JUMPING FOR JOY!

What is your Story?

If someone asked you, 'what is your story?' what would you tell them? 

Would the sum total of your Story be - "I went to work and then I got married and then I died" ?  Hopefully not. What did you DO? What are you most proud of? What did you learn? That's all part of your Story. 

Starting on Saturday, December 22nd, I'm going to tell you my story. Some of it is nice. Some of it is not. I probably won't tell you some things, and you may even think that I'm over-sharing. But it is my Story. And, as I approach a Very Important Birthday on March 9th (one that I have written about in the past here and, more recently, here)I want to tell my Story while I can because we never really know what the future holds, do we? 

I hope you'll join me. I hope that you find something that resonates with you. Like Elizabeth Moss' character on MAD MEN, I wish to create something of lasting value. Perhaps my Story will be it. Maybe not. But, I feel compelled to tell it at this point in my life. 

Meanwhile, what is your Story? 

Hello and Happy Sunday

Here in New York City the Mister and I have spent the day just kind of lounging and spending the day indoors. It isn't particularly cold but we stayed up late decorating the tree and watching the back half of Downton Abbey season 6. Yeah, we're a little late to this party but I also only finally saw Rocky's 1 and 2 a couple weeks ago so I am apparently just crossing stuff off of my 'to watch' list. I am preparing to dive into "Game of Thrones" next month as a lead up to the last few episodes of that which are slated to air in April. Then, we have the conclusions of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ("Avengers 4:  Endgame") and the final flick in the Star Wars triple trilogy. With my 55th birthday coming up in March (and 55 being such a prominent thing in my life the past 15 years AND the age my dad was when he got sick) and the Trip to Mosinee in June, it promises to be a pretty fabulous, and quite possibly 'epic' year. Hope you'll join me here for the twists and turns and thoughts. 

As I've written on here before, I have been making plans to move off of social media and focus my writing and cartooning to this blog. Naturally, I'll still promote my work on the FB and things like that but there have been so many negative revelations about the company of late, that I cannot in good conscience feel safe there any longer. It's sad. I like the whole idea of Facebook and I've certainly reconnected with a number of friends from various places I've lived and jobs I've held..... but the Sandberg stuff irritates me and, well, in general I think it's time to shift focus. (Now, this isn't saying that I'll never post frivolous stuff, because we all know that I will... but hopefully I'll spend more time creating work here and less time there. Should be fun to see how it plays out, eh?). 

As you might notice, I've done a little re-do to the left with more coming probably by the end of the year. Above: the Mister suggested that this might be the perfect ornament for these tangled times - a sort of post-modern commentary on something or other. 

Enjoy your Sunday and will be back again soon. 

Ellis Island

A couple years ago, just prior to the Presidential election, I worked at an event held at Ellis Island. Walking the sane steps that so many immigrants had on their way to a better life was inspiring. Most of us probably really have no idea what it's like to have a life so terrible that we risk life and limb to cross the ocean with basically nothing, in order for the chance at a better life. 

So it was that I felt inspired just by being there.

And then, as the sun began to set and I stepped outside for a little air, I caught the sunset blazing across the sky, billowy clouds and pink, red, orange, yellow, blue mixing together to create an unbelievable palette. And there, ... just 'right there' was the Statue of Liberty, her self reflected in the waters of the Hudson. To the other side, the skyline of downtown Manhattan.

I couldn't help but be affected by it all.

The past couple years have been a challenge financially and a challenge to my self esteem - if I'm not producing events, if I am not raising money, if I am not emceeing, if I am not doing this or that... who and what am I and what am I doing on this planet at this point in time? And what do I do from here? There have been no answers. I soldier on. I take projects that I get and hope (like many of us do) that the reason for all of this will eventually be clear.

Politics have tried my patience and have created acrimony and agony (emotional, intellectual, spiritual) for all of us. We have lost friends to political clashes and it seems as though we didn't know the people in our lives the way we thought we did. It seems as though the country is about to explode in civil war unless another bombing or another shooting does us in first. And there has been tremendous death - certainly personally for me, but also culturally. This has not been an easy time for anyone.

