[RH Photos] The Orwells at Schubas (6/20/2014)
Photos by AngieStar Photo
Rock and Roll: a term used time and time again amongst people of all ages. For my parents and their friends, its definition was once one of rebellion and even an edge for danger. The pelvic thrusts of Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger’s wild movement around the stage, the grunge tones of Nirvana: these were the performances that made the crowds move in a way that lead people to think of scandal. But as the years advanced, technology did as well, and electronic synthesizers began to take over such a genre filled with the beautiful lust of sin. My generation has grown up in a world where bass beats composed on a computer are looked upon higher than the strumming of a bass guitar. As a result, people don’t even know what to do at concerts anymore. The music may be excellent, but the performance doesn’t captivate. The problem with a lot of music today is the emphasis on the roll and much, much less on the rock.
The Orwells, however, seem to be brought together in some way in order to change that. This past Thursday, on June 19, the group of young performers from Elmhurst held a special release party for their sophomore album Disgraceland at Schuba’s Tavern in Chicago, IL. Winners of a contest held by WKQX Chicago populated the audience that eventually filled the entirety of the intimate venue, and many fans eagerly waited for these guys to come on.
The clock strikes 8 and an impatient audience finally gets what they’re waiting for. After a brief introduction from the radio station, The Orwells took the stage, with lead singer Mario Cuomo quickly congratulating the crowd on their radio contest victories then switching into his signature, almost hypnotic, performance. The group rocked a few songs as the crowd jumped around a bit, but it wasn’t enough for Cuomo. “Man, they were right when they said that people who listen to the radio don’t know how to move, just driving in their cars all of the time,” said the lead singer as he feigned the action of driving a car. With every imaginary turn to the right or left, the crowd became more and more entranced into the mosh-movement that The Orwells are known for (even shutting them down at Bonnaroo this previous weekend). The collaboration of the band's steady rise into the rhythm of the next song and Mario's insanity was enough for the guys to take control.
The crowd from here on out grew with rowdiness with each and every note that the band would send out. Alternating from songs on their first album Remember When and those from their latest, the group had no reason to question that the crowd was loving every second of it. The placement of a thong from a fan on a face and the rolling around on the stage floor may seem like oddball antics for a singer, but they actually just are the usual for Cuomo. However, a pretty blonde in the front row managed to make this blonde maned wild child calm down for a few beats, and a lot of time was spent flirting with her from the stage. Despite a few heart breaks from other eager females who stood beside this lucky lady, this interaction, I think, added some great entertainment for everyone in the crowd. No performer disappointed, but I must say that Matt O’Keefe’s performance caught my attention more than maybe it was intended to. His guitar skills were mature in every essence, and it was as if every beat was becoming a part of his blood flow. Most people would think having a wild performer like Mario would cause some problems, but the band doesn’t seem to mind the diverted attention.
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. The final notes were played out, and the band members put down their instruments to exit off the stage and back out onto the street. Before they even left the stage completely, the demand for an encore was chanted out by the crowd. As O’Keefe, Corso, and the Brinners took over the stage, a switch was done. What at first appeared to be Mario in a t-shirt change and straighter hair was revealed to be his own brother. A moment of confusion ensued for the crowd as this seemingly identical man walked around with the other band members when Mario himself entered with another twist. Being carried with him upon the stage was a young woman dressed in black lingerie and her legs wrapped around his waist. If I’m not mistaken, this is the same young lady who was featured in their “Dirty Sheets” music video. Regardless, the audience went NUTS as she began to move and grind up on him for a minute. The girl departed as the band began to play "Cheap Beer" by Fidlar, a band they opened for last fall. A few middle fingers later, the song was concluded, and the guys officially exited for the evening.
It’s truly hard to explain the atmosphere that The Orwells bring with each and every performance. There is an electricity that spreads from the stage to the back of the room; a shock that I hardly ever feel when I see performers live. Seeing their set back at Lollapalooza in 2013, I knew that these guys were going to lead to something absolutely incredible, and their rise since then has only been on a sharp incline. If you don’t come out from one of their shows looking like a battered man or woman, then you obviously Orwelled wrong. Rock and roll should always feel like this wild, vicious animal that your parents would never want to approve of, and it’s refreshing that they can understand that.
