Stu Jenks' Fezziwig Press

...lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you...

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.

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 [email protected], 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.

Hillary Clinton in Tunis, Tunisia

Photo: EPA from The Telegraph.

By no means do I expect anyone but serious political junkies like me to watch all 18 minutes of this video, but I post this to make a point.

Often I resist being too political on the StuBlog, out of fear it'll hurt my business, but my income from all my creations is way down anyway, so what could it hurt?

(An aside: I may have to use my LISAC and do intakes and run treatment groups for unremorseful felons again. I'm happy I can make money doing intakes and running groups but I really hate the work. Most felons have no desire to be in recovery. Hell, they don't even want to stop beating their wives and girlfriends, much less cut down on their drinking and drug use. It's why I left the treatment field in 2009, but I might need to go back, to pay the rent. I don't want to, but you often have to do things you don't want to do. Point is I'm going broke anyway, being an artist, photog, writer, musician, whatever, so I might as well let fly with my strong political opinions cause it can't hurt book, CD and print sales. Sales already suck. (Except for Dementia Blues.) I'm not feeling sorry for myself. I'm just facing reality. So why not? It'll be fun.)

So here's my main point:

We Democrats nominated the wrong person in 2008. Hillary Clinton should be The President of the United States, not Barack Obama. Barack needs to be liked way too much and due to what I believe are unresolved issues around his father, he acts passively when he should lead with passion and conviction.

Hillary Clinton would be a great President and it's probably too late. In 2016, she probably won't run.  She may want to retire from public life. She might see herself as too old as well.

But I'm having serious buyer's remorse. Have for a year or two. So much so that I'm no longer a Democrat. I'm a registered Independent now.

And just so I piss off everyone, Rick Santorum is a crazy man, a religious bigot, a nut case. He needs to go home. Newt is a con man who really doesn't want to be President. He just wants to make money out of his meanness. He needs to go home too. Ron Paul is consistent, true, but Crazy GrandPa forgets the Constitution has been amended a good number of times since 1787. (This can be said for most Republicans in Congress and around the country.) And Mitt Romney is a rich man who has little compassion for the working class and for the poor. And he appears to be missing a screw. Many rich people are compassionate and kind. Mitt ain't one of them. Plus he's as phony as a three-dollar-bill.

So watch Hillary and see real leadership in action. Minute 16:20 and on is truly great statesmanship.

So keeping fighting the good fight. Say truth to power and all of that. But say it with love. If you can. (I can only about half the time. I often say "I'm a nice man until I'm not") And know that all of you, even the violent felons, are in my prayers. OK, I pray for my friends and family first, but I eventually get around to praying for the jerks.

Love, and light,

Stu

"Morning Media Circus at UMC"

"Morning Media Circus at Univerisity Medical Center, Tucson, Arizona" (c) 2011 Stu Jenks

I'm grateful that cameras have been here to record medical updates on Gabby's condition. (The UMC staff have been wonderful.) Brian Williams did an excellent job on NBC, last Sunday night, giving us the facts from atop a Brake Masters, across Ina Road from the Safeway. (I hope the owners of the shop charged a ton.) I'm glad, very glad, that cameras were there when Clarence spoke, (I'm loving me some Clarence) and happy that cameras have been there repeatedly when my sheriff has stuck to his guns (pun intended), and continued to say that the vitriolic, hateful, violent discourse of our politics, may and may not have anything to do with this shooter, but still, we, as a people, need to examine ourselves. We need to search in our souls for the Gentleman and the Gentlewoman when talking with those, with whom we disagree, not feed the bully or the thug within (my words). I enjoyed, for a moment. seeing CNN broadcast from my Guero Canelo on Oracle, even though I also knew that I probably couldn't get a Sonoran Dog there, at that moment, if I tried. I'm glad the cameras are here to broadcast our heroism and sadness and grief to the world, so they can experience it too.

That being said, I'm ready for The Media to go home, to get the hell out of my town.

Television News is about two things that contradict. One, it's about getting information to the world and two, it's about making money, selling soap, and getting high ratings.

When I was young and a follower of Walter Cronkite, information to the world was the only reason. CBS News lost money for years, propped up by the entertainment branch of the network.

Now, money is primary reason for their existence. (If we happen to get part of the story right, great. If we get it wrong, we'll try and fix it in New York, or hope that people forget, as we move on the next real tragedy, or the next hyperbolic fake-fearsome thing.)

The sharks are loving being in Tucson. We have a real horror here, real blood in the water. It's not fake. It doesn't need pumping up. It's in the air. And thanks for coming. I do appreciate you broadcasting those wonderful stories of kindness, courage, and heroism of my fellow Tucsonans to the World.

Now go home, after the President speaks tonight at McHale.

Go.

And don't let the saloon door hit you on the ass.

Dirk Arnold's Gateway Saguaro; The Public Lighting of the Sculpture

Dirk Arnold's Gateway Saguaro; The Public Lighting of The Sculpture; April, 5th, 2010; Tucson, Arizona.

[Images from top to bottom: "Dirk with the Fox 11 News", "Dirk Speaking", "Dirk Arnold & Karin Urlich", "Gateway to Miracle Mile"]

    Dirk spoke for a while. Councilwoman Karin Urlich talked as well. Dirk was funny, knowledgeable and sweet as ever. Karin spoke with kind authority, like the hopeful politician she is. A crowd of a hundred plus counted down to zero and the thirty foot neon Saguaro ignited, lighting Miracle Mile with yellow, red and green light. Everyone’s happy; artists, politicians, sign fabricators, friends, and family alike. It’s a very good night for Tucson Public Art and an even better one for one particularly good man named Dirk Arnold.
    Dirk’s now talking with the TV people. KMSB Fox 11 news, all the usual suspects. I walk south on Miracle Mile, away from the thinning crowd, looking for the shot. (I’ll come back on another night to get the iconic one, but the sunset light’s just great and the mood is, as well.) I pop a few with the 140-400 mm lens. I check the back of the 5D. Looks good to me. I begin to walk north on the sidewalk, back to the festivities.
    Then I see two people, a fifty-something white woman and a middle-aged black man, both shabbily dressed. I heard angry words exchanged, but not at each other. They seem to be mad at the Gateway Saguaro. I can’t understand what the woman is saying. She appears drunk or mentally ill or both. So does the man, for that matter. They appear to know each other. Not unusual for the homeless of Tucson to know who is who and what is what. Then the man speak loudly to the woman and for all to hear, but there’s no one to listen besides his friend, myself, and the traffic in the street.
    “Another good use of our tax dollars,” he says sarcastically. The woman grunts her approval. Then she turns south and he heads north on Miracle Mile.
    It took everything I had not to walk up to him and ask: ‘When was the last time you paid taxes? As a matter of fact, my tax dollars pays for part of your housing and for some of your S.S.I., and I don’t mind a bit! And I don’t think one little piece of public art takes anything out of your pocket.’ But I didn’t say anything to the unhappy black man, whose now walking briskly past the reverie. His brain chemicals have probably betrayed him for years, and he doesn’t need some middle-class white guy to give him a hard time. (Nor do I expect he has access to the Internet to be angered by this post.)
    But it does worry me, that some of the homeless and deranged are now becoming Right-Wing-Republicans. And if it wasn’t for Democrats and Independents like myself and others who believe in providing for The Common Good and caring for those who can’t take care of themselves, men like himself would be starving beggars in the street or dead bodies in the gutter.
    Still. He did have the best line of the night.