Interview with Blogger Buddy: "Zuba" of Moomins M.C.: Part 2

If you missed out, click here for Part 1 of this interview.

Quest: Has your accident stopped you from continuing with motorcycling? Have you gotten right back on the horse, or in this case, motorcycle?

Zuba: Yes it has. I told myself right at the start that I wouldn't think about it until I was in a physically fit state to even contemplate the idea. I figured not thinking about it would stop me from tearing my hair out.

Quest: I'm glad that I could help further develop the psychosis, by bringing it up again.

Zuba: Living with one of the blokes who was riding with me when the accident happened, plus still remaining in contact with my motorcycling mates has meant that it's never far from my mind and I have only had positive dreams about it. It's not something I am committing to right now.

Quest: You seem positive about all of this.

Zuba: If I never ride again then I have some awesome memories to look back upon. I also feel like I may have cashed in a lot of my luck chip in this smash. One shouldn't really 'walk away' from an intimate encounter with a 40 tonne truck wearing nothing but a bit of cow and fibreglass and it's not something I would want to go through again.

Quest: So, you've picked up another hobby--photography. How is that working out of you?

Zuba: Really well, actually. Photography is something I have total creative control over. I bought a digital SLR to learn how to operate a proper camera with the idea of using it as a stepping stone to a medium format film camera, which I bought fairly recently. I'm now looking at courses to further my skills and eventually turn it into a professional gig. The learning process has been a lot of fun and is still continuing. I'm at a point now where I can make judgments on camera settings without using a light meter which I am employing in street photography where those skills are so important in being able to get a shot. I love the unpredictability of street photography and the 'hunting' nature of it.

Quest: Physical/Occupational Therapy- physiotherapy -- how is that going?

Zuba:
S L O W
About 90% of it happens in the first 10% of the time and then it just sort of plateaus out. I'm down to one half day a week now. It's still intense and painful and incredibly tedious. I still struggle with motivation but keep telling myself that it's a necessary part of my road to recovery.

Quest: You seem to live life in the fast lane. Risk-taking seems to be the norm. Am I correct in that assessment? Would I be accurate in saying you have a "need for speed?"

Zuba: Risk taking is definitely part of my life. Not so much for the sake of risk, more for the personal challenge. In reality, you risk things every day. Crossing the road is risky even for the able-bodied. Choosing to walk down a particular side of the street at night can be risky. Some people's ideal of risk can be other people's idea of norm. It comes down to subjective opinions, personal experience, and knowledge. You have to know yourself before you can make a decision involving risk. As for speed, we all get some sort of a buzz out of it don't we? I used to be involved in rallying when I was younger, never as a driver but as a navigator, official, service mechanic. It was a lot of fun but you have to prioritise things in your life.

Since the accident, have you quenched this need?

Zuba: Maybe, but I still get a buzz out of driving a tasty winding road, even if it's within the speed limit. I just don't slow down that much for the corners. More of an exercise in fluidity and feeling the machine work the road. Not everyone can comprehend that, but those who do will slowly nod in understanding.

Before the accident, motorcycles were a big part of your lifestyle. Ass chaps, leather abound... Were you one to wear a helmet? Any other required gear?

Zuba: In Australia helmets are compulsory so yes I did wear one. It saved my head and that little mushy thing inside it. It's quite ironic that 6 months before the smash I won $2000 worth of protective motorbike gear in a competition sponsored by the TAC who are now paying for my medical expenses and income support. I highly rate the use of good quality gear as it can make a huge difference in those times when you actually need it. I don't rate arseless leather chaps. So wrong!!!

Quest: Are the cops/troopers your enemy on the road? Do you avoid the fuzz?

Zuba: Nah, not really. They have a job to do and like anyone else they are people too. Some are complete tools and others not. Luck of the draw really.

Quest: Do you and your motorcycle gang invade nearby towns and villages? Are you a part of any gang?

Zuba: Never been a part of a gang. I've ridden through many towns with my mates though. Does that count? Moomins M.C. is the closest to a gang really and that was only fictional.

Quest: Is there motorcycle etiquette that we as drivers should know about? What about amongst other motorcyclists?

Zuba: Probably the best thing one could do to motorcyclists is to be aware of them. That goes for motorists and pedestrians as both can cause a collision. We tend to look out for big things that can harm us like cars, buses, trucks. Bicycles and motorbikes go unnoticed, especially when you're driving your SUV with your phone glued to your ear. Generally speaking motorcyclists are a friendly bunch who will help each other out. Except for the poser types.

Quest: Now what is this about haggling and Jews and Americans? You mention something about J.A.P.s, Jewish American Princesses, in your June post. You say, "not to sound racist, but...." you go on to make a very bigoted statement. Explain yourself.

