[personal profile] rm
20 random facts about me:

1. I have two different high school diplomas, as I spent my last high school semester doing a program through another school but was still enrolled at my school. I suppose I should add the second of those schools to the already ridiculous list in my profile.

2. I got in huge trouble once as a kid when my dad busted me taking communion at a mass my kiddy acting group had performed at. My father is Catholic, but I'm not. MOstly he was upset because it would make my mother (who is Jewish) cry.

3. When I was in third grade I told everyone my middle name was Aurora. Worse, I put A as my middle initial on the bubble sheet for the ERB and caused all sorts of chaos. I don't have a middle name.

4. My mom was my Brownies troop leader once when I was a kid. This was bad. We did Peter Pan as a play and I was merely one of the Lost Boys, my mother said it wouldn't be fair if I got a good part, but I suspect she either had no faith in me or was worried she'd be bullied by the other moms. She only did the job for a year.

5. Of the many stupid acting gigs I have had, my favourite was when I had to writhe around in a pit of calculator tape while dressed as a Tax Nerd. It was for Yahoo! Taxes and we were in Tax Hell. It went on for hours and among othe rhtings we obsessively sharpened pencils, screamed for mercy and beat each other with large calculators. I am so cool.

6. Robert Redford once hit on my mom.

7. I have recurring nightmares about tornados. While I was in one terrible storm once (while camping!) where we saw lots of funnels descend from the main storm cloud, none of them touched down. I have no idea what this is about.

8. I was a teen pageant contestant.

9. Pat Buchanan uses a crappy essay I wrote when I was 20 about the Vietnam Wall on various websites -- without my permission. The battle is ongoing.

10. Veal piccata is my favourite food. Yes, I know I'm going to hell. Little moo!

11. When I was a pre-teen I used to write to celebrities and asked for autographed pictures. Successful acquisitions I recall: Marc Singer (I know, so embarassing, my my best friend and I were obsessed with V) and Sam Neil (who is an utter mensch).

12. I saw all sorts on legends on Broadway as a kid, including: Richard Harris, Jerry Orbach and Peter O'Toole.

13. My Orson Welles obsession comes directly from my mother. She used to read me biographies of him when I was a child. Or rather, excerpts about insane precocious things he did as a child.

14. I am most often told, including by my own family, that I look like dead, ugly famous people. This includes Oscar Wilde and Frida Khalo.

15. I do not have a cold; I have a deviated septum and chronically (and permanently) inflamed sinuses.

16. Sad but true, the first fanfiction I ever wrote was Star Trek (TNG). Let's not talk about it, okay? Ever. Thanks.

17. I went to Stuyvesant because I had a 107 average in Chemistry at Hewitt and thought that's what I wanted to do for a living. Ask my mom. This is not revisionist, post-HP personal history.

18. My parents have this unspeakably hideous single line self-portrait I had to do for art class in 7th grade on their wall.

19. When I was a kid, the pipes in our heaters broke and flooded our apartment with a foot of boiling water. It destroyed all of my mothers water colors, and seveal days later the cabinate that we also used a coffee table in which they were kept had to be hacked open with an axe because the water had made the wood swell. I hid in my parents bedroom and put my hands over my ears and cried, because I anthropomorphized everything and they were _killing_ it.

20. The song My Only Sunshine makes me horribly depressed and uncomfortable for reasons unknown, and I do everything I can to avoid it at all costs.

Date: 2005-09-22 09:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fleur.livejournal.com
Of all that, #8 stands out .. in a maybe not good way ..

Date: 2005-09-22 09:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
Yeah, people go "woah!" at that a lot. I tried to come up with stuff that just maybe I hadn't written about before, but I'm sure I've at least alluded to that in the past.

Date: 2005-09-22 09:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fleur.livejournal.com
It was new to me, but, well, there you are. Part of it might be that my mom was also a teen pageant winner, and there could not be one thing on earth you could less imagine her doing if you met her since.

Date: 2005-09-22 09:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
Hehehe yeah. I was not a winner, merely a contestant, including in Miss New York National Teen-Ager 1987. The trophies are still in my parents' home.

I wanted to be well-rounded and All-American. I wanted a senior boy (any senior boy) to want to date me. I think I wanted to be Reese Witherspoon in Bring It On.

Date: 2005-09-22 09:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fleur.livejournal.com
Oooo! My mom was just Miss McCook. Nebraska. She was also Miss Congeniality, and trust me that this is hard to believe. If you're me, anyway.

I think she wanted scholarship money, or at least, that's what she says now. At least you're honest about it.

Do you still have the abundance of fabulous gowns???

