Meadeblog

ManicAmerican.com has launched

2010-07-14T23:29:00.000-04:00

This blog has been a long and rambling prelude.

The real story has finally begun.

Please change your bookmarks to www.ManicAmerican.com

-Dan

The Bad Big New Flickr

2010-07-08T01:17:00.002-04:00

Flickr is about to undergo a massive redesign, to make the photos bigger, the site faster, and everything more social and linkable. And I hate it.

Currently, images display at 500px. Soon, 640px will be the new standard size, with larger versions mere clicks away. Will the photos look bigger, brighter and better? Yes. Will they be easier to be ripped off flickr and stolen? Yes.

You can guess which aspect of the redesign is resonating more with me.

So without further ado, as we're about to leave on a massive photo-journey, I've turned to watermarks to help allay my neuroses. Why? There is no way to "opt-out" of the new features, especially the new "All Sizes" button, where the images getter bigger than you intended them to be seen. You can't change your settings and you can't have your account kept in the current mode. So it's either upload to only the minimums and watermark or abandon Flickr altogether.

Flickr, I kinda hate you right now, and I really don't appreciate the lack of communication and help with all this. Thanks.

DIGITAL

2010-07-06T07:43:00.000-04:00

(click)

TXQ09: The Old School BBQ Bus of Austin, TX [photo gallery]

2010-06-28T01:50:00.003-04:00

More art / less sleep:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/manicamerican/galleries/72157624248831383/

Love/Hate Film

2010-06-24T23:40:00.000-04:00

I should be planning the fast-approaching Asia trip.
I should be researching new cameras and lenses.
I should be coding.

Instead I’m fighting with my scanner to load photos from TXQ09… low light frames don’t load easy. And it takes a lot of trying time to get the photos scanned correctly.

Yet, when I get shots like these, I love it more than just about anything….

Shooting `SRUCTURE

2010-06-21T01:19:00.001-04:00

Whether it’s more of a learning style or closer to imitation, I’ve always been influenced by the writer or director whose work I last ingested. This has been going on for years now. It’s nothing new and I know to look out for it so as to keep it in check if need be.

This has now been spreading to the INFRASTRUCTURE videos and films that I shoot and edit. Case in point: The Rox Box show last night and Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon.

Watching the Criterion Collection's commentary by critic/historian Donald Richie, what stood out most was Richie’s notes of Kurosawa and Kazuo Miyagawa's use of shapes and composition to tell the story: how when the characters on screen form squares or circles, the viewer intuitively knows that everything is good, but triangles, especially broken triangles, imply that something is askew in the relationships between those on stage.

Back to the Rox Box, with the band near the end of their set. The sound is great and everyone is clicking. I’m positioned in front of the stage, low to the ground to force more of a “hero angle” in the four-shot I’m shooting. I normally move around a lot to change up the shots, but I was holding this position, because what I saw was a diamond (or inverted square if you would): Rob at the North point, Micah South, Chris West and Erich East. For much of Tear Down Kings and Old World, that was the primary shot that I used, and it looks damn good. Without even listening, you see the presence and performance of the band simply by the shape they are framed in.

So when we release video from the show, keep all this mind… it’ll make watching it all the more interesting.

TXQ09: The Best Brisket in the World

2010-06-14T00:10:00.001-04:00

DS09 Phase V: Texas BBQ Tour 2009

In 2008, Texas Monthly named Texas' Best BBQ joints, shacks and restaurants. Since then, The Manic American has been on a quest to visit them all.

Open for only a few hours each Saturday, Snow's BBQ in Lexington serves the best brisket on the planet.

See the photo gallery on flickr.

See the Texas BBQ Tour 2009 video on YouTube.

Video: Manic American: Boston Urban Beach Trifecta

2010-06-09T18:18:00.000-04:00

You've read the account.

You've seen RB's photos.

Now, the video:

DS09 - Swampventure photo gallery

2010-06-08T21:39:00.001-04:00

The celebration of the one-year anniversary of DS09 begins with this photo gallery:

One Night in Philly

2010-06-01T01:19:00.001-04:00

Catching up on film from 2009, I came across the roll I shot after the INFRASTRUCTURE show at Tritone in Philly back in November (see the video!). I had no idea how good the shots would come out. The roll traces the night after the show, where we went to eat, the drunks we saw nearly get run over and the people with us. The next day, the roll picks up at the legendary Melrose Diner.

Below are my two favorites from the batch. Click here for the rest.

Video: INFRASTRUCTURE at Johnny D's, 5/21/10

2010-05-23T18:21:00.000-04:00

The Busan Ferry

2010-05-20T13:01:00.005-04:00

The Manic American Season 6 mega-trip to Asia, a.k.a Manic Asia 2010, is coming together as we speak. One of the key features of it will be the ferry from Japan to Busan, Korea. The Busan ferry will save us from airfare, give us a chance to recoup from the first phase of the trip and let us collect our thoughts over its 8 hour journey... much as the ferry to Vancouver Island did during X-Can.

The Vancouver ferry was fantastic, you pick it up from one of three or four ports on the outskirts of Vancouver, hop on board for a 2-3 hour trip through the Pacific to lonely and wacky Vancouver Island, home of a tropical rainforest, The Beach At The End Of The Continent, as well as Nanaimo and Victoria -- one a former logger-town, the other a Victorian retro-fit.

The ferry ride itself was nothing but calming and relaxing, and short enough that it carried a bit of a festive air -- no one was complaining, people were just enjoying the ocean breeze, the odd whale/dolphin sighting and the sun. People brought instruments to play, gear to party with during Canada Day, and no bad attitudes. It was also a good chance for a quick nap.

So that's what we're looking forward to on the Busan ferry, only for thrice as long. If we can take it overnight, fantastic, if not, it’ll still be worth it. A day at sea, alone with out thoughts, photos and a few hundred Koreans, all paying Japanese prices for snacks and meals in the international waters of Asia. As long as no North Korean subs menace us, it'll probably be just what we need after a 5-day blitzkrieg through Japan.

Closing out St. Vincent’s Hospital

2010-05-16T11:08:00.001-04:00

I left the bar just before midnight in search of an ATM, managed to get myself turned around, and ended up walking south down 7th Avenue when I saw a crowd of people and a couple ambulances. It was a nice night, so I went to check it out, not out of morbid curiosity, just to see what was up.

It wasn’t an accident, a wino passed out or anything to gawk at – it was the final night for (based on the t-shirts being brandished) the ambulance union at St. Vincent’s Hospital. The hospital had already closed a few weeks ago, but you could tell that this was the final night for these guys.

One ambulance parked on the street, another in the loading dock with 15-20 guys in/on it, each with their lights flashing and all the people singing, chanting and banging on the dock’s roof… one dude walked by and said “it must be graduation” thinking it was an NYU-related event, but the guy was right in a way. The workers were “graduating” from their place of work and moving on.

Photos were being taken all around, people with Sharpies were signing the plywood covering the entrance to the hospital, and there was a “last night” buzz in the air.

I hung around a bit, soaking in the scene. The revelry of the workers was infectious – every time a cop car would drive by, it’d warble their siren, bringing out a round of cheers – and it felt like a moment: another hospital shuts down in this bad economy. I eventually went back to my party to let the ambulance crew enjoy their last night at the hospital. They didn’t need any more random people watching them, just a little more time with each other at their old job.

Severe 2010: Boston urban beach trifecta

2010-05-03T20:31:00.003-04:00

Northeast Transcendence Achieved.

Somerville, MA -- 5/02/10, 4:51 PM

Last Night, in the Middle East and ZuZu Lounge, we weren't in Boston, we were in Savannah, in North Carolina, back in the Deep South, back in America. It was the first day of the 2010 Manic American season and we fell right back into mid-season shape.

Video now available on YouTube!

The plan, as drawn up by RB, was to hit three urban beaches in and around Boston -- Revere, Southie's Castle Island and Wollaston Beach in Quincy -- and we hoped to be able to make them all. A half day, four T lines, 2 buses and 12 or so miles walked on foot later, and that was it -- done, completed. Goals met and exceeded, and the lobster rolls at Tony's Clam Shoppe were the icing on the cake. The drinks afterwards were the cutting and eating of the cake.

We started with an early wakeup call at 8 AM. Shower, rough cut of the INFRA Connolly's film, pack and out. Outside of the Magnificent Muffin Shop an off-duty cop and his lady-friend warned us to not end up in lock-up, or if we got into trouble, to run outside of his jurisdiction. He could tell.

We made it out to Revere around 11:30 and had our first junkie interaction maybe 15 minutes later. We were shooting a new INFRAcard reenacting the Pepsi Man INFRAcard when the semi-toothed right-hand-man of the owner of the dive next door came out to stop us -- the owner doesn't like photographers. He asked where we were from. "Oh you're from Somerville? Wait, what are you doing here from New York?!" Rob bonded with him, he soon became less distrustful of me. We got away with a Vietnam shellshock reference and a head-up to the fatboys patrolling the strip.

The crackwhore of `09 wasn't at her post, but we did find a burnt Christmas tree and a rotting seagull corpse being tossed in the waves (third Corpse Beach in a row, for those of you following along at home). If you've never been, the crowd at Severe Revere can seem like they were shook out of an Arkansas Wal-Mart and placed on the coastal outskirts of Boston -- tattoos, bulbous guts, limps, canes, deformities and hostile attitudes abound. There are also plenty of families and hot rods cruising the strip. There's a reason why we kick off each season here.

