s commitment to the community. We donated $5000 this year to the Miami Dolphins Foundation bringing our total to over $10,000 to just that one charity. We also won a social networking award that I will probably put on a resume if I ever have to get a real job again.

I also am really sick and you guys probably don’t care about any of this, but I will just say the weekend was a blast and the Dolphins absolutely obliterated the San Diego Chargers so that was fucking amazing. Honestly for a football nerd like myself the weekend couldn’t have been much better.

In other news here’s an update on my Dinner With Igor book… I just got all samples from my new printer and they look great. I can’t wait to get this book finally finished and send it off to print. Hopefully this time next week that will be a reality. We shall see…

I only took a few photos this weekend but the Miami Dolphins had a couple photographers on hand to document it so there are a bunch of shots of us as well as the photos I took.

Click here to see both my photos and the Dolphins photos of us over on the Dolfans NYC Flickr account and I will be back soon with some naked photos since I am too sick to go out in public to take new photos…

It’s football season again and that means occasionally I force you guys to look at mediocre photos of random Miami Dolphins fans! Get excited!

As many of you know I run the official New York City Miami Dolphins fan club, Dolfans NYC. Our club has grown from just a couple dozen of us to hundreds of members. Yesterday around 400 people showed up to our Miami Dolphins home base, Slattery’s Midtown Pub. It was a pretty amazing event.

We did a bunch of raffles and sold t-shirts and ended up raising over $1000 for charity. On top of that our Dolphins beat the bloody Hell out of the New England Patriots which gave us the added bonus of getting to see Tom Brady cry although maybe he was just upset to be missing New York Fashion Week.

My parents were in town for the game too which was a lot of fun and then they took me and my brother (who was also in town) to dinner at WD-50. That was amazing because I don’t have $150 to spend on a damn dinner, but it was a pretty special dining experience.

Anyway, yesterday fucking ruled and now you get to look some random photos of stuff you don’t care about. Sorry!

Click here to see the gallery of the Dolfans NYC event at Slattery’s Midtown Pub!

In my efforts to finish getting up all my photos from the Gathering of the Juggalos I just through a bunch of stuff into a gallery called “Nighttime Madness”. This gallery includes a bunch of stuff including shots of the late night after parties, comedy showcases, wrestling, and much more. Let’s see if I can walk you through it…

Every night at the Gathering there is an after party. In the past they have been some of the Gathering’s best events. This year they did them on the main stage and something about that got away from the intimacy of a small tent in the middle of the woods. A couple years ago I sat on the stage and watched Pharcyde and Warren G did a tribute to Nate Dogg. This year not so much.

The comedy highlights were Gilbert Gottfried who I see all the time in the Lower East Side just walking around and former wrestler Mick Foley. Gottfried did a set of really old jokes which was honestly amazing to see. These are jokes you have heard your entire life done by the guy who wrote them. Watching him get a kick out of the juggalos was the best part though. He just kept getting them to chant insane things like “Fuck Jack Parr!” and then would laugh to himself. It was great. He also did a particularly offensive telling of The Aristocrats which you should clearly watch. Mick Foley really impressed as well. I always enjoyed him as a wrestler, and the guy has written a bunch of best selling books, but he is a fantastic raconteur and told stories that even people who aren’t wresting fans would enjoy. Not that it would matter since pretty much all juggalos are also wrestling fans.

Also included in this gallery are some shots of the girls of the infamous “Passed Out Juggalos“. They find sleeping jugglaos at the Gathering and put their butts on their heads. I realized those pronouns might be confusing and the concept seem mildly awful, but in reality it’s a good time for all and kinda hilarious at 5am.

We also have a few shots of lady wrasslin’, the legendary and mysterious burrito men, and a camp set up by fire juggling steam punk maniacs RIFT (Rhythmic Illusions Fire Tribe). Oh there is also a terrifying wheel and some fire works. Whoop whoop.

Click here to see all the nighttime madness from the Gathering of the Juggalos. NSFW as you would expect.

One of my favorite moments of Gatherings past was when Wolfpac while hosting Psychopathic Radio had people box blindfolded on roller skates. It seemed like a funny idea, but it wasn’t until two fighters decided to take off the skates, blindfolds and boxing gloves that it got good. I happened to be passing by on a golf cart when I jumped out to photograph the end of the fight. The winner didn’t matter because both fighters brutalized each other and hugged at the end. It was both brutal and inspiring.

Cut to a few years later one of those fighters was back. His name is Nebraska and oddly enough he is from Nebraska. He fought not one, but TWO fighters and beat them both soundly ending the second fight with a knee to the guts that made it pretty much impossible for the other fighter to breathe. Any fighter knows that it’s the gut shot that will put you down before the head shot and Nebraska worked the body after taking several shots to the head.

There was a fight in between featuring a Canadian grappler and a dude who seemed to relish getting punched in the face. It ended after four rounds with the Canuck giving up after realizing he was going to have to murder the other fighter if he wanted to end it. He ended up forfeiting rather than destroying the other dude which I am pretty sure he was capable of. He got made fun of but it was a pretty reasonable move.

The whole event was MC’d by Wolfpac & the Kottonmouth Kings and you can read a more elaborate play by play from my friend Drew Ailes who wrote about the event for the Village Voice. There’s a profile of Nebraska in there as well. He seems like a really good dude. Worth reading.

And lastly click here to see all the wild pictures from Psychopathic Radio’s juggalo fight club!

Once again I spent my 4th of July in Coney Island taking photos of people eating hot dogs. There is nothing more American than that! The Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest is now in its 98th year and for the 8th time in a row Joey “Jaws” Chestnut won. At 61 hot dogs he was nowhere near his record of 69 but it was enough to outlast Matt Stoney who had the lead midway through the 10 minutes of hot dog eating. Chestnut won another way too.. before the contest he proposed to his long time girlfriend and fellow eater Neslie Ricasa.

On the women’s side there was a big upset. Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas lost for the first time in the history of the women’s competition. She was beaten by Miki Sudo 34 to 28. Thomas holds the record at 45 but with a crazy storm going on it was apparently bad day for eating hot dogs. Sonya is from my hometown of Alexandria, VA so I have been a fan of hers for many years. I hope she can mount a comeback next year!

The storm was pretty insane and Coney Island was empty on what is normally one of the most packed days of the summer. I was pretty prepared for the weather but it still made my job a lot harder. At some point my lens got fogged up but I couldn’t tell because I was shooting through a plastic waterproof case and I thought it was just my screen that was fogged. Fortunately I shot several hundred photos so I think there is plenty of madness for you guys to look at!

After the contest I ran into my friend Olivia and we rode the ferris wheel in the rain which makes the second time in two weeks I have been on the Wonder Wheel. We also went to the beach which was hilarious to see people trying to vacation in the pouring rain. After leaving Olivia and a slightly too long nap I ended up at the  private hot dog eating after party where I didn’t take any photos but did have corn starch poured down my pants by one of the best eaters in the world. And that’s how I spent my 4th of July…

Now click here to see all my photos from the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island!