And yet, two years later, I am still thinking of this vision of beauty. And hope. Yes, I know it's corny. But yes this vision brought me hope. Hope that you can struggle to get to the new world but that it will be worth it. So, we are on the boat right now and we are all traveling to the new world together. It's rocky, no one will tell you that's not true... but we have to hold on. and, if we have to, we will continue to fight for what's right and beautiful.

And so I look to my own life. True, there are currently struggles galore. But you know what's going right? I have a great apartment that I've made my home for nearly 15 years. I have an amazing man who I sometimes can't believe is in my life and, even better.. we have been living together for over two years (and he cooks! If you're on Instagram, follow me at @jacobandrewaltenburg and you can see how "we're cooking grub in our tiny place"). Work-wise,  I produced an amazing project this past spring for Colgate (yes, that Colgate), and have been continually working as a 'temp' the past few months while sourcing the next phase of my life. 

And, I have re-discovered my art. I stopped drawing when my father died when I was 17. And, I really truly thought I would never draw again. And yet, here I am noodling around again and even answering ads for work on art job sites. I don't think that I can adequately express how profound that is for me.

And, of course, I have friends both on and off line... and that makes a tremendous difference.

I will get through my own migration to whatever is in store for me next. And we will all get through this time in our country. We will arrive on the next shore together. Perhaps a little rougher around the edges than we'd like to be, but it will eventually be a new world filled with new adventures. I don't know what any of that will look like.... but I'm taking the advice of Rob Brezny for this week and trying to enjoy the ride. :) 

For renowned Piscean visual artist Anne Truitt (1921–2004), creating her work was high adventure. She testified that artists like her had "to catapult themselves wholly, without holding back one bit, into a course of action without having any idea where they will end up. They are like riders who gallop into the night, eagerly leaning on their horse's neck, peering into a blinding rain." Whether or not you're an artist, Pisces, I suspect your life in the coming weeks may feel like the process she described. And that's a good thing! A fun thing! Enjoy your ride.

 

Laying It Out For You Re: Christmas Decorations

Spoiler alert: this is not a post complaining about setting up Christmas decorations before we're 'supposed' to (ie just after Thanksgiving). In a world where Presidential elections get rolling roughly two to three years ahead of time, now that the genie is out of the bottle of getting the Xmas decor up as soon as Halloween has taken its final breath, it isn't going to go back in. 

No, this is actually going to be a blog post supporting ECD (Early Christmas Display). 

So, here's the thing - life in general is hard as it is. And, I think that no matter where you land on the political spectrum, I hope that we can, at least, agree that hmmmm things aren't going so well for the world right now - on edge and anxious.

(And, if you are one of those people who think that everything is honky dory, I kind of pity you.) 

In any event, I don't know about you, but I could use some Christmas tree lights. I could use a few songs about loving each other better. I would love to see candy canes and reindeer and Santas. And not even really just Christmas - but these days, I could go for any culture or religion that parties and celebrates and reflects on their lives and finds good cheer. 

On my way home from my consultant job this evening, I passed by Radio City Music Hall and noticed that the big tree was already up on the marquee. It probably goes up at this time of the year every year, but this year it feels especially early and yet also especially welcome. For a moment, the tree acted like lighting a match did for the Little Match Girl - a momentary reminder that there are good things in the world. 

And then some idiot bumped into me - and I had specifically gone off to the side of the sidewalk behind a narrow area of scaffolding especially because I didn't want to be in anyone's way.. it's like they had to literally go out of their way in order to bump me. Yeah, what was that reminder again? 

But, all the days and weeks go by, the world will become lit up with good cheer; but my challenge to you is to not let the idiots ruin it for you. 

And, even more importantly, don't let everyone's high expectations of the season get to you - the stress will amp up, as it does every year, as more and more people become unglued about spending money, going to parties, making themselves and everyone around them completely miserable. 

But don't let them win. Just enjoy the holiday season in all it's glory - and if that means putting up your Christmas decorations now, and if that'll make you feel better, by all means do it. You won't get a complaint from me. 

 

Sound Advice for Those Of You Who Are Feeling Lost

Ok here it is - 10/31 - Halloween - and I have got something to say to YOU. 

Have you been sitting around, moping around, feeling sorry for yourself? 

Well, I have. I'll admit it. I am no stranger to the angst of uncertainty and worry. 

But let me tell you something right here, and right now - all of that is fraking useless. 

