Cheryl Spelts | Photo Blog

Ryan Star's Breathe

2009-10-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

I've blogged in the past about how few artists are creating art that references the housing crisis - and that's still the case - but a musician I love has just released a video that shows another current crisis - unemployment.

I was at a private VIP event with Ryan Star last December - I was there shooting, and dropped a piece of equipment during the space between two songs, and so of course everyone in the very small room had to turn to see who the dork was who was making noise during his set! Well Ryan made the most of it, and made a joke at my expense and then dedicated the next song to me, and it was this song, Breathe, and it was the first time I'd heard it, and I fell instantly in love.

Real love, truly madly deeply. It's a great song! And the video is moving. It's so moving it debuted on CNN this week - way to go Ryan!

Watch the video!

Lovehammers at The Key Club, in West Hollywood

2009-10-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late blogging about this, but it's only because I had so much fun, that I didn't want it to end - and blogging is definitely an after-the-fact activity! A little over a week ago I went to a great show, spent loads of time with some great friends, shot all kinds of amazing images, ate some great food, and spent way too much money on parking in LA. Just a fabulous weekend!

But about that show, since it was definitely the high point of the weekend... It was Lovehammers - direct from Chicago - and more like a party than just a show, since it was their West Coast CD release for their latest work, Heavy Crown. There were a lot of fans that flew in from other parts of the country - including a whole bunch from Chicago - and that fed the party atmosphere. I met so many, it's kind of a blur, but it was great to meet so many people face to face that have sent me sweet notes in the past about my images of the band. They love that band, no doubt about it, and by extension I get a lot of love, simply because I've shot that band. It's great!

First up was soundcheck! The venue had sold VIP tickets that included a CD, a shirt, and a meet and greet after soundcheck, so quite a few of their fans got to experience it as well, and it was SO good! I always love soundcheck, since the emphasis is on the sound, not on the performance, and sometimes you get to see, or rather hear another side of a performer or band. It's just different than the actual show - and that can mean lesser, or it can mean something totally different and wonderful - in this case, we got wonderful. And because I wasn't shooting, I got to just enjoy the music and the sound. So I was already totally happy, and in love, when they broke out my latest favorite song, Neverfall. Now I didn't expect to hear it live, I hoped, but was not expecting. They've done several shows since the new CD debuted, and I've read the reviews, and I knew they hadn't done Neverfall live - so it was a BIG wonderful surprise when they started to play it. Honestly I screamed, like a 12-year-old fan girl! I could not have been happier and it totally lived up to my expectations. It wasn't as slick as some of the other songs they did, but it more than made up for that in raw sexy power. If I had to pick one perfect moment from the entire weekend, it would be hearing that song, my favorite song, live, in my favorite city. Just perfect!

And there was another really fun moment during soundcheck that I would be remiss if I didn't mention it... There's a line in one of their new songs, "Last night she was on fire..." and yeah, it's a sexy line. Even just seeing it written it's sexy, so imagine it in the middle of a really hot song, and well it's even sexier! But at soundcheck there was this little pause, and a breathe, and it was the single sexiest thing I've ever heard or seen onstage. If you saw the show, you know it was great then, but during soundcheck it was mindblowingly sexy. I turned to my friend, and I couldn't even verbalize how blown away I was. It was a really good moment!

And the show itself was amazing! But I'll let my images tell the story there.... Check out the link at the end of this post, or click on the image above!

The next night Lovehammers hosted a listening party in Hollywood at Ink Kandy Tattoo - with discounts given if you got a LH tattoo - I didn't participate in that aspect, but I had fun hanging out with a couple of friends that I don't see nearly often enough. We also checked out a place I'd heard of, but never been to before, the Beauty Bar - which is totally cute, and kitchy, and fun.

The last time I'd seen the Lovehammers live was at Hammerfest in Chicago in March 2008, so it had been way too long, and I was really ready to hear the new material - and it seriously exceeded my expectations! What can be better than a really great band, in your favorite city, on a really HOT summer night?

