Interview by Madtown Mama

Hey, it's the "new thing" in blogging: P2P interviews! Why, not since the heady days of lists & memes has the blogosphere been so laden with good stuff to read! (And by the way, what the hell is a "meme" anyway? Do I pronounce it as if it's French? Or, you know, like an excited school child hoping the teacher will call on her? "Me, me!")

Anyway...this batch o'questions comes courtesy of Madtown Mama, who in real life is Stephanie K.'s cousin Susan. I started linking over to her blog once I got caught up in the stellar writing on Sweetwater Journal, and I stayed linking over to her blog due to her OWN catchy prose. I've especially been enjoying reading about her new family, as her son Daniel (hilariously nicknamed "Danimal") just recently turned 1. It's interesting to see where Miss Tessmacher and I will be very soon. Suze is a complex woman: a new mom, a musician closing in on her PhD, a hella-good knitter (my fave: the "cat-barf scarf")
and, to judge by her recipes, a pretty fine cook. This is what she wanted to know about yours truly...











1. Where do you look to find inspiration to compose?
I can find inspiration just about anywhere, frankly. I think I'm one of the (perhaps) rare people who truly experience a "calling" in life, and am both lucky and talented enough to answer it. Stephen King - my fave author of all time - once wrote in a book forward that he writes because he can't NOT write; to try to ignore the stories in his head would cause his skull to expode. That pretty much sums it up for me: there's music in my head, and it's gotta come out. I also try to follow his sage advice from ANOTHER book, which is to "write what you know." Hence, I have a flute/cello/vibraphone trio about Mackinac Island, and an early symphonic work titled Midnight Over Gary (brought on by repeated trips over that desolate city via the Skyway), and lots of percussion music. Christopher Rouse wrote a piece titled Bonham that is basically a tribute to the late Led Zeppelin drummer; I totally stole that concept for my upcoming percussion trio, Criss. So, composing for me isn't really a matter of looking for inspiration; rather, it's a matter of occasionally needing to HIDE from inspiration so that I can attend to other stuff...you know, like blogging, and (soon) changing diapers!


2. What do you dread/look forward to the most about fatherhood?
Hey, how timely! I don't think there's anything I really "dread" about impending fatherhood; but, there are some practical things I'm not really anticipating positively. Changing shitty diapers would probably be one, especially since Tess & I are all "green" and we're getting cloth diapers that need to be swirled in the toilet and not just handily disposed of. I don't really relish being tired all the time; that rings espeically true as I read about Suze's headaches trying to get Daniel to take a friggin' NAP, for heaven's sake! Never having experienced a vagina in quite this way before, I wonder: how do you keep explosive poops out of there? That first post-midnight trip to the emergency room with a feverish Roz already makes me embarrassed ("Ohh, look at the first-time parents!"). And, since we told everyone about her sex, I'm really wincing that people might inundate us with pink shit. NO PINK SHIT! Primary colors - particularly black & silver! ;-)

Boy, for not dreading anything, I really churned out quite a paragraph, didn't I? But, you know, that stuff all strikes me as worries ANYONE might have. What I really think about Roslyn is all the great stuff. You know, I get to MESS with her. Like, sing "Strutter" to her as a lullaby. I can dress her in a onesie with Gene Simmons on the front, and the tagline "Demon Child." I get to make stovetop pudding for her, teach her how to catch & throw a baseball and ride a bike, and be with her as she explores the fields around Grandma Sandy's house and the forests at Mackinac Island. I get to teach her to read: first Dr. Seuss, then Spider-Man. I can watch her play with friends in the snow, then make hot chocolate for everyone while they pile up in the living room, and I can pretend to be mad when I tell her & her sleepover friends to QUIET DOWN, DAMMIT, DO YOU GIRLS KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?!? All that stuff. Mmmm.


3. Are you going to video the birth of your child?
No. From a very selfish (and snide) standpoint, I don't need video proof that my playground serves a far more biologically practical purpose. From a serious point of view, I feel a little squeamish about bodily "stuff" and so I plan on being "up top" during the birth. And, legally, I hear that lots of hospitals disallow videotaping in case anything "goes wrong."

4. Have you ever had an embarrassing moment due to public flatulence? Please describe.
Public flatulence? Oh, sure! Embarrassing? Uh...why would I be embarrassed? I'm a BOY. Farts are FUNNY. That's why we SHARE THEM WITH YOU. Seriously, I farted just a litte *blurp!* in my First Year Experience class in late September; I was quick enough to not show that I'D heard anything, and then I squeaked my shoe on the floor several times thereafter. I don't honestly think I FOOLED anyone, but since I didn't make a big deal out of it... Typically I fart a lot in class, especially right after lunch. These sneaky little stinkers are silent, but WHOOO! I always have to hurry to meet a student who is aiming to ask me a question after class: I can't have that poor soul entering The Zone behind my podium!

But, what you're really looking for is 6th grade. I don't know what started it, but I let a loud one go right into the hard plastic desk seat. Meredith Whipping (seriously!) started to laugh, which made ME laugh, which made little fartlets shoot out of my bum like an automatic rifle. Meredith laughed so hard she literally fell out of her seat. Good stuff.

If YOU need a good laugh, click HERE.

5. What's the last good book you read?
Right now I'm embroiled in Why The Christian Right Is Wrong, which is good in the sense that it drives me batshit. I've also been picking up the trade paperbacks of Brian K. Vaughan's series Y: The Last Man, which details the adventures of Yorick after a mysterious virus literally kills every other y-chromosome creature on the planet. But, the last really good NOVEL has to have been The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. Beautiful story, cool concept on time travel. This book makes the rounds of chick reading circles and Oprah book lists, but don't let it fool you: it's a sci-fi tale thinly disguised as a love story. A favorite early quote, as Henry is about to bed Claire for the first time: "I now have an erection that is probably tall enough to ride some of the scarier rides at Great America without a parent."

So, that's it! Don't worry, folks: I'll play the game too, and get some interview questions for Feral Mom, Suze, and all the rest. But first: there's eBay stuff to list, and carpets to vacuum, and fertilizer to spread...