Ask Wednesday: Susan C. Price of Morris Dean on various very interesting things

By Susan C. Price

When you were hard up for an interview to publish, you might have interviewed yourself…but perhaps it’s time for one of us (namely me, cus i de bes riter) to inteview YOU.
    Hmm, what might you propose to interview me on or about...? And could you whip up a drawing or painting of me (from a photo) as my “mug shot”?


I get to decide and you can edit out or not answer as you like :-) and oh, what a Cheshire cat grin THAT is! Yes, I could do a line drawing, except that “whip up” means on command, fast, and looks like you…I can ensure they look like humans...but can’t guarantee a likeness. And I find “commission” work...real stressful...but you can give me a photo and I will get around tuit...Looking like I will be “free” before mid April...methinks.
    I understand about “commission”....Look at my Facebook profile photos to see whether there’s one there that “inspires”you?

I did download about 4-6 of your portraits from Facebook and they are on my table in my painting “studio.” But…there are many things on that table and much dust…We will see...if I get actually into that studio by April.
    Okay. I trust that you would ask excellent questions for my interview. Fire away any time.

Why the blog, why expanding it, why now?
    I had heard about blogging for two or three years, I think, before I tried it myself. Wasn’t particularly curious about it for some reason. Perhaps I was just too busy, for I was working full-time, plus putting in lots of hours editing my nephew Steve’s novels. It’s likely that something Steve and I were discussing led to my trying it, for we actually tried it together, with both of us having the authority to post to it. As I think I pointed out in the inaugural "First Monday with Characters" column, the oldest item in the archive was posted by Steve.
    In other words, there was no burning desire to blog per se at the outset. But I pursued it fairly regularly and found it to be a congenial activity. I think I’ve been inclined throughout my life to sort of tell its story as it goes along. I used to write a lot of letters in which I did that. And I kept lists of books I was reading. That sort of thing. Blogging proved to be an attractive, easy way to do that, especially because it lent itself to photographic “documentation” as well. It just grew.
    Motomynd’s original suggestion that led to expanding the staff was to have a couple of contributing editors assigned to regular columns. Three prospective editors immediately came to mind, and one of them had already independently suggested the idea of having regular movie reviews.
    Having regular columns of course imposed some order on the whole enterprise, some strong expectation that the blog would fulfill its commitment to publish about particular things on particular days. For the very most part, that has been a happy requirement, although occasionally it’s stressful.

Seems like you are doing the blog (and nagging the rest of us to write as well ) almost full-time? (“Yes”..is not a sufficient answer.)
    Well, yes…and no. In a sense, the blog IS full-time, in the sense that it is always on some part of my mind, conscious or unconscious. The blog is important to me, like keeping warm and nourished. Some aspects of it are like household chores, but like household chores I don’t mind them. Mainly it’s a creative outlet, it’s working with friends. Even my wife reads it sometimes, and sometimes even comments.
    But it’s by no means full-time in that it doesn’t take a disproportionate amount of time away from other things that are important. I love my family life, I have chores. I read books, I go to the grocery store, I watch movies and TV programs with my wife. All pretty prosaic, but then maybe most people’s lives are prosaic. Somehow, though, blogging doesn’t seem prosaic. I find it absorbing, rewarding. Even “bugging” the editors and contributors is....

Is what? Absorbing and rewarding—I don’t doubt it, you do it with such relish. :-)
    Oh, sorry, I must have nodded off...Rewarding, certainly. Enjoyable. A chance to communicate with, and get to know better, the delightful individuals these people are. I mean, they’re friends, so being involved together on the blog is a form of community.
    Hmm, I just realized that the community aspect of Moristotle & Co., may have become even more important than publishing per se. The publishing per se occasions the community. Does that make sense? Seems to to me.

And, what else fills your days? Gardening?
    Well, I already mentioned a lot of things, generally. Gardening is another thing, but I’m not what anyone would call a “gardener.” My wife is, and I help her with certain things, like watering, especially if it involves moving heavy hoses. I dig holes. I prune thick branches. I mulch, I rake leaves, I help her move plants from smaller to larger pots or to the ground. I pick up supplies from a local garden center.
    I sleep eight hours a night usually, and sometimes I take an afternoon nap.

What are your regular household chores?
    You really want to know this?

Yup.
    Every morning, the first thing I do after getting up and putting on some clothes is to feed Siegfried. Then I prepare coffee for my wife and me (French press) and slice three or four kinds of fruit for her and cut them into smaller pieces for mixing with my dry cereal or with oatmeal, the two or so times a week I have that instead (the 5-minute variety). After breakfast I clean up the kitchen then straighten the bed. I shake out the down comforter if we’re not using a blanket or two instead. Sometimes I wash and dry laundry, although my wife mostly takes care of the laundry. I always prepare our dinner salads and clean up the kitchen afterwards. I usually start the dish washer, every second or third day probably, then remove and put away everything in the morning.

List your favorite 5 movies of all time.
    I include Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange, and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. Not sure about the other two at the moment. Maybe I’ll think of them. This might make more sense if I include some least favorites (of movies that I could actually watch): The Lord of the Rings (although I admit I couldn’t finish watching I think the second one; I couldn’t read the books either). It’s a Wonderful Life. How anyone can watch that every year at Christmas just boggles the mind.

