S.J. Dibai

About me:

For better or for worse, this is the primary online home of writer, publicist, music maven, and amateur photographer S.J. Dibai. I am also on Facebook, but I've had problems with certain people there, so I had to restrict access to my profile. I hope you understand.

For over three years now, I've been running a music blog called One Note Ahead, where pretty much anything goes as long as I think it's worth covering. MySpace is sometimes kind to my blog links, so maybe this link will work. If not, http://onenoteahead.blogspot.com will do the trick.

As a music publicist, I have worked with some of my favorite local acts: Downtown Harvest, Audible Eye, Laura Cheadle, The Absolute Zeros, and The Josh and Pete Band. I'm currently in talks with a few other interested parties about some very interesting prospects. If you want or need an idea of what I do, I chronicle my work on this blog -- that's http://dibaipr.blogspot.com in case MySpace is messing with my links.

As for my photography, I'm just a guy with a camera. I don't always get the best shots. But I am genuinely interested in the people and things I photograph. I have a bunch of concert and festival photos posted, and I am also sharing my Philly Photo Project here, album by album. This project had me documenting Philly as I see it, and it went well for 7 1/2 months. I then endured a complex and absurd sequence of events involving a subway station, a filmmaker, three transit authority employees, and a legally questionable rule that is only haphazardly enforced. At this point, I decided the project was no longer fun and ceased to actively pursue it. But if I have my camera and happen to see something I think I won't get in trouble for photographing, I'll add it to my Philly photo collection.

Philly Photo Project albums:

Miscellaneous: Since my Philly Photo Project was never completed to satisfaction (and never will be), I have a lot of photos that don't fit in with the rest but are worth sharing anyway. In this album, you'll find images of the city limits and a few photos that are geographically hard to categorize. I never did get to do justice to Northeast Philly with this project, so whatever I got of the Northeast and the immediate vicinity will appear here as well. All photos taken between January and August, 2009. All photos Copyright 2009 by S.J. Dibai.

Center City East: Center City = Philly-speak for "Downtown." The boundaries are debatable, but for the purposes of this album, "Center City East" means east of Broad St, north of Lombard St, south of Vine St, and west of Penn's Landing. Just because it's easier for me that way. There will be a "Center City West" album as well. All photos taken between January and August, 2009. All photos Copyright 2009 by S.J. Dibai.

North: We could argue for years about the meaning of the term "North Philly," but for the purposes of this album we need only concern ourselves with the north-south boundaries: I'm going with "north of Girard Ave, south of Olney Ave." I didn't go into the absolute worst parts of North Philly with my camera, nor did I capture the busiest shopping districts: I'm street smart, not street stupid. But I did try to document what I find most interesting about this misunderstood part of town. All photos taken between January and August, 2009. All photos Copyright 2009 by S.J. Dibai.

Northwest: It's just Manayunk and Chestnut Hill. I wanted to photograph East Falls and a little bit of Roxborough and Andorra, but I never got around to them. And I knew I'd probably never even attempt to tackle Germantown and Mount Airy because I just don't know them well enough. So enjoy Manayunk and Chestnut Hill. All photos taken between January and August, 2009. All photos Copyright 2009 by S.J. Dibai.

More coming soon.

See also http://world.nycsubway.org/us/phila/index.html, a site that has published many of my Philly-area rail photos (click here, here and here to cut right to the chase).

Thanks for visiting.