User:Andrew Parodi
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Being an INFJ born on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday (Gandhi was also an INFJ), Andrew Parodi has always had a spiritual inclination. As a young boy at Catholic School, Andrew had wanted to be a priest when he grew up. His spiritual odyssey led elsewhere, largely due to the influence of his mother who grew up among the Aleut people of Alaska. At age 18, he combined his lifelong fascination with Egyptology and esoteric spirituality by joining the Rosicrucian Order AMORC. Later, he became a student of A Course In Miracles. Andrew's spiritual odyssey has also included education and experience with Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Shamanism, Judaism, and esoteric Jungian psychology.
When he was eight, Andrew Parodi enrolled at Willamette Ballet Academy in Woodburn, Oregon and studied under ballet teacher Rick Van Winkle for many years. Eventually, he moved to Portland, Oregon where he studied to be a professional dancer at the nationally recognized Jefferson High School dance program. He was one of the youngest people accepted into the student dance company The Jefferson Dancers. While a member of The Jefferson Dancers, he performed in all of Portland's most prestigious venues, and for tens of thousands during halftime at Blazers Basketball games. He also toured to Russia one year, and starred in PBS's "A Musical Encounter: The Dance Program." [1]
Jefferson High School has a unique student body that is about 65% African American, so while attending Jefferson he was exposed to a culture that he has since realized few others are able to experience. He appreciates, and misses, the Afrocentric atmosphere of the school. He'd always felt a bond with African cultures. Spiritual teachers Malidoma Patrice Some and Sobonfu Some, both from Burkina Faso (Africa), have been important to Andrew for years. And Nigerian-born singer Sade Adu ("Sade") is one of Andrew's favorite singers.
In addition to the above, Andrew has modeled in Japan, Portland, and Salem, performed (as a singer) with bands, performed in an Off-Broadway play in New York City, and studied on scholarship at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, and was an exchange student to Argentina in 1993. (Would you believe he met Liza Minnelli at Eva Peron's tomb? He has the picture to prove it. He's also taken figure skating lessons from Tonya Harding. Seriously.) Additionally, Andrew has made countless television appearances, from local to national talk shows, as well as an appearance on "Real TV." And he has worked as a stage director for Miracle Theater/Teatro Milagro, the Northwest's only Hispanic theater company. And in 1998, while still only a white belt, he beat out a brown belt in a Tae Kwon Do championship in Wilsonville, Oregon.
Today, Andrew is a freelance writer, dancer, photographer, and, on the personal advise of MIT professor Noam Chomsky, he has returned to college in pursuit of a Master's Degree in Dance. Andrew dreams of one day settling down, marrying, and raising a happy family.
MYSPACE PAGE: http://www.myspace.com/andrewparodi
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[edit] Summer 2007 photo shoot
These are photographs of me taken in July, 2007, performing portions of some of my own choreography. All images were taken by William Gauderman and are used with permission.
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[edit] My picture of teen skater chosen as "Featured Picture" for Oregon Portal!
I was really honored to find that my picture of a teen skater has been chosen as a featured picture for the Oregon Portal on Wikipedia. That is, it was chosen as one of the best pictures of Oregon taken by a Wikipedia editor. On the Oregon Portal page they rotate a dozen or so pictures, one different page per day. This is something of a dream come true for me. For some time now, I have wanted to do what I can to bring the cultural aspects of Oregon to the awareness of others. Also, I think this may be the best picture I have ever taken!
[edit] My photograph of Old Believer church used on foreign language Wikipedia site
This was very exciting for me to find.
Only a mile or so from my home is a neighborhood that locals refer to as "Russian Village." It is a neighborhood of people of Russian descent (most are not actually from Russia) who are the Russian Old Believer religion. There are about four churches in the neighborhood, and they are all breath-taking. I decided to take pictures of them and upload them to Wikipedia. Before I knew it, the picture above was added to the article on Russian Old Believers. I was not the one who added it. I was very touched to find someone found my photo high enough quality to illustrate the article. Later, I uploaded the picture to Wikipedia Commons. A few weeks later, I checked back and found that this picture is now being used on a foreign language article about Russian Old Believers. I think it's for the Wikipedia Netherlands site. [2] This is so exciting for me!
October 30, 2007
I'm so moved! I just found that this picture is being used on the RUSSIAN version of Wikipedia: [3]. This means a lot to me because, I don't know ... to think that I've contributed to Russians understanding and appreciating an aspect of their own culture. Wonderful!
[edit] Eva Perόn article declared a "Good Article"!
The page about Eva Peron has finally been declared a Good Article, which is just a hop, skip, and jump from being a Featured Article. And the editor who approved the article as a "Good Article" said that the article has "Featured Article" potential. This was a particular honor for Andrew because the editor who said this is a native Argentine. This all means a lot to Andrew because he wrote perhaps as much as 75% of the article, and uploaded almost all (save for two or three) pictures to the article.
Andrew has recently started a channel on YouTube to share messages related to his research of Eva Peron's life: http://www.youtube.com/user/evitastories
[edit] Gallery
[edit] Images of Andrew Parodi with friends
 Andrew Parodi with Kenneth Wapnick PhD, president of Foundation for A Course In Miracles |
 Andrew Parodi with African spiritual teacher Malidoma Patrice Some |
 Portrait of Andrew Parodi's brother, "Mr. Gardener", with Buddha statue |
 Andrew Parodi, age 13, and nephew, Anthony, age four, at Rosicrucian Park, in 1989 |
 With Kenneth Wapnick, outside of the Unity Church in Seattle, Washington, 2003 |
[edit] Andrew Parodi's images, some of his favorites that he has uploaded to Wikipedia
 Liza Minnelli at Eva Peron's tomb, 1993 |
 Roadside memorial to fallen policeman |
 Waldo Park in Salem, Oregon |
 Willamette River in Portland, Oregon at night |
 Made in Oregon sign, Portland, Oregon |
 Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance |
 Settlemier House, Woodburn, Oregon |
[edit] Andrew Parodi's images of Rosicrucian Park, San Jose, California
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[edit] My Colegio Cesar Chavez picture reprinted in newspaper!
I woke up on Thursday, September 28th, 2006, to receive some amazing news. Erika Costaño, curator of the Multicultural Archives at Oregon State University, e-mailed me to inform me that one of my pictures, which was originally published here on Wikipedia, had been reprinted in the Salem, Oregon newspaper Statesman Journal.
The picture was taken at St. Joseph Shelter in Mt. Angel, Oregon. The picture depicts a mural that Daniel Designa had painted on the wall of the shelter building in the 1970s, back when the building served as the headquarters for Colegio Cesar Chavez. Colegio Cesar Chavez was the first four-year Chicano college in the United States of America.
Here is a link to the Statesman Journal article that reproduces the picture I took: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Colegioarticle.jpg
I published this picture under a free license, which allows for the image to be republished anywhere without express permission. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this picture would be published anywhere else, let alone a major newspaper. (The Statesman Journal is the major newspaper of Salem, Oregon. Salem is, of course, the capital of the state.) Unfortunately, the article didn't cite me as the original photographer, but such citation is not necessary under a free license. It would've been nice to be credited. But I would rather they use the illustration than not. My only real desire was that Colegio Cesar Chavez be remembered.
It was just amazing to see my picture republished in a newspaper. It just goes to show that people do pay attention to what goes on here on the Wikipedia site.