[RH Photos] X Games Austin 2014 Recap
Photos by Virgil Solis Last week, the X Games kicked off their Summer competition in their new home of Austin, Texas. The event started Thursday evening with a skate demo right in the middle of downtown Austin with the Capitol Building as the backdrop with Friday representing the full day of X Games action. Lizzy B and I headed out to the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) late afternoon on Friday while the Texas heat was already at 90 degrees to collect our press badges and get our bearings at the festival-like camp grounds. As we walked through the massive track and amphitheater, we headed to the Moto X WHIP competition. Tom Parons, who eventually takes the gold, lets the crowd and X Games fans know that he had a broken leg and, up until a few days prior, wasn't going to compete. After a short break of walking the ground, we made our way over to the Skate Big Air competition. The massive drop/ramp dwarfed everything around it. Legendary skater Bob Burnquist was one of the competitors alongside Rony Gomes, Edgard Pereira, 13-year-old Trey Wood, and 14-year-old Tom Schaar. Placing in second, Burnquist celebrated with Tom Schaar as he took the gold that evening. Events started earlier on Saturday, and the heat felt like 100 degrees all day. We hit the Skate Park finals as Pedro Barros, Grant Taylor, and Aaron Homoki won the medals for that competition. We took a break from the heat and hydrated before we headed over to the Moto X Speed & Style final. After watching some high flying Moto X skills, Lizzy B and I took another break from the unbearable heat and sun. Only other photographers can sympathize with how it feels to carry gear in brutal, 95 degree Texas heat all day. As Lizzy B and I separated to make a food run, things took a sudden turn. Apparently, after some security breach and demands from the music headliner Kanye West, many of the areas press and others had access to were closed, pretty much creating chaos and confusion in many parts of the park. At this point, as I tried to make it back to Lizzy, I wasn't able to do so as security told me I was no longer allowed in an area where I had been a few minutes prior. After a few hours of confusion and many people at the stadium not knowing what was really going on, things began to clear up. By this point, music acts Mac Miller and Kanye West were gearing up to come on. Both Mac and Kanye rocked the stage, playing good sets that made the Games crowd happy. After an exhausting day, we called it in halfway through Kanye's set as getting some rest for Sunday became a priority. Sunday was a whole different tune compared to Saturday. The day was overcast with a breeze as we headed straight to the BMX Park final competition. With great runs from Daniel Sandoval and Drew Bezanson, local Austinite Chase Hawk took the gold with a great run on the course. One of the events many people were excited for was the new Stadium SUPER Trucks Finals. 19-year-old Apdaly Lopez from Mexico took the gold as he held the lead the majority of this race. With a few crashes and one that stopped the race for more than 20 minutes, the Stadium SUPER Trucks quickly became a fan favorite. Due to some strong winds, a couple Moto X competitions and demos were canceled; instead the COTA crowd made their way to the Street Skate finals. With a huge crowd looking on, Nyjah Huston, Luan Oliveira, Alec Majerus, Ryan Sheckler, Chaz Ortiz, and more skated for the gold. Huston ended up being triumphant, taking the gold in the last competition of the Games. Looking back on the weekend, X Games Austin was great. Despite a few bumps in the road, it was an amazing experience, and I was happy to be able to shoot some photos of some amazing athletes. Check out the full results of all the competitions here and a ton of my photos below. Also, check out the RH Instagram for videos and more photo coverage from the weekend.
[Through My Lens] A Journey Through the Coast of Big Sur
Photos by AngieStar Photo
The USA Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) is perhaps America's most dramatic scenic drive. And along this coast is a region called Big Sur that lies along the Central Coast of California, and renowned as one of the best of scenics drives in the whole world. As someone who has road tripped through a good portion of the country already, I made it my mission to take a journey through the coast of Big Sur to see for myself.
I started my drive from Los Angeles just before sunrise, so I would have perfect daylight by the time I reached Big Sur. Immediately, I was taken into the high coastal cliffs, following each twist and turn there is along the Pacific Ocean. With the perfect California breeze into my open windows of the car, while listening to a perfectly timed music playlist, I was awestruck. And just when I thought scenery couldn't get any more amazing, I found myself in Big Sur. To me, the area is more of an experience than a tangible place. There are no stop lights, or shopping centers, just 90 miles of driving along a narrow two-lane highway with breathtaking view points and campsites. The wildlife is a whole other aspect of Big Sur as one of your first stops is on the beach at Piedras Blancas in southern Big Sur near San Simeon to see hundreds on Elephant Seals in their natural habitat. Then with the abundance it birds and forest animals, every one of your senses are heightened with all the combined elements of life.
Here are some of the photos I captured, and what makes me want to back. If anything is taken from this, it should be to take a trip to Big Sur; it's worth it.
Came to the Balkans for the Music, Stayed for the Flooding
Photos by Aleksandra Pavlovic
I left to study abroad in Madrid on May 15th with the original intent of attending the MAD music festival in Belgrade, Serbia and visiting family before flying back home to Chicago. What I was completely unaware of was that instead of attending the music festival, I would be a first-hand witness to a natural disaster that hasn’t happened in Serbia or in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the beginning of modern record keeping. The floods in the Balkan region began on May 16th and are still destroying parts of Serbia today more than 96 hours later.
I could enumerate many of the horrid aspects of the flood straightforwardly: out of five pumps being used to try and manage the Drina, the flooding river in my small town of Bijeljina, three pumps were defective and two were working at half-capacity. The electricity in Bijeljina was shot on the 16th, long before the water had reached a height of three meters. Thousands from cities and villages nearby have had to evacuate their homes, while some of their hometowns are currently portrayed as having “disappeared” by the media.
