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November 06, 2018 - In the upstairs Pastor’s Study at Lula Drake on Sunday night, Queef headlined a live musical celebration of the new film...

August 07, 2018 - Sean Rayford: If you participated in organized crime, what would your role and nickname be? Sean Thomson: Something bor...

February 19, 2018 - Celebrating his retirement from the U.S Army, Confederate Fagg drummer, Packer, and bandmates Teabag Balzac, Spanky Swat...

February 11, 2018 - A show at the Elbow Room was my alibi on two occasions in 1998. The first instance occurred when my neighbors in Preston...

January 31, 2018 - Sean: Do you believe in aliens? Alex: No. I want to, but I just don't. Do you believe that they don't exist or just ha...

January 15, 2018 - The South Carolina NAACP hosted the annual King Day at the Dome this morning in Columbia, SC. Following the statewide pr...

December 07, 2017 - '68, Whores, Alistair Hennessey (not pictured) performed at New Brookland Tavern last night in West Columbia, SC. The t...

November 23, 2017 - One of the best things about photography - and most creative endeavors - is the unending process of learning. In celebra...

November 20, 2017 - Charleston's Susto performed at the Music Farm Columbia and will be heading back out on the road during the month of Dec...

November 16, 2017 - PHOTOS AND WORDS BY SEAN RAYFORD University of South Carolina grad Andres Ortega had a nice job in corporate America.

November 01, 2017 - Children laughing in every direction. Music coming from three. A shriek from a frightened skeleton wearing a tutu and an...

October 28, 2017 - The last time I saw Third Eye Blind my friend Fred punched my not friend Larry at a stadium show in D.C. It rained durin...

October 24, 2017 - NOT SUITABLE FOR WORKPLACE VIEWING - Adult content ahead When I walked into the bathroom my friend Jaime Clark was pain...

October 20, 2017 - Three Texas men with extremist ties have been charged with attempted homicide after firing at a group of protestors yest...

October 18, 2017 - Dressed as Lady Liberty, black tape sealing her lips, Miranda Anderson stood next to Brent Hutcheson on Monday night in...

October 15, 2017 - You know something’s afoot when a dude walks past you on Main Street in Columbia wearing a Merge Records t-shirt and you...

October 07, 2017 - Atlanta's Manchester Orchestra booked their first out of town gig in Columbia, SC and singer Andy Hull, along with his b...

August 27, 2017 - So far this weekend, I’ve made photos at an Apache helicopter team’s deployment to Afghanistan, a youth golf skills tour...

August 24, 2017 - It was a sneak attack from behind. Energized by the crowd’s appreciation for his jive, sporting a black fanny pack and a...

July 01, 2017 - “Sarah created this amazing sea monster that was grabbing a boat and it was delivering it from the sky. Our monsters… mi...

June 16, 2017 - Sean: If you are eating peanut butter, how or with what are you putting it in your mouth? Tyler: With a spoon. Or in a...

April 13, 2017 - I wasn't out in front of the South Carolina Statehouse again for a another protest. The antiwar protestors just happene...

December 13, 2016 - Sean: Would you rather fight one donkey-sized duck or 100 duck sized donkeys? Josh Bumgarner: I’d probably go with the...

December 12, 2016 - Sean: What makes a good donut? Aaron Graves: A good yeast donut or a cake donut, you can dunk it. The cake or the yeast...

August 08, 2016 - When I ran into Summer Ruisseaux on Friday night at New Brookland Tavern she was a bit apprehensive about hosting a hous...

July 20, 2016 - "NAZI SCUM!...OFF OUR STREETS! NAZI SCUM!...OFF OUR STREETS! NAZI SCUM!...OFF OUR STREETS! I can hear protestors in the...

January 01, 2016 - I felt for the folks last night celebrating New Year's Eve when I watched a girl finish a Bud Light at the front of the...

November 23, 2015 - A week ago this morning, I was preparing to cover a student organized walkout and protest at the University of South Car...

June 16, 2015 - If one were to judge my travels in and around Columbia, SC by this edit of Instragram photos I've made during the last t...

May 16, 2015 - I'm balancing between a Red Bull table and a metal stool during Of Montreal's headlining set when Tyler Morris of E.T. A...