So check out my slideshow, and if you get the chance, go see Lovehammers live!

http://rockbandlounge.com/news/2009-09-25-lovehammers/

More on the Housing Crisis

2009-09-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

Last month, after reading an article that mentioned how few artists were currently doing work that referenced the current housing crisis, I decided to go out and shoot - with absolutely no expectations. I wasn't sure what I was after or what I was trying to say, and that was okay. It was just an exercise, and I blogged about my first attempt here.

That first attempt was shiny, happy, and glossy, which was a little surprising given the subject matter, but not totally unexpected, if you know me. And it truly was just the first attempt. If, and I do mean if, I pursue this as a full-blown project, I'm certain it will evolve, and could end up very different, once I figure out what I want to say - but I'm not in that mode yet.

Right now I'm in exploration mode, and this week that took me to San Jacinto, California and a little house for rent in the downtown area. With broken windows, a bare dirt yard, and a sign on the front door that declared it uninhabitable – poor little house!

So not quite as shiny this time. Or as happy. And certainly not glossy. But still me.

I'm still not sure where I'm going with this project - or if it's even a project - it might just stay an exercise. It's good to explore! Even if it leads nowhere special...

Abstract in Acrylic

2009-09-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

I moved some of my things out of storage this weekend, and happily came across this painting I did several years ago. An abstract done in acrylics on canvas - in my favorite color combination - violet and a dark purple, with orange. I still love it, years later, and it makes me happy to post it here, and share it with the world.

I may not earn my living as a painter, but I think all artists play in other media at times, and this painting is just as much me as any photographic image. Who I am as an artist comes out whether I'm working with light sensitive emulsion, or acrylic paint, or millions and millions of pixels...

Jason Castro at the SLS Hotel, in Beverly Hills

2009-08-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

I got invited to an industry showcase in Los Angeles this week - Jason Castro, who was on American Idol in 2008, and is now signed to Atlantic Records, was at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. I'd never heard his music before, but the invitation came from someone who used to work with one of the singers on Rock Star, and she's now working with Jason - so I jumped at the chance to go! If she believes in him, then he has to be good - right? And I'd been hearing about the SLS Hotel a lot lately - Ryan Star showcased there just last month - and a photographer I know did a session there in July that was beautiful - so I was excited to see the hotel as well.

The SLS is really as fabulous as I'd heard it was. I met Arlene Catherine there, and we spent quite a bit of time exploring and enjoying the chandeliers dipped in plastic, glass deer heads lit from within, lettuce head floral arrangements, orange leather couches, monkeys as fine art, mirrors everywhere, and private dining rooms done in all white or all black. Everywhere you look it's fabulous and funky and modern and fun - and it's less than a year old, so it still has that fresh new vibe.

And Jason was great! I got there early enough to hear him do an interview with the camera crew, and then do a snippet of a new song - and I really liked what I heard, so I knew it was going to be a good night! The showcase was outdoors, and the sun was setting, and it was a good crowd for the size of the space - in other words a perfect summer night in LA! There were exactly eight fans - I had a fun conversation with one of them, and she said they all knew each other from recent concerts. It's always cool when a few real fans get into an event like this - their enthusiasm is contagious and it makes it more fun for everyone!

Jason started the show with the same song I'd heard him do a few bars of during his interview, and he said he had just finished tracking it in the studio last night - and so this was the first time he'd performed it in public - and it was definitely my favorite song of the night. It was earnest and sweet and poppy - and fun! I told him after the show that I thought his personality and his music were a perfect match. Only a truly winsome artist could get away with singing songs that sweet and carefree - and Jason is as winsome as they come. He's totally enchanting in person!

The rest of his short set was good too - but that first song was my favorite - wish I could remember the name of it?! Funnily enough, my least favorite song of the evening was the one that he's the most well-known for - he mentioned he'd done it on American Idol, but since I don't watch the show, it was new to me - and it was fine - but his own material is just so much better.

