Monthly Archive for April, 2008

Kickin’ it in Indio: Coachella 2008

Published
by
Mike O.
on April 30, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

For those of you who didn't make it out to this year's Coachella festival, in Indio, I've brought an all access account for you to enjoy. What a crazy three days it turned out being. It was a weekend filled with lots of water, friends, packed tents, and bike rides. Party!

Anyway, lets start...

When I arrived to Friday's show, it was already around noon. Lunch time! This is my first meal of the weekend, coming straight out of artist catering! And yes, that's Lentil salad! So good!

After lunch I headed over to the Outdoor Theatre to visit my co-worker, Westy. He was riding around on his new bike, that is totally fresh.

Then it was time to watch the first band on my list: Les Savy Fav. They ripped.

Struttin' the fields, checking out the art and the people:

Golf carts: the only way to go!

Saw Kraftwerk on Saturday night. This video shot was during "Tour de France."

I also bumped into this guy:

Went to the Sahara tent for M.I.A., which was out of control. The crowd swamped the place and they had to cut off access to the V.I.P. area. I barely made it in.

Sunday morning, I showed up early so we could shoot photos of out bikes. Glass House represent!

And I even made it in time to catch Love and Rockets' sound check. Cool bobble heads!

On my way to breakfast, I came across Roger Water's pig:

Dani and Jacky came out to the Fields. Good times!

We caught some of Kid Sister's set in the Gobi, during sunset:

The crowd was beautifully lit:

After sundown I finally saw Modeselektor (my attempts in Europe failed, so I was pretty stoked to finally see 'em), but didn't take any photos because I was busy dancing. Hard. I started shooting again later in the night, for Justice's set in the Sahara tent. Youngsters swarmin'...

D.A.N.C.E.....

And the last shot of the weekend...waddup, Kavinsky?

Crass Test

Published
by
Mike O.
on April 21, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

Today was my first day off in a week and I really wanted to take advantage of the time, so hit up Andy about doing some printing. Now, I don't have much of a background in screenprinting, having only done it a couple of times in the past, but I think this session went pretty well...but to be honest, Andy did most of the work while I took pictures.

I've always wanted to make my own version of a Crass shirt, as they're one of the few bands from my teen years that I still listen to quite frequently and hold close to my heart as huge influences in many things such as music, art, and philosophy. I don't think I've ever learned as much from a band as I did Crass. Seriously. And so much that I still enjoy repping them through t-shirt from time-to-time, but have become bored with the black shirt/white ink designs you often find at record stores or through distros. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for wearing their message as it was intended, and love their use of black, symbolically, but who says you can't add a little color to your punk wardrobe? Right? And since the shirts you find are all bootlegged anyway - why can't the printers toss in a few colored shirts for the folks who've graduated from the black tee? Well, I took it into my own hands and printed a few on some color. Up the punx!

As for the design, it was made up of a block of the cross logo (5x4, rowsxcrosses), which we printed on a few colored (olive green and heather grey) shirts with red ink. Our emulsion process got a little messed up, which we were bummed on at first but later realized that it might look just as cool, of not cooler kind of messed up and distorted. Maybe we'll fix the screen and run a proper batch, but for now the three we did were good enough fo'sho.

Early Start

Published
by
Mike O.
on April 19, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

It's birthday time and I got an early start:

Thirsty Lil’ Soul

Published
by
Mike O.
on April 14, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

I rushed to work today in a panic, as I realized that the last week had been much of a blur due to being all over the place work-wise. It was one of those instances where I woke up, looked at the ceiling and said to myself, "where the fuck have I been in the last seven days?" And you know what? That has to be my least favorite feeling to have, and especially in the morning. I then spent my whole shower going over what I have to do, and what I was supposed to do last week that didn't get finished. I also thought about what I'm going to do in the near future. I think it's time for a change, really.

So, I got into the office early and began playing catch-up, checking things off my list until I came to a stump. Yesterday evening I was reminded that there is a show announcement scheduled for tonight, and that the show is for next week (my birthday to be exact, how convenient) and will need a bunch of coverage within the next seven days. But the funny thing is how limited my advertising can be for this event. I can't step on the shoes of the other shows and don't want to invade festival territory, either. So I'm currently sitting here waiting for a call granting permission to move forward on the advertisements that I have planned.

But my wait has been somewhat of a blessing as it's given me the chance to catch-up in the Blogosphere too, which is where I came across this new advertisement from Sony via Kitsune Noir:


I've never been a big fan of foam, I'll admit, and cringe at the thought of those gay-Spring Break-type "foam parties" because it just seems straight up nasty to be dancing around in a sea of foam, with a bunch of sweaty, naked people you don't know...can't shit get spread that way? But this was not so much the case with the Sony commercial - this is so cool and a refreshment to my mood. Everyone seems so stoked! Oh, how I wish I could be doing that instead of sitting here. I would of loved to been running around snapping photos!

Anyway, my stump has passed. Keep on livin'...back to work (wah-wah).

A Day in the Mike: Work Can Be Fun, Too

Published
by
Mike O.
on April 1, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

Woah, woah, woah - it's already April? Where'd March go? I can't believe I left the month post-less. :( I blame my busy work schedule and the arrival of Spring, aka the "Tour Season".

To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of talking about work while away from the office, but I have decided to dedicate this post to the good nights at the venue, since we just had another on Sunday for The Black Keys/Jay Reatard show. I had remembered to bring my camera for this gig and wanted to document a good day and a good show, as well as the great people I work with. Plus, I'm sure many people have been curious about what goes on behind the scenes...right?

This was 2nd St. when I arrived to work, sometime around 2 PM. A line had already formed, and load in had already begun. For a group with only two members, they had a lot of stuff...as well as a lot of lights! Sweet!

One of my co-workers, Justin, got this IRO recently. It's the newest addition to the Glass House bike family. We're now riding deep with four on the staff! When we get free time before the doors open we often ride around to keep things fun.

The much anticipated schedule is posted!

2nd St. right before doors...the start of the evening for guests, the 1/4 way mark for employees. The line by this time had reached near the end of the block.

During the opening band, Jay Reatard, I was running around the venue handling things and was unable to get any photos, unfortunately. Here are the Keys, though:

The crowd:

The Black Keys' Patrick Carney:

Jen laughing about something in the kitchen, while Cameron makes the Glass House pizza.

More bikage outside the venue by the tour bus.

Break down time:

The end, but not quite...my evening continued until closing time at the bar around the corner afterwards, and then a brief meal. I ended up asleep sometime around 4 AM. No pictures were taken, sadly. Whew! What a day...