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Sometimes I get roped into stuff while I’m working that I don’t always think is the best idea. After a long day of photographing on set for this music video I became a part of the whole thing. The director made me move around, ducking and bobbing like a deranged Steve Sands, while snapping as many pictures as possible. Thankfully, you can hardly even tell it’s me and it doesn’t look anywhere near as silly as it felt.

I really liked working with the family. They were from the North of England but had moved to the Barbados for the good life.

“No Reservations” is the perfect mix of a cooking show, travel show and documentary. Thankfully unlike lot’s of other Travel Channel shows, Anthony Bourdain isn’t a ‘hippy-dippy traveller’ who loves everything and patronizes the locals. He comes across as more of a journalist that eats than a food critic. How do I become his travelling photographer for all the shows??

Normally I find blogs that poke fun at people or have ill intentions as bad taste, but I think I’ve spent too much time on craigslist recently and read too many crazy posts to really care. This guy at donevenreply.com is pretty funny. It’s amazing what people want or expect on craigslist. (Thanks Tom)

There are very few news stories I remember from my childhood, and even fewer photographs from the news. This one by Stuart Franklin/Magnum Photos is hard to forget and is undoubtedly on of the greatest and most memorable photos of the 20th Century.

It was amazing watching the BBC News report yesterday when the secret police were blocking the cameras with umbrellas. It was like watching cheeky school children playing pranks on a news reporter. Look at how much fun the guy in the second picture looks like he’s having.

I’ve been watching late night TV recently for no real reason. I didn’t know that Jimmy Fallon was part of the scene. I tried watching his show two nights in a row, and I’ve concluded that I just don’t get it.

Pearl Jam’s first album ‘Ten’ was reissued this week with a bunch of reworked tracks. It’s one of the first albums I ever heard that I could listen to over and over and over so I probably spent a good year doing just that. In 1996 I actually met Eddie Vedder at Acton Town train station in London. It was around midnight and I was going home from a party, changing trains to get onto the Picadilly line. I saw a crowd of people standing around this long haired guy that appeared to be him. Normally I don’t approach strangers, particularly ones who I thought were amazing musicians, but when I heard an American accent, I had to find out. He turned out to be a really nice guy who was willing to answer any stupid question that a 17 year old could think of. We chatted for about 10 minutes, he autographed my party invite and then jumped on a District line train. I think I’ve only been as excited to meet one other ‘celebrity’, the Dalai Lama.

My midlife crisis worries are from the fact that even before I knew this album was being reissued, I had been listening to them again, along with Oasis and Nirvana. It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly 15 years since Kurt Cobain killed himself. Are we really that old?

It’s taken me a while to catch up to this show, “Curb Your Enthusiasm“. We don’t have HBO, so I don’t always see some of the better sitcoms. If this doesn’t make you laugh, then I’m afraid I can’t help you. (Also check out Larry David being interviewed by Ricky Gervais on youtube)

I’ve just been put onto the show “Nathan Barley” which was a British Channel 4 sitcom about people in the media and a parody of the hipster, creative lifestyle. As with all of my favorite shows, it’s sometimes a little too close for comfort, but that’s what makes it so funny. It references (pokes fun at) Vice Magazine and the Brit Graffiti artists Banksy, and quite successfully makes unicycle riding hipsters look ridiculous.

I’ve not been hired to work the Sundace Film Festival this year, which has its ups and its downs (I won’t go into all of that here). The most obvious disadvantage is that I won’t be able to see any of the films. However I just worked for Larry Busacca last night and Sheryl (Kevin Mazur’s assistant who shares the office) says that the festival will be scaled down a lot this year, partly due to the wonderful economy, but also because of the inauguration of our new President. In fact, Kevin isn’t going to Sundance as apparently he’ll be shooting all the celebrity goings on in DC and around. I would post a picture of Park City that I took, but all my negatives got stolen from a bar last year so I’m S.O.L.

If I was going, I’d keep my eye out for – “Brief Interviews of Hideous Men,” the directorial debut of John Krasinski, whom you know and love as Jim Halpert from the American version of “The Office.” “Brooklyn’s Finest” which was directed by Antoine Fuqua sounds pretty interesting, if only to see Richard Gere as a cop and our fellow SUNY Purchase boy Wesley Snipes. “An Education” written by Nick Hornby is probably just about British enough for me to have a few laughs during. The International documentary “Let’s Make Money” sounds like it’ll have some relevance to the situation today! Of course I need to mention this “Tibet in Song” which doesn’t sound amazing, but could have some character? Amanda may enjoy “Helen” starring Ashley Judd as a psychiatrist who fights her own depression. Here are some movies that will also probably be the talk of Park City – The Greatest, Spring Breakdown, The September Issue, Adam, The Informers, I love you Phillip Morris, Peter and Vandy, Bronson and Unmade Beds.

This one wins for best title and strangest synopsis I’ve read so far – “The Immaculate conception of Little Drizzle” – Dory, a computer programmer experiencing a crisis of faith, is laid off from his suit-and-tie job and must resort to cleaning toilets with a brown-collar band of janitorial misfits. Unbeknownst to him, he is made the subject of a bizarre experiment involving deliciously addictive cookies that simulate oven freshness by warming in your mouth when eaten. It turns out that the cookies cause spectacular visions, wild mood swings, and quasi-pregnancies in the male janitors. The men must pull together to become midwives for one another as each gives birth to a small, beautiful, immaculately conceived blue fish.

I saw that Trojan commercial in the middle of Anthony Bourdain’s new series “No Reservation,” and loved the old lady who chips in at the end. It reminded me of the crazy Imodium (check out website!!) commercial where the guy is in a hot tub being chatted up by two women and has to run out. I couldn’t find that one on youtube, but wasn’t let down by their advertising campaigns from the past…

And the next video is totally inappropriate but has one of the funniest cartoon moments I think I’ve ever seen. The penultimate clip where the American couple are travelling in Australia is incredible! (see after break)

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I’ve recently been given the contact information for Hasan Elahi as he recently started teaching at San Jose University and I am hoping to work out there some time next year. He was suspected as being involved in terrorist activity, and to help the FBI out, he now documents his every action; what he eats, where he is and even what his toilet stops look like.

He appeared on the Colbert Report in May this year…

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!!)