December 16th, 2008 / 4:45 pm
Behind the Scenes

The Lives of Others: Selections from the Giant family photo album

If you’ve ever seen a copy of Mike Young’s uber-rare chapbook Peter Pan Mocha French Toast, there’s a picture on the back cover of a dude humping a couch–well that’s our own Blake Butler. And that’s MY couch. Here are some photographs from that same evening.

Lin - Malone - Butler

AWP 2008 4EVR.

Ryan tries his luck.

4EVR EVR?

Tao Lin videotaping Mike Young interfacing with some hummus

Tao Lin videotapes Mike Young's attempt to negotiate some hummus.

*************BONUS******************

This is the famous picture. Those might be my feet/legs.

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65 Comments

  1. pr

      thanks Justin, for posting these. So great to see faces and rear ends and so forth.

  2. pr

      thanks Justin, for posting these. So great to see faces and rear ends and so forth.

  3. Adam R

      Bring back Malone!

  4. Adam R

      Bring back Malone!

  5. Jimmy Chen

      why is everybody so attractive?
      i don’t belong at htmlgiant.

  6. Jimmy Chen

      why is everybody so attractive?
      i don’t belong at htmlgiant.

  7. pr

      Jimmy belongs.

  8. Shya

      This makes me feel old.

  9. Shya

      This makes me feel old.

  10. Jereme Dean

      jimmy is smooth and soft like a baby. do not feel bad jimmy.

      i am ugly. take solace in this.

      i am kind of disappointed at these pictures. blake has no fashion sense.

  11. Jereme Dean

      jimmy is smooth and soft like a baby. do not feel bad jimmy.

      i am ugly. take solace in this.

      i am kind of disappointed at these pictures. blake has no fashion sense.

  12. Blake Butler

      my fashion sense is: clothes

      i look ridiculously skinny in these. i don’t think i am that skinny. i also have an ass

  13. Blake Butler

      my fashion sense is: clothes

      i look ridiculously skinny in these. i don’t think i am that skinny. i also have an ass

  14. Gene Morgan

      httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2WLvomvk9A

  15. Gene Morgan

      httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2WLvomvk9A

  16. pr

      Gene- wtf is this?

  17. Ryan Call

      promo video for EVER

  18. Ryan Call

      promo video for EVER

  19. Blake Butler

      video comments work now!
      it’s so on.

  20. Blake Butler

      video comments work now!
      it’s so on.

  21. pr

      nice. is that you blake, reading it?

  22. barry

      i get it. broke, living in new york, its all the rage. but goddam, by some stuff for the apartment folks.

  23. barry

      i get it. broke, living in new york, its all the rage. but goddam, by some stuff for the apartment folks.

  24. Jereme Dean

      barry,

      minimalist chic

  25. Jereme Dean

      barry,

      minimalist chic

  26. Jereme Dean

      you sound like a chick blake.

      do not worry sweety, i think you are pretty.

  27. Jereme Dean

      you sound like a chick blake.

      do not worry sweety, i think you are pretty.

  28. pr

      my favorite is the lawn chair. that just cracks me up.

  29. Ryan Call

      the lawn chair toppled blake

  30. Ryan Call

      the lawn chair toppled blake

  31. Matt K
    • Matt K

        How do you do video? I have something special to share.

    • Matt K

        How do you do video? I have something special to share.

    • Jereme Dean

        where is that video where blake is screaming nonsensically and tao is making smoothies and shit?

        it is my favorite ‘blake’ moment.

    • Jereme Dean

        where is that video where blake is screaming nonsensically and tao is making smoothies and shit?

        it is my favorite ‘blake’ moment.

    • Blake Butler

        i am some semi significant percentage a ‘chick’

        pr, yes that’s me reading, but slowed down

    • Blake Butler

        i am some semi significant percentage a ‘chick’

        pr, yes that’s me reading, but slowed down

    • Blake Butler
      • Blake Butler

      • Blake Butler

          i blacked out about 100 min later

      • Blake Butler

          i blacked out about 100 min later

      • pr

          that video is why i love drunk people.

      • Jereme Dean

          this is the moment where i thought ‘i am going to marry that man one day’

          it was special.

      • Jereme Dean

          this is the moment where i thought ‘i am going to marry that man one day’

          it was special.

      • Justin Taylor

          pr- that lawn chair–and one other–were the first pieces of furniture i bought when i moved in. the original plan was for a large patch of plastic green shit like they put on outdoor patios and then a plastic palm tree. i guess that still could happen, though it almost certainly wont.

      • Justin Taylor

          pr- that lawn chair–and one other–were the first pieces of furniture i bought when i moved in. the original plan was for a large patch of plastic green shit like they put on outdoor patios and then a plastic palm tree. i guess that still could happen, though it almost certainly wont.

