First Photos from Rothbury Festival!

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Originally uploaded by JeffersonB

My first set of hundreds of Rothbury Festival photos are now up and uploading on Flickr and are all publicly available. Check it out - cool backstage and behind-the-scenes photos through the afternoon of Saturday, July 5.

Tonight Dave Mathews Band. More photos soon so check back often.

MTV Movie Awards

Caro and Dani went to the MTV Movie Awards last night at Gibson Amphitheater at Universal City. All I got was this camera phone picture. It was a blast for Dani, who said "Johnny Depp was there." That about summed it up in terms of hugeness for her. The girls got all dolled up and then went to Katsuya afterwards. Caro said you couldn't even tell that there was, or had been, a fire on the Universal lot.

Zach Selwyn & Ron Jeremy Short Films

Porno Fireplace - Parts I, II, III

My buddy Zach (and his wife, and yes, Ron Jeremy) stars in this hilarious series of shorts by Zach's brother Jesse. They used their own home for the location. Note from the set: Zach told me at one point, Ron was on his sofa, wearing nothing but a towel and scratching at himself. Now that's entertainment.

Crowd Shot at R.E.M. Hollywood Bowl

I love LA! Greetings from the Hollywood Bowl. Great turnout and a lot of die-hard fans of R.E.M. turned out for the show.

Modest Mouse Opening for R.E.M.

Modest Mouse opens the show for R.E.M. at the Hollywood Bowl. We were lucky to run into our friend, David, who works for the band. He was in town from Athens, along with a larger contingent of friends and fans who made the trip from Georgia.

Run Away!

Henry freaking out at the park next to LAX! If you want to see how close these planes come, here is a YouTube video someone shot. The park in Westchester is right on Sepulveda next to the In-N-Out Burger so you can grab lunch and sit in the park and watch the 747s land. Kids love it, and it's a large park safely tucked away from traffic.

Look out kid, don't matter what you did . . .

We took a family trip to the Skirball Cultural Center and Henry jammed on the keyboard to some Bobby Dylan in the Bob Dylan's American Journey exhibit. You could also play guitar or percussion, and they had a lot of folk revival memorabilia, too. See it soon - it runs through June 8, 2008 and these things always leave town before you remember to visit them.

We also played around in the really amazing Noah's Ark exhibit (the real reason we went up there that day), which if you haven't been is a real treat for any kid (and parent). It's one of those things that is unique and so interactive and playful that you're amazed at how anyone came up with the idea, and you have to experience it; words can't do it justice. Henry had a blast running around untethered with dozens of other kids. We even ran into some friends we hadn't seen in a long time.

Go! Go! Raleigh

My friend Dana is again publishing an amazing blog at gogoraleigh.com. He was out of the scene for a while, but is back this year with what I think should be recognized as one of the best, most comprehensive civic blogs I've ever read. Would someone give this guy a Webby?

Everything from the highest level city development plans, to sports (he's an admitted Carolina and general ACC basketball addict) to where the next chain restaurant is opening down to local music events, if there is anything you want to know about what's happening in Raleigh, it's here. Speaking of Raleigh, and the fantastic time we spent there with Caro's friends and our families, if you want to see change happen fast, look at that place. If you think they're only building high-rise luxury towers with downtown loft living in places like Manhattan, Atlanta and Los Angeles, well then think again. With an air of objectivity, the site feeds you some insight into the impact that development is having on economy, civic pride and local activism. Growth (and the sprawl that goes with it) isn't all it's cracked up to be, and this site will give you some perspective to follow the impact of development on a mid-sized city. My aunt, who also lives in Raleigh, tells me developer greed is taking over there at the expense of sustainable and environmentally sound growth. It's in these mid-size cities where you can really see how fast change and growth can happen. Interesting stuff.

"it's a big world" Performance with Renee & Jeremy

Here is Henry (chewing on a book), in Studio City while seeing our friend Jeremy and his singing partner Renee play at a children's program at Storyopolis. Renee and Jeremy have an fantastic children's album, and you can find out more on the official site (and a really well produced one, at that) for "it's a big world."

Above the Sunset Strip

Waiting at the top of a hill above the Sunset Strip, after catching the Kansas vs. Villanova NCAA tournament game. Stopped by my buddy Greg's place to park at his apartment, and looking down the street, I was struck by both how dark it was, just a few dozen meters up the hill, and how much activity there was in a small postage stamp window of light down at the base of the hill. Greg and I tried Rainbow, but they wanted ten bucks just to come in to hang out with the heavy metal skanks, so we just opted for the pub at Red Rock instead. A fine, beer soaked evening out on the Strip.

