she only wants to...

Ok, there it is. That's the edit i did way back in the day man. I did it. I sat down and i just muscled right the hell on through it. Because that's what it takes. That's how I do. Now this needs to be brief, because I was told earlier that I have to get at least 4 hours of sleep. That's apparently the boundary. And the thing is, is coming up on Quarter to Four, (which by the way reminds me of a phone message i got one time from this friend of mine, i guess i shouldn't say this friend of mine like he's just some friend that I could give two shits about, I mean, it was my friend Aaron, and a few years ago, he left me this voice mail, that for some reason i saved, and it wasn't anything important, you know, one of those, "busting your balls" calls that you get from an old friend once in a while, and this one was something on the order of, "what's up you fuckin' drama queen?! where the fuck you been?! it's aaaaaaaaaahhhh.... quarter to four, (dot dot dot)" and so now, as a full grown adult male, living in The United States of America, whenever I write or say, or even hear, "it's aaah... quarter to four" my brain just ticks on it. So, hopefully now yours will too, but I doubt it.)

The point is, it's quarter to four, and you know, i get up around 7:30, so getting the 4 hours is going to be a challenge now. I'll need a god damned FLUX CAPACITOR to do that. The final leg of the tour (so to speak) was to get through this last bit of photos. They were actually shot back on like, October 1, or maybe it was even September 30, now that i think about it. They got dumped from the camera on The One, or, well. Google it. I'm sure it was back there somewhere anyway. They were from the last night of the Semi-Precious-Weapons residency over at Ars Nova. Ars Nova. HA! that's funny. But not a funny place. It was a great venue, and the show was fucking great too. And i'll tell you what. I was saving these pix till i could sit down and look at them. Which is what i finally did tonight. You might remember sometime back, when I thought I thought i was (OH MY GOD. YOU CANNOT IMAGINE HOW ANNOYING IT IS TO HAVE TO GO BACK AND CAPITALIZE THE STANDALONE LETTER "I" IN A BLOG, THAT I'M WRITING about ME. JESUS. I'M DONE WITH THAT. FROM NOW ON, IF I THINK OF IT, I'LL DO IT, BUT NOT LIKE I'VE BEEN DOING THESE PAST FIVE MINUTES) ANYWAYS....When i thought i thought i was getting all caught up on this backlog of images right? And then i said, you know, NICE. I've finally caught up, and then Semi Precious Weapons comes around, and there i am with a 5d, and BOOM, i have over 1500 images to sift through again. Lord Almighty, wasn't that a gas?! Well. Here we are. I've done it. And sure, there's still a giant stack of new ones, but like i said a long fucking time ago, PERSEVERANCE. Like that god damned anchor, at the god damned bottom of that god damned lake. You keep doing doing doing until it's done. And there it is. (so that's the intro)

Here's the thing. It was a great show. An awesome show. They came out, and rocked the heads off of everyone in the house. No way around it. It was like one of those moments in history. When you know you're somewhere special. It's like being at that show in San Francisco, 1991, when Nirvana was just about to EXPLODE, and they were playing The Warfield, and they (nirvana) had no idea how big they were about to become, and the people in the audience already knew. They didn't have a sense of the scope of it yet, OBVIOUSLY, because the god damned chili peppers were the big turd in that pond at the time, but people knew. They FELT it.

It wasn't until many years later, when Dave Grohl was playing with his band, (them foo fighters) at the warfield, as far as i can remember, they were headlining for WEEN, {who by the way, COMPLETELY SUCKED that night, and i nearly didn't forgive them for it, but i did, but that's another story, and it takes place in riverside with a bunch of vicodin and tequila and a god damned itchy nose, and i don't want to talk about that right now} Dave Grohl is up there on stage, and he tells this story about that time they played that first show in SF. The first important one. The big splash so to speak. I mean, Smells Like Teen Spirit was a brand new song on the radio. People had no idea about the other songs on the album yet.

Well anyway, there's dave and kurt and krist are on the stage, getting ready for the curtains to open right? i mean, maybe they're not all ON the stage, but Dave is, and there's this stage hand, he keeps bugging him, saying, "ARE YOU READY?! ARE YOU READY?!" and dave's like, "yea. i'm ready. jesus. why does he keep asking me that?" and like every 2 or 3 minutes there he is again, "you're on in two. ARE YOU READY?!" and so on. And surely, dave's shrugging it off like, "who is this san francisco HIPPY already?! I'm GOD DAMNED READY I TELL YA." and he's sitting there on the throne, and just for the hell of it he stomps the pedal right? Stomps it to quick beats. "TA BOOM BOOM!" through the PA. (or whatever you call it when you're that big) and at that moment there comes from the other side of the curtain, THE ROAR of San Francisco about to witness Nirvana before they broke. Before they fucking erupted on stage for the last time as some small town little band that only the hipsters new about. ROOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!

