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Heads Up: Photography Posts Are Back
Well, hello there!
Fancy meeting you in a blog like this?
How’s it going?
Did the summer treat you well?
(I’m asking because I want to know, so feel free to drop your response in the comment section, or hit me up on social media, should you care to.)
I got to photograph Lil Mike and Funnybone in early August, which was a highlight of my summer. 
Lil Mike 
Funnybone Today’s blog is all about getting back up onto the horse.
I feel like that’s what I did on the last post, (maybe a month ago,) but since I’m the boss, I’ll take any complaints under advisement.
As to what I’m here for today, it’s mostly to give you a preview of where things are headed this fall.
And the answer is… back to photography posts.
On Monday, for the first time this year, I participated in an online portfolio review event, for LACP. (An organization with whom I’ve done a bunch of collabs over the years.)
I must admit, it was different, re-engaging with the process after a 9 month break, but different in a good way.
All the work I’ve done on myself these past six months, (largely out of the public eye,) meant I was more patient, happy, and engaged than I’ve been in quite some time.
Lots of new things, since I last wrote, including my son becoming the kicker for the Taos Tigers. (So we went to our first game on Saturday.) 
Back at the portfolio review…
…watching the photographers get visibly pumped up (on their computer screens,) as I offered motivational, inspirational, creative advice, reminded me that I still feel a deep connection to photography and photographers.
And fortunately, I saw a few really cool projects.
So over the course of autumn, I’m going to share some portfolios with you, and introduce a handful of artists.
(Like I used to do back at A Photo Editor.)
The truth is, there is a dearth of photography related content these days, so we’ll use Sunshine and Olly to help arrest the decline.
There’s your heads up, and hope all is well.
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Visiting the Reservation Dogs
It’s hard to get back on the horse, after this long.
Now that I think about it, this past month, (without blogging,) is the biggest break I’ve had since September 2011.
That’s nuts. (And my apologies for leaving w/o saying goodbye.)
It’s not that I got tired of you.
Nor of blogging.
Rather, the further I got into writing my novel, the less mental and creative energy I had left over.
I’m nearly done, but this final stretch has been the longest, and most difficult. (Probably not surprising, now that I think about it. Sticking the landing is always tough.)
Given I still had to work, and my kids have been home from school the last 2.5 months, really, there wasn’t much to do but pare down.
I wanted to keep up with you guys, and tell you what was happening, but that extra bit of juice eluded me.
Lots of Jiu Jitsu, a couple of injuries, (including my first cauliflower ear,) and then the big gig I alluded to here months ago.
The reason I went to Tulsa, that I couldn’t share…
I got to visit the set of “Reservation Dogs,” one of the very best shows on TV, (via Hulu/FX) to make a photo essay that was finally published this week, on HuffPost.
Devery Jacobs, the actor, writer and film-maker who plays Elora Danan Postoak, one of the main characters. She’s also a member of the writer’s room, having penned Season 2’s heart-rending episode “Mabel.” 
Lane Factor, from Oklahoma, plays scene-stealer “Cheese,” who is known for his honesty, positive energy, and clear communication. In Season 2’s Episode “Stay Gold Cheesy Boy,” Cheese’s brief interactions with other young men, (in a group home,) leave them better people than before they met him.
I promise to do a more in-depth piece on the entire experience at some point, because my three days in Oklahoma were as memorable as I’ve had in quite some time.
Despite years of traveling the US, Tulsa, and Okmulgee, (on the Muskogee Nation,) were among the most affecting, and at times dispiriting, places I’ve been.
A motorbike suspended in the air for an auto-body shop sign, on Oklahoma Avenue in Okmulgee, on the Muscogee Nation. The town was used as a location for many scenes in “Reservation Dogs. A parking lot on Oklahoma Avenue, in Okmulgee, not far from the Bear Smallhill home location. I dig the HuffPost edit, but eventually I’ll share more of the outtakes, (like the image above,) and hopefully shape them into a proper series.
But all of that is to come.
