Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Scenes From Town

I am just going to post up some random shit I've taken while going around on the bike.  Nothing that really conjures up a good enough story to tell, but they may give a good sense of how things are.

 
This right here is the side of the store I work at.  I'm the manager, no big deal or anything.  We handle all your basic surgical supplies; knee braces, wrist braces, wheelchairs, bathroom safety, that kind of stuff.  A very non-mom-and-pop gym just opened up a couple of stores over and wanted to buy us out, we told them to fuck off.  I hate people that work for/own gyms (and most people that use them) as they tend to be total douchebags.  

 

I always thought these trees were really weird.  They are all growing out of this skinny ledge, I guess it's to make the loading area for the supermarket look nicer.  For some reason they remind me of a particular Halloween from several years ago, I'm sure a story or two will be posted about it eventually, but there were about 50 of us running around like mad all over town.  Good times.


 This here is a vacant/foreclosed house I had been wanting to shoot for a long time.  I love abandoned shit, and I think it is always the perfect photo subject.  Every town has that one haunted house, and in my day we had an entire haunted area called Tiny Town.  It's pretty interesting in its own right (you can read about it some here), but I wonder what the kids will think of this house after a few more years of neglect.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Church of the Ninja

 
Awesome arched hallway at a church in snow at night.
  
     I took the bike the other night, to get some sweet snowy night shots since we had a "blizzard" a couple of days before.  I have been wanting to shoot this church for awhile, as I always thought these arched hallways were cool, but the snow was just an added bonus.  But, posting this shot has brought to my mind a memory I had stashed deep into a dusty corner of brain, of something that, what I consider to be, the worst thing I've ever done.
    I wasn't alone on this, but I don't think the other kids felt as bad about it.  Long story short, we took food from a kitchen, but there is much more awesomeness to it, and the spirit of sheer adventure that some of the better youth of suburbia really shines through.  It was several years ago, and I only have bits and pieces left, but it should be enough to get the job (post) done, so here we go.
    As usual, we were skateboarding around, popping some heelflips, some nollies and just being general rapscallions.  It was beginning to get dark, we were ready to head home, and we spotted it: a window open just a crack.  It was probably to air out the boiler room, but we knew that inside there was an auditorium with a nice floor to skate on.  The adventure's spirit took hold of all of us and within minutes the window was open and we were cruising the glossy floors.  There's something about riding a skateboard inside a building.  There is a different kind of wind blowing by, you push with more oomph, and you just cruise and enjoy the simple pleasure of being where you're not supposed to be.
    Apparently, these simple pleasures were not enough, and we began to partake in what some of us would later call (and get arrested for) "urban exploring."  I say some of us because at the time of this story we seem to have had a transition group between the old school days, catholic school kidz, and the contemporaries.  Anyway, we wandered into a room of the side and, to us, we hit the fuckin jackpot!  Candy, snacks, bagels, frozen stuff, it was a fully stocked kitchen and smorgasbord of food.  Packages were torn open, bagels were tossed in oven, something went in the microwave, and we proceeded to gorge ourselves on forbidden food.  We did our eats, ninja'd out of the building, and marched home in victory.  One of us did not leave empty handed however, and he strode proudly, holding a 3 bound bucket of cheese puffs over his head in pure glory.
    Now that I think of it, this wasn't the worst thing we, or I, ever did.  Our ninja skills were elite and we just ate some of the Jesus day camps' food.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Somewhat Interesting Crap

     A couple of things have been of interest to me lately.  Firstly, I (and most of the music world) have been eagerly awaiting Varg Vikernes' newest Burzum album.  Obviously this is going to be a monster of a release (anyone who says it isn't is just trying to sound cool) and the samples that have been floating around sound promising.  Something that surprised me was that he used a photograph for the cover (he usually uses fuckwin illustrations from the likes of Theodor Kittelson):

 
     Varg had this to say about it: "The "Belus" front cover photo was taken about 2 km from my home in Bø. I chose it because it suited the concept; Belus is a solar deity, and he remains a mystery on the front cover, because you cannot see him. You can only see the sun rays though the mist. Also, the deities, all the deities in fact, were originally tree spirits, and therefore I think the tree blocking our view to Belus himself fits perfeclty. The pine tree blocking our view to Belus is, by the way, dedicated to Kaimadalthas (Heimdallr ["world tree"])."
     He doesn't say whether or not he took the photo himself, but I just thought it was really interesting that he sees so much in this photo.  When I first looked at it I didn't think shit.

     I was reading Machiavelli's The Prince the other day (my uncle let me swipe it from his bookcase) and I found there were a couple of his poems added to the backgrounds section at the back of the book.  I don't want to type it all, but here's a bit of his "On Occasion" (think "Opportunity" instead):

-Tell me then: who's this person by your side?
-She's pentinence; and this you'd better note,
Who misses me, gets her to be his bride.
And you who stand here talking, you who dote
On idle chatter, while the hour lingers,
Wise up a bit, you klutz, you've missed the boat,
And I've already slipped between your fingers!

     Basically, if you've been wanting to something, fucking do it already!  Paint some shit, start a band, get outside, whatever.  Do it up before you regret sitting on your ass reading my blog instead!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

A Note...

