(Almost) Werewolf moon through snowy branches.

Ghost, Bonneville Salt Flats.

Ashley, Great Salt Lake.

* * * * *

Merry Christmas, y'all. Thanks to those who swing in from time to time.

* * * * *

Late night dog walk.

Until The Light Takes Us.

So much gnarlier than that Alice Cooper bullshit.

Happiness...

... is a clean Kimber.

Back, Version 2.0.

* * * * *

The longest stretch I've ever endured without a motorcycle was about 4 months. After 2 months I was starting to get pretty grumpy. By 3 months I was losing my desire to live. And around 4 months Heidi demanded that I go buy one or she was done. Heidi's a champ like that.

Anyway. My new (to me) 93 HD FXR is finally off the lift and ready to roll. Ready enough, anyway... still a lot more to come. Watch for more over on the Bolts chunk of interspace.

I should be able to focus on the rest of life a little better now that I've finally got my scene back in check... I'm back, bitches.

Sorry for the absence.

The Art Of Rebellion, Round 2.

* * * * *

I was recently invited to participate in Round 2 (Round 1, here) of Harley Davidson's "Art Of Rebellion" shows, featuring fellow photographer Adam Wright of Hauler fame, and artists Frank Kozik, Tara MacPherson, Brian Ewing, The Harpoon, Derek Hess, Lindsey Kuhn, The Pizz, John Van Hamersveld, Dirty Donny and Art Chantry.

Above is a video that Vice Magazine produced of the event. Check it out. If you hold out for 2 minutes or so, you can catch the 8 seconds of my drunken interview that made the cut.

Big thanks to Terry and the rest of the HD crew for another amazing opportunity to show with another crop of amazing artists.

El Masterpiece de los Renaissance.

* * * * *

Heidi and I are back from New York City. We did what we could for them... the rest is in their hands.

Full write up on the show, the shenanigans, and the degradation... (second)coming soon.

Saturday Night.

* * * * *

I'm about to hop a plane, so this is my last chance to remind y'all:

Last time was Santa Monica... this time, we're takin' The Apple.

New York City, Saturday Night.

Free beer.

Rad artists.

Photos by Adam Wright and myself.

Be there... I'm taking roll.

Pleasure.

*****

A while back I had the opportunity to shoot portraits of snowboarder Jeremy Jones for Pleasure Magazine out of Germany. This was my first shoot back to work after the accident. It was a long, late shoot, and none of the shots that we went out planning to get were happening - seemed to be gettin' shut down at every location I'd planned for one reason or another. But Jeremy's no rookie, and he knows what it takes to get the shot, so we pushed through and made it up as we went. I'm pretty stoked on what we got. The issue dropped in Europe yesterday, I believe. I don't know if it's possible to find an issue in the states, so here's your chance to break out the German-English dictionary and find out what the most progressive snowboarder alive had to say to the euros. Get into it. It always feels rad to see my shit in print... never gets old.

Action shots were handled by the guys who do that shit best --- Dean Blotto Gray, Andy Wright, Mark Welsh, and Pasi Salminen. Stoked to share space with those names, for sure.

Thanks, Jer.

R.I.P.

Irving Penn, dead at 92.

End Of An Error.

Geek out on that. I'm off to Portland...

Found the new scoot yesterday, via Craigslist. Hoppin' in a rented Dodge pick-'em-up in about 30 minutes... gonna drive 13 hours straight, hand over a little cash, load a bike, take a 5 hour nap in the cab, turn around and jam 13 hours straight back home...

It's been 2 months of broken-ism and bikeless-ness, but shit's about to turn.

I'll have pics for y'all as soon as I'm back... bike above is not the bike in question --- just a winner to keep y'all interested.

One Night Only:

One Night Only: October 17th.

Adam Wright and myself may not be on the poster... but I'll be there, hopefully Adam will be, and you should be, too.

Links:

The Artists

The Details

Nixon.

