Monday, December 21, 2009

Against Me! and Other Rad Things



I got to shoot Against Me! (one of my all time fav bands in the Universe) in LA on Thursday. My friend Stacey Dee performed with them and totally killed it. Awesome show. Met Butch Vig (!!!). Pics are rad.

_DSC0342

BTW the track she sang with them is the one with ONE MILLION plays on their Myspace page. Literally a million plays. Whoa.



Plus lots of other stuff at the usual location:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spitfirehussy/sets/


I'm on vacation till January 13th. Later.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Iron Bartender 2009

Benefit for The Giving Tree
Radio Room, Portland Oregon
December 10th 2009

All photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spitfirehussy/sets/72157622974066693/

_DSC0168

_DSC0164

_DSC0187

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Santacon Portland 2009

Santacon in Portland was on December 5th.
For some idiot reason it was held in North Portland this year (boooooooooooooring) so it was nowhere near as awesome as it has consistently been in years prior. But it was still good. We at least had a fun ride home on the Max at 2 AM.







If you're not hip to Santacon, then start here.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Kicking and Screaming

When I was a toddler, my mom used to keep my new diapers stacked neatly in delicate, easily-accessible and disturbingly OCD-like stacks in my room.

Having been born genetically predisposed to being a pain in the ass, by the age of two I had a passionate impulse to wreak havoc coupled with a natural aptitude to do so. I know most toddlers are natural cyclones of terror and destruction- but I'd like to believe I was a particularly cunning variety.

I'd go into my room and stand in front of my diapers. Neatly stacked. I'd pick them up, one by one, and throw them over my shoulders in rapid succession without even looking. Just one right after the other. Left, right, left, right. Flying diapers.

My mom would come in and I'd take off running. I knew I was being a little shit- that's always half the thrill of deviance- so when I was punished it was completely warranted.

Near the same age, I used to sit in the bathtub by myself and play while my mom was cooking dinner or folding laundry or doing whatever it is that single moms do at night. I'd sit there and pull all the towels into the water. Why? Because my mom told me not to. Drag the towels into the tub, then push them over the edge and back onto the floor, then back in, then back out. Until the bathroom flooded and there was nothing for me to dry my wily little ass off with.

One time while I was in mid-flood creation, towel in hand, my mom came in.
She picked me up out of the tub and stood me up on the bathroom linoleum. This was back in the good ol' days when it was ok to slap the shit out of your kids for not acting right. So in the time it took her to bend down and pick up one of the towels, I made a break for it.

I ran across the bathroom, naked, soaking wet, running for my life, running for my freedom, running for every kid in the world who ever got spanked. And as my mom turned around to capture me before I could make my crafty escape, I slipped on the linoleum.

As I slipped, my knees buckled and I came down on my right leg as my momentum carried me across the cold, wet floor. I slid across the threshold of the bathroom door and as I came to a stop I slid- fatefully- over a staple that some careless craftsman left sticking out between the linoleum and the hallway carpet.

I can remember my mom holding me on her lap in the bathroom, fixing me up. Me crying- not for the ass whooping I so righteously deserved and unjustly avoided, but for the giant, bloody gash on my tiny little three-year-old leg.


The point being- all checks get cashed some time or another. Sometimes it happens just when you figured it would and other times it comes when you least expect it. It might seem appropriate or it might just fall outta the clear blue sky. Either way, all debts get paid.

And I've got a big ol' scar running up my leg 23 years later to remind me of just that.

And guess what? This totally non-profound news flash applies to everybody.



You're welcome, world.


Sunday, October 11, 2009

Pygmy Seahorses

My friend and I are across town, both watching Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel.

Text message conversation:

Me: PYGMY SEAHORSES!!!!

Nicole: Yes!! I'm watching the same thing!!
Nicole: Half inch!! Head-butting!!

Me: In a territory dispute. Omg.

Nicole: Their territory is 3" x 3"

Me: GET OUTTA MY TERRITORY MOTHERFUCKER!

Nicole: How adorable?

Me: Infinity.



The end.


