The Fezziwig News by Stu Jenks

All 8 1/2" x 11" A/P archival pigment prints by Stu Jenks for $25, shipping, handling and taxes included...

Image: "Queen Esther Baptist Church, Lancaster, Virginia" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks (Just down River Road from Victoria's house. Love that luscious red carpet. And for you nocturnals out there, it was handheld. Rare for me.)

In this time of making photos on iPhones and Macbook Pros and only looking on screens, I forget I'm a old-school guy. I make a 8 1/2 x 11 work print on archival paper of EVERY image I make. EVERY one. It's the only way, for me, to accurately check for color shift, density, composition, etc. I really like my iPad screen but it's no way to make a good print.

And I have hundreds, if not thousands, of work prints artist proofs at my studio.

If you see an image of mine on The StuBlog or on my old website or on the Fezziwig Press Store or in any of my books, there's a beautiful small print in a box somewhere, perhaps with your name on it. And since I'm organized, I can find it.

Many of you can't afford my larger prints. I understand. I don't have an extra 50 or 100 lying around either. But I do have an extra $20 for stuff I really like.

So if you see an image of mine on any of my sites or in any of my books and you want it, it's yours for $25, shipping, handling and tax included. (I believe in paying taxes, sales and otherwise.)

Just email me at my facebook page or through the StuBlog or at stujenks@gmail.com, and tell me what print you would like or just pull the jpeg and send that to me.

I was just watching the Tarhells lose today in basketball, working on images at my computer when I thought, 'I bet people don't realize I have boxes of work prints here.'

You all do now.

Love and light,

Stu

p.s. Ignore the catagories belows. The computer went wacky. Another reason why I prefer a print in the hand as opposed to an image in The Cloud.

"Deaths & Injuries" is now on iTunes and at CDBaby.com

"Deaths & Injuries" is now available at your local iTunes store on your computer and on your mobile devices, and at my CDBaby.com page, both as a digital download and as a physical CD. You can also buy the physical CD at the Fezziwig Press Store. CDs are $12.00 through me and $13.00 through CDBaby.com (S & H extra.) And the digital downloads are your standard .99 cents per track.

Thanks, y'all.

Stu

p.s. The above image, "Ed-Lil" is on the inside cover of this CD. Just tired of putting the same cover image on my blog to promote this CD. If you want to see the cover, just scroll down.

Now available, on the Apple IPad: The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010) and Bozo In Love

Been a long time coming for The Transpersonal Papers (1861-2010).

Three editors, two proofreaders, two designers, four printers, and hours, days, weeks, months, years, lifetimes, (I know I'm overstating), of writing, traveling, shooting, editing, remembering, hiking, and more writing, shooting, and editing, but I'm not complaining. No, no, no.

And apologies for not having the dough right now, to print The Transpersonal Papers as a coffee-table book as I had originally planned. ($10,000, it would have cost. Maybe someday.) But you now can buy it, for $14.95, as an Ebook on the Apple IPad, and I expect it to be available within a couple days on the Nook and the Kindle as well.

I just looked at it on my new IPad. The photos, text and design look grand.

And as an extra surprise, Bozo In Love is now up on IBooks too, ($9.95), as well as the rest of my catalog: Flame Spirals, Hoop Dancing, and Dementia Blues, on IBooks, Nook and Kindle.

Just in time for Christmas.

And don't worry. All but The Transpersonal Papers can still be bought as a book book through Fezziwig Press. I have plenty. Just go to www.fezziwigpressonline.com, for the hardbounds and paperbacks, but go to ITunes, today, (and Kindle and Nook, soon) for the ebooks.

Heavy sigh from my third story apartment balcony. I look out onto the Tucson city lights in the valley below. Cold, dry air embraces me. I inhale deeply. Exhale.

A very good night in the desert.

Think I'll make a cup of coffee with egg nog and play some Angry Birds on my new IPad.

Time to celebrate.

 

"Christ Church, Raleigh, N.C."

"Christ Church, Raleigh, N.C." (c) 2011 Stu Jenks

My sister Pamela used to go to Christ Church when she was momentarily pissed out at St. Mark's, but she always came back to St. Mark's. She was a mighty opinionated woman.

I watched the last Harry Potter movie last night. Cried a couple times, once when characters I loved died, once when I wished my sister hadn't.

"Catawba Falls Hoop Dance"

"Catawba Falls Hoop Dance, North Carolina: for Bo & Cathy Petersen" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks

Shri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram: (Pamela On The Plane)

 
"Shri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram: Pamela On The Plane" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks

(Photographs of Krishna Das by Cindy Elliot: Toning of the KD images by Stu Jenks. Portrait of Pamela Jenks, a month before her death, and a photo of her casket in the kitchen in Raleigh by Stu Jenks.)

