Me & world-famous, premiere film director Lee Ang

Bio

Hi! I’m Trista – Game-changing Progressive, Multimedia Artist, Creative Impresario, Comedian

About Me

I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, & studied in a lot of places: Arizona, California; Washington state; San Diego City College, UC Berkeley, Stockholm University, Oxford University, England; Universite de Grenoble, France; Taipei Medical University, Taiwan; European Graduate School, Saas-Fe, Switzerland. I have lived, worked & studied half my life in other countries, as was my intention, & traveled the world extensively. Right now, I’m entering the realm of politics, whilst running my own eco-ranch, making art, music, & ‘good trouble’ lobbying our do-nothin’ Congress & do-too much un-government.

The trajectory of my academic studies grew from languages & political science/French & Russian at UC Berkeley; social welfare/Swedish women & politics at Stockholm University; PTSD/Trauma counseling (Women’s Psychology tutor) at Oxford University, UK; then Medical Anthropology at Taipei Medical University, where I won an Outstanding Graduate Researcher Award to present my research on Ethnobotany/Indigenous Health, Nutrition, Public Health & Emergency Preparedness at an Arizona State University (ASU) Conference. My last college application (failed! :() was to study Archaeology at National Taiwan University, so that I could be an anthropologist/explorer like one of my heroes, Graham Hancock.

Q: What’s yer dream job, Trista?

Trista: I tried a million times to be a Daily Show Correspondent; never heard back from Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, OR Trevor Noah. I also keep trying to be Prof. Chomsky‘s assistant, or do multimedia & research work for Gaia, as Graham Hancock’s assistant! I always wanted to be a writer for Rolling Stone, but they never got back to me, either! I’d love to be Pima County Sheriff, so I can make priorities in OUR local law enforcement; or Arizona Governor, so I can really make a difference – #freethebabies, #pardonthepotheads. A US or State representative or Senator would be fine, too, in the progressive mold of #AOC, of course; #PresidentSanders’ Vice President; or President running on the Progressive Party ticket (see my campaign platforms here).

In 2001, I was working in Management Policy & Planning at the US State Department in Washington, DC, and intended to join the US Foreign Service and become a diplomat. After THOSE stolen elections, I got the chance to get the hell out of Bush America AND turn down grad studies at prestigious NYU Film School. On the other hand, my application to MIT Media Studies was rejected – & thus failed in my first attempt to be Prof. Chomsky’s assistant.

But you know what they say: TRY & TRY AGAIN ! 🙂

Instead I gladly exited the country right after the 911 ‘Inside Job’ Attacks, and ‘read’ for a Master’s in Women’s Studies at Oxford University, England, an academic dream of mine. There, I was crowned MCR Queen & won a travel grant to research Alice Paul in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. One of my papers for the degree received high honors; I got a hold of copies of letters that Paul wrote to her mother whilst studying in England. A copy of it is in the National Women’s Party archives in Washington, DC.

I went to Taiwan directly after finishing my graduate degree at Oxford University, where I spent 14 fairly blissful years ‘learning, loving & eating Chinese’. I got the chance to travel throughout Asia & enjoyed the culture shock & constant mental stimulation of learning one of the world’s most difficult languages! I taught ESL, music, health at private schools & to little Aboriginal kids with no prior experience with English, or native English-speaking teachers. I taught at Sacred Heart Kindergarten under Fr. Barry Martinson’s auspices, in the mountains of Hsinchu, & elementary students in Sandimen, Pingtung County, southern Taiwan.

In Taiwan, I got to play out one of my fantasies: being a professor. I was a lecturer in advanced writing to the country’s brightest at National Taiwan University – a total plum job! Then I received a scholarship to attend Taipei Medical University, where I was Prof. Linda Arrigo’s teaching assistant, & taught Taiwanese nursing students & international researchers at TMU – one of Asia’s finest medical schools. I was on Prof. Peter Chang‘s research team, studying the effects of radioactive fallout after Fukushima. I was also elected VP of TMU’s International Student Association & graduated with high honors.