Date: 2005-09-22 09:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
Well this was the 80s, so the gowns were not fabulous. Yellow, pouffy lace, because it was on sale for $19.99

Date: 2005-09-22 10:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fleur.livejournal.com
I must locate photos of my senior prom dress. Oh. The pouffy.

Date: 2005-09-22 10:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
I do have all my crowns though.

Date: 2005-09-22 10:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fleur.livejournal.com
I was pissed when it got trendy to wear little fake tiaras in your wedding, because I had already thought of it. I thought if I ever got married I'd wear the Miss McCook tiara and be oh so original. Now that you can buy them at Clairs, however, not so much.

There should really be more everyday call to wear those, though, shouldn't there?

Date: 2005-09-22 10:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
Yeah, the one full round crown I have was like the most exciting thing ever to me, because it was so like Miss America and stuff, like there's a whole wack system to wearing them, like you lace elastic through them and then pin them into your hair.

Date: 2005-09-22 10:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fleur.livejournal.com
That must be why you never see pageant contestants with short hair! Aren't there about 487534 pins involved?

Date: 2005-09-22 10:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
Yep. And it's still in constant danger of teetering right off.

Date: 2005-09-22 10:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fleur.livejournal.com
So practical! Yet every little girl wants one.

Date: 2005-09-23 05:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] feyandstrange.livejournal.com
I recently acquired one of those Claire's tiaras, a mini-tiara on a hair comb. It stays put under a bun pretty well, and I get to feel like Audrey Hepburn. And it's red rhinestones. I now wish I had other colors.

A standard costume tiara fits reasonably well over the brim of a baseball cap or other hats around the band. I consider this "casual tiara".

Date: 2005-09-23 02:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fleur.livejournal.com
Is that like casual Friday?

Date: 2005-09-22 10:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/sunyata__/
I have a developing Orson Welles obsession, and I'd love your help in cultivating it.

Date: 2005-09-22 10:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
Well are you into his life or into his work or is it an any/all thing right now?

Date: 2005-09-22 10:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/sunyata__/
The totality. My exposure to both has been small so far, but enough to want much more data (in works and bios).

Date: 2005-09-22 10:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
What of his films have you seen? I'll try to dig up info on the bios I like later tonight.

Date: 2005-09-22 10:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/sunyata__/
Citizen Kane. I think I heard a recording of him as MacBeth in high school (my first real exposure). I've heard the War of the Worlds broadcast like a hundred times. The "Frozen Peas" incident. Bits and peices of other films, narrations.

I just learned he was involved in a presentation of Rime of the Ancient Mariner. *need*

A guide to the better bios would be wonderful. Which films have you seen?

Date: 2005-09-22 10:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
You must see The Third Man and The Magnificient Ambersons _immediately_.

His Othello is also really interested. On one hand, it's dated and unwatchable, but it's also the movie he spent his life making. He filmed it in pieces over the course of his life whenever he had the money for another shot. The camera set-ups are beautiful. I think it's also a really role for him to be playing for all sorts of reasons.

Do you know about the theory that he killed The Black Dhalia?

Date: 2005-09-22 10:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/sunyata__/
Do you know about the theory that he killed The Black Dhalia?

Nope, but I can find out.

Magnificient Ambersons isn't on Netflix for some reason, but Third Man's at the top of my queue now.

Re: Ambersons

Date: 2005-09-22 10:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2000/08/16/dahlia/

Salon article on the book about the Dahlia thing.

Date: 2005-09-22 10:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magnetgirl.livejournal.com
dude, I hear you on number 20. When I was nannying, I took care of the son of a woman who ran a children's group at the YMHA on nagle ave and they had this guy who'd come in to play songs on the guitar for the kiddies each thursday. He always sings "My Only Sunshine", including the second verse which I'd never really heard until he performed it. It's fucking depressing as all hell! I was like, "do we really want these kids to hear someone hanging their head and crying over a lost love? That's a bit heavy for 2 1/2 years olds!" I think the insane sadness of it is lost on them. Ahhh the innocence of youth...

P.S. when I'm not going insane from memorial madness, I need to being an e-mail dialogue with you about several things. I'm sorry I'm for shit these days.

Date: 2005-09-22 10:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
Not a problem. I'l be coming to the memorial with Kali, so I'll see you then, but soon we'll even talk about other things.

Date: 2005-09-22 10:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amberite.livejournal.com
3. When I was in third grade I told everyone my middle name was Aurora. Worse, I put A as my middle initial on the bubble sheet for the ERB and caused all sorts of chaos. I don't have a middle name.