      • pr

          when i was 22, i lived in “LA” (lower allston, a nabe in the boston area) with five guys for a summer. We turned the huge living room into a space ship by turning the two couches and all the chairs in the same direction and papering all the walls with aluminun foil. We had a “captains chair”. We had power consoles that were cardboard boxes covered in aluminum foil with christmas lights punched through them. We got really really fucked up and hung out in there pretending to be on a space ship for HOURS AND HOURS at a time. Lots of fights over the captains chair ensued. Once someone got into the captains chair, it was really hard to get them out.

          I miss being young. I really do.

      • Ken Baumann

          Who did I play Mario Kart with at Justin’s?

          Was it Justin? Was it Mike?

      • Ken Baumann

          Who did I play Mario Kart with at Justin’s?

          Was it Justin? Was it Mike?

      • Justin Taylor

          Ken, we definitely played some Mario Kart. Mike was there too, but did he play?

          pr- that sounds way fun. i have a videotape that i think is of a party i threw in college. but its in a weird format and needs to be transferred to digital. i’m scared to do that but i want to so bad.

      • Justin Taylor

          Ken, we definitely played some Mario Kart. Mike was there too, but did he play?

          pr- that sounds way fun. i have a videotape that i think is of a party i threw in college. but its in a weird format and needs to be transferred to digital. i’m scared to do that but i want to so bad.

      • Jereme Dean

          pr we should have partied in our twenties together. i think we would have blown the walls out.

          i have lots of random stories.

          my friend had an empty telephone wire spindle for a table and smaller spindles for chairs.

          my entire flatware and stemware was stolen from various restaurants (thank you denny’s).

          i can make bottles magically levitate on the wall. great conversation piece when all you have is a sleeping bag and a 13inch tv in your living room.

          my favorite memory is making women out of beer bottle caps on the ceiling of our apartment.

          blah blah blah.

      • Jereme Dean

          pr we should have partied in our twenties together. i think we would have blown the walls out.

          i have lots of random stories.

          my friend had an empty telephone wire spindle for a table and smaller spindles for chairs.

          my entire flatware and stemware was stolen from various restaurants (thank you denny’s).

          i can make bottles magically levitate on the wall. great conversation piece when all you have is a sleeping bag and a 13inch tv in your living room.

          my favorite memory is making women out of beer bottle caps on the ceiling of our apartment.

          blah blah blah.

      • barry

          i remember i was at this party once. back when i was a dickhead 19 yr old. we poured boones farm in this guys tropical birds’ water dish and sprinkled weed in his food. they were both dead in the morning. we poured two gallons of bleach all over all his carpets. wrote in black marker on all the walls. broke at least 100 beer bottles against his living room wall, and threw all the food from the fridge onto the middle of the kitchen floor. i was a rotten bastard.

          i did the stupidest dumbest, cruelest, funnest, coolest, shit ever. i miss being 19.

          i will miss this spectacle… sorely miss. – joe dub

      • barry

          i remember i was at this party once. back when i was a dickhead 19 yr old. we poured boones farm in this guys tropical birds’ water dish and sprinkled weed in his food. they were both dead in the morning. we poured two gallons of bleach all over all his carpets. wrote in black marker on all the walls. broke at least 100 beer bottles against his living room wall, and threw all the food from the fridge onto the middle of the kitchen floor. i was a rotten bastard.

          i did the stupidest dumbest, cruelest, funnest, coolest, shit ever. i miss being 19.

          i will miss this spectacle… sorely miss. – joe dub

      • Brad Green

          Tao Lin looks three feet tall in that picture on the lawn chair. I always pictured him being like 8 feet tall and continually dunking on me with a expression of ‘medium-rage’ on his face.

      • Brad Green

          Tao Lin looks three feet tall in that picture on the lawn chair. I always pictured him being like 8 feet tall and continually dunking on me with a expression of ‘medium-rage’ on his face.

      • jereme

          barry,

          ah to be destructive and young. how i miss.

      • jereme

          barry,

          ah to be destructive and young. how i miss.

      • pr

          btw- it wasn’t we did that one day. our living room looked like that all summer for three months. and the kitchen was just piled high full of chairs so you couldn’t walk into it. and we lived in our space ship for a summer….sigh.

      • aaron

          good stuff. the goodtimes are contagious.

      • aaron

          good stuff. the goodtimes are contagious.

      • <HTMLGIANT> » Blog Archive » The Lives of Others: at the art opening

          […] in the vein of Selections from the Giant family photo album, I figure I’d consolidate our conversation into four snippets. Out of modesty and restraint, […]

      • Stainless Steel Flatware

          Interesting, I have not heard about this

      • Stainless Steel Flatware

          Interesting, I have not heard about this