Fried clam strips and buffalo chicken at Santorini, another run down the strip for photos and back on the T. Next stop -- trek to Castle Island for Sullivan's mini-hot dogs.

`Course we get off the T and the bus to Southie isn’t coming. Between the T fire at Park Street and the water main break which destroyed Boston’s drinking water supply, it wasn't a red banner day for Boston public works. A twenty minute, up-hill climb through Southie later and we arrived at the approach to Castle Island. Dock machinery to the left, air planes on their landing approach to Logan flying overhead to the right and we were on an IFRASTRUCTURE approach to a Manic destination.

At Sullivan's, Rob overheard parents order their children away from me and my camera as he waited for his dog. The dogs were micro yet tasty, the fries plentiful and well-cooked and the drinks frothy and good (a smoothie and shake, no beer yet -- it was all Gatorade-esque beverage to prevent dehydration). A few freaks, fellow photographers, and the mega Lufthansa taking off and landing while we were there.

As the legs began to fail, we walked to the City Point Bus Stop -- a four-lane parking lot, devoid of humans tracing a swath of pavement stuck between the yuppie housing of Southie and the fields of abandoned factories next to the yup-plexes. It took five buses coming through, but one picked us up and took us back to the T, onward to Quincy. No doubts, the third stop would happen. Full or not, the clam-off was on: Santorini vs. Tony's Clam Shoppe (not Tony's Clam Box mere yards away), as recommended by the Boston Globe and Phantom Gourmet.

Quincy. Coulda been North Carolina, Savannah or Vancouver. Quick stop into CVS for more Gatorade, run into a bottled water scrum caused by people hoarding up water rather than boiling it out of their faucets. One water break and Boston turned into Chinatown. Suburbo-walk through the Nazarene community right to the beach. We get there and there's the downtown skyline, with a couple families and a horde of tweens faux-fighting in the sand before us. Photo, photo, photo. I sit there just soaking in the moment, Rob works on long-shutter shots of the skyline, drawing in locals to check us out and talk photo-shop.

Tony's. Menu takes up the whole side of the building: seafood cooked everyway possible, Middle Eastern delights, drinks and ice cream. We got the lobster rolls, which, when combined, end up containing the meat of about 3 lobsters. When eating them, we get the call from Chris -- INFRA is booked at the House of Blues in Boston... the jimmies on the top scoop of the ice cream cone that was the day.

Back to Somerville. Back out, into the night, full moon rising, and before we know it, we've left Boston and are back on the road, back in America, back in the thick of things.

ManicAmerican.com, Season 6. It's begun.

"Tomorrow the flood gates open"

2010-05-01T08:27:00.000-04:00

Severe `10

Entry 1: "Tomorrow the flood gates open"

Everytime I do this run, the Fungh Wah up to Severe Revere, the feeling I get is of reading Day of the Locust while driving through semi-barren Conneticut roadside. Which I did for Severe `08 and tried to re-do for Severe `09. This year I'm reading the Book of Bangs and thinking of cutting the latest INFRAfilm, but no matter. The brain does what it does, and we do what we do.

Tonight is a clearing house. Rob is plowing through work shit while I'm on the bus, having done said activity all day. Once I reach the other end of the Astoria-Sommerville Art Axis, everything will be go, the flood gates will open and Manic American Season 6 will begin. Refer back to the Soo Locks of Season 4 if you need imagry, I know I did.

If Season 4 was going pro and Season 5 was about going big and going long, this season will be exposure and traction. The dot-com, Facebook, other blogs, YouTube.... and that's just the plan for this weekend. By the time we get back from J/K, those goals will have been long met and we'll be onto the next stage. Or not. We''ll see, but we want you along with us for the ride.

Tomorrow's plan, as roughly sketched out in one email, is to hit all of metro-Boston's beach communities, eating fried seafood and buffalo chicken eveywhere we can. There are no cocoons to climb out of, we've diving right back into America, starting at places people don't even realize exist in one of the biggest and oldiest cities we've got. Stone lions, crackwhores, Sullies and Santorini's -- that's just Severe Revere. The other communities? We'll find out armed with cameras, camcorders, spacephones and netbooks. A mobile Manic publishing studio, trolling the edges of Boston like a human dredge looking to pick up everything it can.

This is your country, these are our stories.

ManiicAmerican.com

--- FungWah bus, north of Stamford, CT 04/30/10. 8:46 PM EST,

This wknd: Manic American Season 6 Kickoff: Severe `10

2010-04-30T08:45:00.000-04:00

Less of a custom and more a ritual, Dan and Rob return to the whore-encrusted shores of Revere Beach to purge themselves of the winter, embrace the summer and eat some fried clams at Santorini’s.

Of course, there was no winter off-season this year, as the winter was spent focused on INFRASTRUCTURE. Will that change the tone of Severe this year? Stay tuned to find out.

INFRASTRUCTURE @ Connolly's

2010-04-27T19:25:00.000-04:00

Live recording of "Three Hit" available on the MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/infrastructuremusic

Dan Meade - DungeonRed 018

2010-04-21T22:10:00.003-04:00

Dan Meade - DungeonRed 018

PATTERN RECOGNITION EP TRACKS ARE LIVE

2010-04-19T22:15:00.000-04:00

listen here: http://www.myspace.com/infrastructuremusic

next show, this Friday: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=116022731745641

Auto Show Week 2010

2010-04-05T21:21:00.000-04:00

To recap:

Alan Mulally’s vision for Ford, the energy ecosystem and your home - WBAY-TV Green Bay
At the New York Auto Show, Alan Mulally, President and CEO of Ford, spent much of his time discussing Ford's turnaround, electric cars and how you might run your home in the future.

Chevy goes small at the New York Auto Show - KUAM.com GUAM News
At the New York Auto Show Chevrolet drew the most attention to its new small compacts: the Spark, the Aveo, and two brand-new models: the Cruze RS and Cruze Eco.

Volkswagen Polo named 2010 World Car of the Year - KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA
The World Car of the Year Awards have become a tradition during the second day of New York Auto Show.The big winner this year was Volkswagen, which won awards in two of the four categories.

Back in Business

2010-03-18T20:49:00.010-04:00

Dan Meade - Schnitzel Man

(Not that I ever left.)

INFRASTRUCTURE AT R-BAR, NYC

2010-03-15T00:37:00.002-04:00

Hell Gate photoshoot

2010-03-06T11:53:00.016-05:00

Neptune Diner, 7:24 AM

I had been meaning to get out to the Hell Gate Bridge since I moved to Meadestoria, but then winter set in, and the film backlog was large. Today's going up to 50 degrees, I've caught up the film through LBRDY and the two February INFRASTRUCTURE shows have left me in full art-mode. It is a month before Revere and I think the `10 Manic Season has already begun.

I went to be early last night with two alarms set for 4:15 this morning -- I wanted enough time to wake up and eat a little something before heading out to the shoot. I left the apt. at 5:27 and the sky was already beginning to lighten to the North. I was on schedule, but didn't want to dally anywhere along the walk to the bridge.

The streets were nigh deserted, save for a few cabbies and one cop car which took two looks at me before going on its way. I got to Ralph DeMarco Park, along Shore Blvd just before 6 and began shooting immediately. The Hell Gate is an amazing and distinctive piece of New York City architecture, so shots and angles abounded.

(Sitting here, with the exceptions of my gear, the nationality of the staff and the computerized-camo of the soldiers sitting two booths in front of me, this diner could still be in the 1970s, as could the corner outside. At the same time, Tim Roth could walk in and hold up the place with his Honey Bunny. It all makes for a great vibe in here, even if the food has been better.)

As the sky lightened and joggers started jogging, I kept moving and shooting southward, under and past the Hell Gate and toward the Triborough (or RFK) Bridge... which I kept calling the 59th St Bridge in the video, an early morning mixup that recalls Amazing Spider-Man #121. Walking around the Hell Gate superstructure, I kept mentally flashing back to the Ore Docks of Marquette, a not-uncommon occurrence of late, as my mind has been flashing to Michigan often.

With the strengthening sunlight, the reds of the Hell Gate began popping and highlights abounded as the birds of the river began flying about, and the traffic on the Triborough picked up. By the time I crossed under that bridge, the sun was visible and I had finished the roll of Ilford Delta 400 in my Canon and INFRAroll in the Vivitar that I had started at the Church show. Walking under the Triborough, I was reminded of the Surf City pier. When you like an image, you can see it anywhere and themes never stop running. Tying the world together visually is a good thing.

And that's what much of this off-season has been about, tying together threads, grouping images and pulling the archives together, sorting in a way to make them greater than the sum of their parts. Cohesion, or synergy if you would. Now the Hell Gate formally enters that archive, that visual databank and eye-muscle memory to be used on all future shoots. This is the best job in the world, and it gets better every day.

Texas BBQ Tour 2009

2010-02-21T21:22:00.003-05:00

Three months in the making, the Texas BBQ Tour 2009 short film:

INFRASTRUCTURE @ Church, 2.19.10

2010-02-21T17:28:00.003-05:00

The first INFRASTRUCTURE rock-doc, shot by Meade, edited by Meade & Bellinger

http://www.facebook.com/infrastructuremusic

INFRAportraits

2010-02-09T22:27:00.001-05:00

I just posted the first set of INFRASTRUCTURE “trading cards” to flickr. Here are some notes of two of them:

RB Jamming – I saw this shot a little while before I took it, possibly while taking some video of the session. The blank wall behind, the reflection of the (deleted) logo and the recording and personal debris on the floor just made for a hell of an interesting shot, and to isolate Rob, to harken back to the Dungeon shot with the microphone on the speaker, and just get the man in his element – killed it. Him having his shoes off and beside him just added an extra intimate element while providing another touch of white. The headphone cable adds a nice horizontal effect, bridging the man and the recording gear.

