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Yes! We've finished the new blog after a marathon 11 hours of tweaking between Boston and Oklahoma...however, being the consummate perfectionists that we are on both front and back ends, Chris Barros will officially do the honors and put the cutting-edge StrangeTango.com blog online after work at the Harvard Business School. We'll go live online within the next 24 hours...even I don't know the exact time. It's a lot like having a baby by natural childbirth: everything is an approximation until the infant emerges. ~A.


StrangeTango.com: Life as Art is a conceptual art installation in cyberspace.

"What remains as documentation of a life?"

This question was first asked in an anthropology class at Cornell University where two of our creative collaborators met for the first time and became lifelong friends. You can't authentically document a life unless you also document our world and its inhabitants...that's why this global platform is a space where visitors and friends may contribute their thoughts, words, and images.
A filmmaker in Los Angeles...a tech guru at the Harvard Business School...and a conceptual artist/literary stylist in America's heartland are collaborating on a cutting-edge blog for the personal website. This blog is a placeholder.

Ron Nance, Real Estate Visionary

StrangeTango.com is an art installation in cyberspace that launched in August 2009 with the concept, “What remains as documentation of a life?” Through my illustrated memoirs, writings, and commentary, I am documenting my life, my friends, and the world we live in. The personal website was featured in a presentation on the innovation wave in the honors business curriculum at a major university, and we’re also submitting the site in consideration for the Webby Award for the best personal websites on the internet. Since the website continues to organically evolve, we will add experimental installations in 2010. We are currently revamping the blog and including a new feature that showcases innovators who inspire us with their passion, leadership, and creativity. So, it seems fitting that a childhood friend, Ron Nance, has the honor of being my inaugural interview.


Ron Nance is possibly the best-known public figure in Lawton, Oklahoma—both as a successful businessman and as an ambassador for a city viewed by the national media as a voice of America’s heartland. His civic accomplishments are long and impressive, an integral part of the city’s infrastructure: homebuilder for the ABC hit television program, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Lawton City Councilman, President of the Lawton Home Builders Association, Oklahoma Bison Association President, Director of the National Bison Association, Lawton Airport Authority Board Member, and member of a BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure initiative) Coordination Committee for a regional growth management plan for Lawton and Fort Sill, an adjoining, major military installation.

As President and CEO of Ron Nance Enterprises, an umbrella corporation for his business interests—including his new real estate developments, collectively known as The Oaks—he also owns and operates Comanche Buffalo, one of the largest, all-natural producers of buffalo meat in North America. Comanche Buffalo supplies natural food stores, national supermarket chains, and Fearing’s at the Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. Owner-chef Dean Fearing, a winner of the James Beard Foundation Restaurant Award for “Best Chef in the Southwest,” calls the buffalo tenderloin from Comanche Buffalo “…the best product I've ever dealt with…That buffalo is fork-tender.”

Few people realize that Ron and I are inextricably linked through time and memory.

Then known as Ronald Nance, he and I went through all of Woodrow Wilson Elementary School together starting in the mid-1960’s. Fred Thomason was the principal back then, a severely thin man with dark-rimmed glasses who strictly admonished students not to drag their feet while walking in a line down the hallway. The typical student didn’t have parents who were businesspeople, professionals, or entrepreneurs. We were from hardworking folk; many parents were affiliated with the military. Most of us had comfortable childhoods with two-parent, single-income families, siblings, a neighborhood support system, and teachers who were invested in our personal and educational development. I remember Ron as a quiet, laconic type who didn’t call attention to himself. We sat next to each other in the fifth grade, which is documented in the official classroom photograph of the time. Mrs. Mabel Otipoby was our teacher, the only Native American instructor either of us would ever have.

When, decades later, I returned to the place where I grew up, Ron and I were once again neighbors, only this time we both lived on one of the most prestigious streets in Lawton, our homes directly across from each other. Ron and his wife Susan, bearing a gift, attended our housewarming party, and I also came to know their adult children, Whitney Nance Perry, and Brennan Nance.

Occasionally, Ron and I would chat and marvel at how fate had strangely brought us together again. We realized how privileged we both are to have lived our dreams out loud and were now looking forward to what we would leave as a legacy. For me, my life involved global travel, affiliation with interesting and exciting people, institutions, and projects, and the fulfillment of my destiny as a communicator—both writer and artist. For him, it was more fundamental than that. So when Ron, Whitney, and I meet for what was to become a 3-hour visit, the first question I ask him is this:

“When did you know you were destined for something more than what life dealt you?”

Ron settles down in his deep leather chair to ponder a question that was completely unexpected. And when he speaks, his answer is very sure and clear. He recalls a time in the second or third grade when all the students in class were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. For as long as he had a developed sense of consciousness, he always knew he wanted to become a millionaire. So that’s what he said. His classmates laughed. For the young boy, wealth represented money, status, and security. For the mature husband and father before me, becoming a multi-millionaire had come to symbolize something more elusive: a measurement of just how far he had come in his life. Wealth was a vehicle for achieving potential and manifesting results.

A self-made man, Ron’s journey took a detour before he had a life-changing epiphany. He had attended Southwest Oklahoma State University on a football scholarship, but one day he realized that he really wanted to be his own boss, a businessperson. So he returned to Lawton and enrolled at Cameron University. While still a student, he began selling real estate to support himself. He also had a business hauling hay. Soon, his industriousness paid off, and Ron became a first-time homeowner at the age of 19, before he had even graduated from college. This personal milestone, for him, ranks high among his lifetime achievements.

Ron credits his persistence and desire to learn from experienced mentors for what then became his career trajectory. By the age of 24, he had made the transition into commercial real estate sales where his youthful vigor and enthusiasm made him the go-to person for national chains that were trying to make inroads into the city. Elderly people who distrusted corporations owned much of the commercial land. But Ron was a local boy who was also well known and well liked. In the 1980’s, he had obtained the prestigious CCIM certification in commercial real estate and was given the chance to learn from astute investors and premier businesspeople.

McDonald’s sought him out when the company wanted to lease a prime location at the corner of 11th Street and Lee Boulevard for one of their franchise restaurants. After six months of negotiations, the multinational corporation had a 20-30 year lease, and the elderly lady who owned the land had made a deal that benefited not only her, but also left a sizable financial bonanza as a legacy to her heirs. Ron recalls how he took the time to educate his client. He honestly believed that the transaction would be in her best interest, and he was passionate that she see things his way. “I’ve never been able to sell something I didn’t believe in,” he confides. “I try to help people understand what is at stake.”

He prospered in his chosen industry, but Ron’s juggernaut was about to go supernova in the 1990’s with the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) and the savings and loan crises. The federal government was the largest owner of foreclosed properties he was trying to sell. People with money had no appetite for buying real estate, he found, and buyers who wanted properties had gone broke. So he decided to buy the properties his commercial clients were passing on. During this time of rapid acquisition, Ron aggressively purchased real estate at a cost of 25 cents on the dollar. His real estate portfolio included a commercial office building, retail space, and warehouses. As a long-term investor, he knew he could find tenants for his vacant properties, and he astutely recognized that property values would increase over time. When the real estate market eventually rebounded, his investments appreciated in value. Ron could now step away from the day-to-day commercial sales operations and focus on real estate development and investments.

Once again, he started modestly and worked his way up. As a small-scale homebuilder, he was developing 20 lots every few years. Because of the unpredictability of this venture, he had begun to investigate ways to control the construction process from start to finish. This meant developing raw land and producing a finished product. His first subdivision was Brentwood, named in honor of a family friend’s scenic and gracious hometown in Tennessee. The project was a success, and Ron’s reputation for stellar value and customer service grew.

In 2007, when the producers of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came to Lawton, they were looking for an established builder who had the connections in the trade and with community resources to complete a turnkey project in just four days. The project would be a first for the show: construct an aesthetically pleasing home for the Westbrook family that would incorporate accessibility standards from the American Disability Act.

Gene Westbrook is a war hero who was paralyzed in the Iraq War. His then nine-year-old son James became paralyzed in an auto accident. In designing a house that would accommodate the special needs of Gene and James Westbrook, Ron had become profoundly affected by how trapped the family felt inside their home. He recalls that the living room was so small it could hardly contain two wheelchairs at the same time, and he wanted to give the family a beautiful and open space to live in.

His can-do attitude put to the test, Ron was excited by the challenge and at the same time a bit daunted by the seemingly impossible task he faced. As so often in the past, he relied on his sense of pragmatism and organization. One of the first calls he made was to the brotherhood of former Extreme Makeover homebuilders for their guidance and expertise. On February 17, 2007, an outpouring of men, women, and teenagers from Lawton, the Fort Sill military base, and the surrounding communities worked around the clock on everything from construction, to landscaping, to clean up. To add to the festive community atmosphere, a food tent was set up and a chiropractor was available on the premises. In the end, it would take all 45 of his direct employees, 200 tradesmen, and about 2,000 volunteers to build a 4,000 sq. ft. new construction home in 106 hours.

