Well, shit. I did a whole lot of nothing yesterday despite having grandiose plans to clean the house top to bottom in Kathy’s absence (I can be annoying). She’s in Germany for five days. Instead I shirked work (workshirker) with Christian all day, who just returned from meeting with Uma in London about their movie. Then Mike Nouveau came to store his Vespa at my house for twelve days while he goes to Paris. I am not going to Paris or London or Germany. I am going to the Tea Lounge.

On Saturday I did, however, travel all the way to Alana’s house, which I think is located in Latin America… or maybe across the street from a meatpacker in the utmost of industrial Brooklyn and a gaggle of cackling hispanic men who take lots of group photos of each other. She and Kate and I put on the Greatest Hits of Dimitry’s Most Hilarious T-shirts and ran around in the rain throwing balls at each other.

Two songs to share. 1) Estelle’s new single “No Substitute Love,” which I really like a whole lot more than “American Boy.” Christian is in the video, too! 2) Five O’Clock Heroes’ “Who” with Agyness singing. It came out great, I really love this song. It’s been on repeat in my bedroom for a while now.

Five O’Clock Heroes – Who (feat. Agyness Deyn)

One more thing. (more…)

This is Alana preparing to crabwalk at Rockaway Beach last Saturday.

She and Lisa and I spent approximately forever traveling to the beach and two of us ended up with sunburned legs because we’re stupid, but I had a lot of fun. Especially when the three-foot seaweed was hanging out of Alana’s three-inch bikini bottom.

Last night Nancy invited some of us to the opening of former Steeler Amos Zereoue’s namesake restaurant. Having been raised in Cleveland, I am obliged to hate him simply for having been professionally associated with Pittsburgh, but when he appeared in a white suit and sunglasses indoors I was a fan. Pink cocktails and finger foods abounded. Some duck here and there. Was very nice, but very tight. Then Geneva brought us to see Liz Phair at Hiro. We only stayed for maybe eight or nine songs, but it was Kathy’s first time seeing her live, playing all older songs for the anniversary of Exile in Guyville. She still looks 22, at least under stage lights. Then I went home and directly to bed because it’s basically a nest and I never want to leave it ever again. I know it’s extraordinarily wasteful, but I think there’s nothing better than having the A/C on and being under a blanket, so I allowed myself to do it last night. With the Princess Bride.

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Katelyn Roof is one of our favorite photographers. She does frank flash portraits just as well as she does studio fantasies, all of it a unique way to illustrate her own different personalities through other womens’ faces and postures. Check out her stuff, and view some more images after the jump… (more…)

This is kind of embarrassing but I had no idea that this GenArt/Acura thing I was asked to participate in was going to be such a… thing. They had me and a few other photographers contribute some work to “Capture the Night,” a gallery show traveling across the US to somehow promote the new Acura TSX. I went along with it and was happy to be included.

The launch was last week in LA and it was hosted by Molly Sims, and attended by some Hiltons and all kinds of neat recognizable ladies (and Spencer Pratt’s sister). For some reason I thought my photos would just be incorporated as background/atmosphere, but apparently our work was kind of the focus of the evening? “An exhilarating photography exhibition,” as it’s been billed, “featuring the spirit of nightlife explored through the work of emerging photographers.”

Anyway. Becki Newton from Ugly Betty was there as well, and she said some nice things about us, which doesn’t surprise me because Christian came back from meeting & dressing her in LA a couple months ago and told me how great she was. I don’t know who Cheryl Burke is but apparently she and Rashida Jones from The Office particularly liked the photo of Geneva. Wish I could have been there!

Nick and I have been meaning to schedule a shoot for almost a year (been doing a lot of those lately), and we did this one just a day before he got a large portion of his face tattooed. We shot these after the Presets show on Thursday and then it was approximately a million degrees too hot out for me to want to sit down and go through photos.

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But the A/C is on tonight and so I got to it. Between the tattoos, his scars and that cigarette, I know approximately one hundred girls and dirty-minded gays for whom Nick is a late night Williamsburg dream come to life. I also believe that most of the Gawker girls will secretly love him. Next time you guys put it to a vote, can I have some choice in the nominees?

