You really want to know what happened? I’ll tell you: Wednesday was slouching off into the sunset, and I got off work too late to do anything about it. Still, I grabbed my cam with an eye towards checking out the Santa Monica Pier with the ol’ fisheye. At the last minute, I grabbed the nifty fifty and clipped it to my belt. Just in case, I thought.

The Pier killed all remaining hope in me. I did get one photo I liked — mostly of emptiness — but I failed to solve any of my problems. I’m not sure who gave up first, me or the sunlight, but I floated back towards my car in a daze of anticipathos. Just before I got there though, I saw a red stoplight reflecting off the always-polished Santa Monica sidewalk. I found a perverse, masochistic cry of inspiration and swapped out to the fifty-millimeter lens. My goal, suddenly,  was to capture these forgotten shadows in this artificial light. Shadows left behind by people who didn’t need them. Shadows of strangers, my best friends.

I walked down the Promenade, not seeing what I wanted to see. I told myself, hey it’s the trying that counts, knowing that trying has always counted for nothing unless you’re worth it to begin with. Once again, back towards the car. Defeated, quixotic.

On the final street corner, last chance, I got the photograph below. No one will ever love it as I love it. It’s what I was hoping for. It’s a dream. It’s real. It’s everything that gets ignored.

I even matched it with a song that jumped into my head as soon as I saw this photo enlarged on my screen. It’s rather …well, you know. Make up your own mind.

Play: “Shadowplay” – Joy Division

To the centre of the city where all roads meet, waiting for you,
To the depths of the ocean where all hopes sank, searching for you,
I was moving through the silence without motion, waiting for you,
In a room with a window in the corner I found truth.

In the shadowplay, acting out your own death, knowing no more,
As the assassins all grouped in four lines, dancing on the floor,
And with cold streel, odour on their bodies mad a move to connect,
But I could only stare in disbelief as the crowds all left.

I did everything, everything I wanted to,
I let them use you for their own ends,
To the centre of the city in the night, waiting for you.
To the centre of the city in the night, waiting for you.

Play while you read: “Hoodie” – Lady Sovereign

From my divine vantage overlooking the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica I see them all.

Tourists. Camera-toting tourists. And, more and more I see them with cheap SLRs with curious appendages:

Lens hoods!

I mean lens hoods are great accessories that prevent lensflare in relatively rare occasions. Yes, they also afford some protection for the front of your lens.  I, too,  used to obsess about rocking a hood one-hundred percent of the time. In my youth.  Now, I might or might not.  It just adds bulk and weight and precious seconds while I attach or flip.  More and more, I just can’t be arsed with a lens hood.  Somehow, though, I’m doubting that most of these tourists are worried about lensflare in their vacation snaps.  No, the real reason I think I’m seeing a veritable explosion in lens hoods among the monied amateur — and yes part of why I used to be so diligent in using one:

They look pretty badass!

Looks like the news is out. I work for MTV now.

Updated post with a better link: MTV Networks buys Social Project platform

MTV Networks Buys The Rest Of DIY Social Networking Platform Flux (Social Project).

w00t!

Play: “To Victory” – 300 Soundtrack

Update: What is this?  Well, two weeks ago when the Eagles played the Steelers, there was a highlight of a play when #20 Brian Dawkins had his feet tied up by a defender, but launched himself through the air to strip the ball from Steelers quarterback Ben Roesthlisberger. When I saw the replay in slow motion, it reminded me exactly of a scene in 300 where a Spartan flies through the air to hack a  Persian, (like you do). (The scene is in the trailer) So I whipped up this dumb photoshop.  I will now add the video. The best closeup starts at 1:03.

#20, Brian Dawkins is an old guy for the Eagles. Some. had claimed he was slowing down this season and should be replaced.

Look who was guarding the ol’ apartment this morning. Looming on the railing, this wrong-colored mantis was sunning itself. I thought they were green? But, tt made for a good outdoor photoshoot. Then, norbs had to go and add a monkeywrench wth this comment on Flickr:

You need a song to accompany the photo Mick. Great stuff

-norbography

This was a tough gauntlet to pick up! I’m a music guy. I love picking songs for photos! But, at first glance this seemed to be the exact sort of photo that resisted music. Forced to pick, what could I possibly choose? Didn’t want to just go with “mantis” in the title. I struggled even titling the photo. Insect humor isn’t my thing. So instead of the funny-ha-ha choice, I decided to think of the mantis itself and the movement of it.

