Tommy Peters' Bicycles

'The state of a human being is analogous to the state of a nation.' - Bruce Herschensohn – author of Above Empyrean. There are issues - corruption, economy, health-care, traffic jams, gas prices and the yearly haze. On the home front - unpaid bills, mortgages, taxes, garbage disposal and clogged drains. Naturally, the order of importance begins on the home front, but when a debilitating health issue comes to the fore, the fight to regain ones health immediately dwarfs the lengthy list. Regaining personal health then becomes the main issue and a corrupt government for instance, is the least of concerns. In essence, everything and everyone becomes a non-issue when ones health is threatened.  Hypothetically, let us say you know 'of' cancer but not 'about' the killer disease, in that, you know it exists but you are unaware it kills prematurely and painfully and if you are diagnosed with the disease, how would you react? Just knowing 'of it' and not 'ab...

Time-Lapse with iMovie @ 8 fps. • Import Movie into Event Library  • Select desired portion • Drag portion into Project Library  • Select portion in Project Library • Share > Export Using QuickTime > Export > Movie To QuickTime Movie  • Frames per second > 8 > ok > Save Words, Videography -- Tommy Peters (Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without the express permission of copyright owners)

"BMWs are built for hair-dressers." - Peter Wheeler.   An open secret contemporary marques harbor is that 'females' sanction their car-designs before production. From interior trim to exterior shapes, appointments to position of controls, down to design of the door handles are approved by women engineers before cars make the showroom. It is not surprising, given the majority of car-buyers are women and a fair number of men report that their choice of cars are influenced by females, the feminization of the male bastion in car design has taken root so deep that sight of the stick-shift, a manual spindle-operated window, lack of power-assist, air bags, air-conditioning or the much vaunted vanity mirror and cup holder, would make the contemporary driver cringe. The trend began in the 50s when General Motors mooted Damsels Of Design, a group of female art professionals equipped with industrial-design training. A member of the group then said  "Not too long a...

"Parties concerned do not require the permission of Jesus, let alone that of the DAP or BSM, to ‘violate’ or ‘deface’ his bible."  In 2007, Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Murphy Pakiam, and former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Badawi, expressed consternation over a disparaging image of Jesus Christ depicted in the Makkal Osai, a Tamil daily. The Archbishop said " It (the image of Jesus) is very sacred to Catholics. As such, this caricature of Jesus is a desecration and therefore hurtful to the religious sentiments of the Catholics,” (New Straits Times – August 23rd 2007) The former Prime Minister said "I am sure the Christians, as we Muslims, cannot accept this.” (New Straits Times – August 24th 2007) “Do not do things which may offend the believers of other religions. This is not good.” (The Star – August 24th 2007 and that “It was very hurtful and would anger the Christians just like the Muslims would not also accept such action.” (The Sun – ...

When  a musician is coherent, the night drive evolves into a coherent and uplifting experience. Jethro Tull, the longest serving cosmic-rock band, resides alone in a corner of the musical landscape, where lyrics rather than melody characterize the band, where poetry rather than pungency characterizes its lyrics and where a grammarian characterizes its doctrine. Listening to the Ian Anderson 1996 Interview in the Aqualung re-release, the unheralded in the equation is interviewer John Bungey for Mojo Magazine who gently embraces his candidate waxing lyrical about the band. Bungey underscores the Art of Interviewing by (a) hovering on a distinctly lower decibel track than his candidate (b) plugging into the matrix only to sneak in a question and perhaps find his own bearings in the process and (c) generally stepping back to allow the audience embrace the full fabric of Anderson's oral examination. Words, Videography, Action - Tommy Peters Afterword: The writer made the video fro...

Damp Ankles in Jazz From Hell is a breather that tells loud crickets from the rest in slight drizzle upon the maestro's tongue that enters his mental state and the very nature of his existence in which he sees God before he passed but not before unifying the theorem of the cosmos with a dose of nitrous oxide before the effect fades while he embraces holistically every axiom and principle of the Synclavier injected with notes of pleasure and eccentric time signatures of the playable spread in Joe's Garage and had the cooked result reverberate back to the train that house the Mothers of Invention and then when the drizzle amplified into rain Damp Ankles worked the soiled ground with immense effort before fading with the evangelist regurgitating what he does not remember consuming resulting in a smell of carbon monoxide prevailing throughout the fabric inaccessible almost with Stinkfoot and without apology as his 17th century counterpart offered rendering the jazz signature piec...

Denzel Washington transcends racial barriers. He is unable to ‘blacken’ his script no matter how hard he tries resulting in roles being swappable with every Cruise, Pitt, Chou and Chan. He did not create the ethnic-neutral genre through acting lessons. It is an inherent character flaw that enables him to turn his wonderful character into a subliminal teaching device.  Lim Kit Siang transcends racial barriers. He simply does because the longest serving politician in the Malaysian Parliament has a similar character flaw. He did not evolve into an ethnically-neutral Malaysian by rote. He was born one. Period. The quintessential politician is a walking Chinese, Indian, Malay and other race-combines, rolled into one.  In essence, he is Malaysia’s ubiquitous teaching device in the true sense of the word and being his job description, he simply does not have an option. Chance upon him on the street and say something - anything. He responds gregariously with his trademark s...

