max s. gerber(the latest shot)

i met dana in the summer of 2001, at a party at peter gilstrap’s house. it was a fluke that i was even at this party, i really try to avoid parties as much as i can. when i do have to go to a party i generally stand in the corner and read the person’s books, or stand in the kitchen and try to help cook something. anything to avoid talking to the inebriated. anyway, dana was standing in the kitchen, too. at the time dana worked as the associate art director of the LA weekly. i gave him my card, and he passed it along to debra, the photo editor. through debra, i met bill, and through bill i met dave. so, peter, dana, debra, bill and dave. five good, solid, talented, smart people. from one party. i guess it sometimes pays to go to parties.

dana then became the art director of LA citybeat, which just went belly up a couple weeks ago, sadly. they paid horribly and  had a bad habit of assigning things at 5pm on a friday that were due on the following monday. honestly, sometimes we’d just avoid answering the phone late on a friday afternoon so our weekend wouldn’t be ruined. all that being said, i really enjoyed working for citybeat – the subjects were often great, and dana’s layouts were always stellar. i started my career working for alt-newsweeklies, they’ve always been good to me, and i’ve always appreciated the experience.

dana was kind enough to make me a groomsman at his wedding a couple years ago, and it wasn’t even a trick to get me to take pictures. that’s the mark of a decent guy, right there. dana also used to live with a possum. or, near a possum. he also, at one point, had a pot bellied pig named “bacon”, but sadly that was in a different state.

dana was smart and got out of citybeat before the publishing trouble really hit. he decided he wanted to really learn how to draw, even though by anyone’s estimation he was already a tremendous illustrator. so he enrolled in art center, and now he’s working his ass off, beating the pants off the young kids there who think they’re hot shit. shhh, dana. don’t tell anyone you’re an art director.

dana was over at my house printing his final project for school on my printer. despite what the picture below looks like, he and milo really got along famously. no milo was injured in the making of these photographs.

see dana’s stuff here.

dana’s good people. you should all hire him to illustrate and design things. except when you should be hiring a photographer, that is. then you should call me.