"Death Valley Sky, Racetrack Playa, California" (c) 2005 Dan Duriscoe.
A 360 paroramic image, hence why The Milky Way is an arch in the photograph. Very nice work, Dan.
Those of you without HBO will have no fucking idea what I'm talking about, but when it comes out on DVD, you will:
At minute 57 of 60 of episode four of "The Newsroom", tonight, minutes ago, at 12:25 a.m., with tears streaming down my face, I'm whisper-screaming at my television set, saying, "She's not dead. She's not fucking dead, God damn it."
If you saw the show, you'll know what I'm talking about. If you didn't, here's a hint. The photo below.
I know she was my congresswoman. It know it was personal to me. (Really personal for her and Mark and the dead and injured.) I'm not objective about any of this, but I just watched the most meaningful fictional seven minutes of TV of my entire life.
Oh, "Fix You" by Coldplay played under it all.
It was perfect. Perfect television.
"Corporate Goddess" (one of twelve) by Muriel Castasnis, 580 California Street, San Francisco, California (c) 2012 Stu Jenks
"Bodie Hoop Dance (For Stu)" (c) Shawn Peterson, Stu Jenks & Scott Martin 2012
Well, what do you know? This image won Best Of Show at the 2012 Alameda County Fair in Northern California. It was a collaboration with Shawn, Scott and I. Shawn has done all the heavy lifting with this image: fiddliing with tones and densities, digital negative sandwiching, printing, framing, promoting, etc. I was just the hoop dancer on the wall. It was a great night at Bodie, last year, with Shawn, Scott, Lance and all the boys and girls. And Best Of Show comes with a cash prize attached. In payment for my part, Shawn's going to buy me a turkey leg, later this month, when I come up for the Fair. Anywho, a big round of applause for Shawn Peterson. Nicely down.
"179 Sunrises" by Ignas Kutavicius (c) 2012 (Exposure: 2011.06.27 - 2011.12.23 in Kaunas, Lithuania)
I bought this print today at Photographic Works' Curious Camera Show. Stunning work, and personally, those six months last year when this image was shot, were tough for me, but the Earth still circles the Sun and this image helps me to remember that. To see more of Ignas' work, go to his website. Below are his words.
"Solargraphy is a very primitive and simple technique to take extremely long exposure photos of the Sun's movement. To make this possible you need a pinhole camera made from a lightproof can or box, a sheet of light sensitive photo paper and a tiny hole instead of a lens. Then the camera is placed somewhere in the city away from curious eyes and being kept up to 6 months (sometimes even longer). Later the exposed sheet of paper is taken from the camera in a dark room and scanned as a negative. Surprisingly the resulting images are color even when a monochrome photo paper is used. During the exposure movement of the Sun is fixed (bright lines). From the photograph you can even tell what days were cloudy – short cuts in the Sun-traced lines are made by clouds covering the Sun."-Ignas Kutavicius
Today, Red: A Juried Invitational formally opens at Etherton's Temple Gallery. Click on this link to take you to Etherton's webpage promoting the show. Reception is from 5:30 to 7:30 today. Show will be up until June 1st, 2012.
My photograph Bozo & Bozette At Point Reyes, California is in the show.
And to those of you who have bought my book Bozo In Love, thank you so much for your financial support. It puts a roof over my head, gas in my car and food in my belly.
And for those of you who are creeped out by clowns, I hear you. I know a lot of people hate clowns. I understand.
Can I interest us you perhaps in a flame spiral book or a hoop dancing book or perhaps a nice CD of soothing music. (Shameless promotional grin.)
Come by tonight. It's a great show Etherton Gallery has juried.
And Happy Friday The Thirteen. It's usually my lucky day.
I've taken a number of good photographs of my studio, but none are better than this one taken by Jeff Smith, last Maundy Thursday.
Three tracks from 'Deaths & Injuries' were recorded at BR-549.
Thanks, Jefe. You are a very good man and a very good artist.
I've been saying this for years. Decades. It's not sore grapes on my part. I make money. Some. I just wish it was any type of grape. Just something grape-like: tasty, sweet, refreshing, with real fiber and good for you too. But no. It's not. Contemporary Art isn't good for you anymore.
One point Morley does explicitly makes in this great 60 Minutes piece is that this is where the super-rich, the .01%, or the .001%, spend their extra cash.
Christ, Daddy Warbucks, donate half of what you spend in Miami to your local Salvation Army, will you?
Did that art dealer just use the word 'organic?' Shoot me now.
It's shameful. Truly shameful. And this is coming from a reasonably successful artist. Me.
Watch the piece at this link.
Best quote from an art dealer: "This is theatre. This is all theatre."
Yes it is. Very bad theatre from The Art World. Very good TV from Morley Safer.
"Bear Butte, South Dakota"
All images (c) 2012 Stu Jenks
I like to talk. Ask anyone. I'm not going to say much here. Here's a wikipedia excerpt about the place.
"Human artifacts have been found on or near Bear Butte that date back 10,000 years, indicating a long and continuous interest in the mountain.The Cheyenne and Lakota people have maintained a spiritual interest in Bear Butte from their earliest recorded history.
Notable visitors like Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull made pilgrimages to the site. In 1857, a council of many Indian nations gathered at Bear Butte to discuss the growing presence of white settlers in the Black Hills.
Violating a treaty of 1868, George Armstrong Custer led an expedition to the Black Hills region in 1874, and according to custom he camped near Bear Butte. Custer verified the rumors of gold in the Black Hills, and Bear Butte then served as an easily identifiable landmark for the rush of invading prospectors and settlers into the region. Indian reaction to the illegal movements of whites into the area was intense and hostile. Ultimately the government reneged on its treaty obligations regarding the Black Hills and instead embarked on a program to confine all northern Plains tribes to reservations.
Ezra Bovee homesteaded on the southern slopes of the mountain, and by the time of World War II, he and his family were the legal owners of the site. In the spring of 1945, the Northern Cheyenne received permission from Bovee to hold a ceremony at Bear Butte to pray for the end of World War II. The Cheyenne found that the Bovee family welcomed their interest in the mountain, and over the years the Bovees continued to encourage native religious ceremonies.
By the mid-1950s Ezra Bovee was attempting to stir up interest in making Bear Butte a national park. After his death, his family continued the effort. When federal interest in the project waned, the state government in Pierre took action, and Bear Butte became a state park in 1961 and was registered as a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
Frank Fools Crow, the Lakota ceremonial chief (d. 1989), made pilgrimages to Bear Butte throughout his lifetime. Fools Crow taught racial harmony not just between whites and Indians, but among all the peoples of the world. He believed the Lakota should never sell the Black Hills. A bust and plaque in front of the education center at Bear Butte State Park honor Fools Crow’s efforts." - Wikipedia.