Zuba: I looked back at that post and to be quite honest it was a bad segue from one story to another. I don't think it was racist although it may have come off that way. Anyone who knows me will testify that I don't have a racist bone in my body. The reference to 'Jewish Princess' was more about the spoilt nature of the little beastie rather than her cultural / religious background. Let's face it, any western tourist trying to screw a couple of petty cents out of a developing country's street peddler will naturally breed contempt and trying to haggle with a duty free shop sales assistant is just plain conceited. Any bad behaviour by tourists will naturally breed contempt for their country of origin. Ummm, that's about as explanatory as I can get on that one, make up your own mind.

Quest: You even take a swipe at Americans saying that you understand why people would aim 2 planes into the towers?

Zuba: Maybe a bit harsh. Refer to above answer. I do however believe that due to the U.S.A.'s foreign policy over the years it's not a total surprise. One could draw a start line in 1898 when the U.S. declared war with Spain over a false claim that the Spaniards destroyed the U.S. ship Maine, which enabled the U.S. to occupy Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.

"There is no room for any outside influence other than ours in this region. We could not tolerate such a thing without incurring grave risks... Until now Central America has always understood that governments which we recognize and support stay in power, while those which we do not recognize and support fall. It is difficult to see how we can afford to be defeated."
--Undersecretary of State Robert Olds (referring to the establishment of a military academy in Nicaragua in 1929)

Saddam Hussein? One minute he's a friend then the next a foe. I don't blame the people of the U.S. more its governments and lobby groups. Don't even get me started on Baby Bush and his buddies. Did I just dig a deeper hole?

Quest: Yeah, but nothing you haven't dug yourself out of before.

Click here for Part 3.



*+*+*+* IF YOU ENJOYED THIS POST, THERE'S MANY MORE TO COME--GET FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL or RSS.

Did you enjoy this post? Buy me a warm cup of joe.

Interview with Blogger Buddy: "Zuba" of MooMins M.C.

This story begins waaaayyyy back... months back... back before you can remember... before you were brought into this world. (Well, maybe not that far back.)

Chris, not to be confused with Chris of East Village Idiot, I met early on in my blogging career. He was really interested in my Metabigotry post and I guess it inspired him so much that mentioned it in his blog. (Awww, I'm so honored.)

And so I felt the need to throw a nod his way and interview my blogger buddy, from "the land down under", Chris "Zuba" Kaszubski, Moomins, M.C. blog:

Quest: What would you like to be called in the interview?

Zuba: My real name is Chris Kaszubski. Year's ago I was in a band and the blokes had trouble pronouncing my surname so that is where "Zuba" came from.

Quest: And the name "BrokenZuba"? Well, how shall I refer to you?

"BrokenZuba" came from one of my rallying mates in Tassie, a simple thing to write in a get well card. It was so much like him to say that and it meant a lot to me. So, you have a choice there, but most of my mates call me "Zuba."

Quest: Okay, Zuba, explain Moomin.

Zuba: Moomins or (Moomintrolls) are characters in a series of children's books written by Tove Jansson. Moomins are weird little critters that look a bit like hippos if they were capable of walking upright, a sight I would very much like to see just for the amusement factor. Moomins are naturally curious critters and manage to get themselves into all sorts of trouble and adventures as a result, they also hibernate during the cold arctic winter after stuffing themselves on pine needles.

Quest: And how do Moomins relate your blog?

My blog started out as a means of documenting the motorcycle touring trips I used to go on. The idea was to record them for posterity and for mates to share with other mates. If Moomins were into motorcycling they would probably get up to the sort of carry on I used to, hence the name of the blog and the slogan.

Quest: That's cute. So explain, "The Alfred".

Zuba: The Alfred is a hospital in Melbourne Australia renowned for their world leading trauma unit, which is where I ended up as a result of the smash in 2006.

Quest: You mean, you were in an accident? A serious one for that matter!

Zuba: Yes, luckily, I had a team of truly gifted surgeons working on me which has resulted in my keeping the right leg and being able to use it, as well as gaining a couple of pounds in internal metal fixations.

Quest: Wow! I'm glad to see you're okay. Consider yourself lucky. May I ask, how old are you?

Zuba: Ripe old age of 32, what a way to start my 30's eh!? I look at my life before the smash as a sort of dress rehearsal for the rest of my days. There are things I'd learnt about myself as a result which have changed me in a positive manner.

Quest: You currently reside/blog from where?

Zuba: That would be sunny Melbourne in the antipodes! Where people wear black, eat really good food, enjoy an artistically rich life, boil in the summer, freeze in the winter and generally reap the benefits of a fairly salubrious lifestyle.

Quest: Not to poke fun at your recent accident, but if this were a movie, and you got a chance to take a step back and review your life, do you see a comedy of errors theme?