The producers of Extreme Makeover called the Westbrook home one of the best houses and best builds ever featured on the show. During the initial broadcast and re-runs, about 1 billion people viewed this popular episode in 78 different countries.

Lawton is a multiculturally diverse city of 100,000 with a sizable population that has lived and worked all over the globe. The impact of military base closings has brought an influx of new residents into Lawton-Fort Sill, more than 30,000 when the initiative is fully implemented. To accommodate this economic growth and resulting demand for new housing, the Oaks Development Company distinguishes itself by seizing on the concept of well-planned communities in the mid-range and luxury categories with shared outdoor amenities and a cohesive sense of community.

“Why the oak?” I ask him, already knowing the answer. The oak is a sturdy hardwood indigenous to this part of the country. Here, the oak tree symbolizes strength and longevity…an emblem worthy of the man himself.

Collectively known as The Oaks, Ron is enthusiastic about his company’s current residential development projects: Oak Pointe, with 900 available home sites, and Oak Ridge, starting at the intersection of 67th Street and Lee Boulevard—a square mile tract of land with space for up to 600 luxury homes. The Oaks is just minutes away from shopping centers, schools, hospitals, and clinics.

Oak Pointe features residences that are, historically for Oklahoma, at the $350,000 median price point. If you want to buy a home at Oak Pointe, Ron says, “We will make it as simple as we can.” Homes are available for either immediate occupancy or will be finished in six months from financing to building. The first step is to look at vacant new construction homes so the customer can get a realistic sense of what the family wants. An existing design plan can be amended several times or a custom home can be designed. A horticulturalist, designers, and the director of construction are available for weekly updates as new owners watch their houses being built. The final meeting is also a homeowner’s orientation with a walk-through before the closing and transfer take place. Warranty calls are made the first year of occupation to guarantee the owner’s satisfaction.

He is proud of the fact that The Oaks has always met a specified move-in date and that happy customers have resulted in a high rate of referrals. His goal has always been to give his buyers pride of ownership and a comfortable place to call home. Says Ron, “Our objective is to delight the customer.”

Across the street from Oak Pointe, the Oak Ridge development is where he plans to build a 12,000 sq. ft. estate alongside a 22-acre, man-made lake that will become his home in retirement. Whitney and her new husband have selected a lot right next door so that three generations of Nances—parents, children, and grandchildren—can all live adjacent to each other.

“I can see what it’s all going to look like when it’s completed,” he tells me with a gleam in his eye. “In fifty years there will be a canopy of overhanging oak trees lining the streets.”

Oak Ridge, with its stunning view of the Wichita Mountains to the north, is the embodiment of Ron Nance’s boyhood dreams. Designed to be a model village or enclave, all the homes here will be architecturally unified with a residential theme, an enduring, Old World European style—French Country, Tuscan Villa, or Mediterranean Estate. Artistic souls among us appreciate his vision of a classic, stately, and timeless residential community with state-of-the-art amenities—a task never before achieved in Lawton given the patchwork of housing styles to be found in any given neighborhood. Ron Nance Enterprises has evolved to virtually dominate the luxury market in the increasingly prosperous Texoma region with a level of architectural sophistication and construction expertise that had been missing until now.

Dream homes will be priced in the $450,000-$800,000 range for lots starting at ½ acre, or two lots to the acre. Estates sited along the lake are expected to sell for $1-$5 million, with lot sizes ranging up to six acres. Lakefront homes will be set on a hill overlooking the water and at lake level. These would be individually gated homes set back from the street—heirloom quality estates on beautifully manicured lots that can be handed down through generations. The city cooperated by passing legislation to allow estate-type compounds to be built in the subdivision. The rollout has begun, to be spaced out over a 10-15 year timeframe.

In Lawton’s future, Ron envisions a residential space that visually appeals to the senses and is harmonious, quiet, and safe. A place with a strong sense of community where residents can raise their families or retire comfortably, just like the neighborhoods where we both grew up. But his innovative leadership goes further: he wants his development to meet the life cycle needs of all age groups, from childhood to old age. In so doing, he is giving Lawton’s underserved demographics the kind of high-quality, one-of-a-kind residential stock and thoughtful, intuitive details they desire. For the area’s affluent immigrant community, with multi-generational families all living or visiting under the same roof, the zoning regulations will allow the construction of gated compounds that are common in their home countries. For the well off, retired empty nesters, Ron’s mantra is: “Downsizing doesn’t mean downgrading.”

In a nod to the lessons gleaned from the Extreme Makeover experience, every house in Oak Ridge will feature minimally accessible features to accommodate the needs of residents who are elderly or disabled. He rightly points out that the workplace is handicap accessible, but homes are not. Showers will have no rims to impede wheelchairs and walkers. A front step at the entrance will be eliminated, and each hallway and door will be at least three feet wide.

He takes special delight in choosing the names of the streets. He finds that each street has its own personality and practically names itself. On Oakmont Boulevard, Ron and Whitney take me on a tour of their 2009 Dream House. The Cypress Villa, a 4,000 sq. ft. home evocative of the history and charm of Tuscany in Italy, is the first property to be constructed on the raw land. It was Whitney’s perceptive idea that her parents swap the Dream House for their home in Wyatt Acres.

I tell Ron how baronial their new abode looks from the outside. Indoors, the artistic flourishes and luxurious materials—inlaid hardwood and travertine floors, granite countertops, and ceramic tiles—used throughout the residence impress me. The environment brings me back in time to an antiquarian world of elegance and refinement. It is the unexpected details like the intricate, cast stone ceiling and stone crafted fireplace…the graceful dome ceiling in the first floor master suite...that delight me. In the great room, spacious glass doors open to an outdoor living space with a fireplace, seating area, and outdoor kitchen.

State-of-the-art modern conveniences include radiant floor heating, a jacuzzi and waterfall shower, and tankless water heaters. Abundant built-in storage space throughout the house enhances the visual flow. On the second floor, a spacious and comfortable home theatre is worthy of being called a man cave. A warm and inviting gourmet kitchen with maple cabinetry, 6-burner stove, and a farmhouse sink is perfect for entertaining guests. By the garage, there is a laundry room, and a mudroom with personal lockers made of wood where occupants could leave keys or recharge cell phones.

By now, I have the sense that I am looking deep inside the mind of a highly creative individual who is tweaking my artistic surroundings in a way that both inspires me and optimizes my productivity each work day. To connect the customization concept even further, Ron Nance Enterprises has its own drafting department, which is digitized and computerized, as well as its own trim carpenters. The craftsmen who work on their projects are the best to be found in the region.

It is perhaps symbolic that the grand opening of the first completed home in Oak Ridge was also a fundraiser for a local children’s charity. More than $6,000 was raised for Food 4 Kids, which provided a total of 24,000 meals.

“I’m very fortunate and blessed to have a father who is a leader and who I can learn from.” As a child, Whitney enjoyed seeing what her father did for a living and the joy he brought to customers buying new homes. Initially, she had studied interior design, thinking she might follow the same career path that took her college friends to urban centers. But Lawton is growing exponentially as a result of the base realignments in Asia and Europe, with military families being reassigned to Fort Sill. In addition, Oklahoma’s fiscal conservatism protected its economy from the real estate collapse that has hurt much of the nation. Consumers purchased real estate as residences, not for rampant speculation. Agriculture, oil and natural gas production, and the defense industries have contributed to the stability of the state’s economy. Money magazine named Lawton one of the top 100 cities in the country to live in.

In the final analysis, for Ron as well as for myself, Lawton was our family’s base. Whitney also recognized there was no need to move anywhere else when you could always travel around the world for study or vacation. At the University of Oklahoma, she switched her major to marketing, and then spent a summer in Spain studying international business and European architecture. She sees the opportunity to work with her father as a way of carrying on the family business that he started decades ago.

As the Vice President of Marketing for the Oaks Development Company, Whitney has been involved with every aspect of the business, from construction to sales. She brings her own uniquely modern perspective to the table. Internet and multimedia savvy, she manages the company website and advertising, and she demonstrates the renowned Nance style of personalized customer service and outstanding value in all her dealings. Whitney’s imprint is also on Oak Ridge. She is the company executive who came up with the look and feel of the harmonious architectural styles that will be built on the development map.

“She’s my succession plan,” Ron quips. He has trained his successor well. Brother Brennan is a photographer and artist, but Whitney has been groomed since childhood to be an executive. Her parents’ appreciation for living well with art and beauty in one’s surroundings is also in her genes. It is an ethos they are happy to share with their customers and the larger community. As with everything he has earned in life, Ron Nance has planned for the best, perceptively recognized and doggedly pursued opportunity when it emerged, and built his legacy to last.

View the Facebook photo albums for Ron Nance: Real Estate Visionary and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and click on the be a fan icon.