DSC_4609

Friday, September 25, 2009

Guil & Summer's Wedding

Looooooooooooong time, no update. Gotta start somewhere.

Just a few from Guil and Summer's wedding a few weeks ago.
All photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spitfirehussy/sets/72157622326294975

_DSC0160


_DSC0149


_DSC0115


_DSC0118

Thursday, September 24, 2009

What Did You Do This Summer?

I was just being overwhelmed by the crippling terror following the realization that school starts in FIVE DAYS when I imagined back to being a little kid, going back to school. They ask you, "What did you do over your summer vacation?"

You know, I am forever accumulating wild stories of reckless times and close calls and assorted adventures and calamities, but this summer has got to be one for the record books.

I try and duly document as much as possible because
1) Due to the fact that I am deep down an emotional packrat and sentimental junkie, it's satisfying to be able to recall details of my own life later, especially when I'm locked into an impressive bender and have a tendency to get lost in the sauce and forget all kinds of rad things as they're happening around me.
and
2) Nearly 100,000 hits on my blog(s) have led me to believe that some people find this shitshow amusing and actually ENCOURAGE me to continue making an ass of myself by publicizing my exploits.

So here it is. What I Did This Summer, The Abridged Version

I drove a rock band on tour for 3 weeks, in the desert, in the mountains, in the rain, in a tornado, to warm beach houses and hot warehouses, from sea-level to 7,000 feet, in a van with no windows full of boys who don't shower, smoking cartons of cigarettes, drinking gallons of beer and vitamin water, couch-surfing, getting attacked by bees at a river, taking baths and shaving my legs in the ladies room at Jack In The Box, designated driving while GPSing directions on my phone while yelling at the boys and changing the song on the iPod while lighting my cigarette, while getting back on the highway after filling up the millionth tank of gas, still 23 hours straight-drive from home.

I shot a rock-and-roll wedding in Colorado, and then another in Oregon, where I spent most of the time doing morally reprehensible things.

I spent my days sitting on the porch with vodka snowcones and cigarettes, playing guitars with Luke and the other 25 boys who are always here at one point or another. I wrote a shitload of music. I smoked and ate and drank and abused myself till dawn. After dawn. Bike adventures, beer runs, be right back.

I shotgunned Sophia Coppola champagne in a can on the corner of 10th and Hoyt downtown, in a wedding dress and silver pumps.

I drove a bachelor party around town and had Smiley and Guil moon the entire population of upper Hawthorne.

I went to Soapbox Derby and was trashed by noon. Left with a bloody leg and a new respect for gin and pineapple.

I rafted down the river with the best crew in the world about a dozen times. Calamities, duct-tape holding boats together, totally disorganized, everyone's smokes always wet and nobody giving a flying fuck about anything other than sunbeams and good people and cold beers.

I spent a week in San Diego mostly drinking at the Del Mar Fair, climbed on strangers' cars, drank champagne on a party bus rented for my cousin's birthday, hopped in a car with a bunch of strangers to go swimming in the ocean at 4 AM, discovered Tapatio hot sauce in travel-sized packets and probably almost got my aunt arrested just for being in public with me on more than one occasion.

I spent 10 days in Los Angeles in the sketchiest part of downtown, where I stayed in (never left) an air-conditioned room with Brittney, beer and popsicles. Went to a party that Alexis Arquette invited Brittney to, where several trannies were picked up and brought back to the house and promptly stole my wedding ring and Brittney's Xanax and a shitload of her makeup. I blew $75 on my first night there at a random dive bar Brittney's probably unable to go back to now. Went to the LA Gun Club and blew shit away. Went to the beach, blacked out and woke up later with a little umbrella in my trucker hat.

I Craigslisted a ride to San Francisco and spent the next 7 days moving my shit every 24 hours due to a cataclysmic alignment of lodging circumstances. Drank greyhounds on a roof in the Mission and watched the city, listened to oldies and smoked cigarettes. Ate hella Mexican food. Buses and taxis and borrowed cars and walking from Ingleside to the Mission to Haight to Inner Richmond and back again, with a purse, then a mouth, then a body fulla booze. Spent about $80 more than necessary in Chinatown.