One of my favorite jobs, ever, was being something of a foreign correspondent & newspaper writer/editor. I worked many years as newspaper journalist & copyeditor for Taipei Times, then The China Post where I was promoted to Foreign Community Page editor. I initiated & secured an arrangement with the Discovery Channel, where I got to travel & write articles for The China Post with Janet Hsieh, host of Fun Taiwan. Then Mr. Chen retired & some dumb guy who got the GM job didn’t like the awesome work I was doing or the accolades I was getting, & illegally terminated my employment there. I shoulda sued ’em, in hindsight! But that was definitely one of my flavorite jobs. Now, I’ve become what’s called a ‘multimedia journalist’-MMJ. One of my most recent job apps was to be News Associate for DemocracyNow!, the only credible news source in Amerikkka. I volunteer as contributing reporter for KPYT. See a full list of my vast media experience here.

In my spare time, I have been known to write books of fiction, comedy & poetry — founding lonewolfpress.com to assist myself & other writers to come to print. I also held several art exhibitions of my work, & performances of my band’s music, both of which were written up in the papers. I was described as ‘the arts magnet of Taiwan’, & ‘the island’s Hunter S. Thompson‘. I also did some standup comedy, with my political writings, which I typed up & published as ‘Golden Words of Wisdom From The Pig’s Ass’. Then I’d make perhaps 10 or 20 copies of those at the local printer’s, & sell them to my friends at 3 in the morning, when the pubs were all closing! They’re apparently called ‘chapbooks’. These days, I write long legal briefs & filings, & think of great film ideas, or band names, bits of poetry (songs for my pets!), some country lyrics; or rasta songs.

When Mama G died in 2014, I’d just finished a Master’s in Medical Humanities from Taipei Medical University. For my master’s thesis, I wrote a field guide to Atayal/Saisiyat tribes’ use of plants in the remote mountain villages of Hsinchu County. My efforts won commendation from Taiwan’s MOI (Ministry of the Interior), & an invitation to present my work there. What an honor! 🙂

I returned home to Tucson 2016, & ever since then I’ve been running my mother’s legacy: Reiki Southwest, a healing sanctuary & eco-ranch & nature lodge. I consider myself blessed & fortunate to be chosen as steward of this beautiful, sacred, healing ranch, or sanctuary for plants, animals & people (in that order!).

As you can probably tell, I’m described as ‘a woman of 10,000 projects.’ So it is with pleasure that I get to inaugurate my very own website, in which I can pour the backlog of activities & organize them into these groups: art & comics; quotable quotes; podcasts (STICK IT TO THE MAN w/Trista Show (Season 1 / Season 2); Campaign Platforms (b/c I’m running for more than one office these days!); Newsbriefs (which I send out daily to all the major news outlets in America & to certain, select journalists!; & LA MUSIC; which features links to my musical work w/The Tourists; RADIO BANCIAO; Trista&TheEdibles & now SOLO AGAIN! If you wanna hear sh+te that is Better Than The Beatles, go listen to one of my 20 albums published on my Youtube channel in the past year alone! Please do like, share & subscribe. I also ‘do’ charitable campaigns, performing music, comedy, speaking to young people or donating my artwork to auctions.

If you’d like me to address a policy question, or commission a painting or something, or even if you just have a silly comment to make or want to renew our long-lost friendship, just drop me a line. I got me FB account suspended twice now, & they are bein’ real communist about lettin’ me sign up a third time! So hang ’em; I gravitated to Instagram & my 2nd Twitter account; & TikTok! You can find me there using my name or google me: ‘Trista4SheriffAug4′ or some variation Trista Tramposch diGenova-CHANG. I have two Youtube Channels: digenovafilm (material covered up until the end of my stay in Taiwan); & I think the other one is Trista4Sheriff2020 or something… !

Stay classy, World!

“The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that ultimately do.”

Can we count on you?

VOTE CHANG-4-CHANGE AUG.4!

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