Ron Nance, President/CEO
(580) 678-5222 (cell)
Whitney Nance Perry, Vice President of Marketing
(580) 917-2706 (cell)
Ron Nance Enterprises
1 SW 11th St. Ste. 210
Lawton, OK 73501
(580) 248-4411 (office)
http://www.theoaksdevelopmentco.com/
http://www.comanchebuffalo.com/

The Neo-Zen Sensibility

My transformation from glamorous to spiritual was years in the making. When I worked for other people and had my own source of income, I purchased heirloom quality items to leave as a legacy for my niece. My curatorial sensibility was developed by taking courses in the liberal, literary, and fine arts at the largest university in the Ivy League and by being mentored by a professor of Japanese culture and comparative literature who is the director of the Society for the Humanities at Cornell. As a result, over time, my senses became sharply honed and more finely focused until I developed a distinctive voice, style, and sensibility that I call neo-Zen.

Friends and strangers call me psychic, or highly perceptive, but I say it’s a matter of cultivated attunement.

With an eye toward archival quality, my wardrobe consisted primarily of well-constructed and beautifully lined dresses and suits in sizes 0-4 by Italian, French and German designers: Ferragamo, Armani, Versace, Prada, Missoni, Chanel. Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Ferragamo are the logos on my leather accessories. The luxurious quality…the natural materials such as silk, wool, and leather used to craft these goods…the pride in workmanship by unknown artisans…I sensed all this whenever I held or viewed treasures from my stockpiled trove.

I understood that price is an artificial stimulus used to drive up desirability, but this principle had no bearing on the sensory joy that handling and using these goods brought me. However, if you learn to examine an object’s innate value to your own life, you might decide that you can do without. My classic, buff-colored Versace silk and linen blend trench coat is an object of beauty, but it loses its functional desirability if I have no business meetings to attend. So, when my husband and I decided to return to my family base in southwest Oklahoma and to leave behind our home, friends, and artistic lifestyle in New England, I had to reconcile myself to the idea that I was supplanting an exterior-driven existence for a far more insular one.

Now, almost everything in my work wardrobe has been meticulously archived, photographed, and carefully stored to bequeath to the next generation. I have streamlined and simplified my life so that my days are primarily occupied by my family and my time on my laptop computer, writing and otherwise multi-tasking. Instead of buying objects, I seek peak experiences that fill and inhabit my senses. I now select clothes for absolute comfort, which means silk-cotton-spandex blend textiles that weigh no more than four ounces per item. A friend’s mantra that downsizing doesn’t mean downgrading rings true.

But the interior changes that mirror my outer life are even more significant. Instead of an epitaph that reads: artist – traveler – citizen of the world, the plaque might now say: daughter – sister – aunt – wife.

And my legacy? It is my thoughts, my ideas, my writings…my sensibility—incorporating all of the above.

Neo-Zen is the sensibility...which I first captured when it surfaced in the 1980’s when the Millennial generation was being born. Strange Tango, the epistolary novella, is the heart of neo-Zen…and StrangeTango.com the personal website is but a glimpse into this, my inner world. Only a handful of people have read the manuscript of Strange Tango the epistolary novella—and they call it a masterpiece. My oeuvre will remain hidden from the world until it is published.

Road Trip, Part I: Artistic Santa Fe and Taos

My husband and I love to pile into our comfortable SUV, throw in a few small pieces of luggage, and head for the open road with our family pet. We enjoy the time we spend together and the freedom of traveling at our own pace without the inconveniences that air travel now involves. I determine the total experience: the destinations, restaurants, and hotels, while Joseph plots the navigation.

For our autumn tour, we had planned to travel westward to the Grand Canyon, perhaps the only major national park we have yet to explore, and from there visit family friends in Phoenix and San Diego. However, we were stymied by the severe weather front coming in from Colorado, so we spent the extra days working around the house and changed course to take us on an abbreviated loop through Amarillo, Santa Fe, Taos, Colorado Springs, and finally to Denver, where we would be reunited with our longtime friend Jon Tesseo—from back in the day at Lotus Development in Cambridge, Massachusetts—and his family. Heading back home to Oklahoma, we hoped to stop in Kansas City for its famous barbecue.

Days 1 and 2: Amarillo, Santa Fe, Taos

Interstate Highway 40 took us through the Texas panhandle and Amarillo. Having stayed awake all night, I fell asleep and awoke just as we began to approach the town. The Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the United States, punctuated the flat topography. Sightings of turbines in this windy corridor were in the distance. Amarillo had tripled in size since I last passed through the region and the old Route 66 back in 1994. The city was completely transformed with shopping centers, strip malls, and office buildings along both sides of an expanded highway.

Still, some landmarks remained comfortingly familiar: the Big Texan Steak Ranch, best known for its 72 ounce (4 ½ lb.) steak eating challenge shown on the Food Network and the Travel Channel, had not changed. And some miles outside of town, we were reminded of the thousands of penned cattle bound for major meat packing plants by the powerful stench in the air. I photographed the dynamic skies that stretched for miles, poised like a bell jar to envelope the landmass…the feeling was almost claustrophobic.

Fortunately, in just under four hours we would reach Santa Fe, our designated stop for the night. If the Texas panhandle were characterized by monotony, the breathtaking mesas that gave New Mexico its state nickname, “Land of Enchantment” took over the landscape. Nearing the city limits, my impression was that an advanced alien civilization had plopped this visually stunning settlement right in the middle of an arid plain. Santa Fe, quite simply, is breathtaking in its beauty.

Mountains, sky, and desert create a scenic environment quite unlikely to be found elsewhere in America. Against this backdrop, the consistency of the architecture astonished me, as though I were within a fantasy theme park. Everywhere we drove, this town of 70,000 was clean and beautiful. Spanish Pueblo Revival style based on indigenous adobe mud, straw, and wood construction is the adopted aesthetic, mandated by the city.

We hadn’t eaten all day, so we conveniently pulled up to a metered space near The Burrito Company, a family-run fast food restaurant serving Mexican/Tex-Mex/Southwestern food. Located just across from the plaza on Washington Avenue, the prices were affordable, and the combo taco and enchilada plate with sides was large enough for two.

We’re travelers, not tourists, so my husband and I generally eschew the sanitized, five-star hotel experience. But for our Santa Fe experience, I wanted a comfortable hotel that welcomed pets and was within striking distance of the town center. The El Dorado Hotel and Spa fit my requirements. I had asked my longtime travel agent, Joseph Tse, the president and owner of OT&T Travel Management, to book our regularly requested, charming room on an upper floor with a view. As always, OT&T did not disappoint.

As a New Age Traveler with a neo-Zen sensibility, I look for accommodations that are new, spotless, comfortable, and atmospheric. A part of the Preferred Hotels and Resorts Group, the El Dorado met my exacting standards. The location just steps away from the plaza was the perfect base for our forays.

An important art mecca, second only to New York City, Santa Fe is called the City Different and is a designated UNESCO Creative City. Truly, life is lived as art in this community. I had immediately noticed how unnaturally vibrant the light appears to be, the colors in nature more intense. The air 7,000 feet above sea level smells fresh and pure. For a self-defined conceptual artist such as myself, I sensed mystery and dynamic energy in this space. Artistry and public art is a facet of daily life. Whimsical wind sculptures appear unexpectedly alongside a church. Art galleries and boutiques abound, displaying everything from beautifully crafted Native American pottery and turquoise jewelry in contemporary settings to life-sized metal sculptures of native wildlife.

As we roamed the pedestrian-friendly streets, I was reminded of the sheltering, walled medieval cities in Europe, such as Carcassonne. Or of Kyoto where seemingly around every corner a picturesque sampling of still art could be found in the placement of garden plants or the positioning of window displays. The cultural cues may have been different, but a definable spirit of place imbued the sights, aromas, and sounds around me.

Our self-guided walking tour included stops along the Santa Fe Plaza, an historic landmark designating the end of the Santa Fe Trail. Here, historic buildings house modern vendors such as Starbucks. We strolled past the Native American artists selling silver and turquoise jewelry in front of the Palace of the Governors, then around the corner to the Institute of American Indian Arts. Directly across the street is the St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral, with a road that curves toward the Loretto Chapel, then down a charming street past a sculpture gallery, to the greenbelt along the river where we could spend some time walking Joy-Joy.

As evening settled in, we were left trying to decide where to go for dinner. On road trips, fine dining is out of the question as we either bring Joy-Joy everywhere with us, or Joseph stays outdoors with her while I go inside for take-out food. We had planned a return visit to the landmark Coyote Cafe, but the restaurant was serving a special wine menu that evening. So instead, we walked a block away and decided on Indian food.

