Memphis

#JoyfulJoyfulOdetoMemphis Project (The Backstory)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson JoyfulJoyfulOdetoMemphis, Memphis, Music, Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

I’ve never before posted about one of my rando (and, if you happen to be keeping score at home, only inconsistently successful) projects in advance of it actually being finished, *unless* I was relatively positive that said project would see itself to some non-embarrassing completion. (See: American Values Project and/or WORKING IN MEMPHIS: The Documentary for…

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We’ll Get By With A Little Help From Our Friends: Dr. J’s 2015 Signal-Boosts

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson BlogCounts, Digital Humanities, Memphis, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

Just a few months ago, in September, I somewhat unceremoniously celebrated my 8th year at the helm of this still-imperfect, though incrementally improving, work-in-progress blog.  My first couple of years were an experiment, to be sure, but I found my stride here at RMWMTMBM around 2008 or so, and it’s been mostly gravy since. I’m…

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#JoyfulJoyfulOdetoMemphis

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson JoyfulJoyfulOdetoMemphis, Memphis, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

We did it!  From start to finish, the #JoyfulJoyfulOdetoMemphis project was completed in less than a week. In fact, the studio recording and video editing were done in less than 48 hours!  To get some idea of what an undertaking this was, read the backstory here.  One of my favorite quotes about Memphis (from Robert…

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What Public Philosophy LOOKS Like

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson #BlackLivesMatter, Memphis, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

A pen (or keyboard) has, for millennia, been both the preferred and most essential tool of a philosopher, but I consider my camera to be a very close second as a 21stC philosopher.  Since completing the American Values Project in 2012, I’ve come to understand my camera as another weapon in the struggle against ignorance and,…

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MEMPHIS ON THE DOWNBEAT: The Chris McDaniel Band

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Memphis on the Downbeat, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments
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Spillit Memphis: The Hilarious and Heartbreaking Beauty of Storytelling Animals

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive, Weak Humanism 0 Comments

I had the very good fortune to attend my first Spillit event last night in (local photographer/visual anthropologist, Jamie Harmon‘s) Amurica studio space.  Spillit is one of the newer additions to what has become, over the last several years, an incredibly rich, astoundingly diverse, mostly DIY and impressively self-sustaining (for lack of a better descriptor)…

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WORKING IN MEMPHIS: A Documentary

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive, Working in Memphis Documentary 0 Comments

At long last, I’ve finally gotten all my (administrative, bureaucratic and legal) ducks in a row and I am now able to share with you the documentary film that my student Sophie Osella and I made several months ago: WORKING IN MEMPHIS. Last summer, I posted periodically about our process of making the film here…

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MEMPHIS ON THE DOWNBEAT: Five Reasons to Support Ghost Town Blues Band in the 2014 IBC

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Memphis on the Downbeat, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

This is the first installment of my series Memphis on the Downbeat, an inside look into Memphis music by a bona fide Memphian and music-lover. This week Memphis hosts the 30th International Blues Challenge (Tuesday through Sunday at venues all over Beale Street), which every year brings leading blues artists and bands from all over…

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Memphis on the Downbeat: Loud, Live and Better Than Ever

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Memphis on the Downbeat, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

One of the things that I’ve resolved to do in 2014 is devote more space on this blog to Memphis, THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WHOLE UNITED STATES.  (C’mon, really, pick a fight with me about that claim. You will lose.)  As I’ve said many times before, in private but more often in public, there…

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Help Stop the Hastening of Death in Tennessee

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive, Weak Humanism 0 Comments

I was recently asked by a colleague, Dr. Lisa Guenther (Philosophy, Vanderbilt University), to add my signature to an open letter to Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, petitioning him to suspend the scheduled execution of 10 inmates beginning in January.  I agreed to lend my name to the petition alongside several others in a coalition named…

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