I just recieved some sad news from the SCAD alumni newsletter. One of my favorite teachers and a real legend passed away, John Earl. I took his History of Jazz course and I will forever remember his irreverant teaching style and brilliant stories of the Jazz greats of all time. I just wanted to post the news as I received it from the newsletter as its truly a loss for all of us alumni, students and faculty.
Rest in Peace, John Earl. I am truly a better person having sat in your class for that semester.
“John Earl died at his home Friday, Nov. 28. He taught in the SCAD photography and performing arts departments from September 1980 to September 1995. As a photography professor, he often taught The Nature of Photography, and later as a performing arts professor, he often taught The History of Jazz. Earl was a veteran of World War II and attended the University of Miami, where he majored in music. He was an accomplished jazz drummer and later became a nature photographer. His photographs were published in many national magazines and books, and he was commended by the Georgia State Senate in 1977 as an environmentalist and photographer.”
Off the success of my last post here is a little tidbit you didn’t know about me. When I was 15, I joined the US Naval Sea Cadet Corps. I will pause while everyone laughs and makes fun of me. (Pause) Ok, its hilarious to me to think about now but back then I was seriously militant. I lived and breathed my Sea Cadet books. I think I memorized the Navy BMR (Basic Military Requirements).
The really odd part of my Sea Cadet career was that my Mother made me have a mullet so, I was always out of regulation. I have a few pictures of me in uniform lying around somewhere and I promise to post them for a really great laugh. I was constantly getting yelled at by the Company Commander for having my mullet hair encroach on my sailor outfit. Oh…my Mom and her keane fashion sense!
Between my freshmen year and sophomore year of high school, I went to the Orlando RTC (recruit training command) and subjected myself to 6 weeks of boot camp. The first thing that happen was my mullet was turned into a shaved skinhead. I actually enjoyed that it wasn’t bad at all.
I was promoted to CC for the Company and was in charge of 8 people. I had to make sure they were squared away for inspection and learned everything properly. I think this was my first taste of leadership and I was pretty good at it. I was a benevolent dictator to may sailors and we never had one infraction. Our “gig lines” were straight and my boys marched like robots.
The second thing that happen that summer was I lost my desire to become a sailor. After 6 weeks spent marching in the hot florida sun, learning how to fight fires, swimming and exercising, I decided to abandon my dream of being Admiral Tompkins to become a hippie.
After reading Charles‘ post on Facebook about things you might not know, I decided to compile a completely self-indulgent list of things about me you may not know. In fact, you would probably never guess these things in a million years. So thanks Charles for the idea and hope you guys enjoy it as much as i do writing them.
So without further adue, I present to you.
Things you may not know about Stephen, and would never guess in a million years…
At ages 16-19 I worked on my friends Christmas Tree farm in North Carolina on breaks from school and college. It was really grueling work, we would wake up at 6 AM and basically spread fertilizer around thousands of christmas tree’s all day. The real problem with the work was we wore these backpacks full of liquid fertilizer or poison that basically burned our hands. Oh yeah and the monotony of walking around thousands of trees. So we wore gloves and listened to our walkmen as an escape from the work counting the minutes to get off and enjoy NC. I think I may have listened to that Ice-T song Colors a million times that summer walking in circles around the trees. It was like some sort of esoteric tail chasing but I loved every minute of it.
What was the payoff for this work? We would sit on the back porch of my friend’s cabin shoot guns at beer cans and take in the beauty of the Chatooga National Forest. On our days off, we would tube the streams, hike the mountains and pretend to be one with nature. We even had a pet rattlesnake that Matt caught. I ended up having to call the Park Service to remove the snake but the ranger got bitten but that’s another story.
I do believe in those summers I learned some of life’s early lessons about work and focus. Jobs come and go but beauty and surroundings make all the difference in the world. I am reminded of it today when I leave my work and see the beauty of Manhattan on my way home.
I remember we would go up on the side of the mountain and collect the rattlesnake skins that were shed. My first few times, I was frightened to death of seeing the snakes but soon learned they are docile reptiles unless provoked. Thinking back on it, I wonder if I was just pretending but either way I never got bitten and collected some nice skins whilst confronting my fears. Its kind of like life most things are docile unless provoked and it takes a leader to want to stir up things for fear of the unknown. So to everyone who is scared to go out and collect snake skins for fear of getting bit confront it and learn something about yourself. I certainly did.
