$72,000 Basquiat/SAMO Graffiti

Short on the heels of another Jean-Michel Basquiat painting titled Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump selling for more than 100 million dollars this month, someone purchased one of his collaborative SAMO graffiti pieces for 72,000. 

Basquiat sold this month for 110 million dollars

I was a little confused when I saw one of his paintings sell to a Japanese collector for $110 million a few years back. After research, I found the draw of his story and his work intriguing and gained a new appreciation for his paintings. After viewing one of his works in person at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, my admiration of his work grew tenfold.

$110,000,000.00 Basquiat

I understand the draw, but once again find myself a little unsettled at the price of the graffiti sale when I look at it. I know, due to the nature of graffiti in general, most works could never be owned or purchased. However...

$72,000.00 SAMO graffitti

 What do you think? I'd love to hear your opinion.
Jim

One Plus One Is One

Eyes held wide open

Yet vision unclear

Lips often tremble

No words reach your ear

Eyes often blinded

By welling of tears

Tongue also vacant

Beholden to fear

Hold me in your heart

Days, a month, or years

After lifetimes pass

You will find me here

Hold me in your arms

Hold tight, draw me near

My hopes and my dreams

You’re all I hold dear

Plenty of Crazy Ideas

After finishing and publishing my poetry anthology, “do ants have souls,” I need new goals. I have plenty of crazy ideas. If I try to work on too many projects at once, I could wallow in a time warp. Here are the major ideas crying out to be heard between all four quadraspheres of my cerebral cortex and cerebellum.

Spencer Murdoch and the Fall From Heaven

Spencer’s chosen-one son reaches school age and is bullied at school while Spencer focuses elsewhere and decides to take control and enter the portal.

C. J. Murdoch beyond the Mystic Portal

Creatures of light visit three-year-old C J Murdoch and transform him into a grown man where enters Erzandor’s portal and discovers heaven’s golden streets.

God Particle

A physicist discovers the God particle and is instantly transported to heaven and learns the truth of God and the universe.

For this I need to read the popular 1993 science book of the same name. As if I didn’t have a large enough stack of books in the to-read pile behind the stack of books in the currently reading pile.

Horrorscope

Brothers born on opposite sides of conflict on a planet where zodiac cast system determines position in society.

War for the Unsouled

God allowed only so many souls when he thought Earth into existence. Now, good and evil battle for the hearts and minds of the unsouled.

Yes. I created a word for this one but it’s okay ‘cause I used it in the title.

Screen play adaptation of Twisted Fate

After the seemingly random discovery of an abandoned barn, a fun-loving young man endangers his friends in a deadly mystery beyond his earthly understanding.

Screen play adaptation of Martholomew

A high school boy and a new girl in town trespass on forbidden ground and discover a supernatural truth to an unearthly local legend.

Violence

An epic poem on gun violence I’ve been working on for a while but need to assemble into some kind of reasonable form.

I could ignore it all and spend my days playing guitar and writing songs. A man can write infinite songs in his head but only so many with his hands.

Or I’ll go with what I decide to love.

Peace and Love
Jim

do ants have souls

After years of work, "do ants have souls” is available now. These 44 poems encompass 40 years exploring the oral arts. Some of the lyrical poems were written for songs performed as a heavy metal band in the 1980s. Others written after love gone wrong, contemplation on the fragility of life, and on life’s many joys and tragedies. The ink drawings were painstakingly completed and the final work is available now in print and e-format. Get all of my books at Amazon here.

So, there you have it. After 40 years writing and two years drawing, I hope you enjoy this collection as much as I enjoyed the lifetime it took putting it together.

Peace and Love

Jim

Twisted Fate

After a 2019 from hell and back and to hell again, I have once again reached a joyous place. Hoping I will not sink into the grasps of the dark place, knowing it could be lurking around any corner. Currently, I cannot feel the emotions I felt when I wrote these two poems. The first was written about a month ago while walking in the dark. The second was written two weeks ago on a particularly tough Wednesday eve. 

Anyway, at the risk of exposing my sole

Twisted Fate

Grief's twisted face rises from swirling black mist below.

"Today you are mine."

A gnarled hand lurches out, pulls me under. 

No escape.