After the show there was a moment before anyone had approached him, and his fans were hanging back, knowing that this was an industry showcase after all, so maybe they should wait a bit before rushing him. So it seemed like the perfect time to go over and tell Jason how much I loved the show. He's just as charming up close, and I was chatting away when I suddenly realized that there was a camera trained on us - the same camera that had taped the entire performance and had recorded the interview earlier in the evening. It's not like I didn't know it was there - I was very aware of it for most of the night - but for some reason in my head, when the show ended, the camera went off too - right? Wrong...

I have no idea why I worry about getting caught being enthusiastic and passionate on camera? Why would I worry about getting caught being myself, at my most pure? It really is a mystery! But I have to admit, I'm secretly making a wish, for that the footage to never ever ever ever surface...

And finally I should mention how great the sound was! The SLS isn't just good at funky modern decor and really fun food - they're also really good at making an acoustic artist sound great!

Icon vs Icon

2009-08-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

Last week online pop culture magazine, Icon vs Icon published a great new interview with Marty Casey - and with it they debuted some images of mine that have never been seen before.

http://www.iconvsicon.com/2009/08/08/marty-casey-talks-lovehammers-explosive-new-album-heavy-crown/

Shot last fall in San Juan Capistrano, the session yielded one truly iconic image - and of course Icon vs Icon chose that one for their headline image! It's also the primary image on myspace.com/martycasey and it's the very first image in my portfolio at cherylspelts.com. Iconic is an understatement - of all the images I've shot of Marty, it's the one in my opinion, that best encapsulates who he is - if any one image can do that... It's pretty and gritty, and complex, and mysterious and yet still wide open.

But that image, as great as it is, has been seen before... The fun part this week is the new stuff! Icon vs Icon used four never-before-seen images, but there are even more in the slideshow!

http://www.cherylspelts.com/albums/marty-casey/

I'd like to thank Jason Price at Icon vs Icon... Jason, you rock!

Abstracted by iPhone

2009-08-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

Model Homes

2009-08-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

I read a quote from a magazine editor recently, that mentioned the fact that not many artists are creating work about the current housing crisis. She was speaking from the frame of reference of someone who needs topical content for her magazine, but it made me wonder - why aren't more artists referencing what's going on, right here and right now? And on a personal level, why aren't I? It's definitely impacted me personally and professionally. You can't really get away from it in the inland parts of Southern California. If there's anyplace where you'd think you could find art about the the housing market, it's here.

That's not to say that just because we're here and it's obvious, that Southern California artists have some kind of obligation to go out and make art about foreclosures! But at the same time, how can you avoid it, when it's such a big part of the culture in the area?

My conviction, the more I thought about it, was that sometimes it takes time for an issue or a feeling or a problem to sink into my consciousness deeply enough, for art to result. Other times that process is almost instantaneous - in 2004 I remember getting back after a major wild fire that almost claimed my home, and immediately reaching for my camera, and going out to create art out of the ruins around my neighborhood. But it's not always that fast. Art comes from feeling and emotion - obviously - but what if you don't know how you feel? This isn't just an economic downturn, it's not just the almost 14% unemployment in the county I live in, and it's not just a bunch of empty, abandoned houses - it's a lot of hurt people. People I know and love have been hurt. Loss is everywhere. So yeah, my feelings run deep on this, and that's obviously the place where art *can* start...

So I decided to do an exercise. I shot some abandoned model homes, just to do it. To see where it led. I had no expectations, and nothing pre-conceived. I just wanted to go and see what happened. The results are maybe a little shiny, happy, glossy - but that's okay - it's part of my nature to find the serious *and* the beauty in everything I shoot. And I think that even though the images are beautiful, there is something off about each one - and in a way that's more jarring than just flat out going for desperation and abandonment. Those feelings are there, but they're the twist, not the main event.

A few notes on the location - it was in Winchester, California, at an abandoned housing development. Only a half-dozen model homes were built, and each one is still labeled with it's model number. There's evidence of a stream with river rock banks that used to run through the front yard of the main office, with a little bridge to cross it. There's a sign pointing to the bathrooms. There was landscaping at one time, but the trees were cut down - who knows why? The turf has died, but the sprinkler heads are still there. Every single window and door was carefully and very thoroughly covered with thick plywood - no one has been in those homes since the sales people moved out. There is no graffiti at all, except for the spray painted note you see on the garage door in the first image.

