~Randolph Place, Memphis TN~

And now back to interactive photography, this is a 100% seamless 360 degrees panorama of a place where I used to live in Memphis, Tennessee. Much unlike Arizona, Memphis is very hot and humid, and therefore has lots of bugs everywhere. Walk around a bit and you soon are covered in sticky sweat due to the high humidity, and temperatures often feel much more extreme than they actually are.

Coming from the red rock Arizona desert, seeing so much green and rain was dazzling for a while, but at some point it feels like it rains too much and there are too many bugs everywhere. I have never seen so many roaches in my whole life, and sometimes it seemed like the ground was actually "moving" with them. Spiders were so big they could build webs that went across the sidewalks from one side to the other. Clouds of mosquitos would literally eat you up at dawn.

Being a jazz and blues lover, I went straight to Beal Street to experience countless live performances from all sorts of musicians. There were both very good and terribly bad musicians playing there, but one interesting thing were the lone wanderers who walk around and join other bands on the fly with ad lib performances - something you don't see everyday. It doesn't always work since some people were too amateur a musician to catchup with other people they never played with before, but in some cases their talent covers up for the deficiencies. ^^

As many of you already know, Memphis has some of the best dry ribs in the world, and that was something I experienced in first hand. I have traveled in business through most of the US states, and indeed I have never tasted anything even close to the Memphis-styled dry ribs anywhere else in America. It is delicious and unique on its own way. Now that I am back to Arizona, I feel spoiled because none of the fake imitations get even close to the "real thing" once you get to know it.

Some of you may be surprised I didn't talk about Elvis so far, and it is indeed remarkable how much alive he still is in Memphis. About half of the city's decorations are Elvis-related, and lots of the tourist traps still turn around selling all sorts of Elvis memorabilia. Although I passed by Graceland many times when driving around to work, I didn't actually go inside for a tour. Memphis is so flooded with Elvis images that he feels more like a dainty than a musician, and I wouldn't doubt that some people actually prayed to him at some point! LOL

With its ups and downs, Memphis is an interesting place to go if you must, but I personally can't stand the humidity and legions of bugs. I am glad to be back to Arizona! :D

Panoramic photography, music composing and Flash programming were done by me. Hope you like it and thanks for coming by!