The restaurant reviews named the India Palace Restaurant the best ethnic restaurant in town. It was located inside a municipal parking lot, but in this case, I was right not to judge the book by its cover. The smells wafting outside were enticing, and a review of the menu showed authentic Northern Indian cuisine from the Punjab region. I quickly ordered tandoori chicken wings, vegetable samosas, Kashmiri naan, chicken korma, chicken curry, mixed pickles, kulfi, mango lassi, and chai, which we then spread out on a table in the hotel room. Maybe we were just hungry, or the enhancement of the senses that characterizes Santa Fe kicked in...the traditional cuisine and spices were delectable and aromatic. And since I haven’t yet visited India, I would go on record to declare that London and Santa Fe are the two places where I’ve enjoyed the best of traditional Indian cuisine.

Early the next morning, Joseph alerted me that we would have to leave Santa Fe by lunchtime if we wanted to visit Taos and spend the night in Colorado Springs. This plan was perfect, as I often photograph objects and landscapes shortly after dawn for the best natural lighting. Since time was limited, I shifted into television news producer mode and efficiently took close-up and long shots of still life around the hotel and plaza, picked up coffee for us at Starbucks and a fluffy brioche at Café Paris in Burro Alley, and scooped up an official, Santa Fe 400th year commemorative t-shirt at Dressman’s Gifts and the Santa Fe Trading Company, the one-stop shopping place for souvenirs. I especially admired the Native American arts and crafts and silver and turquoise jewelry.

Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery is another must-visit establishment. It houses an impressive collection of fine Native American pottery from the Southwest, including pottery from the Acoma and Santa Clara pueblos. The museum-quality pieces are among the best I have seen. In a contemporary vein, Kiva Fine Art showcases a comprehensive collection of Native American fine art—sculpture, pottery, weavings, paintings, gourds, woodworking, hides, and kachinas.

I made a beeline for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and museum store and soaked in the spirit of New Mexico’s quintessential artist for all of half an hour. At the Coyote Cafe rooftop cantina, I placed a take-out order of gourmet tacos and tomato soup garnished with generous portions of large shrimp. Celebrity chef Mark Miller brought Southwestern regional cuisine into the national consciousness when he opened the original restaurant in the mid-1980’s. I savored a pink, prickly pear Margarita and rooftop views while waiting for my order. After lunch, we drove along historic Canyon Road, a six-block stretch of art galleries, a sculpture garden, and The Compound Restaurant, a secluded property that boasts a James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Southwest.

Our next destination was Taos, historically an artists colony and now also a haven for outdoors sports enthusiasts. For a time, Taos was the home of the English novelist D. H. Lawrence, and his ashes are enshrined in a small chapel on property he once owned. Located seventy miles north of Santa Fe at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the travel time is deceptive as the local scenic route winds through high desert plains and evergreen forests. Thunderstorms threaten in the distance, and the eerie combination provides spectacularly elemental photo opportunities. The route leading out of Santa Fe, through Taos, and on local roads leading to Colorado Springs reminded me of the sweeps and turns we encountered driving in Europe and through parts of the Black Forest of Germany.

At this point, we had spent $56 on gas and just over $100 on food for a party of three, over two days. Our neo-Zen aesthetic of spending wisely while optimizing sensory experiences was paying dividends.

Part II: Scenic Colorado Springs and Denver, Home


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(photographs, clockwise: St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral, Coyote Cafe, Dressman’s Gifts and the Santa Fe Trading Company, wind sculpture outside Loretto Chapel, banner by historic Santa Fe Plaza)

New Age Traveler: The Creative Process

"Although these days I tend to travel in style, there is still a part of me that relishes the idea of roughing it and traveling lightly--to soak in stripped down, sensory experiences." New Age Traveler by A. D. Tejada, in Millennium Muse

The Strange Tango personal website is a living and evolving art installation in cyberspace—the innovation is the first of its kind in how we marry art and style, substance and content. My collaborators and I are savvy about new technologies...this global platform was built via a remote process and is regularly updated and upgraded several times a week. The six of us are based on both coasts and in America's heartland, so our discussions generally take place through email loops or Facebook online chats.

The musings on art, self-expression, communication, and connection are thoughtful and relevant. Currently, we are working on the design for New Age Traveler, a chapter in my book, Millennium Muse. When completed, the art installation will be housed on the experimental space on the website, also called Millennium Muse.

The Strange Tango project excites me, in particular, because of the intellectual and creative synergy between us across distance—it’s the quality and energy of pure thought.

I am continually reminded of how lucky it was to have found each other. I specifically tapped my brilliant, yet modest, collaborators because they are among the best in the world at what they do. The public often only sees the polished work when it is published. But what goes on behind the scenes is worthy of documentation and commemoration. Brian was in Mexico and Chris at work…but Dan, Marlee, Raphael, and I chimed in. Here is a special glimpse into our creative process:


Daniel Brunelle:

I’m thinking we should be focusing on the nonlinearity of Muse. I’ve read a few hyperlink fiction texts online and they haven’t been as effective as the idea suggests… It’s an idea a lot people have thought of and no one has really succeeded at. So, here’s why this is perfect: if you want to communicate the "journey" you must place the reader in an experientially synonymous place…not a series of pages but a network of experiences that are re-explored. It’s not so much that the words change but is rather connected in additional dimensions.

So, let’s use as an example one place you’ve been that made you feel sadness but inspired you to help the locals. I feel the connections should be emotional, a re-exploration of what has occurred previously. We can create the emotional feeling with nonlinear music and custom-built java app by Marlee. Frankly, the usefulness of music in Muse is directly proportional to the java app that supports it.

Music to me is pure abstraction of either emotion or the intellect. If it’s just an mp3 player then it’s nothing new, you know? A picture of an exotic place is nothing special to the random person, but an emotional approach to that moment is. If your story supplies the "moment" of a given moment, the structure will supply.

Really, all I’m asking is that you sit back and close your eyes and just remember all things you’ve done and keep track of the order they come up as your mind just remembers, and then do it again from a different memory. Follow tangents. Keep track of where they lead. Geography doesn’t exist anymore. Just think about ways to shuffle your story's deck…how can it be reordered.

Next time, I’ll tell you how I’m thinking of the music…


A. D. Tejada:

None of us ever had a chance to talk as a group about Muse. So, I was happy for the opportunity to chat online with Daniel Brunelle today.

He reminded me to return to my roots--which are highly conceptual and not necessarily accessible. Nonlinearity and the emotions evoked during travels is the key. So, we'd streamline the project, and perhaps we could pull in Brian to handle some of the visual workload.

I'd like to include the story...but we won't be quite as literal in the interpretation, so you can scrap the previous treatment. Most importantly, Daniel pointed out something that I had forgotten. He said it's not the tech, design, or visuals.

Millennials are the new influencers, and what intrigues them is my sensibility. I'm flattered, and humbled...thank you for that lesson, Dan.


Raphael Seligmann:

Trying to imagine what it'll look like--I'd expect a stunner from you, Marlee. Can't wait to see a mockup.

Audrey--you certainly got good advice. I'd just add that "not necessarily accessible" shouldn't be taken to the point of hermeticism. My suggestion for Muse is to (mine) the emotionality in the visuals and other non-text aspects of the user experience (even consider music at certain points) as a way of compensating for the allusiveness and reticence that marks the story. The user should always get a reward for staying with you. As Dan pointed out, the sensibility is the reward. That sensibility can come through different media in different strengths at different times. The web offers you the chance to switch channels while remaining inside a single artwork. Go for broke.


Marlee O'Neal:

I have a thought about Muse too…

Scrapping the book treatment and going with something more futuristic. I’m thinking…a holographic-looking tablet that is suspended in mid-air… Suggesting that someone from the future is presenting it to us. Just as the memoirs are about what happened in a past era, the reader gets a glimpse of a past in a future setting.

Thoughts?


A. D. Tejada:

Unbelievable...Can you actually do that, Marlee? I think the original story should, at the least, be presented somewhere as the basis for the inspiration.

It could even be a footnote clicked on...a secret for those following the trail.


Marlee O'Neal:

It suggests time travel…but without any mundane, linear looking timelines, of course. We are currently in the Information Age; segueing into an age of LIGHT. When I see how technology is evolving with more use of LIGHT, for example—laser disks, holographic emissions, it seems that we could push that envelope with the look and feel of Millennium Muse… New Age Traveler certainly is a great kick off to this theme.


A. D. Tejada:

I love your concept of light and time travel. The work is New Age Traveler, after all. We’ll still have the book as a framing device, because that is the form that best identifies it as a memoir. You open it to see the entire contents, with a link to New Age Traveler.

However, once the link is clicked on, the book dissolves to segue into the actual experiences. We can go wild from this point on. I could have the blurb about the almanac, or Raphael could come up with the kind of intro paragraph that he does so beautifully. The manuscript itself could be accessed by a discreet link or icon so that we can see the original material that inspired the treatment.

I like the idea of a surprise that challenges expectations and assumptions: you think you're going to read a book, but the book is only the portal...

