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Tom Miller (born October 5, 1965, in Hialeah, Florida, United States), is an American writer, film director, artist, painter, musician, actor, poet, and performance artist.
Miller was adopted by Nathan Anderson Miller and Alfreda Rowena Reed Miller and lived with his aunt, Alice Miriam Reed, who worked as a piano teacher. [1]
Miller showed interest in playing the piano starting at age three and at the age of 15 he enrolled in an acting school run by Ruth Foreman, Florida's "First Lady of Theater". He worked there as an actor and sound and light technician for five years and appeared in several TV commercials and locally produced television programs. [1]
Miller was inspired to learn to play the bass guitar and record his own songs after listening to bassist Paul McCartney. He recorded a 45 rpm record called “The Underground” at a recording studio when he was 15 years old. During his high school studies, Miller met Charles McWhorter and they began writing and recording songs together. They were joined later by guitarist John Williford and formed the Miami band, Penguin. Over a ten-year period, the band in its various iterations recorded and released five albums. After Penguin, Miller co-founded the band Middle Earth with school friend Don Traub. Middle Earth rehearsed for two years, played only two shows and then disbanded. [1]
Miller began his career in Gainesville, Florida, in 1984. He performed in the bands Plastic Age, Middle Earth, Penguin, NDolphin, Bill Perry Orchestra, [2] The Space Masons, and Chicago's Vini and the Demons as the bass player. [3] He is the author of 45 chapbooks, and has over 50 CDs to his credit. His poetry has been published in many small press periodicals including Ploplop, Abbey, Poetry Motel, Moon and Jim Chandler's Thunder Sandwich. In September 2014, Miller wrote an interactive hyperlinked narrative entitled Project r, which explores the concept of reality using a mixture of Miller's stories, poems, articles and blogs and also has some autobiographical content. Miller is also the writer of the play, UMMU, another piece exploring the nature of reality. Tom Miller's UMMU was presented at the Acrosstown Theatre in Gainesville, Florida as a staged reading in July 2015. [4] It was later made into a fully produced and cast play and had its debut at the Acrosstown Theatre in Gainesville, Florida on May 12, 2017. [5]
Miller is the writer and director of more than 100 independent video films. Miller has also directed the play, Sunset Village off-Broadway at the 14th Street Y Theatre. [6] He is also known for performance art stunts including a naked press conference, [7] a 17-hour reading of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood [8] and frequent UFO secrecy protests. [9] In 2010, he conducted a 30-hour marathon to raise awareness of transcendental meditation by watching the entire Twin Peaks television series, the two-hour pilot, and the film Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me - all while consuming only products popularized by the series: coffee, doughnuts, and cherry pie. [10] In November 2013, Miller composed and released a music album called Tom Miller Plays the iPhone. "He is the first solo artist to create an entire ambient iPhone album in under five hours. [11] " In October 2015, Miller performed a piece entitled, "Operation Copenhagen" in which members of the public funded a trip to Copenhagen for his fiftieth birthday to eat in what was considered the World's Greatest Restaurant, Noma. Miller said the performance was to demonstrate in no uncertain terms the power of helping each other to achieve dreams. Miller also said he takes inspiration from Chef Rene Redzepi's way of doing things. [12] In 2016, Miller stared for two hours at a photograph of Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz's Mouth, as reported in the Huffington Post's News of the Weird. [13] Miller also constructed a "Sculpture of Nothing" in the Gainesville Downtown Square, inspired by the artist, John Cage. [14] Miller has painted portraits of many Gainesville celebrities and public figures, including mayor Pegeen Hanrahan, former Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe, [15] former Gainesville chief of police Wayland Clifton, hemp activist and former candidate for Florida governor Michael Geison, and Gainesville's house drag queen at The University Club, The Lady Pearl.
Miller was a candidate for the Gainesville City Commission in 1995. [16] He was the host of Gainesville's HempFests, [17] and was a plaintiff among several organizers in a 1995 First Amendment lawsuit which the city lost, both on its initial filing and on appeal. Miller's avant-garde variety show, The Tom Miller Show, [18] has been a staple of entertainment in Gainesville from 1984 to the present. In its current form, Miller's show is known as the Reverend Angeldust's Tabernacle of Hedonism with your Host, Tom Miller. Miller says the show is the "...longest running variety show in the United States. [19] "
Miller has received significant press coverage for his writings, artworks, performances, and activism in Gainesville over the last two decades. He continues touring with live performance art shows, poetry readings, videography, and currently performs on electric bass with various groups.
The University of Florida is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its Gainesville campus since September 1906.
