Termite TV - Life Stories

My name is Alicia Banadona, I was born in Manhattan, NY. When i was 12 we moved to Brooklyn NY. I was raised on the lower east side of Manhattan, which is now very fashionable, when I grew up there it was a ghetto, so I was basically raised in the slums of NY. I was one of 2 white children in my sixth grade class. So basically I grew up in a latino and black neighborhood. I was unusually the white minority, when I was 12 we moved to Brooklyn, which when I moved their was a very white community in Brooklyn, so it was kind of strange to me. We moved into this very big house, we were very poor and we moved into this affluent neighborhood, so I was kinda out of place. I pretty much grew up there, spent my teenage years there. I went to music and art high school, I'm a painter, I also do video and film. Not too much film, mostly video. I do video web art now, I do web stuff. Basically I come from a very normal family, their all artists and musicians. I have a sibling, an older sister and a younger brother whose a creative genius but is non functional as a person. I have an older brother whose a psychologist so he spent most of his time analyzing us. I have lived in West Virginia, I went to college there. I lived in a very rural area, so it was interesting for a girl from Brooklyn, to live in a rural area. I moved to Madison about three years ago. I lived in New York in the 80's during the hey day of punk new wave. I shaved my head at that time. And I was kinda an interesting character and my house at that time was a party house. And kinda was out of control, no drugs anymore. For obvious reasons, so after that kinda 80's new wave punk thing and 27 people sleeping on my floor. I kind of grew out of that and lived with a guy for three years, who was kind of a creep, he was a chef and drug addict. Threw him out, and then three years ago I moved to Madison and then started doing more video and some web stuff. And I'm very involved now in web, I work for WYU which is the community access station here. I've done a few video pieces for them, I've done editing a little directing, I still do painting and drawing. I like it in Madison but in about three weeks I'm taking a trip to Washington state, see if I like it there. I'm kind of a traveler, I do a lot of psychic things, I do a lot of astrological things, I read poems, I do it as a hobby, I don't get paid for it. I'm very interested in learning about other people, I'm very intuitive. I like those kind of things, I like to read people, I like to see where their at, I like to dig and delve into the minds of people. I think that's really fascinating and Madison's a good place to do that. A conservative town, cloaked in liberalism. So this is a very interesting place to be. I'm working on a web project right now, I do a lot of web animation, I work in fireworks in flash, hopefully I'm going to do some artwork, less commercial stuff and more creative stuff, so that should be a pretty interesting endeavor for me. I'm not married I don't have any children. I don't currently have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a significant other. I like it that way, I have a cat, I live in the basement of an apartment building. So I'm kind of like a termite so to speak, I like the darkness, I like the underworld, I like the subculture. Politically, I'm pretty liberal, not like a white liberal. I grew up in the ghetto so that kind of gives me a different slant on things, I know you find it hard to believe, little white girl from the ghetto, but it is true. I'm hip to a lot of stuff, things people should be more socially aware of things. So, spend a little time outside your environment to learn about other people because you'll get a more open minded view. I think that's what most people are lacking in this world, is a understanding of what other people are, that's how we get a more expanded view, is to listen and see and open our eyes to what's around us. I think that's basically the most important thing is keep your mind open and try and have an understanding and try and be empathetic about what other people are doing, you get a good world view, you get a good understanding, that's what's important in life. I guess that's it. Okay thirty seconds, my cat's name is Johnathan, he's really cute. He's a tiger, tiger striped cat. He's scared of everybody, his name is Johnathan Godee by the way, which is a very appropriate name because he's very skiddish. And it's a nice day here in Madison, it's a Sun. it's August, I can't wait for the winter, yea right. Winter's here are horrible, their freezing cold, it's like being in the tundra and that's one thing I don't like about living in the midwest. Thanks.