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Stephen and Michael, party hosting duo Kids With Snakes (who, incidentally, are on the bill for my birthday party on the 14th), and I have been meaning to set up a shoot for about a year now. We see each other all the time but it’s been super difficult to schedule something where all three of us (and all my equipment) could be in the same place at the same time. So last weekend it just all sort of came together at the last minute, and we shot in Stephen’s yard and apartment in Williamsburg.

They and I have something in common, which is that there are lots of people who don’t like us. Plenty have good reason (we admit it), and plenty have no reason at all. It doesn’t really matter because we all have lots of love in our lives and we have amazing times with our friends. But, you know. There’s always a special bond between respective recipients of ‘net hate. I think that’s part of why Sarah and I get along so well.

Anyway, for being photographed so often by everyone, and despite having no problem taking their clothes off outdoors, the boys are still shy in front of a camera. So it took some time to warm up, but I really love a lot of the shots we were able to get.

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More after the jump… (more…)

Upstairs with Cameron and Romina
May 30, 2008

On Friday I got to go with Christian to have dinner with Lucy Walsh and then go to her dad’s show at Madison Square Garden. I had never seen The Eagles before; they were amazing! They sounded so perfectly put together. Every moment was spot-on, and their set was three hours long! I knew the basics (“Hotel California” of course) and I knew Don Henley’s hits (“Boys of Summer” and “Dirty Laundry”) and one or two of Joe Walsh’s solo songs. But I knew so many of the other things they played and never had any idea they were their songs. Lucy was great, I like her. At one point she exclaimed “my dad looks like Kill Bill!” She introduced us to him backstage and all I could think about was that everywhere my music is for sale online, his name is always right there on the page as a “maybe you’ll like…” simply because we have the same last name.

Definitely one of the coolest shows I’ve been to in New York. The place was sold out, the second of three nights in a row, many thousands of people dancing and singing along. It was great. At one point we were visited by the Naked Brothers band from Nickelodeon, who are interested in having Christian on the show? I don’t know. It was awkward because the young one was like ten years old and I think we had just been talking about something raunchy. Also, their mom was on Thirtysomething.

A few weeks ago my mom told me that our family cat, Eliot, was dying. She said he was lying on the floor quietly and hadn’t eaten for days. He’s a big fat lazy angry cat who doesn’t do much other than eat, poop, and bat at you with a claw. But he was calm and skinny and she was sure he was on his way out. He is 16 years old. So I bought a gravestone for him online, had it engraved and sent to her house in Ohio. It takes a few weeks for them to make and send it, so I was worried he was going to be dead and buried for a while before the marker was in place. But then he got better. Now he’s fine and walking around and his gravestone arrived today. Mom sent me a photo of it… neatly placed in the backyard garden as though he is buried underneath it. But he’s probably rubbing up against it and hobnobbing with the dogs in the sun. Because he’s alive. Yet his grave is already clearly marked with an epitaph and his silhouette. Mom is creepy.

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Kill Shop Kill Look Book

Trash at 40C
May 23, 2008

Acura and GenArt are celebrating the launch of the new TSX with a few parties across the country, at which my art and the art of a couple other people (including genius Nikola) is being presented gallery-style. “Gen Art and Acura invite you to ‘Capture the Night’ with the debut of an exhilarating photography exhibition embodying the spontaneous nightlife spirit of the new TSX campaign.”

Molly Sims is hosting the LA launch on June 5, and there are additional dates in Atlanta (June 26) and Chicago (July 31). The photos of mine that they are showing include Geneva, Anna, Kate, Alana, Sarah & Karen.

Carolina! You may remember her from her wrangling talents, and you can watch the Logo Awards on June 7 to see her dance like a maniac for Cyndi Lauper.

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Yesterday she and I hopped into a car (she lives like ten feet from me) and took ourselves to Williamsburg, where I photographed her in a bunch of Christian’s stuff. Dear Google: Christian would like you to know that these clothes are all designed and made by Christian Siriano. Also, he cut my hair again and now I feel ten times better about myself, even though today is day two of this shirt that I am currently wearing.

First of all, Carolina’s gorgeous. The whole time we were shooting my brain was saying ‘wow.’ Second, the clothes are amazing. That gold shirt is the one he wore to the Sex & the City movie premiere a couple days ago (which, by the way, he made in a few hours the day of), and the fuschia poofy dress is the one that Holly wore on Make Me A Supermodel. The big black belt was a rare Beacon’s Closet treasure of a find. I’m so happy to have so many inspiring people around me all the time! Summer begins.

