Show # 46 - lillianleitzel - Opening and "The Basics"
Welcome to talk_show! Here's your host, penpusher.
penpusher: Let me be the last to wish you a happy 2009, as we are finally back to introduce another in the series of guests who want to share a little of their lives, online and otherwise, with you in this forum. This time, I'm pleased to present lillianleitzel to the program.
penpusher: Bibbity Bobbity Boo.
lillianleitzel: Hello!
penpusher: Hi! So are you ready to begin?
lillianleitzel: yep Tell me how this works again?
penpusher: I ask you questions and you answer 'em.
lillianleitzel: ha
penpusher: We're really just having a conversation here.
lillianleitzel: ok
penpusher: Let's get things started with the now classic meme I do with every guest. It's called "The Basics."
lillianleitzel: ok
penpusher: So I believe your name is Carolyn Turgeon.
lillianleitzel: Yes sir
penpusher: And when's your birthday?
lillianleitzel: June 21
penpusher: First day of summer.
lillianleitzel: Yes
penpusher: Where did you spend your formative years?
lillianleitzel: I was born in Michigan, lived in Illinois til I was 8, Texas till I was 12, Michigan again until I was 14, and then Pennsylvania for the rest of high school and college.
lillianleitzel: I wasn't an army brat, my dad's an academic.
penpusher: All over the map there. Was there a particular place you enjoyed from that laundry list?
lillianleitzel: Well, I have some romanticized memories of the midwest, like weeping willows and lightning bugs and Queen Anne's Lace and huge sweeping thunderstorms, kids running around all night.. apple trees and pine cones...
penpusher: It sounds idyllic, a great place for a child to grow
lillianleitzel: Oh it wasn't idyllic, I was painfully shy and weird, but I have a scattering of romanticized images from there now, as an adult
lillianleitzel: Texas, I have some memories of road trips down to the hill country around Austin, and I loved San Antonio (we lived outside of Dallas)
penpusher: Texas is probably even bigger to a not yet 12 year old!
lillianleitzel: Same with Texas, the only state I lived in where you learned the state song and cowboy lore and all that But no, moving around a lot, before internet and so on, I don't have a big connection to any of those places now except Pennsylvania
penpusher: Well, a yellow rose to you. Where else have your travels taken you?
lillianleitzel: Oh, I've been all over the US.. and then parts of Europe.. the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico, little dips into Venezuela and Turkey... Mostly the U.S. though. Lots of family trips over summers, and lots of road trips and adventures as an adult
penpusher: What was your most memorable experience on any of those excursions?
lillianleitzel: Oh my. I don't know. Well. When I was 20 my sister and I spent a summer in the Greek islands, and a part of it on this teeny island near Turkey, right off of Rhodes, Chalki. 250 people, mostly fishermen. We worked in one of the three bars on the harbor, owned by three rival families. We ended up there through a placement service in Athens, since one of the owners decided to get him some foreign girls. We were quite madly in love with that place.
lillianleitzel: I mean the island was called Chalki, and right off of the island Rhodes
penpusher: So you were tending bar for the Greek fishermen, pouring Ouzo and charm into their lives?
lillianleitzel: Yes. Ouzo and Retsina and Amstel, as I recall. Them and the small herd of tourists who came through every week
penpusher: You certainly know how to do it right.
penpusher: what films float your boat?
lillianleitzel: Oh.. Let me see. I LOVE old film noir. A ton of them. A few of my favorites are Pickup on South Street, Out of the Past, In a Lonely Place, Force of Evil, Night of the Hunter, of course Double Indemnity.. I love Garbo movies, I love sad movies. Mysterious Skin, Picnic at Hanging Rock
penpusher: I think I'm only familiar with a couple of those, so I'll have to catch up on some.
lillianleitzel: I like sad, strange, beautiful.. in film and music and books and art..
penpusher: are there any television series you find worthwhile?
lillianleitzel: I like bad TV, like Rock of Love Bus, awful stuff like that! And Mad Men, and Top Chef.. Oh and I love Law and Order, all of them
penpusher: I think you missed me with most of those, but Mad Men is certainly cool
lillianleitzel: Oh and Dexter
penpusher: Though I have always wanted to ask Mariska Hargitay if she misses doing comedy. I first saw her on a sitcom and she was a brilliant comedienne.
lillianleitzel: Olivia Benson is my idol
penpusher: Such a dour role though. She hardly ever gets to smile!
lillianleitzel: Oh I like dour. Smiling is for nerds.
lillianleitzel: =)
penpusher: And what about music. Name some bands you like.
lillianleitzel: Goodness. I like.. Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen.. Devotchka, Beirut, all that sad euphoric gypsy-ish music, I like X and John Doe and the Knitters, I like old country, old punk, Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Marlene Dietrich, Billie Holiday.. Magnetic Fields..
