Zona

Zona Boy interviews Vesper

Once again a very fun and interesting experience.

This will be the last I do of these for the time being.


1. You were born and raised in North Dakota. That's one of those places where guys get their asses kicked because of girls. How many asses got kicked because of you?

Well I moved to Canada when I was 13, but kept close contact with friends and family in North Dakota. I went back a couple summers. A lot of memories from there have been seeping up lately, so I've been getting all "strange"...re-discovering my North Dakota roots, which are strong, contrary to popular belief. Most people assume I'm mainly Canadian because I spent my teenage years here, but my American roots also define me HUGELY. I spent almost exactly half my life there and half my life here in Canada. That's a long fucking way to evade your question. Okay...boys.There was this boy who was majorly into me just before I moved to Canada. He was cute, but a badass, and I didn't know what to do with anything badass then. He would light lighters in front of me and then laugh.He was wacky. I would laugh, flirt with him, then blush and feel guilty. He wrote me letters when I moved...he was a skater and a punk, and I wish I still was in touch with him today. He was a gem....one of those one in a millions.

2. Suppose I was able to set up a meet between you and Shane from the L word. What would be in it for me?

The joy of launching me into a lesbian relationship! ha. That woman has seriously shattered all previous foundations I thought were there. Take this answer however you'd like.

3. I read the things you've done and I recollect things I have done. Then I look at our favorite music lists and yours seems to be lacking in the crank-it-up-and-let-the-neighbors-and-fellow-motorists-enjoy-it-too category. Fess up babe, you have some Kinks and some Van Halen and some Aerosmith and some Guns and Roses behind those Bjork, and Tegan and Sara CD's. Right?
I was never into metal or heavy rock. When you listen to the CDs I sent you, you'll see I like slightly faster stuff (although I tried to balance your CDs with a dose of mellow stuff, too). I like slow stuff, but I mainly listen to funkier stuff. I have a serious hip hop/rap side, and I also listen to tonnes of electronic music. I like Lil Kim, Snoop Dogg, Swollen Members, The Prodigy, Metric, Electrelane, Thievery Corporation, The Fugees, Lauryn Hill, ImogenHeap, Ladytron, The Chemical Brothers, Mattafix, etc.etc...

4. You list Navajo food as one of your faves. Tell me that story.

I ate Navajo food a few times when I lived in Arizona. Not much to tell in terms of a story -- just ran into Navajos a few times and had a chance to eat their corn-based food. Not at a restaurant or anything --it was all homemade. It was amazing. COMPLETELY different from what I've ever eaten before. I still remember the taste as if it were yesterday. I live in search of maize rolls!!!!

5. I believe I recall you saying that you wanted to shoot an indy film. Do you have a story in mind?

I do...but there are two other people in on this project, so I won't say much....just because I'm not sure how comfortable they are with me broadcasting iton the internet without asking them first. It's a short film....the story will combine the concept of waiting and also time and perspective. That's all I can say at this point. :)

6. About that survivor idea you posted. MY idea would be to send the same number of Vancouver men wearing Canada flag patches on a cattle drive through the badlands. You've been there done that. Which would be more fun to watch?

A cattle drive! Cattle drives are fun! Vancouver men wearing Canadian flags would likely get shot. That would be entertaining.

7. North Dakota is vast empty. Vancouver is a gray space between sea and mountains. How hard was that adjustment and what third place do you feel is the place for you?

