•  1 December 2012  •  5 notes

name: cassandra nguyen

age: twenty-one

occupation: college drop-out / currently unemployed



1. what is your present state of mind?
‘calm’; i am currently sitting in a living room, on a chair with my dog. we are watching a show on the animal planet called ‘tanked’


2. where were you born?
bethlehem, pennsylvania


3. where do you live now?
chicago, illinois


4. where would you like to live?
moving to philadelphia in the winter of 2012, but ideally i would like to be somewhere without a lot of people or sand that has a consistent temperature of 72 degrees and is close to a food source


5. do you think you’re interesting?
no


6. how is your love life?
my love life is good, i love my boyfriend and my dogs


7. what were you like as a child?
my mother told me when she used to bring me to the mall i would sit in my stroller and tear at the perforated lines on the price tags of clothing in macy’s and also once i stood in front of a tv in the disney store and recited the entire dialogue of ‘toy story’. she also told me i was quiet and rarely cried.


8. what did you eat today?
leftover pizza i found, two avocados, salt and vinegar chips, grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup, water


9. have you ever created culture or art?
no


10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs?
yes, yes


11. what kind of people do you hate?
people who do not laugh at jokes about hitler or 9/11, people who claim to ‘hate’ the boss, people who do not like dogs

12. what are your goals, if you have any?
to make a lot money by doing something that involves little to no effort


13. do you have any depressing stories about your life?
when i was twelve, my eight year old sister samantha was taken from our home on martha’s vineyard. since then, i have been trying to discover what happened to my sister and as a result i uncovered my deep fascination with extraterrestrial life forms.


14. who are your favorite authors?
favorite writers include ben brooks, michael inscoe, megan boyle, andrew colville, james tadd adcox, crispin best, stephen tully dierks, zach german, elaine sun, ana carrete, madison langston, david fishkind, maggie lee, andrew worthington, etc.


15.what will you be doing ten years from now?
who knows

•  20 September 2012  •  21 notes

name
megan lent

age
19

occupation
unsure; left job at theatre this week to go back to school

1. what is your present state of mind?
vaguely scared/impossibly confident

2. where were you born?
folsom, california

3. where do you live now?
los angeles, california

4. where would you like to live?
In my grandparents’ house in napa
Or above a bakery in paris
When I am old I would like to live in one of the old houses in downtown Sacramento, in Land Park, maybe a brick house next to the 1930s movie theatre.

5. do you think you’re interesting?
I see how a certain type of person would be interested in me, yeah. Or how people could latch on to a few specific personality traits and be somehow intrigued. There are some people who I want to be impressed by me, and some people who I want to fall in love with me, and I usually try to curate a version of myself for them that includes  all the cool, cold parts and leaves out the rest. This usually only lasts for about two weeks until I start doing things like telling my therapist ‘no one knows the REAL ME’ and relating too heavily to, like, Vivien Leigh.

6. how is your love life?
Currently texting the boy I was in love with in high school.
I went on a few dates last week/the week before, with someone I met riding his bicycle between the theatre and my train stop. I liked spending time with him because he dressed well and had amusingly animated facial tics/body movements. I asked if he noticed how easy he was to imitate, like, I bet him that if I gathered a group of his friends and started doing his silly marionette movements everyone would say “Yeah that’s Matthew.” He didn’t agree.




7. what were you like as a child?
Overall: classic INFP personality type, thoughtful in group situations but very animated one-one-one or in a performance-based setting

Until age 5 I liked to look at glittery nail polish and sometimes put it on but feel it was prettier in the bottle. I liked dinosaurs and would tell people I was born knowing 50 dinosaur names by heart. I thought Halloween was a holiday created specifically for me. I lived by a meth house but didn’t know it. I felt bad for the ants in my backyard and tried to feed them. My favorite movie soundtrack was a toss-up between Footloose and The Big Chill, both on cassette.

Until age 10 I read every book of Greek mythology in the library, was overweight but did not know it, wrote a lot of stories (generally fantasy), had a best friend who thought my stories (generally fantasy) were possibly true, felt a constant need to observe/be aware of my surroundings and the people around me.

Until age 18 I went to Catholic school.

Between 12 and 14 I was anorexic and began to experience signs of depression and anxiety. I was the best altar server at the Catholic school. I got to light the bonfire for the Easter Vigil. I would plan out spending days waking up at 6 and reading about a saint and drinking tea, then running 5k, then going to school. I never fulfilled these plans. I played the trumpet and the guitar. I had no idea I was sad.

At age 14 my best friend came back from overseas and was hospitalized for eating disorders. I sat on her floor waiting to see if she’d die. It was an oddly scientific worry.

At age 18 I dyed my hair purple and lost my virginity and edited the school newspaper and was incredibly happy.

8. what did you eat today?
2 starbucks pumpkin lattes
various vitamins
a citalopram and a birth control pill
ricotta ravioli w/marinara via my mom
chopped-up avocado w/red wine vinegar
 
9. have you ever created culture or art?
I think that the ways people define those terms are really interesting. Like, when I say ‘art,’ or that ‘this thing is ART,’ I’m not sure that I automatically mean that the aforementioned thing is art outside of that particular context and purpose.

10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs?
Feel inadequate because I get no ‘drug-result’ from taking alprazolam, given off-balanced serotonin levels.

I enjoy being drunk. I mean this in a negative, I prefer-being-drunk-than-sober-and-would-prefer-to-be-drunk-at-any-given-moment way.

I like good wine.

I like the smell of marijuana more than I like to smoke it.

I am afraid of heroin.


11. what kind of people do you hate?
Andy Moreno, mostly.


12. what are your goals, if you have any?
To have a photo in Vanity Fair where I’m wearing a prom dress and drinking a diet Red Bull followed by a story saying “For all of her cynicism and bluster, Megan Lent’s writing works because of its deep rooting in humanity” and “Lent arrives in blue jeans and a paint-splattered T-Shirt, apologizing for being late. ‘I had to pick up my boyfriend Aaron Paul from the airport,’ she explains.”

13. do you have any depressing stories about your life?
Have spent multiple evenings watching clips of The Fox and the Hound and crying loudly until my face became covered in mucus and I fell asleep.

14. who are your favorite authors?
Most books I have liked are written by people who, if I saw their names on someone else’s ‘favorite authors’ list, I would attack. This is because there are few writers whose entire body of work I feel ok with calling ‘my favorite.’ I like pretty much everything I’ve read from Frank Hinton and Gabby Gabby (I can read most things by ‘alt lit’ female writers and like it, I think.)

My all-time favorite short stories are “Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates and “Welcome to the Monkey House” by Kurt Vonnegut. I have read every book by John Steinbeck. I think The Great Gatsby is a flawless work. Four Douglas Coupland books, four Brett Easton Ellis books, two Chuck Palahniuk books, two Cormac McCarthy books, one Jennifer Egan book, and one Katherine Dunn book are near my bed and I feel inclined to disclose that I loved them all. My favorite playwright is Tom Stoppard. I wish I could write like Kitty Pryde. But also Stephen Malkmus. And Leonard Cohen.


15.what will you be doing ten years from now?
i can’t picture that sorry

•  20 September 2012  •  13 notes

name. jordan castro

age. 19

occupation. writer/musician.


1. what is your present state of mind?

turnt up. ready. focused. it’s 6:14AM. i’m sitting at a big ass desk in a leather chair in the office room at my friend ziggy’s parents’ house doing things on my laptop. i smoked ~6 blunts earlier and am currently on ~40mg adderall, ~2.5mg xanax, & ~20.4 oz sugar free red bull while drinking canada dry brand ginger ale and deer park brand bottled water. i spent the night with the squad, playing music, talking, writing, recording, turning up, etc. My YG zach is going off to school on saturday, so tonight was kind of our “last shabang,” so to speak. feel inspired. also realizing that it’s been a while since i’ve smoked a cigarette (brb).



2. where were you born?

hillcrest hospital in mayfield heights, ohio.



3. where do you live now?

solon, ohio.



4. where would you like to live?

[somewhere besides my parents’ house], ohio.



5. do you think you’re interesting?

i don’t think i’m interesting or not interesting.



6. how is your love life?

married to the game.



7. what were you like as a child?

at age 4, i told my parents i didn’t believe in santa claus. at age 8, i’d go to barbecue’s at my best friend thomas’ house and freestyle rap in the basement with his brother “big mike” and his gang/friends from cleveland (thomas, many years later, ended up stealing $800 from me during [illegal activity removed]). i first got drunk and high at age 11. my parents tell me i was “a sweet, loving brother.” i played baseball/basketball until 7th grade, which was the same year i got caught stealing a three-six mafia cd & skipping school to go to the skate park. at age 12, i started reading literature daily. at age 14, writing daily.



8. what did you eat today?

2x banana, 1x cliff bar, 1x piece cheese pizza, 2x ‘bite’ of a chipotle burrito.



9. have you ever created culture or art?

http://animalsorrow.com/



10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs?

yes, to some degree. i feel like addiction can be really shitty, via experience - i’ve been struggling with it recently, re painkillers, and used to drink daily from ages 16-17. i think i have what most would call an “addictive personality.”

i think i like certain drugs in terms of certain things, but also understand how they can be harmful for certain people, including myself, in certain contexts, etc.



11. what kind of people do you hate?

people who aren’t ‘real,’ in my opinion. people who use terms like ‘good,’ ‘bad,’ ‘right,’ and/or ‘wrong’ unsarcastically. people who are actively concerned about things like being ‘hip,’ ‘relevant,’ ‘popular,’ etc. people who say or do things with the intention of ‘hurting’ me or people who i like. people who try to ‘capitalize’ on or ‘exploit,’ in my view, certain lifestyles or cultures that they haven’t lived before said lifestyle/culture became ‘popular.’ people who tell the police information that can get other people in trouble. the list goes on. i don’t know. i don’t think i ‘hate’ [aforementioned people]. i encourage people to think/say/do what they want, i just don’t like being around or thinking about or interacting with certain people. i don’t know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIh0MMm6TyE



12. what are your goals, if you have any?

move out of my parents’ house, finish my short story collection/novel, feel less shitty about myself, experience things, etc.



13. do you have any depressing stories about your life?

http://animalsorrow.com/.



14. who are your favorite authors?

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1168060?shelf=read



15.what will you be doing ten years from now?

what i want to be doing and what i will be doing in ten years could be completely different things. i could be dead in ten years. if not, i’ll be writing and playing music. ‘til the day i die i’ll be doing me though, one thing about it two things for sure.

•  7 September 2012  •  29 notes

name walter mackey
age 22
occupation student, writer, whatever

1.what is your present state of mind?

i just visited the doctor’s office and i talked to a man about his recycling. he was very nice. the doctor was sort of weird, i don’t know. i think i am pretty much calm but i feel sort of hungry.

2.where were you born?

i was born at james paton memorial hospital in gander, newfoundland & labrador, in canada. that all happened on may 9th, 1990.

3.where do you live now?

i currently live in cull’s harbour, newfoundland & labrador, in canada, which is about 45 minutes from gander. i will be moving to st. john’s, newfoundland & labrador in about three weeks. it is about 3 hours from where i currently live and 3 and 1/2 hours from where i was born.

4.where would you like to live?

i would like to live in toronto or boston. my true loves (lucy k shaw and ellen kennedy) live in these places and i would like to spend the rest of my life with them. i feel like if i live in toronto, i would probably just megabus to boston a lot and vice versa.


5. do you think you’re interesting?

i guess parts of me are interesting. i live in a town of ~30 people. a lot of people are really fascinated about where i live and where i’m from. that’s probably interesting. i don’t know what else is interesting. i have a degree in folklore, that’s pretty interesting. feel like i should ask someone i know what is interesting about me. this seems like a vain question.

6. how is your love life?

my love life is non-existent. i haven’t been with anyone intimately in almost two years and i don’t think i really have a love interest in anyone at this point in time. maybe when i move to the city, but who knows?

 7. what were you like as a child?

as a child, i was very dirty. like, not dirty in a hygiene-state but dirty in like, talking about dicks a lot or something. i was very immature. i played with a lot of girls as a child and this led to my mother buying me a barbie—gymnastics barbie. i would perform concerts in my basement with my mother’s records to an imaginary crowd; hits like xanadu by olivia newton-john and 9 to 5 by dolly parton. remember distinctly telling my mother i wanted to grow up and become a priest at one point, too.

8. what did you eat today?

i haven’t eaten anything yet but it is nearly noon so i guess i will have mac & cheese soon or something.



9. have you ever created culture or art?

sometimes i create art and i guess i help to create culture or facilitate it in some way, what with being involved in the ‘alt lit’ community or whatever. i do not think that i am a curator but i am certainly a ‘role player’ in the consumption of culture. i have a social science degree so i feel like i could talk about culture all day, but i won’t.

10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs?

i don’t know if i ‘like’ drinking alcohol or using drugs, but i do both.


11. what kind of people do you hate?

i hate fake ass bitches and people who seem to hate me for what appears to be [no good reason]. i feel that the internet is a weird place and a lot of people are quick to form opinions about one another very quickly, especially in the ‘alt lit scene’. i don’t know, i feel that a lot of things i’ve said to people have been misconstrued in some ways and if they could hear the tone of my voice or the context of why i’ve said some things, they would think differently of me now. seems like i have a lot of haters. this is a formal apology to all of the people i’ve offended. i’m really sorry.

12.what are your goals, if you have any?

i don’t know if i have any goals. maybe to one day be happy; own my own house, maybe have a car, something trivial like that. i don’t want to pay rent every month for the rest of my life and ride around on a fixed gear and dumpster dive or something when i’m 54. how awful would that be, man?

13. do you have any depressing stories about your life?
 

i don’t know if my life is depressing, to be honest. sometimes i feel depressed but i can’t think of a depressing story. i don’t know, maybe you should talk to a starving child in africa who lost their parents to war and then talk to me about how i went out in public with my pants on backwards or something and just see who has the most depressing story.

  14. who are your favorite authors?

i guess my favourite ‘writers’ are: dennis cooper, eileen myles, noah cicero, tao lin, jean rhys, augusten burroughs, miranda july, simone de beauvoir, ellen kennedy, lk shaw, megan boyle, jacob steinberg, spencer madsen, and carolyn decarlo. i feel privileged to be able to talk to most of them on a daily basis.

 
15.what will you be doing ten years from now?

i feel that ten years from now i will be working as a construction worker in toronto and enjoying my life. i don’t know if i will continue with my writing and i don’t know if this community will stay around long enough for everyone to keep in contact with each other, but i would like to imagine that it will still exist. i feel like my future is ‘bright’, for sure.

•  6 September 2012  •  18 notes

name.
Frank Hinton

age.
29

occupation.
Marketing and Communications Director

1. what is your present state of mind?

It is 10:32 p.m. I am in a Ramada in Frankfurt moderately buzzing on apple wine and working on a package of mixed Haribo licorice+gummies. I am concerned about my weight because I broke down and ate some weird french fry and sauce dish downtown today and I haven’t been to the gym in 2 weeks. Every few minutes I go and run the stairs in the hotel and then do a 60 second plank. Then I come back to my ipad and check facebook and play automated cribbage while nursing the apple wine. Simultaneously, I am fantasizing about getting a hazelnut bar from downstairs and almost unconsciously spooning these Haribos into my mouth while compartmentalizing my angst about probable weight gain. This seems to be my normal travel mindset.

I am wearing dirty pjs and have the AC on high and am listening to Julian Lynch.



2. where were you born?

Halifax, Nova Scotia

3. where do you live now?

Halifax, Nova Scotia

4. where would you like to live?

I would like to live in Fukuoka or Munich or Montreal. Those are the only places I have liked as much as Halifax. Basically, I like living in a clean place with friendly people. I would like to live in New York but living in America frightens me because it is such an extreme country and I worry about going to hospitals or getting fat. I think my ideal city needs to have a huge park and be far away from my family.



5. do you think you’re interesting?

I don’t know. I think I’m nice and I think that there are other people who like me and that feels nice. I get complimented at least once a week and that seems like more than any person could ask for or really need. I think I am playful in a way that people find interesting but I don’t know.. I am probably moderately intriguing to most.