Tomorrow Christian and I get to go see The Eagles with Lucy Walsh! That’s kind of amazing all around. But today is an interview day. Before the day is done I vow to have completed my outstanding Q&A’s! Why do people want to know what I think about anything? I’ve had questions sitting in my inbox for a while for three different things; one of them is 25 questions long and clearly they are only going to print like three of them… I’m going to just suck it up and start typing my answers… now!

I took Alicia’s picture a few months ago at a party, and pretty soon after that we found each other online and got in contact to spew accolades at each other. So when she came back into town after a trip to Italy (she’s from Kansas City), we met up to discuss her music, my music, her travels, and my… back yard. I had a great time just fucking around and hanging out. No pretension or awkwardness, really, for relative strangers.

We had to reschedule the visit from earlier in the day to 7pm, and then when she arrived she had to sit around for an hour listening to a (really hot) dude explain to me and Anna our parts in a movie that we’re going to do this summer. But it actually all worked out for the best, because when everybody left it was getting dark outside and we went to the back yard to do photos, and they started to come out great.

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Beautiful Bodies, “Touch Me”

Her band, the Beautiful Bodies, is really good. I really like “Touch Me” on their MySpace. It’s only a matter of time before this song gets co-opted for an iPod commercial or something. She also sings a bit on some of the new Republic Tigers (who I love) album, who were why she was in town this weekend (they were on Letterman). Their album Keep Color is like Nada Surf and Interpol and Stellastarr had a threewaybaby.

The Republic Tigers, “Buildings and Mountains”

It seems that between Alicia and the Republic Tigers and Ssion and the 20 or so transplanted club kids with more original style than I’ve seen around here in a long time that Kansas City is the New New York.

Finally found the time to get things together and finalize some more images for the 410BC shoot I did a little bit ago. It’s hard to get caught up after being sick and having so much pile up!

The four models were all great to work with, all from Basic. My favorite was Matt (above). He had a really thick Bronx accent and was of course also a musician. Very nice and laid back, shook everyone’s hand and wanted to know what we were up to later. If he had a black eye, Kathy would have married him right there on the spot.

Last week on the subway there was a woman who looked strikingly like that monstrous fishboar Andrea Peyser, I think maybe it was her. I just don’t imagine her being able to take a full ride without eating someone’s face; she needs to cab it. Every time I question “why would ____ be on the subway?” I think about the fact that I’ve been on the train with Hugh Jackman. If he can ride the train, Peyser certainly can. She was sandwiched uncomfortably between a guy with Encino Man hair and huge orange headphones, and another guy who looked like Will Forte doing Sam Zell. She seemed very unhappy. And look! This paragraph is already long enough to pass for one of her “columns.”

On Friday I shot PFYM’s Doree and Jessica for their book. And then I got really drunk with Kate and Alana at Christian’s new apartment, which is gigantic and beautiful. He already made it amazing and he’s been there less than a week. Those girls are amazing. I can’t handle it. Kate tells it to me like it is and I love/hate her for that. Alana lies and then pretends to be high, just to be cool. I want to spend every day with them. I got a huge royalty check from iTunes last week so I spent a lot of money on good food this weekend. Who knew good fish was so good?

I’ve been having a rough time lately! And I’ve been pretty consistently pissed and depressed and uncomfortable for a week or so, but I’ve been making a big effort to shake it off and try and be nice, or at least neutral, so let me just vent right now and let out a virtual shout and holy shit I need a vacation! I hope my friends can deal with me.

One thing that’s made me feel a lot better has been working on a remix of one of my favorite artists. This time it’s Alan MX, who I am really completely in awe of. He’s become a friend over the last few years, and I’ve been bugging the living shit out of him to get me the track pieces for his song “Captain America Video.” He finally sent everything to me a couple days ago and I dove right in; I’m about half done with it and I can’t wait to finish it and send it off into the world. He’s so awesome. I love it. This remix, I know, Sarah’s going to hear it and be like HOLY SHIT.

Speaking of Sarah, on her rooftop last weekend I took this picture of Kathy while I was doing all the other stuff and Sarah was at Bamboozle. It was almost an accident and I don’t think Kathy even likes it, but I do. So here:

And here are some more of some of my favorite girls. Alana and Kate and Joanna came over last Friday evening to pre-game and dress up and bitch about people. I want to do that everyday with them.