Today, I wanted to reconnect, let you know I was still alive, and point in the direction of some of the best work I’ve made in my career.
I’ll be back again soon, but probably not tomorrow.
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If You Crave Community, Join One That’s Thriving
Hi Everybody,
How’s it going?
I’ve been away a while, but have a good reason.
I’m about 90-95% done with the first draft of my novel, and it’s taken all my creative juice, of late.
(That, plus editing two photo books for clients.)
The breakthrough, with respect to fiction-writing, was when I realized that novels are broken down into chapters, and for me, each chapter was the equivalent of a blog post.
(The long ones I used to write for APE, not the short ones I do here.)
Once I began with a clear vision in mind, my goal was just to stack chapter upon chapter, and let the story unspool. It’s worked so far, but the last month or two, I’ve felt the need to focus on that as much as I could, creatively.
Hence the quiet blog.
I’ve also been learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which is a brilliant and brutal combat sport, adapted in Brazil, from Japanese roots.
Royce Gracie, the winner of UFC 1, 2 and 4. His family’s Gracie Jiu Jitsu literally took the world by storm. (Image courtesy of Bleacher Report.) It has been kicking my ass, (admittedly,) but also proved to be a palliative for something I wrote about early in the blog: loneliness.
Allow me explain why it’s helpful.
I work from home, and have since well before the pandemic.
I’m an OG, when it comes to working alone, from the confines of my house.
After the pandemic, which fucked with all of our heads, I got into martial arts classes again, but it didn’t stick. (My Kung Fu big brother Dave died, which brought down one program, and the other had bad vibes.)
So I was practicing alone, at home. (Just like work.)
Joining the Taos branch of the Jesse Jacquez BJJ program, at the beginning of February, changed all of that.
Now, while I may be alone during the day, (or with my amazing family, with whom I spend a ton of time,) I know that a few days a week, I have a group of people to connect with.
Unlike the photo festival life, where I made quick, intense bonds with new people, here, it’s all about the slow build.
Getting to know people, day by day, through sweat, hard work, and a shared passion.
(Plus lots of pain.)
When I got the first stripe on my white belt a month ago, I felt like I still knew nothing, and the people there didn’t know me.
With the awesome Coach Jenna Osuna But it was growing.
On Monday night, when one of the instructors, Professor Nate, a black belt who is (without exaggeration) 6’5″, 300 lbs, specifically called me out by name, and congratulated me for my improvement, everyone applauded.
After 4.5 months, I looked around and knew the people who were were clapping for me.
(I’m still bad, but it was true, I had gotten noticeably better.)
It felt amazing.
Actual community.
Very often, when we’re lonely, we think someone will fix it for us, or we get stuck in a rut.
If you want more community in your life, with all the accrued benefits, maybe take a look at what’s thriving out there, what you find interesting, and then take the leap?
You’ll thank me.
PS: I made an error in the last post. I forgot that Camus wrote “The Stranger,” not Sartre. Pretty cool they had us reading that stuff in French in High School. Right Kiki?
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Storytellers Are More Vital than Ever
by Jonathan Blaustein
Transitions are hard.
Honestly, of all the life phases, few are tougher.
And I’m in the middle of one.
But so are many of my colleagues: photographers, writers, artists, journalists.
Everyone is suffering right now, and I’ve begun to get those reports, piecemeal.
Certainly, when I shared my own work struggles here, people DM’d and texted, saying it wasn’t just me.
But of course it’s not just me!
The layoff reports are in the news. The very news that is the source of the employment now being cut.
BuzzFeed News gets chopped, ENTIRELY, and then I read an NYT piece in which Jonah Peretti openly embraces AI to “enhance its news business” instead.
It’s like a sick joke inside a scary sci-fi movie.
The computers are here for your jobs.
Good luck.
But of course that’s not true.
Storytellers are teachers, entertainers, leaders, guides.
We live human experience, and strive to understand it, before reporting back, giving insight in digestible bits.
These are things a computer LITERALLY cannot do, given its inherent lack of humanity.
Sartre believed what we do, how we act, determines what kind of human we are.
