RUMPUS VIDEO, COTN

So it's finally done. And boy, did I do a lot of learning on this one. But I'm pleased with it.

Please enjoy the debut VIDEO for Children of the Night , as well as the debut video for- me. Do I need to come up with a director's pseudonym now?

The Yes Men

The Yes Men are hard to explain. If you don't already know them, you can check out some of their exploits here. But when I heard they were staging another event, I decided to get involved. And I figured, if I was going to get involved, I'd go whole hog, and show up at my designated meet up point at 4am, rather than waiting it out till later in the morning.

Our task was to hand out newspapers that had compelling information about global warming. The papers happened to look a lot like The New York Post. We ran into a little bit of resistance in front of the Time Warner building. But with a little classic passive resistance and conscientious objection one of my new "delivery buddies", Dakin Hart, gave me a good lesson in a type of activism that I felt like I had missed by decades. That, if nothing else, made the whole day worth it.

And also the fat cat with the pipe who threw away the paper, and then proceeded to try to talk shop with me about my camera.

Dakin Hart

We explained that this was different than the Post he was already carrying. A supplement.

Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival

After my boys Children of the Night qualified at Brooklyn Bodega's "Show and Prove" to perform at the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, I decided to join them to document their experience. I saw some of my favorite artists, and made a few new ones as well.

A brother seamus?

Versa and Remy of Children of the Night

Remy, Lansky, Versa of Children of the Night

Chify of The Clown Prince

Tiye Phoenix

Black Thought of the Roots

I named one of my hard drives after him

Pharaohe Monch

Simon Says, "Get the fuck up!"

Make Music NY

The Make Music NY festival is a one day event with over 800 acts performing at venues all over the Five Boroughs. Some of those venues are street corners, park bandshells, storefronts, and restaurant entryways. It's a really good way to celebrate lesser known acts of nearly every genre and promote NY as community of music supporters. Which they are. It was hard, however, to see all the shows I wanted to see, without my jetpack. But I got a few. Governor's Island, to Ft. Greene, to Eleanor Roosevelt Park, to SoHo, to Tavern on the Green, to the Guggenheim. I met some great people, both fans and performers, and saw some really quality acts. One of the most interesting aspects for me was Punk Island. They booked all the punk shows on one of 12 satellite locations on Governor's Island. The stages were makeshift and immediate. A front porch, a tarp on the lawn near the water, a parking lot a dark archway between two wings of a building. It had this great, raw, "I can make my music anywhere with electricity" vibe that felt more authentic than say an abandoned factory-turned venue.

Some were drunk. Some were crazy. The guy pushing the guitarist was drunk and crazy.

Mike from The Underclassed

Cassis and the Sympathies

Jeffrey Bobrick

There were a lot of shows. Not all of them were packed.

Peek

This summer I was connected with the folks at Peek to shoot some lifestyle ad content. Peek is a mobile device that supports email, texting and now Twitter, but no phone. It's kind of a genius idea, as a small, light, indestructible and inexpensive way to stay connected, that sidesteps the phone experience including corporate telecom. They let me use one for the week, and it was a lot of fun. It's like a utility vehicle, rugged, sleek and spare in design, and totally utilitarian. It appealled to my capricorn sensibilities.

Sean Risley

I met Sean on the ferry back from Punk Island. He had been there with a project called That's Not Cool, which educated kids on identity abuse through mobile technology and social media. He had also worked for years on The Truth Campaign, which is a project I've always respected.

As expected, his near full coverage of tattoos is not where the story is. Sean is a really interesting person, whose complex thoughts and histories crystallize at the surface with a calculated attention to style and aesthetics. What I really like about Sean, is that there are no accidents.

COTN/Prophit Show at the Highline

This is not a comprehensive survey of the strength and energy of the show that night. But for the sake of brevity, I'll present the dynamics of this story.

Prodigy

Prodigy X is one of the first gamers I started working with in '07. He explained to me then, that he was unlike other Pro Gamers. Whereas they were all striving to be the best at their game, or genre, while he was, "an all-around gamer." It was no surprise to me then, when I saw him on WCG Ultimate Gamer, a reality competition show on the SyFy network, like a Top Chef or Project Runway for gaming. I pitched him this idea that I'd been chewing on for a while about the scene in Pink Floyd's The Wall, after Pink destroys his hotel room, just before he shaves his eyebrows and nipples. A compulsive and psychological moment of clarity where he rejects all the outside influences trying to puppeteer him and the physical detritus accumulated over the years as he's strived to be the artist he wanted to be and the icon they've made him into. There were some gaps, sure, but I felt like this intense focus on the physical to craft some psychological understanding, even if obtuse, was on brand for Prodigy. There are many stars in the world of Pro Gaming celebrity. There are Shaqs and Steve Nash-es, 50s and Snoops, David Lee Roths and Eddie Vedders. Prodigy is more like a Reznor.

CI Prep

I was recently hired to shoot publicity/marketing shots of a brand new charter school, Coney Island Prep. The school is made up of 90 5th graders and has a lot of philosophical approaches to educating the person, not just the student. In fact, they call them "scholars" rather than students and that's just the beginning. I grew up in the era of Free to Be... You and Me, pod classrooms with no walls, and the TAG program, but the environment at CI Prep is both motivating AND tangible. These scholars are learning about choices and consequences, focus, hard work, and how to satisfy one's need to still be a kid and how to know the kids around you. I have high expectations for these young thinkers.