Circling the Drains

...

2011-07-10T03:13:00.000-07:00

circlingthedrains.tumblr.com

crookedpickles.tumblr.com

Few More...

2011-04-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

photos from last weekends Ciclavia event:

We got to the bike district a bit too early for Scoops and Orange 20.

Ciclavia

2011-04-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

Couldn't have asked for a nicer day to take part in this event. Had tons of fun riding, checking out that band at MacArthur park, watching tiny kids play dodgeball with adults who held nothing back, and just seeing all the different types of people who came out to enjoy it together. And i hope that all the people i saw wreck on their bikes are ok, though i saw some gnarly ones.

Holga X-process

2011-03-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I have so many pictures of trees...I'm blowing it.CicLAvia is on April 10th! I didn't go to the one last October for stupid reasons, but I hope to go next month.

Los Angeles

2011-03-10T15:37:00.000-08:00

110 fwy as seen from Griffith Park.

Skull...

2011-03-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

in my garage.Shit, i REALLY need to clean the scanner...

Downtown Los Angeles

2011-03-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

Out of focus...i am blowing it.

Smokestacks

2011-03-01T02:19:00.000-08:00

I had "Smokestack Lightning" in my head as I was posting this!

Ghost Town

2011-02-24T14:32:00.000-08:00

Rainy Sunday afternoon in downtown LA.

Pasadena City Hall

2011-02-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

Man, I gotta clean our scanner...

Under the Bridge

2011-02-21T04:38:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles.

Keep Out

2011-02-17T07:52:00.000-08:00

Tree

2011-02-15T02:03:00.000-08:00

Outskirts of LA, Nikon FM2N:

"Stick the Holga

2011-02-13T04:24:00.000-08:00

out the driver's side window" shots:
Downtown Los Angeles

Angelino Heights, Los Angeles

2011-02-12T03:56:00.000-08:00

I would like to go back and shoot color film sometime soon. Beautiful homes, but I wonder if it bothers the residents that people just parade up and down the street taking photos of their homes all day every day.

Love it or don't...

2011-02-10T02:16:00.000-08:00

Taken in East LA.
Mike

Washington Park

2011-01-18T09:12:00.000-08:00

This is the restroom. I remember that right after I took this, i felt like such a creep for hanging around in this area with my camera out:looking for trolls:

I Love Sharks

2011-01-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

I don't know the name of the park this was taken at, but it's in Montclair, next to the skatepark that's next door to the police station.

Resolutions...

2011-01-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

Mine this year are to bike and skate ALOT more, and to take more photographs, and to stop eating like a wombat.

Don't Park...

2010-12-25T18:36:00.000-08:00

your truck in La Puente, or this will happen to it:
mike

Cold Ass Days

2010-11-28T21:32:00.000-08:00

Rode and froze our asses off in the daytime!!!

Still, I'd rather freeze than sweat my ass off.

...

2010-11-18T15:57:00.000-08:00

grocery shoppingHail Satan!
mike

Bike details

2010-11-16T13:29:00.000-08:00

Somebody got a nice bike...
Older bikes had some nice logos etched into the metal:
I've posted this one before (By the way, this one was shot on film):
My Brooks:
mike

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

Cross Processing

2010-10-21T17:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when i have slide film cross processed, i get weird mixed results. I took these with a Holga:

Fuji Velvia 100. I got this red tint on every image. I kinda liked it though, but i wasn't expecting it.
Fuji Provia 100. I am always satisfied with the colors I get with this film. I like the bluish/greenish tint it gives:
This is some kind of regular c-41 120 Kodak film:
From a different roll of Fuji Velvia 100, and it still has that weird pinkish red tint:
Mike

Trees

2010-10-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

I thought I had already posted these, but then I noticed that the post I was thinking of had Holga photos. I don't know why I take tree photos like this so much. I'm blowing it...

