Recently in editorial Category

hey. hi. how's it going? rad. me too. life is busy busy busy. here's some highlights from the last month or so in my world:

the forces of whatever decided to collide, and I suddenly found myself with a recurring gig for city arts magazine as of january '10. (I know!) so there'll be a little bit of a posting delay as I have to wait for each month's ish to go to print before I can post, but I promise, they'll be well worth it. case in point, the song show at the triple door -- love love love. so much fun. such great artist, such great performances, and more hometown whole-heartedness than you could shake a stick at.

earlier that night, they sent me out to the croc to cover the school of rock's recital -- kids doing covers of northwest bands after completing a semester of music school. we heard a few cuts from built to spill, death cab, and most notably a tremendous rendition of "more than shapes" by the long winters, featuring a real live long winter -- total cute overload.

next up was the mayor's inaugural party at showbox sodo, where I got to spend my night shooting on an all-access pass (read: our mayor is rad, and he likes to chill out in the green room, ps) with the kids from fences and hey marseilles.

and this is my desk.

and this is my 'hood.

and I rode a train with a bunch of people, and they all took their pants off.

I'm just saying.

up & coming: a leg down to LA for chris pureka's closeout residency show at the hotel cafe (with a little love from fences), another gibbard / farrar / roderick set (showbox, this sunday), and whatever february decides to bring besides rain. and prefunking sxsw. and keeping my fingers crossed for a pass to wilco. and some kind of all-out sad bastard fest for valentine's day.

yours in the anti- of all things hallmark,
viva*

Hey there. How's it going?

I know. STFU, right?

Right. Not kidding.

Get this:

So Chris asked me if I wanted to shoot the soundcheck, and of course, I was all over it. After will call not having our information, and waiting around for what seemed like forever, one of the venue guys came out to tell us that it was time to head inside -- for a private press performance. This was Tori with accompaniment, full-on full production, doing a private performance for the press. And by 'press' I mean Zune, Spin, and us. Yup. So, we got a private show. A good six or seven minute song, during which I shot close to a hundred and eighty pictures, and tried not to throw up on my shoes.

The actual real-time performance was as exquisite as our prequel - you can read all about it here.

Another groovy thing I got to do a few weekends ago was shoot a bunch of Joni's art. I've made the poor gal wait just about forever to do this job for her, and it's finally done. We did some huge hi-res cropped files that she can make prints out of, for the pieces that were too big for her scanner. I've got to say, the set really came out nice. I'm so excited to work with new friends, and of course to have more juju for my portfolio.

One more thing: the Long Winters (sort of) played a show (set) at the Sunset last week, a super lo-fi surprise bag of goodness. Between Medicine Cabinet Pirate, Car Parts, and Cinnamon -- and the fact that it was happening at a quasi-private semi-secret gig (with a stage two feet off the floor and about just as far from where I was standing) makes it all the more rad. I didn't have my camera with me, but I did shoot a little mini-clip of a video that we posted up yonder. It ruled!

I'm off to rest up for my big self-inflicted birthday present trip-a-tron 2009, wherein I will fly to Chicago next Friday, see the Wrens play back-to-back nights, sneak in an interview, geek out around the city, leave Sunday for Austin (where it will be a cozy 110 in the shade, I'm sure), dig the city, go to the Glen Hansard / Iron & Wine benefit I talked myself into getting comped for, and hop a flight home Tuesday at 6am. Bonkers, right? I should have enough time to blog all about it with all the airport action happening, so stay tuned.

Holy ____.

Hearts, fastened seatbelts, and top five lists,
*Victoria

Not a ton of shows from last week to now, so I'll just beef up the photo quota.

The KMRIA / Minus 5 show was off the charts. I'm not a big Pogues fan, and I'm also not a big Celtic-flautist lovin' St. Patrick's day enthusiast type, but dammit -- these guys were good. The opening set from Minus 5 (who I could see once a week and not get tired of) totally knocked me sideways, and I managed to pull off some rad shots.

[Mental note: Tractor, stage right.]

I went to Bop Street Records after the show, and just about had a heart attack. They seriously have every record ever made, ever, in triplicate. And then more records. And then more records. I know it's totes not PC of me, but this place was absolutely retarded. And amazing. And then more records.

And then more records.

The one-a-days are really more like one-a-every-other-days, but it's all good. Like many things say, I will be patient with intermittent progress. It's yielding some rad results.

Up & coming...

Mark Siano's latest cabaret on Friday, and I get my practice on at KEXP on Saturday.
Spring is Springing, the Croc is re-opening, there's imaginary craft-fests and volunteer shifts and a handful of guest list spots I'm keeping my fingers crossed on.

Kiss kiss, bang bang & I'll see you back here next week.
-V.

I'm ending February with a "getting back into the flow of things" juju. Let's just jump right in:

Super-dark, I-suck-at-photography feeling kind of shots, but this month's Salon of Shame installment was a total blast. Gut-busting, cringe-inducing awesomeness. I'll have to try the opposite stage side next time to see if the light angle's a bit better for shooting.

There is total and utter brilliance going on in this very moment. Much has been written about the joy and bliss and wonderment that accompany Andrew Bird's shows, and I don't know if I can top any of them in a photo blurb -- even from the balcony, it was huge, and ethereal, and amazing in a way that no other shows are amazing. He just tunes right in to this frequency that we can't get to without him, and gets a good vein, and just lets it all loose. At several points in the night, I almost ate my chair. I'm so not doing him any justice, so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. But on top of the best show of '09 being at my fingertips, I got to get some moat-time with Laura, and all while celebrating KRDO's birthday week.