Clippers Game at Staples

Our Activision client was cool and kind enough to hook us up with tickets to a box at the Staples Center to catch a game between the Clippers and the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors kicked the Clippers' asses (no surprise there); I think the look on Lindsay's face probably has more to do with whatever disturbing tale Paul is weaving just behind her.

I ate three Staples Center hot dogs (they were free in the luxury box), which is the whole motivation for me going to anything NBA. Note how many people are paying zero attention to the game.

Village Green Preservation Society

I heard this song, The Village Green Preservation Society, on XM Radio today and it got to me. It's a 3-disc set of The Kinks' 1968 album. Has some great lyrics, and I'm thinking it would be a good name for the weekly weekend family trips that we have on our New Year's resolution list, trips that we'd like to take with our friends and their kids around Los Angeles.

This weekend, we're planning on seeing the (c)Murakami exhibit at M.O.C.A.

ShootinPutin187

Hilarious stuff from the world of video games:

David Sedaris, No Photography Allowed.

Caro surprised me with a trip down to Irvine to see David Sedaris read. Front and center! Photography wasn't allowed, so I got this dumb shot of the podium before he came out. He was introduced by a local teen he found at the pre-reading book signing (she was running for Secretary of her school's student council, and pronounced herself a supporter of the Newport Beach Public Library) before launching into an hour of reading. Most of it I've heard on NPR or read before in the New Yorker, but he ended the reading with recent entries from his diary, made while on a fact-finding trip to Japan. Funniest one being about a barber with crap (literally, feces) on his hand, and Sedaris's attempt to get him to reveal his poop-smeared palm.

He read his New Yorker piece about buying weed while home in Raleigh for Christmas. I think at one point, Caro and I were laughing so hard, we started yelling "oh my god! oh my god!" at him, like he was doing some sort of personal reading for us. A consequence of sitting in the front row, just facing the reader and seeing no one in the audience behind us.

Sedaris is special to me and Caro; not because he's from Raleigh, which is cool, but that we were both reading his book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, when we met.

EXT. NEIGHBOR'S FRONT YARD - DAWN

A dense fog blankets a Los Angeles neighborhood. . .

Apparently they're filming something in my 'hood. Crafts Service has set up the catering tents in my neighbor's yard. As I was snapping this photo with my phone, one of a couple of guys from the crew said, "Uh oh, an irate neighbor taking photos." He couldn't have read me more wrong. I told him that if the Director wanted to come over for dinner, just knock on the door and let me know. "What're you serving?" he asked.

"Whatever the Director wants, of course," I shot back. Chuckles.

Snow Patrol at Gibson Amphitheater

This shot from the second row stage left actually turned out nice. Irish slash Scottish band, Snow Patrol, who I'd really not ever listened to very much before. Suprisingly young crowd, so obviously they're getting a lot of mainstream radio play. The songs were hit and miss, some saccharine radio pop as well as some good rock show tunes. You can hear why they were opening for U2 on tour.

Ok Go

YouTube superstars, Ok Go, opening for Snow Patrol at Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City. If you have any doubt about the power of the internet, this band (and the screaming teen audience who showed up to see them) should put it to rest. They clearly like to remind themselves of their power and popularity by constantly chiding the audience to perform stunts for them like flashing mobile phone screens. They had a video backdrop running some really great stuff, though; they also reminded the audience to check out their new YouTube video and that they have the best videos. Interesting at a live show.

The Who at the Hollywood Bowl

Caro got us kick-ass seats at the Hollywood Bowl for The Who. I had actually seen them before sometime back in the 80's, at RFK stadium in Washington. I also saw someone fall from the second deck of the stadium into the crowd below at that DC show.

This was a better show than I thought it would be, in part because we had great box seats (see the music god sighting in the post below).

The Great Smashing Pumpkin Sighting

Hardly recognizable in this photo - sort of like a shot of Sasquatch in the woods - but it's Billy Corgan sitting in the adjacent box seat at The Who at the Hollywood Bowl.

According to wikipedia, Corgan's 40th birthday is this year, on Saint Patrick's Day, which is also a Saturday. Which would mean this could be the number one coolest birthday party of the year.