Too much sky in this one, I think:
Mike

SF Holga Photos

2010-10-14T16:33:00.000-07:00

@ GG Park.
Jenn's in there if you look hard enough:

I think this place moved around the corner. One of my favorite places to eat!
Mike

Nature's Nectar

2010-10-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

Chinatown, LA

2010-09-19T18:57:00.001-07:00

mike

Cal Tech

2010-09-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

I wonder if any Cal Tech nerd's ever fallen into this pond-thing:
There are solar panels above this parking structure:
Mike

Pushead

2010-09-05T04:45:00.000-07:00

I think the first time I ever saw Pushead's art was in Thrasher Magazine sometime in the mid 80's. There would be ads for his fan club, his band SEPTIC DEATH's releases, and he had his PusZone column that would always include an illustration, a weird, twisted story, and reviews for global hardcore music that I would then scour Thrash Records in Monrovia for. I still love his stuff.
These photos are of illustrations included in Sparrow #15, which was released earlier this year.

Mike

Monterey Bay

2010-08-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Went to the aquarium:

This was outside. Looks like a foundation for a building that was once there:
Saw alot of sardine related restaurants. I didn't know people still ate that shit:
Mike

Beams

2010-08-21T03:46:00.000-07:00

mike

SF

2010-08-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

Alot of buildings here have awesome murals on 'em.Saw this behind the mission:
Lots of cool stuff on this street:

The fog was coming:
The Mission, shot from Dolores Park:
Ike's!!!

mike

Under Bridges

2010-08-18T02:27:00.000-07:00

These were taken in San Luis Obispo. There is a path you can walk/bike on that runs along this stream next to the mission.

The library.
I thought this was pretty funny:
Mike

More Lethal Stuff

2010-08-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd try being adventurous:Had the one on the right. It's called La Chouffe, from Belgium. Didn't like it, though:
Heart clogging goodness:
Definitely coming back!
By the way, WHAT is everyone's fascination with PBR? Why not Bud, Coors, or Olympia? They're all shit, what's the difference? I've heard people say it's because it's cheap. Get a better paying job.

Mike

Tires Up a Pole

2010-08-07T03:55:00.000-07:00

I threw a total of about five tires up onto this light outside my house, but one day I looked up and three of them were gone. I wonder how they got them down...
Mike

Nice Riding Weather

2010-07-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

Rode my bike to get some good stuff:

If i keep eating and drinking this stuff, I am gonna lose a foot before i turn 40:

Someone in Temple City is a fan of the HUNDREDS:

This Is Suicide!

2010-07-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

Got this from a truck in Silverlake. Awesome hot dog wrapped in bacon with cheese, onions, and jalapenos:

Pastrami, hot dog, chili, cheese burrito...fucking death wish!

Some Old Photos...

2010-07-11T19:39:00.000-07:00

Been piling out because of the World Cup. Not very happy with the final result. Here's some old pics because i've been too much of a pile this last month to have gone out and used a camera.

THE VICTIMS @ Zen Sushi, 2006:
THE NUMBERS @ Al's Bar, 1999:THE STITCHES @ The Garage, 2002:
AGNOSTIC FRONT @ The Martini Lounge, 1999:
U.S. BOMBS @ the Troubadour, 2001:
25 'TA LIFE @ The Showcase Theater, San Diego, 1998:
CRUCIAL SECTION from Japan in Montebello. This show was awesome, security told them they had to play on the stage, but they played on the floor w/ the crowd:
Records:
The end of the world cup reminds me of the final scenes in the movie "The Cable Guy" when Chip Douglas falls onto that satellite and kills the tv signal right as the verdict for that trial was about to be read, and people start picking up books, going outside, and just getting off their asses and doing shit. Now I'm gonna ride my bike more, skate, take photos, do laundry...

Mike

Legg Lake at Dusk

2010-06-08T13:31:00.001-07:00

Mike

The Circus...

2010-06-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

was in El Monte a couple months ago. Apparently all the way from Guadalajara, Mexico.Why are there always Jehova's Witnesses at laundromats?

