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.