Millennial Spirit

Bianco’s Italian Restaurant is a landmark in Lawton, Oklahoma. The restaurant still makes the same spaghetti sauce that Tony Bennett enjoyed when he performed at the local auditorium decades ago.

Each Friday afternoon before heading off for a game, the 63 members of nearby Lawton High School’s football team gather together to share fellowship and a meal of spaghetti, salad, bread, and blue Gatorade.

I was waiting for a take-out order of lasagna and spaghetti when three busloads of young athletes filtered in. They knew the drill and seemed very organized and disciplined. I graduated from LHS decades ago, although physically I am often mistaken for a college student. Before the meal, a student stood up and said grace. This was an eloquent prayer giving thanks for the food and fellowship. His earnest words were inspirational to me, so I asked the young black male sitting closest to me if the team captain gives the prayer.

“No, ma’am,” he politely replied. Anyone could say grace. I looked at the 12 tables in the small restaurant, completely filled with courteous young men who addressed their elders as “ma’am” or “sir.” Black or white, or any other color, ethnicity made no difference in how the team members arranged themselves.

I tried to think of any teacher or administrator from my time who could still be at the school. But that was decades ago. “Do you know Mrs. Brammer?” finally spurted out of my mouth. The convivial players at the table seemed surprised that this stranger had heard of the popular English teacher at their school. I had never met Mrs. Brammer, but I had interviewed an outstanding prospect for my Ivy League alma mater earlier in the year who happened to be her son. JP had asked if he could stay in touch. It is rare for two students from this town of just under 100,000—the hometown of Lauren Nelson, Miss America 2007—to be accepted to the same Ivy League school in the same year. JP was one of them, but he had opted to attend school closer to home on a full scholarship.

“She’s JP’s mother… Y’all know JP…he was Lore yearbook editor last year.” By now they were engaged…they recognized JP and his mom. “JP is a friend of mine,” I continued. Evidence of how small my world has become…a hometown girl transplanted to the East Coast who returned home to her roots, where her parents, as first generation immigrants, were among the first Asians to settle in this part of southwest Oklahoma in the 1960’s.

By then, my take-out order had arrived. I wished the team luck in tonight’s game against Altus and told them I would post our meeting as an inspirational story on the StrangeTango.com personal website tonight. One of my friends is an assistant coach who recently enthused about a young athlete who is charismatic, humble, hungry, and overly polite. At Bianco's Italian Restaurant this afternoon, I’m privileged to have been in a room full of them.

Mantra Wall

We commemorate 9/11 with our personal words to live by, posted on the MANTRA WALL of the Strange Tango Facebook Fan Club Page. We invite you to add your own thoughts and philosophy of life.


- "...elegant, eclectic, minimalist, surprising..." - Strange Tango, the novella by A. D. Tejada

- "I don't compete: I won't be an afterthought." - Strange Tango, the novella by A. D. Tejada

- "It's not about me." - Angela Treadway, Patterson, NC

- "How much is enough, how much do I really need, and why have I been given more than I need?" - Angela Treadway, Patterson, NC

- "If life passes you by...down shift." - Andrew Barros, Tewksbury, MA

- "Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself. ~ Harvey Fierstein" - Virginia Lusby, Dallas, TX

- "To be good is noble, but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble. ~ Mark Twain" - Shaun Heath, Norman, OK

- "Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. ~ Judy Garland" - Virginia Lusby, Dallas, TX

- "I remember a story of someone trying to rescue a loved one from a pit. Nothing seemed to work because the victim was evidently too weak to be of any help in the rescue. Finally, the person attempting the rescue apparently lost all sense of reason and began to dance around the rim of the pit. The victim, after more pleading and weeping, eventually recognized that life looked much better on the rim and climbed out on their own." - Jack Hunsucker, Lawton, OK

- "The only source of knowledge is experience. ~ Albert Einstein" - Yanni Hufnagel, Cambridge, MA

- "Success, like wine, is enjoyed most when it is shared. Never drink alone." - Frank Witsil, Detroit, MI

- "Things do not change; we change. ~ Henry David Thoreau” - Jerome Tse, Ithaca, NY

- "God knows each of us better than we know ourselves. He knows the deepest desires of our hearts and the needs of our bodies, minds, spirits. He exalts in our joy and he lifts us up in our despair. He is with us always. Be at peace." - Maria Rodriguez Piña, Seattle, WA

- "There's more to life than hard news..." - A. D. Tejada, the world

Serge

Serge was easily over six feet tall, his father being a Russian colonel, his mother Korean.

We were in high school together. Serge went off to study government at Yale, as did I at Cornell, and he had been accepted to law school. Apparently, he had died in an automobile accident; I heard he swerved to avoid a deer, which was definitely in keeping with his character. The news came to me from a friend in broadcasting, who had tracked me by calling my mother.

Serge had been a student radical in the 1970’s, an idealist. He and my sister, who studied philosophy and religion, would attend political demonstrations together and end up in jail as peaceful protesters. My highly traditional parents were horrified to see her on television news when, on one occasion, the two of them drove to Ohio for a commemoration of the Kent State killings.

After our youthful escape from Oklahoma to the East Coast, my sister at Barnard and I at Cornell would visit Serge at Yale. During one overnight stay in his dorm suite, I had lost my wire-rimmed glasses, and she had swiped his flannel shirt; Serge had told her to keep it, which was definitely a sign of affection.

"You know," he once said to her, "I think one day you should be my old lady."

We had always expected him to show up at our doorstep—like me, he is the sort to appear unexpectedly, much to everyone’s delight—though he would be scraggly and carrying a knapsack. When he hadn’t through the years, my sister had wondered why. After I told her, she then knew, and we both cried.

Cull the Pithy Metaphor

“The methodology requires intensity coupled with bouts of stillness to cull the pithy metaphor.” Strange Tango, the epistolary novella, page 39.

Strange tango is my metaphor for life.

I could have blogged about gardening...foodie reviews...travel...culture...or politics. But I decided the website and blog space should be about life—which encompasses all of the above, its synthesis, and more.

“What kind of niche is that?” a publisher or an internet marketer might ask. Life is so unwieldy and overwhelming. True, but the unifying theme is the uniqueness of my voice and perspective. If a person or an event has been a part of my life, then that is incorporated into my life history. As an individual and as an artist, I fully inhabit the present, and my gaze is always towards the future.

My past, however, is commemorated as a memory.

During the artistic process from idea, to development, to production, launch, and beyond, my collaborators and I encountered recurring questions, which are answered here for their insight into the Strange Tango mission.


1) What inspired the title "Strange Tango"? Question asked by Sangita Chandra, producer/reporter, WCVB-TV 5, Boston.

The title intuitively came to me in a flash of inspiration two decades ago. Like Athena emerging as a complete figure from Zeus’ head. I was smiling at the time…the name conveyed precisely what I had crafted my imprint to be:

Tango: "passionate," "sensuous," "romantic," "elegant," "stylized," "intricate," "distanced," "a universal dance."

Strange: "means that there’s a twist," "subversive," "slyly satirical."


2) How much of the website is based in fact vs. fiction? Follow-up question asked by Sangita Chandra, producer/reporter, WCVB-TV 5, Boston.

Everything on the blog is my life, my reality. Nothing is fiction. As an essayist and belle-lettrist, I have a distinctive writing style that is very fluid and lyrical, so passages may read like fiction. In Bereaved, I give a blow-by-blow description of the sudden death of our family cat and my internal state of grief. I also honor our pet’s life by commemorating the love and the life lessons Seraphin taught me in his brief time on earth.


3) What is it about? Question asked by Jennifer 8. Lee, New York Times reporter and author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles at An Evening of Hope and Good Fortune at Harvard University.

The concept is the documentation of a life—capturing sensations and perceptions, letting the details build up to a 360-degree portrait of the artist—and, by extension, of our world. The tag, "life as art," is about learning to find beauty in the places you travel, the people you meet, and the thoughts in your own head…


4) What are you selling? Question asked by Farland Chang, CEO and founder of WorldBizWatch and former NBC News correspondent, at a Cornell University alumni networking event in Washington, D.C.

We have nothing to sell; my vision is merely out there—its value unfolds in the visitor's life.

A moment of peaceful reflection in the visitor's busy, over stimulated day…a thoughtful and welcoming space on the web…pithy and quotable mantras to ponder and apply to life.


5) What is the point of the website? Question asked by many.

To showcase a distinctly contemporary aesthetic—a visual look and prose style for the emerging neo-Zen movement ushered in with the election of President Barack Obama and a new, more collaborative political and economic order.

The neo-Zen aesthetic is encapsulated in our own example: a way to live life to its fullest in a complex, complicated, and often hurtful world by savoring the evanescent, embracing change, and appreciating the small things and daily activities that accumulate to become a documentation of one’s life.