Mike

Buildings

2010-05-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

Weird angle:Sniper's fantasy:
Mike

Couple of SF Leftovers

2010-05-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

This was at GG Park. This was cool because it looked old:Coit Tower. We parked on the street way down by where the Levi's hq is, put an hour's worth of quarters into the parking meter, and ran up who the f knows how many flights of stairs to get up here, then ran down to try to make it back before we ran out of time. My legs felt like jello for the remainder of our stay in SF.
Mike

Devil's Gate

2010-05-18T14:20:00.001-07:00

This is just north of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena:I always assumed you could walk down those stairs and go exploring down there, but everything's fenced & locked.
Saw this on the walk back to the car. Bless those horny teenagers. Click to enlarge to see what I am talking about!
Mike

Bridge

2010-05-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

This is in Pasadena, in a park off Washington Blvd.Mike

Wildlife

2010-05-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

Well, not really. GG Park, San Francisco.MIke

Fog

2010-05-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

Found this old picture. Don't remember what kind of film it was, just that I took it with my Holga. Long exposure, zero-dark-thirty in the morning.Mike

Legg Lake

2010-05-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

My dad would take us to this park to ride our bikes on the dirt trail when we were kids. It's a cool place, just watch out for all the duck shit.
Mike

Horse/cock

2010-05-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

The rooster has a thought bubble above it that says "Eat More Beef". Pasadena.
Mike

Trees

2010-04-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hey, this one looks like the one above, but in b&W!!!
I thought this looked pretty cool:
Mike

SLAYER

2010-04-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

Still listen to this pretty regularly. When my friends & I first heard this, we were blown away, not by how fast it was, but more because of how blasphemous this song seemed to us at the time. It cracks me up now, but I remember thinking we were some hotshit devil worshippers in junior high because of this album.
By the way, "Reign In Blood" is still one of the best albums ever. Blows away anything METALLICA, ANTHRAX, or MEGADETH ever put out.

Mike

Temple City

2010-04-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

Took this at the Camelia Festival thing they have there. Lots of weird carnies hanging around.Mike

Blowin' It

2010-04-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

I always take photos from way too far away.

mike

Train Graffiti

2010-04-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

Some surly looking workers at the factory behind this car asked me what the hell I was taking pictures of. I just smiled and waved, took these pictures, and got out of there.
Mike

Look Up!

2010-04-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

El Monte water tower off Arden Dr. When I was in elementary school and junior high we'd always hear stories about how somebody's brother, cousin, or friend went up this tower to do whatever and they fell off to their death. This was taken in the shithole known as Old Town Puente.
Mike

San Francisco

2010-04-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

Outside the japanese mall. Nice fucking chem trail, assholes!Downtown SF, taken from the car while looking for parking. Didn't find it.
On Dolores, across the street from the mission.
Mike

Some Factory...

2010-03-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

just north of the "Big Hazard" neighborhood in East LA. Some sketchy people passed by in cars and on a bike when we were taking pictures. I'm sure it was just my paranoia.

mike

Mural

2010-03-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

This is in East LA, on the side of a hardware store.
Mike

Pomona, CA

2010-03-09T10:50:00.000-08:00

This is in that "old town" or arts colony part...whatever the fuck they call that area.

Mike

Evergreen Cemetery

2010-03-04T08:52:00.000-08:00

The first time I went to check this place out, there were two gnarly looking gangsters walking around with a pitbull that might've been on steroids.
This chapel had a kicked in back door. People probably go in there to party.
Mike

Pasadena...

2010-03-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

has some cool old bridges.