It's a really lovely location, and while I don't like modern homes like these (I'm an old house lover!), I can't imagine a better location. There's a rock foothill right in the middle of the track, and the roads were built around it, so the neighborhood would have been really pleasant to live in.

And finally, I have to say something about the future. What you have to know is that this is Southern California. There is great demand to live here. Give us time, and these houses will have owners, and families will move in, and the idyllic location will not be wasted. There's really no such thing as an abandoned house in Southern California, there's just houses that are between owners.

Maybe I'll come back in a year or two and shoot the same houses, from the same angles, when the grass is green, and the windows and doors are uncovered, and when there's life in the streets.

Hard Boiled Eggs

2009-08-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

Some of my favorite things...

2009-07-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

Favorite Fun Read: Cranky Actress Blog
If you ever were an actor, or thought about acting, or want to act, then you gotta read Cranky's Blog! She may be telling the complete truth or she may be making it all up - but either way, she makes me laugh! Honestly, my usual impulse is to steer clear of cranky people. Who has time for all that complaining? But I'll make an exception for Cranky Actress, because she's so much fun!

Favorite Bag: Floto Imports
I love these bags! I have the Casiana Tote and the Casiana Mini, both in black and they're so cool they make me want to travel more - as if I needed any impetus in that direction! Beautiful leather, Italian style, and enough room to carry everything easily. I'm just in love... And I've had them for two years already, and use them often, and they still look great. I fully expect to still be in love years from now! Maybe someday I'll add another Mini in orange to my collection? That might cause a love overdose!

Favorite Twitter-related Service: BackTweets
Twitter shortens long URLs, which is great, but if you want to do a search for all the times your website was mentioned on Twitter, those shortened URLs made it impossible - before now. BackTweets changes that! I only found a handful of mentions of my site by using it, but they were all really fun finds - so it's my new favorite toy!

Favorite Site Design: DreamerLines
I just love the way this site works! There are no pages, you hit tabs and fly to your destination. Deceptively simple and incredibly cool...

My Absolute Favorite Thing This Week: The Water Necklace
It's brand new and beautiful, and shimmery silver - what's not to love? It's from the MXC Silver Elements Collection, and while I didn't shoot the campaign for this season, I love this piece! And it looks really good on me!

Free Promotional Offer for Web Site Owners

2009-07-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

If you own a web site, I have an offer you might be interested in!

For this week only I'm offering a free listing in the Clyana.com Directory. Usually $25, the free promotion runs this week only, and ends at midnight on Friday, August 7th. If you're at all interested in SEO then you know the value of links to your site - and now you can get one for free, if you act quickly.

Why am I doing this? Well the directory itself needs a little promotion! And it's mid-summer, and it's hot, and having a give-away sounds like fun! So go for it, and spread the word...

Click here to add your site to the Clyana.com Directory!

ETA: I got five new listings within a few minutes of posting this. Thanks guys!

Falling in love at first listen...

2009-07-22T11:54:00.001-07:00

I have an admission to make. As much as I love music - and I really really love it - I don't pay much attention to the lyrics, and I almost never fall in love with a song on first listen. A musician once told me that he'd been the same way, once upon a time, but he grew out of it. I never have, so I guess that makes me a bit unsophisticated, and I guess I can live with that!

It doesn't mean I don't listen to the singer - I do! In fact, it's the voice that draws me in - I never quite connect to pure instrumentals - I want a singer! It's just that while I may be able to sing along to every word, if you ask me the name of the song, or what the song is about, or to repeat even one line of lyrics, I won't be able to. I can love the voice, but the words won't always register with me.

As for almost never falling in love with a song on first listen, I think that's more common. And when I do fall in love the first time I hear a song, I know I'll love it forever and it's bound to become one of my all-time favorites.

I'm telling you all that to set up this - I fell in love this week on first listen - to three songs! And I actually know some of the lyrics...

