Ok, also strange: I went ice-skating in Burbank today. I’ve started ice skating again, because a good workout makes me feel almost sane. (And I grew up playing hockey). It is one of the exercises I can still do since I tore my left calf muscle from running – 6 years ago. It still hasn’t properly healed!!! Which gives me no shortage of grief. So from the scorching heat, I walked into a massive ice-box, where I laced up and went skating.

I had a couple of good meetings today, including one at CAA (Creative Artists Agency) in Beverley Hills. They will be helping out with the Olive Crest event, which was re-scheduled for Feb 09.

Scorching heat, but of a different kind:

I shot this in 1994 for Antara Productions, a Latin event and music production company in Montreal. The image was used in a street poster and for newspaper ads. I worked with Antara for 2 years, producing a new, always sexy image every month. And now I crawl through filthy, dangerous, rat-infested alleys at night…  go figure…

Shepherd’s Table is hosting a benefit concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC this Saturday.  The concert, A Tribute to American Acoustic Music, will raise money for the continued help Shepherd’s Table has offered the D.C. area’s homeless people. ST is celebrating 25 years of great service.

My images will play several roles.

I have donated an Alley piece (Alley no. 79 – Tunnel) which will be handed on stage to the biggest sponsor of the Shepherd’s Table cause: Geico Insurance President Tony Nicely.

Next, 500 of the attendees will receive a 22×28 poster of my work (sorry, these aren’t for sale).

And finally, my images will be projected behind the stage, creating an enormous backdrop of Alley images (using an IMAX projector!). I can’t believe I’m going to miss this, but I have to be in LA for the Pasadena Art Festival and for several meetings.

Alley no. 79 – Tunnel  (2005, Detroit, MI, 2:15am)

Alley no. 74 – TC’s Speakeasy (2005, Ypsilanti, MI)

Here is the TC story…

My regular watering hole in 2005 is TC’s Speakeasy in Ypsilanti, MI. It’s a classic dive with a large cast of regular characters, and I love the place. I’ve been going every Monday to their open mike for a year.  At 3am, I stagger out with my friend Eric, aka Satchel Jones, a very talented Monday night folk singer. We’re on the hunt for alleys as we walk around this crusty old town. We lug my heavy equipment around for an hour, walking down alleys, up fire escapes, and over garbage.

I spot an intriguing awning and stare at it for a few minutes. “Nah, lets keep going,” I say to Eric and we keep walking. Then I say “just a sec,” and I go back for a second look; the awning is stirring something inside me. “Let’s set up,” I say. The exposure is long (in fact, star streaks are visible in the sky), and I add the blue light under the awning with my lighting.

“Hey X,” says Eric, “this is fucking TC’s – it’s the back door!”

“What? You’re kidding!”

I get a warm feeling inside; what a fitting tribute.

(thanks to my friend and master web designer Ernesto Aparicio)

As it was, the text was a little distracting if you wanted to focus on the images, and it interfered with the size of picture I could show. But of course I wanted keep the text, since it is integral to the whole picture.

Now you can have your cake, and eat it too (whatever that means …)

There are two slide shows per series, one with large images and no text; the other with smaller images and text. Mix and match…

And as before, the slide shows begin with my most recent images.

On my way to Ann Arbor from Minneapolis a few days ago, a massive storm gathered on the horizon as I drove down I-94. Lightning strikes were occurring more than once per second – I don’t think I’d ever seen that before. The sky was lit up more often than not in a glorious display of nature’s awesome power. I had to get off the interstate where I found a dark road with a great view. I stopped and walked into a field where I just stared in awe for 20 minutes at this storm as it slowly approached. Eventually huge blobs of water started coming down and I was no longer in awe as I ran back to my van.

As I continued my drive, now in a torrential downpour, I thought about nature’s power when it descends upon urban ruins. The elements – the rain, the cold, the heat… even oxygen – start eroding away the buildings, while the bugs start eating and chipping away, since they’ll eat any old crap. In no time, plants begin growing in the mortar and in all the little cracks. The roots go deeper and get thicker and somehow these fragile little things begin cracking the bricks and the concrete and the wood, slowly consuming the building. The powerful, yet gentle arms of nature reach around these structures and slowly but forcefully pull them down to the ground, drawing them back to the earth, as earth, from whence they began. It’s an incredible cycle that is both inspiring and frightening.

Don’t turn your back on this harmless looking Pansy (shot in 2002)… it could punch your lights out!!

I fly to Des Moines tomorrow at midnight (with an armful of artwork) to get my van and drive to Chicago for the Magnificent Mile show. I have many orders to ship out, many pieces to prepare, new images I want to test-print and finish. I’ve also made a brochure illustrating the alleys which I’ll be sending to museums and galleries worldwide, as well as to everyone on my mailing list. (If you aren’t on it, send me an email with your snail mail address) I’m also preparing for 2 gallery shows in August. One at Stanford University’s Art Spaces (fifteen 32×40’s !); the other at San Joaquin Valley College Gallery in Stockton, CA.

Driving back through the desert on a moonless night was mind-blowing. I had to stop on a dark side road so I could get out of my van and stare up. I’ve never seen the Milky Way so bright and beautiful. I could stare at the stars for hours. The book that whacked my head the hardest was the late Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. I read it in my early 20’s and it put the universe, and my reality, into a deep and profound perspective.

And now for some bitching….I lost many of the pictures I took yesterday because my stupid-ass digital camera is a piece of crap. I was fuming for hours, obsessing over their loss, and trying to remember what they looked like. I shouldn’t really care, because the camera is a low-quality thing that makes lousy 8×10’s. So the pictures I take on my trips are just for fun and are ultimately throw aways. (Although my blog has given them an outlet which is great)

But damn is it annoying! I had several great Rocky Mountain shots that I went out of my way to get, plus an odd picture for my friend Ernesto who collects unusual sign photos for his blog. There’s a road in Colorado called No Name, and it has an exit off highway 70.

Here’s a tip for you. I’ve driven across the country several times. If you plan on doing this, avoid Hwy 80. The 70 offers spectacular views of the Colorado Rockies, and the Utah bluffs

Most of my Colorado shots are lost, but I did get some shots in Utah. Now I have to take a nap………………

Its morning just before the show and already the wind is gusting. Regardless of the stress coming with every burst of wind, the show has been fantastic and I hope to be back again next year.

Alleys & Fire Escapes, no. 96  -  “Steps III”  (2006, Des Moines, IA, 11:30pm)

I was in one other severe storm maybe six years ago in Michigan. It was one of my first shows, and I didn’t know what I was doing back then. I struggled just to break even in those days. But a woman had come to see my work three times, telling me each time how much she wanted four large pieces. On the third visit she told me she would bring her husband to close the deal, and I was thrilled. Minutes later the show people come by announcing a severe weather warning. They tell us we can leave if we want. My neighbors start to pack up, but I just know the woman is coming back, and so I wait. As the weather gets worse I slowly realize she’s not coming back. But now I’ve past the safety theshold and the weather is so bad, my assistant and I are now desperately holding the walls back. I quickly start putting the art into their crates, as Alan keeps the walls from coming down on us. With the help of some of the great and generous artists that do these shows, I manage to get all my art to safety inside my van. However the weather is now pounding us. In one surreal moment, my booth starts to lift from the wind. We get out of the way and watch it lift like in the Wizard of Oz. It is airborne briefly, then comes crashing down on its side and begins rolling. I can hear the horrible sound of screeching, breaking and twisting metal. When it’s all done, I’ve saved the art and half my booth.

I’m better prepared here, but hail ripping through the roof could be a real party pooper. The wind is picking up… I have to go.

Shot from the plane: