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Have you ever reminisced about how awesome MTV was when we were kids? I remember coming to America when I was 12 and seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More videos being played over and over on MTV. The whole idea of being able to watch the latest music videos from my favorite band was what made MTV special. And then they ruined the whole thing with shows like “Road Rules” and “My sweet 16.” Thankfully the interweb wins again and MTV has started using its brain having just released its new ‘youtube-like’ website - www.mtvmusic.com. (It also features all of the pop up videos!!)

I got to see this incredible concert last night at Carnegie Hall. It was the Sony Philharmonic orchestra which is an initiative set up in the 80’s by some executives to create an orchestra from its employees. They sounded great, which I’m sure was helped by the incredible auditorium of Carnegie Hall. It was impressive to see a group of Japanese business men who were essentially part-time amateur musicians play Tchaikovsky with such talent. And of course they had Yo Yo Ma accompany them for the second song, and as always it’s great to watch such a passionate artist at work and enjoying it so much.

Now for what I think could be one of the greatest jobs on earth, Orchestra Conductor. Daniel Harding was the conductor last night, and he is quite the character with quite the career behind him (being only 33). What could be more fun than standing infront of 150 talented musicians who are all watching you throw your arms around in time to the music? He managed to mkae it appear effortless and easier than I’m sure it really is.

As you probably already know, I’m a huge Ben Folds fan. I’ve seen him perform a number of times, and even got to shoot him at Bonnaroo 2006. I’ve been listening to his new album, and am not that impressed. I’m sure it’ll take a few listens and then I’ll love it, but for now I’m holding off the praise. On the other hand, Jenny Lewis’ new album “acid tongue” probably won’t win any awards, but it’s immediately enjoyable and has me tapping along on first listen. Maybe after a weekend of sickness, two root canals and a delayed flight I’m not the best critic??

Tony Bennett hosted a charity event at the Cipriani on Wall Street today where I was editing for Larry Busacca and posting the images to Wireimage. It was generally a good event, by which I mean I got an actual office to work in and the internet was working. John Mayer, Terrence Howard, Jerry Seinfeld and Tony Bennett performed during the dinner. I was pretty impressed by John Mayer as I had no idea he could actually play the guitar, and he seemed like a clued in person. However when he plays, he does have a bottom lip version of the ‘Eric Clapton leg’ though. Tony Bennett busted out a few numbers, and even turned all the microphones off at one point and just sang. It’s quite something to see someone manage to pull that off (even if the classless woman next to me didn’t stop yacking on her cell phone).

The only real disappointment of the night was the food. I guess I’d heard that Cipriani’s had a great reputation, but when it came down to it, the food was’t amazing. I had a plain tomato and mozzarella salad and then veal with roast potatoes. Now don’t get me wrong, free food is always the best kind of food, but to be critical, it didn’t blow me away.

I first heard of Anthony Parrino when I was just a wee freshman at SUNY Purchase. George Parrino would tell us stories of how his cool son would carry around a copy of the Diamond Sutra in complete awe of its teachings. There was very little scarier than George on a bad day or in a bad mood, so these tales of his son would be a ray of light among harsh critiques and obsessive yelling about poor manners. “No tapping, No drumming, No whining,” “The teacher is always right,” “Beware of the one-liner,” “If you see the buddha, hit him with a stick,” were just a few of Parrino’s motto’s. I will never forget the time he leaned over in the middle of me critiquing someone’s work and whispered “Shut your fucking mouth.” If none of you have ever had a professor be honest, critical and hard assed then I believe you haven’t recieved a decent education. It is because of people like George that I am getting my MFA at Pratt.

I then met Anthony in Burgos on the craziest summer of my undergrad life. We partied hard, studied little Spanish and spent a huge amount of time in the dustiest garage/studio creating assemblages in the mirror of Spain.

Anthony goes by the musical name Elite, and has been involved in some pretty impressive musical accomplishments. None of the music is really my thing, but I must admire a ‘westchester-white-boy’ entering into this world and being successful. Here is his blog that I was just linked to by George
(and inspired this posting).