Get up. Get out. Go do something. Anything. Don't let the fear of failure scare you. In fact, that thing that you are so afraid of? I dare you. I double dare you. I triple DOG dare you (now you know I''m serious) - go out and do it. Or try it. No matter what it is. Just fraking do it already. 

The Mary Tyler Moore Show has a brilliant episode where Mary, tired of her job, her apartment and her life, mixes things up (after Ted rouses her from her depression by showing her that it's not WHAT she does but HOW she does it). She gets a new apartment which reinvigorates her life. 

I've done that too and I'm at that point in my life right now. It's time to move forward. 

Now, I don't really have a flying fig of an idea what that is but I know something's gotta give. 

Aren't you tired of the moping you're doing? Get up and do something different! Remember, doing the same thing will get you the same results. If you want a different result, do something different. 

I'm ready. Are you? 

Tuesday Check In

Hey there peeps - it's Tuesday, October 30 and I got a nice note from someone who just started reading this blog - it said (in part):

"LOVING the wild rollercoaster of images, humor, pathos and socio-political art on your site! Keep it up!" 

Thanks, dude, much appreciated! 

To start your day off right, here's one of my favorite New Yorker cartoons. I had a time in a job I once had that made me feel exactly like this LOL 

 

The Somedays

The past couple weekends, I've kind of made it a point to tackle some projects I've been procrastinating about. We all have them. Clean this, clear out that. Get rid of this book, discard that shirt I'll never wear again. And so forth. 

Along the way, as I've been spelunking in and around the apartment I've lived in for nearly 15 years, I discovered, in no particular order - an Ipod from about 2012, a Discman from before that, various business cards I've had over the past few years, and a roll of pics I'd taken during a visit to a cemetery just around this time of the year in, about, 2011.  None of this is particularly Earth shattering and none of that important in the scheme of things. The Discman has been claimed (although I don't remember offering it! lol) and I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with the Ipod. It'll join a small pile of electronics (video cams, mostly) that I frankly will probably never use again but seems wasteful to simply throw it away. 

I doubt I'll ever be a minimalist (I can actually hear those of you who have lived with me nod in agreement) but I have been on a kick for a good long time now to purge purge purge. It's not easy. Not everything has meaning to me (and therefore value) but there is a value to most everything I have. 

What is it you're holding on to that you could get rid of? Catalogs? Magazines? Have you cleared out your frig or cupboard lately? Ever? Do you want every book you have or could they go to your local library, homeless shelter, or youth org? What about the clothes you say you're going to fit in to "someday"? Spoiler alert: it'll never happen. Donate it and free yourself of that part of the narrative that starts up every time you see that article of clothing. Why waste your life with 'somedays'? 

"The Somedays" are the things we tell ourselves in order to keep a book, a shirt, a camera.. "I'll use it someday". Well, it's possible (I have found some things in my spelunking that I have put back into use - a vase, for example, I packed away years ago that I unearthed and now sits on a bureau in the living room), but most things, well, probably not. 

Free yourself of the The Somedays. Live now. Live with what you need but not all the extra stuff. I'm not there yet, but hope to be there 'someday'. That's the only someday I'm allowing at this point! 

Anyway, enjoy this pic and happy Saturday! 

 

 

Monday Morning in New York City

So, yesterday afternoon I was buzzing around the apartment with the Mister. I was mutli-tasking - cleaning the apartment, purging things from the apartment, trying to get inspired to draw, and, of course, ditzing around on the Facebook. 

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm kind of starting to move off of the Facebook anyway and looking to spend more time writing here and/or doing well, just about anything else. I love yakking with my friends from various places/eras in my life, but I've become kind of addicted to it. And the best way to fight that is to ween oneself off. And, by 'addicted', I mean it in the sense of it being the default thing that I do when I'm bored. You know, rather than read or draw or do about anything else. I know that I'm not alone in this which is why I can be fairly blase about it. It's a thing that I know a lot of people are going through. I'm sure this has something to do with the fact that the Facebook has turned into the cold Civil War where people are just pitted against each other, locked in an eternal 'well the libturds said this' and 'the republiturds said that'. This country of ours has real problems - a fundamental difference of ideologies of how a society should be run. There are, unfortunately, no easy answers and, more unfortunately, there seems to be this very strange thing where two people view the exact same event and have literally opposite interpretation of it. I know this situation from my childhood, but seeing it happen out in the wider world as an adult is really freaking me out (and, in this, I know I'm not alone either). 