Super stoked to see that Nixon has dropped it's new campaign, and even more stoked to have contributed just a little bit of what I do to it. A rad campaign, several great photos of Nixon's groundbreaker personalities, and slick vintage inspired design. I'm super-diggin' it, and glad to have contributed in some small part.

(My photo is the blue motorcycle shot of Jeremy Jones - number 3 on the middle row. Thanks to the Nixon art team and to Mr. Jones for pimpin' my shit.)

Come Get Murder.

This, my friends, is Murder She Wrote.

Murder She Wrote needs a home.

We've had her for a little over a week now. She ran into Heidi's store several nights in a row, so Heidi finally just brought her home after checking with all the houses around the store. As best as I can tell, she's probably about 5-6 months old... not the tiniest of kittens any more, but she still has a lot of growing to do. She's super cuddly and super sweet, with beautiful markings and crazy blue eyes. She's still definitely a kitty in terms of play-time --- she'll chew your toes all night long, cause she's buck wild like that, and she climbs damn near everything, regardless of wether or not it'll actually hold her weight.

We already have 3 grumpy, grown-ass cats, and they really don't like having Murder around... so, she needs to come live with you.

We have an appointment to get her fixed on Friday, so that'll be taken care of. And she's litterbox trained... not a single accident since bringin' her in.

If you need a mega-cuddler in your life, let me know. Murder can't wait to move in with ya'. If you're a weirdo who does creepy things to kittens, don't bother... we really dig her, so we wanna make sure she ends up in a good home with someone who's gonna take care of her.

Attention, Ohio!

I damn near forgot to post this up...

Tonight, Coburn Gallery at Ashland University. In fact, the opening should be in full swing right about now...

Unfortunately, I'm not there - I'm exactly 1,724 miles away from this opening. So instead, I'll be having date night with my beautiful girl --- catching some fancy (for Utah County) dinner at The Blue Lemon, then jammin' over to see Halloween II. Dinner and a movie... you say cliche, I say classic.

Anyway, if there's any Ohio readers out there, run over, check the show, and shoot off a few snaps of the opening for me! In trade, I'll shoot you some stickers and a print!

Back In The Saddle.

Yup. I'm fuckin' back.

See the post below? That trip didn't start so well.

6 weeks of painkillers, antibiotics, the inability to work, sheer fucking boredom, and dealing with insurance agents.

All because I skimped out on changing some crunchy neck bearings and didn't drop the couple hundred dollars that I should have on a frame stabilizer. Fucking retarded. Don't skimp on your scoot --- if you wanna ride it fast, make sure that shit's up to the task. How dumb would it be to die because you didn't wanna drop a hunny on a new tire? Way dumb... that's how dumb.

Anyway, I'm back from the dead. This one makes me a zombie twice over.

Lots of cool shit on the horizon, so put my gimpy ass back on your radar.

And if you wanna know more about my blood, get over to the Bolts Action blog and dig back a page or two... plenty of shit on it over there. I'm done talkin' about it for a minute.

Locked, loaded.

It doesn't look like all that much, but it is. Fortunately, I only had to ride with the two boxes down to FedEx... the rest will fill up all space in the bagger. For weighing as much as it does, it really doesn't carry all that much. Or maybe that's relative... I usually have a Dodge Van full of shit when I'm going to "work".

This week's work? 7 or 8 grueling days of snowboard riding, motorcycle riding, skateboard riding, and the occasional camera riding at Mt. Hood.

Government Camp is just shy of 800 miles from where I'm sitting right now - this time tomorrow, I'll be sitting there.

3AM.

* * * * *

I can't seem to fall asleep anymore.

Eu De Toilette.

I was lined up to shoot 2 perfume ads for one of my regular clients.  But shit happened, ads fell through, and I scored the consolation prize of a lifey shoot and some beauty in the near future. 

I was a little bummed.  The ideas were flowin', and I was really amped on doing perfume.  

But then, while jammin' through Big Bear Lake, came Landman...  consider that itch scratched.