Micah Rocking Out – Micah is hard to shoot, behind the drums and often in the back, usually in a position where I can’t get close to him and still have good lighting. By this point in the shoot, I was trying to make sure that I had portraits of everyone and I needed him, and had to do it without disrupting the recording gear.

I forget if I actually laid down on the floor, but if I didn’t, I got damn close. I wanted him, in action, with all the cables flowing before him. And that’s what I got. I wasn’t counting on the wall angles converging with the lighting to make impossible angles above him, but I love how that happened.

What really makes this for me is how all the lighting of the photograph is centered on his face, and he’s just completely in the moment. The shutter was quick enough to prevent more than just a touch of blur. This is beyond my best photo of him yet, and belongs on someone’s wall, hung with posters of other drumming idols.

Photographic lineage

2010-02-02T02:07:00.001-05:00

If you’ve been out drinking with me lately, and if you brought up photography, odds are you’ve heard me say something to the effect of “every shot makes the next one better.” And it’s true: everything you’ve ever done informs everything you’re about to do. The more you shoot, the more you learn. The more you learn, the more you know what you want out of a photo, how to see it, how to use the camera and your skill to make the shot.

Case in point: the photographic lineage of the LRBDY “Under the Pier” photo and the (old) Ore Dock of Marquette, MI. Taken over a year apart, these two images are related, as is the DS09 Tybee Island pier (as shot by Rachel).

“Under the Pier” was from the final full day of shooting, after a week of art and exploration, and it was Labor Day weekend. (It was also beautiful weather, I had had a Yuengling or three and wanted to see if I could beat Rob’s shot of the pier.) To sum, I was in the zone, got under the pier, zoomed in on the vanishing point and shot away, getting every angle I could see and once the child walked by, I knew I was golden.

But it wasn’t just the pier shots from earlier phases of DS09 that informed how I looked at the pier. It was the Ore Dock shoot, and my high school architecture and drawing courses.

In high school we spent WEEKS on vanishing points, learning how to properly create, and later, distort them. You would think all drawing stemmed from vanishing points and the heroic scale of modeling my teacher spent so long on the topics. But the lessons stuck. My eye was trained to look to for them.

That brings us to Marquette. The (old) Ore Dock lays in the water, inaccessible and cut off from town, now that the train trestle has been demolished, leaving it a gigantic hulking shadow of the past in the town’s skyline. It’s phenomenal, and I got as close as I could to get a vanishing point shot that would make my high school art teacher proud. According to RB, a junkyard-dog of a man was sniffing around me as I shot the Ore Dock, and I didn’t even notice I was so engrossed by it – I was in the moment and half-wading on a broken pier, so my attention was focused on the shot, and nothing else.

Well, I never did get that A+ shot of the (old) Ore Dock, but I don’t mind. The experience of being of a hair off-center, shooting the vanishing point wide and taking in the surroundings, using something else to weigh one side of the shot while using the water to add a touch of a reflective vanishing point… well worth it, and more than paid off over one year later and 1,300 miles away.

And this blog post? It’ll make the next thing I write better. Stay tuned.

From Manic Terror to Everyday Drudgery

2010-01-26T23:46:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I got back into the city at 2:40 AM from a Boston party/ABBQ09 video editing/Dale Watson weekend on Fung Wah. Canal Street was deserted, completely, and especially so after the gypsy cabs swarmed the bus. Got on the 4 train within seconds, got off at 59/Lex and walked to the N/W transfer.

Hell ensued. Noise and water everywhere. Every light seemed to be flicking on and off and I could see people moving in swarms from the top of the staircase. I worried about electrocution for a second – there was no rain, and everything was wet, yet there no signs or warning posts blocking my path. Had a pipe burst, rupturing the power lines or something?

I had a train to catch. I went down, closer to the source of the sound and the liquid. On the platform, workers were power-washing everything, hence the noise and water, but not explaining the faulty power.

Train comes. Sleep for a few hours. Awake/shower/coffee/back on train.

I get back to 59/Lex, and it’s full of hordes of working-people, herding in every direction to their jobs. Nothing was wet, every light worked. No one else has seen the station looking like the set of The Poseidon Adventure only a few hours earlier.

…

A few weeks ago, someone asked me “Is it that you go to odd places or do you just look at the world differently?” The answer is both, but more importantly, I know what I'm looking at when I see what is going on around me.

Late night perfectionist

2010-01-22T01:05:00.000-05:00

I love the process. See the shot, KNOW that it’s good and take the shots.

Wait XX weeks/months, process the film.

See the results. See that it’s good.

Talent + (practice x repetition) = Mega-talent

Debbie #2

2010-01-17T22:38:00.000-05:00

Debbie #2 is one of my favorite photos, but it didn’t start out as one. At first, I liked Debbie #1 much more – it’s louder, she’s smiling and you see the patrons… but it’s also less focused and lit differently.

The photos are from the end of CPC 1 in 2006, back when I was still a novice at all this. I think months went by before I really looked at the two photos and #2 then began to stand out. It’s quieter, more intimate and off-the-cuff. It’s more personal and you don’t see the patrons, only their half-drunk beers. The keno on the screen as opposed to That `70s Show… everything just adds up to a very different feel than #1 has.

It’s almost as if #1 is Debbie being the gregarious bartender, welcoming this horde of young patrons, while #2 is her with her guard down, trying to figure out some receipts… a peek behind the curtain of sorts.

Two years later, on CPC3, we went back to her bar, but Debbie wasn’t there that night. We wanted to recreate that night, and I wanted to recreate these shots, but she was gone.

Ever since entering the Ektar contest, I’ve been on flickr daily, trying to up my views/comments/favorites on the photos that I entered, and that’s led to a mini-retrospective, as I’ve been going through a lot of my older work, re-organizing some things, re-evaluating others. Not much of my older work holds up to my newer output, but I feel like Debbie #2 does.

Vulcan 26

2010-01-10T21:12:00.002-05:00

Dan Meade - Vulcan 26
Originally uploaded by Dan Meade

DS09 - Day 9: Vulcan, the Greek god of fire and steel and iconic statue of Birmingham, Alabama.

Among the Vulcan facts that I wrote down the day after taking this photo: The blueprints by Italian designer Giuseppe Moretti and original stereographic photos were so good that the 1999-2003 reconstruction used them nigh-exclusively.

Good plans and good photos taken in 1904 were able to render 95 years of wear, tear and mis-reconstructions... and now Vulcan is back, and better than ever.

Tales from MEADEstoria: $1 Jupiter

2010-01-09T19:13:00.002-05:00

Walking back from the train after spending the afternoon at Time Café (fantastic spinach/shrimp/portabella/goat cheese salad) I saw a guy on the corner with a high-powered telescope and a sign that read “SEE JUPITER / donations welcome.”

I’ve seen him a few nights before, well, him or another person with a good camera and tripod set up at the same intersection, so I thought “cool” and kept walking. Then I realized, “wait – I can fucking see Jupiter… what am I doing?” So I turned around and headed back to the telescope.

Another dude was there and looking through the lens, so I joined them and pretty soon we were talking about the planetary convergence of 2012 and what we can expect to happen (the ability to stand an egg on it's small side, lots of storms, no mass destruction… after all “just because the Mayan calendar ends in 2012… doesn’t mean that it won’t start over in 2013”).

Another guy came up and started talking to the telescope guy about some drywall project that he was supposed to be doing. While they talked it out, I took a look through the telescope – and there’s Jupiter, and four of it’s moons (“each of which is larger than our own”) all in alignment. I stayed and planet-gazed for another moment, taking in this slice of the cosmos, and then donated a buck to the guy for his setup.

And yeah, I could have just been happy with seeing Jupiter with my naked eye over the end of the El, but going back was just more interesting. Viva la MEADEstoria!

INFRAHATTAN highlight reel

2010-01-03T18:53:00.003-05:00

National Underground, 12/26/09

Shot by Meade
Chopped by Bellinger
Music by INFRASTRUCTURE

ABBQ09: The more we do this, the better we get

2009-12-30T02:44:00.003-05:00

AQ904014 by Dan Meade

Highlights from the first two rolls developed (Snow's & Lockhart) have been posted: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danmeade/sets/72157623099102922/

Your doctor should test you for TB before you take ENBREL

2009-12-29T21:02:00.000-05:00

ENBREL is a medicine that affects your immune system. ENBREL can lower the ability of your immune system to fight infections. Serious infections have happened in patients taking ENBREL. These infections include tuberculosis (TB) and infections caused by viruses, fungi, or bacteria that have spread throughout the body. Some patients have died from these infections. Your doctor should test you for TB before you take ENBREL and monitor you closely for TB while on ENBREL.

Manic Photo Lessons: How To Scan Your Negatives

2009-12-20T17:51:00.000-05:00

Q: Dan, what do you do with all the film you shoot?

A:

LBRDY Roll 20: Ektar

2009-12-19T14:29:00.000-05:00

Outside my apartment the first snow of the year is falling here in New York, six days before Christmas. I just got back from ABBQ09 and am already planning ABBQ10. This next week is bookended by DTMT and INFRASTRUCTURE shows, but I’m thinking about none of that right now.

That’s because two nights ago I scanned the final roll of film from LBRDY and was kind of blown away.