Lovehammers released their latest CD yesterday, Heavy Crown, and yes I was really looking forward to it - and I knew I'd love it. How could I not? Especially since it has several songs on it that I already knew and loved - Driving Blind and That's Life are fairly new, but Eyes Can't See and Velvet are acoustic versions of songs that appeared on previous Lovehammers' CDs and Guns was released a couple of weeks ago - so I already knew five out of the thirteen songs. Plus, this is a band that I fell in love with before Rock Star: INXS even started. I was doing research on the singers on the show, for ROCKBAND.COM, and found clips of all their songs - and I fell hard.

But even with that kind of love built up for years, you never know? And even though I'd been hearing through the grapevine that it was their best work yet, still, you never know. New music, new direction, maybe I'll love it, but not REALLY love it?

Then I heard it! And the first time through Neverfall, Oh My Baby, and Honest I'll Wait just nestled into my heart and head, blissfully...

Honest I'll Wait soars, beautifully. It's like nothing I've ever heard from this band. It's a new direction for sure, but it feels so right, it feels meant to be.

Oh My Baby is hot! The lyrics are a total turn on! Yes, the lyrics! Plus it's fun to sing along with. My favorite line, "Oh my baby's so extreme. She's exactly.... just like me." Love that moment! And the guitars on the chorus are beautiful - so beautiful.

But my big initial love was and is Neverfall. It makes me want to put down the top on my car, blow a kiss and slam a door, and take off. I haven't quite figured out the lyrics yet - and I may never - it's one of those songs that makes me feel. It's an anthem, for sure and I have a feeling the song will always remind me of summer, of right now. At least I hope so!

And one last song I have to mention - Black Angel didn't hit me initially, but it's hitting me now, big time. It has a really retro feel to it. Makes me want to go to a concert and see it done live. And the bridge? Hypnotic, for sure!

And the best part? Falling in love at first listen is only stage one. I have so much more to discover in these songs. Good music is like that...

New Mailing List

2009-07-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

I now have a brand new mailing list - and I promise not to spam you, if you sign up!

What I will do is send you occasional updates about special events and other fun stuff...

Join my Mailing List

In my opinion, you all have excellent taste!

2009-07-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

One interesting thing about my new site design is that I can now tell which are the most popular images, because each is on it's own page, so it's easy to see how many clicks each image gets. Interesting!

The favorites from yesterday were these three, in this order...
2008-04-05-marty-casey-6991.htm
2009-05-16-nathan-9651.htm
2008-09-05-marty-casey-2166.htm

The two of Marty Casey don't surprise me a bit - of course he gets the most click action! But the other image was a really pleasant surprise - it's of my nephew Nathan, taken just last month, and it may end up being one of my all-time favorite portraits of all time. It's just magical...

In fact, all three of the above are among my favorites of all time. Guess my visitors have excellent taste!

Slick and Glossy and Modern

2009-07-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

I just debuted my new site design! Yay!

About six weeks ago I decided to redesign a couple of pages on my main photography site - just a little minor housekeeping! Then I got swept up in it, and before I knew it I had a plan for a full-blown redesign of the entire site. Where my old design was an homage to fine art, I wanted the redesign to be slick and glossy and modern. I still wanted spareness in the design - I like the images to stand out, not the design. And I still wanted bright white and lots of negative space. Some things don't change!

My old design was html with some Flash galleries - I used to do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professionally, so for me an all-Flash site was never something I ever seriously considered - at least some html was the way to go! And for SEO purposes the old design worked just fine. It also worked just fine on the vast majority of computers - almost everyone has Flash installed. But then I got an iPhone in 2007, and not being able to see parts of my site on it was a little bit of an irritation. And as more and more people get smart phones with web access, I wanted to consider alternatives to my Flash galleries. So the new site has javascript galleries - which the search engines can and do read, and which works just fine on an iPhone, and hopefully other smart phones.

It's not a perfect experience to look at my new site on an iPhone - the navigation, particularly the arrows are too small to be really useful - but that's okay, because bottom line, you can see my work! You can get to the galleries, you can see my images, and they look beautiful! So while it may not be perfect, it's a huge improvement over my previous site where you could navigate the site just fine on a smart phone, but you never saw any images - not good for a photographer!

