The Story So Far (About Andersen Silva)

Hello, friend. Welcome to my Web site. My full name is Andersen Silva. No middle name. (And yes, it's spelled 'sen,' not 'son.' I know, there's another guy out there of Brazilian parentage with a name very similar to mine, but I was here first.) Until around the age of 16, I refused to respond to 'Andy,' but since then I've relaxed my standards, with the help of various and sundry women.  ;)  Nowadays, I'm equally comfortable with Andersen, Andy, Andy-Andy, Andy-Man, And, Andy-Andy-Andersen... I even respond to 'Blondie.' But don't call me Andrew. Not my name.

I was born in 1970, on September 29 (a birthdate I share with the Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis, as well as Madeline Kahn, Lech Walesa, Miguel de Cervantes, Mohammad Khatami, Pompey the Great, Les Claypool, Andrew "Dice" Clay, Gene Autry, Admiral Horatio Nelson, Bryant Gumbel, Enrico Fermi, Erika Eleniak, and Joel Schumacher) at 8:15 PM in St. Joseph's Hospital in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. As my mother was pregnant when my parents emigrated to the US, however, I like to say that I was 'made in Brazil.' I refer to myself as a Brasileiro sometimes, and obviously as an American, too, though I'd rather think of myself as belonging to the world than to any one nation. Of course, my blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin can be traced back to my maternal grandmother's German roots, and they often cause incredulity in people learning that I'm 'Brazilian.' What, like there aren't whites in South Africa, or Asians in San Francisco?!? At any rate, Italian and Portuguese blood flow through these veins as well, courtesy of my other great-grandparents.

My younger sister Grace and I grew up in Paterson, although we moved a few times; I attended grammar school at P.S. Nos. 17, 19, and 5, and then John F. Kennedy High School. After graduating at 17, I lived on campus at Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) in south Jersey for a year, then came home to find my parents preparing to bolt to the next city over, Passaic. I lived there for three years with them (doing another semester of hard time, at Montclair State College {now University}, while there), then moved out on my own, to the next city over, Garfield, in Bergen County. Since then, I've also resided in Teaneck, Ridgefield Park, Franklin Township, Nutley, Franklin again, and now Lyndhurst. I've actually lived in Passaic, Gloucester, Bergen, Somerset, and Essex Counties, five of the twenty-one counties in NJ. There's a possibility I'll be moving to Arizona in the near future, and taking my job with me, but if there's one thing I've learned over the years decades, it is that nothing is written in stone.

When I first decided to put up a Web site in the late '90s, it was originally a simple four- or five-page introduction to my literary and musical ventures. It has mushroomed into something much bigger. Around the age of thirteen, I started taking occasional notes of an autobiographical nature. I've actually set down a few random chapters of an autobiography, years ago, but it seems that this Web site has taken the place of the book I might have written. Perusing the contents of these pages will give you much insight into who I am, what I've done, where I've been, and where I still hope to go. Probably more information than most people are looking for, and I think a lot of visitors come to my site mistakenly, as it shows up while they're searching for other things (like that mixed martial arts fighter, Anderson Silva, who's not related to me as far as I know), but... that's fine by me. Stay a while!

The title Extreme Close-Up was derived from that of my short-lived 1995 publication, the Extreme, and refers to the fact that one can get a detailed view of Andersen Silva, the man, from this Web site. The 'zine's title was in turn inspired by one of Christian Slater's lines in the dark comedy Heathers: "The extreme always seems to make an impression." I conceived of and named my 'zine a few short months before "extreme" took off as a buzzword, and everything from rollerblading to wrestling to, I don't know, grocery shopping and chess went "extreme." I never applied the term to my publication or myself in that sense, though the idea was to print whatever submitted writing I liked, regardless of form or genre or shock value (or lack thereof).

Prior to the Extreme, I collaborated with Steve Augulis, back in my Toys "R" Us days, on an edgy newsmagazine called the Underground Giraffe. Come to think of it, that was around for an even shorter period of time than the Extreme... I have written some short fiction, essays, poetry, and song lyrics and music as well. One of the Extreme's semi-regular features was resurrected for my Web site for five years or so, the monthly column Vitriol. It was a place for me to do some much-needed venting, though I finally laid it to rest in April 2004 and replaced it with the kinder, gentler Being..., which itself was replaced by my LiveJournal 'blog.

