as I live a few more questions: Five things you (probably) didn’t know about me, i.e. my 5 secrets

I have Adam Lasnik to thank for tagging me with this Internet meme. And in return, I get it forward it to five other bloggers.

Anyways, here goes:

Five things you (probably) didn’t know about me

I was born during the Beatles Invasion.

Some people tie their birth to significant world events, saying things like "I was born during the Great Depression", or "I was born during the London Blitz". Well, I was born during the Beatles Invasion :-) On Jan. 16, 1964, the Beatles' song I Want to Hold Your Hand became the No. 1 single in America, their very first hit (it would remain #1 on the U.S. charts for seven weeks).

I did a quick search of the Historical Newspapers database and found this advertisement for the Beatle's first American concert, published in The Washington Post (Jan. 31, 1964, pg. B27), when I was exactly one week old.
Before I would turn one month old, the Beatles would land in JFK airport to a horde of screaming fans, and appear on the Ed Sullivan show, breaking all previous audience records with 73 million people glued to their TV sets.
You know, I always used to pull this out to emphasize to the Baby Boomer crowd how much younger I was than them. Now, I pull it out to remind the Baby Boom Echo generation just how much older I am than them. *sigh*
I am a chorister.

I sing tenor (first tenor, if the tenors split) for The Rainbow Harmony Project, Winnipeg's GLBT chorus. In fact, I am one of the original members of the chorus, which formed in September 1999. I had always wanted to sing in a choir since I was a kid, but I wasn't sure if I had the musical chops to do it. So I decided to take a chance, do something different, and I'm so glad I did.

Last Saturday, we put on our annual holiday concert, Many Gifts, before an appreciative audience at Knox United Church in downtown Winnipeg (click on the poster to the right to see a bigger version). And I should be at the Christmas party tonight, but I've got a nasty head cold and I'm blowing my nose every ten minutes, so I decided to stay home. I have been lucky to make many good friends among my fellow choristers over the years. If you would like to hear us, go to The Rainbow Harmony Project artist page on Last.fm, where you can listen to some 30-second samples. I will try to put up a few full-length MP3s over the holidays.
I have a very loud and distinctive laugh.

My laugh is indescribable. I have described it as "the laugh that can strip an oak at thirty feet". You can always find me in a crowded play or movie theatre if there's a comedy playing, no matter how big the theatre is.
I have a drag persona.

As far as I know, I am the first person on earth doing bird flu public-awareness skag drag. Meet Cora-Anne Tine, avian flu pandematrix and advice columnist to the flu-lorn.

Why? Because laughter is the best defense against the doom, gloom and pessimism of a potential influenza pandemic (I mean, aside from stockpiling food and water, practicing good hygeine and safe quarantine, etc. etc.).
I have written slash fanfiction and created Photoshop fanart for Brokeback Mountain.

The fanfiction, titled Chiron (rating: NC-17/Adult), only lasted nine chapters before it petered out, but my Brokeback Mountain fanart has been very popular. This is my most-visited picture, with over 10,000 views:

And as for the five people I am sending this on to, they are, in no particular order:

!efatima (she's a superstar on Flickr, here's her Flickr profile)
Aaron Edwards (and his Flickr profile)
sbpoet (she's also on Flickr)
chelejean, whose comments on my blog are always appreciated, and
Pete (Alois), a contact from my Plain Layne days

...and I would have put Jeremy Wright on this list, but he's already been tagged (damn!) We actually met each other during the brief time he was living in (godforsaken, as I believe he called it) Winnipeg.