Tonight I caught Brother Ali over at the Entry. He rarely plays a venue this small, and it was a treat to see him backed by a full band (horns! guitars! keyboards! banjos!), but I was just too sleepy to stay for the whole show. I'll post more photos tomorrow, but I gotta get to bed. This girl is wiped out!Update: Ok, ok, I've had my sleep. Photos from the show are up over here. Enjoy!

Man, crazy day. Tomorrow's edition of vita.mn is much more complicated than normal, which caused lots of long days at the office this week, and man was I ready to rid my hands of that project and get back to some normalcy (especially on a holiday week). So after deadline, I met up with Mere over at Muddy Waters before coming home to this sweet boy. I had to lay down on the floor to get this shot, and right after I snapped it, he hopped up (as did his sister) and I was surrounded by fur and smothered by puppy kisses. Not a bad way to go, if you ask me.

Look what finally popped open in my yard today! Lovely, eh? And man, I needed this. Almost twelve hours in the office, and coming home to fresh flowers was just what I needed. That and some really good, loud music :).

So after shooting for six hours in the heat yesterday and then bolting for my car in the rain, wind, mud and tornado sirens, I came home and took a shower, dried my hair, got dressed, and headed out to another rap show. Stop the insanity, right?Anyway, it was the "after party" for Soundset, and Atmosphere, who was supposed to headline the festival (which had about 20,000 people) was now going to headline the after party at First Ave (which holds about 1,500, I believe). So it was a cool show to seeThis photo is from P.O.S' set that happened around 1:50 am (which makes it allowed for today's image). Wow, you're thinking. That must have been a short set since bar close was at 2. Yeah... not so much. When the set was over and I left, around 2:20 am, the show was still going strong. But at some point, you just have to realize you are too old to be out shooting your 12th hour of rap music at 2:30 in the morning and that it's time to go homeIf you want to see other shots from the party, they are up over here. Seriously, check out that mirrored disco "ball." It rotated and everything.

So, first off, today was the Soundset music festival. It's a big rap show here in town that goes all day long and is over three stages. This was my first year going, and it was a game-time decision for me a) because I hate festivals b) because I hate crowds c) because I hate carrying my gear around for 8 hours straight d) because I hate the heat and it was 95 degrees and humid today. But I decided to go because... POS was gonna be playing a solo show. And I know he has a new album coming out this year, and we all know how much I LOVE POS' music, and I wanted to hear the new stuff.I also wanted to see Astronautalis, just because he's such a fun performer, and I was hoping to catch Lupe Fiasco as well. But that never happened, because right after Astronautalis' set ended, they cancelled the festival and told everyone to go home because a storm was on its way.And by "on its way" they meant "arriving in 2 minutes." And by "storm" they meant "armageddon." Seriously, I felt like those news casters who are trying to tell the public about a hurricane and you can't hear them and they are soaked and in pain on the television and the wind is blowing their clothes and trees in unnatural ways. That's what the weather turned into as TWENTY THOUSAND OF US hiked more than a mile back to our cars in this torrential rain that you couldn't see in and was pelting us (painfully!). You can only imagine the mudI really wanted to post an image of POS' set today, but I later attended an afterparty where he played after midnight, which (ding! ding! ding!) means I can use it for tomorrow's image. And I wanted to give you a *little* variety. Also? Just for the record? I saw at *least* eleven different rap groups today, and I think I'm a little rapped outAlso? I will post more photos tomorrow. I promise. OK, OK, photos are up. You can spy them here.