What is much more difficult to communicate, however, is the silence that makes the entire tragedy proliferate in its apocolypticality. When an emergency situation happens in Chicago, help can be guaranteed at the most within the hour. In Bijeljina, while waters were swiftly rising, the assistance was as bleak as it could get. In my part of town, there was absolutely no form of communication available; after the batteries from our cellphones gave out, we received updates by standing on our patio and asking our neighbors questions, despite most of them knowing as little about what was going on as we did. When the flooding became heavier, I watched one canoe pass by and waited for others, only for none to come. I waited for the sounds of a helicopter to fly overhead, but didn’t hear any. My uncle laughed at me when I told him the assistance I was anticipating, because “We’re not in Chicago. This isn’t America.” After asking my aunt how we were planning on evacuating if need be, looking down from our patio she told me that once the waters swallowed our car, we would find a boat and row to the safest city. Keeping the absence of boats in mind, I translated her words as “grab a sturdy surface, jump, and hope for the best.”
I am dumbstruck at how lucky my family and I were that the Drina pulled back and that we came out of this tragedy unharmed. One villager from an affected area nearby described the moment he was loading a tractor in an attempt to rescue his cattle, saying, “I had to choose between our calves and our pigs. The pigs were standing by in dead silence, as if they were about to burst into tears.” The loss has been tragic on a monumental scale, and my hopes are that rescue efforts in areas still suffering are multiplying rapidly, saving the lives of those looking ahead at an unforeseeable future.
I managed to take the photos below in Bijeljina with my iPhone before its battery went out. They capture the Drina and public efforts to contain it in its early stages of flooding and the predominant areas where my family communicated with neighbors, searched for signs of aid and came up with options for evacuation. Considering that other towns are still awaiting their first or even next flood wave to hit, it’s safe to say that Bijeljina had it very lucky, despite the tragic and outstanding damages, both psychological and material.
Hauntingly Beautiful Portraits of Homeless by Lee Jeffries
Photos by Lee Jeffries
Miami, FL... home to so many people with a "rags to riches" story. Yet when Photographer Lee Jeffries traveled there, he quickly found the opposite. After spending so many years devoting much of his time to capture hauntingly beautiful portraits of homeless individuals, who are often overlooked across the globe, he found "riches to rags" narratives instead. Jeffries has made it his personal mission to attach epidemics of poverty and addiction to the human face, and the result is astounding.
The following set of photos stems from his last trip to Miami. It's here where he met Margo Stevens, a former adult film star now living in Overtown, one of the city's more dangerous neighborhoods. Jeffries took the time to get to know this woman for 2 weeks before capturing her photo. Her story "hit him hard", and you can see that in the vibe of the portrait he shot of her. This first subject led him to shoot a few more portraits of homeless or drug addicts in the area, and with the beauty of black and white photography, he captured the essence of each individual effortlessly.
As Jeffries travels around the world, snapping shots of homeless individuals and gathering their heartfelt portraits, he uses the profits he receives for these, and puts it towards charities devoted to homelessness. If you're interested in supporting this cause the photographer suggests donating to the Miami Rescue Mission.
Check out the following photos and find more of his work here, also be sure to follow him on Facebook.
[Via Huffington Post]
[RH Photos] C2E2 2014 Cosplay
There's something about comic book conventions that have always held a special place in my heart. Whether you're a fan of comics, toys, anime, films, video games, or just people in general, comic book conventions will have something for you. Cosplaying itself is its own entity, with some costumes that are sometimes better than "official" costumes to rag tag, last minute clothes hastily put together. At this year's Chicago Comic and Electronic Expo (C2E2), some creative and well thought out costumes were on display. You can find a short, short selection of photos from this year's convention below. Photos were taken by yours truly and my dear friend Sal Hernandez.
[RH Photos] Vampire Weekend at Stubbs in Austin (4/24/14)
Photos by Tim Fraga
Last week, New York's Vampire Weekend hit Austin for back-to-back sold out shows in Stubb's backyard. The first time I had seen Vampire Weekend perform live was last year during ACL 2013. It might have been the beer or the rotation of joints being passed around that had me in such a good mood, but vibing out to Vampire Weekend perform to a massive crowd in Zilker Park couldn't have been any better. When I heard I would be able to see them in a smaller setting like Stubb's, I was pretty excited to get back to that happy place. Unfortunately, due to some last minute change of plans, I wasn't able to attend the show. Lucky for us, however, we have photos from Tim Fraga to gives us a glimpse of what went on.
[Through My Lens] Femme Marinett
Photos by AngieStar Photo
In inspiration of the infamous literary archetype "femme fatale", a mysterious and sultry woman who charms her lovers into compromising or dangerous situations, we created a seductive photo set I've titled Femme Marinett. In collaboration with talented make up artist Marie Antoinette, and our ever so seductive model Marinett Santiago, we went with a dark yet sexy wardrobe, and shot at an unlikely setting, behind a rehabbed old warehouse, to bring together the whole look.
In editing, I went even further and slightly unsaturated the photos, to emphasize a dark and mysterious vibe to Marinett's sexy and seductive appeal. All in all, the fully feminine collaboration proved a success and the photos are just as alluring as the character inspiration. Take a look at the following photos from our fun and very sensuous photo shoot, and find more here. Also be sure to check out my page on Facebook as we will be collaborating again very soon.
