Saturdays, as everyone knows, are for taking pictures. That is at least how I spend mine. This past Saturday was no different. I, with the company of Jennifer Risley (aka JRizzle, aka Annie Leibowitz's goddaughter), set out through the mucked-up woods of Shelby Farms in search of the oft-fabled, rarely seen "Old House That Is Barely Standing." Did I mention it was raining?
Protected by my brother's 300-pound Redkins Starter jacket from 1995 and buoyed by M. Trevor's recent description of my music as "dark," "rainy," and "sad-bastardish," I thought, "This rain cannot be a bad thing. Onward and upward, Rizzles!" The woods were lovely, dark, sort of deep, and muddy as all hell, and were it not for the infrequent mountain bikers passing us (each thinking, "nice jacket"), the whole thing could've ended with a Lord of the Flies gusto. By the look on Jennifer's face, she would've been first to go.
Fortunately, we found our site, and just as I had imagined it. Sure enough, it was an Old House That Is Barely Standing. Even better, parked next to the shanty was an Old Car That Is Barely Intact. "Isn't this great?" I asked Jennifer. She said nothing.
She set up inside and began to shoot me on a stump that had been placed inside the house for people to sit on when they sneak inside it late on Saturdays to drink and devil worship. I held a beer can dated back to 1953 and offered it to you, the anonymous onlooker. Jennifer clicked away. "How's it looking?" I asked Jennifer. She said nothing.
She moved me to a different spot, this time in a corner of the house that actually had no wall left. I stood facing outside. She shot many pictures. "Are they looking alright? Do you want me to turn any different way? What's the light look like?" Jennifer replied, "Yeah, just keep doing that." So I did.
At one point Jennifer gave me great specific direction in the form of "Try and look, like, more alive." The result is an entire roll of me taking an axe to the Buick 6 outside.
All this to say, I will have some new pictures very soon for promotional purposes. This is exciting, because Jennifer is truly a gifted photgrapher, and if she can make me look decent, she can make anyone else look good.
In other news, the set at 3rd and Lindsley last night was performed in front of a plentiful and vocal yet attentive throng. We recorded the show for posterity, so check back soon and I'll have information to some of the live performance action, if you get down with the bootlegging. Many thanks to Will Champlin and the folks at 3&L for everything last night--it really was a great time.
Both sound as sweet,
Chris
4 comments:
Any people that know people at 3&L last night?
Ummm, what?
Label representatives. ya know those folks.
I hate all those people, the people that go to 3rd & Lindsley to show you that they know people. Fuck 'em.
Chris, I never knew you liked looking for Old Houses That Are Barely Standing and taking pictures of them. I have rolls of this shit, now I feel like the guy in that song who places a personal ad and meets the woman for dinner and it's his girlfriend, and he says, "I never knew...that you liked Piña Coladas...and gettin' caught in the rain..."
Without the romantic interest, I mean.
But KY is perfect for that. If you drive twenty or thirty minutes out of town, if you just know where to go, Kentucky is LOADED with Old Houses That Are Barely Standing And Look Perfect in Moody Black-and-White Photos. This is totally a hobby of mine and I can show you where a whole bunch of them are. Plus, if you hit KY between November and June, it will be shitty outside, which is even better. Grey and drizzling, the only kind of weather here for six months.
A favorite Chris quotation from the recent weekend: "I don't think I've EVER been to Louisville when it wasn't raining." It ain't Seattle, but it ain't Tuscon either.
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