Something else new is a Live Concerts Portfolio - all the images in it were previously published elsewhere, but never on my own site - so that has now been remedied!

I have a lot more content to add in the coming weeks - there are only 150 images on the site right now - I plan to add more and more and more. I want lush full portfolios, where the viewer can get lost looking. Most photographers believe in only showing their most current work, but I have a portfolio of images dating back over 14 years - work I'm proud of and want to showcase. If you think about Annie Leibovitz or Georgia O'Keeffe or Frank Lloyd Wright would you expect to only see work from one period of their lives, or would you expect to find a full body of work? In my opinion, a full body of work shows off an artist in a way that a selection of images never will - and I want to show work from every phase of my artistic life. It may take a while to get it done, but that's the goal!

And I have one other surprise, that I can't reveal yet - but it's going to be great fun!

Breakfast on Sunday...

2009-07-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen anything prettier? The fresh raspberries are just perfection this summer!

Mount Rubidoux

2009-07-08T12:14:00.001-07:00

It was too hot to go all the way to the top of Mount Rubidoux yesterday. I got a little more than halfway up, and then stopped caring about actually reaching the top. It was over 90° by midmorning, and there were lots of things I could think of to do, way more compelling than a walk in the sun, uphill!

So I got up earlier today, and it was cooler, and I went the rest of the way up - and I was rewarded with a beautiful bright blue sky, and some pretty clouds - it was well worth it!

I love the plaque on the tower/bridge - even if there was no date on it, you would know it was circa 1925, just by the art deco stylized lettering. It's an absolutely perfect example of high art deco, and reads, "Peace with Justice for All Men. Anno Domini 1925. This bridge was built by neighbors and friends of Frank Agustus Miller, in recognition of this constant labor in the promotion of civic beauty, community righteousness, and world peace."

Frank Miller was the second owner of Mount Rubidoux, along with Henry Huntington. The first owner, in the mid-1800s was Louis Robidoux - note Robidoux, not Rubidoux, as it's spelled today. Miller, of the Mission Inn, and Huntington, a railroad magnate, bought the hill in the early 1900's, in order to develop the land around it - as a housing development. There's a spot dedicated to Huntington as well, but it's not as interesting as Miller's dedication.

I was fascinated by the number of people pushing strollers up and down the hill, with one or two children in them, while running. It's a three mile loop, if you do the whole thing, and at least half of that is uphill, so pushing a stroller would really make it a workout - and lots of people do it. The other popular thing to do is to bring a dog or two, on a leash, while carrying a couple of the blue plastic "doggie" bags that are provided at the start of the trail.

The cross at the very tip-top of the mountain. The first cross was erected on the spot soon after Miller and Huntington bought the property, and one has stood there ever since. It's dedicated to Father Junipero Serra, one of the founders of several of the California missions.

The first Easter sunrise service was held here in 1909 - and they still happen today - and in fact, the Mount Rubidoux Easter Service is generally considered the longest-running outdoor Easter service in the United States. I blogged about it in May of 2008.

The tiny dark dot at the base of the cross is actually a guy sitting with his back to the cross. Up on top of the world, it's a good place to think.

The view, looking west, toward Jurupa and Rubidoux, and the Santa Ana River. The top of the mount is exactly 500 feet above the banks of the Santa Ana River below.

And the view to the east - Downtown Riverside, including the historical cemetery on the bottom left.

And finally I'll end with something floral - I just can't resist the lure of blue flowers, first thing in the morning!

A Lazy Summer Day

2009-07-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

This is how today feels... bright, sunny, summery, beautiful, and hot.

And my favorite neighborhood in Riverside, California, as seen from the path up Mount Rubidoux.

Josh and Nathan

2009-07-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

My brother and his family moved out of state last week - so before they left California, I shot a few quick portraits of my nephews. Their new home is far away from Southern California, and who knows when I'll see them again, so it was a good time!

My first goal was to get a beautiful headshot of each of them - something that Grandma could hang on the wall. I definitely feel we achieved that goal!