Zuba: I don't know if I would use the term comedy of errors, but there have certainly been plenty of moments to draw comedic inspiration from. There have also been plenty of errors too. For one, the truck driver's error in being on the incorrect side of the road on a blind corner. And my missed diagnosis resulting in my attempts to walk on a fractured hip socket.

Quest: Ew!

Zuba: My roomies had provided some laughs ( in retrospect ) like the one who would insist on giving me a running commentary on his bowel movements.

Quest: Hey, Everybody likes a good d*ck and fart joke.

Zuba: I guess I tried to see the funny side of my run in with the semitrailer. Hey if you can't laugh about it, you might as well just curl up in a corner and pack it in.

Quest: My point exactly, which is why we comedians do what we do--try and spread the laugher! (pause) But you had a serious bout with life and danger. You stated you ended up with: 12 broken bones, a free helicopter ride to the hospital, and a year's supply of morphine. Anything else we missed out on? (By the way, in the States, that helicopter ride wouldn't have been free.)

Zuba: Well, there were indeed 12 bones fractured, but only one had a single clean fracture. The rest were multiples ranging from spiral to compound fractures. The lower right leg, upper left and right leg, a couple of knuckles, wrist, two forearm bones, collar bone and pelvis--pretty much every corner.

I was lucky to be able to keep my leg. I've received at least 8 pints of blood during the many operations and will probably receive more in the next surgery as it will take over 4 hours to remove most of the metalwork.

The helicopter ride was free as there is a wonderful system in place here which is designed to pay for all medical expenses of road trauma victims regardless of fault. Same goes for the morphine, good stuff eh? That's the majority of it really, there are other things but they pale in significance.

Quest: And then the photos of your injuries--there's nothing funny about that. I have to say that I almost vomited looking at and I've never considered myself a sensitive one. I don't even quake at horror movies or gross out films.

Zuba: Yeah there were some good ones, eh? Some of my mates had similar reactions when they saw me in hospital. I've never seen that many shades of white and green. I am hoping to have clinical photography dept. I will take some shots of the next surgery. Keep a look out for those ones!

Quest:How long did it take for full recovery? How long did it take you to get back on your feet?

Zuba: The recovery is a work in progress. It's been just over 18 months and I'm facing at least 3 more surgical procedures to finalize the medical side. It took 11 months for me to take my first unaided steps and that was only for a few meters, but it meant the world to me.

Quest: I can only imagine. It seems like a series of feats.

Zuba: From lying in in a bed for two months, to being craned out into an electric wheel chair, then getting into a manual one, onto a pair of crutches, then one and finally none has been a painful and challenging experience, but one that has demonstrated to me just how much we take walking for granted.

Quest: You got the use of a set of wheels, right? An electric wheel chair? How was that? What did you learn from that experience?

Zuba: Well, I did get told off for speeding in the hospital. The wheelchair's speed is controlled by joystick. And years of playing with joysticks in my teenage years, along with a natural desire to go fast...well, let's say that I got the hang of it pretty quickly. And the first time I could stand being in the chair for an extended period of time was when I absconded from the ward to visit the pub across from the hospital.

Quest: Being wheelchair bound probably makes your see life from a different angle, after being on your feet for 30 years of your life.

Zuba: The wheel chair experience was enlightening as you really have no idea as to the problems and prejudices faced by people who will never get out of one.

Quest: And you still have crutches that you use?

Zuba: I did find a novel use for my crutches. At a music festival, where I had one of my mates hold onto one as I turned them upside down and put them to use as stilts in order to see over people's heads.

Quest: So at least you're now walking.

Zuba: Though, I still haven't returned to a natural gait. I intend to do some day walks in the bush around November to try and build up strength before the next surgery. Running is out of the question at the moment and kneeling is very painful. But at least I have legs, eh?

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Chris "Zuba"'s interview...


*+*+*+* Zuba's story was a fascinating one and if you want to hear more, then SIGN-UP! Get FREE UPDATES by EMAIL or RSS.

Did you enjoy this post? Buy me a warm cup of joe.

Interview with blogger East Village Idiot (Part 5 of 5)

Quest: So you work in advertising. Do you think the industry affects your sense of humor or perhaps what you blog about?

Chris: I think it restricts what I blog about. I don't specifically blog about what I do. I don't write too much about my worklife. The people I work with know I have a blog and some of them read my blog. I don't want to impose on them, or paint a bad image of myself or my company on my blog.

Quest: What about industry specific? Blogging about the advertising industry?

Chris: I ranted a few weeks ago about an ad that's actually made for one of the clients at our firm. We didn't create the ad. I won't point it out. I don't know if I really should really say this. But I had to say something about it because it was driving me nuts. I take a laymen's perspective of advertising on my blog. I don't necessarily utilize the fact that I have experience in the industry. I'll leave that to the professionals. Like, have you ever read Copyranter?

Quest: Copyranter? No, but I have see ad...ad....?