Visitors are often surprised to learn that the personal website is the work of six collaborators, not just one individual. Having provided the vehicle for my immensely gifted collaborators to unveil their talents for the world to see gratifies me. I front Strange Tango because I blog on the website and post on Facebook, http://bit.ly/Strange_Tango_FB_fan_page, pretty much on a daily basis. But think of the Rolling Stones. Does Mick Jagger have a solo album? Was the rock group ever called Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones? No such thing. All the members are rock stars in their own right.

For Brian Saffold, whose first job in the film industry was working on the atmospheric blockbuster, Batman Begins, his dream is to have an agent who can facilitate a career as a Hollywood filmmaker. It would be nice for this consummate professional to not have to struggle for resources...his video for Strange Tango is pitch perfect.

Daniel Brunelle—whose evocative compositions for the website, Tango for Diving Birds, and Lover’s in Reverse, have visitors already asking when a Strange Tango soundtrack will be released—likes to mix things up...it is all about freedom of artistic expression to him. Dan would own up to wanting the fun projects and the Hollywood lifestyle just because.

Marlee O’Neal longs to achieve her full flowering as an artist in her own right and to work with creatively fulfilling projects, her own included, that feed her spirit. Her dream is to have a beach house on the ocean, with views of the waters that inspire her.

Chris Barros and Raphael Seligmann are two of the most altruistic and selfless souls I have encountered in my lifetime...they are primarily involved as my knights in shining armor because my longtime friends understand the purity of my motivations and have always been very protective of my ethereal and hyperperceptive nature.

Me…I want to share Strange Tango with the entire world, to push boundaries and tell a story wrapped around the innovative concept of literature as an art installation in cyberspace...anything else is just more good karma.

Hopefully, we will all reach the promised land together soon.


Message left by a visitor to the Strange Tango website:
“I have been exploring the site and am just mesmerized at what you have done. It is an amazingly multidimensional work of art!”

Sree

At the beginning of my journalism career, I was the AAJA/New England National Board representative as well as the AAJA National Scholarship Chair at UNITY ’99 in Seattle. It was at this joint convention of several thousand journalists from AAJA, NABJ, NAHJ, and NAJA that I met Sree Sreenivasan in person at the Gala Scholarship and Awards Banquet. (I became acquainted with fellow Filipina, Michelle Malkin, at UNITY as well, but it was Sree who stood out for me.)

I don’t believe he remembers the introduction, but Sree was well known to me as a co-founder of SAJA since a number of my friends were South Asian journalists. Even then, Sree was notable for his sense of engagement and the posts he broadcasted on the somewhat limited forums of the time.

When, as a newbie, I opened my first social media account in June 2009, Sree was one of my first Facebook friends. Each day, I would look forward to the provocative posts and quality links he shared on Facebook and Twitter, and I found myself giving some thought to the comments solicited.

So, given the recent buzz surrounding StrangeTango.com in media circles (disclosure: AAJA convention co-chair, Sangita Chandra, is a longtime personal friend, former colleague, and adviser to StrangeTango.com), I felt it was only fitting that I devote a post to the hugely popular Professor and Dean of Student Affairs at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism known—like Oprah—by his first name. Here are some of Sree’s recent links on Facebook, followed by my comments.

Sree: What do you think of this list? - 25 things journalists can do to future-proof their careers: http://bit.ly/Oc1S4 (by Chris Lake)
Audrey Dolar (A. D.) Tejada: ...strangely, before I ever read Mr. Lake's article, we had already incorporated most of his suggestions into our collaborative project: StrangeTango.com. This from a trained broadcast journalist who cut her teeth at World News Tonight, CNN International, and WCVB, the flagship Hearst station in Boston. Prescient...I saw the writing on the wall when new media appeared 15 years ago and made the right transition to crafting our own unique brand: life as art... ~A.

Sree: READING: "How Facebook Can Ruin Your Friendships" by WSJ's Elizabeth's Bernstein: http://bit.ly/uCpzL ["...we're breaking a cardinal rule of companionship: Thou Shalt Not Bore Thy Friends."]
Audrey Dolar (A. D.) Tejada: Thanks for the post, Sree...Before I joined Facebook a few months ago, I used email exclusively to connect. I’m tolerant…I never asked to be unsubscribed from friends’ boring emails and chain letters. Therefore, in the rare instances when people asked to be removed from my targeted listserv, I also removed them from my Christmas card list and, therefore, from my friendship circle. ~A.

Sree: READING: "Online, your private life is searchable" by LAT's David Sarno: http://bit.ly/N9iyP (didn't know about snitch.name)
Audrey Dolar (A. D.) Tejada: Thanks for this quality link, Sree...I had written an unpublished essay, "Speak, Memory," about how frighteningly easy it was to use the internet to fill in the gaps in the lives of friends from college to the present day. Gary Guzy, Paxus Calta (nee Sky Flansburg) and Joey Green...all became public figures. I decided to launch my personal website after a local newspaper article and photo of me and my dad on my first day in the first grade in Oklahoma surfaced on the internet...! ~A.

Sree: MUST-READ: The case for SLOW communication - an essay by Granta editor John Freeman in WSJ: http://bit.ly/3EkTUd (strange to post it here, of course)
Audrey Dolar (A. D.) Tejada: ...it's our manifesto, too, on our new website, Strange Tango: life as art... ~A., StrangeTango.com


Re-post from Facebook:
"Rahilla Zafar congrats on your shout out:
@sreenet: Sree Sreenivasan is an incredibly popular J-school professor at Columbia who tweets political and media
http://current.com/1k5tm4cTop 100 Twitterers in Academia // Current
Source: current.com
These 100 Twitter feeds come from admissions office, student affairs departments, professors, athletics departments, and more, bringing you information about…http://current.com/1k5tm4c"

Guest Room: A Memory of Senator Ted Kennedy

A shared memory of Senator Ted Kennedy by Paul Redmond. Paul is my former neighbor in pastoral Windham, New Hampshire; his late father was a former Massachusetts congressman who worked alongside the Kennedy clan.


"I just woke from a sound sleep to the impending news from CNN of the loss of our nation’s most beloved statesman...Edward Moore Kennedy...friend of the average, champion of the poor, unfortunate, and unrepresented, but more importantly the discarded and forgotten constituents of our world.

His passing has crushed anyone who has hailed as a native from the Bay state, the U.S., or who has benefited from his unwavering duty to public service. It was expected, yet still heart breaking. He was a great patriarch to his family. He alone remained as the legacy of our nation’s most unexpected and painful chapter in the loss of his brothers.

My family had the privilege of working with him, his brothers, and the Kennedy ideals. We had the privilege of being Kennedy Democrats. We will never forget the impact of his and his family’s influence and duty to our country. We have lost an incredible American."


Paul Redmond
Windham, NH

It’s a Multimedia, Multiplatform World

I was present when multimedia began to take over the world. Around 1994, interactive multimedia and internet technologies—new media—made its way into higher education. One of the first journalism schools to teach classes in this emergent field was the Boston University College of Communication. William Lord, a former Vice President of ABC News and ABC News Interactive, headed the program. I was one of Bill’s first students. For my multimedia project, I produced a CD-ROM, Balikbayan: Return to the Homeland, and for a graduate project, I wrote and produced a documentary on cyberspace and education, Cyberspace@COM.

The first Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) convention I ever attended was in Boston, in 1997. As a newly-selected Hearst-Argyle Fellow in television news, I remember that Sangita Chandra, a past fellow, and I helped Carol Fulp, the administrator of the fellowship program, set up equipment for a workshop by WCVB–TV 5, the Boston ABC affiliate.

I also attended the 1998 AAJA convention Chicago. A year later, at the UNITY ’99 convention in Seattle, I was the New England chapter’s representative to the National Board and the AAJA National Scholarship Chair–the same year AAJA/NE won chapter-of-the-year honors.

These singular memories are very meaningful to me. Fifteen years later, I would launch a personal website, StrangeTango.com, during the 2009 AAJA convention held at Boston’s newly reinvented Seaport district. It took 15 years for interactive multimedia technologies to become sophisticated enough for my collaborators and me to design and build a personal website that expressed my multifaceted vision of life as art.

The creative collaboration’s advisers include a Pulitzer Prize finalist in public interest reporting and an Emmy Award-winning television arts and culture producer/reporter based in a major media market. Early in the morning on the first day of registration, a journalism student in the AAJA Convention News program interviewed me about StrangeTango.com. Jackie Watanabe conducted and taped the interview with a cell phone as part of the mobile journalism training. The interview was later edited with additional clips, uploaded on YouTube, and placed on the AAJA website.

With AAJA’s return to Boston, Sangita co-chaired the convention. Carol is now John Hancock’s highly influential Vice President for community relations and corporate philanthropy. Carol was also the co-chair of Boston 2004, which brought the Democratic National Convention to Boston and gave a global platform to an electrifying keynote speaker, Barack Obama.

