I'VE GOT A FEVER! AND THE PRESCRIPTION...IS MORE COWBELL!

After a series of staggering defeats, Blue Oyster Cult assembled in the recording studio in late 1976 for a session with famed producer Bruce Dickinson. And, luckily for us, the cameras were rolling...

UNCLE BONEMAN

The latest images of my soon to be born nephew, Jack Michael Gifford. It's kind of hard to tell, but he's looking right at you in this image, with a "What 'chu looking at, MF'er? Can't a baby just get his gestation on? Step off, bitches!" look on his face. It's just his face in the image, not his whole body. Here's what we know; the due date is May 20th, he's a boy, he has the best parents a baby can ask for, and the Boneman will teach him everything his father doesn't, which won't be much! My sister Kelly says he's popping out on May 12th. We'll see...

GIRL SELLING SCORPIONS

This is one of my favorite photographs taken in China. You can see a slide show of all the photos here. As the picture suggests, she could not have been more ambivalent to my presence, and I could not have been more interested in her after school job. I took it in the biggest street market in the city of Guangzhou, called the Qingping Market. The market was more of an attraction than a shopping destination, for me. It's an understatement to say that the exotic can be found here. The Chinese medicine section had a selection of all sorts of roots and herbs, and also dried animal parts that they believe to be medicinal. After that section, you encounter a menagerie. Live animals — ones you might expect (eg chickens and rabbits) to the not-so-usual (eg turtles, snakes, monkeys and insects) — are sold and sometimes slaughtered right on the spot. This meat market was morbidly fascinating to me, being used to purchasing meat packed and frozen from the supermarket. I got to see a turtle being "packaged." It is not for people with weak stomachs, but it was an experience I am not likely to get anywhere else.