Tom profile picture

Tom

“Peace is its own reward.” --M. Gandhi

About Me



"Words are what give expression to the distinctions that are thought of in the mind."
I'm all about finding beauty in all things, but I'm also about finding ugliness in all things. I refuse to act my age, and I refuse to stop searching for light. I generally will talk about anything for hours and hours. On rare occasions, I shut the fuck up. I never know "the answer".

"The wise may be called human, but the thoughtless are no more than animals."
--Nichiren Daishonin

“I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”
--Joseph Campbell

"Put into flames, a rock simply turns to ashes, but gold becomes puregold."
--Nichiren Daishonin

“The demon that you can swallow gives you it’s power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.”
--Joseph Campbell

"Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave."
--Rainer Maria Rilke

"We don't realize that the gods are not out there somewhere. They live in us all. They are the energies of life itself."
--Joseph Campbell

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the law of the Universe will be simpler."
--HD Thoreau
"And if you want to understand what results will be manifested in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present."
--Nichiren Daishonin
"True love should be transformative, a process that amplifies our capacity to cherish not just one person but all people. It can make us stronger, lift us higher and deepen us as individuals. Only to the extent that one polishes oneself now can one hope to develop wonderful bonds of the heart in the future."
--Daisaku Ikeda
"Sever the ignorant doubt in your heart with the sword of self-knowledge.
Observe your discipline.
Arise.
--Bhagavad-gita

My Interests


The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible and achieve it, generation after generation.
--Pearl S. Buck

Dreaming and dreams (lucid or otherwise). I heart art, and I heart artists, and I heart a good heart, don't you?

I LOVE GUITARS! I like people who make clanging metal noises as well as people who sound like they're whispering into my soul...

I refuse to be cool.

I LOVE to cook... I'm practically veggie, but I'll cook anything. I love to watch people eat stuff I've made. Making a decent Margarita is a lifelong pursuit... I utilize the Sonni method, to maximum effect (credit where it is due).

Here are some fun places I have found to go...
The Onion
HomeStarRunner
Engrish

"People will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel." --Maya Angelou

I'd like to meet:

Fun people of all natures. Natural people of all fun.

Frank Gehry!

The Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain

.. I also kind of wish I'd have met Joseph Campbell

Music:

I listen to Ryan Adams, Aimee Mann, Steely Dan, Foo Fighters, Stevie Wonder, Beck Hansen, Joni Mitchell, Prince, Liz Phair, David Bowie, T-Rex, Oregon, X, Lucinda Williams, Stereolab, Muse, Portishead, Sheryl Crow, Pete Yorn, Kevin Gilbert, Lyle Workman, Pat Metheny, Peter Gabriel, Audioslave, George Clinton and the P-Funk thing, Yes, Neil Young, Marvin Gaye, Joe Zawinul, Jason Falkner, Iggy Pop, Jon Brion, Todd Rundgren, John McLaughlin, Wendy and Lisa, Tom Verlaine, Prefuse 73, The Strokes, The Police, Claude Debussy, Near the Parenthesis, Morcheeba, Brian Eno, Jellyfish, James Marshall Hendrix, Jeff Beck, David Torn, Bootsy, Eagles, Tears for Fears, Nick Drake, Al Green, Igor Stravinsky, Hall and Oates, Bjork, Terje Rypdal, Aretha Franklin, U2, Damien Rice, Stone Temple Pilots, Boz Scaggs, A Perfect Circle, Eric Johnson, Hank Williams, Owsley, Tool, Massive Attack, Frank Zappa, L Shankar, Miles Davis, Sly and the Family Stone, Led Zeppelin, Those Rolling Stones, those Beatles... you get the picture.

I love drummers! Especially Jeff Porcaro, Bernard Purdie, Stewart Copeland, Vinnie Coliuta and Manu Katche

Movies:

I Heart Huckabees, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill I & II, The Godfather (but not III), Lost in Translation, What the Bleep Do We know?, It Happened One Night, Clerks (and all the Kevin Smith), Almost Famous, This is Spinal Tap, She's Gotta Have It (and all those SL joints), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Royal Tenenbaums, Raging Bull, Tank Girl, Nightmare Before Christmas, Koyaanisqatsi, Dead Man (and all Jim Jaramusch), Blue Velvet (and all David Lynch), Stanley Kubrick, Grindhouse, The Trouble with Harry, High Fidelity, Adaptation, Best in Show, Federico Fellini, Cinema Paradiso, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Jean-Luc Godard, Sin City, Fargo (and all Coen Bros.), Brother from Another Planet, Repo Man, Me and You and Everyone we Know, Sketches of Frank Gehry etc...

Television:

Not so much.

Books:

Tom Robbins, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., TC Boyle, Evelyn Waugh, Lynda Barry, Charles Bukowski, Richard Brautigan, David Eggers, Thomas Pynchon, David Sedaris, Chuck Palahniuk, Confederacy of Dunces, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, The I Ching, and scads of books about Art and GUITARS!!

Heroes:

Daisaku Ikeda, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mohandas Gandhi, and all tireless workers for justice through peace.

Everyone that creates ART. People that go.

oh... and these guys!

My Blog

spindle

spindlealternatives to gravitydo not end well.they leave the groundedwithout the lessonone desires to deliver.repression of the soundsfalling in the forest when no one is theregiving in toyour sentenc...
Posted by Tom on Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:48:00 PST

stall

stall   in this summer of collection cut our loss like oily grasses strangling in the morning glory   unblemished in sort of a no-harm-no-foul rescue from sentiment   breathe deep ...
Posted by Tom on Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:04:00 PST

viewmaster

viewmasterin the waning days of beginningI came home in decisionyour 'ness was my itinerarykind, thoughtless, blind, slowand mine:happi, restless, forgive, witbreathe. hope can draw blood.I reached i...
Posted by Tom on Sat, 23 Aug 2008 08:32:00 PST

ride

rideon a cross-country drivemy fellow traveler woke from a stolen naphe chastised the jazz filling the vehicleas music with the cymbalsin all the wrong placesI wantto make love to youon those brass li...
Posted by Tom on Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:58:00 PST

vhf

pawnshop foundmade you laughlike some partridge family lunchboxnot of your era, but if you couldy'knowtime travelthat perfect piece of clip-artnot too much informationor superfluous featuresit could g...
Posted by Tom on Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:40:00 PST

sheer

sheer         static. that, and roller skates   a small voice that runs in, leaves a wake   the receiver becomes a monitor distracted by a sexy beauty mark dancing a...
Posted by Tom on Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:51:00 PST

oil

oila prayer meetingafter the showJahweh ties offand sings dry,minor key,elemental bloodless joysquints through dusty glassessearching for mustard seedmisplaced analogypiquant in pheromone incongruityl...
Posted by Tom on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:47:00 PST

lore

lorefuck the reasonsthat I amyellowed newsprinton your tablesideyou never wanted meto be as much asa diversionary coffee ringaround that central themecentral savior air conditioningwall to wall carpet...
Posted by Tom on Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:24:00 PST

fable

fable   steep and slick, the avenue's return from second guess and generosity. asphalt hosed down like a night time street scene in a b-movie     in the wait blood flowed slower, thick...
Posted by Tom on Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:00:00 PST

kalpa

kalpa time laughed at the sleeppresented in final hoursexamined my fingersstill strong, callused and searching the still night air,and a smallish voicereminded me of aging.of what is unfinished across...
Posted by Tom on Fri, 30 May 2008 12:48:00 PST