A couple of things...

01. I just got back from meeting someone who attended the opening of DCist Exposed and who thought my photograph was good enough to hang on her wall.

I am now a money-making artiste, so get in line to snatch up the beauty that is my work. Surely it will be worth millions some day, so you should probably capitalize while its still relatively cheap.

Besides, if you purchase anything, you can be one of the proud to say "I knew him when..."

02. Via an anonymous comment, someone suggested I create a summertime TWS post in the near future, which I think is a damn good idea. I will do some searching through my files and try and come up with something for next week.*

For those unfamiliar, TWS stands for "The Weekly Shuffle." Every week (or every other week, inevitably) while this blog was a young buck, I would post 10 songs that tickled my fancy at that particular moment. They were available for download -- which is probably crazy illegal -- but I thought they were worth sharing.

So look for that in the near future, as it will be glorious.

03. If you aren't sick of all my photography posts recently, you will be soon. I just picked up a Holga Lomography camera last night at Urban Outfitters, so in the next couple of weeks, I will be doing some serious experimenting with 120mm film. The results should be interesting, but don't worry... I will definitely post them here.

That's it for now. Stay strong, little roots.**


* I am heading down to Myrtle Beach next Thursday morning, so it may have to wait... but I promise it'll happen.

** What movie is that from? You tell me.

VACO at The Hard Rock Cafe

Virginia Coalition played a CD release show at The Hard Rock Cafe in DC on Friday night, and yours truly was there to photograph it. For a place that does not host shows on a regular basis, I was quite impressed. The lighting was the best I've had for a show so far, and the sound wasn't shabby, by any means.

Some of my favorite shots are below. The rest of the set can be found here, and the show can be streamed by using the player below the pictures.

Have a great Tuesday, knuckleheads.

Let the 'madness' begin...

Generally speaking, I don't know jack-squat about college basketball. Every bracket that I've filled out for the past few years has been done so with very little knowledge, if any (which may explain why I never win).

There's something about the tournament, however fun is to watch, that is lacking for me. It doesn't hold a candle to the NFL playoffs and can't compare to the World Cup (although let's be honest... very few things do).

I enjoy the Cinderella stories, the mid-major triumphs and the big dogs strutting their stuff, I really do. I like watching the opening games, the Round of 32, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and Final Four for their unbridaled school spirit, but there's a connection missing for me on an emotional level.

Maybe it's the fact that I went to a tiny Division III school. Even though my alma mater won the National Championship in 2001, I can count on one hand the number of games I actually attended. Sure, I had other things going on, but the draw just wasn't there.

Anyway, I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. Originally I was going to say something about Ashley Judd and the fact that the media absolutely eats up the fact that she's a Kentucky fan -- did you know that? Seriously, it's true -- but I didn't think that was interesting enough.

Go (insert small school that has absolutely no chance here)!

Jason Mraz - I'm Yours

Jason Mraz has a damn good voice, even if he can be a bit cheesy. His new single, from an album due out in May, has "summertime" written all over it. Enjoy.

What's wrong with this picture?

Matt Costa at the 9:30 Club

Last night's show at the 9:30 Club in DC was definitely a good one, experience-wise, but I'll admit that it's far from my best work. I got a few pretty good shots -- see below -- but overall, I was a bit disappointed.

Many major venues / shows institute a "first 3 songs only" rule, and this was no exception. I had to do what I could in the first 15-or-so minutes, which meant there wasn't much time to experiment with different camera settings until I felt comfortable. As a relative newbie to the live music photography scene, this didn't bode well for the ultimate results. It was much harder than shooting a full set, obviously, but now I'll take what I learned last night and try and use it to my advantage next time.

As for the show itself, it was very good. Better than I expected, actually. Matt Costa has a great voice in-studio, and fortunately, it translates to his live show quite well. He's a solid guitar player, he's relatively charismatic and he did a good job of blending his saptastic love songs with his more upbeat fare.

If you have a chance to see him, I'd definitely recommend doing so. And if you've never heard of him before, you can check out a few of his songs on his myspace page.

Adios, muchachos. It's 11:10 and I'm heading to bed relatively soon. The opening of DCist Exposed is tomorrow night, and if all goes according to plan, I'll be partying like a rockstar.

(Oh, and if you're interested, the rest of the pictures from last night can be seen here.)

Stop! Or my mom will shoot.

I don't think many people even read / visit walkingparty.com anymore, but sometimes it just feels good to put my thoughts out there.

I have been doing a lot of photography stuff recently, mostly shooting shows for a site called brightestyoungthings.com. It's been pretty good times so far, which was to be expected. I have always been a big fan of both photography and music, so this new hobby of mine has been a great way to marry the two.

Anyway, I am shooting my first show at the 9:30 Club tonight, a venue that I've been to probably 50 times and absolutely love. It's a legendary place, consistently recognized as one of the best in the country, and I'm excited to test my skillz in a new setting.

That's all for now... I will try and post a few shots from the show on Friday. For now, here are some of my latest: