Tomorrow: Mad Libs
When I was in Austin last month, I had an incredible plan. I was going to film everything. Every brunch, every bourbon and ginger, every breakfast taco, every drive down South Lamar, and every conversation that accompanied it. Because, I hadn’t seen these friends in years. And, I knew it might be awhile before I heard them or saw them, and the absolute glee they give me would wear off eventually. I wanted to preserve it. Maybe just for me, maybe for a larger project.
I hate to brag, but my friends are pretty much the shit.
Since I’ve been away doing my grown up things, they’ve all grown up. And I suspect in a few more years they’ll be even more grown up, and farther away from the friends I used to drink beers with at Showdown and talk about making things. Showdown is gone too.
But I forgot to bring my camera charger. All I had enough battery power to do is to record is one “um” from Claudia. I missed documenting the dollar bellini’s at Taverna, the fried brie tempura at Uchi, Jessica’s hand dances to JT, the incredible bar fight at Side Bar, the homemade ginger ale at Mug Shots, Rick Astley Sing-alongs, and shooting fireworks out of the car window in South Austin.
I decided, then, I would interview my friends on this blog. Writing is a kind of preservation I prefer, anyway. But after several drafts of questions that included “do you think you’re happy,” I couldn’t think of any that didn’t make me sound like a Gen Y Lelaina Pierce.
I admit that I’m taking the long way to get to this introduction, but I promise you, it’s worth it.
So I let someone else come up with the questions. I’m taking questions from old interviews with musicians that remind me of each friend and asking them to fill in the answers. They can answer in the voice of said musician, answer as themselves, or something in between. It’s a kind of mad libs, Q&A style.
Look for Matthew Barney Gumble tomorrow. I gave him questions from a Paul Westerberg interview. MBG’s not a friend from Austin, but he’s funny and he turned his answers in first.
So maybe my idea didn’t happen, but this way you’re getting the clever parts of my friends, instead of reading whether or not they think they’re happy, and whether they prefer major or minor chords. I can’t wait to see what they come up with, because, like I said, my friends are pretty much the shit.
