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MOTION THOUGHTS
Tuesday, April 24, 2007the summer comes caked with blue jewel pools.your garden hose spills for days until the yard is a bowl where you hang, supine and planet-faced, weighing less than in space. The summer rises runed, taroted, charted in the humming still of June rooms: I say we go away. Where's the fresh water in this place? Our cards are played, our fortunes made until the sky glows orange-white from plaza lights and the neighbors are Byzantines and Gypsies. Memphis spreads out slow from its winter clench. Arms unfold, the benches creak and crow in fronts, new-mowed grass tells its headless story. I'm picking up once the moon is limestone. I'm leaving for the quarry. Sorry, white legs. Sorry, coat pegs, The days are hot for the taking. The black spade of rot iron doesn't shape so menacing. I need these calluses for climbing, goat curses for skirt lining, chicken magic for my mancala eyes, shining. Tuesday, April 10, 2007Polyrhythms and lyrics and stagnation of musical inspirationI play everything. I had 4 songs i was working on at once and this one just happened to be the lucky one to actually get finished. The other ones are being neglected as punishment for their lack of appeal to me personally. As always, the title is meaningless.Thinking About Thinking (Blues) Also, if anyone lives in memphis and is interested in writing songs (clarification: i dont want to just "jam". i have enough musician friends who can sit down and play by ear and make some free-jazz cacophony. but i want to sit and talk about music, preferably with someone who knows more than me, and come up with something worthwhile) I can play drums and bass amateurishly, guitar somewhat adeptly, and anything on piano as long as i rehearse it a bit. I have a room stocked with instruments for at least the next two months when my roomate moves out, at which point i will probably only legitimately possess a 100$ gibson epiphone acoustic guitar. Thursday, March 01, 2007Pre-GraduationI've started experimenting with other forms of art. So this is a sketch book and photoshop technology. High class shit flyer: The Wolfman is Chris Owen. The skulls represent the Vacant. The Warble Machine Inc. and the five heads at the bottom are the Warble in their Scooby Gang/Josie and the Pussycats personas. The alien PrissKilla Prezley fembot is Cori (who is on the Memphis Roller Derby), the flying head is Lynn and the flying saucer is the drummer (forgot his name). Alex from the Warble will be designing another flyer. But I wanted to show people what I can do. Tommy "Is it graduation yet?" Labels: Memphis, photography Wednesday, February 21, 2007racial identityI had some problems making posts to here because of the weird google switch, but like magic! It works now! This is a short essay I wrote for my English class. The prompt was about your racial identity and to what extent you feel it defines YOU. I would like to revise it and make it less english class-y (classy) and more my personality.Being defined by my racial identity is something I have always struggled with. My mother is Han Chinese, born and raised in Hong Kong. She moved to Memphis to pursue a Piano Performance degree at Memphis State, where she met my father, who is Caucasian and was born and raised in rural Missouri. I was born in Memphis, but spent the first eleven years of my life in Middleton, TN, a small town an hour away from the city. Ironically, in a town where racism is the norm, I was never aware of being that different from my peers or even my family experiencing racist comments. Growing up in Middleton, my family ate Chinese food most nights, spoke Cantonese at home (though my father does not speak any), took off our shoes before entering the house, etc. I was eleven years old when my family moved back to Memphis and began to realize that I was “mixed”—a word that I had always associated with people that were half Caucasian and half African American. In Memphis, my parents had busier work schedules and my older sister moved away to live in China. We adopted a much more mainstream American lifestyle—eating with forks, speaking mostly English, and walking around in the house in street shoes. It seems that in Chinese culture, family is very important. Once my sister moved away and my parents were not around very often, we became less “Chinese” and more “American.” I have been to Hong Kong three times (ages 5, 12, 19) for extended stays with family, but went to main land China for the first time over winter break. Now that I am nineteen years old and able to fully understand the importance