Chris: AdRants? There's a site called Adrants. The Copyranter--I wouldn't say he's grizzled, but he's definitely a disgruntled copywriter who rants about some of the crap that he sees in advertising. And occasionally stuff he likes, but mostly its stuff he hates.

Quest: What about the AMC original series, Mad Men?

Chris: Oh, I love that show!

Quest: Never seen it. I've only seen the advertisements!

Chris: It's hilarious because it's not too far-fetched to think that the Ad Industry was totally full of sexual harassment and blatantly out in the open at that time. When I was in school, we reading about advertising ---learning about advertising--we read books about what the ad industry was like in the 60s. Doing Liquid lunches. Smoke in your office.
Although I did have one co-worker who smoked in her office.

Quest: Liquid lunches?

Chris: Drinking on the job.

Quest: When did the blogging bug bite? When you came back from Vermont?

Chris: I was blogging while I was still up there. But the purpose was not to blog obsessively. I think it was when I got that first wave of attention--it was like, "BoOM, wow, this is kinda fun. Maybe I should do this more often." That was about a year and a half ago. It just took off from there. I think that was about the time I started posting every single day. And then it became multiple times a day. Usually, I try for twice a day.

Quest: What about weekends?

Chris: Weekends I take off. No one reads on the weekends! I'm serious. If you look at my traffic, there's a little dip every weekend--Saturday and Sunday. I've probably done myself a disservice by not posting anything on weekends. Because even if they are online over the weekend, they probably think, "Oh, he doesn't post anything new." Like I said, I write on the weekends. I store material for the week ahead. I don't post on weekends. Weekends are my down time.I don't need to be obsessed with my blog on weekends. During the week, I'll check my time, statistics. I'll check my email like four or five times a day.

Quest: Why did you start?

Chris: I started to keep my friends updated on what's going on in my life. It was a fluke that it took off and became anything other than that. If you look back at my archives, to the very beginning. It was stuff like, "I went out with my friends for a mutual friend's birthday. Here are some pictures of us falling over."

There were actually very few pictures of me on my blog. The one's that I do have are hard to find. I was never someone who has wanted to be stopped on the street. That hasn't happened although I have run into a fan by accident. And this kind of freaked me out.

I got invited to this party associated with this website. Most of the people who were there were users of the site. I hadn't used the site, but they tried to get me to use the site. So I was sitting around with a bunch of people who were users of the site.

So they said to me, "Why are you here?"

I responded, "I write a blog."

"Oh really? What blog do you writer?"

"The East Village Idiot."

And right after I said that, this one guy at the table jumped out of his seat. "OMG! You're the East Village Idiot!?! I read your blog everyday."

I was like, "Whoa!" That was the moment when I realized that maybe this is something bigger than I thought.


*+*+*+* IF YOU ENJOYED THIS POST, THERE'S MANY MORE TO COME--GET FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL or RSS.

Did you enjoy this post? Buy me a warm cup of joe.

Interview with blogger East Village Idiot (Part 4 of many)

[To read Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3 of this interview. ]


Quest: So why were you an idiot for moving to Vermont from New York City? It sounds like you had a lot of fun in Vermont.

Chris: Okay, I had fun there, but I came right back to the city. I had to ask myself, "Why did I do this?" And here's why I'm an idiot: I wasted so much money moving up there. I had to buy a car. And then I had to sell the car and take the loss on it. I took a salary cut to move up there to take the job. Because then cost of living is less. "Oh wait! But I have to have a car which will basically reduce my cost of living." So then it ended up being the exactly the same.

Living up there I was pretty much the only person who was 24 years old and single and employed. Cause everyone else moving up there was as a hippie--OMG, The damn dirty hippies-- or a hick.

I think the funniest thing was that I moved to Vermont being a dyed-in-the-wool New England liberal, and left Vermont so frustrated by the crazy hippies there that I definitely became a lot more conservative than I was before I moved up there.

The Hippies were like, "No we don't want this drug store here because drug stores are bad."

I say, "You medicate yourself your way. Let me medicate myself my way."

It was absolutely absurd. It was just bizarre. I rolled my eyes so much there.
And Oh my god everyone drives so slowly up there. On a road where the speed limit's like 55 and they'll travel at 35. It'll be on a two lane road and you're stuck behind them for 20 miles without a passing zone. "OMG I just want to get home!"

Quest: But where are they going? Not everyone is driving to work. There shouldn't be any rush hour traffic.

Chris: Burlington is a pretty condensed city, but the State of Vermont is incredibly rural. Basically, outside of Burlington vermont, it's pretty much like Alabama--in so many ways. Outside of burlington, Vermont is pretty much like alabama only much, much, whiter.

Burlington is frigid. It was so cold during the winter. I used to walk to work because I lived downtown and worked downtown. (It was my small attempt at bringing a piece of New York City with me to Vermont.) So one week we had a string of ridiculously cold days. The high temperature was below zero--the high was below zero.

