Our Favorite Things
From InSocPedia
From an issue of Smash Hits from the very late 80's or very early nineties, featuring glimpses into Kurt, Paul and Jim's personalities (or at least their goofiness).
Contents |
[edit] Our Favorite Things
By Karen Swayne
Information Society's Paul Robb, Kurt Valaquen and James Cassidy run through some of the things that make 'em feel good to be alive. Information Society fans will know that in their videos and stuff there are four members of the band. There are only three featured here because the gal of the group, Amanda, quit the world of high profile "pop" the day before the interview. She is still a part of the band, but found the life of a pop star was not for her, so will stay out of the public eye from now on. Good on ya, Amanda!
[edit] Kurt
[edit] Favorite Toy
"It's a Fischer-Price train which is about 50 years old. It's just a little engine thing that goes click-click-click when you pull it across the floor, but it belonged to my father when he was a little kid."
[edit] Favorite Book
"Is one called Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hoftstader. It's a metaphorical fugue on the theme of minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll. I can't really explain it more. (Please try-Confused Ed.) "It's an attempt to draw comparisons between computer programs and human minds." (Well, why didn't you say so in the firstplace?- Annoyed Ed.)
[edit] Favorite Record
"An album that Leonard Nimoy did right after Star Trek finished on television. It's called Mr Spock's Music From Outer Space, and it's got songs with him singing and speaking as Mr. Spock! I've watched Star Trek all my life and I use it a lot in our music. I make cassette tapes off the shows on television then pick out little pieces of music or phrases to use as samples in the songs. I'm not a hard-core Trekkie, though. I've met people who are in the offfical Star Trek club, and I do think their attitude is somehow very different from mine."
[edit] Favorite Passtime
"Recording music, reading and playing video games. And programming computers. I'll sit up all night doing that because I'm fascinated with technical systems, and also the strange ability you get to keep concentrating on fiddly, nitpicking things for hours and hours without getting exhausted.
"I didn't get into computers until fairly late, because when I was ten it was 1973, and computers were something that you only saw in the movies and they were about 15 feet wide and only the government had them.
"My parents' generation has a problem though. Like my mother and father will not use a bank card. They'll still drive 15 miles to get to the bank before 3pm to take out $20. They just don't want to think about it, think in terms of computers and cards and magnetic stripes."
[edit] Favorite Clothes
"I like lots of functional accessories, like pouches and things attached to pants and carrying belts. My look is sort of a 'Japanese influenced Mad Max survival' style. It's kind of stripped down. I didn't wear any black until I was about 21, but I began to like fewer and fewer colors until I didn't like any, so now I have to wear black."
[edit] Favorite Films
"I 'm sure I've forgotten some, but these would be in my top ten: The Man Who Fell To Earth, The Elephant Man, Harold and Maude, all the Mad Max movies, The Terminator, all the Star Trek movies, all the Star Wars movies, and Wings Of Desire."
[edit] Favorite Food
"If I were willing to devote a lot of time to food preparation then I'd eat quite healthily- lots of vegetables and not too much red meat. But I don't like preparing food, and I don't have the time, so mostly I eat pretty trashy food. I love pretzels, and my absolute favorite treat is M&M's straight out of the freezer with iced water." (Gee-ross!)
[edit] Favorite Form of Travel
"The mighty automobile. I have a car-a '73 Plymouth Satellite with a 440 cubic foot police engine- and it's my pride and joy. I've driven across the country a few times and it's a great experience. If I'm feeling too tense I'll always try and find the time to drive.
[edit] Paul
[edit] Favorite Books
"There's three: The Miracle of Existence, The Coming Era In Science, and An Introduction To System Philosophy. I used to be a philosophy student. The only trash I read is sometimes I'll read a science-fiction book. I don't have time to read anything any more anyway!'
[edit] Favorite Smell
"I brought a box of incense with me because I always travel with one when we're on the road. Hotel rooms always smell of antiseptic, so I come in and burn incense and candles to make the room a bit more personal.
