Stepping Back in Time: A Sun Studio Trek

Standing close to the "X" that marks the spot where Elvis Presley stood when he first recorded for Sam Phillips, it hit me. I was standing on a piece of history, a moment of time that will forever remain on that same spot whether the old Sun Studio building remains or it becomes a WalMart. It is encapsulated in the threads that bind Memphians to this city. It spreads throughout the world with every tourist that comes in search of the home and history of the King of Rock n' Roll. That "X" is part of who we are. It was then that I made a real connection to my semester project. Trying to force yourself to experience a spiritual awakening by following Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis" is daunting. You wait for it happen, and it scares you when it doesn't. However, when it rains, it pours. Yet if you don't have a course in place for the ensuing avalanche, it is very easy to get lost in the flood. This trip to Sun Studios provided me with the direction I needed. After finding myself saying a couple of times that I had never been or even heard of the places we were visiting, I realized that a huge part of my disconnect from the city of Memphis was my own fear to explore its history. So wrapped up in the stereotypes and presumptions that I was raised with, I could not break myself away. I thought that perhaps I am not the only Memphian who has struggled with this, and that now that my binds are broken, my semester project might be a great vehicle to dispell this. The focus of my semester project has changed. While I am still following Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis," I am no longer attempting a spiritual awakening. It has already happened. I am instead using this project as a way to combine new footage of places described in the lyrics with historical pictures into a montage that will meld the old with the new. My ultimate message of my semester project will be one of hope. I am genuinely excited about how it is forming.