penpusher: I need to know what writers you love reading.
lillianleitzel: Writers... Gabriel Garcia Marquez is my favorite.. Italo Calvino, Isabel Allende, Alice Hoffman.. Daniel Woodrell, Patricia Highsmith, Raymond Chandler..
lillianleitzel: Natsuo Kirino
lillianleitzel: And then beautiful poetry, Lorca especially
penpusher: And which is your favorite novel by someone other than you?
lillianleitzel: One Hundred Years of Solitude
penpusher: Oh, I see. What do you most relate to in that choice?
lillianleitzel: Relate to, I don't know how to answer that. What I love tho is the pure, gorgeous storytelling, the characters, the images.. I mean the book opens with everyone travelling to see ice, this new, magical discovery brought in by the gypsies That book is full of wonderful things
penpusher: I thought there might have been an element of family, a character you felt simpatico with...
lillianleitzel: Probably, but that's not what i think of first when I think of that book. It's the language, the storytelling, the wonderful images that make even something as basic as ice seem like a revelation
penpusher: Certainly a worthwhile read and one that anyone could escape into I think.
penpusher: Now, do you have any favorite LiveJournal communities that you either read or contribute to regularly?
lillianleitzel: I look at some of the photography communities, but I don't contribute to any
penpusher: any favorite photo group? We love to link and promote here.
lillianleitzel: anti_photo, lomography, photographers has all kinds of stuff.. sensuality_art has some beautiful stuff sometimes
lillianleitzel: Oh, I also read newyorkers, or at least scan it, as well as saucydwellings and burlesque_today
penpusher: What's saucydwellings? That sounds curious.
lillianleitzel: Oh that one is very popular, people post photos of their houses or apartments and their "saucy" decor
penpusher: What makes for "saucy" decor?
lillianleitzel: I don't pay that much attention! Just people sometimes have some really gorgeous places they've done up..
lillianleitzel: saucily..
lillianleitzel: =P
penpusher: Oh. Well, see, as someone not that well versed in interior design, I wasn't aware of the community at all!
penpusher: Now, as a writer, did you ever keep a paper journal?
lillianleitzel: Not really. Maybe on and off as a teenager, but never consistently. I think I like to write more to communicate, tell stories, talk to other people
lillianleitzel: Oh, actually, I guess I do keep a written journal.. In that I always carry around a notebook, a Moleskine one I love those, and put ideas and notes into it. I just don't keep a diary.
penpusher: So what was in your teenage journal?
lillianleitzel: Any teenage journal might have been some moaning about some boy, some scattered poems, things like that
penpusher: I'm just looking for something saucy.
lillianleitzel: Who isn't?
penpusher: Ok, it's time for our most important question.
lillianleitzel: Oh what is that
penpusher: and as an erstwhile member of the Ringling family, I know the answer already. But here goes.
penpusher: Where did your username come from?
lillianleitzel: Ohhh.
lillianleitzel: Well, Lillian Leitzel was a famous German trapeze star from the 1920s .. I think the 20s.. famous for the one-armed plange, where she did these full rotations hanging from a rope by one arm, dislocating her shoulder each time around. She could do like 300 at a time, and the audience would count along with her as she turned
lillianleitzel: She was part inspiration for my character Tessa in Rain Village, who is tiny like Lillian (tho Tessa is tinier), and who, like Lillian, becomes famous for the one-armed plange.
penpusher: How did you decide that was what you wanted to use as an LJ name?
lillianleitzel: Oh, when I signed up for LJ, like 5 years ago now I guess, I didn't want to use my real name. I hasn't published anything and being online weirded me out. And i was working very hard on Rain Village, so just plucked that name up
lillianleitzel: I don't relate to Lillian myself or identify with her or her story But she was my character
penpusher: Yes. Lillian did not meet a good end. I think only circus historians and former clowns like me would even catch the reference!
lillianleitzel: Yes She died doing that trick, when the rope broke. I was surprised when I was reading a lot of circus history, at how often performers did actually die
penpusher: Much of the time, they worked without nets or any protection at all. I don't think they knew what safety harnesses were in the 1920s, and they would probably feel like they were cheating the audience if they wore them anyhow!
lillianleitzel: You should link to Lillian's Wikipedia page. She also married a very famous trapeze performer, Alfred Codona, and they had this fiery crazy relationship. In my book, Tessa marries a famous Latin tightrope walker. But he is very sweet, in my book. =)
penpusher: We'll delve into Rain Village as well! But first, this brings us to break number one. We'll return to talk more with Carolyn, next.
penpusher: Ok... so we can pick up when you would like.
lillianleitzel: okay!
Continue to Segment Two