In my younger days, I wanted very much to be an astronomer when I grew up; that scientific mind was hungry. I loved math and the physical sciences in grammar and high school, devouring algebra and geometry and trigonometry and calculus as well as chemistry and physics. During my two brief stints in college, I was a physics major. It wasn't the science I turned my back on, or learning, but the educational system and the concept that a sheepskin changes everything. I'm still fond of and interested in science, but I never did end up working in that field, or in journalism, something else I'd considered. Instead, after a few years in retail at Toys "R" Us, a year working with UPS' bulk deposits at United Jersey Bank (long gone), and almost eleven years at AA World Class where I started as an inventory control clerk and ended as MIS manager, I've found myself working with technology. At Microwize Technology, I manage the technical support department as we assist our clients with practice management software and electronic medical records systems. I've had at least one computer at home ever since I started with the Timex Sinclair 1000 back around 1982 (I've got fourteen at the moment), and I immerse myself in technology as much as possible, so the career is a good fit, though I'd never imagined myself working with computers.

My collection of nearly 500 LPs (yes, I still own vinyl, and a turntable on which to play it) and over 400 CDs began back around 1982 with a Beatles album or two. My iTunes Music Library contains over 8000 digital tracks, displaying my appetite for anything from classic rock to industrial to the blues to Mozart to metal to jazz to punk to... a little of almost everything. I've seen a lot of concerts along the way, too.

Some of those bands inspired me to learn to make my own music. At least, some people describe it that way. Back in 1987, during the Rutgers Dean's Summer Scholars Program, I joined/co-founded the Hellevators, a parody band with five members, only two of whom had played any instruments at all before; I was one of the two. Really. The little Yamaha keyboard I used at the time was eventually replaced, post-Hellevators, with a bigger and better one, and the acoustic guitar I'd taken off my sister's hands was upgraded to an electric. Another T"R"U alumnus, Jon Wardell, and I began talking about working on music together, and Not An Exit was born. I finally started getting serious about writing and recording my own music beginning around 1997. These days, with left-handed guitars and a bass, as well as a MIDI keyboard controller, better equipment, and more experience, I've got a full album available on CD (and digitally), called Joy in the New, and perhaps someday Not An Exit will release one, too. In the meantime, I'm working on a follow-up, to be called Tougher Than Flannel. No, I'm not a big fan of grunge.

I've done some traveling, though not nearly as much as I would have liked so far. I've been to Brazil three times, twice with my family as a teen and once as an adult. I've also visited London, Cancún, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Austin, San Antonio, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. (not to mention New York and Philadelphia, which are right next door). There are lots of pics from my travels (and lots of other pictures, too) in the infamous Gallery... of Death!

Politically, I'm something of an independent liberal; I don't consider myself a Democrat, though I'm more likely to vote for a donkey than an elephant. I've also cast ballots for members of the Reform, Green, and Socialist parties (I've still got a "Perot '96" button!), as well as those unaffiliated with any party, and I don't have a problem voting for Republicans, either, as long as their positions don't clash wildly with mine. I don't believe in following any person, any political party, any ideology blindly, though far too many others do.

As far as religion is concerned... don't have one. I spent the years between thirteen and thirty or so as an atheist, and wrote an essay defending my disbelief. As a man grounded very firmly in logic and the sciences, I find it difficult to put stock in religions and superstitions and rituals and spells with no objective and incontrovertible evidence. That's not to say that there's nothing 'spiritual' about me or that I'm amoral. I also remain open to the possibility that I'm wrong; these days, I'm far less militant than I was in my hot-headed teens and early twenties, and I think of myself as more of an agneist (half agnostic, half atheist) now, although I am finding myself more and more intrigued by Pastafarianism. RAmen.

Let's see, I've brought up politics, and religion... My love life? Nosy, ain'tcha?  ;-P  Yes, ladies, this amazing virile geek is single. I've had my moments, though, and been on both the giving and the receiving end of heartbreak... but who has not? Of course, I sometimes write songs about it... I want someone to grow old with. I'm not actually planning on growing old for at least another three or four decades, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to be prepared.

When was the last time you checked out an 'About' page that told you this much? Maybe you wish you'd turned back earlier... Heh. Tchau, for now!