And then one day, I stepped outside my door and it was sunny and it was clear and there was no wind. It was absolutely beautiful outside. The sun was shining. You could see across the lake--the mountains on the Adirondacks are on the other side. I unzipped coat. I took off my hat. I took off my scarf. I was like, "Oh, this is so great!!"

And so I walk into our office and the receptionist is there. And I turn to her and say, "It's a beautiful day out there today."

She responds cheery, "Yeah, it's 5!"

And she was right. It was five degrees. When it's minus 15 degrees every morning for a week straight, 5 feels warm. It's like it being 20 degrees for a week and then it's 40.

Quest: Wow, that's Canadian weather!

Chris: We were practically in Canada. There are parts of Canada that are further south than Burlington, VT.

Quest: Isn't Montreal nearby?

Chris: Uh huh.

Quest: How close is Montreal?

Chris: About an hour and 15 mins away. It was nice. I used to go up there a lot. Actually I used to shop at IKEA. Here's the problem with going to IKEA in Quebec, specifically.

You see like a little gadget. It's a Swedish name and there's no real description of what it is. Or there's a description, but it's not really clear what you can actually do with this thing. Imagine having all those descriptions in french.

Quest: It's supposed to be bilingual. The national languages are french and english.

Chris: Oh, no! It's barely bilingual. Honestly, if you were driving through some parts of Quebec and your car broke down and you had to pull over and need help. You might not find someone who speaks english. There are certain enclaves in Quebec that are strictly french speaking.

I went to a French-Canadian McDonald's inside a French-Canadian Walmart. It was the two most American things you could ever do in Québec. It was so weird. It was like walking into this alternate dimension, where everything looks the same except it's in French.

As you cross the border, if you have Vermont plates on your car, they're pretty lenient. Occasionally, you have to pop your trunk on the way back.


*+*+*+* IF YOU ENJOYED THIS POST, THERE'S MANY MORE TO COME--GET FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL or RSS.

Did you enjoy this post? Buy me a warm cup of joe.

Interview with blogger East Village Idiot (Part 3 of many)

[To read Part 1 or Part 2 of this interview. ]

Quest: What is the line of demarcation, in years, where a person can officially say he/she's a New Yorker?

Chris: Well, this is a tough question. I moved to New York right after college and lived here for about a year and a half, left and then came back. So I've been here about 3 and a half years now, total. I'm feeling more and more like one everyday.

I am really bothered by native New Yorkers who say, "If you didn't grow up here you can never be a true New Yorker."

And I say in response, "Excuse me." All right, to a certain extent, yeah. I'll never know what it's like to have gone to high school here or something. But how does that make me less of a New Yorker than you. You're still going through the same experiences that I'm going through on a daily basis. I've put up with it for the 3.5 years. And if you're my age and you went to college and are coming back you've probably been through it for 3.5 years, too! So, I think the whole concept is kind of ridiculous. When you first move to the city and you know nothing about it--that's one thing. I've taken the time and I've definitely passed that learning curve.

Quest: Which is how long?

Chris: I hesitate to put a number on it. (pause) You work to get to know the city. I'm one of those people who will explore the outer regions of Brooklyn and Queens. I will gladly go to the Bronx. I've been to Staten Island. I bet there are many New Yorkers who have never been to Staten Island. I can guarantee you that! Although there are also New Yorkers who truly believe that Staten Island is not a part of New York. I concur because I've been there.

How about this? The day you become a true New Yorker is the day that you're willing to openly berate someone for doing something that frustrates you in public.

Quest: Get out! You've done that?

Chris: Oh, absolutely! I have verbalized my frustration at people before. Actually, it was on the 1st Ave subway station one morning. This girl had a large backpack she was wearing. And she was standing on the platform--the platform was really crowded waiting for the L-train.

This commuter says to her, "It's too crowded for you to be wearing that thing in here!"

She says in response, "If you don't like it, you take a cab!"

He says, "Well, you're the one who has a big bag. You should go and take a cab!"

So I say to the guy, "Why don't you f*ckin' stop judging people and go take a cab"

The girl turns to me and says, "Thank you."

There are days when the frustration level reaches a peak and I can't deal with it anymore. So, I'm going to say something.

On a crowded subway, you know you're not going to get beaten up for voicing your opinion because there are fifty other people around you.

Quest: You seem to have strong sentiments towards the city. Was that always apparent? Were you always a city boy?

Chris: When I was a little kid and even up to the age of twenty, I always said, "I'll never live in New York city. I hate New York city. I hate big cities, in general. You can't even get me to live in downtown Boston."

And now look at a me! I'm living in Manhattan of all places--everything I feared about New York has come to life. It was just an irrational fear. I think it was fear of the unknown. And then I was immediately in love with the city.

