me: monsieur! shall we do a whirlwind interview?
or... a whirlwinterview?
that sounds snowy.
Richard: Lets see what we can do!
me: okay let's dive right in, then. who are you, anyway?
Richard: I'm Rich! The guy in the hat.
Man about town
indierockranger on the twitter
me: who are you when you're all alone in your car rolling down the highway?
Richard: It depends on the day I've had. In the mornings I'm usually focused on work, so I'm not listening to too much.
On the ride home, if I've had a good day I'm listening to some BBC favorites on my ipod, the happy Rich most people know
after a trying day, I might slip back into old Rich, a bit more aggressive
'90s grunge rock Rich
me: what's your favorite grouchy grunge song and in what ways do you sing and/or play along in the car?
Richard: I really still love anything by the Smashing Pumpkins, if I hear Geek USA everyone around me is done for.
How do I sing in the car? Poorly, but loudly. I try to drown myself out with the volume.
I tend to abuse the steering wheel during particularly rousing drum solos.
me: that's what i was picturing. good.
Richard: I have this weird relationship with the Smashing Pumpkins. I love them for what they were, but I know their new stuff is crap. I keep going for anything that dude puts out though.
Just hoping, every time
me: i so know that compulsion. and the let down.
Richard: Well, no
but maybe we're all surrounded by unicorns all the time
we just can't see them
we let people get away with that kind of talk about angels, right?
unicorns are better
me: oh! yeah, now i can feel one just looking over my shoulder, watching our conversation.
nosy unicorn.
smells like cotton candy, though.
what are you thankful for this year?
or this month. or today.
Richard: I've had a really good year, personally.
I'm mostly thankful for the people I've been able to surround myself with, which is sort of cliche, but it's true.
I've got some amazing old friends and over the last year I've really become close to a lot of newer ones.
me: i think most truly important things end up as cliches, but only because Hallmark and Lifetime (and etc.) exploit their importance.
Richard: Yeah, that's absolutely true. Nothing remains pure anymore, it's immediately exploited.
I guess it's always been that way, but whatever, I'm turning into my dad, so I can say stuff like that.
me: i'm pretty sure it's been all downhill since Sears or whoever invented Christmas in the 40's.
how are you turning into your dad?
Richard: I thought it was Coca Cola. Well, they invented Santa.
I'm turning into my dad in so many ways!
me: oh yeah, they were totally in cahoots.
Richard: Just little things that I notice- the way I talk now is very similar to him, my sense of humor. My need to control the heat in the apartment.
me: tell me a good dad joke.
(and by good i mean terrible)
Richard: Well, my dad was in the Marines, so he tells the old Marine vs. Army joke:
An army guy is in the bathroom when a marine walks in and takes a piss. After he starts to leave and the army guy says "in the army, they teach us to wash our hands after we piss." The marine responds "In the marines, they teach us not to piss on our hands."
just awful old jokes like that.
me: nice.
Richard: He actually didn't tell a ton of jokes (when he did they were bad) but he was more into goofy, family joke stuff that would take far too long to explain and wouldn't amuse anyone but me.
me: you sure there isn't one good example you could share?
Richard: I mean, now I'm thinking about stuff and smiling. When driving around, if someone did something stupid, like another driver, he'd call them a "jamoke"
I don't know if that's the proper spelling
And then I remember once in school I called some kid that, because he was doing something stupid, and people were like "What the heck did you just say?"
I thought it was a normal word.
me: i'm totally in favor of making up words. what about advice?
Richard: Fatherly advice?
me: right
Richard: I mean, all the normal stuff. My dad raised us by himself (I have a brother and a sister). My mother took off when I was 13.
Before that we were raised as fundamentalist christians, so we had a lot of that teaching.
Once everything hit the fan though, I was at an age where I was questioning god and faith and everything, and he really could have bucked down and forced me to go to church and all that, but he did the opposite and we talked and he let me do my own thing.
He's since left that life as well, fortunately.
me: ohhhh that's good. from spying on you on FB and things, it seems like you're incredibly discerning in your views... never dogmatic on one side or the other... and always a sense of humor.
Richard: Well, that's how I am now.
me: now... do you mean as opposed to when you were a questioning teenager or some other time?
Richard: Yeah, even into my early 20s. I mean, everyone is kind of bull headed at that age, but at that point I saw everything in black and white terms and refused to look at both sides of a lot of things. I think that comes from the christian upbringing, where it's required to just accept certain things.
As I matured though I learned to look at all sides and form opinions independently and all that.
I had a lot of catching up to do.
me: camel lion child!
Nietzsche laid out three stages of... oh... maturation, i guess. as best i can remember it goes like this:
camel stage = accepting everything you're told (being led around, maybe? enslaved?)
lion stage = saying NO to everything. black and white.
child stage = being open and able to say yes to the right things.
something like that.
Richard: That's exactly right, and I think I was in the Camel stage for longer than most.
me: (somewhere out there, my existentialism prof is shuddering.)
Richard: It all worked out though.
me: so what do you believe in now?
