SHUT UP STELLA WEBISODE #3

Just wait til the real tv show...you all are going to love it and you can say you knew the girls when... :)

I CRASHED THE BMI MUSIC AWARDS

Well sort of. Last week Gary and I tagged along with Kara DioGuardi to the BMI Music Awards with our cameras...just for the hell of it really.

We rode along in the limo with all of the girls from Art House Entertainment...they were having such a good time playing jokes on Stephen, Kara's business partner. At one point they called him to say that Kara had too much to drink and that the limo had to pull over for her to throw up. He totally didn't buy it but it got some good laughs.

The awards were held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire a.k.a. the "Pretty Woman" hotel. Recognize the lobby? :)

I saw my girl Lisa Loeb in the press line.

Here she is doing one of the poses I taught her...arms away from the body!

Here is Kara being interviewed for E!

And running into the beautiful Kat McPhee

Gary and I both agreed that she should just give up music and be a movie star instead, just so stunning.

I'm not sure why but Jesse Metcalf from Desperate Housewives was there...and super cute!

Jesse w/ the president of BMI and some other guys...I obviously didn't belong there since I didn't know who anyone was :)

Me & Gary, photo by Lisa Loeb...notice anything new?

At this point, everyone started moving into the ballroom for the awards themselves. Gary and I were about to leave but then Kara caught us and dragged us in and sat us down at a table with everyone from Art House. We sat there and drank wine and ate filet as if we had actually been invited. No one seemed to care so we stayed for the whole thing. I was not allowed to have my camera in there but no kicked me out.
The Foo Fighters winning an award

Kara receiving an award for a Bo Bice song

She received 3 awards that night. Yay Kara!

KAY HANLEY LIVE AT THE KEY CLUB

Last night we went to see Kay and Michael play a gig at the Key Club in West Hollywood. It was so much fun, the Shut Up Stella girls were there and Fan even went up to perform a song with Kay. It's so amazing to see them play live since it's a pretty rare occurrence these days but it does take me back to the early/mid-nineties when I used to go with all of my friends to see Letters to Cleo play at the 9:30 club and other D.C. venues. Of course I was underage then and it was always on a school night. The Fairfax girls remember those times, don't you ladies? Who remembers Erin almost killing us on the way home by entering the beltway via the exit ramp? Yeah, that is burned into my memory forever...I think that's my only real memory of Erin screaming at anyone.
The one and only Kay Hanley

USA Mike, Guitar God

SHUT UP STELLA WEBISODE #2

Here is the 2nd webisode, enjoy!

DINOSAUR JR.

Boy to I have some blogging up to do so here I go. Last Sunday night Gary and I went to the Troubadour to see Dinosaur Jr. play. Now that is a LOUD show if I ever heard one. Even with earplugs in all night I still thought I might go deaf. They sounded fantastic though and I don't think I've suffered from any permanent hearing loss so far so that's good. I was lucky enough to be allowed to bring my camera in to grab some pictures...but it was hard! I'll tell you what, I don't envy photographers who actually try to make a living doing this sort of thing. The light on stage is constantly changing. Some moments it's black, other times multiple colors, some highlights blow out...like long, platinum hair :) and everyone is moving a lot so it's almost impossible to focus when you're shooting at f 1.2. Also, there was no way I was going to make my way up to the stage among the fans so I found a little tiny nook up on the balcony. I think I even made some enemies up there. Anyway, I did manage to grab a few shots and here they are.

SHUT UP STELLA

Last night I went to King King in Hollywood for a performance by Shut Up Stella as they shot for the MTV pilot that has been going on for the past week or two. Here are a few images of the girls performing.

Kristen

Fan

Jessie

KARA'S WEBSITE

Today I got an email from Art House Entertainment. It seems that Kara is going to be recieving some awards from BMI next week and they needed a picture for various PR purposes so I sent one over from our recent shoot. They are also up on her website. www.karadioguardi.com. Yay!

KAY HANLEY, TIGGER & POOH

Hey everyone, check on my amazing rock star sister-in-law, Kay singing the theme song to "Tigger & Pooh". I missed this shoot but Gary went and said it was amazing...he thought he had stumbled onto the set of a movie. I was so sorry to have missed all the madness. Hope you enjoy!

