1. What is your real first and middle name (if any)?
One afternoon, just home from school, my mom excitedly led me into the mud room. She wanted to introduce me to the new dog. "This is Spencer," she said excitedly, gesturing to the Laddie-like Shetland Sheepdog sleeping in his dog crate. I looked at her quizzically. "But... Spencer is my middle name...". "Well, that's true," she spoke slowly, looking for an out, "but you hardly ever use it".
First name: Ted.
2. Where were you born, geographically?
Paoli, Pennsylvania
3. Where do you reside now (geographically)?
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
4. What is your current vocation/ job/ area of study?
I make architectural ornament.
5. Desert Island: ONE record
Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation
I used to say that this album made me feel euthanized, but that was before I understood what that word meant.
6. What is the most impressive thing in nature that you have ever seen in person?
I was in central Pennsylvania photojournalizing a WWI re-enactment. The sun had just gone down, and the organizers gathered everyone together for an orientation and safety meeting. The leader held a vintage rifle above his head. "Remember people, these are actual weapons with blank rounds. You are each responsible for ensuring that the rounds are, in fact, blank. But every year some dummy forgets and loads a live round...". He then went into a lengthy discourse on how to treat a gunshot wound in the field. I started to get a sinking feeling.
We were then dispatched to our respective trenches. I was assigned to the Germans because I spoke the language. And by "spoke" I mean "um, kinda". I wasn't told until I arrived at the battlefield that I was only allowed to speak German. So, feeling alone, I sat there in my hole listening to the twitter of German voices, uncertain of what was going to happen. At the risk of sounding soft-serve, I was a little scared.
I looked up at the sky. I had always lived in places in which the sky was muddied by light pollution. I had seen stars of course, but never like this. It was amazing. All of the rustling and chatter had waned, and in the silence the sky seemed so... deep. Then, a single shooting star trailed across the sky.
From the opposite direction (earth), a twisting flare climbed up from the ground. It rose with a rippling flutter and then >boof< it popped. A bluish white light illuminated the entire battlefield. I poked my head up to take a picture and the lines opposite me opened up with a deafening roar of gunfire.
Also: the Redwood forest was pretty cool.
7. What is the most impressive thing in the human-made world that you have ever seen in person?
1996 World Series Game 6 at Yankee Stadium. And I'm a Yankee hater.
8. Death Row Pizza: what style/toppings?
A simple, well made, plain slice.
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?
Head down to Kittentown.
