POPSICLES AND GRILLZ

Strawberry popsicle + grills = makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it.

Mike is insane.
And loves popsicles.
And grills.

What can I say?

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Frances flips out?

Frances goes hair-flip crazy.
It's times like these that I'm glad my timing is awesome when it comes to taking photos... Even though the finished product does kind of look like a series of Gap ads...







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OH, M.I.A.

I don't even know what to say.
I've wanted to see M.I.A. for so long..and it's not that she wasn't good live, she was great, but for some reason I was still disapointed.
It could've been the fact I was/am sick as a dog.
Or, it could've been that during the 3 songs that I was photographing her she kept saying "Turn the lights down!" Which along with the hat, hood and sunglasses she was wearing made it very difficult to photograph her.
I'll never understand why some bands do that....Why even give out photopasses if you're not going to supply us with proper lighting to work with??
It's quite frustrating.

One of these days I'm gonna make a list of all the bands that have crappy lighting. I really will. Just wait. You'll see.

Nothing against you, M.I.A., I'm just a tad mad.

"Paper Planes" - M.I.A..mp3

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One more thing to check off my list...

...photographing H.I.M.

I've wanted to photograph Ville Valo for five years...and I finally got too.
It was awesome, to say the least.
And although my taste in music has changed, my heart will always hold a place for H.I.M.
Always.


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HEY, 4-EYES...

Suzy and Mike get nerdy.








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There's no place like home...

Suzy makes a pretty awesome Dorothy. Wouldn't you say?

We were hanging out in the Jem Gallery on Main St. and these little kids see us through the window and scream "OH MY GOD! IT'S DOROTHY! DOROTHY!"
Cutest thing ever.
They come in and Suzy tells them that they have no candy at the gallery right now and one of the little kids is like "It's ok. Dorothy is better than candy anyway!"
Awwwwwwwww!



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My playlist, circa October 31st 2007

Ohhhh Halloween playlist, creepy - not so much.

It kinda sucks that I don't have any awesome Halloween music...
(I had to stop myself from posting "Thriller" in this playlist.)

So I suppose this isn't really a Halloween playlist at all...

+ "Nighttiming" - Coconut Records
(Jason Schwartzman's band. I seriously cannot stop playing this song. It's pretty amazing.)
+ "Chemo Limo" - Regina Spektor
(I love Regina more than I should. But I can't help it - she's just so good. This song gives me chills.)
+ "Take Me, I'm Yours" - New Young Pony Club
(Nilina sent me this song the other day - And I've played it a million times since.)
+ "Colors" - Calvin Harris
(Best of the best. How can you not love this?)
+ "These Days" - Nico
(This song was used in one of my favorite scenes from one of my all-time-favorite movies. I will always love this song. Always.)

"Party-Lust Kings...And Queens!"

I wrote a piece on a Gogol Bordello, entitled "Party-Lust Kings...And Queens!", for the October issue of Discorder Magazine.
(You can read my previous blog about it, HERE.)

I was walking around downtown today with Garret and I stepped on a page from a magazine. When I looked down at my feet; I noticed that this wasn't just any page from any magazine - it was my page...my words...my photos.
It was quite odd actually.
But definitely a good thing as I had not picked up a copy yet. And considering this was my first actual "feature" in a magazine (I'm used to just contribruting photos) I was pleasantly surprised at how awesome it turned out.
It's nice to see my name up in lights - or at the top of a page in big letters.
Same thing.

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Dad VS. Mike

My dad and Mike.
October 26th.

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DOUBLE BOOMIN'

Sunday night. Suzy, Mike and me. Being awesome.

Photos by me, mike, and suzy.
Graphic by mike.





















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Fake Halloween - Real Awesome!

Fake Shark - Real Zombie! and Junior Major's Halloween Show - October 26th 2007 @ The Backstage Lounge.

After convincing Mike (by lending him all my CSI DVD's) to come with me, we headed to The Backstage Lounge on Granville Island. We arrived there at 8, an hour early. My friend Suzy's band, Junior Major, were supposed to go on at 9. But when Suzy arrived, she told us that they weren't going on until 10:30. So we ordered some nachos and waited. And waited.

Then Kevvy showed up!
But besides from us, the venue was practically empty. And Kev was worried because no one else from his band, Fake Shark - Real Zombie!, was there yet.

So we took some photos.



And then in no time at all, Suzy's band went on.
This was my first time seeing them, and I was very impressed. It's a good feeling to know that you have really talented and amazing friends.

Junior Major Myspace
"Fools Gold" - Junior Major.mp3



In the middle of their set I notice that Louis, from Fake Shark, had finally shown up and was wearing the most insane Bunny costume.
Most of the photos on my camera are now of Bunny-lu.