A DAY WITH KARA DIOGUARDI

On Friday, Gary, Kaylyn, Chris and I (on official Sixteen Blue business) went over to Kara's house up in the Hollywood Hills to shoot the open of a show they are working on about her life. Kara is an incredibly talented singer and songwriter and although she has one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard, she chose instead to make her mark by writing hit songs for other people...like Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Hillary Duff, Katherine McPhee and tons of others. She was on the cover of People Magazine last year but she would never actually tell you that but I took this picture of a poster her dad had made from it.

This is Kara being really embarassed by some old home movies we got to see. I think this one is going to end up as another one of dad's posters for the office. :)

We spent the first hour or so playing with Stephen's new puppy, Kirby. Stephen is Kara's business partner in their publishing company, Art House Entertainment. www.arthouseentertainment.com


Some headshots...



Writing...

And from the back seat of the car on our way to the studio...


After a few hours at the house, we headed over to meet Nick Lachey and Mitch who were working on some songs with Kara.






Kaylyn and I actually managed to get locked in the building somehow but in separate areas. She was stuck inside the parking lot while I was trapped on the upstairs balcony. Luckily Mitch came to our rescue to let us out. Thanks Mitch!

THE DAN BAND

Okay, does anyone remember the wedding scene in Old School where Will Ferrell is dancing with his bride to 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' and the song starts to get a little...inappropriate? Yeah, well that was The Dan Band and that's who I saw play tonight at The Avalon in Hollywood. It had to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. These guys perform their own "versions" of womens' rock and pop songs from the 80's and 90's. Trust me and see them if they're ever in your area. Here is a video to jog your memory of the scene from Old School.

SHUT UP STELLA - WEBISODE #1

The first webisode that Gary and Sixteen Blue did for Sony went up on YouTube this morning. 11 more to come so check it out...and note the really cool SixteenBlue logo at the end, courtesy of http://www.logoworks.com. They did my logo also.

ALANIS IS BACK...

This evening I got to celebrate my first Passover dinner over at Janet's house. I had no idea what I had been missing but we had such a blast. At some point in the evening, my sister-in-law Kay brought up this thing she had seen on perezhilton.com. Alanis Morissette made a little low budget music video to her own "Alanis-style" version of "My Humps." It's so funny because it has got to be the dumbest song I've ever heard and seeing her writhing around in hoochie clothes singing in her signature mellow style is such a riot. Enjoy!

TRINIDAD WEDDING

Last night I finished designing the wedding album for Amit & Gillian, whose wedding I shot in Trinidad last September. For those of you who don't know where Trinidad (& Tobago) is, (which I didn't), it is just off the northern coast of South America, near Aruba. Amit and Gillian are both doctors with practices in D.C. Gillian is originally from Trinidad so they opted to have a destination wedding there. I was thrilled at the opportunity to go somewhere completely new to me and Gary came along with me to help (which I desperately needed) and to have a little vacation. The wedding was wonderful and all of the guests were great to be around. We participated in many of the pre-wedding activities like a float through a bird sanctuary, a day cruise, a bus tour through Trinidad etc.

The one thing that we didn't plan for was the fact that Gary and I were going to be sharing clothes for the week. This was because my luggage never made it there...ever. Not for the 5 days we were there. Luckily, I had all of my camera equipment since I had carried it on the plane. But no clothes, no makeup, no products, no nothing. And to add insult to injury, our trip coincided with Trinidad's Independence Day, a national holiday so all of the stores were closed. When I finally managed to make it to a mall, I found that the style in Trinidad is well, a little bit "hoochy"...as in I had trouble finding clothes that did not bare my midriff and other body parts. :) I did finally get to pick my luggage up on the way back home so luckily it was not gone forever but I did get to cross-dress for several days and go au natural on the makeup.

Here are some images:

The bus tour...
me and Gary on the bus



These kids really enjoyed being photographed

Somebody is in trouble

Lots of people in Trinidad like to wave at the camera


Floating through the bird sanctuary...

There were lots of big snakes in the trees...more snakes than birds at this point.


This was where it got exciting. A big tree had fallen across the river and blocked the path of the boat. Everyone thought we would have to turn around. Our guide thought he would plow right through until the tree started to come up over the front of the boat. Then he decided to get out his trusty machete and he hacked right through the thing!


The Day Cruise...
Gary with the video camera...all of our traumas on this trip were caught on camera


Some decided to go for a swim (I had no bathing suit since I had no luggage)

I was obsessed with this baby


Gillian & Amit "officially" got married in a small ceremony on Saturday, the real wedding was on Sunday






Here are the layouts for their album:
(my clients select their favorite images and I do the design from those)