An MP3 of Shri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram by Krishna Das (Be a good guy and buy it on ITunes if you like it)

    Maybe it’s wishful thinking. Maybe it’s sleep deprivation, but I swear I feel Pamela’s presence here on this train platform at the Philadelphia Airport. No, she’s here, all right. It’s not just me.
    “What to share a smoke?” I ask Pamela.
    She just smiles.
    “Did I do right by you, Pamela?” I whisper to the empty space to my right. “I’m really not sure,” I say. “Those three friends of yours. Jesus fucking Christ. Those three women who picked over your bones like vultures after your funeral really pissed me off. What is wrong with those people, going through your DVDs, your books, your china, your clothes at the house? What is wrong with them? But I did end up giving Katalina your silver, after talking with Martha. Martha seems solid. She knew who you were, Pamela, good and bad. Martha said Katalina was OK, that you really did want her to have that silver. So I gave her the silver. Anyway. I hope I did right by you.”
    The angel/ghost of Pamela continues to smile to me. It’s the first time I’ve felt her around since just after she died on Tuesday.
    “You did great, Stu,” she says. “And you were right. I am free now.”

    On the plane from Philly to Phoenix. Working of some pics of Krishna Das that Elliot took at The Rialto ten days ago. (Sweet of her to share those with me. They don’t allow me to take pics at The Rialto. The Rialto. Krishna Das. Was it just a week and a half ago? Christ, it feels like a month or more.)  I put on some of Krishna Das’ music on the laptop while I work. I recognize a song from the concert.
    “Shri Ram Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram,” sings Krishna Das into my earpieces. The crowd on the live recording sings the phrase back to him, in that wonderful Kirtan call-and-response way.
    And I start to cry.
    There is an empty seat next to me.
    Pamela’s ashes rest on the kitchen counter in Raleigh, but I feel her spirit in that seat right next to me, right here, right now.
    I want to sing Jai Jai Ram with KD and the crowd on the recording, but I can’t here. I’m on a dark plane with a hundred other souls. But I can sway.
    And Pamela sways too.
    I can almost see her angel/ghost. She’s not the bloated ugly woman of the last twenty years. She’s not the angry, hurtful, unhappy woman I’ve known for so long. She’s light, bright, beautiful, blond, thin, and joyous.
    “I’m so happy,” she whispers in my ear.
    I say nothing. Just slowly cry.
    “I don’t suffer now, Stu,” she says “And you shouldn’t either.”
    And then Pamela Jenks, The Friendly Ghost, raises her arms above her head and sways with Krishna Das. I cry a little more. Not out of sadness but out of wordless, soundless joy for my sister who suffered so much these past decades and now suffers no more.
    She is free.
    I look at her angel/ghost out of the corner of my eye. Slender arms above her head, eyes closed, loving the music.
    And I think of the hug we shared hours before her death. The first time she ever hugged me, in which she didn’t break the hug first. A long, deep hug of love from my sister who was so scared of dying, but who longed so much for death to come, to release her from her pain.
    A sister who finally found freedom from her life of sorrow.
    And it appears, if I’m not completely out of my mind, a sister who is digging the fuck out of Krishna Das.
    I chuckled.
    Who would have thought it? My Anglican sister digging Hindu Kirtan music. Then again, she’s an angel/ghost now. She can love anything she wants.
    “Oh, Stu,” she says, leaning over.
    “Yes,” I whisper.
    “I love you, Bro.”
    “Love you too, Pam.”
    And she throws her head back and blisses out with the music.
    And I join her in her bliss.

 

 

"The Haw River Bridge"

"The Haw River Bridge, west of Pittsboro on US 64" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks

Just downstream from this bridge on the western shore of the Haw is a path. I walked that path for the very first time 30 plus years ago with Mott Odah, Bo, and Satrunga Jeff. I walked it again just last week. This photo was taken from the plane as I left North Carolina. I was surprised that I could recognize so much from the air. I had trouble knowing where I was while driving around Raleigh, but I saw the Haw River bridge easily from my window seat that morning.

I so love that path beside the rapids of the Haw.

I love the Haw. I also love the pulled pork BBQ I ate at Allen and Sons a hour later that day.

I don't really miss N.C. Too many crappy memories, both of my own making and made by others, but the land, particularly the rivers and the forests still make my soul sing.

But given my sister's late stage cancer and my own responsibilities to clean up and then sell the family house after she's gone, I think I'll be walking that Haw River path again soon. Very soon.

And the photo of the house on Amherst Lane was taken before I cleaned the gutters. I cleaned them not so much for Pamela or myself, but for the neighbors so they didn't have to look at it. And yes, I got a red hot Mustang for cheap from Budget Rent-A-Car at RDU. Even though I didn't know where I was half the time in North Carolina, I did drive in style and from time to time, a bit over the speed limit.

OK, a lot over the speed limit.

And lastly, continue your prayers for the remaining Jenks: Mary, Pamela and myself.

Mary is fading again, Pamela is in pain but I'm doing ok, grateful to be cancer-free and to be free of dementia.

Then again, who are you again? You look so familiar. Oh. I had sex with you in the 1970's?. Was it good? No? Hmm. Sorry about that.