cullen from the northwest, sent me an email and asked me these questions. i thought they were good ones and wanted to post the whole thing.
Q: Have you ever contemplated a Max Ernst painting while playing a song?
not in a direct way. that's a good question. i do have visual artists that i admire and feel some type of affinity for or a relation to on some plane.Ê i think more about the process of painting itself and how that would work rather than a fixed piece, because in live performance it's kind of like getting some stuff up there on the canvas so to speak.Ê especially with the folktronics methodology. you get something going and work with it and see where it leads.Ê sometimes my songs are like little movies and that process or unfolding of ideas is in my mind. so those types of expression are on my brain as i work such as poetry, visual art, even architecture and movement. music comes from the same place perhaps as these forms where you make little tiny changes but it's all hooked into the big macro view. i suppose writing computer programs is like that too. or designing buildings.
i'd be more likely to imagine a bruce bickford animation unfolding as i twang away. but you are definitely onto something there in regard to how my brain works.
Q: Besides playing music what was/is the best job you ever had?
my older brother got me a job working in a cabinet shop when i was in high school and i liked that job. the people were nice and you felt like you were really doing something and i like the math and the wood and those things. kind of weird job for keeping your fingers though. teaching banjo lessons was a good job, people that are interested in something like that tend to be smart, nice, and funny. so that's a good job, but i guess that doesn't fit into the criteria of "other than music" that you posited for this reply. i washed lots of dishes and that was pretty cool because you can just hang out in the back and listen to music and not deal with people and wear whatever you want and make the world a cleaner place. also you become an expert in what people don't eat. washing dishes was pretty cool. though the pay was very low, which is strange considering what restaurant can function without clean utensils?
if i wasn't into the banjo i would probably have done something with airplanes or boats, i like those things. education has interested me, perhaps something in the ministry. lifting people up is a good thing. i try to do that with my music.
i think driving a forklift would be cool. i used to have a job in a factory and envied those guys. i like engines and things that move around.
Q: What is your favorite kind of dog?
my dog right now is a small terrier mix, mixes are good they exhibit "hybrid vigor" and tend to have few health problems or genetic flaws that come with overbreeding. she knows about twenty english words. my fave official breed right now is a rat terrier. we have one of these at home also. my mom said they are a good old time farm dog. i'm sold on that breed. they are really smart and have a good sense of humor i know that sounds weird but our ratter is really funny.Ê he does little funny things all the time that make me laugh. they are easy to train and are really healthy and strong. but small. little dogs are hep because if you have to go somewhere it's really easy to find friends to look after them. with a big dog, it's like trying to get someone to keep your cow. that's harder. if you have a cool looking little dog, folks will fight over who gets him for the weekend. rat terrier is the answer.
Q: Who would you vote for the president of the united states 2008?
i'm not really qualified to speak on this so much. i'm not too jazzed about any of the cats if you ask me. and i also question the importance of that position, as far as it being the most important one in the hierarchy. i think our senators and representatives and guys of that ilk have more power in our life, and it might make more sense for us to get involved there and make changes in that respect. our police chiefs and mayors and city councilmen. i don't know if it's possible for us to have any great leaders like we might have had in the past. kind of like we won't have another beatles. we sure could use one. but if they told you how the cow ate the cabbage, nobody would vote for them. and if they didn't take money from special interest groups buying their favor, they couldn't afford the teevee ads.
i also question the whole structure of liberal/conservative, right/left, republican/democrat. i think the real chasm is the elites vs. the non-elites. what got me thinking about this is that i have very left wing friends and very right wing friends, and these are the folks that both home school. they have that in common, what else do they have in common?Ê the answer is lots of things. like the idea that the government is spending too much of our money and not doing a good job for us. i suspect the whole idea of right/left is actually created and put upon us to keep us separate, making it harder for us to come to an agreement.
as far as how i'm gonna vote, i'll probably use the chaos principle and just wait and see how i feel right at the moment. sometimes i order in a restaurant like that, just see what strikes me at the last second.
i think we need to concentrate more on what we can do ourselves than expect anyone on the physical plane to make much difference in our lives. we should raise socially adapted kids, get out of debt, volunteer, help others, keep our yards nice, save some money, live a healthy life, things like that, that we really know in our heart of hearts to be the right thing. if everyone in the country did that, we could have a cardboard box for president and it would be okay.
Q: What is your favorite meal? Did you ever fall in love with a woman over a meal she made?
veggie tacos, or baked potatoes and a good salad if you mean at home. i like easy to fix things because you can hang out more as you cook. if i'm going out i like the vegetarian thali dinner at a good indian restaurant. or the falafel plate in a Mediterranean place. basil noodles in a thai place.
in response to you second query there, yes and she knows who she is.
Q: What is your favorite town you have been to?
i like new york city. a person can stay pretty busy grooving around there.Ê plenty to do and easy to get around. there's a long list of cool small towns that i like.Ê that's a good vibe too. small college towns perhaps with a vibrant music, book store, coffee shop trip. there's one or two of these in almost every state. Ê
Q: What is your least favorite town you have been to?
i don't have least fave, there's always something cool happening if you know where to look. on the other hand, if traffic is bad, the airline whupped up on my banjo, the hotel room smells like someone's feet and the promoter is a cheeseball, at that moment, i don't like the city.
How did music come to you?
my parents had very good taste in american music and they played those records and i just absorbed it and started thinking about how it might would work mechanically at a very young age. my older brothers were really into the music they were into and i imitated them and figured i needed to get into music too, so i did. i thought that's just what you did. it never occurred to me that some folks don't even like music or don't follow certain artists. or that a kid would loathe the music of their parents.
Q: What is your favorite car you ever owned?
i really like motorcycles better than cars, and my fave bike is this suzuki dl 1000 v-strom that i have now. it's really a cool bike and fun to ride. my fave car is probably my old dodge pick up. it pulls my sailboat and my dogs can ride around in it and you can move stuff and sleep in it if you need to. my favorite bicycle is a fixed gear one that i put together out of junk parts and my favorite skateboard is an insect dragonfly. my favorite unicycle is a 28" one that i have. my friend gave me a valve stem cover that's a big plastic eyeball.
Q: What is (one of) the greatest epiphany(ies) you ever had?
that if i am self-righteous and critical, i drag everybody down, and no one wants to be around someone like that.Ê and if i can get through a day and not lapse into that modality, i can probably help someone else and be aware of something other than myself and what i'm not getting. if a person can stay away from that, they can be instantly happy. once you start down that road, you ruin it for everybody, though you usually don't think so, you're thinking it's everyone else's fault.Ê your own self-righteousness and negative critical outlook of others won't allow you to see your own mistakes. it's so simple but i missed that for years, decades....i'm still working on that everyday.
Q: Do you have a favorite show you have played or been to?
i saw henry threadgill a few years ago at the nord sea jazz festival in holland and that was one of the greatest things ever. the band i was in played right after him and i was so freaked out by him i could barely play. i never ask for autographs, but i got his.Ê he wrote on this little slip of paper "thanks for coming, henry threadgill." i was in the elevator with the guitarist in the band and i had to ask, "what's it like playing with him?" he said, "man there's new music on the stand every day." i'm still working off the inspiration from that moment seven years later.
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