On LBRDY Day 5, RB and I stopped into Southeastern Camera in Wilmington because I hadn’t brought enough film with me. I liked the store and was in the mood to try out some new stuff, so I bought a few rolls of film that I hadn’t used before, including one of the sleek looking and cool sounding Kodak Ektar 100.

I had been wanting to try some new, better, color films and ended up saving the Ektar roll for the final full day of the trip, which was a sun-drenched Labor Day Saturday, spent at the Surf City beach. It was a perfect combination of film, lighting and subject.

I only posted three shots from the roll, but they are best (and they have been entered in the Kodak Ektar Photo Contest). The above photo is my favorite, and may be the best photo I’ve taken this year, but “Under the pier” is damn close. The color of the sky and sand, detail of focus and framing of the people all came together perfectly here. LBRDY was one of the peak creativity weeks of this year, and photos like these reflect that.

If I finish in the top eight of the contest, I’ll win between 1,200 and 20 rolls of Ektar, so you may be reading more about this film soon. Stay tuned.

Austin Christmas caroler flash-mob

2009-12-14T10:21:00.002-05:00

ABBQ09, Day 3 -- We were sitting on the rooftop of the Iron Cactus when we saw a mob of Christmas carolers pop up below us. RB and I ran down and started shooting. I got ahead of the mob, crouched down for a better vantage point and then they swarmed me. This is what happened next:

Channeling loss into writing (again)

2009-12-09T23:47:00.001-05:00

Half-way through DS09 I started having the sinking feeling that I was missing a roll of film. I eventually convinced myself that it would turn up once I got back to NY and was able to count out everything properly. The count came back correct, so I put the sinking feeling to bed.

Then I got a quartet of rolls back from the developers, and one came back blank. I told myself that I had wasted money and had given them a blank roll.

Now I’m not too sure.

I’m a roll short. I have no photos from Savannah or the first half of Tybee Island.

And I’m kinda freaking out. Angry, disheartened, annoyed, mad, pissed…. and a touch hopeful that it will turn up somewhere.

I can picture half of the shots too – that’s the kicker. I KNOW what I’m missing, most importantly Savannah at midnight and “breakfast” at Wall’s.

I don’t wanna say it’s like loosing a child, but it hurts.

Then I think back to the rock photography exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum I went to a couple of weeks back -- how over THIRTY years later and after taking one of the most iconic shots in rock and roll history, Bob Gruen is STILL mad that he lost two rolls of film from the day that he shot John Lennon in the New York t-shirt. (Or it might be Don Hunstein and the shoot that became the cover of Bob Dylan’s Freewheelin’… either way, the important shot of the shoot was saved, but the sentiment is the same.)

THIS is what is important to me, and to loose a piece of it… even though I could sketch out half the shots from memory… it hurts.

Are You Pulling the Wool Over Your Own Eyes?

2009-12-07T22:53:00.000-05:00

The GirlieGirl Army» Are You Pulling the Wool Over Your Own Eyes?

By my cousin. It runs in the family.

Frank, The Americans and the Met

2009-12-05T23:30:00.029-05:00

DM: @ robt. Frank exhibit @ met. Good.
RL: Take notes for nxt week
DM: What’do’ya think I’m here for!

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Robert Frank’s The Americans, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a special exhibit based around prints of all 83 photos from the book. Seeing the photos full-sized was cool, but it was the rest of the exhibit that really made an impact on me.

The Met gathered Franks’ early work, that of those who influenced him, and the real showstopper, a collection of his contact sheets and discarded shots. More than seeing his work, you got to see his process – what he shot and how he chose what was best.

The shots leading up to Parade-Hoboken, New Jersey? Very cool to watch him try to get the shot just right. Watching the parade that Trolley-New Orleans went past before he turned and saw/shot it? Totally helps fill in the scene. As someone who shoots film and spends more time in post-production with the negatives than shooting, it helps seeing the contact sheets of such an influential work, to see how many times Frank tried to get it right, what angels he tried, how he shot the subject and the moment.

Fourth of July, Jay, New York
by Robert FrankEven more so than the contact sheets, I found the wall of discarded photos more interesting. Prints from Frank’s office, the Met filled a full wall with his working proofs that he used while putting the book together – what was used, what wasn’t, and in one example, why.

Photo #17 from The Americans - Fourth of July, Jay, New York - shows a giant, old, American flag draped from something, nearly translucent, hanging over a pair of virginal girls with other festival-goers in the distance and a boy not liking something he is eating in the bottom-left corner. On the discarded photos wall was a photo from Jay that he nearly used. It took me four trips across the exhibit to agree that he chose the right photo.

The discarded Jay photo shows the flag hanging from a line, but reveals more of the festival, with better trees and more people looking toward the camera. He could have used it, but the more I looked at the two photos, the more the chosen one was better - it was more archetypal and the suspended flag looked better without seeing how it was hung. Looking at the contact sheet, he shot about ten photos in Jay, and only two of them did not show how the flag was hung. He kept going back to it until he got it right, then kept working post-shoot to choose the right one.

Just by seeing the negatives and proofs, you could piece together his thought-process and approach, and that was why the exhibit was worth going to. Seeing the final product can help you see things in a new way, but seeing the artist at work can help you understand how they made the art, which, as a photographer, is something much more valuable to learn from.

Revere `09, a mini-photo essay

2009-12-03T22:19:00.008-05:00

Camera shows him from behind, not moving, simply taking in the shoreline. It's the first beach he's seen in months. He likes it, but feels completely shitty. Not thinking, he takes in the scene.

Slowly audio comes in. Fragments of things being seethed at his companion. Threats of death upon photography. -- Journal, dated 4/5/9

Revere Beach -- "Severe" -- is one of the yearly trips, an April tradition, a strip of beach just outside of Boston, at the end of the T. There are the clams at Santorini's, the dog track in the distance, not too many people (almost all of them local) but more importantly, sun and surf. It's like medicine and unofficially kicks off the summer photo/travel season. It's like a tonic to help ward off the winter blues and this year I needed it. Badly.

I had spent the week prior getting sick with a repository illness and attending funerals. By the time we got to Revere on Sunday, my body was approaching near total system failure with a full-on hangover from the day and night before. I didn't say much the entire trip out there, or even during our stay on the beach... I just needed to get out there, on the shore, and in the sun.

Too cold to go in, having already shot much of the location already, we meandered over the beach near the water, under the clear sky. The beach was wet from the recent rains, and the sand reflected the sun's light. Container ships in the water along the horizon while a few other groups of people walked back and forth, looking at the seaweed and other items that had been brought in by the tide.

It was almost like walking on a sheen of glass, the way the sky and earth reflected one another, and it shows in the photos. Clear, crisp lines, a few clouds... it was desolate and wonderful. A tarnished oasis at the end of the line.

After walking for an hour or so, we decamped at Santorini's, and sat in the sun. Writing, shooting, soaking in the light along with water and cups of tea. A few trips to the bathroom, and eventually my system was purged of all the liquor and illness and dire thoughts. The whole experience was a respite.

I only shot six photos, but they were all that was needed to capture the day (and about all I was capable of, my body was so in revolt). They all share the same PoV and perspective, looking out at the beach, seeing it and soaking it in. These were the last photos that I took before DS09, before everything started clicking and ramping up. Click on one to see them all.

Dan Meade, documentarian roadie

2009-12-01T19:08:00.002-05:00

Post-LBRDY Ramones anecdote

2009-11-24T22:50:00.002-05:00

While in the Port City Java on Front Street in Wilmington I bought a painting of a rooster by Beatriz Moreno for $20. I hadn’t hung it in QNSBOX because I was waiting for my next apartment. Along came the move and it was time to hang the painting.

It’s 11x17, making a frame a little hard to come by. I ended up in a Bed Bath & Beyond in Manhattan looking in their ART FOR SALE section for something that was the same size. Finally I see the framed retro-concert bills that are the exact size that I need: Green Day, Springsteen, Beatles, the Dead.

I’m all set to buy one of the Springsteen one when I turn around and I see they have one from the Ramones, and it’s half off ($5). Done. Sold. It's too perfect. I have no intention of hanging the Ramones bill, but if I have to buy one, I’m buying theirs – I did spend half of LBRDY quoting End of the Century after all.

I go to the check-out and hand the framed Ramones concert bill to the 40-something South American woman behind the counter. She looks at it and goes “Ah, Ramones,” pronouncing it “Ra-mo-NES.”

Had she once been a fan? Was she part of the Ramones' late-career South American success (where they were known as Los Ramones)? Would she have reacted to any of the other bands had I brought one of their bills up?

Oh, and “I Wanna Be Sedated” just came on the radio as was I finishing typing this.

Everything flows, and everything is related - from LBRDY to Manhattan and beyond. It’s all part of the ManicStream.

INFRASTRUCTURE in Philly this weekend,
Austin 2009 in three weeks.
More and more.

Relocation: Astoria

2009-11-18T22:30:00.003-05:00

I left QNSBOX, my former apartment which was my outpost in the middle of a social wasteland, this past weekend and moved to Astoria. Everything is different, and everything is better.

The biggest difference? The commute. No longer do my days begin and end with a miserable ride on the E-Train, speeding underground, crammed on a train full of people looking miserable and hating every moment of their commute, jammed together and often delayed. Now I ride the elevated N/W line and watch the sunrise with the Manhattan skyline and the Triborough Bridge in the distance as Astoria and Long Island City wake up below me.

It’s a completely different mindset when your day doesn’t begin by having its soul crushed while speeding underground. Much, much more on this, and Astoria on a whole, to come.