It seems like a different world but I want to say thanks for all those times to Matt and his family for letting me come up and learn about life, myself and the wilderness.
I just finished the weekend at the Landmark Forum and had it was an extroidinary time but I wanted to post an open letter to everyone in my life. The intention of this letter is for everyone who has been in my life at some point in the last 33 years and wondered why is Stephen like that. Unfortunately, I know there is alot of you out there so here is your answer and believe me the answer was as big a surprise to me as it may come to you.
Put in simple, I am like this because of my past. Not that it was bad, good or okay but it just was and now all it is is a story. I am not asking for you pity or to feel sorry for me. I just want everyone to know that I am fully aware of my past and completely committed to completing it, so that I can realize my future. I refuse to let my past interrupt my being and take away from me anymore.
In other words: I am who I am and that is a perfect person. Ultimately, I was unhappy with myself and blamed me for many tragedies I had in early life. They only remained buried by the steadfast and beautiful love my mom poured on me. But eventually, I needed to face those demons on my own ground and slay them for being the stupid stories of a scared six year old child.
Because of the pain of my early life , my whole life has been about controlling situations, relationships and people. And when I did not get my way I retreated to my own perception of a situation not realizing that it does not matter anyway its all stories. Life is about moving the ball forward and not keeping myself in control to keep the past under control. Its not about the past its about the now and the possibilities I am creating for myself tomorrow because I am present for the now.
I know that all sounds like great stuff and hey I am still skeptical myself. But my error has always been its implementation. I was focused on change. You need only read my blog about how I can change. Its laughable now in light of the fact that the more we change the more we stay the same. You can’t change yourself without indentification and reconciliation of who you are and where you came from.
I needed and continue to need to restore the integrity of my being from which I took from myself when I was six. That is where you guys come in I cannot make this transformation complete without the help of all my friends and family. I need you to realize that I am now in control of myself and wish to restore my integrity.
Its easy to forget and dismiss (no one knows this better than me) but its hard to forgive and forget but I guarantee if you do this with me you will be embarking on an authentic friendship that is without limitation and restraints. If you do not want to that is okay to you have the right to do that and i will still love you all the same. Life is much better once you live guilt-free from yourself and as yourself! Thanks to everyone who stuck and continues to stick by me I love you guys more than you ever will know.
I have so much more to say but want to tell everyone in person how much they mean to me.
Yesterday, I signed up for the Landmark forum and I am pretty excited to take it. I hope it as good as advertised. I don’t want to go into specifics but I really think this will be able to bring about the some major shifts in thought. I will report more on it after I take it next week.
Its 3 days of grueling coursework designed to change your views.
So hopefully when I am done I will come out Stemato 2.0! Who is ready for Stemato 2.0?
Today marks the 27th anniversary of my father Stephen Malone Tompkins Sr. passing away. I remember vividly being told by my Stepmom in my bedroom at the time. My mind did not have any idea what it meant. I did not even know he was sick for the last year of his life or maybe I did and could not grasp it.
In many ways it seems so foreign to me now after all the things that have happen in those 27 years. A wonderful stepfather, great mother and loving brothers and sisters have all helped me to be who I am today. And, I try not to regret many things about the early years either but its hard to not regret ever being able to play catch or tell him about a new job. I guess in many ways I have lived with this part of my life missing.
Over the last year, a perfect storm of emotional events have set themselves upon me and brought all this to the surface where I have decided to sort it out once and for all within. Most of my life I have been living with all my feelings or emotions somewhere other than where they should be and its a real unhealthy way to live. I am not going to file them in the right spot to make my life more meaningful.
Being told at six year’s old that your father was no longer going to be in your life is an interesting thing. I think in many ways it resonated inside and wired my feelings to be hidden from the very start. I cannot recall the last time I told my Mom I love her. I am not even sure why I don’t but I believe it has to do with this early start. The good news is that its never too late to get them rewired. Mom - I love you!
The recent events in my life have caused me to reflect on my life and take a very long hard look at it. The above thoughts were never really on the surface until now. I am still not fully sure how to actualize the things I feel but I can guarantee I am well on my way to it. My life in many ways is just now beginning and I am going to take full advantage from here.
So look out world, you’re all mine. I am ready to listen to you and learn from everyone out there.