Well, not every year..but now and then I enjoy a good sniffle...and the “familiar”…well you just need it.
    Fair enough. I shouldn’t have seemed to be derogating others for simply being different from me.
    Oh, I just thought of Milos Forman’s Amadeus. Probably one of my five favorite films. Oh, Fargo! How could I not have remembered the Coen Brothers? And perhaps my all-time favorite, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Hard to name just five favorites, there are more than that that I really, really like, and like to watch again from time to time. TV programs count? All Creatures Great and Small. Rumpole of the Bailey.

Ooh ooh, love those also!
    Oh, and I really need to include something by Peter Greenaway. I finally remembered that one of my very favorite movies is The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover—a movie that is very likely not on many people’s list of favorites. It has three of my favorite actors: Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon, and Tim Roth, and the music (by Michael Nyman) is glorious.

Fave musical group, if you really don’t have one...favorite political figure.
    That’s an odd alternative—musical group or political figure. Musical group will date me, I guess, but I suppose it’s The Beatles. I think my favorite music must be what I was hearing during the seventies. Sort of looks that way, doesn’t it? The Eagles? Do Simon & Garfunkel qualify as a group?

Sweetie, we all dated ourselves years ago…by having the retirement time to do this blog!
    That’s the truth. Nicely put.
    Favorite political figure? Maybe I don’t think of political figures as something you can have favorites about. Do you have a favorite? Maybe if you tell me, I’ll understand better.

Hmm, I was fond of Bill, before he...um, had the problem. I liked Barbara Jordan…I do like President Obama and the First Lady quite a bit and Hilary too…but I am easy to please....
    Well, I liked Bill, too, and still do. In fact, I was one of MoveOn.org’s first members, highly motivated to “move on” past that stupid impeachment thing and attend to something important. I guess I should be ashamed to admit it, but I have refused since then to ever vote for a Republican.
    I liked George McGovern, too. One of my fondest memories is having a brief conversation with him in the middle of 42nd Street in Manhattan the summer of 1976….
    Hell, I liked Ike!

Fave singer?
    Elton John?

Fave piece of music?
    Maybe Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. There are certain “classical” pieces (even though Beethoven was a Romantic) that really nail me down. Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto 1 in B-Flat Minor, which I listened to many times as a teenager. Here’s a snippet:


    You know, I think it would help here, too, for me to add that as far as I can remember I’ve been to only two popular music concerts in the past thirty years, Bob Dylan and Elton John, both in the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill. But I’ve watched a number of concerts on TV—John Denver, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Roy Orbison...Hmm, maybe more than I’d thought, more than I can remember....
    I've been to quite a few more “classical” concerts and recitals, small affairs connected with university music departments or with the Killington Music Festival. Oh, and I attended my daughter-in-law’s harp recital in Carnegie Hall—her New York debut.
    And about the only recorded music I listen to is on the radio, usually The Classical Station...Well, also the sound tracks of movies and TV programs. The theme music of DR-Drama’s The Eagle is wonderful, for example.
    Or the songs I hear recorded in my head. Cat Stevens’s Morning Has Broken. I guess I’ve got enough surpassing music in my head to last me.

Fave dessert...if you are not sweets-inclined, or can’t eat them and miss it so much you can’t talk about it, what is your fave comestible?
    Well, let’s take my favorite comestibles first. I’m happy with a salad, cornbread, beans, and rice, and a glass of dark beer.
    My favorite dessert has to be a class of desserts: Fruit Pie. Berry, cherry, peach, apricot, and strawberry & rhubarb are among my favorites of those.
    Oh, how could I have neglected chocolate? See’s Candies! If I could have See’s Candies only at Christmas, then Christmas would I guess go from being my least favorite holiday to being a favorite one.

How many pairs of shoes do you have (check the closet, floor, under bed , under couch or fave chair, by the back or front door...).
    I’ll exclude sandals and houseshoes. Two. Black Stan Smith Adidas, one pair now in use for everyday, the other for dirty yard work.

See, as a dudette, I am interested in how many pairs of sandals and “houseshoes”…as “shoes” is quite the category of interest for many females...and in Southern California, where flip-flops are worn regardless of temperature or rain, sandals ARE shoes.
    All right, already! I have two pairs of sandals also, one old pair reserved for yard duty and a newer pair for indoors or clear pavements. One pair of fleece-lined houseshoes. I can’t wear slippers because my feet are so skinny they won’t stay on. Same goes for sandals; I can’t use open-toed sandals.
    Oh, and I have a pair of “rubber” pull-overs for going out into a wet yard in my “good” shoes. And a pair of pull-over boots for when it snows.

What did you expect to be asked?
    I had no idea, but I don’t think you’ve asked any of them.

Perfect, expected = boring = boring.
    I’m not saying it hasn’t been fun. In fact, I’ve enjoyed it. And I’ve learned a new term: “dudette.”

Ah, sir! “Dudette” is totally acceptable. “Chick”"...can be dangerous...but “dude” and “dudette” are quite cute and acceptable...and sort of ageless.
    By the way, your suggestion to interview me gave me the idea to ask staff members to interview another staff member, or ask some of our guest columnists to interview someone or each other....

The only other staff member I have any ideas/thoughts about is my brother. Interviewing him might be interesting...but also could be fraught....
    I think that he has already constructed a congeries of questions for you....
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Copyright © 2013 by Susan C. Price

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