interview: payback time

[cellio]

I believe I've now answered all my outstanding questions, so it's past time for me to hold up my end. (Life was busy...) If you would like a set of five questions potentially of a highly-personal or quirky nature, comment here. You should post the answers in your journal and (if you like) make the same offer to your readers.

Comments

[kayre]

Give me your best shot! :)

[cellio]

1. Which photo (ok ok, photos... I suspect you can't choose one) are you most pleased with?

2. You get to direct a choir of your choice for one performance of your choice. What's on the program?

3. Tell us about a guilty pleasure?

4. What instrument that you don't already play would you like to learn?

5. The genie in the bottle will deliver a short message to your younger self. He assures you that time paradoxes won't be a problem. What and when do you send?

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

Go ahead. I'll add them to the original five from you that I never got around to posting. :D
-- Dagonell

[cellio]

Err, can you remind me what I've already asked you, so I don't do something redundant?

[hlinspjalda.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure; do me! ;>

[cellio]

1. With which ancestor do you feel most connected? Why?

2. Parents usually have hopes and aspirations for their children, even though you try not to push them in directions they don't want to go. With that preface: what thing could future Sparky do or say that would bring you that special thrill of "ooh, just as I'd hoped!"?

3. What book or TV/movie series could you easily wile away a weekend with?

4. Someone has won Crown Tourney for you who is open to you doing just about anything. Now what?

5. The genie in the bottle grants you an audience with one person, living or dead. Translation services will be provided. Whom do you meet and what do you talk about?

[alfiechat.livejournal.com]

Oh sure. I have been interviewed by Almondroy,but bet you could come up with some good ones.

[cellio]

1. What's your favorite Gilbert & Sullivan show?

2. What's the best thing about being a librarian?

3. What one thing would you change about the SCA if you could?

4. How did you and Dave meet?

5. The genie in the bottle can take you to live in the fictional universe of your choice, but he's not sure he can control what type of person you'll end up as. Interested? If so, which universe?

[alfiechat.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Good questions.

1. Patience. The asthetic movement as pertains to this plot is hilarious. Plus seeing Dave do the one number with two other guys in what amounts to velvet jammies is also hilarious.

2, The best part about being a librarian is doing that search for something extremely difficult and finding it when no one else could. Seeing the look on someone's face when you have literally saved their paper or whatnot is a good feeling.

3. One thing I would change about the SCA is some of the backbiting and such going on. I would also like to see more courtesy. but that's just me.

4.I was drug to dance practice in September of 1993 by Sue and Julia. I met lots of people that night(Leifr, Grettir among them) but Dave kind of stuck in my head for a number of reasons. So we danced at least once a week for the next month and then we had our first date, and almost 15 years total(12 of them married) here we are.

5. I am not sure I would take the genie up on that. What if I were to turn into an awful person who treats people badly. That is so not who I am(most of the time anyway. Like any human, I have slippages.). So I think I would have to pass. Thanks!!!

[kyleri]

I don't think I've ever asked you to interview me, and I'm sure you'll come up with some good ones (no pressure!).

[cellio]

1. What's the significance of your default userpic?

2. Other than "more available time", what change could most enhance your enjoyment of the SCA?

3. How did you get into making soaps, salves, etc?

4. What's your ideal date like?

5. The genie in the bottle will grant you one superpower. What'll it be?

[alaricmacconnal.livejournal.com]

Me! Me!

[cellio]

1. Do any martial activities still attract you?

2. What style of music would you most like to be able to perform?

3. Were you raised in the Episcopal church or did you find your way there on your own? (And if so, how?)

4. Did you ever have pets before acquiring "step-dogs"?

5. The genie in the bottle has something even better than frequent-flyer miles for you; he's got teleport hops. You can make ten jumps and have to use them up within a year or they expire, because even genies can be stingy about stuff like that. Now what?

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

Me please.

[cellio]

1. What's the niftiest thing you've crocheted (or would like to, if you prefer that question)?

2. What is your favorite holiday and why?

3. What's the best thing about your profession? (I'm being vague here because you haven't written publicly about what you do.)

4. If you could wave a magic wand and eradicate one misuse of the English language, which would it be?

5. The genie in the bottle offers to let you relive one day, with both the promise and the restriction that you can't change anything. Which day?

[fauxklore]

I'm game.

[cellio]

1. Of all the travelling you've done, which place was most interesting to you?

2. Of places you have not yet been, where would you like to go?

3. What trend -- cultural, technical, musical, whatever -- of the last decade or so would you most like to stamp out?

4. What characterizes a good story for performance purposes?

5. The genie in the bottle can arrange for you to be on the first colony ship to the planet of your choice. He says they've worked out basics like a breathable atmosphere and food, but things like communications back to Earth might be iffy. Do you go? (And if so, where?)

