I took pictures of Beverly modeling Monica's fort for a contest.





My website still isn't up. I still cough when I stand or sit at my accustomed speed. I can't handle this stress.

You can download most of V/VM's albums here.

This is what I spent the night taking pictures of:



Here's how it turned out:




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I forgot to post any updates on the Sergio situation. But the long in short of it is: he is living here, has stopped drinking, and is doing some fairly interesting work. He continues to be batshit fucking insane, which, combined with him not drinking, is annoying. At least when he was drunk all the time he had a good reason to be crazy.

Anyway, here's something he's doing that's pretty good. I took the first picture using my new prime lens.





And here's a picture I took of Rebecca last week:



Tomorrow we're gonna dress a friend of mine up like a preacher and do a photo session on MARTA, which should be interesting.

This is what I've been shooting lately. To tell you the truth, this last set of shots feels pretty bland to me.( More pictures... )

I could really use some wisdom on the whole Moving To Chicago question.

I am pretty sure that this series of pictures make somewhat compelling arguments against moving to Chicago.  I mean, here in Atlanta, 5 of the parties I've been to in the last month have had bouncy castles.  2 others had slip n' slides.  If I move to Chicago, I won't be really warm for at least 5 months.  Is that something I can deal with?  What do I need to be happy?

Pictures taken in a bouncy castle on Friday night, presented in reverse chronological order.
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I'm trying to take the time to make friends with people right now. It's hard. You forget how much of a process friendship can be. I've been meeting huge numbers of great people over these last few months, and we're friends on Facebook, and we say "hey" and talk about our projects when we meet around town... but we don't argue with each other, we don't laugh at private jokes, and the silences are uncomfortable.

So lately I've been really making an effort to connect with the people who interest me; I stay through the superficial part of the conversation, I try and build a lasting connection, a shared picture of who both myself and the person I'm talking to are.

Unrelated, here is a picture of me taking a picture, photographed by scary_mary , who is mysterious.



Please pay special attention to my massively gnarled knee muscles. If my body was a brick house, 80% of the bricks would be in my knees and 10% would be in my calves. If I got in a kicking contest with a mule, I would win.

Recognize.

PS: I heard a person using the phrase "REAL TALK" in a conversation the other day.  They weren't being ironic.  I was terribly impressed.

This is my brother with his cat.

One of the few men in the series, and one of the few whose faces are revealed. I am trying to figure out why it seems to fit with Adam.

Too heart-healthy quotes from today:

Via Cedric, my next door neighbor, who does beats and stuff for rap and r&b, speaking to me a few days after the party:

"this is gonna be one of those things, one of those places people remember in 40 years, like... Haight-Ashbury, you know? Like I saw that girl playing the guitar by herself, and everyone was sitting on the floor around her. And I thought, damn, even I would sit on that dirty-ass floor to hear her!"

Via Mathew, a bike messenger I am pretty sure I've never met except through incestuous Atlanta bike kid association, speaking to my roommate Sergio:

"Oh, you live with Ben? Yeah, he's really fast."

Now I've got to go figure out how to print and frame/present photos for a show which is actually this Friday, not the Friday several weeks from now.

This is a poster for our next concert. I am pretty excited. We've got a band flying in from NY, a puppet show, and at least a handful of firedancers. Also it is a costume party. I don't go to parties unless they are costume parties.

Also, this is the third time today that I've been introduced as "Ben from Fishmarket." Fishmarket is what we call my warehouse. It is funny how titles work. Sometimes I introduce myself as Ben, booking at Fishmarket. And other times I introduce myself as Ben, photo/interview guy at burnaway.org.

I feel like I am trading money for these titles. Like I can either earn a real living and eventually buy a plane ticket to India. Or I can earn a fakeass living, never own/buy anything of +$800 substance, but hold a variety of hipstercred titles and associations.

