Untitled Document
StrangeTango.com is a multilayered art installation in cyberspace…the documentation of a life in three iterations: as a film treatment, a book, a blog.
“What remains as documentation of a life?”
Strange Tango haunts 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.
Life is a strange tango...
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 Me, upon first meeting Julio Iglesias.
“Does she yearn to discover the secret to Julio Iglesias, Japan, or Jesus?” Strange Tango, the epistolary novella
An intimate hotel in Punta del Este, Uruguay, La Posta del Cangrejo is where Julio Iglesias and I both stayed—separately, of course…the staff gave me a tour of the suite where Julio stays when he’s in town.
It’s fascinating what the universe sends your way when the time is right…I can honestly say that some of the touchstones in my life were never planned.
Well into my twenties, I was conditioned to uphold traditional standards in comportment. But in my newly adult life, I allowed myself to become receptive to the unknown and emotionally invested in new experiences. I seized and followed to its furthermost limitations whatever the universe threw my way…and yes, my willingness to venture into uncharted territory changed my life. I had long hair down to my hips and my dress size was 0. Dangling earrings and dark red lips were part of my signature dramatic style. There was a certain power I could wield given this ability to infatuate.
In a way, Strange Tango is my commemorative tribute to a fleeting time of youthful exuberance and physical beauty. In my meditative state of writing, I transposed, transferred—magnified—my reality into a heightened form of hyperreality and poured my passion into my work to create art. That is why I say Strange Tango is a literary work of art. By its very process, I could have been creating a piece of sculpture, or a painting…but instead it was a book. Continue reading Julio Iglesias
We went through several iterations before coming up with the name for the website: Mermaid and Sun…Muse and Tango…Millennium Muse…among them. The act of naming a personal website is like choosing a baptismal name—signifying a new life—for yourself. So I sent out a Quick Poll to gauge the fleeting impressions left by prospective titles.
One response, by Alan Hoffman in San Diego, read my soul.
”I’m more partial to Strange Tango, because it speaks directly to the inter-relationship and inter-action between you and your subjects (the Tango); the adjective “Strange” serves to modify the noun not in the traditional sense of “strange” but rather to signify that it’s not about the actual dance.”
So StrangeTango.com became the name of my personal website—now it’s official!
For me, anything sustainable has to originate organically. Here’s my backstory:
When my Harvard Business School experience ended in May 2004, I kept myself busy by co-founding the Harvard Administrative Fellows alumni association a month later. Simultaneously, I started The Cool Community, the precursor to my popular e-mail communiques, which would morph into the book of essays, memoir and musings—Millennium Muse—and the cyberspace platform for my writings and experiential work Continue reading It’s Official! StrangeTango.com
I copyrighted the title and manuscript of Strange Tango almost two decades ago, and the title has appeared in my published official biographies and blurbs since the 1980’s.
I have waited a very long time to publicly introduce my work.
A part of it was that the book’s complexity is deceptive—there are multiple layers [...]
Strange Tango is the name of my personal website—as well the literary novella that inspired the site. The website is a showcase for emerging talent and a platform for my writings, photography, and experimental work. Thus, the website and my novella are inextricably linked—each enhancing the experience of the other.
In the novella, the mantra “This is my manifesto: elegant, eclectic, minimalist, surprising” refers to two things: the items packed for trips/the objects the artist collects on her travels, as well as the clarity that allows her to see past noise and clutter directly to the heart of a matter.
Actually, the travel gear is something of an infinite jest: the artist claims she travels light yet elaborately lists dozens of items she packs. (Basically, she brings her home with her wherever she may be.) However, the quantities are so minimal and the fabrics and textures so lightweight that everything fits neatly inside a carry-on suitcase. It’s sort of a metaphor for how something large and encompassing can be condensed to its stripped-down components.
On the website, we have a display of artifacts in the first scene of the video. I wanted clutter in the background and two portraits and a blue stone in the foreground. Like the interpretation of art work, the composition is meant to express the following:
- the two portraits—one a Polaroid snapshot, the other in a filigree frame—are intended to show the dual face of the artist as being entirely modern/global and baroque/internal. Continue reading Elegant, Eclectic, Minimalist, Surprising
These aren’t just quotes from Strange Tango, the epistolary novella…they’re also mantras.
I believe that mantras can change and focus your life. My personal favorite is, “I don’t compete: I won’t be an afterthought.” This mantra took form in my mind over dinner with a friend when he confided his discomfort with his place [...]
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