{"id":245,"date":"2009-04-15T14:01:24","date_gmt":"2009-04-15T22:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/?p=245"},"modified":"2009-08-12T15:17:18","modified_gmt":"2009-08-12T23:17:18","slug":"from-philo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/?p=245","title":{"rendered":"from Philo"},"content":{"rendered":"
Here are my thoughts about Tom . . .<\/div>\n
Like all of Tom’s friends JoAnne and I were stunned to hear of his death.\u00a0 If Tom signified anything, it was life.\u00a0 He embodied living and encouraged us all to do the same.\u00a0 The real gift Tom gave was time.\u00a0 Tom would stop what he was doing, and focus on you.\u00a0 He would devote himself to you fully, doling himself out to all of us one at a time.<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Which is why taking away Tom’s time is so wrong.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"tom-2000-trophy-smallest\"<\/div>\n
I have so many memories of Tom.\u00a0 Houston, Burning Man, ArtCar Fest, San Francisco . . .\u00a0 My earliest one is seeing Tom firing oranges out of a cannon in the Houston Art parade in the early 1990s.\u00a0 The gun was mounted on the top of his <\/span>Our Lady of What We Have in Common<\/em> <\/span>Art Bus, and he was firing one orange after another at the Houston skyscrapers – splat, splat, splat.\u00a0 I remember thinking, “I hope he keeps aiming high.”<\/span><\/div>\n
He kept aiming high all right, but through decidedly subversive means.\u00a0 At Burning Man ’95 JoAnne and I rode with Reverend Linville’s <\/span>Disgruntled Postal Service<\/em> <\/span>on the top of Tom’s <\/span>Max the Daredevil Fin Mobile<\/em> <\/span>to the drive-by-shooting range.\u00a0 After dispatching a bunch of stuffed animals we took our guns with us (unloaded, thank you) to deliver junk mail to surprised playa dwellers, barely clothed in polyester postal uniforms.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"tom-playa\"<\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
It seems like Burning Man was populated with dozens of Kennedy ArtCars over the years.\u00a0 JoAnne featured Tom in her <\/span>ArtCars at Burning Man and Beyond<\/em> <\/span>essay in the<\/span> <\/span>AfterBurn<\/em> <\/span>book.<\/span><\/a> Tom spent a lot of time helping JoAnne on the essay, generous as always.\u00a0 His most amazing playa vehicle was the enormous White <\/span>Whale. <\/em> <\/span>It was a magical ride, despite the fact that Flash’s braking didn’t really have any connection to Tom’s steering.\u00a0 Tom embodied the true cooperative, experimental, pirate spirit of the playa. <\/span> <\/span>Recently he worked hard with Harrod, Danny Mac and Susan Jette\u00a0 to get Burning Man’s DMV back on track with respect to ArtCars.<\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
We saw Tom and Haideen on the playa again in 2006 and they helped us deliver the late Slim Sirnes’ jacket to the Burning Man funeral pyre. <\/span><\/div>\n
\"slim-jacket-dropoff-2685bb\"<\/div>\n
JoAnne worked with Tom again when the San Jose Museum of Art commissioned Brian Goggin’s<\/span> <\/span>Desire for the Other<\/em>,<\/span><\/a> <\/span>a 40 foot monster couch devouring furniture like a crazed, domestic centipede.<\/span><\/div>\n
Back in San Francisco, Tom wasn’t finished with fire.\u00a0 He lit up our entire neighborhood at midnight with a 4 foot flame shooting out the back of hisNashional Crisis<\/em> <\/span>ArtCar.\u00a0 Tom wanted to emulate the Batmobile’s propulsion system, so he lit an entire 5 foot tank of propane – all at once – while hitting the gas and zooming off.\u00a0 Every single neighbor on my block came out of their house to see Tom ride up the hill.<\/span><\/div>\n

\nEver restless, Tom grew tired of fire, and started to focus on collision.\u00a0 His <\/span>ArtCar Demolition Derby<\/em> <\/span>was the highlight of ArtCar Fest’s 10th anniversary.\u00a0 I didn’t know what Tom was planning – he just said “a surprise.”\u00a0 It was great to see he and Flash ram into each other at 30 mph with their Viking ship-like ArtCars with steel exoskeletons.\u00a0 BAM.\u00a0 They’d back up 100 yards, shift into drive and come at each other again. CRASH.\u00a0 BAM.\u00a0 Very exciting. <\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Then I started to get nervous.<\/span><\/div>\n
Tom’s articulated steel brontosaurus tail on narrowly missed the ladybug trailer.\u00a0 Flash was driving way too fast.\u00a0 Then it happened, a festival producer’s nightmare, Flash hit a civilian, plowing into a hapless Honda Civic.\u00a0 “We’re doomed,” I thought.\u00a0 When angry men emerged from the Civic and started to chase Flash with a crowbar, I thought “well, this is our last ArtCar Fest.”<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
I was being punked – the “angry men” were Brian Goggin and Cyber Sam. A perfectly planned and executed performance piece.\u00a0 One of many.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"crushed-demo-car-smallest\"<\/div>\n
JoAnne and I remember drinking tequila with Tom and Haideen at <\/span>Art Car World<\/em> <\/span>in Douglas after showing the ArtCars to kids and nuns at a local school.\u00a0 It was so obvious that Tom and Haideen made a great couple – wonderful company as we caravanned and camped through Arizona.\u00a0 We were sure they would be teammates and co-conspirators for a long life of adventure; decades of bringing joy to others while exploring all life has to offer.\u00a0 Ripper and the Missile Dick Chick.\u00a0 Perfect.<\/span><\/div>\n
And so begat <\/span>Dr. Strange McCain<\/em>, an ArtCar, a political force to reckon with, and a moving stage.\u00a0 ArtCar Fest 2008’s most memorable moment was seeing Rick McKinney (nude except for a George Bush Mask) riding the missile as the hydraulics raised it to launch position.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"tom-fest08-smallest\"<\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
We last saw Tom at Harrod’s premiere of <\/span>Automorphosis<\/em> <\/span>in Berkeley.\u00a0 Thank you Harrod for featuring him in your movie.<\/p>\n

The shock of his passing is turning to sadness.\u00a0 I guess anger is next.\u00a0 Anger that out of all the people to be ripped out of our lives, Tom is on we can’t spare.\u00a0 We need Tom.\u00a0 He profoundly touched so many and we all feel an urge to claim him.<\/p>\n

Tom did more in 48 years than most of us will ever do.\u00a0 A playful, rich life cut short.\u00a0 The spirit of carpe diem, yet he left us a lasting legacy.<\/p>\n

Thank you Tom<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Philo & JoAnne Northrup<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are my thoughts about Tom . . . Like all of Tom’s friends JoAnne and I were stunned to hear of his death.\u00a0 If Tom signified anything, it was life.\u00a0 He embodied living and encouraged us all to do the same.\u00a0 The real gift Tom gave was time.\u00a0 Tom would stop what he was… Read More »from Philo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts-sent-in"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomkennedyart.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}