Rey came back to the press tent during All Points west, and told me that he had complimented a woman for having such a nice moustache, before he realised it was Marisa Tomei. None of our guys caught a snap of her for the websites, but one has got out on Flickr from malisser and used on all sorts of blogs (gawker etc…). Mike Lawrie also said today that he had wondered about the mustachioed lady walking around VIP. I guess disguising yourself with fake facial hair could actually work, think on Britney Spears!

This (above) is Scott Grier shooting Grace Potter (of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals) out in the VIP section of the festival. She was ’super’ friendly and willing to play along with any publicity (not to mention very attractive and apparently quite talented, I wrangled her brilliantly!). We had to set up under a tent and then decided to use the outside of Ben Harper’s trailer for a backdrop. the images came out great, and can be seen here. Scott made the best out of a bad situation and got some really nice work from the cloudy, rainy day.

And here begins ‘Ben Harper Day,’ where all I got were shots of him all day. This one I stole while Scott was shooting him for Getty. I actually like it a lot and am happy that I thought to shoot closer. Ben was also really nice and willing to join the publicity train. Cat Power was not very willing, and actually avoiding committing to a shoot by using the ‘age old’ excuse of “later.” The second time I asked, she tried to stick her French Bulldog on me, and then promised a post-show-shoot. Denied!

Check these shots out on the link above from Scott. He did an amazing job with such little stuff.

The bonus of being at these type of events is the opportunity to shoot a little yourself (plus - meet cool musicians, plus - meet cool photographers, plus - earn plenty of money, plus… well you get the message). I only shot two bands, but I shot a lot of images of them (many back focused and blurry). Scott lent me his Canon 1D Mark III and his 70-200 2.8 IS for this concert, and it rocked. This is shot at 800 ISO and looks cleaner than most cameras at 200 ISO. I truly love to shoot live shows, and wish it a) payed better and b) was more accessible more often ie. payed better!

Ben Harper was great. I need to reinvest in his music again. He rolled in to the VIP area with wife Laura Dern and his family. They were all backstage watching their daddy rock his little socks off. The rain had stopped and he played the first big show of the day, even though audience numbers were less than half of Saturday.

The biggest let down after two days of Radiohead live is one day of not Radiohead live. I decided during Jack Johnson’s set to delete all his music from my ipod. Not because he sucked, in fact he was actually great. I just realised how mediocre he is compared to Thom and the boys.

All in all it was an amazing few days, full of expensive junk food, cool slightly famous bands and some really cool people to work with. My advice for aspiring concert photographers is to not bother, or win the lottery and follow them all. I also met my first ‘professional-groupie,’ called Bridget. She wanted to know all the bands, and spent plenty of time following them around in a small bikini and miniskirt. She would have wrangled way more people than me had she been with Scott!

Here (above) is Scott shooting “Metric” at the ‘exclusive studio’ backstage for the festival. They were all great and willing to be part of the APW website. The guy on the right was shooting some kind of 8mm film for some production to be finished in Canada?

MTV were crowding the press tent and wanted to be in the crowd reporting on all things that pointed west. I recognise them all from being 12 and obsessed with MTV News and the idea of being in America and working for MTV.

The Kings of Leon had a crowd for the photo pit too. I tried to let you see what competition had to deal with. The massive Soul Brother is taking front and center (that is his actual photographers name, his real one is Donald).

Kings of Leon are post modern or something.

See the Tibetan Flag and the support shown from Radiohead. Talented musicians not wanting many photos taken at all. I did see them backstage in their fenced off area playing cricket and doing Yoga, so at least they appreciate the seclusion. Apparently the first night we missed a big Radiohead crew party in the VIP tent.

This was the first view of Manhattan from where we picked up our passes and tickets.

This is the editing/press tent provided for us. They didn’t even have any power, chair or tables for the first hour, so we all stood around texting.

