"I believe I'm the only person who has interviewed both Keith Ellison and Dr. Demento."

[barondave]

Reflecting in a moment of self-soubt, a unique set of experiences comes to the fore.

Every decade or so, Fresh Air Radio overhauls its schedule. Last week, a proposed schedule came out, and Shockwave wasn't on it. I'm very disappointed, but not terribly surprised: No one ever knows quite what to do with me. I've survived other schedule changes and I'll probably wind up someplace on the new schedule, though I might have to wait a few months when the station goes to three audio streams (two digital).

At the meeting where we got to air our concerns, I had the task of being humble enough to ask to remain on the air while simultaneously demonstrating a unique perspective for an under-served audience. Bragging more than a little, I blurted out confluence of two interviews with people from completely different walks of life.

And that got me thinking. Always dangerous. I've done very few things that no one has done, but my experiences are wide and varied, and I tried to come up with things that no one could claim to have done any two of. Hence the following list. I bent the rules a little with some of the AND lines, and I have no way to track anyone else's experience, but here goes. These are not in any sort of order, and they are not necessarily related to Shockwave Radio Theater. (I won't be terribly hurt if more people join me in any two of these; I'll just go to three and/or invite them for a drink.)


No other person in the world has done any TWO of the following:

1. Interviewed Keith Ellison
2. Interviewed Dr. Demento
3. Interviewed Tom Kelly in the dugout of the Metrodome AND Jesse Ventura in the governor's mansion
4. Written a play performed by David Ossman
5. Written a play performed by Mike Ford
6. Written a play performed by the great Luke Ski
7. Written a play performed by Roger Corman's stand-in when Roger couldn't make it
8. Recorded penguins in Antarctica
9. Taken a tram in Andorra
10. Edited a Daily Newsletter at a Science Fiction Worldcon
11. Ridden to a Pete Seeger concert in a car driven by Pete Seeger
12. Published a speech by Samuel R. Delany
13. Published poetry by Dr. Frederick Wertham
14. Besides Dave Sim, written dialog for Cerebus the Aardvark approved of by Dave Sim
15. Hosted/Produced a radio program for more than 25 years
16. Designed curriculum for a course in Advanced HTML
17. Typed the contract NSP (the electric utility now known as Xcel Energy) has with the City of Minneapolis
18. Given a massage to Jane Yolen while she was on a panel at an sf con
19. Was assistant projectionist for a showing of Way Down East with Lillian Gish in the audience
20. Was the first person to bring The Rocky Horror Picture Show to the Albany NY area
21. Helped build costumes for the May Day Parade put on by the Heart of the Beast Theater in Mpls AND seen them add helium to the balloons for the Thanksgiving Day Parade put on by Macy's in NYC
22. Helped pick both the New York State Lottery AND the Minnesota Fringe Festival winning entries by drawing ping-pong balls
23. Gamed in the worlds of Dave Arneson AND MAR Barker
--- I'm less sure of the intersected-uniqueness of these, but I'm going to add them in anyway, since I'm bragging:
24. Had entries published in both the New York Magazine's Competition AND the Washington Posts' Style Invitational
25. Edited my High School newspaper
26. Published fanzines using hectography AND made podcasts with pictures and links
27. Taken photographs published in my High School newspaper AND used as LiveJournal icons (different pictures)

Okay, now it's your turn to brag. I now propose this TTD (Thing To Do, replacing the misnomer Meme):

Come up with a list of things YOU have done in your life that is highly unlikely that anyone else has done any two of.

"That which doesn't thrill me makes me stranger." -- Baron Dave Romm

Comments

[fmsv.livejournal.com]

I assume that, for #25, you're using Apples-to-Apples judge rules?

"My" High School Newspaper

[barondave.livejournal.com]

For purposes of testing Intersection Uniqueness, I suppose so. I can only accurately claim to have edited one HS Newspaper. Conveniently, the HS Newspaper of the HS I was going to at the time. It would be unseemly to insist that anyone else have edited the Middletown (NY) High School Twin Towers. But I'm not above that, so tread carefully.

For your own list, you may pick whatever makes you intersectedly unique.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

None of us want to hear that the days of Shockwave are behind us, Dave.

