I was tagged by Paddy "WORK with me and I'll make you HAPPY," Pizappi. What a COOL name and NEAT motto! Thanks for inviting me to participate in the MeMe AR insanity. I get such a kick out of reading these things, but somehow it never occurred to me that I could actually be "hit" with a "digital-question-snowball" so soon out of the box. I've only been in real estate for less than a year and have yet to make 120 days as a blogger on AR, so I really never expected to get tagged.

Hmmm...  Truth or Dare time:

Question #1: Who is my favorite musical artist?

There is a 13-way tie for first place: I absolutely adore Stevie Ray Vaughn, Olivia Newton John, Amy Grant & Vince Gill, Darlene Zschech (from Hillsong), Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald & Sachmo (Louis Armstrong), Celine Dion, Barbara Streisand, George Michael, Michael English and Luciano Pavarotti. Selection #6 entitled "Son of God" on the 2002 worship DVD/CD "Blessed" is my favorite 9 minute song (yes, there are other 9 minute jammies I love).

Question #2: Who is my favorite visual artist?

I have too many I enjoy to choose just one: the paintings of Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Cezanne and Van Gogh; the illustrations of Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth; the films of Alfred Hitchcock; the Japanese Anime of Hayao Miyazaki. These visual artists have all had a hand in how I manipulate light, lines, color and form to create a work of art. I absorb what is useful for the project at hand and generally discard the rest. Most artist try to have cohesiveness to their work, however I don't. I just paint what I imagine or think I would like to see and have been known to change my mind regarding the direction or theme of a show. Sometimes it results in gallery patrons being placed under the erroneous impression that they are viewing more than one artist when in fact everything created is coming from the same hand and mind. I can burn hot or cold with my illustrations and fine art and playfully consider myself a "schizartist," which is a kind of Brooklyn street slang play on words I came up with as a kid regarding explaining artists (like me) who are "deliberately stylistically dysfunctional" and can change their painting style so radically as to be able to fool another into thinking the same hand and mind could not have possibly done it. It's great fun when you ask a stranger "which painter do you prefer?" and they very seriously compare you with you, never realizing that you are you. Critics pro and con usually compliment me by stating that I am an "eclectic" artist, but in sum and substance the fact of the matter is that sometimes when I paint an abstract I "pretend to have a mental illness and look at the world through someone else's eyes to create an expression they can identify with as making sense." They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is some of my original artwork (3 portraits and an abstract) as examples of how my choices have helped influence my creations of art as well as me "burning hot and cold" with my work:

Question #3: Who is my favorite blogger?

Hmm... There are so many excellent people to choose from, however, for brevity: Andrew J. Lenza (NJ), Lizette Fitzpatrick (KY) and Laura Watts (NC) have had me howling with laughter so I shall have to select them as a three way tie for first place. I also enjoy Steve Homer (TX), Barbara Ries (PA), Paddy Pizappi (NY), Daniel Horneck (FL), Jeanette Neerpat (FL), Duane Marlink (MI), Josef Katz (NY), Paul Moye (TN), Bill Gassett (MA), Kenneth Rossman (NY), Bill Mitchell (FL), Emma Vargas (CA) and Jonathan Washburn (WA). Everyone in the forum brings so much to the table that it is truly hard to choose. It is so easy to think of reasons why I love to read these writers' blogs that I shall have to just leave it at this and move on or we may never get done with this MeMe.   

Question #4: If I could meet anyone (dead or alive), who would it be?

My ancestors on my family tree. I've got serious questions for some of those knuckleheads. We ran the family tree back to the early 1600s and now I have to go dig around in England for answers to the 1500s. The kids are too small to fly over the "big pond" for now. Bummer... I hope to eventually go because the Tann clan has had some pretty cool moments in history. Seems we were running around owning real estate long before the U.S. got around to claiming its independence and Pocahontas became a household name. Turns out I even had an ancestor in the same tribe as P. That fact alone was amazing. It was also awesome to discover that my relatives fought in the early wars, inclusive of the Revolution, so if I had a chance to meet someone it would definitely be my ancestors for I would really love to pick their brains about their take on history as it was unfolding and find out why they did some of the stupid things they did (e.g. murder, squandered some of their VA land grants from fighting in the wars, etc.).  

Questions #5: What did I want to be when I grew up?

When I was 5 years old I discovered paint in kindergarten, had a love affair with color and decided I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. (Yay, I did it!)

Question #6: If I could live in any point of history, when would it be and why?

If I could live in any point in history it would definitely be now because Biblical prophesies state the generation that gets to see Israel become a nation is the generation that gets to see the return of the Messiah. (The nation of Israel was re-born in one day: May 14, 1948). People are averaging 80-110 years so I hope to still be around with the kids and grandkids when evil gets its butt kicked.   

Question #7: What is the most interesting piece of trivia you know?

1) "Jesus wept," is the shortest verse in the Bible.  

2) 2 Wikipedia definitions by heart: (1) Schizophrenia, from the Greek roots schizein (σχίζειν, "to split") and phrēn, phren- (φρήν, φρεν-, "mind"), is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental illness characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality, most commonly manifesting as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions or disorganized speech and thinking in the context of significant social or occupational dysfunction. (2) Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of styles from different sources and combining them" [Hume 2003, p.5].

Question #8: What is the most interesting job you have ever held?

Being an Investigator for the NYC Department of Correction's Trials, Litigation and Investigation Division. 

Now to TAG some other poor unsuspecting individuals:

1. Laura Watts

2. Josef Katz

3. Kenneth Rossman

http://www.TannStarr.com