Anyway, I think this poster is hilarious. I am making fun of:

myself
hardcore show posters
sexuality
myself
myself
font
graphic design.

My new intern* sent over a transcript of the interview I did last Friday with Vicki Kelly, who recently organized a really huge art show in a section of Atlanta most people consider the ghetto.

Once you read this excerpt, I think you'll understand my hesitation to let anyone see these interviews until they've been heavily edited:

Ben: Um, yeah so, I guess, can you tell me where you’re coming from just in relation to the fourth ward art world first?

Vii: From the …uh. Well the old fourth ward is kind of you know everybody there’s my family and I’m really far away from, so I spend a lot of time there. I have the businesses are very important to me there so I wanted to bring my people and more culture to the area, and … yeah…you know bring some money to the area, and just like let people be aware of the … [stammers] nobody really knows what the old fourth ward is. Nobody knows. When I say the old fourth ward, it’s like people automatically assume like it’s a horrible place and you shouldn’t even drive through it. So it’s, just a matter of getting more people out there. Because its,.. what fourth ward I believe is can be an epitome of Atlanta, in a sense. It’s where you can go in Atlanta to experience every single level of Atlanta. You’ve got like rich yuppie people and you’ve got a whole bunch of hipster bikester… biker riders because you’ve got like the bikepack dunks, you know? Its um..not a lot of and [laughs]…then you’ve got like crack heads and people asking you for money constantly and you can get your car broken into and, I don’t know. But at the same time you can find opportunity there that I think is in one of those little sections of Atlanta, that’s easier to find.

Ben: Is there a... just to be clear that the old fourth ward is sort of harmless, chip of the card? Like the structural part between Ponce and …Memorial?

Vii: I would say, I think it ends at DeKalb. I’m pretty sure it ends from Ponce and DeKalb. Maybe North to DeKalb. Nah, I think its Ponce and DeKalb.

Ben: And the piques sort of weird too, I mean that’s an area with a lot of history, I guess. A lot happened there too.

Vii: Like Martin Luther King

Ben: Yes. Everything. you know and then..leaders from right there.[had trouble listening to it]

Vii: It’s the most visited state park, I believe in the country. Someone had told me that once, but I’m not quite sure. [Laughs]. Yeah, there’s a ton of history there.



I've included this picture from one of my most recent cat washing photoshoots as a chaser to that long block of text.

* Yay!!!!

A day in my life picture/narration thingy below.

Link to post on the ADIML community.

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Dear Piedmont Park dogpark:  You are great.

Dear moms with facial piercings and awesome tattoos:  You are great.

Dear dogs in casts:  You are great.

Dear Piedmont Park bridge with amazing iron and mosaic work:  You are great.

Weird conversations tonight. Mainly with people I've hardly met:

1. A guy named Edgar who may have been at one of our parties, wants me to come to his party, says there will be unicorns.
2. A girl named Jayne who I know by sight but have never actually met, talking with me on facebook about Boethius and insisting she's a Republican.
3. One of the local homeless guys, asking me how Matt (my former roommate) has been doing since traveling to Spain.

This is a piece I'm working on for an upcoming show:


I don't know how or why, but apparently I'm going to be showing my stuff at three galleries this summer? I am mainly frightened. Like, I do not understand the process of printing and framing a photograph. At all. How much does this stuff cost? Where can I find frames? I feel like using seran wrap and cardboard.  Also, is it weird to show up on a bike with my pieces tied around my backpack?  Do I have to stick around the gallery for the entire time people are looking at my stuff?  Should I pretend to not be Ben Grad, and try to talk up the pieces they're looking at?

Anyway, I'm not sure how good the idea illustrated above is.  I like the idea of combining visual, textual, and geographic information.  I like the idea of helping people find neat things.  And I like the photograph.  But how does it all work as a whole?

Please please please comment with your critique.  And feel free to comment anonymously.

Art stuff Friday night, concert, and weirdo hat party filled w/ really young skate kids.

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