The move is also very likely going to be the final straw in my buying a digital camera, because moments like this are all around me here:

Getting ready for Christmas #4

Dan Meade - Strike skunk

2009-11-11T16:03:00.002-05:00

Strike skunk by Dan Meade

ManicAir Flight 110809

2009-11-08T22:45:00.000-05:00

NPR interviews George Romero

2009-11-03T07:25:00.000-05:00

{link}

Clusterfuck City

2009-11-01T22:56:00.003-05:00

I was trying to get around the barricade to get a better vantage point, got turned back by the cops and was headed to MacDougal when the entire throng screamed, all at once. I though the Michael Jackson float had exploded or the Cloverfield monster had attacked. No, it was the rain turning from a steady drop to a flash-downpour and the crowd reacting with surprise, joy and disappointment all in one scream.

Downtown New York on Halloween, at the Parade, is like being in a giant Clusterfuck City. Streets are blocked off at every corner, everyone is dressed up and stopping in the street to take pictures, people are darting around trying to dodge rain bullets all while the Jagermeister float blares its German-techno theme song with giant Day-of-the-Dead skeletons marching to the beat.

It was fantastic. Cars dividing streets of people, security guards outside of apartment buildings, people hanging out the windows of their 6^th Avenue apartments and everyone in costume, everyone in a good mood behind their masks and makeup, enjoying the night and the frenzy.

I tried to tell the Smurfette from D.C. all this at the bar afterward, but she wasn’t digging the idea of the Parade, saying she saw enough of that type of thing everyday while living in Chelsea these past six months. It was similar to the doctor a few weeks ago who couldn’t understand why I’ve been Kansas and Mississippi. It must be hard to enjoy things when you can’t even imagine doing them.

In the time it takes film to develop…

2009-10-25T20:26:00.001-04:00

New York was warm and sunny today. I took advantage of it. Here’s how:

· Drop of film for developing at 86^th Street Photo

· Head down to Ground Support

o Chai and a PBJ-scone thing

o Photo review of DS09 rolls K through O

o Enjoy the open-air coffee bar

· Walk around without a plan

o End up walking from SoHo to Battery Park City

· Hang out by the Tom Otterness statues, write, soak in sun

· Walk along edge of Manhattan to Battery Park

o Get idea for future video projects

o Call RB, discuss multiple projects, including 11/7 INFRASTRUCTURE show

· Head back to 86^th to pick up next 4 rolls of DS09 photos

· Finish Lewis’ Main Street

Total time? About 5 hours. Day well spent.

Keeping flim alive

2009-10-17T11:56:00.000-04:00

http://www.the-impossible-project.com/

via the good folks at Ilford

"Impossible b.v. has been founded with the concrete aim to re-invent and re-start production of analog INTEGRAL FILM for vintage Polaroid cameras."

INFRAshoot: Ertegun

2009-10-12T22:08:00.003-04:00

INFRAshoot_Ertegun by Dan Meade

I’m sitting here in Queens, looking at the posted photos that I shot this weekend, listening to the tracks that were recorded as I was shooting 500+ photos of INFRASTRUCTURE in my first formal photoshoot, and it’s giving me just enough space to step back and think about what I’m looking at and hearing.

Rob and the others kept asking how I would describe the band, the sound. I knew, and when I told Rob this he totally got it, that I wouldn’t know how I though they sounded until a day or two later, when I was writing about it. That’s just how my brain works: it needs to ponder and mull until it clicks. It just did:

In one of the tunnel shots, I said “they look like the Beach Boys on heroin,” but that’s not how they sound. “Punk blues” doesn’t quite hit the mark. They sound like survivors of Queens. All the influences of this giant cultural conglomeration, all the compounded internal pressures that build up from being born here, growing up here, then leaving… but not. It’s in your roots and in your brain.

They take the Platonic approach, the Manic approach – brining the world back to those still in the shadows. Everything that is in life, focused through the lens of Queens, fermented and squeezed out into music.

They’re good. And getting better.

The second part of Day 1 of the shoot, after a couple beers and dinner, they came back into the Dungeon charged and fired up, and played tight. Roaming through that space, camera(s) in one hand, camcorder in the other and shit just clicked. For them, for me – it was in the air and they put it there.

I’m probably not going to make the show tomorrow (10/13) at Harper’s Ferry @ 8:30, but I’ll be at the Nov. 7 show. You should go if you can.

Birth of Austin `09

2009-10-05T22:00:00.001-04:00

9:58 AM to Rob: TIX BOUGHT!

10:02 AM from Rob: This is becoming a monthly occurrence.

With that we were booked (or at least I was). Austin `09, a.k.a. ABBQII, is on.

On September 21^st Rob had emailed the manager of the Broken Spoke to find out when Dale Watson would be playing in December and within two hours Rob had sent out the date announcement email.

Seven days later, I called up the Austin Motel and re-booked our suite from last year. Seven days after that I booked my flights while the others are checking their flight options and letting us know their availabilities.

We’re becoming pros at this, and can feel it becoming our full-time jobs. Search, find, book, fly, experience. America. The intervals are becoming shorter and the trips are becoming better.

This year? We may need a van and INFRASTRUCTURE may book a gig.

Last year? A refresher.

DS09: Prelude to Near-murder

2009-10-04T12:15:00.003-04:00

This week's flickr uploads include coffee advertising, making art out of NOT ART and this photo from DS09's SWAMPVENTURE.

Prelude to Near-murder by Dan Meade

SO MUCH IS HAPPENING

2009-09-28T22:42:00.002-04:00

Including the 2009 versions of:

CPC
Austin

and much, MUCH more. Stay Tuned.

Bitch Off Wheels

2009-09-25T21:44:00.001-04:00

PABT, 6:24 PM - The people on the line behind me were still talking about her even after she boarded. As the Geryhound lifers put it, "the young lady has priority seating." Perhaps tellingly, when the Young Respectible Collegiate Republican was put next to her, in his khakis, blue button-down and blank/scared expression, no invective was overheard. But her... no one liked her.

Perhaps it was the way she strutted to the front of the line, saying to no one yet to everyone "it's OK - I have priorty seating" as she fiddeling with her BlackBerry and worried about scuffing her suede half-calf boots, talking down to everyone as if her $5 priorty ticket gave her lordship of the line. Maybe it was simply becuase at PABT, your place in line fully determines how horrible your bus ride will be. It could have been veilly-disguised class conflict, or she may trully have been a bitch down to the core of where her soul ought to be. Any way you slice it, these ladies from Baltimore and beyond did NOT like her, or her attitude.

A pouty, impatient face, slight frame and an air of I-can't-believe-I-have-to-take-this-fucking-bus is no way to ride Greyhound, which can be like riding steerage with the cast of The Wire. Hell, you may even get killed on one of these buses if things go South. It's a low, cheap(ish) and semi-dependable way to get from City A to City B. If you're going to act like the teacher told you that you can cut the line, you're not going to get treated well. It's not about the piece of paper that you have, it's about respecting the people who don't have it.
Posted via Peter Pan WiFi

Just another U.N. lunch break

2009-09-24T21:43:00.024-04:00

During my lunch break today I managed to see:

Rudy Giuliani give a speech
"FREE IRAN" shirts on sale for $10
Jews protesting Israel
Multiple anti-Iran/Ahmadinejad groups
A South Cameroon freedom demonstration
Lots of cops earning overtime

Overtime by Dan Meade

Discovering America one town at a time

2009-09-20T17:41:00.002-04:00

You need to search for America sometimes. It’s not always easy to find, and more often than not, you don’t even know when you’ll find it until you’re smack dab in the middle of it. And then there you are, right in the middle of America, the concept and the dream made tangible. You can sense it, feel it around you, when all the pretense and politics and day-to-day garbage has been pared away and all that’s left is Americans enjoying America.

Holiday weekends tend to make America easier to find, either out of celebration and patriotism or just because people get to shuck their worries for three or four days. Or maybe they just put America more into focus.
During the Near South Tour, Rob and I were on our way to D.C. for the 4^th of July and we made a pit stop in Charleston West Virginia. The town was getting ready for their celebration: people were on their boats in the river while the local radio station, WQBE, was setting up it’s concert and vendors and army recruiters were getting their booth ready for the downtown celebration.

Charleston before the 4th
Originally uploaded by Dan Meade

The only people working were the those manning the booths and it felt as if the whole town was either in the river or getting to the band-shell early for seats. It was America’s birthday, and Charleston was just going to relax and enjoy the party and the long weekend.

D.C. had it’s Concert on the Mall and giant fireworks display, but Charleston just felt more like America – no big show, no flash and dash, just an honest celebration shared by the whole community. It was simply and pure and the caramel apples were as red as the new fire engine on display. Norman Rockwell would have been proud.

Flash forward four years. On Labor Day Saturday, the peak of the long holiday weekend, Rob and I found ourselves on the pier in Surf City, NC just before midnight. The entire pier was packed. Rob counted over 180 fisherman, fisherwomen and fisherchildren. Families, teenage couples, good old boys, immigrants and loners… no one seemed concerned with bedtimes or deadlines, it was just their night to go fishing.

Each group had its own setup: coolers, portable chopping blocks, radios, chairs… one group even had a tent setup for their pre-teen kids to hang out in. No one was drinking, carrying on or causing a ruckus – the loudest conversation was a couple of people talking about the name changes that John Mellencamp has gone through after “Jack and Diane” came on from the small radio one of them had at his feet. (They though he should have stayed with Johnny Cougar.)