Richard: I just believe in us, in humans I guess. I don't really have a belief system, just to do good things.
I don't think we need some outside entity to tell us to be nice to each other, and I think that forming any kind of group around a belief will eventually lead to an 'us vs. them' situation.
me: yeah what's up with that?
Richard: I don't know. Just do good things because they're good.
me: and because the unicorns are watching.
Richard: well, obviously
and they'll getcha
me: although, maybe that's more incentive to do entertaining things. i wouldn't want to contend with a bored (invisible) unicorn.
Richard: Well, that's the quote from fight club
something like "God watches us and kills us when he gets bored, so we must never be boring."
something like that, anyway
me: okay. new question. i'm just making this one up as i go.
Richard: me too
me: say you get a room all to yourself. fairly good sized. and you have unlimited resources. and it's yours to do whatever you want with. what do you use it for?
Richard: right this second? records and comic books.
I'd like to say something better, but that was really the first hought that popped into my head
me: you'd just line the walls? :)
Richard: with shelves of records, yeah
me: awesome. how're we doing on time?
Richard: I'm pretty good, I can go for a bit more.
me: sweet.
what do you know for sure?
Richard: I know that someone just walked into my office, hold on for a sec, please
me: sure thing
Richard: OK
What do I know for sure...
Not much, I'm pretty skeptical. I know that orange juice tastes amazing and that doing good things yields better results than bad things. I know that you should never be a dick, is what I'm saying.
me: quote.
what don't you know that you wish you did?
Richard: Aside from things that I could be trained to do and just haven't, and all the crazy conspiracy stuff that's in my brain, I'd really like to know more about the truth of our history.
Not just ours, like america, I mean humans.
The old saying about how it's written by the winners, you know?
So much has been changed and lost, I wish I could automatically know the truth about things.
Especially now, we live with so much spin and opinion mixed into the news, the truth gets lost almost instantly.
Of course, I think that there are people who have that ability, but they're either insane and ranting on the side of the highway, or they end up getting shot in the face when they try to talk about it.
me: totally. this seems like a great opportunity to work in my doctor who obsession....
Richard: You know, I haven't seen any of the newer ones.
I've been meaning to get obsessed with it.
You should form a Doctor Who themed band and tour the world with Do Not Forsake Me.
me: heh. i'm a fan of the newest incarnation. oh man. i am saving up for a baritone guitar. i could rock that theme song. i think the way old 60's original version was actually played on a baritone guitar.
so okay. the doctor shows up and says he'll take you to any time/place in the history of the universe. when/where would you go first?
Richard: Well, could I ask him to take me to the peak of civilization in the universe? Sort of a trick question, like maybe he'd send me to some other galaxy 2 million years ago that I never knew existed.
me: totally!
why the peak of civilization?
Richard: well, I guess to see how they do things
maybe we can change things up, emulate them or something
Maybe it'd totally ruin me though, like I show up and Reagan is being sworn in.
Dammit!
me: oh ouch.
Richard: Right, see, it can go both ways
Maybe I should stay where I am
me: :)
hey, so... what's so great about Boston Band Crush?
Richard: I love BBC because we focus on the positive. There are enough blogs out there that tear stuff down, or do negative reviews or make fun of stuff, but we don't. We write about what we like and ignore what we don't.
There's enough good stuff out there that we can't cover all of it, so why focus on anything negative at all?
I like that philosophy
me: me too!
<3
who should i hit up to be my 3rd interviewee for november?
think i should go after the MJE?
since he helped found BBC?
Richard: Yeah, he'd be a good one.
me: i think i'll need my wheaties for that one.
Richard: Yeah, he's something all right. Make sure you're cleared with his legal team.
me: heh
Richard: By legal team, I mean mustache
me: right, right.
okay, are you ready for the final 2?
Richard: GO!
me: GO!
in other words, you get to make up the last 2 questions! one that i haven't asked you yet that you want to answer. and one question you want to ask me.
Richard: Right, I knew all about this and yet it's still a surprise.
me: tee hee
Richard: I want you to ask me what my favorite album is, even though I know it's a boring question.
So that I can tell you of my love for Queen II.
me: cool.
hey Rich, what's your favorite album, ever?
Richard: Queen II!!!! It's just beautiful from start to finish, and even after listening to it for 20 years, I still find new things to enjoy.
Ok, now the one we both have to answer.
I'll do another basic one:
Beatles or Stones?
me: Beatles.
you?
Richard: Stones
me: The only member of TBH who picks Stones over Beatles is Mark.
he's also the most aggressive.
i'm not sayin' i'm just sayin'.
Richard: See what happened though, after all my high talk up there about 'us vs. them' beliefs, I end up asking a question that makes us take sides.
me: yeah, what's up with that?
Richard: I guess I still haven't gotten it all out of my system.
me: I'd say that's pretty human.
(for better or worse)
Richard: exactly
allrighty, ma'am
I need some lunch, stat.
me: go forth and feed thyself!
thanks for taking the time!
Richard: Thanks for including me!
me: my pleasure. bon appetit!
Richard: bye!
1 comments:
MJE is trouble.
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