1st of all- for all the people who got handed cards…. you gotta keep checking back, it will be a few days before I have the MMA pics up from tonight, as I have wayyyyyyyyyy too many f’in pics. Now for the rest of you who have no idea what I’m talking about: I’m currently at Couch 46. Mike “Mini-Van” - the winner of tonight’s Mixed Martial Arts cage fight in Iowa. What’s Ori doing in Iowa? Wasn’t he in Minnesota, and stranded’ish? Well.. let’s rewind. So.. I told y’all about how I went to that water park, then drove through the night and got to Minnesota. Minnesota was interesting, because my GPS got me right into downtown Minneapolis. Apparently, there are 1 way streets there…. and the cars drive on the left, and the trains drive on the right… Let’s just say I had a close call when making a right on red. I called up a bunch of people I knew were in the area, and had made a few plans to meet people. I 1st met Stewart Burden- the guy that created OneModelPlace.com - at his Cigar Lounge. We just hung out- I used to work for OMP, so he’s my old boss. Stewart is an extremely smart, polite, and funny guy. It was really neat, as he was showing me the latest and greatest things he’s working on. I showed him my new images. I got the ok from the owners to shoot some models in the walk-in humadors, so I e-mailed a bunch of models. No reply yet by the way. I then hung out with Robert Odegard - a fantasy artist that I just saw on Model Mayhem the day before. We met at Mall of America, - which is impressive… has its own amusement park with water slides, thrill-rides, and rollercoasters. We got some chinese food, and sat down and talked about images and fantasy art. I was able to give him some good advice on some new tools, and show him a few tricks. What an interesting character! He’s a software programmer, and he also likes to build robots for the fun of it– he’s quite innovative in that field as well. After it was time to go, I didn’t know where I was going, so I went to Denny’s, put out an SOS “I’m stranded, who do you know in Minnesota?” - Sara Vosler, a friend of mine that I met through her husband - a photographer friend of mine - Doug, had used to live in Minnesota. She had found me Couch 46! It was her friend Steven. Steven and Nate were really nice. We compared favorite YouTube clips, and I answered a lot of questions about my trip. Nate had originally told Steven that I could be there so long as Steven’s around to make sure I’m ok.. i.e. I’m Steven’s responsibility. After a short time, he (Nate) said I’m welcome to come back, as well as recommending various family members of his in other states that I can couch surf with. I ate my Chilli-Burger from Denny’s, and started driving. I got a call from Flippo- a guy I met in Iowa a while back while shooting a motorcycle stunts show. Flippo wanted to see if I got a couch yet- or if I had one for the next day. For the next day he had an awesome solution for me… Mixed Martial Arts cage fight… and I can couch-surf with the fighters. That’s exactly what happened. I went to the fights, got a speeding ticket along the way. Met Shanda, a female fighter that Flipo introduced me to, and also Tommy, a male fighter that Flippo introduced me to. I had the absolute best seat in the house…. I was closer to the fight than the judges… they were sitting in chairs right next to the cage. I was on my knees, with my lens on the cage. The fights were awesome, and I even had to move out of the way a few times when fighters got thrown at the fence where I was. The press section was actually full, that’s why I sat where I did… I sat where the ring girls kept their large “round #_” cards (leaning against the cage). I had actually taken a lot of shots of the people the ring girls were interested in, as well as some pics of the ring girls, and told them a few jokes. This turned out to be a great thing, later…. little did I know.

During the break, I was hanging out with Shanda & Tommy, and was checking if they are going to be training this week, so I can take some photos of the training, and make some crazy fight images… i.e. them fighting dragons or robots, etc… A guy standing behind them asked me if I had a card, apparently, he had been looking for someone who can make this image he had in mind… and I can, of course. What’s the odds ? He had a big buddy, Brett. Brett is so frigging cool– more on that later.