Thomas Earl Petty was an American musician. He was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch, was a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, and had success as a solo artist.
Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, which had a population of 339,247 in 2020.
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, popularly known as "The Swamp", is a football stadium on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville and the home field of the Florida Gators football team. It was originally known as Florida Field when it opened as a 22,000-seat facility in 1930, and it has been expanded and renovated many times over the ensuing decades. Most of the university's athletic administrative offices, along with most football-related offices and training areas, have been located in the stadium since the 1960s. Most of the football program's facilities are slated to move to a nearby $60 million building that began construction in 2020.
The Independent Florida Alligator is the daily student newspaper of the University of Florida. The Alligator is one of the largest student-run newspapers in the United States, with a circulation of 14,000 and readership of more than 21,000. It is an affiliate of UWIRE, which distributes and promotes its content to their network.
James Bernard Machen is an American university professor and administrator. Machen is a native of Mississippi, and earned several academic degrees before becoming a university administrator and president. Machen had been the president of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah and the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. He also sits on the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute's Board of Trustees. On June 8, 2012, Machen announced he would be stepping down as president in 2013. However, Machen was asked by state and university leaders to stay on, as the school had not yet found a suitable replacement. He was finally succeeded by W. Kent Fuchs on January 1, 2015.
The Stephen C. O'Connell Center, also known as the O'Dome, is a 10,500-seat multi-purpose arena located on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida. The facility is named for the sixth president of the university, Stephen C. O'Connell, who served from 1967 to 1973. The facility is located on the northern side of the university's campus, between its football field, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field, and the James W. "Bill" Heavener Complex athletic training center.
Kiki Carter is an environmental activist, organizer, musician, songwriter, and columnist.
"American Girl" is a rock song written by Tom Petty and recorded by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for their self-titled debut album in 1976. It was released as a single and did not chart in the United States, but peaked at No. 40 in the UK for the week ending August 27, 1977. It was re-released in 1994 as the second single from Petty's Greatest Hits album and peaked at No. 68 in the U.S. Cash Box Top 100.
The Florida Gymnasium is a historic building located on the campus of the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville. It opened in 1949 as a 7,000-seat multi-purpose arena and served as the home court of the Florida Gators men's basketball team and other UF indoor sports programs for over thirty years, acquiring the nickname of "Alligator Alley" during that time.
The 1911 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida during the 1911 college football season. The season was George Pyle's third as the head coach of the University of Florida football team. The University of Florida adopted the "Florida Gators" nickname for its sports teams in 1911; the earlier Florida football teams were known simply as "Florida" or the "Orange and Blue." Pyle's newly christened Florida Gators finished their sixth varsity football season 5–0–1—the first, and to date, the only undefeated season in the history of the Florida Gators football program.
The University of Florida College of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Florida. It is part of the J. Hillis Miller Health Science Center, with facilities in Gainesville and Jacksonville, Florida. The school grants Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Doctor of Medicine-Doctor of Philosophy (M.D.-Ph.D.), and Physician Assistant (P.A.) degrees to its graduates. Its primary teaching hospital is UF Health Shands Hospital with which the school shares a campus in Gainesville.
Albert Einstein Gator and Alberta Gator are the official mascots of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Costumed in plush, Albert and Alberta are Florida representations of American alligators, which are commonly found throughout the state of Florida. He was named after Albert Einstein.
The University of Florida Health Science Center (HSC), also known as the J. Hillis Miller Health Science Center, is the medical division of the University of Florida.
The 34th Street Wall is a 1,120-foot-long retaining wall along SW 34th Street in Gainesville, Florida. It was constructed in 1979 by the Florida Department of Transportation to prevent erosion on the adjoining University of Florida golf course when the road was widened from two to four lanes, necessitating cutting through a small hill.
Charter Amendment One was a citizen-led referendum defeated in Gainesville, Florida's city election on March 24, 2009. Titled the "Amendment to the City Charter Prohibiting the City from Providing Certain Civil Rights," the measure would remove the legal protections not explicitly covered under the Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992, specifically with reference to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Satchel's Pizza is a restaurant in Gainesville, Florida. It was opened on March 7, 2003 by Satchel Raye.
David Bianculli is an American TV critic, columnist, radio personality, non-fiction author and university professor. Bianculli has served as the television critic for NPR's radio show Fresh Air since the Philadelphia-based show went national in 1987, and regularly fills in for the show's long-time host, Terry Gross. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the website TVWorthWatching.com, and an associate professor of TV and film history at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.
Earle Abbott "Dummy" Taylor was a college football player and oil company distributor. He was one of the first star athletes for the Florida Gators football team.
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