Today is the eighth birthday of this here blog, which is kind of incredible when you think about it. I certainly didn’t think this thing would last this long.

But this will be the last birthday I celebrate here. As much as I hate to admit it, I just don’t have time (or energy) to sit down and write like I used to.  Information Leafblower started as a music blog in based in NYC and then became a documentary about how my life fell apart and the steps I took to piece it all back together and eventually thrive here in Washington, D.C. It’s an incredible time capsule and I’ll keep it online and read it over every once in a while. I hope you will too.

A few favorite posts from off the top of my head:

Sea Ray saves music for me
My cat Jarvis dies and people leave me the most amazing comments
Going to Detroit for Grambo’s 30th bday & finally meeting the Whatevs crew
Bill Simmons is a big fan of the Leafblower
Naming Mr. Pink
I get Gilbert Arenas to rate his swag
Underworld at V Fest

Thanks to everyone that passed through my little corner of the interwebs these last 8 years. In the future I’ll still be posting regularly on my photo site as well as occasionally posting about Morrissey and the Celtics on my Tumblr. And there’s always Twitter and Facebook.

Cheers,

Leaf

(via)

Much better than the Beyonce version. (via)

Here’s a video preview of the iTunes LP for Beady Eye’s Different Gear, Still Speeding. It looks like “Man of Misery,” an unreleased Oasis track, will be available as a bonus track. I’m excited to hear a proper version of this song, but still find it funny no one has called Liam on this after he bagged on Noel for intending to use left over Oasis songs for his upcoming solo album. Let us not forget, “The Roller” is an Oasis track from Heathen Chemistry written by Gem.

Radiohead – Lotus Flower

The new album is available for purchase right now. Although I really like the above song, I am fairly underwhelmed by the album as a whole after one listen.

Young Prisms

I saw these guys open for The Radio Dept and I really liked their hazey/shoegazey sound. Their debut album, Friends For Now, is out now on Kanine Records.
See Also: Young Prisms | Daytrotter Session

No Joy

No Joy opened up the Best Coast / Wavves show last week at the 9:30 and were my favorite band on the bill. Be sure to check out their album Ghost Blonde.
See also: No Joy | Daytrotter Session

Braids

I saw Braids on Friday opening for Baths and was smitten by their sound, a cross between High Places quirky rhythms and Glasser’s vocals. Their debut album, Native Speaker, is out now, also on Kanine Records.
See also: Braids | Daytrotter Session

A few years ago when I shot Bruce Springsteen at the Verizon Center, I happened to strike up a conversation with the photog standing next to me. It was Linda Davidson from the Washington Post. She was incredibly nice and very gracious, offering me some career advice and just generally being very cool by answering any and all questions I threw her way. This went against most of my interactions with other photogs when I was on assignment for DCist. A majority of the photojournalists I tried to speak to looked down their nose at “bloggers.” Not Linda, she talked me ear off until the lights went down and Bruce strode on to the stage. I didn’t forget that.

Last year when I was covering the White House Correspondents Dinner for Washingtonian, there was a big kerfuffle at the door which kept many photogs from getting a good spot to shoot the red carpet arrivals. Linda got caught up in this and was one of the last people let in the door, meaning she had one of the worst vantage points to shoot from. I was standing in front of her on a stool much taller than hers, so I offered to switch stools with her so she could shoot over my shoulder and still get some front page material for the Post. She was very thankful and even sent an email that night (while she was editing photos on site!) to my assignment editors at the Post telling them what I had done and how big a help it had been for her.

Today word got out that she and fellow Postie Leila Fadel were arrested in Egypt while they were covering the demonstrations and political unrest. I sincerely hope they are OK and will be released soon. My thoughts are with them.

Concerts attended:
11

Tearsheets:
Lower Dens @ Kennedy Center
Yoro Ndiaye @ Kennedy Center
Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt @ The Birchmere
Two Door Cinema Club @ 9:30 Club
Dismemberment Plan @ Black Cat
The Concretes @ RnR Hotel
Ari Hest @ Barns at Wolf Trap
DMV Bounce Beat Awards @ D.C. Armory
Lissie @ 9:30 Club
Best Coast & Wavves @ 9:30 Club

Other:
Little Dragon @ Black Cat

Best show:
The DMV Bounce Beat Awards was unlike any show I have been to. It was a fascinating look  into the youth culture here in D.C. Chris Richards article can explain it much better than I can.

Total number of shows for 2011:
11

Very excited to see Little Dragon on Saturday at the Black Cat. Empire Ants, which is sung by Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano, was my favorite song on the last Gorillaz album. This LD track, My Step, has been on my heavy rotation on my iPhone.