Wounding me deeper deeper inside twisting turning grasping pulling internal organs.

Disrupting neuron telegraphs.

ALABASTER facade hides turmoil within.

Flames rage, destroying hopes and plans, creeping vines of despair fill the dark void.

Loneliness and grief walk hand and hand

Complimenting each other as they stroll searching for their next victim.

Leaving me in torturous solitude.

Laughing at my resistance.

Negativity feeds

Negativity feeds

Feeds on itself

Finding related negatives

Attracting unrelated troubles

Growing

Frustration multiplies

Collecting electric charges

Crackling static lightning ball

victim Surrounded

Tearing the soul

Blackening the heart

But alas. There is hope in despair. Trust me. Happiness can be found.

The title, Twisted Fate, is stolen from a short story available in my Beyond the Visual Cortex collection.

As a bonus two of my books are free and two others are .99 cents from July 13 thru 17.

Jim

Close-Up with First Man to See Black Hole

James M M Baldwin

Long before the Event Horizon worldwide telescope array, each run by teams of scientists, James M M Baldwin, in his short story, COLLIDER, envisioned a world ripped apart by a black hole and reassembled on the other side in a whole new way. Available with eight other science fiction stories in James M M Baldwin's, ORION’S ARM: TALES FROM THE MILKY WAY. Paperback, Kindle, and other formats. You can also stop by Baldwin Gallery, 9625 Ida st. Omaha, NE and pick up a discounted copy today.

These stories transport you from Earth to Venus, to Mars, to Jupiter’s ice moon Europa, to another solar system, and to black holes beyond earthly imaginations. Travel forward and backward in time. Look inward, into the power of the human mind. Stories include Kronos Methodios, Black Wolf, Tortoise Shell Glasses, Son of Thunder, Spontaneous Evolution, Sub-Human, Global Warming, The Collider, and the exclusive Vision of Destruction

Peace

Jim

hatter's riddle

raven contentment
sergio de companion

hatter's riddle

why is a raven like a writing desk
alice gives up
the hatter admits
i haven't the slightest idea
riddle without an answer
poe wrote on both
it can produce a few notes
though very flat
nevar put with the wrong end in front
nevar is raven
merely afterthought
originally invented with no answer
there is a b in both and an n in neither
neither is ever approached without caws
you can baffle the billions with both
there isn't any answer
it slopes with a flap
the notes for which they are noted
are not noted

raven euphoriasergio de companion

for being musical notes
poe's demon bird
nevermore
quoth the raven
nevermore
and the raven
never flitting
still is sitting
still is sitting


thanks to
Lewis Carroll
Sam Loyd
Aldous Huxley
Cyril Pearson
Edgar Allen Poe



The illustrations are experimental Sergio de Companion pieces that will be on display as part of a ravens and doves display this fall at Baldwin Gallery in Omaha. So, keep your eye out for that. While you're there, you can pick up one of my books.

Jim

Tax Day Protest

I think I'll just leave this here as my little tax day protest.

Tax day is gone

Good riddance I say

Another full year

Before we must pay

Honoring Tax Day, Sergio de Companion’s Blood of Man, comment on taxes and the IRS.

Perhaps overshadowed by the decapitated Statue of Liberty, which unintentionally looks indigenous American, is the true metaphor: Taxes collected by the IRS are the American worker’s blood drained to fill a leaky bucket.  The figure portraying Uncle Sam resembles the old man from the Kansas Leftoverture cover. Also unintentional.

Drawn on a 2017 1040EZ

James M M Baldwin, Sergio de Companion, Jim

It is said, science fiction and fantasy are two separate things. Science fiction; the improbable made possible. Fantasy; the impossible made probable. But what happens when you mix these two opposites? Rod Serling,Twilight Zone The Fugitive 7/9/1962

Born into this mixture between science fiction and fantasy, speculative fiction author James M M Baldwin persists in these endeavors to this day.

After writing three to six hours a night, six nights a week (never on a Sunday), for 15 years, (that’s approximately 21,000 hours), I took a break from writing. From Memorial Day, 2017 to Labor Day, I didn’t write a tittle or a toddle (or a title). I did participate in the Nebraska Writers Workshop’s June Bits of Scripts facilitated by Sally J. Walker. That was a big success this year.