May 14, 2015 - What are we going to complain about now that Columbia has a venue to accommodate it's very own hometown indie rock super...

April 05, 2015 - I knew this wasn't your average sporting event when my friend Katie showed up and showered a participant with champagne...

April 03, 2015 - There are 7,070 miles between Columbia, SC and the hometowns of the five bands who visited New Brookland Tavern last nig...

February 19, 2015 - I love Instagram. I mean come on, if you told me 10 years ago that I'd be able to walk around with camera technology lik...

December 31, 2014 - For me, 2014 has most resembled the journey our elementary school kickball used to take during homeruns and when someone...

December 31, 2014 - It's the morning of the final day of the year and we've only reached June of 2014 in this 365 day music narrative. That...

December 30, 2014 - Welcome back. If you've been following along with the narrative, we're about a third of the way through 2014 and picking...

December 04, 2014 - As a freelance photographer, I end up shooting for a lot of different entities. From the university, a greek organizatio...

November 21, 2014 - If you were traveling around downtown Columbia last night and were detoured from your usual route, you can blame the ann...

October 09, 2014 - Fascinated by the organization of shapes and colors and avid observer of human behavior - the fair for me is heaven. The...

September 14, 2014 - I met up with Bakari before the Diarrhea Planet show at Art Bar the other week. Before I could get the questions rolling...

August 16, 2014 - I had forgotten the implications of being an out during the last inning when your team is losing an elimination game or...

August 07, 2014 - A few weeks back I got a phone call from Curt Heiny, an EDM producer from Columbia, who makes and performs under the mon...

August 02, 2014 - I tracked down Dylan Dickerson of Dear Blanca at last night's Arts & Draughts to not talk about their new record or the...

August 01, 2014 - “The bassoon is one of my favorite instruments. It has a medieval aroma, like the days when everything used to sound lik...

July 30, 2014 - Just before Steely Dan took the stage last night at the Township Auditorium, I had a conversation with a venue employee...

July 21, 2014 - It was a pretty close match at the Columbia Armory on Saturday evening between the Richland County Regulators and Greens...

July 17, 2014 - I've been photographing and working shows involving different projects from Atlanta musician Josh Scogin for most of my...

June 25, 2014 - When I used to bartend at New Brookland I would create drink specials and name them for the experience of having custome...

June 23, 2014 - Just on the inside of the the doorway to the runway it was like a colony of bees. Make-up artists and hair professionals...

April 20, 2014 - For a few minutes on Thursday night, patrons at the Columbia Museum of Art were teleported to Antarctica with a large he...

March 25, 2014 - "Street rat in a ball," said the young man wearing a knit cap on Sixth St. in downtown Austin on a Wednesday night durin...

March 17, 2014 - "MOM! MOM! MOM!" I could hear the chant behind me funneling through the chaos of St. Patrick's Day in Five Points, Colu...

March 17, 2014 - Sometimes the humans react in strange and awesome ways when they see me with a camera. A long time ago (think Jesus time...

March 11, 2014 - "It's about to get real windy out here," says the dude carrying the leaf blower on the deck of the Javelina Bar at 69 Ra...

March 04, 2014 - As the sun crashed across the City Roots Farm near Owens Field Airport on Saturday, groups of children played on piles o...

March 03, 2014 - The premise of this photoblog is a pursuit of rainbow pooping unicorns. Saturday morning I came pretty close, when I sho...

February 10, 2014 - On four Friday nights each year Soda citizens gather downtown at the Columbia Museum of Art to listen to live music, dri...

August 09, 2013 - My favorite photography medium to work in is now "book" - followed closely by buttons. I'm happy to announce that...

July 24, 2013 - "Don't you know what you are doing is against the law?" shouted the Westinghouse Nuclear facility's rent-a-cop from the...

June 21, 2013 - "Was it dark or light beer?" "That's awesome if that is your first question - and it was a PBR." So begins my phone co...

May 20, 2013 - I saw three notable bands at Rockafellas' during my freshman year at USC before the music venue shut it's doors: Machine...

May 13, 2013 - I spent the Saturday before last hanging out at Williams Brice Stadium photographing the Kenny Chesney concert. Most of...