Mike

Guitar

2010-01-28T10:35:00.000-08:00

Mike

Stairs

2010-01-26T09:59:00.000-08:00

Took this using some black and white Kodak film I bought and had developed @ the same drugstore. I used a red filter, and got this weird greenish tint. These stairs are near the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Mike

Train Tracks

2010-01-19T13:23:00.001-08:00

These tracks are right by the house where I grew up. As a kid I was drawn to them, maybe because I, and every other kid I knew, were repeatedly told to stay the fuck away from them. We'd put everything imaginable on them just to see what kind of damage the train could do (stupid stupid stupid!). Shopping carts, sofas, mattresses, and anything else we could drag onto the tracks would be sacrificed for our amusement. Looking back now, we were lucky nobody was maimed or killed and that we didn't cause some fucked up derailment. Oh, to be young...

Stop Ignoring Me...

2010-01-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

I really should wipe down the scanner before I use it. Sorry bout all the dust and hairs on this photo.

Mike

Vinyl...

2010-01-05T09:34:00.000-08:00

fucking rules!Mike

Graffiti

2009-12-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

I got excited when I saw this because I thought it said "Banksy", but when I got my pictures back, I saw I was wrong.I don't know how to read graffitti, but I can make out "Cream".

BSA

2009-12-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

This is an old (50's?) BSA my brother bought a while back ago. I think he ended up fixing it up and selling it. That dude's a weird mechanical genius.

Turtles

2009-12-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

They're in there somewhere if you look hard enough.

They're kinda hard to see, but I like the greenish-yellow color of this photo.

These Pictures Look Old...

2009-11-24T11:26:00.000-08:00

but I actually took them with a Holga a couple of weeks ago. They are from the same roll that had the light leak a couple of posts back. Taken at Cal Tech when the lovely Jenn and I were riding back from breakfast one Sunday.

Holga shot

2009-11-21T11:48:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of the side of the Chase building on Tyler/Valley Blvd. The dark corners look weird.

Annenberg Space for Photography

2009-11-19T08:34:00.000-08:00

Located in Century Park, this is a great place to check out if you are into photography. We went about a month ago. I didn't take pictures of the inside, but got a few of the surrounding buildings.

D'oh!

2009-11-17T12:51:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you remove an exposed roll from a Holga in broad daylight:

Despite that gnarly light leak, I really like the way the colors look.

Mike

Alex and Jeremy

2009-11-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

Mike

Streamers

2009-11-08T17:34:00.000-08:00

This was taken in Old Town Pasadena. I think they were some sort of Halloween decorations.Mike

My Bike

2009-11-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

I gotta change that goofy looking stem!

Mike

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T13:01:00.000-07:00

photo of Glenn Danzig/Misfits taken from Glenn E. Friedman's "Fuck You Too".

Nasty Pigeon

2009-10-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

Mike

Muir Woods

2009-10-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

Few miles outside San Francisco:

Thanks, Jenn, for showing me this place. No thanks for almost pushing me off that bridge and into that river. We still can't laugh about that shit.

Mike

Huntington Library

2009-10-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

Japanese Garden
I like all the green in this photo.

Mike

Alex...

2009-10-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

and the old neighbor's dog.Mike

Booch's Old Ford

2009-10-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

Mike

TRAGEDY

2009-10-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

@ the Long Beach Warehouse

Mike

HELLSHOCK

2009-10-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

I took these when they played the Long Beach Warehouse.

The set list:
Mike

Pasadena Bridge

2009-10-06T13:59:00.001-07:00

The spot I took this from is definitely used as a party spot by teenagers. There were 40 oz. bottles, cans, and cigarettes everywhere. This is along Arroyo Seco near the Rose Bowl.

Mike

My Motorcycle

2009-10-06T13:57:00.001-07:00

1975 Honda CB200T

Mike

THE STITCHES

2009-10-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

Between 1999 and 2004, I saw The Stitches more times than I can count or remember. You had to be kind of brave to stand right up front, because you knew you were gonna get a mic stand to the head (as I did a couple of times) or either have your head used as a guitar pick by Johnny Witmer, or have that guitar clobber you on the head at the end of their set. Regardless, these were some fun shows, mostly because when my cousin Rudy would go with me, we would consume superhuman amounts of alcohol and some weird shit would go down before, during, or after the show. I think we almost died a couple of times.