[edit] Favorite Toy
"My studio! It's in my house in New York. It's a whole room and I spend a lot of time in there. I don't consider myself a highly technical person. People think that you have to be some kind of whizz to work the equipment, but you don't- I play mostly by ear. If it sounds good then that's enough. We call people who are overly concerned about the technical side of things "techno-weenies?"(!) Sometimes I get accused of being one, but I'm not really"
[edit] Favorite Haircut
"I just got this haircut today. I don't really have a favorite haircut as a matter of fact, I'm always trying to figure out what to do with my hair. That's why I wear hats all the time these days.
[edit] Favorite Clothes
"What I'm wearing is what I usually wear, so I guess they're my favorite clothes. I do own some nice clothes, and every morning I look at them and think, 'Today I'm going to dress nice,' but I always end up in blue jeans and a sweatshirt."
[edit] Favorite Movie
"Neighbors, with John Belushi. Most people haven't seen it, and the people who have hate it, but it's one of my favorite films. It's great. He did it later on in his career, and it wasn't what people expected, it wasn't a farce comedy. My other favorite film is called Mr. Hugo's Holiday, by Jaques Tati."
[edit] Favorite City
"I'd have to say London. I've only been there once, but I have great memories of it. I liked the feeling of it- I was there in autumn, and I loved walking through Hyde Park shuffling through the leaves"
[edit] Favorite Hat
"Ijust started to wear hats a couple of years ago, because I dyed my hair bright, bright, bright orange. It was fine most of the time but sometimes I just didn't like to be gawked at, so I bought a baseball cap to hide it. Now I own about 25 or 30 baseball caps, and I find myself buying more all the time."
[edit] Jim
[edit] Favorite Guitar
"My bass guitar which I've painted. A really good friend of mine gave it to me. I used to play it a lot when I was in other bands, but it's nOt really good enough for this particular tour. I was going to bring my banjo. I started playing that when I was about eight. My dad was really into jazz music and my sister played folk guitar. I took banjo lessons from Blueberry Bill Hood, a local musician who's a really cool guy. I started playing bass when I was about 16."
[edit] Favorite Band
I use to be really heavy metal, so when I was 14 1 loved Kiss. I even went to one of their shows in all the make up, sad to say. I still think they're pretty cool. They were the only band of that time who could do what they did, and they don't do it any more, which is good."
"The first concert I saw was Kiss and I thought, 'I've gotta do this, this is a great job!' I always wanted to be in the middle of an incredibly complicated show. Our shows are exciting with lots of theatrical elements, so they're getting there. We play Euro-street dance music, but we definitely have an American rock feel with our stage presence." (I!)
[edit] Favorite Spook Thing
"Skulls. I was gonna bring my skull collection! They're all real, but animals, not humans. Kurt gave me a couple of dog skulls that he found in the desert, and I've got badger skulls... I've always really loved bones because they're kind of like, what's left. It's like the cast of someone left over. I had a great experience when I went to Paris- I walked through the catacombs which are under the city and there's just walls and walls of skulls all stacked up for miles. You can really see the differences in individuals too, they don't all look the same." (Double gee-ross!)
[edit] Favorite Superhero
"Batman! He's really cool. I always thought that him and Robin and the Batcave were so cool. I love that show- I wish they'd put it in syndication again because it'd be great to see it. In our live set we have some samples of Batman in the segues between songs."
[edit] Favorite Hobby
"I love to sail. Minneapolis is by the largest freshwater lake in the world- Lake Superior- and my family has had a boat up there for about 15 years, so I spent a lot of time there. I worked in a fishery there for a while and lived on a boat. I started sailing with my father when I was just a kid, and now it's about my favorite thing to do. What I hope to get out of all this is to get a boat to live on and travel around in."
[edit] Favorite Occupation
"Cooking. I'm a professional cook- that's how I've supported myself in the past few years. I started young, and now I love it even more. Once you get in a good restaurant it's great, the busier the better. I love the intensity of it, the rush. Now when I'm home I can make a really good dinner out of whatever's in the refrigerator . .
[edit] Favorite Clothes
"Recently I've stripped down to real basic, almost conservative clothing, because fashion is so lame right now. I've never ever worn blue jeans before, but these days I like just wearing basic blue jeans, sweatshirt and big fat black shoes and a black leather jacket. I'm just really into classic things right now."
