hungry heart of gold: neil young vs. bruce springsteen

Like last year’s Petty vs. Dylan covers benefit show, last night’s Neil Young vs. Bruce Springsteen benefit show played to a full house; a very full house, in fact. Which is a great thing, because shows like this are always a great time — I like them for the chance to see locals I might…

whitey morgan & the 78s @ the pour house

This show made me miss Chicago, not my people in Chicago like I often do, but the city of Chicago and the things it meant to me, in visceral, heartclenching ways — it made me miss Saturdays drinking and two-stepping at Carol’s, it made me miss the various residencies that Bloodshot artists do at various…

2011: do something amazing

In 2011, I’m going to take a bathroom self-portrait at every show I attend. I go to a lot of shows and take a lot of photos, but they are very rarely of myself, so I’m going to change that. There are lots of things that interest me about it — setting, lighting, people around. This is…

i’ve got a theory that it’s a demon

I have a theory about photography, and it’s mine, so you might disagree, but that’s okay. It doesn’t mean anybody’s wrong. It just means sometimes I see the world a little off-center, which works out, because I also hold my camera funny and frequently take my photos a little crooked, a little off-center, too. Many…

tribute to hank williams and townes van zandt

Townes Van Zandt wrote a lot of super depressing songs. I mean, they’re great — they’re spectacular. But they are SUPER FANTASTIC DEPRESSING, some of them. Jeez, Townes. The Magnolia Collective covered “Waiting Around To Die” in the best version of that song I have heard in a long, long time; but nobody did “Pancho…

and the poets do push-ups

[Posted elsewhere as well; apologies.] Since the mid-nineties, Justin has been saying, ironically or not, that this is how your first entry of the new year should always be, and so it is.