Not even the day I moved here, but the day I came here to start looking at apartments. I remember asking myself, "Why did I ever think twice?" And just think, if I hadn't come to that realization, I could be in Boise, Idaho, right now. So I'm grateful for that.

Quest: I'm sure many of your readers are grateful, too! (pause) But what about New York city makes people stay? There's definitely a camaraderie I think is apparent that most tourists miss out on.

Chris: Yeah, definitely. The thing about New York that the denizens get to experience is the community aspect of it all. People look after each other here. Just a month into my moving into the city, was the blackout in August 2003. Things in New York were kinda crazy. Everyone was kinda freaking out a little bit.

I helped this girl who was completely lost. She was in a tizzy when she approached me and lists off her predicament: "The subways aren't running. I can't catch a cab. I don't know how I'm going to get home."

So I said, "Walk with me. You're walking in the right direction."
I got to my apartment, went upstairs got her a map, gave it her, and highlighted the route for her to get home.

The second act of kindness during the blackout I witnessed was where this guy had a fainted on the Queensboro bridge. (I walked over the Queensboro to get back to Brooklyn, which seems counter productive but I was living in Greenpoint then. It wasn't that far out of the way.)

So this guy passed out on the bridge. And everyone was freaking out. It's literally in the middle of the bridge. There was no way we could carry him all the way across the bridge. There were cars on the bridge, but they weren't moving because they were just enveloped with pedestrians, who were also walking across the bridge. So twenty people flagged down a Fed-Ex truck, cleared the way, put the guy on the truck, ran down the bridge alongside the truck, moving people aside to get the truck across the bridge. New Yorkers actually looking out for others in times of crisis? It happens.

Quest: So what's the connection to Vermont?

Chris: This is a funny story. Here's the theme: I'm an idiot.

Quest: ...as it says in your title of your blog.

Chris: Except it's not just the title of my blog. Here's what happened: When I was living in New York. It was a really hot summer, the second summer I lived here. I was like, "I can't stand the heat. I can't stand the crowds. I can't stand this city anymore. I have to get out!!!"

Quest: You had a breakdown.

Chris: I just had a complete breakdown. I'm just like, "I cannot deal with this anymore. I hate slow pedestrians. I hate how stuffy the subway is. Bad example, but I was like, "I hate waiting 25 mins for the G train." (That was my own damned fault for deciding to live in Greenpoint.)

So I was like, "That's it--I'm moving!" I took a job at an ad agency in Burlington, Vermont and moved up there. I lived up there for two winters. Skiied the heck out of those winters--had probably the greatest summer of my life. You remember the Seinfeld episode, The Summer of George? The summer I lived up there was The Summer of Chris. I was on a boat every weekend, out on the lake or hiking, kayaking. I was swimming in swimming holes...

And then I realized: "I am sooo bored up here."

Think about it. There 40,000 people living in Burlington, VT.

And then there are 40,000 people living in a 10 block radius of this pizza place. There are 40,000 people in Burlington and it's the largest city in the state!!!

I realized that I have to come back to the city.

[ Part 4 of this interview can be found here


*+*+*+* IF YOU ENJOYED THIS POST, THERE'S MANY MORE TO COME--GET FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL or RSS.

Did you enjoy this post? Buy me a warm cup of joe.

Interview with blogger East Village Idiot (Part 2 of many)

[To read Part 1 of this interview.]

Quest: How do you feel about anonymous comments v. fellow blogger's comments v. regulating comments v. commenting in general?

Chris: I have to say that Gawker commenters are--I hate to say this because I am a commenter on Gawker--but they're the scum of the earth.

Quest: I didn't realize you had a specific "most hated" commenter. So you mean, Gothamist and all those guys?

Chris: Oh, yeah. If you're commenting on a blog, unless you're a fan of what you're reading, you're probably commenting because you don't like what you've read. I had a string of two posts last summer that were both linked by Gawker over a span of 2-3 days. People threw insults my way. People called me a rapist and a womanizer. I'm like, "What!?!"

So I guess the old adage is true: "Anyone can say anything on the internet."

I'll let anyone say whatever they want on my blog as long it's within reason. If it's completely and totally offensive, then I will go in and delete a comment. Luckily, that's only happened once or twice. It's a democracy.

I don't ever moderate my comments, but I do have a spam filter. And sometimes things that aren't spam, end up in my spam filter. Someone will tell me, "I posted a comment and you won't let it go up." And then it's followed by a nasty email. I get blamed for it, but honestly I didn't even know. I'll go to my spam filter and there will be three comments from people waiting to be approved. So fair warning to commenters: There are certain words that someone might use which will trigger the filter. You just have to be aware and be patient.

Quest: I was thinking of switching over to Wordpress. You're using Wordpress, right?

