email to Layne, website coordinator/designer

Hi, to you today!

Did you have a chance to look at the video clips sampler yet?

I finally peeked at it late last night. A few of the clips were
pretty good!

Do you think we can get our ideas together about how best
to include a clip or two on our website soon?

I think I like clips #1, #2, and #3 the best. (though i wish
somebody could have yanked that scarf off my head before
i went onstage as CURANDERA...!)

Also---regarding "Reviews":

I couldn't find the entire review online, but here's a link
to my blog, where I cut-and-paste the Star-Telegram review:
http://projectprocess.blogspot.com/2007/09/extreme-production-fascinates-with.html.

Also:

Former Fort Worth Weekly writer Ken Shimamoto's
review, as found on his current blog STASH DAUBER:
http://stashdauber.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html
(scroll down to post of November 12, 2007)

++++++++++

Also, I would love to have a link from our website
to the article i wrote for Here There Magazine
(http://www.heretheremag.com/theatrefilm.htm),
which just launched on Saturday, March 1st.

++++++++++

Let me know, Layne, when you might have time
for a phone chat about these ideas (and anything
else that might need discussion). Thanks!

Ken Shimamoto's review via his Stash Dauber blog

Monday, November 12, 2007

she: bike/spoke/love
caught the last performance of tammy gomez's play "she: bike/spoke/love" at the sanders theatre in the fort worth community arts center last night. the sanders is a cool, intimate space and the ideal location for the piece, which combined video, live and dj-spun music, spoken word and...bicycling. the story deals with a young bicyclista's struggle to achieve autonomy and interdependence with others against a backdrop of current events here in the fort, with political, magical and spiritual elements. some of the show's finest moments come when the cast and dj carlos juarez (aka DJ SOL*LOS) fill the space with vibrant movement and explosions of sound, but "she: bike/spoke/love" is most powerful when it explores the inner worlds of esa (dominique fay) and her mama (dina lee chavez), both of whom gave particularly strong performances -- a nice surprise in the case of fay, who's a first-time actor here. also fine were maria solano as esa's friend ella, ramsey sprague as esa's fantasy "perfect guy" el sabe, and cesar hernandez as homeless dude/sage basco. the company is looking for other opportunities to perform the piece in schools, theaters, parks, or wherever; interested parties should email sound_culture@hotmail.com.

ADDENDUM: i like the way ramsey's guitar is emblazoned "this machine kills fascists," just like woody guthrie's. and dylan's.
posted by The Stash Dauber at 7:45 AM

[find this review online at: http://stashdauber.blogspot.com/2007/11/she-bikespokelove.html ]

"Extreme production fascinates with variety"

'Extreme' production fascinates with variety
By MARK LOWRY (mlowry@star-telegram.com)
Star-Telegram staff writer

FORT WORTH -- Tammy Gomez's She: Bike/Spoke/Love, presented one time in a sold-out Saturday performance by Sound Culture, is difficult to categorize. Let's just call it "extreme theater."

It's extreme in that it involves bicycles, of various sizes and shapes, with the actors riding them around a small stage, close to the audience.

But it's also extreme in how it fascinates with a variety of performance styles.

It's modeled after hip-hop theater, using spoken word (the "If I Hit It" passage was the best verbal moment), showboating (there's a bicycle stunt dude) and a turntablist (DJ SOL*LOS). There's also multimedia, live music and agitprop (the line about how we're "choking on auto exhaust and government deceit" sums it up best).

But at its heart, there's a moving story about a young girl named Esa (Dominique Fay, in a beautifully natural performance) working on her relationships with her boyfriend Ken Sabe (Richard Rangel) and her mother (Dina Lee Chavez). Esa imagines her perfect novio in the form of El Sabe (Ramsey Sprague). In the end, they learn to accept one another for who everyone is.

And what about the bikes? They serve as metaphors for sex, growing up, finding balance and participating in life's race.

The piece could use tightening, but it's successful overall. One thing's for sure, you'll probably never see anything else like it.

For more information about She: Bike/Spoke/Love, visit www.bikespokelove.com.

Gettin' play all over the internet...

Spent a little time in the wee hours of today looking online for any buzz about our premiere on Saturday.

I actually found quite a bit of stuff, including nice mentions and promo blurbs on GOT POETRY, OM PLACE, TOPIX, CARAVAN OF DREAMSand the STASH DAUBER websites.

Bernie at PANTHER CITY BICYCLES suggests that SHE: BIKE/SPOKE/LOVE may possibly be the coolest bicycle event ever in Fort Worth.

And lastly, but not leastly, the good folks (Tom, Chris, Neil) over at KTCU's THE GOOD SHOW posted our flyer and an mp3 of me & Natalia talking with Tom on their blog. Give it a listen if you have some time!

Tammy and Natalia on KTCU-FM last night, Sunday, Sept.16th

I managed to snag some air-time to promote our play on "The Good Show" which airs weekly (Sundays) on KTCU-FM (88.7). Called Natalia, who was super-cool to drop everything--including precious possible sleeptime--to meet me for this broadcast opportunity.

We were on about 12 minutes, chatting about the project and the upcoming premiere, and Natalia read the "bicycle poem" that she performs in the play. Tom U, one of the co-hosts of the show, seemed very interested in the project, and we gave out the website URL a coupla times.

Fun times on the radio.

We got promoted in Friday's STAR TIME in the FW Star-Telegram!

This is quoted from the blurb that's on the second-to-last page of this week's edition of STAR TIME:

"This just might be the most out-there piece of performance art you'll see this year."

Read the whole blurb and see the color photo (Natalia, Toria, Tammy are in this one) here.

+++++++

Also, got an email from Star-Telegram theater critic Mark Lowry yesterday. He plans to write a feature article on this project for next Sunday's (September 16th - Dies y Seis de Septiembre) Star-Telegram. This is awesome news!

Survey in Star-Telegram today - on bicycling

I haven't read it yet, but my mom says a writer named A.Tinsley wrote it.

One of the questions in the survey: "What would make you ride more?"

One answer I'd offer: "Seeing the show SHE: BIKE/SPOKE/LOVE would motivate me to get back on a bicycle!"

atinsley@star-telegram.com

She: Bike/Spoke/Love at the Sanders Theatre, 7:30pm, Saturday, September 22nd.

Hey, you hot BIke/Spoke/Love lovelies!


It's on! We're presenting the WORLD PREMIERE (yeah, i know it sounds kind of ostentatious, pretentious, but i don't care)

of SHE: BIKE/SPOKE/LOVE (also can be typed as: She: Bike/Spoke/Love)

on World Car-Free Day 2007,

Saturday, September 22nd - 7:30pm

at the Sanders Theatre - Fort Worth Community Arts Center,
1300 Gendy Street (just south of the Amon Carter Museum)

in Fort Worth.


Admission: $3 if you travel car-free to the theatre / $10 if you don't

_________________________________________________________________________

so, go ahead, start telling everybody - blast it to the world. yes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Media contacts - publicity

If you happen to have a chum, buddy, or cousin in the local-to-national media, now's the time to let me know. If you don't mind sharing your contact's email/phone/mailing address, etc., that would be helpful as we get ready to send out our press release.


ALSO-----THIS IS A BIG ALSO:

Please send me your 3-to-10 line BIO.

PLEASE EMAIL IT TO THIS EMAILING ADDRESS (don't send it via myspace--it's too unwieldy and time-consuming)

send it here ============> tammygomexican@yahoo.com

Your bio can be sad, snarky, sweet, "professional", seductive, or scintillating. Just keep it at 3-to-10 lines in
length.

Here's one that I've written (and I've had to submit dozens of these over the years): it's 52 words in 7 lines.
Sit down, fall in love w/ yourself, and write about it. Then edit what you wrote, use word-count, trim off the fat, punch up the descriptive vocab, and you'll probably have a winner.


bio - 52 words - 7 lines [sample] :

Tammy Gomez, a 2007 Texas Medal of Arts award
nominee, graduated from Goucher College (Maryland)
in 1985. Her literary performance works include
the award-winning “Maya Matematica” and “Malinchuca”.
She has received grants from Humanities Texas and the
Ford Foundation. She is also a small-press publisher
(Tejana Tongue Press), activist, and arts educator.


HAVE FUN WRITING YOUR BIO.
I CANNOT WAIT TO READ IT. cuz I have no idea who you are....hahaha.

(Carlos, this includes you.)

YOUR OWN WORDS - Dallas Morning News feature in today's issue

(photo credit to RICKY MOON/Special Contributor)

YOUR OWN WORDS
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, August 12, 2007

Tammy Gomez
Poet, playwright, publisher (Tejana Tongue Press)

What she's reading: Mahcic: Selected Poems, by Tomás Riley

Why: "This book of poems, published by Calaca Press in 2005, was recently mailed to me by Riley himself, who is a friend and colleague based in the Bay Area. Mahcic is the name of Tomás' first-born son, and the poems, reminiscent of the best work of Victor Hernandez Cruz (Snaps) and David Henderson (De Mayor of Harlem), show the scope of interrogations a 21st-century first-time father cannot help but make as he reckons with sociopolitical and family history. A swollen, visceral, tri-cultural, spanglish mash-up, spilled-out dictionary of words that fell just right, make your noggin go tight with a homegrown cool mint light that I like."

(Edited by Lesley Téllez for the Dallas Morning News)

To see the article at the DMN site, click on this link.

Dallas Morning News promo blurb on our show

I have previously spoken--by email and phone--with Michael Merschel, so I know he can be a very cool guy. Which left me surprised when I read the promo blurb cuz it seemed a little snarky at the end.

Don't know if he was in our audience on July 29th. Haven't seen anything online that would indicate that he was or had anything to say about our preview performance.