Out on the Surf City Pier
Originally uploaded by Dan Meade

At another part of the pier, a father caught a small fish, and as his wife chimed, he reeled it in, placed it flopping down onto the pier and stepped on its tail so that he could hold it still while taking the lure out of it. He then had his son pick it up and bring it to their cooler, where the night’s other catches were. Family bonding 101.

There was almost a hushed silence out there. It was calming and soothing to be on that pier. Had we had our camera, RB and I would have been intruding on the fishermen (as we had done earlier that week). Instead we walked among the Carolinians and took mental notes and a couple photos with our phones.

In Charleston and Surf City, each town was able to set aside all that didn’t matter and just enjoy themselves and their towns. I’m sitting here writing about all this in a SoHo coffee shop (Ground Support) on a sunny fall Sunday, and yes, New York is full of opportunities and promise and potential, but it’s very hard to find simple days and nights. It’s hard to let everything drop, gather a group of friends, and just relax for hours. Someone’s Blackberry will go off, or someone will have a train to catch or another person will have to leave because they’re triple booked… there’s always something.

Seeing whole towns able to put everything aside and just enjoy the moment and those around them, to take advantage of the opportunities before them... that feels like America, and it feels good to witness it.

A BBQ lesson from Keith Allen, of Allen and Son Bar-B-Q

2009-09-12T09:45:00.002-04:00

Thig’s BBQ House (Jackson, NC) is not on any of the maps, and there’s good reason for it.

Located just off a military base on the back road of a back road, Thig’s came to our attention through some BBQ message board that Rob had found and, to be honest, out interest came largely because of its name. A place called Thing’s located off the map in the backwoods of North Carolina? C’mon! THAT’s a draw!

We get there and there’s a sizable crowd, they’re out of the Friday-Special ribs, and we start thinking that we’re in for a treat. In retrospect, the dry-erase board crammed with menu items behind us should have alerted us to what was about to happen. Our BBQ plates arrived, we tasted it, and… nothing. It was moist and flavorless, the surest sign of gas-cooked pork there is.

The man himself, Keith Allen
Originally uploaded by danmeade

Less than 36 hours earlier we had been at Allen and Son Bar-B-Q in Chapel Hill. After eating their chunkier-chopped and smokey-flavored BBQ sandwiches we had gone around behind the restaurant to look for photo ops. While back there, I ran into Keith Allen, the founder of the place, and had gotten a lesson in chopping wood from him (a story for another time).

After Rob joined us, the three of us started talking BBQ and Allen went into a fairly in-depth discourse into how they cook using the wood there. He explained how the wood is heated through the chimney and then the heat and smoke is piped into the pits. He emphasized to us that you need "that interaction" between the wood and coal and the meat. Allen cooks his pork about a foot above the charcoal, and the juices from the pigs drip down onto the coal and then smokes back up into the meat (similar to the process at the Skylight Inn), making for multiple levels of “interaction.”

Allen talked about how you can taste the difference that “that interaction” provides, alluding that meat cooked over gas or electric has no taste, and that it was the same as cooking a piece of meat on an outdoor grill versus indoors in the stove. We agreed. We knew. There was a reason we had
been out there looking at the wood.

For some reason, as much as we knew exactly what Allen was saying, it took the gas-cooked pork of Thig’s for his lesson to fully embed itself into our heads.

After we left Thig’s, Rob told me to drive around the back first, and there it was: a propane tank. He said this would be a new qualifying test for any new BBQ places we find – a drive around back to make sure that they cook with wood, and not gas.

Meadeblog 3.0

2009-09-10T19:57:00.002-04:00

The blog's been redesigned again. Look for improvements in content to match the improvements in ~~ascetics~~ aesthetics.

The Greatness. Again. (24 hours of LBRDY)

2009-09-04T08:16:00.009-04:00

DS09 Phase V – LBRDY WKND!

Coming out of the ocean at dusk last night, we entered the beach house and raised out glasses of Maker’s in salute to an excellent day’s work. Here is a bullet-ed point recap of the last 24 hours (LBRDY Day 6 into 7), as I am still working on the A+-level post from yesterday, which may not be ready for another week or so:

Morning swim at 8 AM, just as the day begins turning warm
I only almost kill us twice on the drive up I-40 to Raleigh-Durham
Backyard BBQ, very good, and spicy, plate of BBQ
Allen and Son BBQ

BBQ sandwich: good, with a chunkier cut
{Events of aforementioned A+-level post}

Tour of Sandy & Michael’s house
Drive down I-40

Mega-Judgmental Jesus Billboard
Watermelon shack
Flaming bog (video below! or here)
Vacation Like ~~Horror Movie~~… Princess Bride?!

Back to the house and into the ocean
Maker’s toast
Shower
Sandy & Michael return and we immediately begin telling stories about the day's events
Dinner at local Mexican place, where the wait staff played games in between serving us
Two hour long night photoshoot of the near-full Moon (me, RB, and Michael of foglesfotos.com)
Half a beer at local townie bar
Drive around the area, only car on the road
5 hours of sleep
Up at 6:50

Sunrise Photoshoot III : dashed down the beach to the pier to catch the sunrise and surfers through the pylons… a morning version of what RB got the other night
Morning swim until 8 AM (give or take)

Breakfast and blog posting

LBRDY: Day 3 Plan: 5 Lunches

2009-08-31T07:19:00.001-04:00

LBRDY: Day 3 Plan: 5 Lunches
Originally uploaded by danmeade

The Meade Wafel

2009-08-30T09:38:00.001-04:00

So I was talking about my job with Sandy and Sarah, and then we came to the topic of the Wafel Truck. I’m explaining its amazingness to Sarah and then Sandy tells how she was at the Wafel Truck in Park Slope and she told the guys that her friend always tells her to get the Bacon Wafel with Strawberries. The guys ask if her friend works around Midtown East. Sandy says yeah, he does and the guy tells her how a bunch of people around there always order those on Fridays.

So yeah, the Meade Wafel is not only making it’s way through the boroughs, but it can be used to track my location in time and space.

LBRDY: Day 2: Dawn, Perfection

2009-08-30T07:55:00.002-04:00

I woke up at 6:42 after dreaming of shape-shifting aliens from Red China who had infiltrated my circle of friends. The bad one was killed, but everyone had been infected by the end.

Then, I went out to the sliding deck-doors to take a look: sunrise, directly over the ocean. Maybe twenty minutes old.

I went back into the house, grabbed some clothes and cameras, and came outside to take a few shots. Beautiful. Sun’s reflection over the water, a few Pipers, a couple of people dotting the shell-encrusted shoreline…. and then I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to go in. THIS is what I had been thinking of for weeks and talking about all last night: waking up early, going directly into the ocean.

And that’s what I did. Ran back into the house, cameras down, clothes off, swim trunks on, and before I was even fully awake and aware of what was going on, I was in the ocean.

Fucking beautiful. Perfection. All I could ask for or want. The rolling surf, the sun rising to my left, quiet, solitude… I really can’t think of a better way to wake up. If yesterday’s first manic dive into the ocean had been all Stooges , this morning’s dawn swim was much more Ben Harper – softer, mellower, a gentle confirmation of how awesome the moment was.

I stayed in for maybe 20-30 minutes total, including a trip back for the Vivitar to take a few shots from the ocean, and now I am sitting on the deck, writing, with a mini-breakfast of toast, kiwi, and OJ (I couldn’t find the teapot and didn’t want to make eggs and wake the others. Besides, the oven is convection and I don’t really like those, and didn’t want to try it before I was fully awake).

And now? I have seven more days of this to look forward to.

LBRDY: The Arrival

2009-08-29T17:53:00.001-04:00

LBRDY: The Arrival
Originally uploaded by danmeade

LBRDY trailers are go!

2009-08-24T22:39:00.003-04:00

New tag: Food-truckery

2009-08-21T00:30:00.002-04:00

Disco-O-Rama on W4 is gone

2009-08-17T23:59:00.002-04:00

In its place was a eight year old girl preening in the mirror of a jewelry store.

This sucks.

This week at the Wafel Truck

2009-08-16T03:07:00.001-04:00

This week at the Wafel Truck
Originally uploaded by danmeade

yup, it's come to this: I've actually begun re-arranging my eating schedule based on the appearance of the Wafel Truck at my job on Fridays....

Un-fracking-believable

2009-08-13T23:20:00.001-04:00

[Dan Meade] just finished Battlestar... I'm gonna be chewing over this for awhile

That was the facebook status update. This is the blog entry, then the journal will follow. It was that good, not just the finale, but the entire run of Battlestar Galactica was that good. Good enough to get a little choked up at the end, good enough to want to take a walk out in the fresh, cool, air and think it over some. You invest four years into a show like this, and then when you come to its end and find yourself thinking that you'll never see a new episode again, you know it was something special.

It was a damn good show, definitely one of those where you more you put into it, the more you got out, and I totally nerded out and watched almost all the director commentaries (save for the last couple, I didn't want to risk Ron giving anything away). I'm going to be chewing on the final story arcs, the full story arcs, at least through the weekend, and then more so on and off. Damn good show. You should start from the beginning if you haven't already.

End blog post.