of these visits, I feel more Chinese than when I was younger and had the fluency of language. It was one of those earth-shattering experiences. I learned about my family and my culture, a culture I had always struggled to understand. In America, it is obvious that I am not Caucasian. Everything gives me away—my eyes, my Asian stationary, the way I speak broken Chinese on the phone. However, in China, these things merely give me away as “a mix.” I cannot say that I feel like I fully fit into American culture or Chinese culture, but these are the things I am trying to figure out. My racial identity is confusing and I am not sure if it will ever be clear to me. What is clear to me, however, is that I want to learn as much as I can about Chinese culture. Labels: Memphis Wednesday, February 07, 2007New PhotosHaven't been on for a while. Planning a lot of new adventures of old Tommy.     If you're in Memphis Friday night, come to De Cleyre's for Sky Native (Chris Owen and Cole's new band), the Warble, Noise Choir and Jump Back Jake. Keg, music, co-operations and art in one night. Tommy "Flasher" Labels: Memphis, photography Sunday, January 21, 2007I Did It Alanna I will be doing some singing with this band, Warble. My camera will be my instrument on stage, so photo taking while singing will ensue:    Click for more photos of the Warble playing at P&H. And if anyone is in town (Memphis), we should get together and I can show you the book I've got done. Tommy "Coffee table book?" Labels: Memphis, photography Thursday, January 18, 2007memphrica polaroïds.     Labels: Memphis, photography, polaroids Saturday, January 13, 2007Eightfold Path I decided to go on ahead and make more books. This photo above is going to be with this new book I'm putting together for a photo tells a story, based on Duane Michals' style, except everything is interconnected someway in years to come. Meaning, I will be adding to this book with other series for a complete story, no matter how the storylines in each one doesn't mesh. But here's a photo of the completed "Portraits of Memphis Musicians":  I'm making another copy of the Portraits of Memphis Musicians next week for my own copy. Tommy "Let the wolves have their sheep." Labels: black and white, Memphis, photography Thursday, January 04, 2007Urban Exploration So, that's Kelso, a fellow photographer. Note to self: get Ben Siler to post on here. Um, ok, focusing; Kelso and I stumbled upon this giant milk jug. We found it somewhere on Bellevue (Memphis). So we go in and explore and found a plastic brown Owl, this weird box and a "Smoking" Sign. We went up to the top and found the Milk Jug. And a Triumph car on the roof! If you guys want to see more, you gonna have to go here: http://amokmyth.buzznet.com/user/journal/91775/ So yeah. Tommy "Song y'all." Labels: Memphis, photography Friday, December 22, 2006Memphis Music is Still AliveI'm printing my book next Wednesday and having it binded. Three copies are being made so far. One is going to be used to comission more copies to be made in order to sell them.I went to see Eldorado and the Ruckus and took this awesome photo, it wasn't double exposure:  Tommy "Ring of fire"Labels: black and white, Memphis, photography Thursday, December 14, 2006The Art and Zen of Life MaintenceOr something like that: Memphis Roller Derby photo I took while in the suicide seats. No flash was used other than from someone elses. - Tommy "PrissKilla Presley's vs. Legion of Zoom" Labels: Memphis Tuesday, December 12, 2006Walking in Memphis book projectFor two months (excluding a year's worth of photographing musicians), I've been working on a photography book for myself among other things. Anyway, I thought that I might treat you guys to an excerpt. I'm Cadet Tommy by the way! I'm a digital photographer and I'm glad to be here. I hope that this post is appropriate. Tommy "How happy are we Boheme's Jen Whys" Labels: Memphis, photography Wednesday, November 29, 2006don't ever leaf me, tattoo  After a moderate amount of consideration, I got another tattoo at Trilogy (along with Brandon and Leroy) in Memphis while home for Thanksgiving break. It is an oak leaf. There is no deep meaning-- I just like the way they look, sound, fall, crumble, etc. Also, they are the best to draw on. So, I figured it was time to have it drawn on me. The first picture was taken by Joe for the sole purpose of sending to my sister who lives in China and Katherine who has not seen it. The second is a polaroid that Brandon took of ours together. His is saturn on the ankle. Labels: Memphis, polaroids, skin, tattoo
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