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Anywhere But Brooklyn: Try Portland

Actually, I like Brooklyn. But my friends at Yoko Devereaux (very much an intrinsic part of the cool newly minted BELT area of South Williamsburg) have started a new blog devoted to fashion, cocktails, music, books, restaurants and bars, travel-all the finer things of life. They asked for some of the photos I wasn't able to use for my story on Portland, Oregon for OUT and I was happy to share.

One of my favorite things in Portland is the near perfect Ace Hotel-it's just the right mix of a casual, funky atmosphere offset with some extremely bold and inspired style choices. On the mezzanine overlooking the lobby the complete lyrics to Leonard Cohen's 'Suzanne" are printed on the wall right behind a filing cabinet (above), a remnant from when the building was a bank.

The cabinet is beautiful, but it's what has wound up in those drawers that is really magic. See what; after the jump.

Unsorted London

SO Not The Motorcycle Diaries

New blog chronicling the adventures of my two youngest brothers as they travel through Central America on motorcycles. Lest this seem entirely unoriginal (see blog title), please consider that they grew up on a sailboat, cruising through C.A. and stopping to attend schools along the way, and that this trip is to revisit spots from their childhood and sort out some kind of reckoning with that experience. Of course I wish them well, but I don’t think anyone would really want their kid brothers to do something as potentially dangerous as this without some reservations. But as Tennessee Williams would say, En avante, suckers!

The Third Life of 'room 103'

The photos I did in May with model Scott Wilson for reFRESH Magazine have had several lives. First they were used in a spread in reFRESH, then they had a second life on blogs like DudeTube and Beautiful, who crafted a whole new storyline with some exclusive shots I shared with them.

At the request of the Island House my designer co-hort Greg Needham and I went ahead and created a whole new layout and concept for room103keywest.com, and greatly expanded the original design. We also took 601 of the thousands of photos we shot and compressed them into this sexy little two minute and thirteen second film. We chose not to include any music but a fun little thing I like to do is to just manually synch the film up with something tasty; Prince’s ‘The Ballad of Dorothy Parker’ works nicely, as does Justin Timberlake’s ‘What Goes Around (Comes Around)'.

First Shots: Paris

Five days in Paris with no viable internet connection has actually been a relief from compulsively surfing for the latest twist in Foley's Folly and indulging my own online porn-tastic distractions from the more important task of making a real life. I’ve been busy on this shoot anyway so it’s been good to be unplugged. Here are some quick shots from the first part of the trip, though:

Wandering around-lost as usual-I came across a crowd of people flowing between stores and galleries on the Rue Portefoin. My French language shyness prevented me from finding out any details about the gathering but it was a lovely moment to find by chance.

I knew this triple image of JT on the cover of this French mag looked familiar. 'Sexy Back' is still in heavy, heavy rotation here.

And more to come.

Sunset People

It’s Sunset Junction here in L.A. this weekend. I’m rather looking forward to another dose of the surprisingly grungy (for L.A.), kind of sexy, very boozey live music street party that I remember from years past--something along these lines:

I’m thinking that’s the vibe for the Ashford and Simpson set Saturday night. More or less. Let's kick it off with a fearless and a touch mad Parker Posey calling up trouble in Party Girl.

Los Angeles First Shot