Heading home today.  Am on Continental airlines thankfully.  Say a thousand thankyous under my breath that it's not Abuse Airlines today.  Everything goes well and on time, even my luggage makes it all the way home and intact.  Flying is always a crap shoot and most of the airlines have their "moments" but American Airlines certainly get the award for crappy consistency.

Daisy Buttons barely can contain herself when she sees me arrive home, it's a squeak and purrfest.  Good to be back, it'll be nice to be in one place again for a while.

Get up early and go for breakfast with Phil and then head out for more Starbucks.  I only actually drink coffee when I'm away from home for some reason.  To me tea doesn't taste the same other than at home so I stay off it.   Well, that and I can't really get Yorkshire Tea wherever I go.   It's "a bit poofy" as I was once told by Joe but I really enjoy a Starbucks Peppermint Latte...  Head back to the hotel and get a quick workout in, make some calls and then get stuck into some editing of photos.   After a few hours of making my eyes bleed staring at a laptop I have a quick dust down and meet Mr Collen in the lobby where we're whisked off to a popular Nashville book store where Lorelei Shellist is doing a signing of her memoir book "Runway Runaway".  Lorelei was engaged to the late Steve Clark and her book recounts her life as a runaway joining the fashion world as a model and the her meeting and falling in love with Steve Clark.  Anyway, Phil was making a special appearance being that he and Lorelei are friends and of course Steve was his best friend.  They had a great turnout for the book signing and Lorelei read a few different chapters before a little question and answer session.  Phil got a great response when he made his appearance.  I moved around with a video camera and got some B Roll for Lorelei.  There was quite  along line for autographs and photos afterwards and I was pleasantly surprised when a very nice fan asked me to sign her "Shots From The Sparkle Tour" book.  A great afternoon.

Get back to the hotel and kick back for a while before heading out with Phil for an Indian......really hot food tonight but great.  Later on we head out to the Grand Old Opry as we've been invited by Alison Krauss to come out and see her perform.  This is not your normal kind of show for us rock folk but I have to say that it was an awesome experience and I can't recall hearing a female vocalist more flawless than Alison and her band are first class musicians.  Truly a treat.  We went backstage to visit afterwards and hung out for a while with everyone.  Very different vibe to rock shows but refreshing.

Great day!

    

Have just returned from a very busy week with the lovely Miss Taylor Swift and company who were rehearsing in Evansville Indiana of all places. Flew in Monday and went straight down to the venue. Saw Taylor and here Mom and got caught up with the guys in her band and folks I knew on the crew. Was pleased to see Doug Aldrich's guitar tech Kevin working this tour.   This is Taylors very first tour as a headliner and she has a pretty amazing and elaborate stage set up.  Can't go into too much detail but it was a great week working with a really nice crew which made my job much much easier to do.

Here are some Taylor Press shots I did that made it onto a full page of People Magazine.

  

Daisy hates, let me repeat.....HATES the frickin' vets.

September 4^th- Couple of new magazines this month. Firstly, my very first cover feature for Modern Drummer magazine featuring the most talented Todd Sucherman from Styx. Todd is a fellow fan of all that is Keith Moon and shares not only this passion but also has quite the twisted sense of humor too. Have a peek at his words in my "QUOTES" section of the website.



Secondly, Guitar One's Guitar and Gaming magazine did a feature on my ol' mate Marcus Henderson of Guitar Hero game fame. They did a pretty nice job with it as well. Special thanks to Jimmy Hubbard at Guitar World for setting this up. Top bloke is Jimmy!
 
 

August 15^th- Got a nice surprise in the mail today from my buddy the very talented Todd Sucherman. Todd is the very snazzy drummer for STYX. His new HD Instructional DVD arrived at my place along with one of my pics bang on the middle of the front cover and also on the interior. Cheers Todd!

FINALLY I have finished the exhaustive selection and editing of the Def Leppard UK tour photos. Now I can breathe a little...for a couple of days anyway. The whole process has been a very long and arduous one but the photos that I've captured of the guys on tour are very pleasing. I can't wait for them to see the images next week when they kick off the US tour in Texas. A nice bottle of Aberfeldy helps top off the completion of the project.

Hurricane Dolly has been spinning her fat ass out in the Gulf of Mexico and gaining strength the last couple of days. Yesterday we discovered that it was heading Southwards into Southern Texas and North Mexico... The downside to that.....torrential rain as we get the upsweep of the storm.



Today's my birthday... Woke up to 5 inches of rainwater flooding my courtyard and my fridge clapped out in the middle of the night. Smashing! Everything in the damn fridge is ruined so I can't even have a cup of tea! Work throughout the day and go out for a nice birthday dinner in the early evening and then.......the joy of appliance shopping at Lowes!

Got this from Joe Elliott in my email today and thought I would share......

"Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Idi Amin in a dustbin
Happy Birthday to you"

Think he luvs me...Hehehe...

Sunday...again... Where we pause for a few sparse moments and catch our breath before the onslaught of another week charges full throttle at us and we go "over the top" into it once again...

Now I've got that philosophical tripe out of the way... Daisy Buttons got my sleazy backside out of the bed late today and bummed around a little. Read the BBC website for a while to get a truthful look at the news, went out to see Rodney for a trim at the groomers...even got a little pink bow in my hair when he finished ;O)

Proceeded to get stuck into backlogged pics that had been waiting in the editing wings. I just started using the latest Photoshop CS3 version this week as my older version corrupted and my hand was forced... Forced to release $642 for a frickin' CD and a Booklet! Bleedin' Adobe are Nazis!! Gouging Swines that they are! Great program to work with but you sure as hell need the butt salve after buying that one! Spent most of the afternoon catching up on emails and answering voicemails. Re worked a few favorite pics for kicks and giggles. Check 'em out below...
  

Have some shoots coming up and something big in the early summer. Doing a shoot in Austin this coming weekend for Modern Drummer magazine, should be a nice little trip. I always enjoy Austin. Been talking on the phone with Steve Lukather about doing more photos out LA way and also yakking with Mr. "Oklahoma Crude" over at Fender about some forthcoming photo needs and possibilities. It's looking like a busy summer is coming...must buy a back up camera!

Here are a few pieces of my work from the latest various presses. One's the cover and inside feature of the May Illinois Entertainer Magazine featuring...yes...Ministry! A UK magazine ad for Squire featuring my pic of Pete Wentz and his custom bass. Finally a nice couple of pics by my mate Dustin of me shooting...some band.
  

Shooting........zzzzzzzzzz.........oh nevermind.....It was tiresome.

Cheers me dears!

ASH