sure enough…

i am seriously addicted to the new Metric album.

…….it’s a problem.

you can only stream it for now, so i ask you to just listen to two songs (at least):

“Gimme Sympathy” (either the produced-ified track or the very last acoustic version
and
“Collect Call”

Here’s the lyrics to Gimme Sympathy:

Get hot, get too close to the flame
Wild, open space
Talk like an open book
Sign me up
Got no time to take a picture
I’ll remember someday all the chances we took
We’re so close to something better left unknown
We’re so close to something better left unknown

I can feel it in my bones
Gimme sympathy
After all of this is gone
Who’d you rather be?
The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?
Oh, seriously
You’re gonna make mistakes, you’re young
Come on, baby, play me a song
Like, “Here Comes the Sun”

Don’t go, stay with the all-unknown
Stay away from the hoax
All the chances we took
We’re so close to something better left unknown
We’re so close to something better left unknown

I can feel it in my bones
Gimme sympathy
After all of this is gone
Who’d you rather be?
The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?
Oh, seriously
You’re gonna make mistakes, you’re young
Come on, baby, play me a song
Like, “Here Comes the Sun”

And the lyrics to “Collect Call”:

If the fire’s out baby
How you gonna keep me warm
Supposing you let me
With the door wide open no one can leave

I know it’s a lie I want it to be true
The rest of the ride is riding on you
Over goodbyes we’ll buy some place for
Wishing you could
Keep me closer
I’m a lazy dancer
When you move I move with you

If somebody’s got soul
You gotta make the move
Make the move

I know it’s a lie I want it to be true
The rest of the ride is riding on you
Over goodbyes we’ll buy some place for
Wishing you could
Keep me closer
I’m a lazy dancer
When you move I move with you

“Collect Call” kills me with its beat during the chorus. “Gimme Sympathy” just sticks in my mind like resin, and then some. If you like it, buy it. Metric is one hard-working band, and i’ll do my best to set up at least a photo pass if not an interview. Gotta spread the Metric love to our listeners!

www.ilovemetric.com

i am so very tired.

a little disappointed that i haven’t really made the connections at this conference that i wanted to. Seems like there are these cliques that at least appear so exclusive, even when i introduce myself, there’s such little spark, no chance for a flame. Very strange. I wonder if it’s the competitive nature that sometimes infects photographers. Most of the time, in my experience, there’s a bond, a look-out.

it’s just silly, though, since we’re all from all over the northeast, none of us could possibly pose a threat to one another, so why be standoffish? Oddly enough, i met a kid who is from my current hometown, and he’s been one of the sweetest people here.

i AM lucky, though, to be rooming with a few great ladies – friends of friends, and they’re all such different, wonderful, creative women.

i have to admit: i feel like any second now, someone will pull off my covers and reveal that i’m so new at this. I’ve spent the last few days with people that have been honing their craft for DECADES, in parts of the world i’ve never heard of. Experiences that make up movies, or at least intense documentaries. These people have been stabbed, robbed, threatened, still have malaria, and have de-wormed orphans (seriously). Not to say that my life has to be at risk in order to produce relevant, important photographs, but there’s a level of risk even in my own community that i could be taking… i don’t even know where to start.

Really, i’ve only been doing this for two years. I do give myself credit where credit is due, i know i’m doing great work, especially only after two years. and i will get better and better. It’s just… Seeing such accomplishment inevitably turns to introspection about where i’m at and where i want to go. I still don’t know where i want to go, what kind of work i want to do, what little money i am willing to live off of. Some of these guys make millions of dollars a year doing simple executive portraits, and some live off charity while documenting the poorest and sickest of human plights on the planet.

i have a lot to think about. i wish i were leaving now though. I feel like i’m done, i feel saturated. I want to go home and rest, and absorb.

I am back in Washington, DC, for the NPPA’s Northern Short Course in Photojournalism (www.northernshortcourse.com).

I lived in DC for a year from summer 2001, and was pretty miserable here. Not because of anybody other than me, of course. I had a few amazing people here, in fact – my brother’s best friend Chris became my surrogate big brother, and kept a good watch over me, AND took me to Washington Capitols hockey games (C-A-P-S! CAPS! CAPS! CAPS!). My co-workers were a second family, my boss a mother-figure.

For some reason, even with all that love and support, i couldn’t claw myself out of being depressed. I realized that Washington, DC, for me, was a great place to visit, but not to live. So, now, i’m visiting!

I snoozed a bit on the short plane ride from Bradley (Connecticut) to National, hopped on the Metro to Farragut West, and walked a block over to The Bottom Line. I was so glad this restaurant was still going strong! This was my favorite place to eat, and even had my going away party there. Their chili (WITH BEANS) wouldn’t place in a cookoff, but even after 8 years away, it was consistently wonderful.

Then, i checked out where i used to work on 19th & K – it was closed, but i did snap a photo with my Nokia 6600.

A few blocks over was the White House! Funny, it was a VERY different feeling being at the White House now than it was in 2001. Before, there was so much animosity filtered through the gates, and now i’m just excited to be near it. Amazing.

I couldn’t resist marching down Pennsylvania and visiting the Canadian Embassy. To make a long story short, i have THE most special memories of visiting the embassy’s echo chamber. you stand in the middle of this thing, and it’s like singing in the shower times 3000. As i approached it, i saw that it was completely free of visitors! I bounded up the steps, and sang a few tunes as loudly as i could. it’s exactly the same in my memory as it is in real life, and that sort of consistency is comforting.

I moseyed over to the Capitol. Still such a magnificent site, especially once the sun had gone down.

Hopped back onto the Metro (the stations are really quite beautiful, nicely lit from below like the rest of the city), and ended up at the last stop on the Orange Line, in Vienna. My friend Carrie has a place a five minute walk from the Metro station, and she’ll be graciously lending me her couch for the weekend.

I know i’ll have a great time and learn a hell of a lot, and even still, i’m surrounded by fantastic people who support me in all sorts of varying degrees. Glad i’m in the state of mind to accept it this time.

Night!