New media, as well, has advanced in startling ways: what was then a technology that mainstream media seemed reluctant to embrace is now ubiquitous in newsrooms around the globe. I have culled some of the best take-away information and cutting-edge concepts gleaned from my attendance at five panel presentations on digital multimedia.


Audience Engagement and Development
Doris Truong, Copy Editor, Style, The Washington Post
Joshua Benton, Director, Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University
Angie Goff, Reporter, WUSA9, Washington, D.C.
Vindu Goel, Deputy Technology Editor, The New York Times

How can multimedia platforms develop and engage an audience? The panel offered valuable tips on the use of social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, to drive traffic to a website. Mobile technology and crowd sourcing were brought up as low-cost ways to outsource labor.

Doris introduced the panelists and moderated the discussion. Social media is the new SEO. Vindu emphasized that social conversation is the way to build audience, that there is an etiquette to using social media. Blogging is the most powerful tool used in evolving stories and breaking news, from on-the-scene Twitter updates to links in the blogosphere.

Twitter acts as an echo chamber, and users tweet to be re-tweeted. The Nieman Journalism Lab has more than 13,000 followers. Joshua estimated the Lab sends out 15-20 tweets per day, re-tweeting the day’s news later in the evening. Followers can also ask questions via Twitter. He suggested using crowd sourcing, like an open call, as a way to tap the collective wisdom of the audience and to cultivate audience engagement.

Accordingly, journalists now act as curators for readers, sifting through what is important and finding the best sources of news and information.

Angie offered specific examples of how social media helped her build a loyal following as a traffic reporter—Angie’s Army—to gain leverage within her workplace and to transition into money-making franchises such as a clothing line and jewelry. Do not expect to go viral right away, she cautioned, keep it simple by using Facebook and Twitter as initial, cross-media platforms.

More tips for successful social media networking:
- Increase your search engine ranking and traffic
- Gain credibility in the eyes of the reader
- Foster transparency in reporting
- Jump into the social conversation to build reader loyalty
- Respect your audience, do not tease with refers – they will go elsewhere
- Share link love
- Use your actual photograph in your profile
- Have a unique voice, use social media and audience engagement to build community

Recommended resources:
http://twittercounter.com/ - Twitter follower statistics
http://bit.ly/ - a simple URL shortener


Creating a Web Site: A Quick Guide
Leezel Tanglao, Online News Producer, KCBS 2/KCAL9, Studio City, California
Elizabeth Jia, Multimedia Journalist, WUSA9, Washington, D.C.

Our collaborators and contributors took a year to create StrangeTango.com. Elizabeth and Leezel showed how easy it is to build a professional-looking website in no time, without any knowledge of HTML, Flash, or JAVA.

Online templates and tools, such as WordPress and Blogger, allow the user to set up a website or blog with little trouble. Elizabeth stressed the importance of physical location and reliability of the web host/server and noted that websites can be customized with themes, widgets, auto-updates, and by adding embedded videos and Twitter plug-ins.

Leezel and Elizabeth advised the audience to anticipate emerging technologies and to print hard copies of important documents as back up.

Design tips:
- Avoid clutter
- Use images wisely
- Pick smart website navigation
- Interactivity keeps a blog relevant
- Attribute by linking to original work with hyperlinks
- Use RSS feeds
- Promote your website on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, send email blasts
- Place your website URL on your Facebook profile

Recommended resources:
http://www.gettyimages.com/ - royalty free images
http://www.drpic.com/ - crop and modify photos without PhotoShop
http://www.vimeo.com/ - HD quality video sharing site
http://www.slide.com/ - create slideshows for websites


Doing It All: Tips for Working on Multiple Platforms
Niala Boodhoo, Multimedia Specialist, The Miami Herald
Victor Merina, Senior Correspondent/Special Projects Editor, Reznet
Ram Ramgopal, Executive Producer, CNN

Today’s journalists must be versatile enough to write for a convergence of print, broadcasting, and online media. This panel demonstrated how to take your writing, and your career, to a multiplatform level.

Print and broadcasting differ from online journalism in one fundamental way. In the former, the journalist can repeat and rephrase questions, or use these techniques as part of the pre-interview. Multimedia, on the other hand, requires planning and forethought. Broadcasting on the online platform has many of the same elements as a performance art piece. Whether long-form or short-form, the emphasis is on looking at stories in a new way.

In Ram’s artful and playful television packages for CNN, the tone was natural, conversational, and authentic—the narrower the focus, the stronger and more tightly focused the story. His advice was to keep the tone conversational, to use natural sound to capture a slice of life, and to know when less is more: cut in and get out.

Victor shared his comprehensive checklist for creating unique, one-of-a-kind online features.

- Try different things
- Seek a voice, appreciate the details
- Provide perspective—history, context, and culture
- Consider the language, hear the silence
- Be a reporter, whether it is a personal piece or an essay
- Write with authenticity, not arrogance
- Have a sense of place and of character
- Make the personal universal
- Make a point, and a clear one
- Use powerful imagery, what resonates
- Give telling examples, details, and anecdotes
- Use contrasting descriptions
- Use a quote that matters from a person who is meaningful
- Employ good structure and organization
- Have a recognizable tone to your piece
- Have a distinctive style or approach (experimentation, individualization)
- Emphasize good, interesting writing
- Finally, move the reader along—think story, not therapy

The media is always looking for new sources of unique and interesting content; aggregation sites are becoming increasingly influential. Twitter is especially useful as a community-building tool.

In answer to my closing question, “What is the next wave in online media, in telling a story?” Niala’s response was perceptive. She said the future is user-generated content on his or her own platform: everyone wants to be his or her own brand.

Recommended resources:
http://tweetdeck.com/beta/ - a simple way to manage Twitter


Copy Editing, Big Type and Search
Gil Asakawa, Manager, Audience Development, MediaNews Group Interactive
Henry Fuhrmann, Assistant Managing Editor, Los Angeles Times
Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology, Google

Publishing to the web extends your brand. In the competition to be the first to get the story out, Google, Yahoo, and other search engines play an important role. How the choice of headlines, lead-ins, and search terms matters in getting a story noticed.

Gil emphasized that users do not browse, they search. Traffic comes from search engines, other websites, and social networking sites. Henry added, “…channel what you’re already doing.” He called Craig a rock star, while Craig revealed that Google’s “secret sauce” is basically to think like a person. He advised journalists to “be smart” about writing articles that stand on their own, such as breaking up briefs to provide more stand-alone content for Google to search.

Much of the panel discussion focused on questions from the audience.

I asked why Strange Tango appeared at the top of Bing’s searches, while its position migrated between the top and bottom of Google searches. The personal website had launched two days earlier, and I wanted to know how to rise to the top of Google’s page ranks. In response, Gil kindly typed in the URL so the entire, standing-room-only crowd could view the new website. A Google search further revealed that StrangeTango.com populated the entire page: Google had found Strange Tango.

In internet marketing, the objective is to rise in the Google page rank—strategies include links to social aggregation sites, other websites, blogs, link exchanges, and using keywords. Content ranks higher in search as Google searches the tops of stories. The same keywords should show up in title bar, URL, lede and headline. Popular referring domains include Google, Yahoo, The Drudge Report, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.

The best tips to make your content search-engine friendly include:
- Use keywords where search engines scan: title bar, URL, headline, and tops of articles, use keywords in the first several paragraphs
- Front-load the headline–Google’s algorithm focuses on the first few words
- Use hard news ledes instead of feature ledes–Google searches the tops of stories
- Be first–what gets posted first, gets indexed first
- Break up briefs packages–post items separately for cumulative effect.

Recommended resources:
http://www.google.com/trends - analysis tool that allows comparisons of how often specific search terms are being searched on Google
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ - daily search volume of keywords


Multimedia Storytelling and Planning
Andrew DeVigal, Multimedia Editor, The New York Times
Victoria Lim, Multiplatform Reporter
Constance Hale, Director, Program on Narrative Journalism, Nieman Foundation at Harvard University

Alternate story forms engage the audience. This panel focused on writing for the web and nonlinear narratives, defining the elements of the best multimedia storytelling.

The collaborative team at The New York Times integrates interactive news, photography, graphics, video, and design as part of the company’s multimedia strategy. Projects designated as one-off projects may take weeks to produce, while templated projects, such as an audio slideshow, are built once and used recurrently. Andrew gave the audience insight into the process and technology of an innovative, interactive multimedia presentation that illustrated reactions of fans to Michael Jackson’s death. The proprietary software was created using Flash authoring software and was originally commissioned for another package before being redirected for this breaking news story. Representative figures of fans around the world could be clicked on to read each individual’s comments.

Compelling journalism innovates by using a unique narrative voice and style. Constance identified the elements of narrative journalism—modeled after literature—as human drama involving a hero or protagonist, literary structure, metaphor, and craftsmanship. The best storytelling is an emotional, cathartic experience, told in an artful way with foreshadowing and a layered narrative. Slide shows, videos, and powerful images enhance the emotional experience.