I was NOT keen on my birth name, and so I went by all sorts of strange crazy things as a kid. When I was four years old, I found out that Lisa was a derivation of Elizabeth, and so decided to use Elizabeth. (Told the name to a sports coach, who called me by it and was puzzled when I didn't look up. Whoops!)

I also signed myself as Darth Luxton circa 8th grade.

Since then I managed to find a better name that actually works. :-)

Date: 2005-09-22 11:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] random-girl.livejournal.com
My father used to sing "My Only Sunshine" to me; it was a private thing, usually when he and I got up early for swim meets or to go to the swap meet together--usually as I was waking up. Sometimes he sang it when I was up with a cold or ear ache and was really upset. My husband found out (from my father), and began singing it to me when I was really stressed out. I inscribed "You are my sunshine" on the inside of the pocketwatch I got him as a present for our wedding.

Weird how the world is capricious with things.

Date: 2005-09-23 12:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hangedwoman.livejournal.com
Oh wow, I got such a flashback when you mentioned you and your best friend being obsessed with V.

Date: 2005-09-23 01:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] anthonyjaycee.livejournal.com
#1. By comparison-- I "graduated" from undergraduate twice... I was going to graduate with my nice EE Bachelor's degree in Fall '96, but, ummm... it didn't happen. I still went to the ceremony and walked across the stage, though. I got the degree fair and square for Spring '97, though.

#2. This hurts. Not because I'm, like, Mr. Catholic or anything, but because I grew up with so much Catholicism around me, and because of the instilled emotion of how much communion means to Catholics. I guess part of me that still thinks it's Catholic lives in a little fantasy world where it wants to believe that no one who's not Catholic ever receives communion. Hmmmm... I guess some things take a while to process, no matter how much I try to put Catholicism into perspective spiritually. My best friend and his ex-girlfriend/potential eventual fiancee have major conflicts based on this issue, and similar issues, nowadays... so I'm sure it could be worse. :)

#9. Now I see why so many people in Florida voted for him back in 2000! (j/k)

#13. I first learned about Orson Welles due to his appearance in, of all places, Transformers The Movie. But I did rent Citizen Kane after it got named the best movie of all time, and ended up later buying the DVD. I even watched/ listened to the commentary tracks, so I feel like I have at least a little expertise in why it's generally considered to be such a great movie nowadays.

#16. Wait, I thought _I_ was geekier than _you_. I stand corrected. :)

#20. That is a really powerful song to me too, so I see why you feel that way. As for why it has such an incredible emotional impact, well, I can't resist attempting to analyze that... It characterizes the emotional weight that a love interest holds for the singer with the sunshine metaphor, which is very powerful-- in fact, in mixing spirituality and science, light and love are the same thing, so the metaphor has a real sense of accuracy to it. Also, "you'll never know, dear, how much I love you," impresses the fact that the love felt is so deep that there is truly no way to explain and quantify it... and in fact, it also brings to light some degree of fear of the degree of love being unrequited (echoed further with "please don't take my sunshine away").

Ummmm... or I could just say that I think it says that the person who wrote it really understood and felt love deeply, and hence was able to express these feelings so concisely with just those few words and accompanying notes.

Date: 2005-09-23 02:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mobobocita.livejournal.com
Wow, how very intimate and detailed, thanks for the insight into you. Can't say I was much surprised by them, but intrigued? Yes.

Date: 2005-09-23 05:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] feyandstrange.livejournal.com
Somewhere my folks have a vinyl of Orson Welles reading this thing called _The Begatting of the President_, which IIRC is some sort of presidency spoof up to Nixon or maybe Ford. I really must get that thing to somebody who can transfer it to computer or CD. I didn't understand any of it as a child, of course, but I loved his voice.

The oldest posession I have is a stuffed giraffe containing a music box and clockwork thing; the giarffe's neck turns in a small circle as the music plays. It plays You Are My Sunshine, and I don't wind it up ever, because while the giraffe is an old friend, listening to that song wind down on a music box makes me cry to this day.

Date: 2005-09-23 07:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] songbird2357.livejournal.com
May I do a "20 things you don't know about me" in my journal? Don't want to steal your kickass idea.

P.S. I don't post much anymore, but I still read all your posts and you're still my hero!

Date: 2005-09-23 11:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
Sure, I got tagged for this by someone else, and I was supposed to tag more people, but I was feeling unotivated, so you're it!

Date: 2005-09-23 05:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] songbird2357.livejournal.com
Lol, now I gotta come up with 20 "interesting" things about me. Yikes!

Date: 2005-09-24 05:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] asa-dachi.livejournal.com
Richard Harris, Jerry Orbach and Peter O'Toole

Wow... just... wow...

-asa

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