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Who Are You?: Robert
Where Are You?: On the left coast of the USA, near the Canadian border What Are You?: A writer, an Englishman (though I haven't actually lived there since I was eight), and someone who tries to be kind and thoughtful (most of the time) but sometimes fails What do you make?: Model airplanes, sponge cakes, people happy by giving them backrubs, and the world's best mix tapes What do you love?: My family, writing record reviews, watching baseball played on real grass, eccles cakes, going up for the day to the mountains with no real plans, the green of the English countryside in May, kissing, Thai food, Formula One auto racing of the 1960s, the curve of a Spitfire's wing What do you hate?: Not much really; hate is counterproductive. Only child rapists, and the cruel, heartless bastards of Harold Wilson's Labour Party who destroyed Britain's aircraft and automotive industries for no reason whatsoever, except for their own sick vendettas. (An actual quote from a Labour minister to engineers at British Aircraft Corporation in 1965: "Aeroplanes are elitist. You should be designing bicycles for the rice paddies.") I dislike (not hate) most American sitcoms, McDonald's, professional wrestling, bad Irish dancing, and breaded fish and chips instead of battered What do you listen to?: The Go-Betweens, Richard Thompson, The Kinks, Child's View, Sleater-Kinney, The Cure, Aimee Mann, Yo La Tengo, Roxy Music, Radiohead, Planxty, The Walkabouts, Peter Gabriel, Nick Kelly, Death Cab for Cutie, Rainer Maria, Kirsty MacColl, Neil Young, and the Beatles. What do you watch?: "Doctor Who", Kurosawa films, film noir, NASA TV, anything with Louise Brooks, Barbara Stanwyck, or Jennifer Connelly, and way too much sports What do you drink?: Tea What do you smoke?: I have chronic asthma, so nothing What do you take?: Tylenol for a headache What do you believe in?: Being kind to everyone (except of course for 1960s Labour Party ministers...) That's a joke! When We Were 16 Where were you?: Five miles from where I am nowWhat were you?: Painfully shy, much too tall, and acne scarred, but with an ability to get up again when knocked down (not physically, of course...) What did you wear?: Cords, not jeans, and hideously striped shirts What did you listen to?: Led Zeppelin, Yes, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Traffic, Elton John, Bob Dylan, The Allman Brothers Band, Captain Beefheart (really!), Neil Young, and the Beatles Have we fixed the time frame yet? What did you watch?: I have absolutely no idea. This was before video, and I didn't have a TV of my own... What did you love?: Playing baseball (even though I was lousy), a different girl every month (from a distance), the thrill of going to my first real rock concert (The Eagles - hey, I was 16, and this was before they were big), getting my driver's license even though my instructor told me I would fail, going out for hamburgers at the local Herfy's, really aceing a test, writing record reviews for the school newspaper What did you hate?: Having Americans ask "Say something for me" because of my accent, algebra, getting up early in the morning for 7AM basketball practice, my body What did you drink?: I got drunk once, after a basketball game that put our high school team in the district playoffs. My friend and I hit three different parties, where we mixed drinks with no idea of what we were doing. Halfway home, on the middle of a bridge, I needed to throw up. I stuck my head out of the window, threw up, and my glasses fell off into the water. I stayed the night at my friend's house (bless his parents), but had to face my parents the next day with a hangover, and with my glasses missing. They were kind about it, but I had to pay for my new glasses. I haven't been drunk since. What did you smoke?: I smoked for a week before I realised that I hated it, and it wasn't cool anyway. Camels, I think. What did you take?: Umbrage at far too many things What did you want to be?: Kissed Who did you fight?: One of the advantages of being 6'5" and 200 pounds is that no-one picks fights with you Who/What did you believe in?: The Beatles Myself, in a totally theoretical way Where did you go?: To college, eventually, a few miles away What did you learn?: To accept myself e |