Red Eyes and Ringing Ears: My Week From 5/9/08 to 5/17/08

This was a crazy week for me. A very good week, but crazy. It started on May 9th. I worked all morning at Hot Topic. It was kind of slow, so I had my friend, Charlie Pecoraro come in to pose for me. He is a musician, so I did the Faces of Music portrait of him. I took off a little early and drove out to Irvine because my band, the CIG, was playing our second to last show at Reuben's (the guitarist) house. We played for over an hour to about 15-20 people. It was a blast, of course.


I got home late, dead tired. I think I stayed up past 2am. The next day, Saturday May 10th, I went to see my friends in Scarlet Grey play at Chain Reaction. I shot photos of them as well as Burning Tree Project and Eudora. After the show, the Snider Brothers and I went across the street to an auto repair shop to setup lights to do my Faces of Music portraits. I shot both of the Snider Brothers, Josh and Jon and then Ben Grey and Danny Duran of Scarlet Grey. I then went to Wendy's with the Snider Brothers for a little late night snack and chat. I got home around 1:30am and started working on Ben's picture. I went to bed around 3am.





I woke up Sunday the 11th and went to the first service of church before heading out to Rancho Cucamonga to have Mother's Day lunch at my brother's house. From his house, I drove out to San Bernadino to shoot promos of War of Ages. I stayed until the end of the show which was close to midnight. I had setup my lights during the last couple songs of WOA and they were nice enough to all do the Faces of Music portraits for me. Even after shooting promos of them for a couple hours already. We then went to In-n-Out for some late night grubbin'. Then it was off to home, only an hour car ride away. Needless to say, I got home late again.








I had to get up early on Monday May 12th to go into work at Hot Topic. After work, I watched hockey before heading back out to Chain Reaction to see my friends in Means play. They of course headlined the show, so it was another late night. After their set, I did the Faces of Music portraits of Matt and Todd, their guitarist and bassist. I hung around for a little bit after that, but I needed sleep. I think I went to bed around 2am again.



I spent most of my day Tuesday May 13th kind of getting ready for my band's last show at Di Piazza's in Long Beach. We opened for Tipper's Gore and Social Circkle (from Boston). It was a fun show. There wasn't as many people as I thought there would be there, but it was still a good time. It was a sad thought knowing that we wouldn't be performing again. I am going to miss it. It was another late night. Tipper's Gore didn't even go on until 11:30pm. But it was well worth the lack of sleep.



I woke up early again on Wednesday May 14th to do another half-day at Hot Topic before meeting up with Damion Lloyd (a photographer I assist) to go shoot a banquet for ST Jude Hospital. The banquet seemed to go on forever. Damion and I both struggled to keep our eyes open. We got good shots non-the-less. The banquet ended well after 10pm and I still found a way to stay up well past midnight.

On Thursday May 15th, I had a full day at Hot Topic. I shot about 27 shirts and some posters. For my lunch break, I tried to take a nap in my car. Besides it being blistering hot and me feeling like I would blackout, I think I actually slept a little. I was looking forward to Thursday night because all I had was Bible study. I did almost fall asleep a couple of times, but it is always a good place to relax and focus on the Word and not on our busy schedules. Bible study ends around 9pm usually, but I again managed to stay up late.

I had to wake up extra early on Friday May 16th because I was assisting Damion with a shoot for Oakley. The call time was 7am. The plan was that I was going to work from 7am to noon with Damion and then from 1pm to 6pm at Hot Topic. Thankfully there wasn't much to do at Hot Topic, so I think I ended up leaving a little early. I spent the evening with my friends Matt, Casey and Jon. We ate at Pepe's and then chilled in the spa. Finally a restful evening! I did stay up past midnight again though.

I woke up to a knock on my door at 8am on Saturday May 17th. Matt (my roommate) and I were going to go to Steamers for breakfast. He told me they had good waffles, so I was craving them. We got there to find out they no longer make waffles, so I had to settle for a cheese bagel. It was good, but it ain't no waffles. After breakfast, I watched Dallas beat Detroit to force a game 6. Good game. Pretty much right after the game, I had to head out to Whittier. I shoot high school sports for Sanford Studios and somehow I got roped into helping out at a prom. I agreed because I was just going to assist and the dance was going to be on a boat cruising the Long Beach harbor! I had no idea how long of a day it would be. I got there at 3pm and didn't get back to the studio until midnight. It was a pretty fun gig, but I got stuck shooting candids, which gets kind of old when there are only 150 people. Never-the-less, it was a pretty easy job. So once again, it was a late night, but knowing that the following week would be a little slower brought a sigh of relief as I closed my eyes to finally get some sleep!