Island of Magic

Portals of Erzandor

You’d think, with that many hours writing I’d have more to show for it. Beside the two novels; SPENCER MURDOCH AND THE PRORTALS OF ERZANDOR and SPENCER MURDOCH AND THE ISLAND OF MAGIC. Beside my science fiction short story collection;  ORION’S ARM: TALES FROM THE MILKY WAY. Beside my horror collection; BEYOND THE VISUAL CORTEX: TALES FROM THE INNER REACHES OF THE MIND. Beside and my long form poetry collection on mental health topics; MENTALCHAOS. Beside the situation comedy, MOCKINGBIRD HEIGHTS, written for the 2016 NWW Bits of Scripts (yes it’s true, sometimes I think I’m funny). And besides turning my short story DREAM HUNTERS into a feature length sci-fi/fantasy/horror script. Besides all that. There’s one thing I’ve accomplished more than any other; rejection.

Beyond the Visual Cortex

Orion's Arm

Pursuing traditional publishing is a tricky path. Convincing an agent or publisher to invest in you is somewhat of a catch-twenty-two. You can’t get them to notice you without a record of successful publishing, and you can’t get that record without getting published (to a certain extent). With that said, Mockingbird Heights’ failure to place in the 2017 Omaha Film Festival (I might not be as funny as I think I am) registered as my 213^th rejection.

I think I've earned a break.

Tatanka, Sergio de Companion

During my hiatus, I finished several large art projects painting under the brush-name Serio de Companion. (If you had read Spencer Murdoch and the Portals of Erzandor, you’d know I stole the name from my own writing.) As Sergio, working religiously every Sunday, I’ve completed hundreds of works, many abstract, recently swinging almost 180 degrees, creating my own lineal contemporary style. I’ve not started counting gallery rejections. Not yet. While continuing my lineal contemporary series, I’m adding a ledger art line matching historical event drawings with antique ledger paper from the same years. If you’re interested in ledger art, take a look at the great Don Montileaux’s website.

Sergio de Companion Ledger Art

Mental Chaos

Another thing I seem to be good at (whether writing or painting) is ideas. I have lots of ideas. I have more ideas than I have time. In my writing que are two more novels and another screen play, but next on my list is my second poetry collection (yet unnamed).

Bottom line, you’ll see more of me in the future. Whether as James M M Baldwin, Sergio de Companion, or just plain Jim, I’ll be lurking around somewhere. You may have to scan a few asteroids. 

Peace and love, brothers and sisters.

Jim

Everything's Coming Up Roses

April is shaping up to be a banner month here at the Baldwin home front. Great news all around.

First off, Zonderven, part of HarperCollans Christian Publishing, has purchased my first two novels in the Spencer Murdoch series, “Spencer Murdoch and the Portals ofEzandor,” and “Spencer Murdoch and the Island of Magic.” Along with a promise to aggressively market both books to number one in their categories and top ten overall, they have also signed for the next three books in the Spencer Murdoch series.

On a second front, Penguen/DAVV has signed on for my two stand-alone science-fiction novels, “God Particle” and “Six Billion Times the Mass of the Sun.” Both of which have garnered huge advances.

Third, I’m in talks with Soni Pictures concerning my screenplay “Son of Thunder.” (Keeping my fingers crossed while my agent negotiates.) If that works out, there will be several scripts to the big screen in the next couple years.

Fourth, I committed to three gallery exposition shows in the Omaha Metro and one in the Big Apple for my latest series of Sergio deCompanion “Lineal Primary” paintings. If the Big Apple show is a success, I’ll be opening a studio in New York, NY in September. I hope you’ll be able to come out to see one of the shows this summer.

Fifth, one of my lifelong dreams has finally come to fruition. Capital Records has signed my band “Sterling Steele” for its first full-length record “Jesus’ Brother.” The album will be released on July 9^th, 2017. Make sure you pick up a copy at your local record store. If all goes well, there will be a 2018 world tour followed by a multi-record deal.

Lastly, with all the good things happening, I am currently building a house on Lanai, the garden isle in Hawaii. Starting winter 2017, I’ll be spending all of the cold months in the tropics. 

Praise God. Thank you Jesus.