-Side Note-
I also wanted to say that I have a wonderful Step-Father who to me is the most amazing person I know and I do not want to take anything away from him. I actually feel like my real Father hand picked him from heaven to look after me. He is just amazing and I want to say thanks to him and my mother for everything they have done for me and this post is in no way a reflection on them.
Is it a new MacBook Pro with a fancy new copy of Illustrator or is it being a great draftsman who can mimic Picasso and Monet with ease? To me creativity is something much more ubiquitous and free flowing than buying a new computer or copying someone else’s idea. I know the old Picasso quote but I believe it is much more than the snarky Spanish Master says. It is like air either you breathe it or you don’t and most times it happens without you even knowing.
Creativity is about seeking out something just beyond your reach.It’s about making sense of the black space and crafting original thought from it. Many accountants, lawyers and doctors all must utilize different mindsets and some do it with a masterful creative solution. Whilst others needlessly toil away; forever mired in the bureaucracy of their day jobs.
As I end my training at Microsoft’s Atlas, I carefully take in quite a bit of information about ad serving, reporting and general data with hopes that it will eventually lead to the creative leadership I have grown accustom too. This “blocking and tackling” type work serves an important function in the process of creativity no matter what your job may be.And therefore should never be underestimated or breezed over.
It lays your foundation with which you begin to craft your space. In the cycle of life it is your infancy that you measure everything else against.
A quick post to shout out about Pete Blackshaw’s latest post for ClickZ. In it, he discusses Twitter segments and different classes of individuals on the site. As the micro-blog evolves it will be interesting to see all the different types that join up and further the analysis.
One interesting footnote, Pete actually used Twitter to gather his data by proposing this tweet to this followers, “ok i think im going to write my mkt column about twitter “types” (user segments) send thoughts 03:55 PM May 08, 2008 from web.” The tweet stoked some thoughts in my head. As I have been thinking about that very thing for quite sometime and was happy to help. I added a few segments including: TweetSquatters and Tweetniks.
I wanted to talk about the Tweetniks, or someone who uses Twitter to write 21st Century prose. Listed below are a few examples of these modern day Whitmans.
Society’s becoming more connected and much more digital. Artist are sometimes the first to adopt new technology for purposes of expression. Social platforms provide a natural fit for artist to express themselves and explore new mediums. How will digital change creative endeavors? Tweetniks might be blazing a trail of digital creativity that is a game changer but only time will tell.
What do you think?
FYI - Here is Pete’s website dedicated to the topic. Please visit and leave him some feedback on users you have encountered. Additionally, if you would like to add me to your twitter list feel free to do so @stemato.
I just wanted to say a few words about this past week and how I learned about strength. On Saturday morning, my mother called me to tell me my grandmother had fallen and was rushed to the hospital unconscious. At that point, we did not know anything other than she was in a coma and had a subdural hematoma (I had no idea what it was but its bleeding in the membrane of her brain).
Having spent many of my formative years living with my Grandmother, I did not hesitate to get on the first plane to come down to Savannah and see her. I talk on the phone about every two or three nights to her and could not imagine life without her. I left at 6 PM and arrived at 9:30 PM Saturday. The surgery was successful and removed all the clots in her brain. The doctor told us he could not give any information about how or if ever she would awake from her vegetative state.
The next day I went to the hospital to see her. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. As I walked into the NICU, I could not imagine this person so close to me lay so helpless in her room. I broke down and started crying immediately.
Words can express many things but for me there are no words to express my feelings at that moment. I spoke to her briefly and said thank you for helping raise me to know the value of humility, humbleness and faith in your life. It took every bit of strength I had to tell her much I missed her and loved her and to keep fighting because I know she is stronger enough to come back. Tears in my eyes, I left the room thinking about her and life without her.
Today as I rode to the hospital, my sister called me to tell me that my grandmother had awaken from the coma. I could not fathom it at first but eventually it sunk in. It was the best news we could have gotten.
When I arrived at the hospital, I walked to the NICU and my spirit was lifted. I saw her open her eyes and glance at my sister and then glance at me. She looked so happy and thrilled to see us. It immediately made me think about how strong she is to come so far in such a short period of time. I said to her, “Hi Nanny, I missed you.” And she looked at me while raising her hand to wave. It is truly nothing short of a miracle that she has awakened so soon.
Strength comes in all shapes and sizes, but my Grandmother, showed me the most amazing feat of strength I have ever seen.
I cannot make this transformation complete without the help of all my friends and family. I need you to realize that I am now in control of myself and wish to restore my integrity.
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