And Dave said he nearly shit his pants. It was a moment where he was on the stage, he's obviously played a thousand times already, and here he is with his heart in his throat. WHY? The ENERGY man. That's why. There he was on the cliff, overlooking supermegastardom, and the only thing separating him, the band, and his life from the ravenous talons of success was that heavy velvet curtain. He knew it. The audience knew it, and although the rest of the world still had their heads up their collective asses, they knew it too.

THIS is what that show was like. This will always be the show that I will look back on SPW and say, I REMEMBER WHEN... And i'm glad as hell i didn't miss it. Now i'm not saying that SPW is the next NIRVANA. But what I am saying is, that night, was the moment. The moment before that next giant leap. It's up to them, and i have no reason to believe they're going anywhere but up after a performance like that. I was on the floor, on the stage, on the sound board, all over the god damned place, and i kept flashing on images of these guys jetting off to japan, to europe, just like any other band that gets that flash, that opportunity to really STOMP on the gas, and make break for it. To NOT just be some little band that plays the local circuit and has a decent local following. It was just AWESOME.

So when I was trying to edit the photos, I kept asking myself, "how can i put somebody in some other town there?!" Deleting photos didn't seem like the answer to me, but i had more than 1200 from that show alone. There was no way i was going to put up a 1200 image scroll. you'd probably come to my house and knife me in the face. But I had trouble choosing which images said what i wanted to say. I mean, At the start of the night here tonight i had maybe 200 and something on the stand by edit, you know, and then i started nicking images, just ticking them off here and there, and finally i was able to wittle it down to a cool 181. And one of them is a picture of my god damned iTunes, and the last one is when i was stumbling home and stopped off at like, Gray's Papaya for some hot dogs. So really, 179? from over 1200? yes. that's an edit. But i like ALL the ones i shot. Even the ones i trashed. I think it would have been possible to shave more too, and there are probably some others i should have kept in the post, but you gotta trust me. I know what i'm doing. I think you'll get a sense of the show, even minus the music, and that's the point of it. I hope you'll enjoy the pix, and one thing i want to point out is the range of that god damned camera. It was the first time i really got to throttle it up and see what it can do. I liked it. Colors Schmullers. I don't care if justin's outfit doesn't appear the color it really was in some of the images, that's not the point. It's the feel man. It's the vibe. The flow of the show. And I think you'll get that.

And i tell you what else. I hope i have the opportunity to make more photos of them in other cities, in other countries, but who can say how that pans out? Maybe they really do explode, and suddenly they have to have folks like, Tom Munro or whoever the bigshots are shooting them. I tell you what though, no matter who it is, if they don't have their heads up their asses, they're going to have an opportunity to make iconic photographs, and they damned well better capture the moments. Nothing i hate more than a hotshot who takes DEAD pictures. Drives me bananas.

As Claus Wickrath would say in his trademark swiss-german accent, "I GO Buh NUH NUZZZ!!!"

So, enjoy. I might be a minute before the next update. I have to work on getting the archives back up to date. I have to edit the 15th through today. (and everything else in between) PLUS i have to watch Season 2 of LOST which i've recently acquired from none other than Dan Foley.

So here's what you do in the meantime.

UNLOCK your music. If it's not TOO LATE, don't update your iTunes to the newest version (7.0.2) DO NOT UPDATE to that version, and then click on this link, and set your shizzay free. UNCHAIN THEM BITCHES!!! That's something you can do. It'll take a minute, but it's the right thing to do.

Me? i'm going to push for 4 hours of sleep, and then just keep fucking shooting. And when i'm done shooting, i wanna do some god damned editing. And when i'm done that? I wanna do some flippin' posting.

I'll check you all out soon. Don't go getting knifed in the face.

dTown | listening to SPW | 59˚ | and sure. i'm still conscious of my rage over Mister Bacon. I could be in a god damned private jet eating bon bons, and it would be on my mind. 4:24am, 6:52pm, it don't matter. It's on my mind like skin on my bones.