Trampolines.

Trampolines and infinite universes.  And unicorns.

Lay Zee.

Back from the Onward Westward tour for a few days now... just starting to scratch the surface of the images we got.  Here's one of me rollin' The Babysitter (AKA, The Garbage Wagon, AKA, The Lunch Tray, AKA... etc., etc., etc.) somewhere in the desert.  Rookie's 3/4, and Jer's the head out front.  I'm thinking I might need to dump a DVD player into that dash... that's a joke, of course.  But maybe not.

New Heart, New Heat.

Hello, New Friend.

God's Revolver.

I just walked in from the Bolts Action ONWARD WESTWARD jam... so much awesome, but you'll have to wait a minute for more...

But I wanted to jump in and let y'all know that my favorite rockers in my favorite band full of rockers were listed last week as MAGNET MAGAZINE'S BEST OF 2008: HARD ROCK... go read it, then buy their debut album.  It's on iTunes.  You fucking NEED it.

I met up with Little Jonny Larsen the night before I took off outta town, and he told me the news over a couple cigarettes and PBR's, then hooked me up with the early cuts of their new album, due out in a few months...

I jammed the album on the iPod for a few stretches of long and lonely desert highways, and, even though the cuts I got were super rough, some sans vocals even, I promise you this:  You will not be disappointed.  These kids fucking KILL IT, and they're about to box your ears with God's Dick.  

And you're going to thank them for it.

And, for those followers amongst you, yes... it's probably the image that I shot of them that pushed them over into Best Of 08 status.  Or maybe not... maybe it's just that they fucking rock.

Children.

How is it that I've never heard of this band

until now? And, is it possible that this is 

the greatest piece of digital nonsense ever 

committed to a RED's sensor?

Bolts.

The New.  

Myself and a crew of like-minded heathens have joined forces to bring you the ultimate in blogging... Bolts Action.  Join us as we fight the good fight to be free to ride our machines, without bein' hassled by the man.

We might even get loaded.

(Don't worry, The Blacklist will remain live and direct, but a lot of the moto content will be finding it's way over there... just add 'em both to your RSS-Bloggy-Reader-Whatever-It's-Called-Techy-Thing, and you'll be sure to never miss an episode)

9 Frames, 2 Days In Springfield, Illinois.

*****

What I've failed to show you are the insane temperatures, ridiculous humidity, rat-sized mosquitos, "The Horseshoe", and the aftermath of The Horseshoe.  Consider yourself lucky.

2 days in Springfield, Illinois.  Job went well, considering everything stacked against us; from the aforementioned temps, delayed flights, rental car mishaps, and the expectations of our subject being completely different from what the client actually needed.

Go West.

If you can make it, get there... go west.  Which reminds me of being 11 years old in a 1981 Toyota Corolla station wagon with my dad, my 2 brothers, and my German Shepherd, driving around Mexico for 3 weeks.  I had a walkman and a single cassette - Midnight Oil on one side, and The Pet Shop Boys on the other.  I haven't listened to either since, although my friend Jeffrey Lee had a period in high school where he got way into the Pet Shop Boys.  I should call him and give him some shit for that.

Pet Shop Boys, “Go West” from Filler Reference on Vimeo.

On A Completely Unrelated Note:

If anybody knows the logistics/how-to's/bullshit-dealings of getting me this bike imported from Japan, please let me know.  I need this in my life.  So out of character, but so perfect.

Ninja, defeated.

Heidi took her motorcycle rider's course over the weekend.  She was all over me all day yesterday to go out so she could show me what she learned.

So, this morning we went out for a little jam around the neighborhood.  She was right - she learned a lot... she's exactly 63.7% better than our first parking lot sessions a few weeks ago.

We rolled around for 30 minutes or so, then headed back home to get ready for the day.

Everything went fantastic until she was about 15 feet from our driveway...