UFC, Hooters and a lot of fried food

2009-08-10T23:20:00.001-04:00

So after the Seanie Boy Show on Friday, Steve leads us to a Hooters in midtown to watch the big UFC pay-per-view, which is supposed to have two main events that each are highly anticipated and built up to be awesome. I've never watched more than 30 seconds of UFC, have read a few articles about it, and have heard all the buzz, so I buy into the hype of the evening - a regular Guys Night Out of wings, beer, fights, and T&A. Then we get there, and the line is out the door, tables are an hour+ wait, and the best they can do is squeeze the seven of us in near the bar. Not quite how the evening was billed, kinda like going to see Million Dollar Baby and expecting it to be a boxing/sports movie. Oops.

This Hooters was about as un-Bateman as you could get. It was as if you were transported from mid-town Manhattan to the suburbs of Orlando, but they still had the Mets and Yanks on TV and people still wore Knicks jerseys. Not a single power-broker, b&t-er, or hipster in the house - it was all ponytails, sleeveless tanks, goatees, and working's man anger ready to be expelled via the MMA fighters.

Who didn't really fight. There was a lot of grappling, a couple punches, and a few kicks. One guy gave up after 20 seconds, others stalemated for the full 15 minutes allotted to their fight. I didn't get the attraction. I've seen some bad boxing matches, but this dragged on and got stale quick, especially when you've been standing for two hours, balancing plates of fried (?!) chicken wings, onion rings and french fries with pitchers of Bud Lite.

Don't get me wrong, I still stayed out past 4 and had a good time, and compared to all the electrical failures at home (which factor largely into the recent dearth of verbiage here) it was downright boffo. But next time, I'll likely pass.

The Fear and Loathing DS09 Connection

2009-07-15T23:17:00.008-04:00

I never said this would be chronological. The following concerns events from Day 4 and Day 8:

It may not have been his actual appearance, but looking back, and forward, I now realize that the Boat Ranger was a Steadman-esque cop, over muscled for his age, shorts, buzz cut, and weary of dealing with little shits like ourselves… possibly mentally reliving Glory Days Gone By. I doubt he had always been a Boat Ranger. My guess is he was a retired state cop, adding to his pension and keeping busy. We can add in two past divorces if you like, but that’s just speculation upon speculation.

So there was him, and alone, it’s a glaze of Gonzo, but in Natchez we nearly ran headfirst into a steaming vat of it.

We needed a place to stay, and Natchez was our confirmed destination for the night, with the Trace Parkway our plan for the next day. Hell, we even knew we were going to eat at Fat Mama’s Tamales that night, because RB and RC had seen a bumper sticker for it states away (while I still in the midst of the Coyote Flu Vortex I think… by this time I was coming out of it). Everything was settled but where we would sleep that night along the Mighty Mississip’. So we start troweling for hotels and/or the tourist office (which we never found).

Somehow, twice, we came across this one hotel, a quick Internet search may have even led us there. It looked nice, was right in downtown Natchez, but the parking lot was packed. With Mississippi State Constables Vehicles. For their convention. And we almost tried to stay in their hotel, and presumably drink at the bar with them.

The thing about constables is that they’re not exactly police… they are a bit more like state-sanctioned bounty hunters, out to find punks who are skipping bail, assists local sheriffs when needed, and do who knows what else. Mississippi still has convicts working chain-gangs along the sides of its highways, so I guess anything goes, law-wise, and you want to stay on the right side of it.

So we get close enough to staying there the after driving through Natchez, having found nowhere else – did I add that we entered town through the Wrong Side of the Tracks first, letting us know where NOT to stay – that we’re driving through the parking lot looking for spots. In a dirty, stuffed, out of state SUV, me looking like a 1970’s space lizard (dirty bandanna, dirty Hula shirt, board shorts, hair wild and face unshaven, half-glazed over look in my eyes), RB about to be hit by the Coyote Flu, and RC looking a little haggard as well, after we had all spent the night in POW Lake camping. As we drive through the lot full of the Constables’ vehicles, we’re seeing rims, flames, tricked out SUVs with sound-systems and spotlights… these were the hot rods and muscle cars of private contractor cops. Not only will they bust your ass, but they will look good doing it, dammit, none of this small town late model Chevy cruiser shit for these guys.

And I really do picture the inside of the hotel bar looking like Steadman’s Lounge Lizards… a mental image confirmed by the four or five constables standing outside the hotel drinking beers from a cooler (ala King of the Hill, no joke). We stare at them, they stare at us, neither party particularly wanting to associate with the other. Even though it’s fun to imagine what would have happened had we tried to drink with a hotel full of Mississippi Constables, we knew we had to beat it out of there.

We cross the `Sip into Vidalia, LA (crossing another state off on the list, total and for the trip), find their visitors' center, use its Internet to book a hotel within sight of the river, and decamp there. The two Rs check us in, and the staff decide the three of us aren’t worthy of a real room, so they book us in their Orgy Room, which reeked of cigarettes, and must have had the worst mattress and sheets in the hotel. We complained, they moved us down the hall to a “clean” room, showered, rested a tad, couplea photos of the river from the room (barges moving constantly. A river view room cost only $10 more than a non-river view room. Beyond worth it… unless you’re a local I presume), and we head back to Natchez for a taste of Fat Mama’s Tamales.

Not Being Exhaustive -> Creative Output

2009-07-09T20:41:00.004-04:00

Just posted a batch of photos. No, not DS09, AUST, or UP, but more cameraphone shots -- they're more immediate, and I'm less neuritic about them getting "stolen" by posting them online.

Rather than displaying them here, I'll write about them instead... pretty much just to get you to click on the links.

Why have I been so exhausted? Well, last week RB was in town, so that led to a couple late nights, and some weird encounters. But even the week before last, I'd been out late allot, not even always doing anything big, but just chilling and catching late-night Swedish movies about Nazi Zombies.

It's not just the night shots though. When I start days by seeing the Morning Chicken, everything gets thrown off -- I start screaming and clucking, and all this is even before my first cup of coffee. Add in the fact that I can't even take lunch or walk down the street without finding a photo-op and you can get an idea of why my mind gets stretched. And with a celebrity death every day, BOOM!, a recipe for exhaustion.

But today I was less exhausted, so photos went up. Enjoy.

Alice and Kev

2009-07-03T17:13:00.004-04:00

As much as I'm liking Alice and Kev, and it's soooooo much better than most comic strips (which is how I kinda classify it), I can't shake the nagging cynical though that it's a giant adverting ploy -- especially when so many comments are people saying that the story has sold them on buying The Sims 3.

I do think it's an honest attempt to find a new way to tell a story, but that thought is there.

The King of Pop is Dead

2009-06-28T02:09:00.004-04:00

The King of Pop is Dead
Originally uploaded by danmeade

Ever since Michael Jackson died, radio stations, TVs, bars, cars, and cabs have been playing his music. Ironically, this much play over the last few years would have help him financially, and maybe have made the London concerts unnecessary. But that’s neither here nor there.

Walking past Union Sq. tonight, we heard more MJ and saw a crowd. Checking it out, there were….. fifty (?) or so people surrounding a couple guys who brought a laptop, speakers, cameras, and a “donation” bucket to play an impromptu all MJ-gig. NYU freshmen squealed, people danced, and I climbed a streetlight to get a better cellphone-camera angle.

Wherein Iggy Pop makes me write about DS09

2009-06-24T22:29:00.006-04:00

I just listened to Iggy Pop talk about the Deep South for two hours. OK, not exactly, but close enough.

It was billed as him discussing his new French Jazz CD, but instead the TimesTalk had him talking about early influences by watching a clip, then him discussing it with Ben Ratliff, the host. Howling Wolf, Bukka White (his favorite), James Brown, the Ramones, a few others… it was fantastic. From song craft, stage manners, the industry, his roots, it all came out. But he kept going back to the Deep South:

Re: James Brown he talked about the swath of land from the Carolinas, Georgia, Northern Florida, to Alabama – I believe he called it the Pine Belt, or something – how the music from there was just this funky beat that resembles Brown’s style. Ig talked about just going down there, renting a car, and driving around.

Re: Jerry Lewis he talked about driving through Natchez, where below the cliffs leading to the Mississippi all the old house of ill repute were located (we drove by a modern version of one) to get to the Killer’s hometown of Ferriday, just across the river in Louisiana. We stayed in Vidalia, but it sounded like the Killer was from the town right next to there. Ig described Killer’s hometown as a quaint all-American town with the ice cream shop, cinema, town hall…. all broken down and doomed. Closed storefronts, people hulking down the streets or hiding in the shadows… sounded a bit like Columbia, MS – one of the last towns we hit before reaching Natchez.

Re: Howling Wolf he talked about the great blues migration north from the Delta to Chicago, the music of which RB always finds a way to have the car playing on these trips, and part of the reason for going in the first place.

Like us, Ig would just drive…. to see the land, get a feel for it. OK, I didn’t talk much about DS09 directly, but did you get a bit of the sense of it? The mood it had (except for when everything got stuck in the Mississippi Vortex [which I may explain one of these days])? Ig’s a highly intelligent hombre who knows his stuff, knows his music, and talks like he has a good grasp of what makes up America.

Last year we drove around his hometown of Ann Arbor. This year we drove through the home of many of his musical influences. Next year, will we drive to Argentina where he was part of the final show of “Los Ramones” --- prob not, but something equally off-the-wall is in the works. Stay tuned.

No More Circus Car Wash, No More Fun

2009-06-17T20:41:00.002-04:00

No More Circus Car Wash, No More Fun
Originally uploaded by danmeade

Following up on what I started talking about here

This is gone now

2009-06-16T23:23:00.003-04:00

This has been painted over, and my neighborhood got all the more boring for it.