The second goal was to do a portrait that they got to set up themselves - Josh wanted a shot with his guitar, rock star-style, and Nathan wanted a shot in his bedroom, comfy and relaxed, with bare feet. Very different choices, but I love both images we ended up with!

On iTunes, Lately...

2009-06-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

Lovehammers released their latest single today on iTunes - it's the first single off their upcoming CD, Heavy Crown. It's been so long since we've had new Lovehammers' music, I'm very very happy to have something new from them!

And Ryan Star released his long awaited EP, Last Train Home, earlier this month - you can hear a snippet of one of my favorite of his songs, Right Now, during commercials for the new NBC show, The Philanthropist. The full EP is only $3.99 on iTunes and features four songs and two videos.

And finally, I'm linking to Tamar Kaprelian's A New Day, just because it's been my favorite song this summer and she deserves more exposure, so pass it on!

PS: Happy birthday and happy traveling to my brother Michael today!

ETA on 7/7/2009: Guess this should be PSS maybe? But Dino from the Lovehammers posted on RockBandLounge.com over the weekend about the single... http://www.rockbandlounge.com/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=1&topic_id=11274

America's Forgotten Sweetheart

2009-06-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

I received an email yesterday from one of the authors of a new book on Ruth Etting, coming out this fall. Ruth Etting: America's Forgotten Sweetheart, by Kenneth Irwin and Charles O. Lloyd will be published by Scarecrow Press and is the first full-length biography of her life.

As excited as I am about the book, I'm maybe even more excited about the photo on the cover! It's an image I've never seen before, and it features the pearls-around-her-upper-arm-look that I love - and in fact, the dress has strings of pearls hanging down her back, and off one hip. Ruth Etting wore pearls like no one else! Check out these images for further proof! 1, 2, and 3

More on the book...

"In Ruth Etting: America's Forgotten Sweetheart, authors Kenneth Irwin and Charles Lloyd provide the first full-length biography of this ground-breaking artist. This book recounts Etting's early hears as a pioneering radio performer who quickly attained national celebrity, her recording career as "Sweetheart of Columbia Records," and her innovative work in early short subjects. The authors detail Etting's unhappy marriage to her husband-manager, Martin (Moe "The Gimp") Snyder, her second marriage to pianist arranger Myrl Alderman, and her Colorado Springs retirement. They also examine Etting's place in the history of American entertainment, specifically her trend-setting vocal style and her innovative work in phonograph recordings and radio performance--as well as her enormous popularity throughout the 1930s and beyond."

For more on the book and more on the authors, check out their website!
And for more on Ruth Etting, check out RuthEtting.com!

"Say goodbye, say goodbye to the way I was before. Say hello, say hello to a new way..."

2009-06-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

Am I Idyll? Or am I Wild? How about neither! My stay in the mountains lasted longer than I originally intended - Idyllwild's a beautiful place, who can resist it's charm? But as of this week I'm officially back to civilization, and loving it! Up in the mountains I had no cell phone reception, I got snowed in for days on end, and I was two-and-a-half hours outside of LA. On the upside I saw more deer than I could count and I made friends with at least one squirrel - we'd chatter back and forth at each other, and he told me stories. I may not have understood the details, but I understood the underlying emotion. Really! Get the right squirrel, and you'll get an earful!

So onto the new!

First, I shot a new/redux band last week in LA - one of my favorite things to do! I think they'll be debuting the images soon in a couple of different ways.

Second, I got an email this week from a fan who noticed some of my images on The Alexus Records site at http://alexusrecords.com. Some of the images have been enlarged and/or stretched, so it's not the best place to see my work, but even so, I always love seeing my images show up in new places! If you want to see the original images, go to http://www.cherylspelts.com/blog/2008/08/la-guns-live-at-key-club-in-hollywood.html or http://www.rockbandlounge.com/news/2008-08-la-guns/ for the slideshow.

Third, I'm getting ready to debut my new web site AND a new site dedicated just to high school senior portraits. I'm really looking forward to working with seniors soon!

