1. Although heterosexual, I always wanted to be a boy.
2. I am by nature a risk-taker. This did not stop me being afraid to write a novel for the better part of thirty years. Nowadays it mostly comes in handy for getting hurt riding certifiably insane horses.
3. I am idiotically face-blind. At Parents’ Night last week, it took me a minute to recognize my own daughter (though in my defence, they all dress alike).
4. I studied steel sculpture at St Martins college of art under Anthony Caro and Philip King. I had no clue what they were talking about. Ever.
5. In my 20s I played bass guitar in a rock band. We performed at CBGBs.
6. Nick Ferrari once told me a I wrote like an angel. This was long before I wrote books, but while he was programmer on Live TV, responsible for such fine literary content as Topless Darts and the news bunny.
7. Memorizing lines is torture to me. I don’t understand how anyone does plays. (My daughter has a near-photographic memory.)
8. David Letterman once asked me out to dinner. The guy I was with (not a boyfriend) said, ‘Sorry, we’re busy.’ I nearly decked him.
9. I briefly rowed crew at Harvard.
10. The best job I ever had was coming up with movie titles for Tristar Pictures.
11. I can ski, skate, sail, play tennis, rappel, weld steel, and speak French — all very badly indeed.
Dilettante, or renaissance woman? LOVED this!
Yes, yes…
when did you play at CBGB’s??
1981-2?
Wow… OK, now I am getting flashbacks: did you hang out at places like the Mud Club, Peppermint Lounge, and the Ritz etc?
[I was at Pratt in Brooklyn back then - but alas, not cool enough to be playing bass at CB's!!]
My club of choice was definitely Tier 3 but I did Mudd and CBGBs and Hurrah…and Irving Place and Palladium…even Danceteria I think. It was a long time ago. But Tier 3 was amazing. James Chance, Glenn Branca (life changing music for six electric guitars on the world’s tiniest stage), Rhys Chatham….
Oh god. And Arto Lindsay. I loved Arto Lindsay.
I’m already in over my head – just like I was back then! In ’81 I was a 17 year old who looked 14, and who for some reason was being served left and right in NYC clubs. I did go to places like Danceteria – but tribeca clubs would have been out of my league back then. What a time though in NYC – back when soho still had dive bars…
Wow, you are Rennaisance Woman! Hardly a dilettante. By the way, are you seriously saying thay paid someone to come up with movie titles? Were you in PR?
Bazza’s Blog ‘To Discover Ice’
Not only did they pay me, but they paid me $1000 for an evening’s work (and this was in about 1982). It was the bet job I ever had. I wasn’t in PR at the time, but I was working in advertising, and it came through the friend of a friend. I graduated to writing poster lines, and even the occasional trailer, but it was the titles I loved doing. Forty in a night.
re: Number 11 – I hope not all at once, although that kind of multitasking is only what we have come to expect of you, Meg. Actually that might explain the ‘very badly’ assessment…
You studied sculpture? At ST MARTIN’S? Wow. Do you have pictures to show of artwork you made – and do you still make any?
(Speaking of pictures, how does one get to have a little picture on this blog, like Bookwitch and Lia above?)
I have big black and white 8x10s somewhere in the attic. I don’t get much call to show them!
And as for the pictures, you need to ask some clever webmaster type person. I don’t remember how I did it.
Wow, you’ve done a lot of cool & interesting things in your life – no wonder you ended up being a writer. I wanted to be a boy for a while too till I realised being a tomboy was the best of both worlds
You studied with Anthony Caro? Wow!
Kirsten, this blog is an under cover wordpress blog, so the whole system just knows that I am me, and the avatar pops up. But you have to register somewhere to post comments and can put your own avatar in instead of the anonymous head.
Thanks for the explanation!
Glad you understood that…..
Best job I had… Getting rid of a million grenades in a hot and sandy place – oh happy days!
You’re a man of simple pleasures, really, Ray.