Jean-Paul Sartre (image courtesy of IMDb.com) Nice talk, but shitty behavior, and you’re a shitty person.
His seminal play, “No Exit,” foreshadowed my own pandemic experience to such a degree, I’d like to exhume the man and shake his hand.
Can you imagine?
Shaking Sartre’s skeleton hand?
“Thanks, bro! Appreciate you! BTW, ‘The Stranger’ was fucking dope too!”
(If only.)
My point today is, our collective struggles are a function of Late-Stage Capitalism.
There are fewer and fewer resources available to the arts, and media.
Who buys expensive prints to hang on the wall anymore?
The collectors became artists, and hung their own work on the wall instead.
(Please don’t doubt me on that.)
And it’s not just us.
If you consider the streaming wars bloat lead to massive contractions, and a writer’s strike, you’d have to say things are worse in entertainment as well.
These days, a few star creators seem to get all the gigs. (Be they photographers, writers, directors, show-runners…)
Back at the “newspapers,” staffers cling to their careers, knowing if they get a pink slip, they might not get another job in the industry.
From Google, just now If all you know is art, or journalism, if it was your life’s dream, what do you do next?
Personally, I told you guys at the blog’s inception I was writing a novel, and I’m about 85% done with the first draft.
Will it be as good as I hope?
Will it matter, even if it’s great?
Who can say?
I know one thing, though.
There is no way on God’s Fucking Earth that a computer could write my story.
I promise you that.
Bean, the baby bunny, transitioned to the next world last week. -
Special Recipe: Pickled Jalapeños and Carrots
Yesterday’s post struck a chord.
Good. I’m glad.
Enough with the articles saying the economy is fine, and everyone is fine.
Persistent inflation means everything costs more, and higher interest rates mean servicing credit card debt costs more.
Buying a house, or a car, costs more.
Taking out any kind of loan at all.
It means we all have to learn how to make our dollars work harder.
Find value where we can.
So today, I’m going to share a recipe, (and technique,) that will allow you to take the humblest plate of cheap, microwave nachos, and make it special, and gourmet.
That’s right.
We’re gonna chef it up, (for very little money,) and if you’ve never pickled before, you won’t believe how easy it is.
The Mexican pairing of pickled jalapeños and carrots is one of those perfect combinations.
The carrots give sweet to the peppers, which offer heat to the carrots.
The salt and sugar in the pickling liquid bring seasoning, while the vinegar allows for the kick, and preservation.
These bad boys will keep in your fridge for a while, so one batch will make many plates of happy nachos.
Or tacos.
Even quesadillas are perkier with the pickled veggies.
(Like Chicagoans eating giardiniera on their pizza)
So here’s how it goes:
Wash, then slice up a bunch of jalapeños and carrots.
Put them in a pot, and add about 1/3 cup of sugar, and slightly less salt. (Give or take. You can add later.)
Then put in about 3/4 cup of distilled white vinegar, and a shot of rice wine vinegar. Include one handful of peppercorns, and then fill the pot with water.
Cover, and bring it to a high simmer. Just before a boil.
Leave it for about 8-10 minutes, or until the color begins to fade.
Taste, and see if it needs more flavor, in the form of sugar or salt. (I added some.)
Turn off the heat, let it sit for another 5 minutes, then transfer to a container, and put in the fridge.
You’re done!
I used mine for nachos, which were as simple as can be.
Decent Mexican brand corn chips, canned red pepper-flavored beans, shredded Mexican cheese.
That’s it.
Three ingredients, but when you add the pickled jalapeños and carrots, it’s much more special.
Healthier too.
And the chiles and carrots, in bulk, are super inexpensive, as is vinegar, salt and sugar.
Hope you push your culinary limits and try this out.
Catch you next time!
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My Intelligence Is Not Artificial
I’m trying to find a rhythm for this blog.
(Don’t think I’ve fully got it yet.)
At first, of course I hit you with plenty of content, because I was launching the site.
It’s an action-oriented phase, the beginning of something. And when you put ALL the effort into social media promotion, it begins to feel like a proper project.