After all the fights were over, Tommy said he needed a jump start, and I had cables. I went to jump his car, but his car started on its own. Why do I mention it? Because it turned out amazing luck that I went with them. They showed me where the club “Crush” is…. I got the best parking spot possible, and then Scott Casber - the guy who got me on the list (thanks to Flippo), and owns Take-Down-Radio — saw me, and got me into the club. I brought my camera with me, but quickly got bored… as I didn’t know anyone. I saw some fighters, and some ring girls. I saw one of the other photographers from the fight, and went to say hello. He introduced me to Amber, one of the owners of the club. He shoots for Ohio Night Life. Amber gave us some beers, and we hung out and shot the shit. I got bored of being bored, so I was going to go talk to one of the ring girls, and have her introduce me to some people. I walk into the VIP, and one of the girls who was sitting next to the ring girls saw me, and signaled me to come over (A lot of people have me come over to take photos…), she introduced herself as Sarah. Apparently, her & her husband OWN the fight! The MCC. We chatted for a while, and she set me up with lots of Gray Goose Vodka, and whatever to mix it with (Lemon/Orange/Cranberry juices). I sat there, drinking, chatting, and then Brett walked in and the evening became really funny. Brett saw me, smiled, came over, said hello, and was wondering if he can use my camera. He shot a photo of me. Then he had me pose with one of the ring girls, Emily. Then he had me pose with this other girl. Then we went around the club for the next hour or so, he had me pose with every fighter (especially the UFC ones), and every girl in the club! Lots of ones we didn’t know, that were not there for the after party. It didn’t matter if they were in a group of girls, or if they had guys there… heck, he had me pose with some of the crazy looking guys & couples. The club was getting pissy about it… “Who are you shooting for?” when I was shooting… when Brett was shooting, security came up and gave us grief, and Brett said something… 2 minutes worth of something… and then the guy backed off. We went to the VIP, and took a shot (and more drinks) - security came to give us more shit.. so Brett told them I’m doing a documentary… security asked Sarah if she knew me, and she went off on them “We brought this guy in from out of town to do a documentary on the MCC, and you guys keep interrupting his work! Who the hell do we need to talk to?” short version, she straightened it out, and Brett got shots of me with the heads of security :). More girls, more fighters, club closes, we want to go to the next club, but his ex-girlfriend is all pissed off that he was blowing her off to take pictures. She got really drunk, and was passed out on the side of a building. We tried to take her to Mike “Mini” Van Meer (Mini ’cause he’s short and wide, and Van Meer - so they just call him “Mini-Van”)’s place, and finally got her by the door, but when she heard we’re going to Boom Boom Room, she got pissed off and took off running (towards her car). We walked, “Don’t worry, she’s in really bad shape, she can’t run long” - we get a block or 2, and “She’s hiding… watch…”and Brett tries to call her, to make her phone ring and we can find her. She picks up right away, so we can’t find her. We see a group of 6 girls waiting outside “The Drink” - another club - and so of course, it’s posing time. Brett took photos of me with them… it took a second to convince them, aws I was wearing my “I shoot people” shirt, and they didn’t realize it had a camera on it He then had me pose with a cab driver… then we got to “Down under” where Noura’s car was….. You know what…. this is a lot of writing, I’ll just finish it up so I can post it- short version:
She tried to take off driving, Brett called her and told her to pull over, or for her own safety he’ll call the cops to pull her over. Charles Diaz & Mini-van’s uncle were there where she pulled over, and talked to her for a while, while Brett was shooting crazy pics of me. We all squeezed into one car, went to Boom-Boom Room, danced, came back to Mini-Van’s place… everyone was passed out, and apprently puking (remember, I said it was a good thing I went to give Tommy a jump start… that way I got free Gray Goose drinks, and I didn’t pass out on shots like everyone that went to Down Under). Diaz made these delicious egg sandwiches, and we all chatted for a bit. I got to pose with Mike’s championship belts! They are HEAVY! Brett even got a shot of Mike naked, since he was passed out naked. I showed it to Mike (Mini-Van) the next day, and he laughed his ass off, said to caption it “The JagerMeister knocked out the Champ”

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