Randomness fun facts about moi
FACT #1: My first name "Danielle" is in the traditional French spelling. It means "God is my judge."
According to my mother (who gave me and my sisters the most exotic Latin, Irish and Anglo names possible) I came out of the womb and just looked like a Danielle. Of course, I was a premie, my eyes wouldn't open and I was (as the folks in the hood say) "light bright and almost white." My uncle would comment it was like going to see the same baby as my sisters and I were very similar looking as babies. The only way to tell us apart in photographs is how Denise has bigger ears, I had a bald spot and Deidre came out of the womb posing like a supermodel. Although we all were cute in our own way, Deidre was an insanely beautiful baby.
My middle name is Celena. It's a Spanish variation on the Greek name Selene, which means "moon" in Greek. This was the name of a Greek goddess of the moon, sometimes identified with the goddess Artemis. I actually like this name more than Danielle, although I like that name too.
FACT #2: I was born with a hairy birthmark on my shoulder. As a kid I would shampoo it in the bath. It was like a little, close cropped afro. I didn't have a problem with it although the other kids in elementary school thought it was weird. In the third grade I would have it painfully removed due to the fact that the large mole could potentially be cancerous.
FACT #3: I like Johnny Depp. A lot. Especially in the first two thirds of the film "Blow," all of "Benny & Joon," all the over the top gawdy scenes in "Cry Baby," blind and delightfully bad ass in "Once Upon A Time in Mexico," riding a horse in "The Man Who Cried," saying horrible things to Charlize Theron in "The Astronaunt's Wife," with an alligator's tail in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and obviously in "Pirates of the Carribean."
"Edward Scissorhands" not so much. I'm not one of those S&M, galvanized rubber fetish chicks. It's a good movie but, uh no.
FACT #4: The first two cassette tapes I ever bought were Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" and MC Hammer's "Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em."
FACT #5: It took me six weeks to learn how to do the "Roger Rabbit" dance. I wanted to be able to dance for my sixth grade graduation banquet, and although I have rhythm I'm horribly unbalanced. So I practiced in my basement everyday. I would constantly make my more skilled sister Deidre show me the steps over and over, so I could attempt to copy them.
When I finally got it I was so happy. All the kids, who thought I was the horrendous nerd, were amazed as my dancing ability. It was truly a Hollywood moment that banquet and dance. I, along with Allen Thompson, got to give the keynote speech. I had on a SLAMMIN' black and white stripped dress and I'd accidentally sat on my fugly eye glasses so for the first time in four years people could see my eyes. My mother let me wear my long hair down for the first time ever. It was gorgeous, dark and curly. Everyone fawned over me and was amazed. Suddenly boys who'd igorned me (and ranked me as number #18 in the "Miss Keven Elementary" poll, realized that I was, in fact, a fox.) It is one of the few good memories I have of school which was often filled with embarassment, humiliation and misery.
FACT #6: My favorite film in "Goodfellas." My favorite director is Martin Scorese and I love Robert De Niro in everything. Even "The King of Comedy" where he plays the most unloveable character ever created. Yes, even more creepy than Travis Bickle.
FACT #7: My first high school comic strip was called "I Hate Cheerleaders." It later became "Hazelwood Central," which was the name of my high school. In "I Hate Cheerleaders" I drew cruel pictures of pimple faced, scrawny cheerleaders with too much makeup and bad hair. I realized that despite my dislike for the princesses of high school, it was not the right avenue for me creatively. I, by nature, am a lover. Not a hater.
FACT #8: For the first five years of my life I thought "white people" were just something you saw on TV as I knew no actual white people.
When I started kindergarten at my mostly black elementary school I was completely amazed with my white kindergarten teacher. I thought she was magical as with my logic of all white people being on TV and being therefore beautiful. I would maintain this belief until I was 10 when an obnoxious red-headed white kid stepped on my head to get to the top of the slide at the playground inside the McDonalds. To this day I am somewhat fascinated by white people, but mostly because they usually know next to nothing about black people while I, thanks to television, popular culture at large and life experience, know quite a bit about them. I find this amusing. I do not know why.
FACT #9: I think the film score to "The Royal Tenenbaums" is one of the best scores ever written, next to Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" which is my favorite.
FACT #10: I have a very real phobia of the desert and the woods. I think its some variation on agrophobia (fear of the outdoors). It's almost paralysising and when I covered stories for the local section of The Bakersfield Californian I used to want to vomit every time they had to send me to some homicide in Tehachapi or a fatal car accident in Wasco. I'd still go and about every other time I either had a panic attack or cried.
But I was usually fine by the time I got there.
According to my mother (who gave me and my sisters the most exotic Latin, Irish and Anglo names possible) I came out of the womb and just looked like a Danielle. Of course, I was a premie, my eyes wouldn't open and I was (as the folks in the hood say) "light bright and almost white." My uncle would comment it was like going to see the same baby as my sisters and I were very similar looking as babies. The only way to tell us apart in photographs is how Denise has bigger ears, I had a bald spot and Deidre came out of the womb posing like a supermodel. Although we all were cute in our own way, Deidre was an insanely beautiful baby.
My middle name is Celena. It's a Spanish variation on the Greek name Selene, which means "moon" in Greek. This was the name of a Greek goddess of the moon, sometimes identified with the goddess Artemis. I actually like this name more than Danielle, although I like that name too.
FACT #2: I was born with a hairy birthmark on my shoulder. As a kid I would shampoo it in the bath. It was like a little, close cropped afro. I didn't have a problem with it although the other kids in elementary school thought it was weird. In the third grade I would have it painfully removed due to the fact that the large mole could potentially be cancerous.
