"Ms. Spyder's Tea Party" (c) 2008

"Ms. Spyder's Tea Party, Flam Chen, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2008 Stu Jenks and Flam Chen

    [Two images of Paul, Nadia and the Flam Chen Troupe performing 'Ms. Spyder's Tea Party' at Nimbus Brewery, on April 28th, 2008. Not many good images that night, from me. I really need to invest in that $1600 long fast Canon lens. I hate to go more into debt, but I may have to, if I'm going to stay viable in all of this. All of this photography thing.
    I didn't intend to be a photographer. Really. I was just an artist who wanted to make circles and spirals and show them around. Capture the mystery of the night and all of that. Photography seemed like the best way to do it. Now, I want to make more night images but with people in them too, and my lens glass isn't long enough or fast enough. Maybe I'll just go to the BR-549 Studios and hang some batik from a rock instead. Nah. I love the fabric work but I still have these images in my head that need to come out.
    Sometimes I wish I was a trust fund baby. I'd be a great trust fund kid. Generous with the extra cash. Openly grateful to the dead grandparent that pays for my rent, my ink, my paper, my camera, my food. Guess I'll still have to keep going to the day job after all. Fuck. Well, life could be much worse. I could be living in Burma.
    And I got a couple of OK images that night, I suppose. I quite like the intimacy and strength in the image of Nadia and Paul, spinning poi. And the graininess of the Woo Shoo poi shot doesn't bother me at all.
    Thank God, Paul and Nadia get what I'm trying to do, namely to help build a bit of artistic community and cooperation, in a time of greed and selfishness. We'll all continue to work hard and perhaps with luck, we'll make a bit more coin then we are right now. Maybe a lot of coin if we time it right and are very fortunate. Who knows. Bottom line: The work has the be the primary pleasure.]