In Iran, the apparent issue had a name: Shah. The actual issue has a name: Shariah. In Malaysia, the apparent issue has a name: Corruption. The actual issue will have a name: Shariah.  Three decades ago a fundamentalist posing as a moderate conducted a social reform movement so popular that everyone from the beguiled illiterate to the atheist with the religiously inclined in between, enthusiastically helped him overthrow The Shah. Then, as he garnered enough power, he ‘threw his friends under the bus’ and thrust upon the nation a radical theocracy where low drop hangings, amputations and stonings underscored its implementation. Now, the people of Iran romanticize and reminisce the rule under the previous government. They realized too late that the toss was between a corrupt but secular dictatorship and a fanatical ideology that used the premise of social reform as a ‘Trojan horse’. Several dictatorships in the vicinity have learnt a valuable lesson from their neighbor an...

Sophie Scholl is the icon of White Rose, the Facebook in its day, whose messages terrorized the Reich and sowed the seeds of hatred towards Hitler and the Nazi party.  Sophie and friends were formidable but in a sense, quite 'ordinary.' I would just give them a pat. However, the ones who should be highlighted every February 22nd are the cowards who persecuted them and those who watched from the sidelines. White Rose exhibited not a rash act but an inherent human impulse to save lives. Reading the lowest denominator, lives were at stake and they stepped in, serving to expose the machinations of Hitler and those who 'stood by and watched' their persecution.  White Rose was in a sense, quite ordinary.  Words, Tommy Peters  (Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners)

Who spawned Industrial Music? Was it Nine Inch Nails emulating a synthesizer drilling into a human skull with Trent Reznor distorting his buzz-saw timbre or did Ridley Scott create a demand for the genre after dreaming chalk-board screeches for his score fused with a cacophony of crown wheels grinding a cluster of rusty pinions! 

It will not work for some but the monkey in the brakes amidst the glorious mechanicals offered by Terry Ellsworth barreling into Reznor's Downward Spiral spawns a fulfilling 'machine' experience.

 Words, Videography, Action -- Tommy Peters

@ 50 kilometers per hour @ 5 kilometers per hour The cacophony emanating from the bowels of the DH4000 is 'masculine' sweet to a mountain-biker. While Trent Reznor evolves 'Industrial' music through synthesizer and a buzz-saw timbre, The Red Bitch wrenches out a distinct 'Machine' genre through pawl, sprocket, chain and a monkey in the brakes. The language is brutal but the mechanicals of the 47 pounder are perfect. It sounded yesterday just like it did 15 years ago. Words, Videography, Action - Tommy Peters

Punish The Monkey that kills indiscriminately. It ruled 42 years. Its fiefdom is the largest oil-producer in Africa but two-thirds of its 6 million live on $2 a day. 

 It's another day in the office for Tripoli Jack, an authentic African loon and still the best in the business. Rivaled only by the 'Daddy' of Uganda and feted in his day as an exemplary Muslim 'who stands against the West', bull-goose loony of his ilk is hard to come by without working at it day in and day out. The buffoon is as resilient as the mullahs of Iran but thankfully, his ardent wish to 'blacken' Europe is on hold.  

The polygamous imbecile would have been committed if he was an infidel, even if he was French; but let's not be harsh. He has redeeming points. (1) His contribution to fashion. I haven't seen curly hair is such color since hair-metal and aqua-net hair spray were in vogue. (2) His hot-chick Nikitas could show kidnap-ridden Mexico the way forward in th...

Biking the Ellsworth with Tosh on the Shuffle stoned in vocabulary corrupted by those who disdained their colonialists made me understand why Malaysians and Singaporeans are proud of their Manglish that will remain as much as Iyaric, the African variation, will.  Ambience is a reason I ride, besides I love the vocabulary.  Watch the stuttering language of the wheel where Panaracer's FireDHPro wrapped around Mavic's CrossMax is saying "no maan no, what the bloody hell am I doing on asphalt - I belong to dirt."  Words, Videography, Action - Tommy Peters

Although he felt no hatred and cared not whether she died, he preferred to see her disemboweled and her carcass left to fester. His cruelty added to his depraved imagination found pleasure in such spectacles and yet, here was a friend seeking to deprive him of the pleasure.  He subscribes to the Peck Order where a dominant bird pecks at a weaker one which in turn subdues its weaker counterpart resulting in her, a victim of the syndrome herself, manifesting into a dastardly being seeking superiority vide an uncouth staple.  The thing is, as his fury became clear his conceit forbade him to indulge in it even though cowardice urged him not to oppose it.  Nowadays he is seen in an empty church seemingly in prayer that betrays his depression. It brings to mind the matter in Kuala Lumpur involving an Englishman in the 70s who admitted dismembering his African-born wife into many parts. He too was found in an empty church seemingly in prayer prior to decapitating his loved one...