Victoria Lim gave examples of how her television broadcast packages were repurposed as online content.

Recommended resources:
http://www.10000words.net/ - tips on how to incorporate multimedia technologies into journalism
http://www.vuvox.com/ - create interactive slideshows and presentations


I came away from the AAJA convention feeling encouraged and rejuvenated. The meticulous planning that went into the yearlong, highly collaborative process of creating the personal website—serendipitously—had already integrated the cutting-edge concepts of engaging storytelling and iconic style highlighted by the panelists!

For my friends and me, in the near future, it will be very interesting to follow Strange Tango’s journey from its launch during the AAJA Boston convention to its positioning as a global platform.


Mission: Create a website that is edgy and ethereal

StrangeTango.com: Literature as an Art Installation in Cyberspace

“What remains as documentation of a life? Strange Tango mines the boundaries of digital streams and visceral storytelling, where pixels and dreams flow together. Video, reportage, and nonlinear narrative meld in captured moments from the life of A. D. Tejada, artist - traveler - citizen of the world.”

The Muse Room

I've alluded to The Muse Room in my dispatches and postings. It is room 856, The Royal Sonesta Hotel, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When I first checked in, the reservationist told me the room was special.

Indeed it is--stunning view of water, sky, and cityscape that fills one wall...my favorite hotel room in all Boston. Inspiration for the images in StrangeTango.com and chapters of Millennium Muse poured out in this womb room.

Peter Jennings

Peter Jennings was my inspiration for choosing graduate school in broadcast journalism over law school. Peter’s former executive producer basically recruited me, over lunch at the Harvest in Harvard Square, to enter the master’s program at the Boston University College of Communication.

Although I left television news for a fellowship at Harvard University and, later, for my passion for writing and StrangeTango.com, my experiences at World News Tonight with Peter Jennings left its mark on my hard news judgment and what I choose to post. I will always remember "The Rim," the morning call presided over by Rick Kaplan, lunch in Peter’s office, and shadowing in the wings as this consummate professional settled into the anchor desk each evening.

As an intern at ABC News in New York, and then later at CNN International in Atlanta, I also gleaned much from my interactions with Michael Schulder, then a writer on the program and now a Senior Executive Producer at CNN Atlanta; I was also shown the ropes by Bob Aglow, then a national producer at WNT who became Executive Producer, News Coverage, MSNBC on the Internet, and is now the founder of ClimateQuest.

The 8x10 autographed photo is a lovely memento I’ll always treasure...

(photo from my personal collection)

A./Dream: The Strange Tango Backstory

I would describe myself as a hybrid: a literary stylist and a formally trained broadcast and print journalist inhabiting the same body. Not all of the entries in the Life as Art blog are 3,000 word essays and commentary. Some days, the visitor may see an image that conveys 1,000 words, or a 4-word mantra/haiku, such as: “Inhabit a stolen moment.”

For five years, I have been distributing my writing through a private channel, my email account. There were literally hundreds of entries from which to choose to populate the blog. I winnowed the offerings to 27 entries for the inaugural run to feature a representative sampling of my work and my world, the Strange Tango cosmology. I have grouped the entries into two categories, “A.” and “dream”. “Dream” consists of all 27 entries—ranging from narrative nonfiction, to political analysis, to Neo-Zen style, to food recipes.

“A.” is my first initial and, alphabetically, leads the tag list. “A.” chronicles Strange Tango's yearlong journey—from its conception as an innovative personal website that would take content, art, and literature to a multilayered level never seen before in cyberspace—to its live launch on 8.12.09 during the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) convention in Boston just last week.

As we neared the completion date for the website, I felt that social media would be the best way to simultaneously pre-launch StrangeTango.com and to get in touch with all the high school friends who wondered what had become of me all these years. I signed up for Facebook on June 19, and in six weeks I had 72 Facebook friends and a potential 50,000 connections. I opened a Twitter account not long after. I’ll send out my first tweet this week.

In the space of less than two months, my writings had migrated from email…to Facebook…to the personal website/global platform. Facebook forced me to be very economical with words; it was also highly addicting, and I must have accumulated about 100 posts and comments during that time. Since 75% of my family and friends are not on Facebook, I would copy the posts, minus the photo and video links, and send them out as an email blast. Eventually, I may post the Facebook entries on the blog.

Visitors have commented on the iconic image of the website, the New Age Mona Lisa. Fittingly, the concept is a contemporary take on Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci’s legendary muse since the personal website exists as a paean to beauty, art, passion, and inspiration. Cosmically, the difference between the Renaissance and the new Millennium is this—Leonardo the artist was male and his muse was a younger woman; however, in Strange Tango the epistolary novella (that became the inspiration for the personal website), the reverse is true: the artist is a young woman and her muse is an older male.

The process by which we created the oeuvre was collaborative to a very high degree. I was responsible for the art direction of the website; the writings are the products of my intellect; and all the images seen on the web pages are my photographic work—I created the special effects in-camera. Truly, I was extremely fortunate to have discovered stellar, relatively unknown talents from all around the country whose work I could showcase. The buy-in was that our combined skills and passions could create something special to share with the world.

Chris Barros and Roger Fussa, who later became the Associate Director of Alumni Relations at Boston University, were my two best friends when I worked at the Harvard Business School. Chris is a beloved figure and tech guru at HBS who thought it would be fun to work with me on the website. He was the first collaborator I added, and our partnership was responsible for all the pre-production work on the website.

Brian Saffold, who produced the film treatment iteration of Strange Tango, had generously produced, gratis, our audition tape when his sister Nicole and I applied for The Amazing Race 10. I was so impressed with the cleverness, subtlety, and professionalism of Brian’s work that I began to look for an opportunity to give him a larger stage for his talent.

For the music used in the Strange Tango video, Dan Brunelle had very kindly given Brian permission to use his composition, "Lover's in Reverse," when they were students at Columbia College Chicago, the innovative school for media, arts, and performance.

Raphael Seligmann has been a dear friend and alter ego since our undergraduate days at Cornell University. No one but Raphael could have written the eloquent words on the Prelude and the double-sided information sheet and press release.

Raphael referred Marlee O'Neal, who came on board only two months before the launch to weave all the elements and contributions into one seamless whole. After I described the project and art direction, Marlee spent some time by her favorite destination at the beach and ocean and quickly came back to me with pdf files of her pitch perfect interpretation. Marlee also suggested a music player on the website, so we all listened to some royalty free music. I decided then that since Dan’s composition on the Strange Tango video was so sublime, that perhaps he would consider writing iconic music for the website.

Dan is a busy musician in the Chicago area and is much in demand by Grammy Award-winning artists and filmmakers, so when Brian and I finally got a hold of him we were thrilled when he said yes. It took until the 11th hour and four different music sketches, but Dan told me I wouldn’t be disappointed. I had much faith in his musical gifts and was overjoyed at the final result. Dan's original composition for the Strange Tango website, "Tango for Diving Birds," is a favorite of his.

We try to keep the website content fresh. I post regularly, and since this is a fluid site, enhancements to original postings are made as needed. The Millennium Muse chapter is also the space for experimental work, which we may add on a seasonal basis, more or less.

I want to acknowledge the contributions of Sangita Chandra, Dolores Kong, and Alan Hoffman. Since they are not listed as collaborators, I am giving our chief advisors a category of his or her own on the Life as Art blog. Sangita, Dolores, and Alan brought exquisitely meticulous sensibilities to help us critique and fine-tune the personal website.

Sangita is an Emmy Award-winning arts and culture producer/reporter at WCVB, the Hearst-Argyle flagship television station in Boston; her expertise in visuals and content was invaluable. Dolores is a Pulitzer Prize finalist in public interest reporting from her days at The Boston Globe. She is now a Senior Vice President at Winslow, Evans & Crocker, Inc., a Boston financial services firm. Dolores is responsible for the idea of having my own website, so I could have a worldwide audience for my musings.

Alan is another friend for life from our college years at Cornell. He is the founder of the Mission Group in San Diego, from its website, "an innovative planning firm developing cutting-edge strategies for improving the functioning of cities." Alan was one of two people, the other being Raphael, with whom I shared my earliest drafts of Strange Tango the epistolary novella.

life: strange tango

Alan suggested Strange Tango as the name for the personal website, telling me, “You are Strange Tango.”

In addition to Sangita, Dolores, and Alan, our expanded advisory board gave immediate feedback and suggestions on the smallest details: Nicole and Bill Maskiell, Mari and James Rubio, Khushi Bhatia, Byron Lee, Conway Kennedy, Bill Jennings, Steve Granada, Mai Huynh, Jackie Old Coyote, Amy Besaw, David Murphy, and Susie Barros.

So, this is our backstory. The mission: create a website that is edgy and ethereal.