divine angst

From Fitz-Hume & Co. (now featuring the triumphant return of Milbarge!)

1. What is the best thing about the city in which you live? What is the worst?

Best? The overwhelming amount of cool stuff to do—music, food, museums, outdoor recreation. There’s just a lot of stuff here that’s really cool.

Worst? The summers are DAMN HOT. And there’s not a graduate program here for Mr. Angst, hence our upcoming move.

2. Describe an idea or invention of yours that you would like to see turned into reality.

Um. Can I get back to you on this one? I have these sorts of thoughts all the time, but they, of course, completely escape my mind when you ASK about them. That’s probably why none of them ever become reality.

But if I could remember any of them, I guarantee they would all have something to do with making my life easier. Like, ways to remind myself of things I need to do, that I invariably remember while I’m in the car and can’t write them down. Even better, I’d love a tool to transcribe whatever I’m babbling aloud into a nice text file. Because I talk to myself in the car. It’s a way for me to hash out ideas. Or some tool that would let me work in bed without having to juggle books and a laptop and a bottle of Diet Coke.

Basically, anything that allows me to be more productive without becoming less lazy.

3. Name an overrated author, musician, and movie. Name an underrated author, musician, and movie.

Overrated Author: James Joyce. I barely made it through A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. To my mind, any novel that is renowned for being difficult not only to understand but just to GET THROUGH (I’m looking at you, Ulysses) is just not worth the hype.

Overrated Musician: Norah Jones. Yes, I love her music, but my eyes are open to the fact that very little of her music is, in fact, HER MUSIC. She is like almost every other pop starlet—her breakout first album was carefully crafted by a team of producers to showcase her vocal talent. She’s a singer, just like all the other beautiful young singers. When she puts out a successful album of music she’s written, then I’ll reconsider her musician-ness.

Overrated Movie: 2001: A Space Odyssey. I just don’t get it.

Underrated Author: Jane Austen. I think there’s still a great feeling that Austen’s novel are just sort of Victorian fluff, nice to read and fun to analyze, but without much social or political merit. I think that’s incorrect. To be fair, this view seems to be waning—more and more serious scholarship is being written on Jane Austen’s works—but there is still a pretty significant stigma associated with, for instance, MEN reading Austen and enjoying it.

Underrated Musician: Neil Diamond. Yeah, he’s cheesy. Yeah, he’s easily mock-able. But the man is a PERFORMER. And his tunes are catchy and fun to sing along with—and he’s attracted a multi-generational following. I won’t apologize for loving the Neil.

Underrated Movie: Out of Sight. Just because it has J. Lo and Clooney in it doesn’t mean it’s not a good movie. I liked this movie a lot, but most people saw the posters and the trailers and thought it would be awful. I thought it would be awful. But it’s not.

4. If your life were a sitcom slated to air in the fall, what would the show be called? Who would you cast in the starring role? And for extra credit, give us a brief treatment of the show.

My life isn’t really sitcom worthy. Seriously. Can I have a cooking show instead? How about “Electric! Cooking Without Gas!” I’ll have guests every now and then—college students and apartment dwellers who try to eat well though equipped with crappy cooktops. We’ll have hijinks involving grease splatter and overcooked chicken, and at the end of every episode, we’ll order Chinese.

5. When is the fun supposed to start?

Would you believe that I didn’t see this movie until about three years ago? Pretty sad. Of course, one of my favorite bars used to show movie clips and the pool scene was one they showed A LOT. Ah well.