If you could go down in history for any one thing, what would it be?
This is one of those questions I’ve thought about all throughout my life. In actuality, I don’t think I really want to go down in history. At least, not to the extent where I’m remember by billions of people for the next three millennia. I wouldn’t want to be Bruce Willis in Armageddon, giving up my own life to mushroom-slap a giant rock spiraling towards Earth. That’s just too easy. I’d like to go down for chronicling human existence. My favored medium for this would be film. I’d like to be one of the pioneering directors who developed some of the fundamental narrative forms. I’d want to film the simple ways of human culture in a beautiful way. However, I really don’t think I have the intellect for something like this, and would rather go about my life appreciating those who do.
You get to take three things with you onto a desert island, and no, not things like ‘airplane’ or ‘rescue team.’ Name these comforts.
The first thing that comes to mind is music. This one was a little tricky for me, as I had to decide whether to go with lyrics or without. No doubt there are some phenomenal lyrics out there, but I think that may piss me off after a while, hearing the same words over and over again. The safe, but still fun alternative is instrumental, which I think I would enjoy even more so. So, it’s actually not an alternative, but a preference. I can listen to it and think what I want, which is much more suited to my situation of being stuck alone eating sushi while tanning. I decided to go with my favorite instrumental band, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and chose Lift Your Fists Like Tinny Antennas to Heaven. Not only is it my favorite of their albums, but it works best in this situation. Next, I chose an epic poem, Dante Aligari’s The Divine Comedy. The journey though the Christian afterlife is a fascinating concept to me, and I’m sure I’d have fun trying to understand it all, and would help lead into some of my own philosophical ideas. The third thing I bring is a complete guilty pleasure. I’m stuck on an island, so I really don’t give a shit what others are going to think. I bring the Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z series. It has some important but really cliché stuff going on, but the way it presents itself gets me every time. It really pumps me up and gets me feeling for the characters, as cheesy as that sounds. Plus, I love Goku
What’s the worst movie you’ve watched in the last year?
I really hate thinking about all the things that make The Strangers a bad movie, so I won’t. I could go on for a while breaking down every scene and explaining why they’re all shit, with the exception of about five seconds in a specific shot. Those five seconds aren’t anything spectacular by any measure, they were just good enough for me not to complain. The movie is supposed to be based on a true story, and yet they know hardly anything about the actual events. Most of the movie was made up and geared towards entertaining rather than being common-sensical toward what may have actually happened. The best part (and I mean the worst) is the ending. It was so anti-climatic and a waste of everything (which also sucked) that led up to it. I understand guilty pleasures and have my own, but if you actually liked this movie, please begin to think about what’s wrong with you.
Do you have a favorite video game genre?
I feel like a sucker when I say ‘role-playing game.’ Not necessarily for what they are, but for what they could - and will - be. I used to spend many shifts working at Millhaven Grocery with Mike Ireland, where we’d talk all about the things we’d like to see in video games. I’d usually end up going on about the dynamic environment I wish I could have. You know, one of those environments where everything does have an actual effect. Kind of like the butterfly effect (no, I’m not referencing the movie, but the actual concept). I basically desire an environment that would mimic everything in our real world. However, to do this, I’m sure we’d need to learn a little more about ours in order to properly mirror it. There’s also the problem of limited technology. To be able to do all this in real-time is essentially impossible, even for current supercomputers. I have faith that quantum computing will solve this, and eventually become a household product. This environment would create endless gameplay and truly be unique to every player. At the same time, I fear it could be a negative thing, but I’m not going to get into that right now.
If you could have been born in any other generation, when would you be alive?
If I were to be born in another generation, I’d like to start my life out 20 years earlier, in 1968. I choose 1968 mainly because that was the year Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey came into being. Also, the three years before that, the Beatles put out their three best albums (Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), which would have been great to grow up listening to. However, the 70’s is the decade I think I’d enjoy most to in terms of developing my childhood. There was just something about [North] American culture that really makes me wish I was around then. The clothing, the events, the general lifestyle. It all seemed so relaxed. I can’t help but think Pink Floyd when I think 70’s. The 70’s were filled with some fantastic music and movies. A Clockwork Orange, Annie Hall, Taxi Driver, and Apocalypse Now are films I’ve come to love today. It’d be fantastic to go and see Bruce Springsteen playing songs from Born to Run in concert back then or listen to London Calling on an old-time record player. And there was also Vietnam and the Cold War. Good stuff.