K. [good luck with the upcoming meetings]

Thanks for the support!

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Really. It's hard knowing where we stand and with whom. Egoboo Is Always Appreciated.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

I once ran a list of unusual things I've done and may pull it out again with additions. For now I'll say that, of your 27 things, I've done exactly one, so your claim of interacted uniqueness remains unimpaired as far as I'm concerned.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, which one?

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I've only done #21.

But I'm sure I'll take a tram in Andorra before someday. I'm unlikely to bring a tape recorder with me when I finally go to Antarctica, though.

B

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I did it with an iPod w/iTalk. I suspect your phones already have recording capability, and I predict by the time you go your iPhone will let you take movies and podcast them in real time while translating from Penguin to Klingon.

Good luck in Andorra. It's a nifty place. And out of the way. Of the people I've talked to since my trip way South, more of them have been to Antarctica (2) than have been to Andorra (1). A small sample, to be sure, but probably in line with the larger population.

Antarctica vs Andorra

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Neither Antarctica nor Andorra are on the way to anywhere, and Antarctica is a more interesting end destination.

B

Re: Antarctica vs Andorra

[barondave.livejournal.com]

When I was there, and possibly still, Spanish trains ran on different gauge tracks than the rest of Europe. One had to change trains on the way from Paris to Barcelona. Admittedly, you didn't have to climb up a mountain in a bus then back down the other side to accomplish the changeover, but on the map it didn't seem out of the way. A Eurail Pass meant I could just hop on virtually any transportation and go.

As is often the case, there's a longer story involved here, but it's best told in person...

Agree about Antarctica being a more interesting end destination. That was one of the great things about the cruise: The people. Unlike a lot of blasé touristy things to do, if you go to Antarctica you want to go to Antarctica.

Re: Antarctica vs Andorra

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I've long wanted to drive over the Pyrenees.

B

[wormquartet.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Ooh! In the near future I *WILL* have done two of those things!

When the hell did you write a play performed by Mike Ford?

-=ShoEboX=-

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Two plays performed by Mike Ford, if you please. One of them was Let's Play Doctor at the 2004 Marscon (also the play w/Luke Ski). Where the hell were you?

The 1987 Minicon Live Stage Show was PBS Liavek (http://romm.org/podcast/Dave%20Romm%27s%20Portal/Podcast/3D6519DE-2308-424E-B068-C370A92A5660.html), where Ford played the wizard E'Murrow to my Marconi in a cast featuring many of the Liavek writers.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I haven't done any of those, and I suspect I would be hard-pressed to make much of a list that would not intersect someone else's on two points. I might be able to come up with three or four things of which no one else has done two, but it would get iffy after that.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

You're being far too modest. Here, let me start you off:

1. Adopted multiple Korean children
2. Edited Rune
3. Has more than three versions of "It's A Small World" on vinyl

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

LOL! Maybe I could do it, at that.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've done any of the things on our list.
Offhand, I don't know anybody else who's won both an Honorable Mention in the Illustrators of the Future contest AND a prize in the Mpls. City Pages Fiction Contest. Besides myself, I mean.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

The object of the TTD isn't to come up with things ONLY you have done, but divers and diverse things that map the unique path of your life. I strongly suspect you could come up with a lengthy list of Intersecting Uniqueness, if if you thought about it.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

No doubt; I just mentioned two offhand that I think make a unique combo.

[pgdudda.livejournal.com]

My likeliest claim to uniqueness? Having a severe-to-profound hearing loss AND speaking 6 languages well enough to find my way around town. (Well, technically 5 since one of them is not actually spoken. ;-) )

I can't claim deaf-and-exchange-student; I know of at least 3 such.

Would being department head of 3 departments for 6 cons be unique in conjunction with the other two listed?