6. how is your love life?

I think it is adequate. I probably achieve 4-10 orgasms a month. I think I am a generally sexual person with very few perversions but a good deal of lust and desire.

7. what were you like as a child?

Age 0-4 

I was a prized only-child known for cute behavior and odd but adorable comments. I was raised primarily by my grandfather who was the the only parent to ever provide me with unconditional love.

Age 5-12

I was a generally quiet and good student that was close to the popular children but never part of their in-crowd because I was fat, odd and poorly dressed. I read a lot and played SNES with my cousins (all boys) and began to isolate myself because my father seemed to genuinely not give s shit about my existence and that left me feeling inadequate and unwhole as a human.

Age 12-18 

I blossomed physically and in turn became very popular. I was featured on school sports teams and in plays and I enjoyed frequent parties and drinking festivities. I began having casual sex and seeing my body as a tool and object with which to control my social position. I fell in love with my History teacher at this time and also became obsessed with journaling.

Age 18-25

Attended University and had a standard experience. Majored in Business and Political Science then topped up a victory lap with an English major. I drank a lot and exercised a lot and met all of my closest friends and began to study marketing and internet identity at this time.

Age 25 on

Nothing really has happened. I have a nice job and a pseudonymous online personality which in turn is a writer. I no longer feel like a child.

8. what did you eat today?

A glass of orange juice, Muesli and yogurt, a mini-croissant, an egg white, a bowl of mixed fruit, 5 cups of coffee, a french fry goop thing, a tofu salad, a hazelnut bar, a bag of Haribo treats, apple wine, some beer, lots of mineral water.

9. have you ever created culture or art?

Yes, I have written and published a number of stories. I have a novel coming out later this month. It’s called Action, Figure. I host a litzine called Metazen that publishes stories and poems five days a week. I also host Alt Lit Gossip which seems to have a life of its own and chronicles the lives and goings on of a community of online writers.

10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs?

I enjoy drinking regularly and am not opposed to people using drugs recreationally although I am presently drug free. I think my goal is to eventually go alcohol free as well, although this may not be possible unless I seal my mouth.


11. what kind of people do you hate?


I don’t hate, but I intensely dislike people that have no awareness of their surroundings i.e stand in places where people are meant to walk through. I really don’t like people who think they are great and have no traces of humbleness. I am put off by grandeur and intellectualism for the sake of demeaning others. I don’t easily forgive people that regularly gossip or bash others. I can’t be around glass-half-full personalities. I also can’t be near dull people without imagination or humor for too long.

12. what are your goals, if you have any?

I don’t know I want to be able to enter a meditative state with a higher frequency. Saying this is almost a function of ego, but I would really like to achieve enlightenment in the Eastern sense of the word. My major goal in life has been to have a novel published (http://www.tinyhardcorepress.com/books/current-titles/action-figure/), anything published after that would be cherries. My life is complete I think.

13. do you have any depressing stories about your life?

Yes. A lot of my early twenties were filled with first world problems related to heartbreak and existential angst and spiritual turmoil and a sense of being misunderstood and other stupid little bitchy things.

14. who are your favorite authors?

David Foster Wallace and Dostoyevsky. I really do love Blake Butler and xTx and Marcus Speh as writers. I have read everything by Dennis Cooper, Tao Lin, Haruki Murakami, Burroughs, Scott McClanahan and Ellis. I keep a reading journal here
http://saladpaper.blogspot.com/


15.what will you be doing ten years from now?

I imagine most of the same. Trying to imbibe all I can and understand the confusing things around me. Saving up for a modest amount of travel, writing, mediating. I will work hard to be less neurotic and skinny. I might have a garden of some sort.

•  4 September 2012  •  41 notes

name. Mel Chang

age. seventeen

occupation. Freelance graphic designer/illustrator + student





1. what is your present state of mind?
Happily numb, whimsical, and fairly unproductive as a whole. (per usual)

2. where were you born?

Seattle, WA

3. where do you live now?

Mercer Island. Though I usually just say Seattle because all I do in MI is sleep, eat, and draw.

4. where would you like to live?

somewhere in the northeast. I have a lot of schools that I’d love to go to up there and well…I have a lover there but shh.

5. do you think you’re interesting?

I like to think so just to boost my sometimes crippled ego. “”We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” you know the drill. (It’s not crippled when I’m playing pretend.)

6. how is your love life?

It encompasses all the adjectives that could describe a baby kitten on a bad day and a flower on a good day. That being said, its rather lovely and I’m dating this boy named Hel who makes me grin like an idiot despite the long distance nature of it all.

7. what were you like as a child?

that depends on you definition of “child.” If we’re talking tiny tots: awesome. Full of feisty imagination and silly If we’re talking middle school, then awful. Absolutely awful and full of stupid. I think I’ve mostly grown out of that now, though.

8. what did you eat today?
a peach and chicken curry! Woop~! (I woke up really late today…)


9. have you ever created culture or art?

that’s all I do, sir.

10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs?

a drink or ten is fine and lovely around good company. I’m not a huge fan of drugs though. For me, as an artist, I take some pride in being able to say that all of my art was done from my mind, and my mind alone. No drugs or alcohol enhanced it. These are the things that I create without the help of chemical manipulations. I’m sure it’d be fun to see what happens when I create things out of my normal psyche one day but as of now, I really like my mind. The dreams that I have and the pieces I create are from my mind alone and I am proud of the work that I can make without what I feel is a creative crutch. (to each his own though. I’ve seen tons of crazy amazing work done by people on way too many drugs.)
That being said, the closest thing I do to drugs these days is occasional dicking around via schmiggeretting. But I dont even do that that often. I do it when I’m sad and insufferably lonely which used to be a lot but not anymore. woop woop!