Chris: Yes. You can do more, but you can do less with Wordpress, too. It's very restrictive in terms of templates and they don't allow flash or anything on the site. It really restricts what you can do. Today I had a post from CollegeHumor.com and it's because of that restriction that just a couple weeks ago, I migrated to a new server--just so that I could use flash again. Wordpress, if you host it on your own server, is a lot more flexible.

Quest: If you're hosted somewhere else, then it's more flexible.

Chris: Right.

I was so blown away by the tech stuff. I'm not a technical person at all. When I had to move all my stuff over to a server, it became a nightmare. I spent 12 hours on a beautiful Saturday sitting in front my computer all day trying to figure it all out. All these code words and everything--The "php" dot file. I don't trust myself messing with files when I don't know what they control.

Quest: What do you use, Mac or PC?

Chris: I have a Mac. Although, if I'm posting at work, I'm posting on a PC.

Quest: Do you consider yourself funny?

Chris: I don't think of myself of as funny. I think it would be really cocky to say that I'm funny. I thrive on feedback. And when I don't receive any, I begin to get nervous. Last week was a prime example: Summer's over and there's work on the table for everyone. And suddenly every one stopped commenting. I put a post up saying, 'What the hell guys? You're not giving me any feedback at all.' And then people started commenting are even moreso, which was good.

Quest: You actually posted, 'Why aren't you commenting?', to your readers?

Chris: Yes, and it worked.

Quest: So were you a class clown in school?

Chris: OMG, I was the biggest recluse in school. In school, I was the quiet one. No one expects that now. I did a total about-face. I was funny-looking, but I was never actually funny growing up as a kid. In my earlier years, I was totally an attention-whore. I will gladly admit this. When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a game show host when I grew up. I would have my grandparents as contestants. I would ask them questions about my favorite cartoons. And they wouldn't know the answers and they would lose. I would get fed up with them and throw things at them. I was a really vindictive game show host! I was one sexual harassment suit away from being the next Bob Barker.

Quest: Niiiiiice.

Chris: I actually have two friends who won the Showcase Showdown on The Price is Right.

Quest: Whoa!

Chris: I mean, won it all!

Quest: Aren't they taxed when they win?

Chris: Oh, yeah! They all had to shovel out ridiculous amounts of money in taxes, just to get their prizes. So you actually don't want to win it all on The Price is Right. Winning cash is one thing because they can just take it out--they can just garnish the cash. But with prizes it's different.

Quest: Why?

Chris: If you a win a prize, for example: if you win a car, you can't just saw the car into two pieces and give the government 52% of it.

Quest: Why not just sell it?

Chris: But, you have to pay the taxes just to receive it.

Quest: No wonder people were so pissed about the Oprah car giveaway. I would opt for Jeopardy any day.

Chris: Yeah. (pause) I once was a contestant on Cash Cab.

Quest: Really?! How did that turn out?

Chris: We ended up losing it all before we got to our destination.

Quest: Bummer. Sorry to hear that. But Ben Bailey is a mad genius of a comedian.

Chris: Yes!! Ben Bailey is a sorely underrated! People don't realize how terribly funny he is. You spend 45 laugh out loud minutes in the cab with him, and you only get to see a snippet of his personality edited into 7 min.

Quest: Do you think you have to develop sense of humor to live in NY in order to survive?

Chris: Oh, absolutely! I think if I didn't have a sense of humor about the things that I see in the city on a daily basis and the things that I deal with on a daily basis here, I would be a miserable person.

We're sharing so much of our personal space. There are people that live out in suburban midwestern cities that never come within 3 feet of someone in a given day. And here we are stuffing ourselves into a subway train, giving each other our six inches of personal space.

Quest: Is that humor or couldn't that be misconstrued as just plain patience?

Chris: I don't think that it's patience because no one in NY is patient. Let's be honest. We're always in a rush to get to our destination. I admit, I have Pedestrian Rage. Just like most people have Road Rage while driving, I have Pedestrian Rage. We have to replace it with something. It fills that little void that we left behind when I sold my car. There's no way you could get by if you didn't just roll your eyes and kind of chuckle to yourself this person in front of me is plodding down the stairs really slowly. One on the local and one on the express track. And I just put up my arms. You get frustrated but you just have to brush it off.

[ The continuation, Part 3, of this interview you can find here. ]



*+*+*+* IF YOU ENJOYED THIS POST, THERE'S MANY MORE TO COME--GET FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL or RSS.

Did you enjoy this post? Buy me a warm cup of joe.

Interview with blogger East Village Idiot (Part 1 of many)

I got a chance to interview the coolest blogger this side of 14th street and 3rd Ave. His name is Chris, of the blog East Village Idiot. And some surprising things popped up during this interview!

