Growing up in Texas, I was served a heapin’ helping of country music. So, like any God-fearing child I rebelled and found my own music and style. As a musician, I played a blend of punk and alternative. I liked anything with a guitar that wasn’t metal. Once a semi-adult, I moved to Hollywood seeking fame and fortune, finding neither I settled in for the long haul. My passions moved from music to movies to photography and back again. Once established in Hollywood, I yearned for a taste of home and returned to the familiar sound of the Ole West. They say Punks just become Country players in their old age.
Hollywood is an interesting place to find country music. Hollywood is nostalgic and is part of the Southwest, though it never gets credit. I wanted to document what I saw in the music scene that I belong to. The country scene is made up of people from all parts of the world-- trying to put their spin on a sound that reflects a time in the old west that may or may not have been real.
This is a series of photos capturing the sacred observance of Memorial Day at the Hollywood American Legion, an iconic architectural building built in 1929. This day at this place is an intersection of old and new, Hollywood fiction and the realities of veterans from a diverse group of men and women who have served their country.
A great thinker once said, “It is five o’clock somewhere.” The idea that anytime is a good time for a drink is personified in the term “Day Drinking.” When others are at work or at the park exercising, you are at the bar drinking. In a dark bar that shields us from the outside light. People have a sense of intimacy in a bar. Bar patrons will share everything with strangers, or they feel alone in a room full of people - all commonplace in a bar.
On the best day a bar is a place of laughter and sharing and on the worst day it is lonely people poisoning themselves to numb their pain. But remember there are more old drunks than there are old doctors so let’s pour ourselves another round!
Peoples faces tell a story. I want my photography to help tell that story.