11. what kind of people do you hate?
People who can’t help but think they know everything, people who always assume things, people who are intolerable, people who do not understand that people grow up, especially at their own speeds, construction workers who think that what they do falls under architecture and industrial design (so many things wrong with this.), and people who play the kazoo. Those are the worst. Ugh.


12. what are your goals, if you have any?
+get into college, preferably Carnegie Mellon
+love someone until there’s nothing left in me
+get to a point in life where I don’t NEED to be numb to get through the day and therefore don’t need/want cigarettes
+be a featured artist in RAWartists
+get famous for my art?? Yes, yes! that’d be rather nice.


13. do you have any depressing stories about your life?
TONS. SO MANY. Its like a deformed puppy litter. Pick and choose. But you’ll still have to pick and scratch through the huge over grown patch of daisies and forget-me-nots if you want to know any of them. I tend to forget them, you see. I’m very good at it too.
14. who are your favorite authors?

Kurt Vonnegut and Neil Gaiman.

15.what will you be doing ten years from now?
Drawing more pictures, probably graduated with a major I totally didn’t expect to graduate, not having kids, and probably being an accidental vegetarian. I really like meat. And bacon. I love bacon. But it takes effort to make and I’m no cook. I like baking sweets and eating fruits and veggies because they make my body feel good~
I also hate kids.
Oh and hopefully I’m being loved by somebody and I love them back. That’d be nice too.
And my mouth won’t taste like cigarettes.

•  4 September 2012  •  4 notes

name: sian s. rathore
age: 23
occupation: freelancer

1. what is your present state of mind?
I have had too many sweets and fizzy drinks because I went to the cinema to watch ‘ted’ with my little sister and i’ve got heckloads of essays to write so i’m feeling buzzed and anxious i guess. i’ve also been drinking lots of green tea and smoking lots of cigarettes so i’m getting high like a thirteen year old.


2. where were you born?
i was born in east lancashire, in the north of england. the town i was born in is called ‘burnley’ and it’s notorious for racism, poverty, drug abuse and mental health problems. it’s in the middle of a place called ‘the pennines’ which is lots of hills and moors and countryside. it’s something really ugly in the middle of something truly beautiful.


3. where do you live now?
i live not far from where i was born. i’ve moved house ~20 times in my whole life and i guess i’ll be moving a lot more soon. i live in a place on the border between two counties. this is no man’s land. nobody really knows quite what this place is.


4. where would you like to live?
i want to move back to the city, my nearest city is manchester. a lot of great poets live there and it has a huge lit scene and lots of cute little places. i love it and i love being close to everything. my bigger dream is perhaps berlin, i would love to live there if even for a short time. i want to live there with the man i love and i want us to experience life in the most colourful way imaginable.


5. do you think you’re interesting?
no. i am profoundly uninteresting and it is my self-awareness of this fact that makes me try to talk as if i am interesting by using big words and peppering conversation with what i consider interesting facts and funny titbits. when you get past the talk of poetry and art, and the talk of comedy, and the talk of people we know and the talk of culture - there’s not much underneath. i am comfortable with this fact. a lot of people are the same.


6. how is your love life?
it has never been better. i am in love and i am happy. i have met the love of my life. i have nothing witty or interesting or offbeat to say about it. my love life at present makes me newly sincere.


7. what were you like as a child?
quiet and precocious. unpopular. happy that way. started writing poetry even then. it was not very good.


8. what did you eat today?
um. i had a bowl of special k with rice milk for breakfast. then i had a ham salad sandwich with no mayonnaise. then i had a huge bag of doritos with my little sister at the cinema. then i ate some sweets called “super sour snakes”, some sweets called “milk bottles” and i still have an unopened bag of some sweets called “cherry coke bottles”. i ate ~10 pieces of popcorn.


9. have you ever created culture or art?
no one person creates culture but i am part of a cultural movement. everybody can be seen to be creating art every second of every day just by living and breathing and the poetry i write is no different to that and certainly no more important. creators are necessary in this world but they are no more necessary than street sweepers and funeral directors. i create art in the way that a binman takes away your recycling: necessarily, without ceremony, and knowing full well i’m not getting paid enough.


10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs?
i like drinking alcohol and there was a time when i liked using drugs. i still do like using drugs and that’s the problem - i enjoy them too much. as a result i no longer take drugs and have been clean for ages. if i were not a ‘recovering addict’ i would still be taking drugs which is ironic i guess. my favourite drugs are cocaine, ketamine and opiates. but i’m not allowed them. so i take the drugs my doctor legally prescribes which are tranquilisers and sedatives. there’s the joke you see. the more you fuck your life up with drugs the more you ruin your mental health. the more you ruin your mental health the more likely the doctor is to give you tranquilisers and sedatives. so it all comes out in the wash.


11. what kind of people do you hate?
i have intense dislikes for certain kinds of people but no hate. the people i intensely dislike are:
people who have the whole of the cinema to sit in but sit right next to you for no reason. same applies for public transport users. people who bully others. people who discriminate. people who think laughing at other people is funny. people who tweet minor celebrities on twitter like they’re mates because they probably met once or have a mutual friend. cynics. people who have to put others down to feel happy. people who say: “modern art is rubbish. it’s just not art.”. people who say “it’s just not art” about anything at all.