Anyway, yadda yadda yadda...it's Fake Shark's turn to play!
I always enjoy seeing them live. Someone always gets injured or insulted. Or both, if you're lucky.
At this show 6 glasses were smashed (2 near my feet, which left me with one very bloody foot and a sandle full of glass shards), 1 light-up pumpkin got destroyed and the floor was quickly covered in a sticky layer of beer.
I think it's safe to say Fake Shark will never play that venue again. And they should be very proud of that.

Fake Shark - Real zombie! Myspace
"These MC's" - Fake Shark - Real Zombie!.mp3

Oh, and of course, OF COURSE, before the night is over Suzy puts on an afro wig. Of course.
And ,OF COURSE, even with an afro and tons of drawn on freckles - she still looks good.
Who would've thought Raggedy Ann with an afro would look so good?



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It's sunny out?

I'm sitting in my room drinking a cup of tea and I glance out my window...and it's sunny out?!

This is wonderful! I'm busting out my boombox and all my The Streets albums!
I'm going to sit on my deck all day!

"Memento Mori" - The Streets

Wouldn't it be nice if tomorrow was sunny too?
Cross your fingers!

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Cookies, Gamecube and Ginger Beer!

Story of my life.

I've actually managed to get pretty decent at Tony Hawk's Underground. I always beat Michael at Graffiti (and sometimes Horse)...well, maybe not always...but most of the time!

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Rainy days and house-warming parties

I've finally given into Vancouver's crappy weather.
I purchased a pair of wellies the other day, along with a wool hat, and a red tweed coat. And, thankfully, I've gone out everyday and have remained warm and dry!
Today was especially exceptional as it did not rain at all. I was extra dry.

Tonight before I left the house to see Ozzy Osbourne with my mom, I realized that I've been listening to CSS quite often lately. Especially "Alala", which is funny because I've always had that song on my itunes but have never played it that much.
And now it's all I want to play.

"Alala" - CSS

Anyway, regarding Ozzy; what a rad dude. He is just a riot to watch. And I am pleased to say that I can now check one more name off my list of "Bands I Have To See Before I die."
But, I must say: it was wierd to go to a show and NOT photograph it. I had this sinking feeling the whole time as if my body was angry at me for going to a show for no real reason.

On a second-note: I went to Rachel's house-warming party last night. She made me an amazing cup of tea and I got to meet Michael's brother, Jeremy.
Those boys are hilarious - they're like cartoon's on too much coffee. Simply amazing.





Oh, and I everytime I play monopoly at McDonalds I win something. It's insane.
So far I've won: 2 large-sandwiches, 3 muffins, and 2 fries. I'm set for life! And gaining weight - fast.

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My playlist, circa October 17th 2007

+ "Plastic Tramp" - Arctic Monkeys
+ "Magick" - Klaxons
+ "Real Love" - Regina Spektor
+ "Bulla Bulla" - Gogol Bordello

Dirty dancefloors and dreams of Pumpkin Patches.

This is Nilina. She takes photos and blogs, too. www.notontheguestlist.com

Although it's been less than 10 days since I've been back in Vancouver, B.C., I miss Portland more than ever.
I took the Greyhound up to visit Nilina on October 4th, which happened to be "First Thursday".
She took me to Backspace where we admired some art and watched Improv Logic, a local Portland rapper. From Backspace we went on to Fred Meyer to purchase some Ice-cream and some Mentos. Then to Whole Foods to get Coconut Rice and Orangeina.
With food in hand, we bussed to Halocene where we spent the night dancing in awe at Madonna tribute night.
2 amazing Madonna's covers, 1 old stripping man and an invite to watch strippers later, we finally decided to call it a night.





October 5th was Nilina's 22nd birthday and my second day in Portland. We woke up early (11am) and made our way to Fat Tire Farm to rent bikes. From there we went to Sauvie Island, biked for 2 miles to the pumpkin patch and had ourselves the time our of lives!





After the pumpkin patch we road our bikes back to downtown and then headed to Winco because according to Nilina it was "the best place on Earth".
It was! And it's really lame that we don't have it Canada!
Anyway, we ran around Winco stocking up on food and candy for the night. Me on foot and Nilina via electric-wheelchair because her legs hurt from the bike ride.
I had $35 for food, we filled her wheelchair basket full of exactly $35 worth of food. Once arriving at the check-out I realized that $20 of my money was Canadian, leaving us with only $15 to spend on food. Thankfully, the checkout clerk was amazing and helped us pick only what we really needed. Which was as follows: 2 raindeer christmas headbands, 4 bags of bulk candy (candy corns, jelly beans, good and plenty, candy vampire teeth), goldfish crackers, toilet paper, sparkling fake champagne, "mr. salty" pretzels, and cinnamon applesuace.






