joshsisk.com

In my studio.

Recently I shot several furniture items for local Baltimore furniture designer Marishka Designs. They are wonderful pieces, and it was fun to photograph them - and challenging. You can see one above, or more at the Marishka Designs web site.

Friday I shot Blisspop at the 9:30 club. It was a pretty wild party, with a photo area for saucy photos courtesy of BYT. It was good to hang out with Dakota (and watch him roll around with Ms Claus). Good times.

Check out the whole set here.

It was an interesting night - Sonar was transformed into a huge art installation. Band/theater troupes/entertainers/performance artists took turns performing for just a few minutes at a time, so you never knew where to go next. It was pretty exciting! I drank too much. I wish I had gone to the second night!

Click here for the whole Round Robin set.

Last week I went down to DC to catch one of my favorite bands from the “old days” of Maryland Hardcore (the early 00s), Tradition Dies Here. Mikey is leaving town for a year or two to travel the world so they had this show in case it is the last one. Good times, old friends. Good luck Mikey!

Click here for the full Tradition Dies Here set.

Saturday night I trucked down to Silver Spring to venerable punk house/venue the Corpse Fortress to catch the reunion show(s) of The Chase, Breathe In Breath Out, At Best & Timber. It was awesome, I hadn’t been to a punk basement show in so long. I got moshed a bit, and was slightly nervous about having my gear in the “pit”, but it went well and was a lot of fun.

Highlights included the girl who lived there loudly hinting that everyone should get the fuck out of her house and no one listening, all the sing-a-longs, AFP from the Chase demanding that the Chase replay parts of songs over and over, the wall of death, and me convincing Ari Goldman that the box of free records was actually a donation box, then realizing I just conned Ari!

Click here to view the whole the Chase reunion show set!

Following in the footsteps of last years “Personal Best Photos of 2007“, I have compiled a list of the favorite photos I took this year. Click the link below to see what I came up with, and if you are really bored you can click here to see all the ones that were in the running. Feel free to pick your faves in the comments, and especially feel free to link to your own best of 2008 posts!

Okay click here to see the list:

Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I saw the Night Marchers (ex-Rocket From The Crypt and, I believe, Hot Snakes) play at the Ottobar. They put on a real good show and even passed out beers for people in the crowd to shotgun with them…

Afterhours, a Japanese magazine, ran a few of my photos from Whartscape.

Front page and the front of the arts section, Sunday, Dec 14th 2008 edition.

Feature on Martyn, a european DNB artist who recently moved to the DC area.

Saturday I shot the Experimental Fashion Show, Kegger, at MICA. Not sure I understand the name, though the presenter tried to explain it. You can read more about the event here, look at the flyer here, and of course… Click here to view the full fashion show set!

A week or two ago, I did a photoshoot at my friend JP’s boutique in Baltimore, CULT. It was really fun, we just goofed off for an hour or so, and though it was chaotic, I think I got some good shots. Check out the full set of CULT photos. I will be posting more from this photoshoot tonight or tomorrow, too, so check back.

Also visit the store, it’s on Charles between Madison and Read, in Mount Vernon.

Thursday? Friday? Wednesday? … they all sort of start to blend together, but anyway, SOME DAY LAST WEEK, I went to Sonar to see the MAD DECENT TOUR, featuring Diplo, Boy 8 Bit, Blaqstarr, Rye Rye, and several acts I unfortnately missed. It was fun, they had a pretty creative “booth” setup for Diplo, some great dancing and some pretty awesome pizza and hot dog mascots. We did a group photo to recreate the tour poster, and all in all I had a pretty good time for someone that was basically a sleep zombie… click here for the full Mad Decent Tour set.

A week or so ago, I dropped by the Hirshhorn in DC to see Dan Deacon. I decided to go because I love Dan, and I figured this show, since it was at a Major American Art Museum, would be staid and reserved, with glasses of wine and DEFINITELY NOT with people mobbing Dan or stealing his equipment or stealing his famed green skull. I was wrong on all counts, as you will see if you click here.

Last week I checked out Sinden (from London, creator of that “Hit me on my Beeper Beeper Beeper Beeper” song) at Sonar. I was expecting a DJ set but he amped it up - there were THREE MCs, all British, along with him, and special appearances from Rye Rye (they did “Hardcore Girls”) and Blaqstarr. It was a pretty great time. Dave Nada and Scottie B also performed, a pretty full night.

THEN, after the show I realized that the Homosexuals, who I had seen play at SXSW earlier this year had played next door, and I had missed them. :( But Bruno, the singer, ran into me and either remembered me from talking to him at that show, or mistook me for someone else and we chatted and he even gave me a rare record:

A good night! Check here for the whole Sinden set.

I’ve started working with Ultra and Lisa, who have been throwing the Deep Sugar nights (and running the Deep Sugar record label) for years now. The first show I shot for them was Little Louie Vega @ Paradox… now, house music is not traditionally my thing but this party was really fun. Everyone there was having such a un-self-consciously good time, it would have been hard not to enjoy myself at this.

Check out the write-up (that I contributed photos for) at BrightestYoungThings.com. Then check out the full Deep Sugar set here.

I didn’t make it to any haunted houses this year :[

But I did check out a few bars, and then ended up at Sonar, for Taxlo’s annual party… saw a few costumes, talked with a few friends, saw Chris Devlin from Spank Rock DJ… Click here for the full Halloween set

Next year I need to hit up the Haunted Mill.

The other week I worked the Fool’s Gold/Scion/Taxlo show at the Ottobar (with Jokers of the Scene, Trackademics, Nick Catchdubs, Sammy Banannas)… met several of the people at Fool’s Gold, who were all really nice and awesome, and checked out the various artists. It was a good time. I felt like the crowd was sort of confused when Trackademics started, as if they didn’t expect some live hip hop at this show, but what can you do? Click here for the full Fool’s Gold set