Learned the hard way the difference between ‘live’ and ‘live performance’ this week when Lil Wayne came to town. I knew I was too old for the music, too old to stay up that late, too un-drunk to enjoy myself with the hoards of college kids… but I thought Wayne on stage in a small club might make for some great photos; I was happy to take the assignment. On stage was all he was. Show was set to start at 10pm, He showed up at 1am, got on stage and just sat and stared at his phone. I mean literally just stared at his phone, no doubt tweeting about how he was in the middle of robbing thousands of college kids. I’m not sure he even looked up to acknowledge that there was, in fact, a crowd there. I talked to the owner at about 230am wondering when I would be photographing a Lil Wayne performance… he laughed; “he’s under no contractual agreement to actually perform.”

I couldn’t believe the people that paid $80 didn’t riot. I would have, though I managed to keep myself entertained photographing the crowd and their mostly individual phone interactions. Come to think of it, maybe that’s where the show was, everyone was piped in to the cellular Young Money concert. I am too old for this…