By far the best purchase at Winco were the raindeer headbands.



The night was still young, and Nilina's legs were feeling better so we decided to go play a session of Night-Owl Bingo!
We didn't win...we feel asleep. But it was still the most fun in the world!
If only the camera battery didn't die. That's what we get for spending 2 hours in Winco and feeling the need to take photos of everything we did there. Ha ha ha.

Anyway...October 6th!
My final full day in Portland, we wake up early again and head downtown to do some shopping. I buy nothing, but enjoy going into to a store that sells berets in every colour.
We leave downtown and begin our journay to Hawthorne, the trendy part of Portland. We get off the bus early to stop at Safeway so I can get some Crackerjacks. Our clerk is a transexual named Erika who compliments me on my purse. I miss Erika.
We then decide to walk the rest of the way so we can stop at Nilina's old Elementary School. We agree that we can only stay for 10 minutes as the shops in Hawthorne close soon and we still have to go to a house show tonight.
We end up spending an hour and a half at the park.
We quickly shop around Hawthorne, I buy a high-wasted tweed skirt and a record. In the middle of paying for my record Nilina informs me that our bus is here. We run, and surprisingly catch it. I had no time to get change back from my purchase, I end up paying $16 for a $15.25 record.
No worries though, we make it back to Nilina's place in no time at all. A quick change of clothes and we're back on the bus.
At this point our day becomes depressing; right in the middle of our bus ride we notice that Nilina's water has spilled in her bag. We scramble to sort everything out because her camera is in her bag. We make sure her camera is ok, it is, and then we get off the bus to transfer onto our next bus. While crossing the street; Nilina's balloons from the other day slip out of her hand. This is extremely sad because she was planning on giving those out at the house show, and she paid $5 for them.
But it's ok, nothing too tragic.
We board our next bus and in a little less than an hour, we're there! My first house show ever!
We find a really cool striped room and a wall with a bullseye painted on it. We take a few photos and begin handing out the candy vampire teeth that we bought at Winco.
We then watch Eskimo & Sons play - I fall inlove with them.
Then it's off the see Starfucker play in the other room, the smallest room in the house. This scares me when Nilina informs me that Starfucker always gathers the biggest crowd. We make it to the front and have fun dancing to 4 songs before we realize that we have to catch the last bus home.





That night we stayed up til 6:30am discussing tea and music.
I had to wake up at 7:15am in order to pack and get to the bus depot at 9:30am to catch my bus back to Vancouver.
Have you ever tried waking up after only sleeping 45 minutes? It's very difficult. But I did it.
We had everything timed perfectly, we made it to the bus stop at the right time - leaving ourselves 10 minutes extra incase traffic was bad downtown.
But the bus never came. So I start freaking out because it's my Mom's birthday and if I miss my bus back home the next bus doesn't get me to Vancouver until Midnight. Yadda yadda yadda.
20 minutes later our bus to downtown comes. Now we're behind 10 minutes and we find out that the Portland Marathon is being held downtown today, therefore we are almost guarenteed bad traffic.
My dad calls the Greyhound depot and finds out that my bus is running late. Talk about a sigh of reliefe.
We make it to the bus depot with time to spare, enough time to think back on our adventures while I eat a bagel.

I hate goodbyes.

I get on the bus and sleep pretty much the whole 10 hours home.

www.megbournephotography.com

self-reminder: spray paint

i need to start doing more art.

www.megbournephotography.com

My pre-teen years: revisited.

Sum 41 - October 12th 2007 @ The PNE Forum

This was an odd experience for me; having seen this band a couple times in my early teens, what would it be like seeing them now that my whole idea of music has changed?
Did Sum 41 have a whole new fan-base - or I would be face-to-face with the same people I saw when I used to dawn a Good Charlotte t-shirt everyday? Or more importantly; should I have worn that GC t-shirt?

The minute I entered the venue, my question was answered. Yes, there were a few familiar faces... but there were also people I had never seen before, people I had never pictured attending a Sum 41 concert: relatively normal looking girls, business men, and cuddley couples.

Halfway through the set; lead singer Deryck Whibley asked the crowd to raise their hand if they had seen Sum 41 before. I raised my hand, and to my surprise; only 15-or-so hands had joined mine.
When Whibley went on to ask who had never seen them live before; the venue turned into a sea of waving hands and shouting fans.

How did this band who, as far I was concerned, had done nothing for over a year and had lost most (if not all) of their fanbase to the new "scene" manage to get back on top?
I'm still not quite sure how, but they did. And that's all that matters.

