The Questions, With Weaseling Answers

[barondave]

1. Leave me a casual comment of no particular significance, like a lyric to your current favorite song, or your favorite kind of sandwich, maybe your favorite game. Any remark, meaningless or not.
2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in your own post.
5. When others respond with a desultory comment, you will ask them five questions.

ckd asked these questions:

1. If you had to choose between giving up photography or giving up Shockwave Radio Theater, which would you choose and why?

A strangely unfair question, as both subjects are very wide. Do you mean taking pictures or chucking the old ones? Do you mean the Shockwave archives or doing new shows/podcasts? Indeed, in some sense of the word Shockwave Radio Theater is on hiatus from the airwaves and hence is already given up. Further, the two overlap. Shockwave is a very visual show, and sound is an integral part of my photography. So I'm going to weasel out of this one.

2. You have the opportunity to go back in time and photograph one historical event (assume you are completely insubstantial; no possibility of intervention, but no danger either). What is it?

I'll assume you mean a photo gallery, not just one iconic image. I'll further assume that an 'historical event' is different from a religious one (eg Noah's Ark in mid-flood). So while there are numerous choices, the one that comes to mind is the Great Pyramids. I'd love to chronicle their building. At least the first one. This may take several trips and/or necessitate being insubstantial for decades.

3. What book have you read lately that you think other people should go read right now?

Hell and High Water: Global Warming -- the Solution and the Politics -- and What We Should Do by my brother Joe. After that, the last Harry Potter book, so we can all talk about the story arc without worrying about spoilers.

4. What TV series do you really wish would come out on DVD?

After seeing Soap on DVD, I have a hankering for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which I watched at the time, or even Benson, which I didn't.

5. What's your favorite cover song, and why?

Precisely what counts as a "cover" song is a bit in question (Christmas carols? Irish drinking songs? Nursery rhymes?), but I'll assume you mean 'songs which were associated with one group that were performed by another'. The hands down winner is Once In A Lifetime by Big Daddy. I never liked the Talking Heads' song, but on Cutting Their Own Groove, Big Daddy goes Doo-Wop, singing it in the style of Day-O. "Saaaaame way, it's the same ol' way-ay... same ol' way as it ever was...". I'm not fond of the early 80s techno-pop sound (with some exceptions) and really like Calypso and doo-wop (which generally don't combine), and the song finally makes sense!

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Unfortunately, Netflix doesn't list the show as yet.

[radparker.livejournal.com]

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman is out on DVD, I saw it at the Uptown (Chicago) Borders yesterday.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Ditto the lack of flixing capability. I only own a few dozen DVDs, and haven't seen most of them. Waiting for a rainy day, or they were cheap, and all that.

[radparker.livejournal.com]

I hear ya there. What I did break down yesterday and buy was two seasons of the British show Hustle, about con men, sort of an Oceans 11: The Series. Good stuff, worth renting if you're bored. Each season is six episodes and I believe season 4 recently ended.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Just checking: As in the 'rules' above, do these responses count as "a casual comment of no particular significance" indicating you want to be asked five questions? If not, that's fine, but I should be sure.

Anyway: I've seen Hustle on A&E; better than it could have been, but the concept wears thin. Six eps per season is reasonable. Much of the same team that did MI-5, which I also didn't like very much but you might.

[radparker.livejournal.com]

I'm game, ask away.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

1. If Spam were to disappear tomorrow, what would you do with your professional life?

2. How did you get the Artist Quarter gig?

3. Do you prefer Chicago to Minneapolis, as a city?

4. Elaborate on one unforgettable moment with Kate.

5. What was your most embarrassing post when BBSing? One you can laugh about now...

thanks, i'll post this on my LJ shortly

[radparker.livejournal.com]

1. If Spam were to disappear tomorrow, what would you do with your professional life?
Email's still a big, wide open space with lots of opportunity. If spam vanished, I'd probably be around helping out with some other aspect of the space. I've done a bit of work in paid search advertising, too. Before that I did design/prepress, and then was a unix administrator. Would love to be a unix admin again. If money wasn't an issue, I'd go open a jazz club.

But, email/list management/deliverability/spam prevention is definitely My Career now. That was a weird feeling for me. I don't see myself doing something else, to be honest. Spam ain't going to disappear. Crime hasn't vanished simply because a better lock has been invented.

2. How did you get the Artist Quarter gig?
I walked in off the street one day and asked, hey, do you need a website? A friend helped me start the conversation because I was shy. It sort of blossomed from there. Or spiraled out of control from there, depending on how you look at it. I was eager to be an investor in the club at one point, but the owner wasn't interested (not that I blame him). Some of their business decisions blow my mind (but I still love everyone there to death). If I had the opportunity for more active involvement of how the club was run, I probably wouldn't have moved to Chicago. I didn't run away from the club over that, but not having that made me freer of more direct bonds to the Twin Cities.

3. Do you prefer Chicago to Minneapolis, as a city?
Yeah, I do. Public transit is 1000% better. If Dave Romm was living in Chicago, he never would've broken down and bought that car finally. He'd be riding the el, or using a car share service to run to a big box store in the suburbs. I'm ditching my car as soon as logistically possible, and I'm not eager to have another. Also, Chicago is friendly and midwestern, but still fulfills my "big city" dreams. Also, I can take the bus to Navy Pier and go on a boat ride or sit in the beer garden anytime I want. Can't beat that.

On the down side, it's ass cold here in the winter. Feels worse than Minneapolis, though it probably isn't. I suppose I feel it more because I walk more here. Also, it's huge. Even in a car, it takes forever to get anywhere. MicroCenter is a 15 minute drive on the highway for you. It's a 45 minute pain in the ass for me. The airport is a 15 minute highway drive for you. It's a 60-90 minute pain in the ass for me.

Everything considered, I miss my friends, but not Minneapolis. Home is wherever I'm hanging my hat, and my hat's resting comfortably here today, and who knows where it'll be tomorrow.

4. Elaborate on one unforgettable moment with Kate.
Hmm, it was probably an early phone conversation where it clicked that Kate was both intelligent and compatible. I'm really bad at remembering specific instances, but there definitely was a moment when I realized it might all work out afterall, and the world was suddenly a better place. How's that for a lame answer? As far as memorable times, I really value the simpler stuff, like just walking down the street and getting a sandwich with the one I love. Life is about the simpler stuff.

5. What was your most embarrassing post when BBSing? One you can laugh about now...
There are ones that if I could remember specifics I'd be cringing now, instead of laughing. I was very over the top with hyperbole and attacking people who disagreed with me. I was also very insecure and sensitive to how I was perceived by others. I still suffer from all of these personality flaws, but hopefully I'm a bit better at keeping them out of view than I once was.

Also, I used to value obscenity for shock value, and am appalled at the number of times/places I though this was appropriate. (Example (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.butt-keg.marmalade/msg/05d84c8f1ba06cf9?dmode=source).) Oh, the humanity.