Here is Vanessa and Kate’s crafty editing-in-the-sun trick. The weather fluctuated from freezing sweater weather to burning sun. It really only rained for a little bit, which moved the studio equipment under a bus (the VIP tent was declared unsafe at about 3pm and we were not allowed to store it in there!!)

This is the main stage (Blue Comet) in the middle of the day when my new found ‘friends’ the new pornographers were onstage. Carl Newman was really nice when I strolled up to him and asked “Hey, are you in a band?” He said that he also never knows anyone at festivals and happily had a few shots taken at our makeshift outdoor studio.

Here is the first band I wrangled (apparently an industry term for someone who sweet talks the talent into these studio situations) called Lowry. They were pretty quiet and very compliant, so were essentially an easy group to cut my teeth on. Scott Gries was the photographer, and is quickly raising the ranks of one of the nicest ‘entertainment’ photographers I know. To see his portraits from today go here.

Possibly the only good idea I will have all weekend is this makeshift tree support for the light that wanted to take a dive toward the statue of liberty when using only sandbags.

This is one of Scott’s test shots where I don’t look too cross-eyed or confused.

Thankfully Underworld kept the whole event in place and made the required political rant (they were incredible live too!!!). They brought on someone from Columbia University (apparently not Robert Thurman) who ranted about a Free Tibet. Mostly an encouraging speech, but sometimes a little lost and certainly not really worthy of 10 minutes of stage time. This photo is of the recent release that they were promoting and raises funds for the cause. Apparently each song is individually written for the project and not just part of a compilation. Buy one now (also available on itunes - of course!)

And here is my terrible photo of Radiohead performing. They absolutely fucking rocked. I was so happy to get to hear them again (last time was Bonnaroo 2006). Thom Yorke followed Underowld and had a Tibetan flag on his piano and he also played his arse off! They are amazing live and they knew it this concert, playing all the hits regardless of how old they were. The only downside of radiohead is that they don’t allow many photographers in the pit so most of our guys were hiding from security in the audience. We got some amazing images nonetheless, and I am even angling for one of the Thom/piano shots for the blog.

I will be working at this all weekend, hopefully at a desk with an internet connection and an awesome view of the stage. Although I think we will be huddled in a muddy corner with no power outlets. And here is the really sucky part. No professional cameras. This is defined by the festival organisers as - “Any camera with a removable lens will be considered a professional camera, and will not be allowed on the festival grounds.”

There is a good blog that gives an insider view of what’s going on in China around the Beijing Olympics over at Time. They posted the above picture of some Free Tibet protesters yesterday. Getty also has a large crew of editors and other folks out there getting everything ready for the ensuing chaos and posting some pre-event images that are worth a look here.

I also read that they have placed a ban on any ‘professional cameras’ for any audience members. This seems like a largely undefined category or do they mean SLR? Having noticed at the mermaid parade this summer that most people are now sporting a DSLR rather than a point and shoot, it seems that China will have to get more specific at the games. Here is their official statement… (thank god they clarified the grenade policy!)

And finally Bush says something intelligent in Thailand today, “America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists. We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly and labor rights — not to antagonize China’s leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential.”

And here is the trailer for a movie about Ed Burtynsky’s “Manufactured Landscapes” where they follow him through mainland China.

And then there is this Pepsi commercial

Sometimes Often I wish I was able to do stuff like this.

And if you are in the mood for a great, beautiful, sad and incredible music video, check out Rey’s recommendation by The Cinematic Orchestra - “To Build a Home” This Radiohead video below is an oldie but a goldie. Watch it to the end if you haven’t seen it before (which I find hard to believe)

And while everyone else is talking about the new radiohead , I think our hats should be taken off for almost all video work that they are affiliated with.

  Stick to the acting Scarlett, this whole Tom Waits thing isn’t for you

We have a lot of explaining to do in the UK for a number of the terrible advertisements, comedies and music that has been produced. It could also be argued that we also have created some of the best, this is not one of them!

Here is my favorite song from the real deal Flight of the Conchords (from New Zealand). If you haven’t seen any episodes, find some NOW and catch up!