Sum's new album, Underclass Hero, seems to be getting a good response (regardless of how cheesey the name is). Although I may not be able to appriciate it as much I would've when I was 14, I can still appriciate the fact that it's making people happy. And that's what music's supposed to do, right?
Who cares what genre it is, or if it's "mainstream" or "uncool". If it sounds good to you, play it.

And you know what? I will always dance and sing along when one of their songs comes on the radio.

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Adventures in fisheye land...

Walking home from Mike's, October 14th.











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People, part 1

A small collection of portraits from 2007.



















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Shantz Attack!

This is Michael Shantz, he makes the best expressions.

What was supposed to be a photoshoot to test out my new flash turned into a night of funny faces and bright blue backdrops.

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I miss Jess!

Jessica Lee Star came to visit from NYC.

This girl is amazing.
I took a few photos of her right before we left for the airport.

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Much more than 'Gypsy-Punks'

Gogol Bordello - September 2nd 2007 @ The Commodore Ballroom

“You might want to shy away from calling it ‘Gypsy-punk,’” explains bass player Thomas Gobena of Gogol Bordello. “We are much more than Gypsy-punks.”

Hours later, as I watch Gogol Bordello play a two-hour-long set at the Commodore Ballroom, I realize that Thomas couldn’t be more right. As I look around at the sold-out crowd, some people dawning fake mustaches to emulate lead singer Eugene Hütz, others just staring in awe (possibly because Hütz’s pants keep falling down), it’s easy to see that Gogol’s stage presence and passion for music is something that none of us can deny. And we love it.

With eight members, including two dancing girls, Gogol’s live show is a chaotic circus of energy and enthusiasm, mixed with the cunning and precision of a well-trained orchestra. If it seems as though it’s a party on stage—”it is!” confirms Thomas. “We want it to be a party every day, every minute, every second!”

Having just released their fifth album, Super Taranta!, Gogol are slowly emerging from their cult status. Recently performing a duet with Madonna at the Live Earth concert in England and playing almost every festival you could imagine, they’re just getting started. They also have a lot to be proud of: they’ve just finished a long U.S./Canada tour, and they’ve already announced a European tour starting in October and ending in December; not to mention Hütz has been chosen to star in Madonna’s new film, Filth and Wisdom, which is scheduled to be released in 2008.

When asked where he sees himself in ten years, Thomas said, “I see myself having, like, a super-crazy rocket-powered wheelchair.” I laughed and began to imagine the whole band still performing, even when they are in wheelchairs. And the thing is, it didn’t even seem that weird. The strength and skill that Gogol shares is too powerful to be stopped by age or fame or anything.

In this world full of over-produced ‘music,’ Gogol seems to shine through it all, proving that real talent will always capture hearts and make a difference.

With so much humour, politics, energy and partying, what’s not to love about Gogol Bordello?


More Gogol Bordello photos on my official website!
www.megbournephotography.com

Let's smash some pumpkins, shall we?

Smashing Pumpkins - September 24th 2007 @ The PNE Forum

Considering I've been a fan of Smashing Pumpkins since I was 5; getting to see them live was a pretty big deal.
It was only slightly disapointing that their show was brutal to photograph - having only backlighting and once and a while projecting images onto themselves.
Once I put that aside and stepped back to actually watch them, It was pretty amazing.
Not to mention they managed to play almost every song you could imagine; the hits, the good, the bad, the new, the old. Everything.
It's hard for me to put their show into words....So I think I'll stop now.
You get the idea - they're pretty rad.


More Smashing Pumpkins photos on my official website!
www.megbournephotography.com

Everyone looks good on the dance floor.

Arctic Monkeys - September 30th 2007 @ The PNE Forum.

This was my second time seeing Arctic Monkeys in 4 months....
This time it seemed as if they were rushing to end their tour, playing a fast hour and a half long set (with no encore) and then literally running off stage.
Can you really blame them, though? This show was the last stop on their lengthy North American tour...
They still played a good set, often talking to the audience and making jokes.
Half way through a song a red dot appeared on lead singer Alex Turner's shirt. He made a quick comment regarding how he didn't think you could purchase laser pointers anymore and then went right back into the song.

When I think about it; I did witness a man who had attached multiple Glow-Sticks to himself and danced like 'a robot from 1984' for their whole set; along with another man who seemed to be interpreting every lyric into his own form of sign language.

And then when I thought it about it more; have they ever played an encore? Not that I could remember.

So what am I talking about? They did nothing wrong.
If anything, they played one of the best shows Vancouver has ever seen.
Or, atleast that's the impression I got from Mr. Glow-Sticks.

To read my more "professional" and longer review of the first time I saw Arctic Monkeys.... CLICK HERE.
(Or go to www.arcticmonkeys.com and go to the 'Past Gigs' section!)



More Arctic Monkeys photos on my official site!
www.megbournephotography.com