FACT #3: I like Johnny Depp. A lot. Especially in the first two thirds of the film "Blow," all of "Benny & Joon," all the over the top gawdy scenes in "Cry Baby," blind and delightfully bad ass in "Once Upon A Time in Mexico," riding a horse in "The Man Who Cried," saying horrible things to Charlize Theron in "The Astronaunt's Wife," with an alligator's tail in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and obviously in "Pirates of the Carribean."
"Edward Scissorhands" not so much. I'm not one of those S&M, galvanized rubber fetish chicks. It's a good movie but, uh no.
FACT #4: The first two cassette tapes I ever bought were Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" and MC Hammer's "Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em."
FACT #5: It took me six weeks to learn how to do the "Roger Rabbit" dance. I wanted to be able to dance for my sixth grade graduation banquet, and although I have rhythm I'm horribly unbalanced. So I practiced in my basement everyday. I would constantly make my more skilled sister Deidre show me the steps over and over, so I could attempt to copy them.
When I finally got it I was so happy. All the kids, who thought I was the horrendous nerd, were amazed as my dancing ability. It was truly a Hollywood moment that banquet and dance. I, along with Allen Thompson, got to give the keynote speech. I had on a SLAMMIN' black and white stripped dress and I'd accidentally sat on my fugly eye glasses so for the first time in four years people could see my eyes. My mother let me wear my long hair down for the first time ever. It was gorgeous, dark and curly. Everyone fawned over me and was amazed. Suddenly boys who'd igorned me (and ranked me as number #18 in the "Miss Keven Elementary" poll, realized that I was, in fact, a fox.) It is one of the few good memories I have of school which was often filled with embarassment, humiliation and misery.
FACT #6: My favorite film in "Goodfellas." My favorite director is Martin Scorese and I love Robert De Niro in everything. Even "The King of Comedy" where he plays the most unloveable character ever created. Yes, even more creepy than Travis Bickle.
FACT #7: My first high school comic strip was called "I Hate Cheerleaders." It later became "Hazelwood Central," which was the name of my high school. In "I Hate Cheerleaders" I drew cruel pictures of pimple faced, scrawny cheerleaders with too much makeup and bad hair. I realized that despite my dislike for the princesses of high school, it was not the right avenue for me creatively. I, by nature, am a lover. Not a hater.
FACT #8: For the first five years of my life I thought "white people" were just something you saw on TV as I knew no actual white people.
When I started kindergarten at my mostly black elementary school I was completely amazed with my white kindergarten teacher. I thought she was magical as with my logic of all white people being on TV and being therefore beautiful. I would maintain this belief until I was 10 when an obnoxious red-headed white kid stepped on my head to get to the top of the slide at the playground inside the McDonalds. To this day I am somewhat fascinated by white people, but mostly because they usually know next to nothing about black people while I, thanks to television, popular culture at large and life experience, know quite a bit about them. I find this amusing. I do not know why.
FACT #9: I think the film score to "The Royal Tenenbaums" is one of the best scores ever written, next to Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" which is my favorite.
FACT #10: I have a very real phobia of the desert and the woods. I think its some variation on agrophobia (fear of the outdoors). It's almost paralysising and when I covered stories for the local section of The Bakersfield Californian I used to want to vomit every time they had to send me to some homicide in Tehachapi or a fatal car accident in Wasco. I'd still go and about every other time I either had a panic attack or cried.
But I was usually fine by the time I got there.
posted by Danielle Belton @ 10:09 AM
3 Comments:
At 3:23 PM,
Anonymous said…
For the first five years of my life I thought "white people" were just something you saw on TV as I knew no actual white people.You write as if you know very little about white people now. We aren't all clones as you seem to indicate.
At 6:47 PM,
Anonymous said…
Danielle: I think you meant Agoraphobia (fear of open spaces), not Angrophobia (fear of getting angry). Up here in Tehachapi, we're not all in the woods. Why don't you come pay a visit to the Main Street office. See what we're doing for downtown, see the murals, etc. Tell them I sent you. Fred Shaughnessy
At 9:56 AM,
Danielle Belton said…
Well, perhaps I could have elaborated more on my fun facts about myself and white people, but I don't recall indicating that all white people were clones. I merely said what fascinates me is how often the white people I know don't know very much about black people which is understandable since African Americans are the minority culture.
As for my knowledge of white people, I do not know every white person in the world, but since age 2 I've inudated with every facet of white culture via television and school. After going to an all black school as a small child, my family moved to a more cosmopolitan neighborhood where most the residents were white. I went to largely white high schools and junior highs, a largely white college and every place I've worked at I've been the only black person in my department.
While some of the white people I have encountered did know other black people besides me, more than often I was it. This wasn't a bad thing or a good thing, just funny to me. And you don't know how many time I've had people ask to touch my hair and then ask me if I tan. It's just part of being a minority in a majority culture. I'm pretty much fascinated my ethnicity in general.
Oh, and thanks for pointing out my error Fred Shaughnessy! I shall fix that.
I've actually visited Tehachapi's main street for a story a year or two back. What truly freaked me out about the woods was my first month here three years ago and I had to drive out to Poso Flats for the most hostile school board meeting ever. I was so sure that I was either going to A) drive off a cliff and die or B) be killed by the hostile folks at the board meeting.
And yes. I did tell my sister I was not sharing my food. She had a chance to by food at the gas station near Magic Mountain just like me. She decided not to.
Denise Michelle is still a VERY pretty name though. It was the only good name my father came up with. If I had been a boy there was this rumor that my father might have named me "Lamont." God, I would have had to hear "You big dummy" jokes my ENTIRE life.
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