And, that made me think of the tuba. For some reason, I needed tuba for this. The slow mechanism of this wily bug matched the low plodding buoyancy of the “king of the brass.” But, definitely not in an oompah-oompah polka sort of way. In this photo, the mantis reigns over the scene from above, watchful and in control. It couldn’t be menacing, there’s a blue sky. The more I thought about it, the more I realized exactly the vibe I wanted.  This wasn’t going to be a funny punchline song. So, norbs, here’s my soundrack for this photo, an obscure post-rock instrumental by the band Drums and Tuba. It’s kinda spooky, kinda chill. And, it has cool tuba:

Play: “Brain Liaters” – Drums and Tuba

What do you think of this?

Speaking of movies — surely someone somewhere was speaking of them – I just got back from Burn After Reading, that startling vignette from the uniquely brilliant Coen brothers you’ve probably seen way before me. No review here, of course. I don’t do that sort of thing. I’m just happy I didn’t know about the Shocking Scene beforehand. How I dodged a spoiler this late in the game, I’ll never know.

No, the real highlight of this Washington intelligence sector caper was the song that rolled over the credits, the track that kept us rooted in our seats as the squares all made for the door:

Play it now: “CIA Man” – The Fugs

What a great slab of garage you’re hearing! This band, these crazy guys, The Fugs — as we all had no idea — sprouted up in the 1960s. So I can take it as read that they felt strongly about Important Things and let you know about it. Fun fact: They took their name from a Norman Mailer novel and hung out with Ginsburg. That’s really all you need to know right? Or, if you wanted more, they do go on about history. Do you back in the 60s think they ever imagined they’d have a Myspace page?

Plus, by making us stay through the credits, we learned that Danny Aiello III is a badass stuntman.

Fuggin’ Fugs man, Play that song again!

Play it now: “Bridge To Better Days (Live)” – Joe Bonamassa

As promised, I ventured south of the border (I mean south of the 10 freeway) to Redondo Beach in order to  bear witness to blues shredder Joe Bonamassa. He did not disappoint! It was at a small bar called Brixton, formerly Harvelle’s. Probably won’t be too many more chances to catch him at small venues.  But, they weren’t small enough to allow real cameras in, so this is what I got.  Guitar geeks may want to note my obligatory pedal board shot as well. Note, he shreds without using a guitar pick. Just his fingers slicing and dicing the guitar strings. It’s pretty unbelieveable.

Also, I think the shades may exempt him from my Open Eyes Theory, I’m not sure.

Listen while you read: “The Compromise” – The Format

Remember when The Force let Anakin Skywalker down? He was totally all into learning The Force and being a good guy, and then Natalie Portman died anyway? He trusted in The Force and believed it would help him out, but it didn’t so … well you know what happened. Vader happened!

Well, I just found out that The Format broke up! Never mind that they broke up in February (oops). So yeah, I only went to their Myspace like once every six months. Did Stereogum even cover this? Trust me they were one of my favorite jangle pop bands ever! Really, they were! The melodies on the 2006 album Dog Problems were some of my all time favorite. Now they’re gone. Sam and Nate have gone their separate ways.
And, I blame The Force!

In this story, The Force is Web 2.0 or New Media or whatever you want to call it. Myspace and iTunes and muxtape and imeem and Pandora and the Long Tail were supposed to guarantee that hardworking indie bands with limited audiences would be taken care of! Hundreds of thousands of fans were supposed to hear them and say “Oh I’m totally going to spend money on this instead of Call of Duty 4 or Sin City on blu-ray.” They were supposed to make a million dollars! Because they’re totally way better than Fall Out Boy and stupid rappers and if only everybody had a chance to hear them, then tons of people would totally pay lots of money for their music! The Format even gave away an album for free! How 2.0 of them! And, The New Long Social Force 2.0 let me down, and now The Format is dead.

Yeah right.

Truth is, bands like The Format are (were) exactly as popular as they’re supposed to be and no amount of technical ingenuity is going to help them. At one point, I believed in building these cool tools that made technology irrelevant to the distribution of music to the people who consumed and paid for it. It’s where I guided my career. But, I think those problems are pretty much solved now. A band like The Format can produce a single, they can get it on iTunes and distribute their music to a worldwide audience and they can build connections with fans around the globe on Myspace. Then, they go out and play live and build a base. That’s really the end of the story. No amount of recommending it to someone who likes Linkin Park is going to change the bottom line. People like what they like. A lot of people like “popular crap” for a variety of completely valid reasons that have nothing to do with injecting marketing into the social graph.

But, there are acres of pixels devoted to that contentious issue. I’ll never convince the True Believers that people don’t actually want more music choices. So no, I’m not going all Darth Vader on anyone – that’s Andrew Keen’s gig now. I really just wanted to write a blog post about demise of The Format.

Oh, but also the new band Fun (http://www.myspace.com/fun) featuring Nate from The Format – a guy whose talent and writing I really connect with. They just posted a demo on their Myspace page, one that really makes me happy. I’ll add them as a friend and keep an eye out for when they’ll release more. I’ll probably really love it, but I won’t expect technology –- despite the billions of dollars changing hands on social media startups — to make the band any real money.

