In the Sunset Grooves, all members have aliases. For example, Jen is Chardonnay DeVille, Eric is Ignacio Wurlitzer and Dusty is Rusty "Red" Sinclair. Dusty even made trading cards for all of them.
Patrick was batting around a name of F. Rod (Fraud) Something or other the other night and just now blew up a FB Messenger chat we have with a full-on backstory about washing money for the mob and then giving up his bosses to the feds in exchange for witness protection. It's pretty epic.
Simultaneously, I've been trying to come up with an alter ego as well. My roadblock is that
- I'm Asian, so any non-Asian type names may be a stretch
- I'm Asian, so any Asian type names may be too stereotypical
- I'm overthinking it
So I've been batting around using the Ted's memory as my inspiration. After all, he was a sailor, and I love the idea of using Frederick "Teddy" with a last name to be workshopped, in real time, right now.
Frederick "Teddy"
- Manselle (a play on "main sail")
- Vanquish (sounds cool, like a spy)
- Rockford (as in Rockford Files)
- Brigadoon (I thought it was a nautical term, but it's not)
- Exotíque (I thought of this a few days ago and just now remembered it)
And I think it's gonna be Frederick "Teddy" Exotíque, as Ted's old boat's name was Exotíque. So there it is. Now for the back story.
A child of the 70s, Frederick "Teddy" Exotíque was swabbing decks and raising sails before most of us were walking. Growing up on the mean seas of the Atlantic, off the coast of eastern Massachusetts, Teddy cut his teeth working in the shipyards by day, in the taverns as a musician by night. As a longshoreman's son, Teddy thought that his future was down by the docks... however, the smooth siren sounds of yacht rock had different ideas.
As the years passed, Teddy grew bored with the roughneck lifestyle of the docks and headed west, ending up in the long-forgotten town of Seattle, land of coffee, flannel and grunge (not a disease). Back then, the only thing smooth or groovy in the Pacific Northwest were the westbound lanes of 520 during a downpour. Despite the gray skies overhead and brown notes in the clubs, Teddy stayed true to his roots, woodshedding for hours at a time, perfecting his art of the bottom end, all the while, looking for his musical soulmates.
Before long, Teddy struck AM gold with the Sunset Grooves and is now having the time of his middle-aged life, holding up the bottom for his mates while they deliver the goods topside.
Huh. Don't know how that will fly, but I'll send it along, see what they think.