And that's when our neighbor ran over her.  I watched the whole thing as I followed on the bagger, about 50 feet behind her... just slammed it in reverse, didn't look at all, and hooked right out of his driveway and right into my girl.

The Ninja's gonna be down for a minute, but Heidi's a trooper... not a scratch, not deterred from riding in the least.  In fact, she laughed it off while trying to comfort the dumbfuck who had just ran her over - he was crying like a little girl.  He's probably still crying.

Leaving Las Vegas.

*****

Every 6 months or so I have a "career crisis".  I swear that I'm going to finally get out of my longtime home of Utah and move to NYC or LA - to a bigger market, where I can get my work in front of more people and work without flying into a major city every time I shoot.

And then Utah throws days like today at me.

And I remember that this is my yard.

And I remember that plane tickets aren't really that expensive.

Calling All Level 7 Warlocks and 45 Year Old Man-Children:

Yesterday Sean and I ran over to the second Grim warehouse to snag a few photos of inventory.  While there, Sean showed me this gem that he'd unearthed while digging through the hundreds of tanks on his shelves... I guess it slipped past him in the initial move.  

Uhh-maze-ing.  

Someone actually spent a fair amount of time on this.  I've definitely seen worse airbrush jobs...

(And yes, of course we have a piano in warehouse number 2.  Because we're classy like that.)

Paint.

Progress from today's spare few minutes.

CUT+WASTE

If you're not familiar with Dustin Ortiz's work, you really should be.  Lucky for you, he's showing at Mode Boutique on Friday... get on it.

Paintin'.

I've wanted to try my hand at doin' some sort of captain-fancy-paint helmet for a while.  Today I finally pulled one out of the closet and started the process.  After wet sanding the clear off this old job, I kinda fell in love with the flat yellow... but I pressed on.  If I stopped here, I'd have only taught myself how to wet-sand clear coat.  And that's not the goal at all.

We'll see how this thing progresses...

Everybody Needs One.

The new (used) Ninja has been gettin' put through the paces, for sure... gotta know what she's capable of.  And, thanks to rigorous scientific research, we now know that she'll do at least 95 on the freeway before the fairing feels like it's gonna blow off; she will burnout; she'll lean pretty decent (although she needs fresh rubber before we'll really know exactly how low she'll go); and, given the proper coaxing, she will stand up.

Unfortunately, however, testing may have to cease for now.  After seeing the shots from Friday night's "research session", Heidi has informed me that neither Sean nor myself are allowed to ride her bike any more.

I think Sean and I are both thinking we might just need to get our own... for being a dirt-cheap 250cc twin, pushing around 28 horses, this scoot is fucking FUN.

Fuck Globally.

Heidi and I headed out and made one of our rare social appearances last night, this time at Murray Theater to see Gogol Bordello.  Despite the fact that it was an all ages show (meaning there was no scotch, whiskey or beer), it was probably one of the best live shows I've seen in a long time... none of that hipster, stand-and-act-like-you're-doing-the-crowd-a-favor bullshit... nope.  Full on energy for a solid two and a half hours.

Fantastic band, and their live show will leave you sweating.  If you're not yet a fan, check 'em out.  Sorry for the shitty pics... I didn't take a real camera, so this is the best the G9 would give me... but you get a shit quality video, too.  Watch it... wait til you get a good eyeball full of the rad, marching band style accoutrements, at least.  Genius.  The video was shot at the end of the initial hour-and-a-half set... the encore lasted another hour, easily.  Hella fun show... catch 'em if you ever can.

Gogol Bordello at Murray Theater... May 27, 2009. from Steven Stone on Vimeo.

Summertime Rolls.

A weekend full of motorcycles, barbecues with friends and family, very little work, and hangin' with my girl.  She loves me... I mean it's serious.

Got her started on learning to ride the Ninja, too.  She's doin' pretty well with it.  

And if you haven't already picked up on it, Jane's Addiction's "Nothing's Shocking" has absolutely been my soundtrack for the day.  Get into it.