Drove home for 18 hours in another van full of boys. Shenanigans. Cases and cases of beer I didn't get any of. Motherfuckers still owe me $40, actually. Scotty's naked in the van. Sammy's naked on the couch. Puking in the parking lot, molested by a swamp donkey, Adderall to make it home.

I watched 5 seasons of House, 2 seasons of Dexter, 2 seasons of True Blood and 2 seasons of 30 Rock. I have no idea how many hours of television that is, but since I was watching it while I was working I was technically getting paid to do it so it's a dual accomplishment. And yeah, watching TV is an accomplishment. Shut it.

Through all of this tomfoolery I managed to work my scheduled hours, pay my bills and otherwise be a responsible human being. Thank you, thankyouverymuch.

I'm moving on Friday and Saturday.
Monday I start school.

Then the boys (and girls) come up from San Fran the next weekend and I will pretty much wreck the rest of my entire following week just recovering from their stay. I can't wait. If this summer is really going down, it's going down in flames.


I probably forgot all sorts of shit, but that's the long and short of it.

Goodbye, Summer 2K9. It's been real. Hazardous.


Sunday, August 30, 2009

What Happens At The Bachelor Party Stays At The Bachelor Party

I had the option of going to Summer's bachelorette party or Guil's bachelor party, so naturally I decided to go with the boys.

What happens at the bachelor party stays at the bachelor party, except for this:

We packed the van full of 10 boys at my house, and I hopped in the driver's seat at around 9. As I was sitting there waiting for everybody to get settled, I got a phone call. It was insanely loud in the van as they clamored around, half of them already drunk.

So I'm on the phone and I say "I gotta go, I'm in a van full of boys heading to a strip club right now."

To which Smiley yells, "DAJAH HASN'T HAD THIS MANY DICKS BEHIND HER SINCE HIGH SCHOOL PROM!!!!"

To which I reply, "Dude, I'm on the phone with my MOM."


Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I Left My Dignity In El Segundo

Today was good times at the beach in El Segundo with Britt and Courtney.

I remember sitting at a stoplight with the windows down and belting out "Anything, Anything" with Britt and Court at the top of my lungs and making the surrounding drivers nice and uncomfortable. Then I think it was "Hopelessly Devoted To You". Classic. I recall being really intoxicated, leaving the bar alone to try and find Mexican food, and getting lost in a 3-block radius. Finding the place, handing the carry-out menu back to the guy and just saying "I'm too drunk for this, it's too much. I just want taquitos. Please, please help me."

Woke up with sand in my hair and a little umbrella stuck in my trucker hat I was wearing, thrown into a pile next to the bed with my swimsuit and all personal belongings I had today. Somehow I managed to put on a clean shirt before I collapsed into bed. Seriously, a little umbrella stuck in my hat and a bikini next to my bed, passing out drunk. Like it's was fucking spring break in Miami or something. I'm probably on some Girls Gone Wild, Los Angeles edition somewhere. Yikes. My head hurts. Oh I just looked to the right in bed and found a little plastic monkey- some decorative shit they hang from the edges of fish-bowl size booze concoctions found exclusively at tiki bars. Surprise.

I should definitely wash my hair tomorrow. It's been 8 days and I have a 4-day-rule when engaged in any activities involving swimming or spilling whiskey on myself. That was 7 and 5 days ago, respectively. Mmmmmmm. BTW this is one of a billion reasons I do not have a boyfriend.


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Valet Please

Today, I was in front of my friend Brant's house attempting to park my scooter while wearing platform sandals.

I couldn't get the kickstand locked in place because I wasn't pulling the scooter up by the handles hard enough. This rarely happens because I've got it down to a science (even in my Coach heels), but today it was not working for some unknown reason.

So I yanked harder. Too hard. Bike yanked BACK but not UP and just slammed into pretty much exactly where my vagina used to be but is now possibly just a giant bruise with no discernible features.


Stay classy, Daj!