'In the FOT Seat' FREE FOR ALL Clusterpost!

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Grote isn't my real last name, incidentally.

Wait.  What?

It's true.  It's my stepdad's last name and I've been using it since I was 8, but no one ever legally changed it.

[Stupornaut]

Grote isn't my real last name, incidentally.

Wait.  What?

It's true.  It's my stepdad's last name and I've been using it since I was 8, but no one ever legally changed it.

Did your stepdad play for the '69 Mets?

[KickTheBobo]

1. What is your real first and middle name (if any)? Christopher Ryan

2. Where were you born, geographically? Providence, RI - the angriest city on the eastern seaboard

3. Where do you reside now (geographically)? Cranston, RI

4. What is your current vocation/ job/ area of study? I work at a small commercial art gallery as an assistant. We mostly sell oil paintings of Venice to doctor's wives who have nothing better to do than refurnish their homes every 18 months. We also do a fair amount of corporate work and will frame up stuff for the layperson as well. When I'm not surfing the internet, I spend my time updating the website, being an ersatz network admin, loading vans, building shipping crates, selling old stock on ebay and generally trying to keep the place running.

5. Desert Island: ONE record  I'm gonna have to go with Morricone's soundtrack to The Mission. It's the only cd I've ever bought multiple times and I just find the music to be beautiful. Plus, it's instrumental, so I could make up my own lyrics to it if I was bored.

6. What is the most impressive thing in nature that you have ever seen in person? gotta go with the Grand Canyon

7. What is the most impressive thing in the human-made world that you have ever seen in person?  I gotta go with the WTC twin towers. Their massiveness (is that a word?) didn't really strike me until I took a bus ride to the Newark airport and saw them across the river in relation to the rest of the city.

8. Death Row Pizza: what style/toppings? thick crust with mushrooms, olives & onions

9. Tom calls you up and tells you that he will be at a cardboard symposium in your town and has a free day off. What will you guys do? We would take a drive up to Dedham, MA to go to the Museum of Bad Art, which is always delightful, then maybe head down to Fort Wetherill in Jamestown to explore the tunnels and check out the graffiti. For dinner, it would be vegan (yeah, i can swing that way) at the Garden Grille Cafe. After that, go check out some artsy-fartsy flick at The Cable Car Cinema or a double feature at the Rustic Tri-View Drive-In.

[JonFromMaplewood]

5. Desert Island: ONE record  I'm gonna have to go with Morricone's soundtrack to The Mission. It's the only cd I've ever bought multiple times and I just find the music to be beautiful.

Agreed.  My wife introduced me to the soundtrack when we met (She owned it on vinyl. You see why I married this woman?).  Great movie as well...but no Clifford.

9. Tom calls you up and tells you that he will be at a cardboard symposium in your town and has a free day off. What will you guys do? We would take a drive up to Dedham, MA to go to the Museum of Bad Art, which is always delightful, then maybe head down to Fort Wetherill in Jamestown to explore the tunnels and check out the graffiti. For dinner, it would be vegan (yeah, i can swing that way) at the Garden Grille Cafe. After that, go check out some artsy-fartsy flick at The Cable Car Cinema or a double feature at the Rustic Tri-View Drive-In.

Wow. Can I tag along?

[joanna]

5. Desert Island: ONE record I'd rather jettison food and carry a big CD wallet.  But probably a mix CD I got from Douglas Wolk in 2007, just for variety and obscurity. 

name-dropping, grote! i expect better from you.




wait, you name dropped a music critic, the saddest profession in all the land. you're forgiven.

[JonFromMaplewood]

5. Desert Island: ONE record I'd rather jettison food and carry a big CD wallet.  But probably a mix CD I got from Douglas Wolk in 2007, just for variety and obscurity.

name-dropping, grote! i expect better from you.

wait, you name dropped a music critic, the saddest profession in all the land. you're forgiven.

Yeah...name dropping music critics. How low.  My friend Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly and I are thoroughly disappointed.