This is a great question. North Dakota and Vancouver are two completely different places. I feel like I maintain various aspects of both places, but I'm more"Vancouver" in terms of mentality -- I have shed a lot of the traditional, conventional, conservative aspects of the North Dakotan mentality and have adopted acertain woodsy/urban liberalism that defines much of"Vancouver-ism". But I have this strange conservatism that comes out at strange times...and some of that probably comes from those deep North Dakota roots. The prairies and the corn fields and the sky and the Missouri and the thunderstorms will haunt me forever. In a good, sad, bittersweet way. The hills and the old houses....ALL of it....I want to go back there soon. Just by myself or with someone really close to me...to check it all out again...walk my old route to school. That is also a long fucking rant...and way to evade or prolong the outcome of the main point of your question! Jeezus! I would likely never move back to North Dakota, because I feel too different. I feel like I wouldn't be accepted there. I am very urban,with the occasional need to flee everything and go to the mountains. I think I would love San Francisco. I feel the vibe there....it gets into your blood. That place captures me. There's also a huge place in my heart for Arizona. I would likely do well in the east.....New York would likely pull me in. And the south captures my imagination....especially Louisiana.

8. Have you ever been to a pyschic or card reader, and if so what did you come away feeling more, frightened or optimistic or skeptical?

I haven't. I have been to see a Buddhist monk, though. I have gone for walks with him along the Fraser....me with my jeans, t-shirt, and KGB handbag...him with his saffron robes, wooden beads, and super huge grin.

9. You are a dual citizen. If forced to choose and you take family and friends out of the equation which do you pick and why?

Fuck. Hard question. Don't kill me people, but I'd have to say America. Purely for the aesthetics. Purely for the art....the culture....the intensity. I won't be moving there any time soon, or at least while a Bush is on the Throne. I love the contrasts and contradictions that make America. I love it. I despise parts of it, and I am deeply and intoxicatingly in love with other parts. I am so concerned with the health of the great beast, that I just might move down there eventually.

10. Dreams seem to be of big importance to you and something you don't share with many. Do you ever go against your interpretation of a dream based on purely logic thought to find logic was wrong?

I am an INFP. http://linus.highpoint.edu/~bblatchl/infp.html Once again, how perceptive of you, ZB! Regardless of the fact that I'm an INFP, I have a strong logical side, too, but it doesn't win that often. Logic works for some things, but the universe betrays logic all too often. And we need to be okay with that. Just chill.

11. You love the bass guitar. Who are some of your favorite bass guitar players?

Hmmm....I don't have too many favourite bass players...I have just always been fascinated with the sound bass guitars make...and it is the sound that stands out most to be in songs. I love Radiohead's bass player. I love many instruments that make low, deep, resonating sounds.

12. Your reading list is very intense. When you want to, how fast can you intimidate a mortal man to silence through intellectual conversation?

I get a lot of teasing because of this. Today I explained iconoclasm to the girls at work. I got a lot of strange and puzzled looks, so I turned the entire thing into a huge joke and everyone laughed...which is actually behaviour perfectly suited to the concept of iconoclasm. The definition of iconoclasm from the OED: "The breaking or destroying of images; esp. the destruction of images and pictures set up as objects of veneration; the attacking or overthrow of venerated institutions and cherished beliefs, regarded as fallacious or superstitious. The last few years of my life have been iconoclastic. I love the concept and I love the word. And I love cherishing an icon once it has been"iconoclasted".....there is then a combination of fullness and emptiness -- that strange, uncanny"thing" that I love so much.

13. Where do you think you would be if you hadn't blown your knee out and looking back do you feel grateful overall that it happened or disappointed that it knocked you off a different path that you might have taken?

I think everything happens for a very particular reason. This reason is always there and always NOT there at the same time. It happens for a reason, and then again it doesn't. If that doesn't make sense, it's because language can never describe the ineffable. And that makes me laugh. It really, really does. Language is a funny fucker. I've suffered physically quite a bit thus far: knee reconstruction, a super difficult pregnancy and delivery where I prepared to say goodbye to X and my mom for good (save that story for a rainy day), crippling gallstone attacks from the super large amounts of estrogen ALWAYS in my system, and then gall bladder removal, etc. etc.. I've seen the dark, and it ain't so bad. It ain't so bad. And others have seen the dark far worse than I have.

Thank you Vesper.

Time to send this girl some good bass laden tunes.