Because I was so preoccupied the last few weekends, I forgot to do the Friday Five, so here’s a special triple-bill for ya, numbers 11, 12 and lucky 13:
1. If you could eat dinner with and “get to know” one famous person (living or dead), who would you choose?
Henry Rollins or the late D. Boon. I think both would be very interesting and stimulating conversationists.
2. Has the death of a famous person ever had an effect on you? Who was it and how did you feel?
Not directly, no, but I do think that the deaths of famous people get totally blown out of proportion (witness all the crap about the Queen Mother popping her clogs).
3. If you could BE a famous person for 24 hours, who would you choose?
I wouldn’t want to ‘be’ anyone else in the sense of my mind replacing another’s in the other’s body, but in the Being John Malkovich perceiving-what-the-other-perceives sense I guess I’d like to get inside the head of Mike Watt. The man lives a crazy, yet totally down to earth life.
4. Do people ever tell you that you look like someone famous? Who?
Ethan says I look like Squarepusher. It depends on the light, I guess.
5. Have you ever met anyone famous?
If you mean by met ‘someone I’ve been in potential interpersonal relations with’, then besides shaking hands with J Mascis, having a headlock put on me by Bill Kazmaier (he didn’t last long as a wrestler, but he teamed with Jushin Liger at Starrcade ’91 a couple of weeks after my encounter with him – one degree of separation between myself and one of the greatest pro wrestlers who’s ever lived), getting a dirty look from Kevin Nash (I’ve got a photo to prove it – in philosophical terms it counts), serving a small popcorn and coke to the singer from Ash (what a shite band, really), and doing the old good-customer-service bit with Gerard Butler and Michael Wincott* (who was really cool, a real class act), I could rattle off a whole list of people. I’ve been kinda lucky in my time so far on this mortal coil.
*I didn’t know who either of these people were at the time, which probably explains why I was able to converse with them without being completely starstruck.
1. What are the first things that you do in the morning to start your day?
I get up. I get dressed. I brush my teeth. Then I leave. I’m not a morning person.
2. What are the last things that you do at night before going to bed?
I watch TV, and fall asleep with the TV on.
3. What daily routine have you recently added to your day?
I make much more of an effort to take my daily vitamin pill.
4. What routine do you wish you get rid of?
Having to get up in the morning.
5. What’s the one thing that makes you feel like something is missing if you don’t do it some point within your day?
Checking my e-mail I guess. I dunno why.
1. What’s your favorite TV show and why?
Teachers – unlike other supposed comedy/drama type series depicting the lives of twenty-somethings that end up just being overly-hyped pretentious and patronising rubbish (This Life is a perfect example, I loathed it), this just works. I left school relatively recently, and I could really imagine some of my old teachers being like that. I must say that even though the show is only on its second series, it’s developed quite a lot, especially with the splash of Pythonesque nonsense – which itself I feel is a reflection of the lack of sense we often find in everyday life, so it’s far from detrimental to the quality of the writing and the acting (particularly the one who plays Susan, she’s gorgeous; ’tis a pity she’s a smoker).
2. Who is your favorite television star?
I don’t have one.
3. What was your favorite TV show as a child?
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. I was distraught when Mattel ruined it all in 1989, deleting the Masters (and effectively the TV show) and replacing the old He-Man with some long-haired hippy, and a new cartoon with horrible cheapy French-style animation. The fools. Now is the time to bring them back. Hell, even Hasbro are bringing back some of their old Transformers this year.
4. What show do you think should have been cancelled by now?
I don’t really care. If I don’t like a show, I just don’t watch it.
5. What new show do you hope escapes the axe this season?
I don’t really think about that much since most of the telly I watch is on the British terrestrial channels, and the business over there isn’t as cutthroat as it is on the other side of the pond.