[sebastianm.livejournal.com]

Me, too. What the heck!

[cellio]

1. Who is your favorite living composer?

2. You've had a lot of students who Just Don't Get It. Please tell me about one who did. (Please restore my faith in students these days. :-) )

3. How do you want to celebrate your first anniversary?

4. If you could live anywhere, with the guarantee of fulfilling jobs for you both, where would you live?

5. The genie in the bottle can arrange for you to attend one concert of your choice by anyone, living or dead. (This will involve time travel, not reanimation.) Who's it going to be?

[sebastianm.livejournal.com]

Wow -- sorry it has taken me so long to get back to this. What an amazing bunch of questions.

1. Who is your favorite living composer?

This depends on the genre of music you want me to discuss, and it is extremely difficult to tell you. For soundtracks, either Howard Shore or Tom Twyker and his collaborators (I think the soundtrack to Run, Lola, Run is about the most perfect soundtrack out there.) Preisner is also high on my list.

You see, even within one genre, it is difficult. For more popular things, the answer is obvious: Dar Williams. But if we were going for popular music with good arrangements, it might be the songs of Chemene Badi or Elodie Frege. (Francophone pop is still caught somewhere between American pop arrangements and musicals: cheesy and wonderful!)

For hardcore classical stuff: it really depends on the day and the mood that overtakes me. If I am feeling minimalistic, there is nothing like some good Philip Glass. If I am feeling complex, Elliot Carter is someone I like to rock out to (I don't think the phrases "Elliot Carter" and "rock out" have ever been used in such close proximity before, and are likely not ever to be used such again).

2. You've had a lot of students who Just Don't Get It. Please tell me about one who did. (Please restore my faith in students these days. :-) )

I don't post enough about the good students, it is true. I tend to post about the unusual things they do, or when they really get to me. I am blessed, and most of my students are pretty good. And I've had some excellent ones, who have decided to go onto graduate work and are flourishing: one at Michigan (who is working with soundtracks) and one at Brown (who is working on film in general).

And I have a few good and enthusiastic ones "on the farm" right now.

3. How do you want to celebrate your first anniversary?

Ideally? Either by having a meal on the outdoor terrace at L'Oustelet (a small restaurant in Gigondas), or a similar one that I've not yet discovered in Tuscany. Really? Getting away for a few days somewhere quiet, and hiking and reading and cuddling.

4. If you could live anywhere, with the guarantee of fulfilling jobs for you both, where would you live?

Either New Hampshire or the Pacific Northwest. I would like to have mountains and oceans in close proximity. But only if we could find another college like my own, with similar resources.

5. The genie in the bottle can arrange for you to attend one concert of your choice by anyone, living or dead. (This will involve time travel, not reanimation.) Who's it going to be?

Again, this is massively tough. There are places I would like to be just to see if our contemporary view of them is correct (such as the premieres of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring where a riot supposedly broke out, the premiere of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius or Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, because the record of the quality of the performances have been questioned). The historian in me, though, really wants to go to the private recital of Elgar's chamber works in the late 1910s - both to hear them played by performers extremely close to Elgar (such as Billy Reed, a violinist) and to be able to talk with all of Elgar's circle present (including some well-known writers, critics, and artists who were there). Not to mention the opportunity to speak with Elgar -- though he would, in all likelyhood, not speak to me unless I disguised who I was: he did not like academics.

[cellio]

Thanks for the interesting answers! (No need to apologize; it's not like I was all that prompt in getting you the questions either. :-) )

#5: There are two common approaches to this sort of thing, the folks who want to experience something wonderful (go to the best performance they can think of, for a local definition of "best"), and the folks who treat it as a research opportunity. I, like you, tend toward the latter -- it's good to know I'm not alone.

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Sure, you usually ask interesting questions.

[cellio]

1. What job would you like to have (as opposed to what happens to match your skills, location, etc)?

2. What, if anything, has surprised you in your experiences with gender identity?

3. Do you think you'll go back to choral singing? (Or does any other type of performance appeal?)

4. Your interests include "upside-down jellies". Huh?

5. The genie in the bottle wants to do something to help humanity, and so has decided to import one piece of alien technology or science. If you've seen it in any SF setting, assume it's out there. Whatever it is, it'll be widely available after the genie does his thing. You get to choose the tech. What'll it be?

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

I'd be game for this.

[cellio]

1. You've said that Pesach is your favorite holiday. What was the best seder you've been to like?

2. Describe a favorite SCA experience?

3. What's your favorite tractate?

4. What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing the American Jewish community today, and what should we be doing about them?

5. The genie in the bottle can arrange for you to spend a year studying with the teacher of your choice. Who will it be and what will you study?