DS09 Vignettes: Day 1, Airport Romance

2009-06-16T21:00:00.002-04:00

I missed my flight out of New York by seven minutes, and spent part of my wait at Legend's Sports Bar next to Gate 26 in JFK. Here, an except from my raw notes, with only a few minor edits:

This is bizarre. I think two airport employees may be on a date to my right. At the airport bar. Where they (might) work. Who the fuck would want to date where they work, let alone in an airport bar, one of the least happy places on earth?!?! EVERYONE is just waiting, waiting, trying to kill the time better, and maybe get a little drunk to forget that they are waiting. People don't smile here. They stare blandly at the TV. Eat, drink, work, try to read. Try to forget that they are here and maybe wish they were somewhere else... their plane, destination, or wherever their happy place is.

She's in a red power suit that has to be a uniform. He in a white polo with an Under Armour sweater vest. Both look preppy, and a KISS! PDA! PDA! Oh, it is on. Is that how it works now? NO longer an airport hook-up, but a loving date? Or maybe I'm misreading the situation and it is an impromptu rendezvous.

Now they're walking past me as I write about them. Is that awkward? Weird? Voyeuristic?

More Morning Chicken Goodness

2009-06-14T17:37:00.003-04:00

As I sit here eating chicken soup, getting over the Road Flu we all contracted during DS09, I thought I'd add a few more Morning Chicken shots.

More About the Vulcan of Birmingham

2009-06-10T19:44:00.001-04:00

Day 2 back at work – Four times people asked me about the Vulcan bobblehead. Each time I would go into my mock-teacher/tour guide voice and begin explaining it, “Modeled after the Greek god of fire and steel, the Vulcan of Birmingham was created for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair…” and just keeping going until they stopped me.

Each time, more and more people would be in on the joke that I was just going to keep going with this, and I’d explain a little more each time.

This is why I love the trips: go to America, explore, learn, return, and know more about the country than those who haven’t gone. Spread the knowledge. We spent… maybe an hour at Vulcan Park, and I got material for years out of it.

I love this.

DS09: Day 10 -- Behold the Birmingham Vulcan

2009-06-06T20:03:00.003-04:00

0605092213
Originally uploaded by danmeade

I bought a bobblehead of the Vulcan on Day 9, shot this video on Day 10, and am posting it on Day 11. This may be the last DS09 post for awhile (LOTS of notes and photos to go through), so enjoy it!

Total miles traveled during the Multigonal-stages: 2,651
Total states visited: 7, plus D.C.

DS09 Day 8: Natchez Trace is quite scenic

2009-06-04T10:12:00.002-04:00

0603091552
Originally uploaded by danmeade

Gulfport, MS sucks

2009-06-01T11:25:00.000-04:00

It's the Calgary of the Deep South.

DS09: Day 4 -- It Will Erase Your Mind

2009-05-31T02:56:00.001-04:00

DS09: Day 4 -- It Will Erase Your Mind
Originally uploaded by danmeade

DS09 Day 2: Dinner at 2:30AM

2009-05-29T03:51:00.002-04:00

0529090250
Originally uploaded by danmeade

DS09 Day 2: BBQ lunch at 8PM

2009-05-29T03:49:00.001-04:00

0528092011
Originally uploaded by danmeade

Alpharetta, Georgia

2009-05-28T01:25:00.000-04:00

already bleeding

DS09: Seatbacks, tray-tables

2009-05-25T03:10:00.000-04:00

Three days out, and I’m still shooting grainy video of myself to hype the trip. My mind is basically consumed at this point.

How can I best put it into words? Remember in Calvin and Hobbes, whenever Calvin would have a bad dream? Watterson would draw Calvin’s mind not as a brain, but as a series of mini-Calvii in the control room and/or hull of a great ship, controlling Calvin’s mind. If I were Calvin, all the mini-Cavii would be battening down the hatches, stocking the store rooms, and running around making all the final repairs and adjustments before takeoff.

It’ll be a bit of a mad-dash to take off, but I’m ready.

Nearly a year later, and still a cause to shudder

2009-05-21T20:29:00.001-04:00

I’m on the F Train, wedged between two people taking up more than their allotted airspace, and reading DFW’s “Up, Simba!” I’m enjoying it thoroughly, much as I’ve enjoyed HST’s writing on politics and the Trail: the behind-the-scenes peak, the nuance, the coverage, hell, even the pacing and jargon is enjoyable. Especially in light of McCain2008.

And then I get to the section “Negativity” which is set in just about the only place in America I never want to go. Flint, MI. I have my reasons, and I think they’re valid, and I allude to them often whenever I hear of someone who has to go there.

But still, reading about Flint made my stomach queasy. I think I may have actually shuddered enough to wake the dozing businessman next to me, causing him to checking his pockets before going back to sleep.

I was actually relieved when the narrative moved on to Saginaw, so that I wouldn’t have to think about Flint anymore. (That is, beyond the thought needed to come home and immediately write, link, and post this.)

APPROACHING ESCAPE VELOCITY

2009-05-20T22:26:00.001-04:00

DS09 Preparations

2009-05-17T20:52:00.002-04:00

0517091842.jpg
Originally uploaded by danmeade

CD scavenging is fun

2009-05-17T20:48:00.002-04:00

Scavenging from the Virgin Megatore closeout... although i still think i may have paid a little too much

0517091829.jpg
Originally uploaded by danmeade

Hope for humanity (cont.)

2009-05-09T04:40:00.001-04:00

4:35 AM Astoria, 3+ AM. The MTA dude semi-behind the glass booth saw me go up the Astoria side gate and come back down. He kept talking to the woman (his friend?) for awhile, and then another friend came by, on his way to N’awlins.

The MTA and N’awlins guy discussed the best way to get from Astoria to JFK for awhile. All the while, I tried to get into the Manhattan side turnstile, but my Metrocard said No – “just used.” Eventually the train came and N’awlins guy went up the tracks toward Manhattan. I tried to follow, and still the Metrocard said No. MTA guy told me to use the turnstile closest to him – he gave me a free pass b/c he could tell I had gone up the wrong side in error.

The later it gets, the worse it gets, the more humanity tends to show. There’s hope for us yet.

Death Vision of DS09

2009-05-07T19:28:00.002-04:00

This has been brewing in my head all day. It began to crystallize on the E train on the way home, while listening to NIN and reading about Sasha Grey.

I’m on a beach in Alabama. Not passed out, but it looks that way, laying on my back, not really moving, (early?) morning, arms and legs spread like a starfish. Rob’s… gone. Not There. He’s been gone for a day at least. Arrested? Took off? Unknown. Rob L. isn’t there anymore, neither is the car or any of the possible Fellow Travelers.

It may not even be a beach, it could be a fucking sand trap on a golf coarse. Either way, I think it’s a beach, and I’m in full Trip Garb. The camera (and this is how my brain often operates, as if behind a lens) is overhead and circling, almost vulture like.

..and that’s it. That’s my pre-cog vision of DS09. Not sure if events will play out that way, but no way to know for sure yet. Watch out America, we’re coming.

Links in my inbox 4/29/09

2009-05-04T22:29:00.002-04:00

Brought to you by Google Alerts:

after much effort, Man created swine flu
Times Online - UK
They still died at a pitiful rate, from heart attacks and stress, their bones often too weak to carry the weight of their artificially enlarged bodies. ...

The Church of No People: Jesus Was a Scowling Heartbreaking Lumberjack
By Matt @ The Church of No People
Thus, church is a place for women and children and weak men, the kind of people Jesus related to. Wrong. Jesus was a real man. A man's man. The kind of guy who, if he weren't the Son of God, would help you fix your roof, would bring steaks over for a ... What if his animal skin shoes were still attached to the animals? What if those animals were still alive? The only thing better than a Chuck Norris brand roundhouse kick to the face would be one with live animal shoes. ...

BACK ON FLICKR

2009-05-04T21:01:00.003-04:00

ba-guuuuck!

Seasonique

2009-04-30T21:48:00.000-04:00

Like other birth control pills, prescription Seasonique has serious risks including blood clots, stroke and heart attack. Smoking increases these risks, especially if you're over 35. If you've ever had any of these conditions, certain cancers, or if you could be pregnant, you should not take the Pill. The Pill does not protect against HIV or STDs.

Global Pandemic: Day 2

2009-04-27T20:27:00.005-04:00

Pandemic-Day2.jpg
Originally uploaded by danmeade

The E train felt emptier. And I think it moved faster…. a combination of attempts to limit Swine Flu exposure perhaps?

I spend most of the day with fragments from World War Z, The Great Influenza, and I Am Legend passing through my head as we geared everything towards the Swine Flu Pandemic (and whupped it’s ass! If we did say ourselves).

When the Pandemic was first announced yesterday*, I began checking my work email for updates and calls to work from home. I relatively quickly began worrying about becoming a hikikomori and went to stock up on some food.

So yeah, this has been exactly the last thing I needed right now. Add in the fact that it’s High Pollen Season, and I’m now walking around Manhattan in hat, sunglasses, and covered mouth to try to keep the pollen (and germs) out of my respiratory system. I know too much fact and fiction not to be worried. On the bright side, I did get a nice shocked look from a twenty-something woman after work as she looked behind her and saw my covered face.

And no, deep down, I’m not super-worried… yet

* Am I getting ahead of myself? Maybe.

Tia Carrere

2009-04-20T22:26:00.003-04:00

How come no one ever mentions Tia Carrere's five minutes on the O.C.? Or the fact that Summer's dad leaves Newport for a little hospital called Seattle Grace?

Just sayin' is all...