But proper projects are work.
As an artist/writer/journalist/editor, making things is how I pay the bills. (Or teaching people how to do it, anyway.)
Lately, though, I can’t go a day without the media, (my sometimes employer) telling me that Artificial Intelligence is coming for photographers, and journalists.
Hollywood writers are on strike, b/c AI is obviously going to write scripts, but then The Taos News had an AI stock photo published, THIS WEEK, and I just read an article, THIS MORNING, about an AI girlfriend, who’s raking in (actual) money.
The image is credited to Shutterstock’s AI Image Generator The future is here.
It has arrived.
And it’s scary as fuck.
Courtesy of The Washington Post
Now, I don’t want to suggest I’m in a tizzy all the time.
I live in nature.
I’m a Dad with a wife, two kids, and four dogs. Living life, teaching them, leading, loving, it takes a lot of time and energy.
And I smoke plenty of medicinal marijuana.
But the last time my work dried up like this, as quickly, was when the Great Recession and digital camera revolution dovetailed, in ’08-’09.
I had a small digital photo studio here in Taos, and did a bit of everything, to make sure I’d be economically resilient.
Printing, scanning, shooting, retouching, I did it all.
And all of it dried up, within a few months, when the world fell apart.
This feels similar.
Not only are people hurting financially, because of years of inflation, (and now persistently high interest rates,) but they’re also freaked out, simultaneously, about The Terminator being, you know….
Courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes REAL!!!!!!
While I may not have figured out the rhythm for this blog yet, I felt a huge urge to write just now…
…so I did.
Maybe that’s the way forward?
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The World’s Best (Vegan) Soup?
Hi Everybody.
How’s it going?
Did you miss me?
It was the first significant break since I started the blog.
Luckily, yesterday, I decided to bank my creative-writing-energy for today, and instead used the morning’s energy-juice to make what may be the world’s best (vegan) soup: JB’s Coconut Dal.
There. I said it.
And the best part is: the soup is so good, you won’t care it’s vegan.
(The Earth and health benefits are a side-benefit.)
If you make this soup, and it turns out well, you will thank me.
Because it’s the kind of thing you can eat off for days, constantly absorbing the nutrients.
Let’s get to it.
There are there basic components to this dish.
The sofrito (or vegetable flavor base)
The red lentils (which turn yellow)
The liquid base (in this case, veggie stock, water and coconut milk)The Sofrito:
First, cut the best part of two leeks into three inch chunks, then cut those in half. (As cross sections.)
Fan out the leeks and wash them very well.
Then wash them two more times.
Heat up a big stock pot, add extra virgin olive oil, and sautée the leeks on medium heat, adding salt and cracked black pepper.
Because it’s a good idea to toast spices, I like to add them here, so they toast, and cook with the leeks.
For the Dal, I included ground turmeric, cumin, smoked paprika, mild paprika, and then I grated in some cinnamon.
I included one garlic clove here too.
Then you wash, chop and add four celery stalks, (or more, if you prefer,) and about 8 big carrots.
Each time, add some more oil, salt and pepper to make sure everything is seasoned.
Wash the lentils in a colander, (or two stacked, if you have them,) and then add them to the pot.
Fill up the pot with two boxes of stock, water, and a shaken can of coconut milk.
Before or after, fire up a poblano pepper on the gas stove, char it, then put it in Tupperware for five minutes, and slide off skin in the sink. Finish cleaning the pepper, chop it, and add to the soup.
Throw in one handful of baby spinach leaves, and then one more at the end.
Drop in one tablespoon of tomato paste here too.
From there, you’re cooking it for about 3-4 hours, give or take.
Add the juice of one lime and one Cara Cara orange, a few tablespoons of sugar, and more salt and pepper to taste.
Cook it down until the flavor and consistency are to your liking, and serve with brown rice.
I promise you. My kids freaked out. It’s that good.
Proper Indian food, for very little money.
Happy Cooking!
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The 7:30 am Dog Walk
Dogs love routine.