Anyway, I made a comment on a friend's comment and some person (I can't believe it's an actual friend, but who knows) let out their rage at me calling me a 'dumbass' and immediately after, a 'homo'. I went to the person's page to figure out what kind of creep this would write this kind of thing and found this: 

I decided that the irony was too delicious, so I posted it to him as a response. Then I reported the hate speech. The Facebook doesn't always get everything right but the post vanished minutes later and I went on about my day. 

It occurred to me that I'm always fascinated by the slurs that people use. For a gay person, calling them a "homo" is supposed to, I suppose, be derogatory, but I am, in fact, a homosexual. Shorting the word doesn't make it any more or less true.

I've been out for 30 years. I assume it's cost me a job here and there (it definitely cost me my family) but, well, it is what it is. I could have stayed in the closet but other people could have been more accepting and not such puritanical slugs. So there's that. As it is, I've found that most people either don't care or find it interesting for a hot minute because they have a cousin or a brother or a next door neighbor who is gay, and by the way, do I know them? (I say that for a little comic effect, but the sad reality is that after fundraising within the LGBT community for the past 20/25 years, there have been times when it has felt as though yes I do know everyone). 

Anyway, when I then mentioned this on the Facebook, someone posted that I must be offended. I guess I am. Sort of. But, really, how can I be? I don't know the guy, and it doesn't really sound like I would want to.  I survived a childhood of taunts and jeers and an adulthood of trying to be there for people who had been marginalized as I had. I didn't get famous or rich doing it, but there is some measure of satisfaction in a life lived well in this way. 

Here on this blog, as in life, like many people, I'm always striving to be kind, fair, passionate, and honest. I don't always succeed. But then, I don't know anyone who succeeds 100% of the time. 

This is a new week. Go out and make it an awesome one and let's see if we can change the world for the better in our own small way. 

The Wednesday Morning Blog

Good morning all - and happy Wednesday. 

A few things today - First, hello, what a great day it is to be alive, right? So, if you're even reading this, you're ahead of the game. Never forget that. 

Second, later today I'll be hanging out and schlepping around New York's big Event Planner Expo. I'll be handing out my card and schmoozing. Maybe you're here for the first time because of that - welcome fellow events people! Please leave a comment below on how we met! 

Or maybe you were someone I've talked to at my 'temp' job about my cartooning skills. Scroll down and you'll run into the most recent strip - MEMO 60 - wherein I pay homage to Cher with "Moooostruck". I'd like to say that I consciously thought to do this strip just when Cher is releasing her big ABBA album, but no. Unless it makes me look better to say that I planned it. OK yeah, I planned it. There. Anyway, welcome work friends! Feel free to leave a comment as well. But the direction I give to you is this: please list the favorite free thing in the company kitchen. :) For the record, I like the weird Yoda like granola bar and the bottle of apple juice as a breakfast combo. 

 

Third, or is it Fourth?, here's something (above) that made me laugh when I saw on teh internets recently. 

I figured you might need a little laugh as well. Cuz, hey, some days these days there isn't much to laugh about. But I here on the Jumping for Joy blog, try to, as often as I can, post something that gives me ... well, joy. My art gives me joy. Quotations give me joy. Telling little stories and being a little silly gives me joy. So, if you need a little joy, please come back and hang with me here for a second or two. And tell your pals. 

Oh, and also, I think there's a feature above where you can get notified every time I post something but if you're really feeling the Andrew-ness, I'm starting a little weekly newsletter. My thought about this is it's a chance to send the week's worth of links and strips and do a quick check in with my peeps. My peeps, btw, come from all over and sometimes I like to promote my peeps here on this blog and will do so in the newsletter too. It's kinda important to me to spread the joys that my friends are having. You can drop me a note at my gmail address or leave a comment with your email address. I have to moderate it so I'll get the address and then delete the post so your privacy is insured. 

I had a career counselor that said to me "no one reads anymore". Gosh, I hope that's not true. 

OK this is long enough. That's enough for this morning! 

Hats off to Bree Wiseman

This is one of my favorite memes to come out of this whole icky mess with the Supreme Court nominee....