libertango | The "shower meme", Take 1

eleanor asks:

OK, here are your five:

1. Tell me about your LJ name?

Sure. There's a movie by Sally Potter, called The Tango Lesson. The movie itself is not to everyone's taste -- a bit slow sometimes, to the Amurrican eye -- but it has some great dance sequences, and a kick-ass soundtrack. And I just fell deeply in love with Astor Piazolla's song "Libertango", which is heard twice -- once in a vintage recording, once in a cover featuring Yo-Yo Ma on cello. And I just like the sound of the word. My one APA 'zine was titled Koyaanisqatsi for similar reasons, and I keep thinking of pubbing my ish under the title Transbordeur, or ¡Terremoto!, or something like that.

2. Let's talk about one of the more obvious things we have in common:
Redheads. Tell me why you think they're better than blondes or
brunettes. Unless you don't, in which case I'd like a really good
explanation.

"Better than"? That's a judgement I'm uncomfortable making. I can tell you that I've always had a love-hate relationship with my hair. In grade school, in particular, it was yet another cross on the list: too tall, too smart, too thickly glassed, too boy soprano -ish, too damn much the nail that needed to be hammered down. All through my youth I mostly just wanted to hide, and my hair was one more thing that wouldn't let me. These days I'm more comfortable with it, but only just.

OTOH, there is the performer side of me that likes being easily spotted. And it's not like I don't know what people will always notice first.

I guess I wish I somehow had a lamp cord I could pull to switch hair colors to suit my mood. :)

3. I really don't know the answer to this, so , are you originally from
Seattle? If not, how did you get there (no fair saying "a plane") and if
you are, why did you stay?

No, we (Ulrika & I) are recent immigrants to Seattle. I was born in Boston, and we (my mom and I) moved to the LA area when I was nine, which would've been 1972. I lived in LA 'til moving up here, in Oct 2001.

We had been coming up to Seattle for years, visiting friends. Both Ulrika and I just loved the place, both for the kind of town it can physically be (even if the Eastside is Orange County with pines), and the people who are ever so much more friendly, on average, than Angelenos. So, when I was most recently laid off, we decided to take the plunge and use my unemployment and my severance to do the Big Move. After all, I was laid off in October, how long could finding a new job take? February? March?

360 days, is what it took. Oct 19 2001 - Oct 14 2002.

Through that time, I was lucky enough, due to fandom, to be able to stay with friends -- first Jeff and Liz Copeland (and kids Allie and James), and then Alan Rosenthal and Janice Murray. Praise be upon them all, and a million thanks, as always.

But... I think I've earned the right to live up here. :)

4. How did you meet your wife?

At LASFS, the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society.

Actually, it's funny... after meeting Ulrika, and being invited to a party at the house of her and her sweetie of the time, I made such an ass of myself at that party that I was "blue screened" for about a year. There are events we know we were both at that Ulrika has no recollection of seeing me, because I was unpersoned.

We got over it. :)

5. We are connected through science fiction fandom in ways I can't even
begin to imagine. How did you become involved in that universe?

LASFS again.

I was enough of a Heinlein fan that I would read various things about the years when Heinelein lived in LA... And that would pick up in other memoirs, too, like Ray Bradbury, Jack Williamson, David Gerrold... Many.

So, the summer between my senior and senior-plus-one years in college {cough}, I decided to look up this LASFS outfit I'd read about. Turned out it was just about two miles down Burbank Blvd from where I lived with my mom at the time. That was close enough that I could bike, take the bus, or sometimes even walk to LASFS.

It was a touch and go thing, really. I was about to give up on LASFS when I went one night and ended up filk singing (I love to sing -- 14 years in choirs)(although I haven't really sung much filk since), and playing aeroplane games (Ace of Aces) with my soon-to-be-friend Terry Karney (who's in Iraq right now {crossing fingers}). That got me jazzed enough to go to Loscon that year, and fandom's been saddled with me ever since.

So... anyone care to be interviewed?