I just remembered another thing about that first period art class.  This bad ass type kid, my age, used to hock(?) a loogie into the teacher's coffee almost every day.  Pretty nasty, that kid definitely built up some shit karma for himself for that.

High School Pt. 1

 
Monochrome shot to emphasize the architecture.
    I am not particularly happy with this photo of my high school, but some people might like it.  I recently read an article by nature photographer Frans Lanting where he said, encouraging the use of black and white in winter, "color takes a backseat to shape, texture and tonal nuance, and depth and dimension are brought out through shadow and highlight."  Of course, he was talking about winter landscapes and this is a building shot (although it was fucking cold when I took it), but I thought it would still work.  Turns out that the composition is weak and I would like to get a better shot eventually.
    As for the subject of this post, high school, I don't have much to say really, which is why I chose to make this "high School Pt.1," in case I post again with more thoughts.  When I first started here, most of my friends went to catholic school, and it was a year before I found a group of friends here and two before I met my girlfriend, Stephanie (she also went to another school).  So, as far as day-to-day life went here, there's not to much to go on.  I spent a lot of time keeping my head down, my grades up, going through the motions and using my lunch breaks for homework, so I would have time to hang out with Steph, skateboard, or throw the frisbee around with my buds.
   One story I did actually want to tell occurred in my freshman year, an event that would become legendary throughout the school.  It was first period art class, which was awesome, and I was sitting there holding in a dump (as per usual during the first three class periods for me).  Across from me were two people: one kid, my age, considered somewhat of a fag, who I rather liked and still do, and another, older, bad ass type kid who I was friendly with in middle school when he rode BMX.  Anyway, it went something like this.  Bad-ass: "give me that eraser or I'll stab you with these scissors."  Kid my age: "No."  So, blah, blah, he kept refusing, so older kid proceeds to stab him with the scissor.  This is super illegal, easily grounds for a lawsuit, but the kid my age was very reluctant to the teacher (who was a good guy as well) what had happened.  eventually, word got out, older kid got in trouble, whole school found out, and the legend of The Time When Billiterri Stabbed BJ In Art Class lives on to this day. 

Monday, February 8, 2010

A Note...

Note: I have encountered a couple of unforeseen problems as I am continuing shooting for the project.  First, it's cold as shit out.  I had to come back to the house twice yesterday to get more layers.  Second, on nice days, especially Sundays, people are walking their dogs all over the place.  Dogs also love to chase after my bike, causing the usual awkward "I'm acting like your dog is being cute but its fucking annoying" situation.  Lastly, since I wanted to do all the shooting from places I could bike to within the town, I'm not sure what to do with my other work from places I have driven to.  I might have to just put " **UNRELATED** " next to the title or something.

Borderlands

 
These old fences mark (for me) an unofficial border.

My town, which is relatively nice, borders with a not-so-nice town to the west.  Obviously, this being suburbia, what defines levels of niceness needs not be said.  The border itself, I think, is the exact center of an overpass which crosses the parkway separating the towns.  My brother told me once that back in the eighties there was a meeting between the "gangs" of both towns to paint a white line across the middle of the bridge, and it has been obeyed ever since (for the most part).  Of course, in recent, more adventurous times, we crossed this bridge plenty.  It just so happens that the bridge is nicely paved on the other side, making it excellent for carving down on a longboard, skateboard or whatever.  Interesting fact: behind these fences is a trail that leads behind houses for half a mile or so and into the local teen party area behind a school.  What's cool about it is that the path has been beaten in by generations of kids going in and out of the woods to just do anything, its like a legacy of boredom.  Another interesting fact: Eddie Murphy frequently crossed the border over into our town to steal bikes.  Yep, lots of history at this part of town.
 

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Let's Begin...

 
 A door leading to wonderful adventures.

  One summer, some of the best shit happened right here.  It was a gem in an area where we spent most of our time anyway, right in town.  Through that door lied an entire dimension of adventure and fun.  It was (and still is) an abandoned nightclub!  Everything was still there, the stage, the bars in the basement (still pretty well stocked), the VIP office/lounge upstairs, everything.  As if that wasn't enough to quench our thirst for adventure for the rest of the summer, there was an empty swimming pool under the stage!  A gift from the gods to a bunch of skateboarders with not much else around.  It was somehow converted into a pantry, but we all took care of that and made it skate-able.  By golly, good times were had.  I know I'll be returning here to shoot again, so I am going to save some of the stories, nay, legends, which surround this fantastical place for another time.    

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, Tom's Study of Suburbia. This is basically an idea I had to photographically document the town I grew up in and its surrounding area. I live in Merrick, NY, a suburb of New York City. It's a love/hate relationship with the area, all of us who grew up here have it, but for me it's definitely more love than hate. Many a fond memory has been made out on the streets. From being little kids soccer-ing it up in the backyard, cruising all around on bikes, then skateboards, hanging out with my girlfriend, and causing general mischief along the way, my whole life has been set against the background of this town, and I'm not too sure if I would rather have it been any other way. So, I am going back to square one; me, a bike, and a camera, to try and document the nooks and crannies of where I grew up before I (potentially) move away and out into the 'real world.'