A Little About Me
(Okay, Then... A Lot About Me �
A Lot More Than You Probably Want to Know)

A born and bred Coonass, I've lived in south Louisiana all my life.
I attended both Louisiana Tech in Ruston and LSU in Baton Rouge,
where I studied Art and English Comp with a minor in Philosophy.

At the time I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life
other than getting drunk or laid (not necessarily in that order),
but as maturity sets in with its benefits of wisdom and hindsight,
I wish I'd studied Linguistic Anthropology.

(Actually, it's taken me this long to come up with what's gotta be
the most lucrative and financially rewarding occupation imaginable...)

How old am I? smile

The Chinese say that any woman who divulges her age
is either too young to have anything to gain
or too old to have anything to lose.

I am old enough to know what I want, mature enough to attain it,
and young enough to enjoy it.

I'd been a legal secretary for several years
before I began typesetting with a small local newspaper,
working on a Compugraphic dinosaur which held six fonts at a time
and would shut down if a cold Coke was brought within six feet.
Often working alone at night, I shared A/C (and sound) vents
with a soft-core pornography theater in the building next door;
the concentration I applied to my work stood me to good advantage,
and I quickly picked up and mastered the codes for composition
and a few fundamentals in newspaper layout and graphic design,
although I can still recall bursting into tears when,
during my first production night, the editorial manager walked in
and wanted to know, "Is the dummy here yet?"

Almost two decades later, the dummy's still here.

My great�grandfather, John Logan Power, emigrated to America
in 1829, when he was 12, during the Irish Potato Famine;
after serving at Vicksburg in the War Between the States
(he was also Secretary of the Mississippi Secession Convention),
he became founder / editor of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger,
and later Secretary of State (as was his son).

So printing ink runs, naturally and literally, through my veins.

It didn't take long for my publishing legacy to assert itself �
I've been a wage slave, Production Supervisor, and Art Director;
I've won PIAS awards, "done" lunch, and seen a slew of changes;
I've laughed, cried, screamed, and burned plenty of midnight oil.

But deadlines are deadlines, and 17 years of 'em are enough.
I more or less retired from the 9 to 5 Rat Race about five years ago,
and now do calligraphy and kids' portraits out of my home.
I also paint small Christmas ornaments, triptyches, door-hangers, etc.,
and hope to have a Webpage up soon offering some of my work for sale.

I enjoy reading, playing Scrabble, painting, canoeing, sleeping, movies,
web surfing, chocolate raspberry truffles, and my dog.
(Well, okay... The cat, too. Sometimes.)

Mr. Bug is a Civil War re-enactor, affiliated with the 7th LA,
(that's him in the foreground, wearing the hideous brown hat)
and I accompany him when the weather is nice (which ain't often).

Favorite Movies:

All About Eve
A Man and A Woman
The Bishop's Wife
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Color Purple
Dangerous Liaisons
Dogma
Excalibur
Fantasia
Gone With the Wind
Lord of the Rings
The Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers / The Return of the King
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Now, Voyager
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Parenthood
Pink Floyd's The Wall
Poltergeist
The Producers
Pulp Fiction
Resurrection
. . . . . . . . . Rude Awakening (yeah, well...)
Saving Private Ryan
Tootsie
The Witches of Eastwick
The Wizard of Oz
2001: A Space Odyssey

Favorite Books:

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson)
Other Voices, Other Rooms (Truman Capote)
The Prince of Tides (Pat Conroy)
I Know This Much Is True (Wally Lamb)
Candide (Voltaire)
Deliverance (James Dickey)
The Witching Hour (Anne Rice)
Nero Wolfe Mystery Series (Rex Stout)
Red Dragon / The Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris)
The Hotel New Hampshire (John Irving)
Lizzy (Evan Hunter)
White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)

Favorite Music:

Harry Connick, Jr.
Curved Air
Doors
Stan Getz
Chris Isaak
Enya
It's a Beautiful Day
Mark-Almond
Meatloaf
Peter, Paul & Mary
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Frank Sinatra (w/Tommy Dorsey)
Frank Zappa
Warren Zevon

Factoids: