The interview

So a friend of mine is going to school to be a journalist and asked if he could interview me... hesitantly, I agreed. I am posting it because the interview was fun and insightful for me. Ask yourself the same questions and see what you come up with.



Q: What's the most curious thing you own?
A: I am a real fan of JM Barrie both his works and the man himself. As a source of inspiration, I have framed above my desk, an actual wooden sword prop used in the original play Peter Pan. Beneath the sword is a little plaque with this quote; “Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough, you can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.”

Q: Strangest place you have made a friend?
A: When I was a child, my family moved from Chico California to Paradise California, when we pulled into our new drive way, Joel Munger and his older brother John were sitting on my roof. Joel climbed down off the roof, gave me a tour of my new yard and became an instant accomplice in mischief.

Q: If you could bring back a fashion from any time period, what would you pick?
A: I like fashion as it is today, however, I am a big fan of top hats, fedora’s, bowlers and gentleman’s canes. I would love to see those incorporated into today’s fashion. The world needs a touch more class.

Q: List some artists who have shaped your life.
A: Okay, here are a few that just come to me for now: Jimmy Buffet, Tom Waits, Sting, Maxfield Parish, JM Barrie, Jim Jarmusch, David Bowie, Brian Froud, David Copperfield, Robert Jordan, and Charles De’Lindt… I will probably think of many more the instant I submit this.

Q: List some songs that were beacons for you.
A: Again, for now... but if you ask me tomorrow the list would change, of course. Fortress by the Police, Paradise by Phil Collins, Bottom of the world by Tom Waits, Sailing by Christopher Cross, Arthurs Theme by Christopher Cross, English Man in New York by Sting, Down Easter Alexia by Billy Joel, Land of Confusion by Genesis… again, I will think of more later, I’m sure.

Q: What's heaven for you?
A: Snorkeling in the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean or sleeping under the stars in a tent in the woods.

Q: What is Hell?
A: Watching heaven growing smaller and smaller in the rear-view mirror.

Q: What's hard for you?
A: Dealing with the reality of living in a world where reality and duty outweigh imagination and purpose.

Q: What's wrong with the world?
A: To quote Tom Waits; “We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. Leona Helmsley's dog made $12 million last year... and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio, made $30,000. It's just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains. We are monkeys with money and guns.”

Q: Favorite scenes in movies?
A: When the kid chases the clock in an airport to kiss the girl of his dreams, before she gets on a plane in Love Actually. The Truffle Shuffle in Goonies, When Bowie sings “You remind me of the babe” in Labyrinth. When Christopher Walken tells the Mexican policeman about Denzell Washington’s art being death in Man on Fire. When Nicholas Cage looses it in the drugstore in Matchstick Men. When Robin Williams and Jeff Daniels rescue the Holy Grail in The Fisher King. When Robin Williams rear ends his wife, causing her to bite off her lovers junk in The World According to Garp.

Q: Can you tell me an odd thing that happened in an odd place?
A: A few years ago, I was hiking in some woods near the Oregon coast and found an old abandoned school bus, at least three miles from even the nearest dirt road, it was surrounded by giant spruce trees like it had been dropped from the sky. When I entered the bus, I got the scare of a lifetime when I found a thirteen year old girl sitting in the back seat, reading a book.

Q: Most interesting album you own?
A: Probably an album by a band from the eighties called 2NU. A lot of weird crap on that album.

Q: In your opinion, what is irony?
A: That God puts us on this amazing planet and gives us free agency to do as we please and we choose to work forty to fifty hours a week for fifty or sixty years before we “slow down” to enjoy life.

Q: Do you have words to live by?
A: Jim Jarmusch once said, "Fast, Cheap, and Good... pick two. If it's fast and cheap, it won't be good. If it's cheap and good, it won't be fast. If it's fast and good, it won't be cheap." Fast, cheap and good... pick (2) words to live by.

Q: What do you want on your gravestone?
A: The recipe for fruit cake and a treasure map

Q: How would you compare life now to life when you were a child?
A: When I was a kid, it was all handheld Pac Man games and Casio keyboards and now it’s a world of Sham Wow and Snuggies. Comparatively, life now is hell.

Q: What have you learned from parenthood?
A: I’m not a parent but I know it’s a bad idea to let your kids run with scissors.

Q: What is your favorite quote?
A: When going through hell, keep going. Winston Churchill.

Q What remarkable things have you found in unexpected places?
A:
1. A rock thirty miles into the woods with a chunk of newspaper from 1918 imprinted on its side.
2. Golf balls everywhere I go. Even found one in the middle of the ocean.
3. Wisdom, etched into the wall of a bathroom stall. 4. A French WWII medal washed up on a beach in California.
5. An abandoned house with all the owners possessions left behind, clothes, toys, furniture, food… all left untouched since the 1950’s.

Q: What is your favorite word?
A: It’s a tossup between Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and vacation.

Q: Do you have anything you would consider a disability?
A: I have an over active imagination and a mind designed for extreme creativity. It seems that these days, the world see’s these as a disability.

Q: Most thrilling life experience?
A: I’ve been skydiving, bungee jumping, cliff diving, white water rafting and hang gliding, but I think the most thrilling thing I do is surf. No matter how many times you do it, harnessing the awesome power of the ocean is one hell of a thrill.

Q: What would you have liked to see but were born too late for?
A: The gold rush from the back of a horse and Houdini from a front row seat.

Q: What is a gentleman?
A: A man who can play the accordion, but doesn't.

Q: What do you wonder about?
A:
1. Are butch gay people who hook up with other butch gay people twice as gay?
2. Is the government hiding the existence of aliens?
3. Who invented smoking?
4. How on Earth did the Norwegians invent lutefisk?
5. Do birds appreciate flight?
6. Do the Germans really like David Hasselhoff, or are they just patronizing him?
7. When is the world going to rear up and scrape us off its back?
8. Will we ever invent replicators like the ones on Star Trek?
9. When I’m old, will I regret spending so much of my life working?
10. Did any of the guys who escaped Alcatraz actually survive the bay?

Q: What are some sounds you like?
A:
1. Wind in the trees
2. The ocean
3. Mountain streams
4. City traffic at night
5. Harmonica playing
6. Children when school's out
7. Ravens
8. Old people telling stories
9. Scratchy records 10. My bedroom fan
11. Boat horns
12. Ice cracking
13. Printing presses
14. Old radio mysteries
15. Birds singing in the morning

Q: What's scary to you?
A:
1. Cheese Whiz.
2. Car wrecks.
3. Bears nuzzling my tent.
4. Awkward silences.
5. Cell phone ringing in the middle of the night.
6. The world continuing on this course.
7. Clowns.

Q: What’s the world going to be like in twenty years?
A: We are going to emulate a movie. Right now it’s hard to say if it will be Star Trek or Mad Max.

Q: You’re going to die in thirty seconds, what are your last words/ thoughts?
A: Depending on how old I am… “About time” or “Now the real adventure begins”. Actually, I hope I say something very wise and inspiring/ comforting to whatever loved ones are with me.