All photos by me, except this one of Mike Lohrman, which I took from the June 2002 issue of Thrasher Magazine:
Mike

Pasadena City Hall

2009-09-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

This photo came out underexposed, but I think it has a creepy ghost feel to it:
Mike

Holga

2009-09-27T18:37:00.001-07:00

Mike

BCAM @ Night

2009-09-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

I really like these photos, but I think I might be using my fisheye lens too much. My first post on this blog had a daytime Holga photo of this installation.

Mike

A Boy Named Ribs

2009-09-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Mike

Day and Night

2009-09-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

These were taken in downtown Los Angeles

Mike

Toys

2009-09-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

I took these using the same method described in the "Nightmare Before Christmas" post a month ago.

Godzilla:

Another Nightmare Before Christmas guy:

Megatron:
Optimus Prime:
Mike

Failed sequence attempt

2009-09-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

We hooked up the md-12 motordrive on my camera, set it to sequence, got the fisheye lens on, and tried to continuously shoot while keeping the camera in multiple exposure mode. We tried it with different shutter speeds, but this was the best one we shot. You can barely see me as I went past the lens. Anyone got any tips on how to make this work better? Photo by Jenn.

Mike

Can't a guy eat his bread in peace?

2009-09-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

Alex with his loaf.

Mike

Baldwin Ave.

2009-09-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

This is the home my parents raised us in. My parents were displaced due to eminent domain. The government decided that a bridge needed to be built at the railroad crossing north of here to reduce street traffic. Along with my parents, all the families that lived on Baldwin Ave. between Rose and Bessie Streets were forced to go. It's fucked up that my parents worked so hard to provide their family with a great home to grow up in, only to have the government tell them they have to go because some commuters were inconvenienced.

It's was also weird to see the home you grew up in go to shit. Squatters moved in. My dad and uncle went back a couple of weeks later after moving out and said they saw people's belongings in there, along with drug paraphernalia.

Fallen Tree

2009-09-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

This tree fell outside the El Monte Library.

Mike

Black Flag

2009-09-03T22:18:00.001-07:00

In the summer going into 7th grade (1984), a school friend named Ronnie gave me a dubbed tape of BLACK FLAG'S "Damaged" album. At this point in my life, I was into Blondie, The Ramones, alot of oldies stuff, some Michael Jackson, STYX, and Madonna. I'd never heard anything like this, though. This music had a heavy, dark, angry vibe unlike anything I'd ever heard or even thought was possible to put to music. "Rise Above", "Spray Paint the Walls", "Depression", "Thirsty and Miserable"... it kinda freaked me out, to be honest. I asked Ronnie for any other BLACK FLAG stuff he had, and he taped me the "Jealous Again" ep, the "Nervous Breakdown" ep, and a fucked up cover version of "Louie, Louie". The other side of that tape had SUICIDAL TENDENCIES' self titled debut, which also blew me away, but I think BLACK FLAG made more of an impact. I still listen to them and love them as much as when I first heard them. They've withstood the test of time, in my mind, unlike ALOT of stuff I started listening to in the following years (I can't FUCKING stand the DESCENDENTS, TSOL, early [and now, later] SOCIAL DISTORTION anymore). A couple of years later, I got a hold of the "My War" and "Slip It In" lps, and while they didn't pack the same punch as the earlier stuff, it was still better than the crap that was popular with the kids at my school. Other bands would have an almost equal impact on me within the following year like MINOR THREAT, POISON IDEA, NEGATIVE APPROACH, and AGNOSTIC FRONT, and along with BLACK FLAG, these bands inspired me to always try to seek out music that had something to say beyond what was acceptable to the masses.

The photo above was taken from Henry Rollins' book "Get in the Van; On the Road with Black Flag" and was shot by Glen E. Friedman

Mike

San Diego Zoo

2009-09-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

Mike