[Stupornaut]

wait, you name dropped a music critic, the saddest profession in all the land.

 

[joanna]

wait, you name dropped a music critic, the saddest profession in all the land.

 

it's just jealousy talking.

[Emerson]

wait, you name dropped a music critic, the saddestmost intense, ethereal and arguably ass-kicking profession in all the land. you're forgiven.

[cutout]

I'm pretty sure 'ethereal' and 'ass-kicking' don't belong in the same description. Especially if they're supposed to be flattering. And especially if that flattery is aimed at a music critic.

[Chris L]

I'm pretty sure 'ethereal' and 'ass-kicking' don't belong in the same description.

Unless you're talking about Ghost Dad.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Did your stepdad play for the '69 Mets?

Nope, and as far as I know, no relation.  It's also pronounced differently. 

Also, y/n, this explains why my sister and I don't really look alike, though we share the same biological mom.

name-dropping, grote! i expect better from you.

Really?  Why?

Actually he's a increasingly a comic critic, which is about as sad as it gets - except that he's really good at it.  And to tell the truth, I don't really know him, I'm just on his email list and I took him up on his offer.  I did review his last book, though, as part of a net mass-review event sponsored by The Valve.  Here it is, in case you've got an extra three hours to kill:

http://jasongrote.blogspot.com/2008/07/thoughts-on-douglas-wolks-reading.html

[yesno]

Also, y/n, this explains why my sister and I don't really look alike, though we share the same biological mom.

I was wondering why she doesn't have a beard, but I thought it might be awkward to bring up.

Also,

[AaronC]

1. What is your real first and middle name (if any)?

Aaron Jennings

2. Where were you born, geographically?

Huntington, WV

3. Where do you reside now (geographically)?

Richmond, VA

4. What is your current vocation/ job/ area of study?

Last year of law school.  I'm finishing up my summer internship w/ a U.S. Attorney's Office.

5. Desert Island: ONE record

Johnny Cash - Live at San Quentin.  Not because it is necessarily my favorite record, but because being alone on a desert island would probably feel like prison to me. 

6. What is the most impressive thing in nature that you have ever seen in person?

the ocean

7. What is the most impressive thing in the human-made world that you have ever seen in person?

New River Gorge Bridge.  Fayetteville, WV.  It is one of largest steel arch bridges in the world.

8. Death Row Pizza: what style/toppings?

Thin crust. Pepperoni, sausage, green olives, & extra cheese. 

9. Tom calls you up and tells you that he will be at a cardboard symposium in your town and has a free day off. What will you guys do?

Go searching for Beatles bootlegs.

[chrisfoll577]

1. What is your real first and middle name (if any)?

Christopher George

2. Where were you born, geographically?

Boston, MA

3. Where do you reside now (geographically)?

Boston, MA

4. What is your current vocation/ job/ area of study?

I work in a laboratory.

5. Desert Island: ONE record

Guided by Voices' Alien Lanes.  It's an album that has so many amazing songs yet sounds like one running work of art.  Listening to it from start to finish makes an hour fly by at my job.  I can only imagine what it would do for me on a desert island.

6. What is the most impressive thing in nature that you have ever seen in person?

A large Iceberg emerging from a fog bank a mere hundred feet away while I was boating off the coast of Newfoundland.

7. What is the most impressive thing in the human-made world that you have ever seen in person?

It probably doesn't stand out to many other people, but the New York City Subway system never fails to blow me away.

8. Death Row Pizza: what style/toppings?

A perfect balance of quality mozzarella cheese, sweet, natural tomato sauce, some thick cut pepperoni (so the slices' edges curl up and burn a little) and a thin, chewy neapolitan crust that's just slightly charred on the bottom from the brick oven of a place like lombardi's or pizzeria regina. 

Yeah, i've thought about this before.

9. Tom calls you up and tells you that he will be at a cardboard symposium in your town and has a free day off. What will you guys do?

I'd take him to a Celtics game and try not to be too much of a mutant Boston sports fan.