An interview meme, in which I am asked five questions by LJ user saturnalia22:
1: Is there any particular song (or songs) that you feel is (are) so amazing that you wish to kill or severely maim anyone who interrupts you while you’re listening to it (them)? If so, what? If not, what song(s) come closest to this sentiment?
Strange, but this and many of the other questions I would have answered so differently just five years ago. Not that even then I would consider killing or severely maiming, but definitely getting hot under the collar and irate … usually it’s the long songs that one gets into the mood of … like Ravi Shankar’s performance at the Monterey Pop Festival, or Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” … those would come close. When you have kids, though, you get so used to being interrupted in the middle of anything that if that were to cause thoughts of murder, there wouldn’t be any future generations. A whole song? LOL…you must be joking.
2: Tom Waits once said, “Don’t you know there ain’t no devil, that’s just god when he’s drunk.” What do you feel is god’s (or fate’s, or fortune’s or mother nature’s or whatever your belief may be) most cruel or creative (your choice) joke played on the world? What about the most cruel/creative joke played on mankind?
Ah, Tom Waits – so gifted and yet so bitter. I think it is possible that Tom Waits has a Bukowski complex, if there is such a thing. But at least the question is straight-forward. I think the cruelest (and also most creative) joke played on the world was the introduction of the human species. By whatever means it was accomplished. I think the most cruel/creative joke played on mankind was the ability to use intellect and compassion separately. That possibility for the separation of church and state has resulted in both evil genius and ineffective sentimentalists.
3: Define “reality” in your own terms.
The world as it is. Not as it should be, or was, or will be. Traveling at the speed of now. Energy borrowed, energy returned. Not what you see, because there are so many words in language that relate to the lies of the eyes. What you hear the world to be. The song you have to learn, or be mute.
4: Name the character in a book, poem, song, or movie that you would most like to be. What about the one you’d least like to be?
Strange question, in a way. The problem with choosing a character from a work of Fiction is you already know how their life is going to end. You’d have to give up that mystery to switch with them. Don’t know if I’ve ever really considered that a worthwhile proposition. But, when I was a kid, I wanted to be Remo Williams in the series the Destroyer. Because, frankly, I thought it would great to have an ancient oriental guru. LOL. But I think it is probably closer to my reality now that I would choose Siddhartha or Magister Ludi (both from Herman Hesse). I guess I’d least like to be Mr. Potter (the banker from “It’s a Wonderful Life”).
5: If were offered the ability to, just by thinking it, cause anyone you wish to die instantly, would you accept it? If so, who would be on your shit list? If not, why not?
Of course, that’s assuming that we each don’t have the ability already … No. I would not accept it, nor if I had it, would I use it. The responsibility is too great, and life is too precious. I am not in a position to judge ANYONE. Besides, people that get on my “shit list” eventually clean up – after all, it IS water soluble. There are a lot of people that I have a great deal of compassion for … and worry about … and wish would get their lives together … and recognize their own potential (whatever that may be, not up to me to say) … but nobody’s been on my shit-list for probably 10 years.