*ponders* Aside from doing lots of stuff despite a severe hearing impairment, I'm not really all that unique, I don't think. Different and non-typical, yes, but not overly unique... *shrug*

[pgdudda.livejournal.com]

oh. Forgot "Interviewed the owner of the Red Balloons bookstore for a school project." It helps that she lives across the street from the house I grew up in. :-)

[barondave.livejournal.com]

As above to skylarker, the object isn't to find ONE claim to uniqueness, but to find the Intersecting Uniqueness in the various activities and accomplishments of your life. This is not a timed exercise. You may mull.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

I think that Kara Dalkey has done both #14 and the first half of #27 (substituting her high school -- which was also mine, and where I first met her in passing -- for yours). I imagine it wouldn't be all that difficult, if one had her permission, to use some of her photos as LJ icons.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Kara adapted Cerebus #6, with Sims' permission. She was faithful to the comic. Davd Sims was in the audience for the 1982 Live Minicon Stage Show, which remains one of our most successful and holds up after 25 years. The dialog I wrote was the introduction to the Cerebus episode. It was a fairly big gamble to write an original Cerebus line (it was only one), and I was relieved when Sims approved.

I would love a Dalkey LJ icon, but that's a different thread...

Re: Comment below: Go for it!

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

I could begin with this one:

1. Composed a piece of music that was conducted by Kent Nagano (who is now the music director of l'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal).

More over the weekend as time permits. Must sleep now.

[bchbum-98.livejournal.com]

I have a few:
1. Taken photographs published in my High School newspaper AND used as LiveJournal icons (different pictures) (I doubt if this is very unique, but I'll add it since it's the only one of yours' that I've done.)
2. Was hired for a job because 20 years ago I programmed in ATLAS.
3. Camped in a tent when it was below 0 F and also above 100 F.
4. Made over 5000 edits to Wikipedia
5. Scored over 78 million in Bespelled
6. Surreptitiously climbed a radio tower
7. Played the saxophone, trombone, piano, and carillon
8. Was a passenger on the USS Nimitz
9. Ate SPAM in Italy
10. Ate a piece of a $10,000 wedding cake
11. Campaigned both for Richard Nixon and Coleen Rowley
12. Had intercourse to orgasm while driving at 50 mph
13. Have not knowingly drunk a caffeinated beverage for 20 years

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Define "surreptitiously" and "knowingly"...

But those are nitpicks. Nicely intersected.

[bchbum-98.livejournal.com]

Surreptitiously - "stealthy, furtive" from Wiktionary. What I did was climb over a chain link fence and then climb a steel ladder about halfway up the tower without permission. I took some pictures and then retreated.

Knowingly - well, on purpose. I have not had a Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mt. Dew, Barque's root beer, or had coffee without first asking if it were caffeinated. A couple of times I think I was served caffeinated coffee after asking for de-caff, but I can't really tell until later.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I "surreptitiously" climbed to the roof of one of the 22-floor dormitory towers at the University at Albany (NY), where I took some film for my college movie "Edward Durell Stone: Was He Right". Now, alas, lost to the ages.

One of the reasons to go to Albany, claimed the Shortwave Radio Club, was the height of the towers. So this counts, sort of.

I haven't been quite that pure, especially after the first years, but it's been a year and a half+ since I've had aspertame (aka "Rummy Powder"). Splenda was so bad that I just gave it all up. Since early summer last year, I don't think I've had as much as a six-pack's worth of artificial sweetener in toto.

[jolest.livejournal.com]

Regarding #3, one assumes this was not both at the same time? :)

(When I first read that, I had a momentary VMI of a tent pitched in the doorway (half in, half out) of an industrial cooler at high noon in the middle of a desert...)

[bchbum-98.livejournal.com]

alas. Different decades even.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I only overlap with you on #8.

Where's the nearest radio tower?

B

[bchbum-98.livejournal.com]

Riding the Nimitz was quite an experience. They were performing "underway replenishment" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underway_replenishment) for most of the week I was on it.

Radio towers are everywhere. I know of a set of them in Eagan.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I saw an Unrep when I was at sea, but it was from an oiler.

I did get to watch flight ops from the tower of the Nimitz, though.

How did you arrive/leave?

B

[bchbum-98.livejournal.com]

I flew to Seattle, took a ferry to Bremerton, Washington, boarded the Nimitz, sailed to Coronado, California, flew home from San Diego.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I landed by plane and took off by helicopter; the Nimitz was in the Caribbean.

B

[bchbum-98.livejournal.com]

That must have been awesome. Now I'm jealous. :)