þÿ<html> <title>Asperger Women Association</title> <style type="text/css">{ } body { scrollbar-arrow-color: #FFFFC1; scrollbar-base-color: #54B7B7; scrollbar-face-color: #54B7B7; scrollbar-highlight-color: #FFFFC1; scrollbar-shadow-color: #1780AF; scrollbar-3dlight-color: #54B7B7; scrollbar-track-color: #54B7B7; scrollbar-darkshadow-color: #1780AF; } .head{ background: #4E8F9D; border-bottom:0px dashed #4E8F9D; color:#FFFFC1; font-weight:none; font-size:12pt; font-family:century gothic; text-align:center; width:100%} A:link {color: #FFFFC1; text-decoration: none;} A:visited {color: #FFFFC1; text-decoration: none;} A:active {color: #FFFFC1; text-decoration: none;} a:hover {color: #1780AF; text-decoration: underline overline;} body {background-color: #4E8F9D; background-image: url(); background-attachment: scroll; background-repeat: yes; font-family: times; color: #FFFFC1; letter-spacing: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt;} h1 {font-family: Times; text-transform: none; font-size: 18px; font-style:italic; color: #FFFFC1; letter-spacing: 1px; font-weight: normal; border-bottom:1px solid #1780AF; text-align:left; line-height: 22px} </style> </head> <body> <img src="layout4.jpg" style="position:absolute; left:0px; top:0"> <div style="position:absolute; top: 55px; left: 104px;overflow: auto; width: 400px; height: 50px; "> <center> <b> &middot; <a href="index.html">Home</a> &middot; <a href="contact.html">Contact</a> &middot; <a href="info.html">Info</a> &middot; <a href="articles.html">Articles</a> &middot; <a href="directors.html">Board of Directors</a> &middot; <a href="fashion.html">Fashion</a> &middot; <a href="members.html">Members Directory</a> &middot; <a href="links.html">Links</a> &middot; <a href="children.html">Children's Page</a> &middot; <a href="http://s4.invisionfree.com/Apserger_Women/">Forum</a> &middot; </b> </center> </div> <div style="position:absolute; top: 107; left: 56;overflow: auto; width: 789; height: 430; "> <h1>Donna Williams</h1> <b><u>June 13, 2008</u></b> <img src="donna2.jpg"align="left"> A fellow Autie (person with autism) was chatting with me about the autism spectrum and how categories of Autie and Aspie (person with Asperger's Syndrome) aren't as clear cut as many imagine. We were chatting about those with features of each. I talked of Aspie-Auties and Autie-Aspies. She then jokes about Aspinauts, that this could describe those with features of each. More... (<br><br> (I have been singing since age 3 and long long before I developed 'functional speech' I could sing in any singer s voice and had a huge range of stored songs and music. I'd been composing in my head since I was about 4 and I'd play the musical intervals on the air with my fingers but didn't know these were musical intervals until I found myself playing them on a piano over ten years later. At age 14 I sat at a piano for the first time and played within minutes and composed my first classical piece. Caught playing, Exposure Anxiety ate me and my future as a musician was ended there for the next 5 years. At 19, after a stint of homelessness in which social welfare messed up on payments and left me destitute, they back paid me. Now with a charitable roof over my head I had money in my hand, more than I'd ever had, around a whole $500. So I bought a piano. Within weeks I was composing classical music and by age 22 I had my first album full of compositions. <img src="donna3.jpg"align="right"> (<br><br> (Years later, I went on to record two albums, Nobody Nowhere (named after the book) and Mutation with two tracks from the Nobody Nowhere album going into the international TV series, Things You Taught Me and my albums began to sell internationally. But other than three performances with a collaborator, I found myself terrified by public performance. I simply couldn't stand people looking at me. I was happy to sing to my reflection, to the wall, but not to people, not directly. Finally, frustrated by the desire to do something Exposure Anxiety restricted me from doing; the GP suggested I could increase the medication I take for mood, anxiety and compulsive disorders. (< <br><br> (Finally, I began to sing on my international speaker's tours. I sang in the US, then the UK and finally Australia before regular audiences of 100-300 people supported by a slide show and using gestural signing through my performances. At first I just felt triumphantly daring, then I began to not mind the audience, then I began to like giving to them, finally I surprised myself in actually enjoying performing for them. <br><br> (I met a cabaret singer with autism, Belinda Mahony, who wanted to expand her opportunities to perform. Seeing how I could help her out, I formed a meeting with those interested in performing but she missed the meeting. (<br><br> (At the meeting, an eager bass player, Earl Woolf was there, who had been trying for around 2 years to get me to jam with him, to no avail. Then when I conceded I could be a singer in a band with him but we didn't have a lead guitarist, then Andrew Baylis, arrived for a writer's group. By chance it turned out he was a lead guitarist. Next, my husband Chris met a keyboard player, Russell Edwards, at one of my presentations where I sang. Russell and Autie-friendly drummer, Mr. Dan, had been in a Melbourne band for 3 years and were currently band-less. A meeting and jam session later, The Aspinauts was a real possibility. (<br><br> (We recently had our first gathering and began trying out songs and the Aspinauts began to launch into a quickly developing ARTism. As I told the guys, the big issue now is whether they can get me out of studio space and into performance space without evoking the ol' demon of Exposure Anxiety. Time will tell. I'm certainly the type to want to climb Everest if I can. The biggest trick is to learn to want. I've begun to. All I can say is watch this space. (<br><br> (I'm on vocals, Russell Edwards on keyboard, Earl Wolff on bass guitar, Andrew Baylis on lead guitar, and Mr Dan on drums. Earl Wolff has been a session muso for eons with one of his claims to fame being that he once played nude in an all nude band at a naturist s convention. Andrew Baylis has been playing lead guitar since his teens and this is his first time in a band. We're looking at playing diversity friendly music aimed at challenging stereotypes and breaking down social barriers. (<br> (Donna Williams *) (<br> (<i>author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter </i><br> <b><a href="http://www.donnawilliams.net " target=_blank>http://www.donnawilliams.net </a> (<br> (<a href="http://theaspinauts.wordpress.com " target=_blank>http://theaspinauts.wordpress.com </a> (<br> (<a href="http://theaspinauts.wordpress.com " target=_blank>http://www.myspace.com/donnaandtheaspinauts</a></b> </center> </div> </body> </html>