April 29, 2013 - "The Bangover lasts about three days. The first show, you lose your mind [onstage]. And then the next two you are in ago...

April 23, 2013 - The drunk guy at the festival has always been a side attraction for me, orchestrating a ballet of intoxication that is o...

April 14, 2013 - Jadeveon "Hammer of the Gods" Clowney was standing next to me on the sideline in sneakers and shorts when the quarterbac...

April 09, 2013 - I'm experiencing a strange personal dream episode of MSNBC's Lock Up. It's as if the hand of god has reached down throug...

February 15, 2013 - I would compare Columbia's third annual Mardi Gras Festival held at City Roots, to the long running St. Partick's Day Fe...

January 23, 2013 - I found out about last Wednesday night's show at Cult Classic after running into a band from Miami outside of Drip Coffe...

January 02, 2013 - "Could you take my picture - cause I won't remember." -'Take a Picture' by Filter (1999) Can you blame me? Here's th...

December 26, 2012 - Shoot for the Moon. Hopefully, Santa was able to fit that 400mm AF f2.8 down the chimney the other night and you woke u...

December 21, 2012 - I spent the final week before the end of the world wandering around Columbia observing how my fellow citizens of the Sod...

December 17, 2012 - Columbia, South Carolina By my rough estimate - come New Year's Eve - I will have seen over 600 bands play this year an...

December 04, 2012 - After the recent acquisition of another AK-47 by a co-worker at the music club, it seemed like an opportune time to revi...

October 27, 2012 - It's not quite Halloween in Columbia, South Carolina but it's Friday night and we're living in Zombie Town Soda City sty...

October 23, 2012 - Friday - October 19, 2012 - Columbia, SC "Awe come on pig. Just jump in the darn water," pleaded the former strip club...

October 06, 2012 - Columbia Museum of Art - Friday, October 5, 2012 - Cola Con I spent most of the evening at the Rock 93.5 Fall Out Festi...

September 26, 2012 - I didn't expect to see anybody at New Brookland Tavern when I dropped by mid-afternoon on Tuesday to double check my wor...

September 18, 2012 - College sports rivalries are so much fun, especially when your alma mater comes out victorious over those nasty orange h...

August 27, 2012 - August 26, 2012 - Columbia, South Carolina Sunday was the final day of the Famously Hot Music Festival at Finlay...

August 26, 2012 - August 25, 2012 - Columbia, South Carolina I have come to the conclusion that some of the happiest people on earth ar...

August 25, 2012 - August 24, 2012 - Columbia, South Carolina As I walked across the perpetually soaked concert lawn of Finlay Park yest...

August 16, 2012 - Columbia, South Carolina: July 31 - August 11, 2012 A few months back I moved over to the west side of town, a mere 9...

July 25, 2012 - From here on out I will be naming my cameras after Hall of Fame baseball players. I'm thinking that if I can give the tw...

July 18, 2012 - Monday, July 16, 2012 - Columbia, South Carolina I stood at the top of the South Carolina state house steps and looke...

July 05, 2012 - June 30, 2012: Columbia, South Carolina It was the hottest day known to history in the state of South Carolina. Here in...

June 25, 2012 - June 22, 2012 My co-workers from the New Brookland Tavern like shooting guns and one of them just got an AK. It's also...

May 22, 2012 - Monday, May 21, 2012 - New Brookland Tavern - West Columbia, SC You may recognize the Pretty Things Peep Show from NY I...

May 07, 2012 - Rosewood Crawfish Festival - Columbia, SC - May 5, 2012 I'm pretty sure it was mid-song, during an instrumental interlu...

May 01, 2012 - Dudes in vans. Sunday, April 22, 2012 - New Brookland Tavern I have been bartending at New Brookland Tavern for too lon...

April 23, 2012 - April 17, 2012: New Brookland Tavern On a hobbled picnic bench in a parking lot next to an abandoned motorcycle co-op g...

April 18, 2012 - I filed an extension yesterday and decided to use the time I would have spent dealing with our unreasonably complex tax...

April 03, 2012 - While visiting my old stomping grounds from the grade school days a few months ago during the Christmas holiday in Mt. A...

February 27, 2012 - I've heard people talk about unicorns dropping out of the sky and then pooping rainbows. You might say those people are...