Dan4th Interviews Me

[plumtreeblossom]

1. Have you ever had short hair?

Not for many years, but yes, there were two blocks of time when I had short hair, willingly or not. The first was in elementary school, starting in 2nd grade or so. My mom was a short-hair person, and she wanted me to be one, too. Back in those days, kids didn't generally get a say in things like clothes or hair styles -- we were simply plopped down in the hairdresser's chair and given the cut of our parent's choosing. I hated it and felt that every bit of my femaleness had been cut off with it. I started favoring dresses and skirts even more than I had before. After 2 years of fight and struggle, I was allowed to grow it down to a shoulder-length bob.

The second time started in my senior year of high school. I was going through an odd-for-me conformist period (encouraged by the Dartmouth boy I was in love with). It was the 80s and everyone had short hair. I thought it would help me present myself more seriously at college interviews. I cut it almost boy-short, and wore it in various short configurations all through college and a few years after. Dammit, I must remember to get some old photos from my mother's house of that period. There's one of me that is so classic 80s -- Stray Cat's pompadour hairstyle, "FEED THE WORLD" baggy T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, narrow pleather pants, Peter Pan boots, and O-ring bracelets. You could wear it today to an 80s theme party, but I was wearing it for reals. Gnarly!


2. Is there any celebrity that you'd do just for the bragging rights?

Mmmm, I don't think so. There are any number that I might do for the sake of doing, because I think they're hot, but not just to brag. Kevin Spacey, Lenny Kravitz, Joaquin Phoenix, Parker Posey...

Oh, okay fine. I'd do Bourdain and broadcast it across the globe.


3. What do you like about performing? What (if anything) do you dislike about it?

Well, separating the experience of performing from the overall experience of being in a show (which brings in an element of the social and the collective drive):

I adore the volley of energy between audience and performer, and I especially love being on the performance end of that exchange. I love being able to adjust my timing according to audience reaction. I love how a simple eye movement can produce laughter. I love when the audience reacts to something that I never thought would draw a reaction.

That said, memorizing lines sucks big donkey balls. It's very difficult and it takes huge effort to learn and retain lines. I can do it, and the results are worth it, but it requires serious effort from me. I know a handful of people who have photographic memories and can read a script once and hardly ever have to look at it again. I'm not that. I have to drill.

Non Sequitur Corner: I have a long-standing desire to someday play a ravingly insane person who thrashes and bites and roars around the stage. The mad Bertha Rochester from Jane Eyre would fit this desire perfectly. If anyone ever hears of auditions for that play, let me know!


4. Under what circumstances, if any, do you try to conceal the fact that you smoke?

What? I don't smoke!

Actually, all of my friends know. When newer aquaintences find out, they say idiotic things like "Gosh, and I thought you were so smart, so cultured..." and then I don't like them anymore and never speak to them again except perhaps to issue a curt monosylable through a sneer. I don't hide the fact that I smoke (it's in my OKCupid profile, for example), but I do hide the physical act of smoking. I go outside, I go around a corner, I hold the cigarette away if a non-smoker comes up to talk to me. I would never light a cigarette indoors at someone's house or in their car, even if they said I could. Everybody seems to think that every person who smokes is a 4-pack-a-day chain smoker who grinds out their butts in people's carpets. I'm a light smoker and am polite as I possibly can be about it, most often by removing myself to the outdoors, away from people.

[A note about the icon photo -- it was taken in 1993, in an abandoned building, during a professional photo shoot. I was about 30. Don't worry, I was not smoking in anyone's house, and the photographer requested I light up so she could get it in the shots.]


5. What single item (not person) would make you happiest if you found it on your step when you got home today?

This one is hard. I'm assuming I'm also not allowed to say "a large check," which probably would be my first choice. I guess I would have to say then that a letter from some long-lost friend who I'd lost contact with would make me most happy.

****
I will give questions to them what wants 'em.

Comments

[gilana]

When you click on the cut to get to the full entry, you lose the questions. Which is making for some entertaining reading, but, um, you might want to put the questions back in here somewhere... :)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I just did away with the cuts. Will now make One Big Cut at the beginning. :-)

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. Kevin Spacey.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Him be yummy. :-)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I sort of live in a cultural bubble -- everyone I spend significant time around is smart, educated, liberal, etc. Only a handful of them smoke, but I tend to like them and often have a chance to get to know them better at parties when we're outside smoking. This is also true at work, and there is something of a smoking club outside the two side exits of the building. I like it because all professional strata are erased. Division Presidents smoke and chat right along with the li'lest assistants, and everybody is on one comfortable level.

There is probably a world of people who smoke who I wouldn't like, but I wouldn't like them if the didn't smoke, either.

[beowabbit]

I would never light a cigarette indoors at someone's house or in their car, even if they said I could.

I can vouch for this; plumtreeblossom won’t even light up in my car with all the windows and the sunroof open.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

There aren't many smokers who I find annoying because of the smoking, but the ones that do tend to share the basic trait that they and their stuff always smelling of cigarettes. Happily, Mare does not have that issue.

And I'll vouch as well.

On that note, and speaking generally, it is amazing how much nicer it is to be asked "Is there somewhere I can go to Foo?" as opposed to, "Do you mind if I Foo in here?" even when the attitude behind them is the same.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I go to extra lengths to minimize smelling like smoke. The outdoor smoking helps a lot to that end. If you'd known me when I smoked in my room, I stank something fierce. Even the cats stank! If the weather is bad I sometimes lean out the kitchen door to smoke, but someday I'll live in a place with a covered porch and not have to do that anymore.

I chew uber-mint sugarfree gum all the time, and I wear fragrance oil (some people hate fragrance oil more than the smoke, but I can't please everyone). I use whitening toothpaste, and I keep my nails polished at all times to protect against staining. All of these put together lead to a me who wears very little evidence of her crime.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yup, car smoking is bad, bad, bad. A big reason is because, what do you do with the butt? If you put it in the ashtray, you permanently tar up and stink up the ashtray and it can never be used for other purposes like holding change. If you throw it out the window, you risk seriously injuring someone driving behind you if it flies in their window, or it could fly into your own back window, or start a dry grass fire. Nothing good can come of car smoking.

Best to just pull over, have your smoke and stretch your legs, then get back in and drive again.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

There's one of me that is so classic 80s -- Stray Cat's pompadour hairstyle, "FEED THE WORLD" baggy T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, narrow pleather pants, Peter Pan boots, and O-ring bracelets.

Wanna see it!!!!

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Will try to dig it out when I next visit my mom. I totally want to post it. :-)

[pirewyn.livejournal.com]

"Stray Cat's pompadour hairstyle, "FEED THE WORLD" baggy T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, narrow pleather pants, Peter Pan boots, and O-ring bracelets. You could wear it today to an 80s theme party, but I was wearing it for reals.

DROOL. . as if you were not cute enough already.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thanks! :-)