12. what are your goals, if you have any?
i want to be in a job that i like and i want to be earning enough money that i can afford to eat well and go out and see friends when i want. i want to be as happy as i can be for as long as i can be. i want the people i love to be happy for as long as they can be too. i want some day to be making some kind of living out of doing what i love. first i need to work out what that precisely is and if there’s an actual job that exists for it yet.


13. do you have any depressing stories about your life?
no. terrible things have happened in my life, the way they have happened in everyone’s lives. i have had bad luck in the past but i regret nothing at all, so none of it’s depressing. i’m happy now and i would have still needed to have the unpleasant experiences i’ve had to be at the stage i am at now, so no, nothing depressing to tell of.


14. who are your favorite authors?
i don’t tend to read novels so i don’t know. poets is another story. but that’s not what you asked me.


15.what will you be doing ten years from now?
i have no idea. i can’t tell you. i can tell you what i want, but not what i know. what i want in ten years is job security in a job that i love, a house that i have got just the way i like it, friends who have persisted through the years, and a body that i’m happy with. i want to have released at least one fucking book by that point. i want to still be with the person i am with now, and i want us to have 10 years of brilliant experiences behind us. i want to be a mother to at least one child at this point. i want a pet dog who is as awesome as the family pet dog we have now.

•  4 September 2012  •  3 notes

name. Sarah Swan

age. 23

occupation. ESL teacher 




1. what is your present state of mind?

I just got home from work and it’s really hot in my apartment. I share a small space with my friends who are crashing until they can get into China. There is only one fan. Yesterday, my friend and favorite co-worker, completed his last day at work. I feel strange. I feel sad but not in a “i want to cry way”, more like a “a year goes by so fast and everything is different again.” 



2. where were you born? 

New York



3. where do you live now? 

Bucheon, South Korea



4. where would you like to live? 

Where my friends are….maybe somewhere with seasons. 



5. do you think you’re interesting?

 I don’t know. I think everyone is interesting. They’re living their life and I want to hear their stories. I want to know how they’re feeling. How a moment, or a movie, or a city made them feel. Show me your emotions and opinions. Tell me about the strange things that happened in your life. It makes me think about my life and where I have been, where I am going. 
Recently, I met a guy who got a heart transplant through a program ran by Nancy Reagan. He was flown on some special plane from Korea to America. Everyone has some sort of wild story.

6. how is your love life? 

I have one of those things where I care intensely about a certain individual. There’s this fantastical hope that one day maybe this person will want to be in my life. I keep thinking, “I wish.” Maybe it can be something special when I have fully involved into a beautiful, compassionate, sensible individual. I am making him a book of poems because he seems to like my poems. All my romantic poems are about him and he knows this and I think he smiles about it. 

The longest time I’ve liked someone, my longest “relationship”, is with someone I’m not dating. 


7. what were you like as a child? 

Very talkative. All the doctors said, “This kid has Adhd.” My mom and dad were like, “leave it alone.” I was very awkward and weird. I moved around a lot and at one point didn’t make great efforts to fit in or be understood because I knew I would move to a different city, state, or country in a few years anyways. Girls were mean to me. 

I spent a lot of time playing outside with my sister or by myself. Once, for a few years, I lived in the country. I had a dog that I would take with me as I went rollerskating and I had a special spot in the woods where I would just lay in the grass or collect weird rocks. It was near this hill I would skate up and down for hours. 

I was also really into writing and drawing. I got to meet some Mayor once because I was the “best” artist in my grade. I made a replica of his face out of playdough because someone told me that I had to. He gave me a picture of his face that he signed. 


8. what did you eat today? 

Nyang Myeon (cold noodle soup) and a tuna seaweed wrap.



9. have you ever created culture or art? 
Once when I lost two jobs and I had to pay rent, I sold drawings and my favorite pairs of sneakers online. 
In college, we used to have friendship art shows in this gallery. We would all just make something and throw a party and just get wasted and look at each other’s art. There was also a few occasions where we collected poems and made collaborative chapbooks.

•  3 September 2012  •  6 notes

name. brittany wallace

age. 24

occupation. ESL teacher





1. what is your present state of mind? 

healthily detached


2. where were you born? 

cleveland, ohio, USA


3. where do you live now? 

seoul satellite city, south korea


4. where would you like to live? 

i don’t care


5. do you think you’re interesting? 

duh


6. how is your love life? 

rad


7. what were you like as a child? 

mischievous, manipulative, a typical leo child


8. what did you eat today? 

school lunch (rice, kimchi, mushrooms, gim)


9. have you ever created culture or art? 

have i ever


10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs? 

i prefer drugs


11. what kind of people do you hate? 
rapists i guess


12. what are your goals, if you have any? 

stop doing the fried chicken and beer thing so often


13. do you have any depressing stories about your life? 

once my cat escaped so i put canned food all around my apartment complex and slept on the couch waiting for him, and sure enough at 5am i hear a meow and look outside and atticus is casually sharing his breakfast with a skunk on my porch, they are licking the plates clean and then they scamper away together, and atticus comes back two hours later covered in burrs but smelling normal and looking satisfied with his experience (cute right)


14. who are your favorite authors? 

haruki murakami, richard yates, bret easton ellis, banana yoshimoto, richard brautigan, all of my talented and good-looking friends


15. what will you be doing ten years from now?

