WHY DO YOU DO IT? WHAT DRIVES YOU?
Writing was something I’ve just really committed to for more than a decade now. At some point, it went from a ‘cool thing to do’ to being therapeutic, and something that became my own. Now, I can’t help but do it. An added plus is that I enjoy so much getting lost doing the writing that it may be noon one minute and the sun is setting the next, and I can look back on what I did, and it’s a very gratifying thing - even if that work will never see the light of day.
WHAT IS ONE THING YOU DO FOR SANITY MAINTENANCE?
I try to walk. I try to get out in the sun. I do push ups during the week. On the weekend, I get drunk with my friends.
WHAT IS THE SCRAPPIEST THING YOU’VE DONE TO MAKE OR SAVE $$?
Before I ever had gigs as a janitor or cooking in kitchens, I worked for my father at the family scrap metal business. The neighborhood was tough, and I started young. When I was sixteen or seventeen, my old man had us rip all the copper piping out of the warehouse he was selling. My friend and I took turns lifting one another up on the tongue of the forklift, tapping the copper with a voltage detector and then it was time to start cutting. It was an OSHA nightmare. My freshman year of college, I wrote papers for other students. There were a lot of wealthy kids who paid me very well. That was a good gig.
YOUR TASK IS TO PRESCRIBE ONE BOOK OR FILM TO THE COLLECTIVE. WHAT IS IT?
I really enjoy the writing of Jerry Stahl. His most famous book, PERMANENT MIDNIGHT, was an intense and darkly humorous read. He’s been a big influence on me for a long time now.
Current obsession?
Within the last few years, I’ve been doing these single-panel drawings, usually paired with some sardonic messaging. The older cooks I used to work with were always referencing Gary Larson’s "The Far Side," and I’d grown up with Raymond Pettibon’s work and seeing a lot of the NEW YORKER cartoonists around. I knew R. Crumb and the Hernandez Brothers’ LOVE AND ROCKETS, but lately I started looking elsewhere and fell into this story about Gary Panter and Matt Groening (pre-SIMPSONS) living together in Los Angeles as starving young cartoonists. They were both connected to SLASH Magazine — Groening’s "Life in Hell" strip ran on newsstands next to SLASH, while Panter was doing art for the mag and even designed the logo for the band The Screamers. I’d always known Groening for THE SIMPSONS, but I’d never even heard of Panter until then — it opened this whole other world of underground cartooning I didn’t realize existed. And I continue to dive into the subject - been checking out Sammy Harkham as of recent.
MOST USEFUL FAILURE?
I’ve tried my luck in a few different creative mediums, but it was always fruitless and never scratched the same itch that writing did. But useful in the sense that it was enjoyable, and oftentimes, I got to collaborate with my friends.
SELECTED Q FROM THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE: Where would you most like to live?
Somewhere quiet and coastal, where I can walk with ease to a small downtown.