Holy shit. I just realized that show I'm linking to was six years ago. Six. _______.

On top of an Andrew Bird ticket, Kristin got a new apartment for her birthday this year. And it is very, very good. There's beach, and parking, and mermaids, and perfection. I'm already starting stories about the time we had this summer.

Seriously, the only thing the locals complain about here are the condos. I don't hear about anyone dying any more than usual, and the rain really doesn't bother me much -- mostly you hear stuff like, "That building used to not be there" and "You used to be able to see the Space Needle from here." Not, "Oh, we can't stand another day!" and "Did you know that we have the highest suicide rate in the country?" Seriously. Guess what, Connecticut? Not so much.

Oh and PS, teh smart people live heres.

I just sent in my show request list for next month, and there's goods in the works for sure. M. Ward, Bobby Bare Jr., the KEXP pledge drive, and plannings for the TIG's Croc show.

[Side note, I woke up today to the awesomes. (In my head, I mean, not the band.) Here's to hoping it sticks. Fingers crossed, with a flourish. Clink.]

:*
VIVA

Yikes. In all of my West Seattle Artwalk preparations, I pooled up a handful of miscellany that I never got to blogging. That, plus the ongoing dayjob search, has made me quite lax on the lengthy update. Apologies. There's tons of great stuff coming up, so we should be back to business over the next few weeks. But for now, it's one mega-huge entry. And, we're off:

Kristin's radelicious remake of my loverly dot com has gotten me in the spring winter cleaning mode. I'm in the process of organizing a formal portfolio on flickr, so that I have one spot for bands, editorial, and even a little bit of wedding. It's on the task list to finish up this week, and once it's up, will be in my collections here (and directly linked from my portfolio page as well). It's going to be nice to have a clean, accurate snapshot that lets me go, "Here. This is what I make with my camera." Yay!

I had the pleasure of shooting Mark Siano & the Freedom Dancers at the Triple Door a few weeks ago, which I accidentally did at a super-high ISO. I managed some decent shots out of it, even though I had to shoot mostly from my seat choice on either side of intermission, because the house was PACKED and it was a little awkward running around in there.

After that, the super-talented Cherry Manhattan had asked me to come by and get a few shots of her in her latest getup for a play over at the Seattle Center in one of the theaters. Wowie. It was so fun, I did it without a flash and even did some sepia-tone for her to get that whole Mae West-vibe going. I'm super pleased with how they came out.

On the way back to work (I shot her on my lunch break) I took some time to tool around and fill up the rest of my photo card walking around the outside of the EMP. It was so bright-blue sky and sunshine, I couldn't help myself. Plus the place was deserted, which was perfect.

I'm also getting settled in at the new digs. It's coming along nicely -- save for painting, I'm pleased with the way the space is laying itself out, complete with mini-living room under the loft bed and double duty table/desk. I've finally stopped bumping into the furniture, and have gotten into more of a routine (in a good way). Settled-in nest = more time for arting.

And, I eased back into the show-bath with a night at the Tractor, catching Delta Spirit with Other Lives earlier this month. My theory is proving correct: I shoot better when I like the subject matter. So I won't be going out on tour with Metallica anytime soon, but still. It's really great to be kind of feeling myself out, capabilities, places where I can learn more, and so forth. A more accurate, well, picture, of the parts that I didn't know I had.

Speaking of feeling things out, there was a major epiphany (sort of) at the desk/table recently, where Kristin and I worked out a tangible step in my next set of goals: a photo studio. This came about as a result of, among other things, a request for headshots that I couldn't fulfill. So, big ideas + cheap rental spaces = endless possibilities. It's going to take some financial rearrangement on my part, but it's going to be worth it. Cue cereal dinners, borrowed clothes, and whatever else it takes to get there.

Around the corner:

• There's this place called Vermillion where Becky Poole is doing an "Awesome Women I've Met" party on Sunday (ladies, please come! 6-8p), and Friday they're doing a free screening of an old 70s period movie where the "ideal" family winds up with cheating husbands and tripping daughters. Sweet, all straight out of Go Ask Alice or something. It's also Kristin's last day of being 32, so we're going to celebrate and wish it well.
  
• Saturday, there's a boatload of shows going on, and I'm hoping to stop at Elliott Bay for a book reading, and an appearance at the TIG listening party at Moe's for a new super-rad compilation that's come out. Afterwards, AC Newman is playing, Jared Mees is across the street, and a zillion more options. I'm still not sure where I'll wind up.
• Monday = Andrew Bird. (Who is like, legitimately famous now. I didn't know.) And hopefully getting my bitch-basket to pass emissions testing.
• Wednesday = sitting down at the Tractor for Kris Delmhorst, to continue the celebration of all things KRDO. I've heard so much about Kris Delmhorst, and still have yet to see her live. Sitting down at the Tractor will be such a treat!
• Thursday = Pablo Trucker, headlining at the Sunset. Turbo-deliciousness.
• Oh, and the latest visit to Salon of Shame was last night -- tons and tons of sidesplitting cringe-worthy awesomeness. I brought my camera this time. Seriously.
  

And in other news, I've got The Worst You Can Do is Harm / Long Winters in heavy rotation. That's it. I can't get off it, it's so... dammit. It's just so fucking good. It hurts.

Signing off as Seattle Victoria, fully conscious of the fact that Connecticut Victoria would be beyond ecstatic with all of these things. It's working.

:*
VIVA