cocaine and 18 year olds

•  1 September 2012  •  20 notes

name. austin islam

age. twenty-one earth years

occupation. student, entrepreneurial apprentice, blogger, cultural arbiter





1. what is your present state of mind?

rapidly fluctuating mix of relaxed and excited

2. where were you born? 

dallas, texas

3. where do you live now? 

fort worth, texas

4. where would you like to live? 

making plans to move to denver soon. i dream of manhattan, palo alto, portland, amsterdam, dubai…

5. do you think you’re interesting? 

initial reaction is ‘yes’ but i also know quite a few people who i consider more interesting than myself, maybe the best answer is ‘i am on my way to it’

6. how is your love life? 

in transition, open-source… as a human, friend, and lover i am aging better than expected

7. what were you like as a child? 

flighty and boisterous, somewhat shy, observant, creative.. lied, cheated, and stole whenever possible

8. what did you eat today? 

two craft beers leftover from last night, one slice of peach-plum cobbler made from scratch, one frozen vegan samosa, two white corn tortillas w/ butter, fajita torta from local taqueria

9. have you ever created culture or art? 

yes, i feel that creative output is an integral part of adaptation and survival

10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs? 

my interests are often fleeting, i immerse myself in different hobbies like figure skating or screenprinting for weeks or months at a time. i feel like my indulgence in alcohol and drugs follows a similar pattern

11. what kind of people do you hate? 
people who are uninterested in increasing the elasticity of their own psyche or in advancing the human race in some capacity, people who like Dick Cheney

12. what are your goals, if you have any? 

challenge every expectation of myself that exists in the mind of others, search the earth for like minds, leave some discernible cultural impact on something somewhere at some time

13. do you have any depressing stories about your life? 

of course i do. mostly i gather myself around a campfire and tell them to myself so as to not forget them, and to learn new lessons from them

14. who are your favorite authors? 

conor oberst, rachel maddow, matt pryor, jon mess, himanshu suri, cedric bixler-zavala, kanye west

15.what will you be doing ten years from now?

hopefully something similar to what i am doing now – observing the world in natural, political, and social contexts, making new friends and comparing notes with them, taking every possible opportunity to en-joy the wonders of existence.
wearing a nice shirt. driving a nice car. eating fine foods. drinking finer spirits. using the finest herbs.
tuning my frequency to the cosmos, an author of the modern world.

•  30 August 2012  •  16 notes

name. 
Jessica but my Grandmother calls me Yessekina or Yessca. You can also call me Jess if i like you but don’t you fucking dare call me “Jessie”. Gross.

age. n/a

occupation. 
I’m an Aupair.




1. what is your present state of mind?

Tired, restless, bored. I dunno, I’m just hanging out on the couch eating hummus and carrots trying not to eat the chocolate ice cream bars in the freezer. I want to be a skinny bitch.



2. where were you born? 

I was born in South Central Los Angeles (near Compton) but was whisked away to the Hollywood Hills at the tender age of five where i lived for my childhood and early teenage years.


3. where do you live now? 

Amsterdam, Netherlands!


4. where would you like to live? 

Tokyo, Japan. Or maybe in Berlin except Germans are really awful at speaking english and their food is equally shit, so…..


5. do you think you’re interesting? 

Definitely. I’m one of the coolest people i’ve ever met.


6. how is your love life? 

Hahaha non existent. I’ve only had one boyfriend who was a huge asshole and had gross blackheads and never washed his sheets. We had really great sex, but his mom was crazy and he was a pretentious art school faggot, who wasn’t even that great at his major. I know i sound bitter, which is probably because i am. This was when i was 18-19. we broke up, and two years later i’m still single. I did date this swedish guy for a few months when i first moved to Amsterdam but he was really boring and had a bad case of teenytinydickitus. No… but like really. It was maybe the size of my pinky. I never wanted to have sex with him, (can you blame me) and hand jobs and blow jobs were physically impossible so those were out too. He also dressed like shit in cheap jeans and brown zip up hoodies….lwhat are you, 14? He is 28. We actually ended up spending a weekend in Paris together, which is when i broke up with him…in Paris….i’m an awful person….oops.

7. what were you like as a child? 

I got into a lot of trouble at school cuz i would walk out of the classroom when i was bored and didn’t feel like being there. I was always full of energy, talking loud, fast, and over everyone. I almost got my 4th grade teacher fired because she stole my swing at the playground and when i got pissed she laughed in my face and said “tough shit!” looking back its fucking hilarious but i was a little pussy and went to the principle and yeah. But despite all the bullshit, i was a Girl Scout from age 6-12, Student council for 5 years, and School president in 5th grade. Did musical theatre for 7 years….Yeah…..


8. what did you eat today? 

Uh well i didnt eat anything for the past two days because i was on drugs but today i managed to find an appetite so i’ve made myself a plate of baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, sesame crackers, sliced avocado, and hummus. 


9. have you ever created culture or art? 

What is this question i don’t even


10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs? 

Yes…too much probably. I live in Amsterdam so i have access to some of the best drugs in the world (MDMA, speed, coke, mushrooms, marijuana, i’m looking at you)


11. what kind of people do you hate? 

I really hate people on power trips, sexist men who lick their lips, whistle, and treat you like a prostitute when you’re innocently walking down the street. “wit a dumb broad, she haz tits, wut a slut!!!! she totally wants my dick cheese, let me just whistle at her like a dog and see if she falls under my romantic spell”, complainers, stage 5 clingers, basic bitches, when girls hog the mirror in the women’s restroom and cluster around the sink like theres a brick of cocaine stuck in the drain, when you and a person are walking towards each other on the street and you both make eye contact but they don’t even move a CENTIMETER and you’re about to have a head on collision so you move but then you feel like an asshole and want to push them into oncoming traffic. Yeah.