And finally, I wanted to mention Michael Jackson, and how sad I am that he's gone, and that I never got to see him perform live. I always meant to...

I was making the final trip from Idyllwild to Riverside on Thursday, my car packed with my computer, cameras, and my cat - the three big "C's" in my life - and I texted a Tweet that read: "Say goodbye, say goodbye to the way I was before. Say hello, say hello to a new way..." Just some lyrics to a song I blogged about earlier this month, referring to my move, and my very happy, fresh-start mood at that moment. Then a few minutes later the DJ on the radio blurted out that TMZ was reporting that Michael Jackson was dead, but that it hadn't been confirmed by any other source at that point. So I pulled over, and went directly to Twitter on my iPhone. Later it occurred to me that two years ago this week I would have raced home to jump on the computer to learn more - since the iPhone didn't debut until the very end of June 2007 - and I would have gone straight to a news source. And a year ago, I would have been able to pull over, and check right then, but I would have still gone to a news site to look it up. But this week? This week Twitter was the choice, and it didn't even require any thought. I just knew that if something was happening, then Twitter was the place to be, and it was the right choice. I got immediate confirmation, along with disbelief, great grief, and straight from the heart sadness. When bad things happen, as humans we want to connect, and the immediacy of Twitter was the perfect vehicle. At first I felt guilty that my last Tweet had been so happy and frivolous - I hadn't known when I tweeted - but still, it just felt wrong. But then I noticed that people assumed it referred to Michael, and I realized that while I hadn't meant it that way, but that it could indeed refer to him too.

So Michael this is for you! "Say goodbye, say goodbye to the way I was before. Say hello, say hello to a new way..."

Site Update

2009-06-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

So why am I posting screen shots of my current web site? Well the word current might be a clue...

I love my site as is - it was designed with my fine art background in mind. If you ever spent hours cutting mats for prints, bright white mats, four-ply, with sharp perfect corners, and never exactly square, always fuller at the bottom - then you get all the white in my current site. And if you ever signed your mounted prints with pencil, then you really get it. Even the little square images that repeat throughout the site are an homage to the square images on a medium format contact sheet.

But things change! And artists evolve. And it was time for an update. So that's coming, soon. But today I just want to post a few screenshots, as an archive, because I like looking back! And soon, what you see below, will be the past.

What I've been listening to...

2009-06-02T01:23:00.000-07:00

I seem to have a thing for female voices lately - and these two songs are the two that I keep looping, over and over. I do that when I really love a song, listen to it again and again...

A New Day
Tamar Kaprelian
2008
the lyrics...

Let Go
Frou Frou
2004
the lyrics...

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

I am so proud of my Mom! She's always appreciated my talent and the images I produce, but she never really got into photography herself - until today.

My Aunt and Grandma and Mom were all in the same place at the same time - it is Memorial Day Weekend, and Idyllwild is perfect this time of year, so of course I was going to do some spontaneous portraits! And then it happened, she asked if I wanted her to shoot a couple of me. Now my Mom has always been one who rations shots - whether it was film or digital. Growing up she'd shoot exactly one frame of each event - maybe two frames if you got lucky. And she's always astonished at the number of images I take. And when I said yes, and handed her my camera, she was a little surprised at how heavy it was, and how hard it was to hold up and press the shutter at the same time. I had an 85mm 1.2 lens on it, so she wasn't wrong, it was heavy, so I expected her to shoot maybe four or five frames, just to be nice, and then be done. But I was wrong! She ended up shooting 40 frames! She started a little slow, but before long she was telling me to tilt my chin, look up, and smile like I had a secret. I was laughing so hard, and loving it so much, I had a hard time following her directions. But she was patient with me, and kept at it, determined to get the perfect shot - and she did! She actually got a shot of me that I really love. And to be honest, most of what she got is good. I really do like the majority of the stuff she shot.

So my Mom is now a photographer! Amazing things happen every day...

My Aunt Vicki and my Mom, the new photographer!

Me and and my beautiful Grandma

And the three of them in front of the cabin. Doesn't the yard look magnificent? It's amazing when you think about how all that was under three feet of snow not that long ago.