Lithophyte Photography / Vivian Wang

04/08/2026

💚 Thoughts on music, loss, love, and our beloved Old 97's.

Thanks to Derrick K. Lee and Blurred Culture for carrying this unconventional concert review.

A deeply personal live review of Old 97's at Webster Hall, blending music, memory, and emotional storytelling from a longtime fan.

01/26/2026

Everything is on fire, but everyone I love
is doing beautiful things
and trying to make life worth living,
and I know I don’t have to believe in everything,
but I believe in that.
- Nikita Gill

Thank you for the beauty you bring into this world, Jesse, not only through your music but also (simply and profoundly) through who you are. I’m so, so, so lucky and grateful for all that’s followed our first conversation down in Berlin. ❤️ Happy, happy birthday to the menschiest mensch we know.

And happy birthday, ! You’re the people’s queen and truth-teller for our troubled times. A new album is an incredible way to mark the turning of the next page.

Been having a lot of convos lately that circle back to this idea: every act of care for our friends and neighbors, and every act of creation (be it a meal, painting, song, photo, poem, cartoon—anything, really) is also an act of defiance against those who would have us feeling disconnected and hopeless. We will keep each other safe. We will write the next chapters together.

Photos:
1) December 2025, NYC
2) and 3) July 2025, opening of
4) September 2022, ’s studio, Nashville
5) September 2025, opening night of at Gramercy Theatre

01/15/2026

Silver Manhattan is a narrative of someone who has never stopped creating, from his boyhood days taking the subway from Queens to St. Marks Place, to the present day following a spinal stroke. Life is messy, loss is devastating, and through it all, every song and every show is part of a story that is ever unfolding, ever defying the odds.
•••
It was a big deal to me, getting to do this shoot with Jesse. The team’s “ask” was to present the chair clearly. But I know that it’s gotta be hard to be confronted with the stark reality in the form of a photo. I’d spent the last 1.5 years trying to shoot more tightly, interpreting spoken and unspoken cues to avoid the chair or walker in the frame. It wasn’t necessarily how I wanted to shoot from a visual arts standpoint, but I couldn’t bear the thought of adding to a friend’s pain.

I really hope that the photos we made, two of which I’m sharing today, begin to tell a story of both/and, not either/or. You can both use a chair and be a formidable frontperson. You can be both changed and undiminished. The person I know today is an even stronger and deeper soul than the (already exemplary) person I met some years ago.

It was so fun to bring fam to the final Gramercy Theatre show, and to see Lucinda Williams and Jim Jarmusch among the luminous faces of Jesse’s friends and fans. I’m looking forward to the next chapter at Bowery Palace. Tickets are on sale now. Link in the comments below.

09/18/2025

🐱🥃

Working on a couple new projects at (yes, one of the projects is drinking)

📷:

09/17/2025

06/29/2025

Fantastic Cat Band furever

01/21/2025

I was thinking about the universe
For what it’s worth
Or the one about the phoenix bird
That died and then returned —
•••
(1) Jesse & Bruce x “Broken Radio”
(2) Bruce with an end-of-night surprise set
(3) Willie Nile & band (+ in action on the left)
(4) one w/ the band for “Broken Radio”
(5) John Rzeznik (Goo Goo Dolls)
(6) Jesse & Bruce taking in the show from sidestage
(7) a surprise “spayed and neutered” acoustic set with Fantastic Cat, w/ Danny Clinch joining on harmonica
(8) the joy on the Fantastic Cat guys’ faces was everything (Don was waiting in the wings to join Jesse for “Atheists” / sorry, Brian, about Anthony’s beard blocking your face)
(9) Brian Fallon + Jesse + Debbie Harry catching up between sets
•••
The Light of Day benefit show (to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease) was a beautiful gathering on many levels. I’m grateful to have been there, and really appreciate everyone behind the scenes who made it all happen.

I wish, for all of us, hope and resilience in the face of all that’s ahead. Let’s be good to each other. I keep returning to this quote drawn from Talmudic teachings. It helps give me courage; maybe it will resonate with you, too:

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

💙

01/07/2025

💙

NEW YORK, NY- Language is both so capacious and so limiting. “Love,” we say, “hope,” we write, and the words call up a vast configuration of memory and meaning within which it’s hard to find a foothold. When Jesse Malin last performed in New York,...

12/04/2024

Language is both so capacious and so constraining. “Love,” we say, “hope,” we write, and the words mean a lot yet don’t make the mark. The terror and beauty of the human experience will always overflow the containers of words.

Nineteen months of shoving all my big, complicated feelings into a box—because there’s work to be done, because our friend needs our strength, because tears get in the way, because the only way is forward. Then two nights of experiencing a manifestation of care and respect at a depth, breadth, and nuance as I’ve never before seen. Sleepless nights in between and since—of editing photos, of weighing words, of berating myself (to the point of tearful inefficacy!). Nothing could be good enough, nothing gets it right. How could any of this documentation be as beautiful as Jesse deserves?

But I have to try, so here we go. A collection of moments from two nights at the Beacon, from soundcheck to curtain-up to post-show.

I hope they help tell this chapter of the story of a remarkable and beautiful person fighting step by step—literally and figuratively—to get back on stage. Of the artist friends (musicians, actors, and filmmakers) who needed no persuading to jump on the bill. Of the fans and friends and nurses who traveled from all over and hung onto every second of these two show, many watching through tears. Of the team behind the scenes.

, you say that you want to be the one giving—putting on benefit shows for others, as you have since you were 11 or 12 and playing in your hardcore band, Heart Attack. I understand how you don’t want to be the one asking for help.

But this isn’t just ::for:: you. It’s ::because:: of you. We wouldn’t be here together—this big, beautiful, quirky, creative community would not ::exist::—but for you. You’ve worked tirelessly and given generously. You created all of this.

And this is just the turning of a page. I know there are so many chapters you’ve yet to write. We’re here for all of it. We love you.

Thank you for letting me bear witness, to record these moments. It means more than I can possibly express. ❤️

Too many pics and words to fit here. More to follow, pls send Kleenex thx

11/19/2024

😭🫶🏼🌲💚👻