Addendum – more of my favorite tracks:

“Time Bomb”

“I’m Ready, I Am”

“I’m Actual”

At the risk of being a complete corporate shill, I just got the press release from Activision about the setlist for the upcoming release of Guitar Hero World Tour, and I’m gonna post the tracks. And, I’m gonna highlight the ones I wanna play the most:

· 311 – “Beautiful Disaster”

· 30 Seconds To Mars – “The Kill”

· Airbourne – “Too Much Too Young”

· The Allman Brothers Band – “Ramblin’ Man”

· Anouk – “Good God”

· The Answer – “Never Too Late”

· At The Drive-In – “One Armed Scissor”

· Beastie Boys – “No Sleep Till Brooklyn ”

· Beatsteaks – “Hail to the Freaks”

· Billy Idol – “Rebel Yell”

· Black Label Society – “Stillborn”

· Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – “Weapon Of Choice”

· blink-182 – “Dammit”

· Blondie – “ One Way or Another”

· Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – “Hollywood Nights”

· Bon Jovi – “Livin’ On A Prayer”

· Bullet For My Valentine – “Scream Aim Fire”

· Coldplay – “Shiver”

· Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Up Around The Bend ”

· The Cult – “Love Removal Machine”

· Dinosaur Jr. – “Feel The Pain”

· The Doors – “Love Me Two Times”

· Dream Theater – “Pull Me Under”

· The Eagles – “Hotel California”

· The Enemy – “Aggro”

· Filter – “Hey Man, Nice Shot”

· Fleetwood Mac – “Go Your Own Way”

· Foo Fighters – “Everlong”

· The Guess Who – “American Woman”

· Hush Puppies – “You’re Gonna Say Yeah!”

· Interpol – “Obstacle 1”

· Jane’s Addiction – “Mountain Song”

· Jimi Hendrix – “Purple Haze – Live”

· Jimi Hendrix – “The Wind Cries Mary”

· Jimmy Eat World – “The Middle”

· Joe Satriani – “Satch Boogie”

· Kent – “Vinternoll2”

· Korn – “Freak On A Leash”

· Lacuna Coil – “Our Truth”

· Lenny Kravitz – “Are You Gonna Go My Way”

· Linkin Park – “What I’ve Done”

· The Living End – “Prisoner Of Society”

· Los Lobos – “La Bamba”

· Lost Prophets – “Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)”

· Lynyrd Skynyrd – “ Sweet Home Alabama (Live)”

· Mars Volta – “L’Via L’Viaquez”

· MC5’s Wayne Kramer – “Kick Out The Jams”

· Metallica – “Trapped Under Ice”

· Michael Jackson – “Beat It”

· Modest Mouse – “Float On”

· Motörhead – “Overkill”

· Muse – “Assassin”

· Negramaro – “Nuvole e Lenzuola”

· Nirvana – “About a Girl (Unplugged)”

· No Doubt – “Spiderwebs”

· NOFX – “Soul Doubt”

· Oasis – “Some Might Say”

· Ozzy Osbourne – “Crazy Train”

· Ozzy Osbourne – “Mr. Crowley”

· Paramore – “Misery Business”

· Pat Benatar – “Heartbreaker”

· R.E.M. – “The One I Love”

· Radio Futura – “Escuela De Calor”

· Rise Against – “Re-Education Through Labor”

· Sex Pistols – “Pretty Vacant”

· Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye”

· Smashing Pumpkins – “Today”

· Steely Dan – “Do It Again”

· Steve Miller Band – “The Joker”

· Sting – “Demolition Man (Live)”

· The Stone Roses – “Love Spreads”

· Stuck In The Sound – “Toy Boy”

· Sublime – “Santeria”

· Survivor – “Eye Of The Tiger”

· System of a Down – “B.Y.O.B.”

· Ted Nugent – “Stranglehold”  <<<—— THIS!!!

· Ted Nugent’s Original Guitar Duel Recording

· Tokio Hotel – “Monsoon”

· Tool – “Parabola”

· Tool – “Schism”

· Tool – “Vicarious”

· Trust – “Antisocial”

· Van Halen – “Hot For Teacher”

· Willie Nelson – “On The Road Again”

· Wings – “Band on the Run”

· Zakk Wylde’s Original Guitar Duel Recording

Guitar Hero® World Tour comes out Oct 26.

A KZSU (Stanford) DJ liked one of my old photographs of Jason Falkner enough to use it for his interview with the power pop minstrel:

Palo Alto Pop Overthrow: Final cut: Exclusive interview with Jason Falkner