They crave it.
And it doesn’t take much to turn a new, random occurrence into a hard-set expectation.
In this case, I’m thinking of the 7:30 am dog walk.
Which has only recently come about, but now gets treated with the severity of impending nuclear war with China over Taiwan.
(No joke.)
The looks I got this morning, when I was dragging, and hoping they’d just forget?
Such intensity!
10 days ago, there was no fucking 7:30 am dog walk, but that was 10 days ago.
“Move your ass, man! Get going!”
(They told me through their eyes.)
And honestly, a walk in the morning is lovely.
That’s the best part: the dogs are not wrong.
Getting out into the fresh air, not long after the sun has come up, (but long enough that it’s no longer freezing,) sets my day off in a different mood.
A bright mood.
I may resent the dog pack for its requirements, (sometimes,) but I simultaneously appreciate the wisdom of their doggie ways.
Sunshine 
Olly Sunshine and Olly 
Regular Mood 
Post-Walk Mood -
Photography Review: Trevor Traynor’s Newsstands.XYZ
Definitely having deja vu right now.
It’s just like the old days.
I wanted to write for you guys, but didn’t know what to post.
So I went to my book stack, (the extra submissions being the impetus for this blog,) and found a fascinating little zine/poster, which is definitely worth writing about.
I was curious to open up Trevor Traynor’s fold out, if for no other reason than natural human curiosity.
(When there is a puzzle to solve, we want to solve it!)
This was new for sure, as the repeating patterns of words, handles, newsstand photo, and a massive QR code grabbed my attention too.
(Beyond the primal urge to unfold.)
When I opened up newsstands.xyz, again there were instances of photos, with strong repeating design, and I was hooked enough to pull out my phone, and snap the QR code for help.
Which brought me to a website offering lots of NFT information, in various forms, and it took me a minute to acclimate.
Frankly, I stopped paying attention to the NFT scene after the umpteenth crypto crash, but what did we have here?
Mentions of AI images?
Were the photos I had AI generated?
Seemed like the timeline was off.
So I kept clicking.
An older edition, the one from my poster, were photos of newsstands taken in cities, including New York, Paris, and Lima.
A new edition, also for sale, has AI generated images of newsstands in the future, I think?
Again, I’m sharing here bc I think the original photos were really good, Trevor seems to know where things currently stand in the NFT world, and maybe where they’re headed?
A person to follow on social media, for sure.
Hope you find his zine/poster interesting, and catch you next time!
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Olly and Kevin, the Perfect Pair
I’m tired of scrolling.
How did we ever get so accustomed to the habit?
Whether on Twitter, FB, IG, or I guess Tik Tok, (which I don’t use,) the act of quickly watching information and flashing lights go by, for hours a day, obviously rots our brains.
It’s designed to be too fast for us to process.
We’re overwhelmed, and then feel that way.
I’m as guilty as anybody, though I’m definitely cutting down on my Twitter time.
On Sunday, I posted the image below in IG, which I rarely do on the weekends.
The portrait of Listo the horse, (whom Theo renamed Kevin,) was too good not to share.
A portrait of Listo (Kevin) on Sunday Of course I then opened IG a few times throughout the day, to check for likes, which I would not have done had I waited to post until Monday.
Social media is insidious like that.
We crave the attention, but then it takes our attention away from better things.
(In my case, rest, and hanging with my family.)
I quick-looked at the photos, and then shared Kevin’s portrait.
But just now, wondering what to write about for you today, (I knew it was time,) I went back to the material, and realized the pull-back shot, with Olly at Kevin’s feet, was incredible.
I had missed it, in the haste.
But the pic is perfect for today.
Dependable Olly, looking solid at Kevin’s feet
I don’t write about the dogs enough, but they’re constant companions, 7 days a week.
And Olly is as sweet, loyal and dependable as anyone could want.
She definitely steals my couch spot, (all the time,) but other than that, she’s the nicest pup out there.
Her sister Sunshine is a handful, but that’s another story for a different day.
Catch you next time!
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Sunshine and Olly 