Pledge Ben Folds Five

In case you don't follow Ben Folds on twitter or facebook, I wanted to pass this info along:

"WE'RE GOIN' LIVE!!
Pre-sale video announcement of New Ben Folds Five album

Http://www.pledgemusic.com/

projects/benfoldsfive

When you get there, watch the video because it features a song from the new album called "Sky High" - quite different than "Do It Anyway"

Be sure to click to download the free single of
"Do It Anyway"
If you already have it
Download It Anyway

It will be a higher res file
And it will sign you up for our Vice President Of Promotion thingie.

We'll put your name in the vinyl LP art and Poster Art
Thanks for spreading the word so amazingly so far. That free single seems to have reached a sick number of people very quickly over the weekend (which is why we're now rushing the announcement out now)

This is a lot more fun than doing a month of press. And I'll stay available online. Robert and Darren will be too.

Thanks,
Ben"

Direct link to pledge is here

More from Ben here:

"I realize that it's a luxury for us to promote only to fans. We've had the help of labels for years which gave us a leg up. The years of traditional promotion, soul draining as they might have been, affords us that luxury now. A start up band cannot easily do it this way. Our intention is not to 'stick it to the man'. He's quite stuck enough. We don't care to create a new model. We're just doing it the way it feels best this time around and quite honestly, making it up as we go along."

I'm excited to help support any artist that has the guts to do something different. 

Welcome back, boys!

Andrew Bird Teaser

Distortion and looping on violin = brilliant

And in other news...

Photo of the Week: Week 18

Have I mentioned recently how much I love my macro lens?

Caturday: The Cat Scan!

In case you didn't know it, my little Addy has been basking in her fifteen minutes of fame this week. The shot on the right was featured on one of my favorite tumblr blogs: The Cat Scan. Sometimes, you need a break from your day to just look at something silly. As one friend pointed out, 'Cats keep the internet alive.'

The Cat Scan is pretty much what it sounds like: people submitting scanned pictures of their cats. You have no idea how hard this was. All the other cats seem to sit happily on their owner's scanner, some even claiming that their cats enjoyed the light. Not Addy. No. Freakin. Way. The treats wouldn't even get her up there, so the best I got were these hovering scans. I called the shot on the right Cerberus-esque. The more I look at it compared to the other Cat Scan images, I'm kinda proud of Addy. She did something completely different than the other cats, and turned it into Surreal Art.

Way to go Addy!

fr EYE day

Welcome to fr EYE day!

As you might have noticed, and will continue to see, more than a few of my subjects wear contact lenses. I want to point out that they are only for vision purposes and do not enhance eye color in any way.

That being said, YOWSA! These eyes are a golden/honey with dark blue limbal rings and couldn't be cooler if they tried, just like their owner.

Throwback Thursdays

The following is from an actual conversation I had yesterday. I'd done a music swap with a friend and I'd started sorting through some of it.

Me: I can't believe you have Gnarls Barkley.
Friend 1: Why? I really like Gnarls Barkley.
Me: It surprised me is all. That and he sounds a lot like Cee Lo Green.
Friend 2: Audra, Gnarls Barkley IS Cee Lo Green.
Me: **chuckling nervously** Huh! How 'bout that!

I love when I say incredibly stupid things! It just goes to show that I don't know everything about music, but I'm good for a laugh. Whenever I feel like I've just made a fool of myself, I like to think of the party pictured above.

Back in 2003, I threw a small gathering at my parents house because they were away on vacation; good thing my rents don't read this blog. It was the Party of Five State: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Montana were all represented. The party was centered around the arrival of my friend Hollis, from Montana, who was also Deaf. (I know a little sign language.) So here we are, having a good time, drinking, playing card games, I remember there were mullet wigs being passed around for photos. One friend, whom shall remain nameless went on to 'say' the most hilariously dumb thing in all of history.

As I stated, Hollis is Deaf, so if my friends wanted to converse with him, they either asked me to sign or they wrote on a piece of paper. Except Vanessa, who went on to sign the entire song I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas because she had learned how to sign it in grammar school and could still remember it. Which was highly entertaining, by the way. Other friend whom shall remain nameless, was having an animated written conversation with Hollis. I looked over and saw Hollis staring at the paper, up at my friend, over at me and then shrugged his shoulders with a 'You have to be kidding me' look on his face. I had to know what it was about. The notebook read, and I kid you not:

"Do you like to listen to Bob Dylan?"

Think about that for a second. It's not that Deaf people don't listen to music, they do, but of all the musical artists in all the world, the friend whom shall remain nameless asks about Bob Dylan. Bob Freakin' Poet Dylan. If that wasn't funny enough, remember, the friend whom shall remain nameless had to WRITE THIS QUESTION ON A PIECE OF PAPER.

So if you ever say something incredibly stupid and you feel like a fool, just remember, you could've asked a Deaf guy if he likes to listen to Bob Dylan.

Oh, and in case you missed this yesterday from my facebook posting, you MUST check this out.

Thank You!

I wanted to take the time to give all my readers a virtual high five. April was a huge month for my blog, the most views I've gotten to date. Granted, April was National Velociraptor Awareness Month, so that helped bump my numbers a bit. On top of that, I posted three well shot concert reviews (how did I pull that off?!) and an amazing engagement shoot in DC.

Whatever reason brought you to this blog, I want to give you a heartfelt thanks! I'm glad you've found this blog, that you enjoy what I do and that you keep coming back. I look forward to the adventures ahead and being able to share them with all of you!

P.S. Don't be afraid to comment. It really does make my day.