Believe it or not there will be a Part Two. (My recording device stopped mid-interview--yeah, super professional of me, right? There was too much to talk about.) Our story begins in a land called "The East Village" at a pizzeria shop near 14th street:

Quest: So you originally grew up where?

Chris: In the smallest state with the longest name, Rhode Island; the official state name is the "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."

Quest: In your "About" section, on your blog, you state your point of the blog is, "To ramble incoherently about the world around us. And occasionally, make people laugh in the process." So right off the bat, you have an immediate connection to comedy. Care to elaborate?

Chris: I always thought of myself as less of a comedian and more of humorist. I think there's a distinct difference between being a comedian and being a humorist. A humorist is funny on paper. A lot of my friends say, 'You're horribly unfunny in person. You're really funny on your blog. Why can't you be that funny in person?' I think my tone comes across better in writing than it does verbally. People can interpret [my writing] in different ways. I think I'm very sarcastic. I don't know if that necessarily comes across. The ambiguity actually works to my advantage.

I remember I wrote a piece when the "Don Imus thing" happened. It was titled "Five quotes from other radio personalities." [These quotes were] some really offensive things that famous radio personalities like Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and Neal Boortz had said. These guys are all whack-o far right radio talk-show hosts. They're carried on ten times more stations than Don Imus is and they're still employed. I just put the quotes up. I put no commentary behind it all. Probably about 100,000 people visited my blog just for that post. It was on Digg.com and several other social bookmarking sites. Plus, there were about 70-80 people who actually commented on the blog.

The responses varied from:

"Oh yeah, I totally agree with you. These people should be fired."

to

"Oh, yeah I totally agree with you. Don Imus shouldn't have been fired."

I didn't make a judgment one way or the other. It wasn't meant to be funny, but it served to vent my frustrations at the time. That happens on occasion: I'll have a post that's not meant to be funny at all, but instead though-provoking. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does sometimes [as a blogger] you get more attention.

[To see the quotes that Chris refers to, see this [link to A.B.W's blog]

I always ask myself. Why are people keep coming back and reading? I must be doing something right. It's really strange, too. I received an IM the other day from a reader. She started with, 'My friends and I were debating something on your blog.' Now I'm thinking about how odd this situation is. Let's put this in perspective: This total stranger is talking with her other friends, who are also total strangers, about something that I wrote. Two years of blogging and it still hasn't processed in my mind that people do [add my blog posts into their daily conversation.] People actually consider what I say. I never meant for it to get to the point that it has. I am very appreciative of the fact that it has gotten to this point. It was just meant to be tongue-in-cheek stuff for my friends to read. And then all of a sudden it blew up!

Quest: What was the date your blog 'blew up'? What's the timeline from 'beginning blogger' to 'blogger phenom'? Explain how it worked for you.

Chris: The first six months you have no audience. If you keep up your consistency, if you keep being funny, and you keep putting effort into it, it'll pay off.

The post that got me off the ground (and I always credit my friend for this) came out of the blue. My friend who lives in Washington D.C. called me drunk at midnight on a weeknight. She says to me, "My friend is driving and we're lost." I say, "Okay where are you?" She communicated where they were. So I told her, 'No, you're going the wrong way. You need to turn around.' After this whole conversation took place, I mapped it out on a map to emphasize the fact that they double-backed twice and then drove halfway the other way across town. And the website, Wonkette picked it up.

Quest: Wonkette?

Chris: It's a political blog/website owned by Gawker media. It was started by Ana Marie Cox, who works for Time Magazine right now. All of the sudden out of nowhere one day that post got linked. Every now and then I check to see how many people are reading the blog. All of a sudden I go from having 30 of my closest friends reading it once a day to 2,000 people. I remember asking myself, 'Why have 2,000 people visited today? Who are these people?'

Quest: How do you manage to multiple posts in one day? How many ideas? I notice you don't do long drawn out post. At most 200-500 words. You use a lot of pictures/images. What is your M.O. when it comes to your posts?

Chris: Literally, an idea will pop into my head or I'll see something on the street, and I'll say, "I have to blog that!" or "I'm taking a picture! It's going in the blog." My camera phone kinda need an upgrade. The pictures are kinda grainy. But for now, it does the job. Next investment: New camera.

With regards to posts, what I try to do is if I have ideas that aren't timely, I'll store them for a slow day. I post during the day, but I usually don't write during the day. (I'm working during the day, obviously I'm not writing.) Unless, it's something brief that I really want to profile and it's very timely and specific to that day--then during lunchtime I'll throw it up.

Other than that, on Saturdays or Sundays, you'll find me either at my couch at home or at Starbux sitting down for an hour or two pumping out a few ideas.


[ Part 2 is continued in this next post. ]

*+*+*+* IF YOU ENJOYED THIS POST, THERE'S MANY MORE TO COME--GET FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL or RSS.

Did you enjoy this post? Buy me a warm cup of joe.