FREQUENTLY FIELDED QUERIES (FFQ)

Is it true that you were a quiz kid?

Only in the most Canadian possible sense. You might know me from the preliminary, radio-only round of CBC’s SmartAsk. My team lost by one question. You’d think I’d remember what it was.

How many times have you moved?

32 times.

Bob Dylan or Neil Young?

Leonard Cohen.

What’s the silliest thing you’ve ever been paid for?

Not quite paid, but I had my expenses reimbursed (plus per diem) to fly from New Orleans to Portland to press play on a pirated copy of Stop Making Sense for some fellow Reed College alumni.

What are five perfect consumer goods?

Blundstone 550s.
Koss PortaPros.
The Volkswagen GTI.
Wigwam Thermax Cap II.
Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Pure-Castile Soap.

What are your favorite places?

Manly Beach, Sydney.
Hey Cafe, New Orleans.
Sutro Baths, San Francisco.
Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas wing of The Met, New York.
Your Dekalb Farmers Market, Decatur, Georgia.

What are the most useless literary terms you know?

Hysteron proteron, pleonasm, and zeugma.

What’s You and Your Band supposed to mean?

Listen to the LCD Soundsystem song “Losing My Edge.”

What should I watch?

Phantom of the Paradise by Brian De Palma or Paddington 2 by Paul King.