12. what are your goals, if you have any? 

I dunno, i just want to continue traveling and learning things about life. I want to meet lots of people, love, and be loved. I also want a pug. And to be thin. Thats pretty much it.


13. do you have any depressing stories about your life? 

Totally. Not gonna get started though….


14. who are your favorite authors? 

Haruki Murakami, Patti Smith, Etc……….


15.what will you be doing ten years from now?

Living in a different country with my pug and my ridiculously hot boyfriend, filming documentaries about tiger farming and blood diamonds and eating lots of candy and being beautiful and happy forever for eternity.

•  30 August 2012  •  6 notes

name.Amelia Gillis

age. nineteen

occupation. waitress/student/psycho

1. what is your present state of mind? right now i have a headache which is a side effect of a generally negi day. right now i feel uncomfortably awake but its okay, because i’m watching Seinfeld with my brother (the two of us have been doing this most nights for the past 3 months) (im tying this in word and it automatically capitalized “Seinfeld” , so crazy!)

2. where were you born?

detroit, michigan

3. where do you live now?

flat rock, Michigan

it’s a very very small town about a half hour outside of detroit; i rly like both cities tbqh, theyre both charming and exciting but in different ways OBVIOUSLY

4. where would you like to live?

new york city, new york

dream dream dream wow I love it

5. do you think you’re interesting?

yes but i wish there was a way to change the WAY people are interested in me

like

,

i always am interested in quiet (not necessarily shy) people. i know people aren’t interested in me because im quiet but i would like to try it out for a year or something.

Basically i would like to have a personality trait that isn’t my own for a limited amount of time!

6. how is your love life?

its posi almost always/ive been in a relationship for a little over 3 years

today my boyfriend bought me sushi and i cried during the meal for no reason

afterwards i felt better and we ate ice cream and hugged on top of each other while we watched tv

those things are what usually happens in our relationship

(combinations vary)

7. what were you like as a child?

i was extremely outgoing and loved to perfoooorormmm (i still do)

i used to lay on my kitchen floor and make snow angels and sing to my mom while she made dinner

I Love Lucy was my fav show and I used to recreate scenes from it

my cousins and I were best friends (still are), we used to do “shows” in my grammas basement that I choreographed . i was extremely bossy and dedicated and they didn’t really care about the shows at all so they hated me, they still make fun of me for it

“we have to practice if we want this to be our careers” is a common thing I said to try to motivate them

they never really cared lol!

8. what did you eat today?

miso soup, split 3 rolls of sushi with my bf, a few bites of ice cream

9. have you ever created culture or art?

i have created art at least i consider it art

i have helped build tradition, that’s something i love to do, especially with people I love and care for

does that count?

10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs?

i used to drink to get drunk but then i graduated high school and now i drink to enjoy it and its actually way more fun than doing a bunch of shots of cheap liquor!

11. what kind of people do you hate?

people who hate beyonce

12. what are your goals, if you have any?

long term my goals are to have a pig, live in new york, and have a public place i can go to and feel safe and comfortable

money isn’t really a concern with me, but i would like to be working in/for a theatre of some sort

short term my goals are to move out, clean my room, buy more fruit, not cry the first day of the semester, update my advice blog thing, get a kitty, and visit new york city because it misses me and the feeling is mutual baby

13. do you have any depressing stories about your life?

i have a lot!

ive seen 2 family members die in front of me

honestly though i feel like that isn’t depressing because in retrospect its very beautiful and i don’t feel sad about it anymore,

14. who are your favorite authors?

Sylvia Plath, Joshua Gillis, Grace Millard, Jackleen Joseph, Jay-Z

i live live for everything they’ve ever said or written or anything ever

15.what will you be doing ten years from now?

i will be 29, an exaggerated version of myself now: whispering in my friends’ ears at nighttime outside in new york, walking too fast, being more “together” with my life with my pig and maybe my damn husband idk who knows, i know I will be posi and in love with SOMETHING

•  28 August 2012  •  14 notes

name. walter davis

age. n/a

occupation. n/a

1. what is your present state of mind?
experiencing mental entropy, i think


2. where were you born? 
richmond, va


3. where do you live now? 
richmond, va


4. where would you like to live? 
somewhere else…..ideally tokyo or in a forest w/ friends


5. do you think you’re interesting? 
only moderately, i think my image is interesting, and i like to see how people (irl) react to my image. i have no personality but i might be funny 


6. how is your love life? 
gays hate me so i don’t have a boyfriend


7. what were you like as a child? 
incredibly curious about everything, was always reading, every adult thought i had asperger’s. i always felt very out of place amongst my peers (i was an elitist)


8. what did you eat today? 
nuts, lots of pasta, cookies, ice cream, i think that’s it


9. have you ever created culture or art? 
i am culture. i am art.


10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs? 
yes/yes. in the past, i have thrown a solid object through another solid object via drugs (friends witnessed it happen)


11. what kind of people do you hate? 
i try really hard not to hate because it’s very hard/impossible to understand a person completely…so whenever i perceive a person being a way that i “hate”, i try to think that maybe they aren’t like that all the time…i hate douchebags though in general


12. what are your goals, if you have any? 
i’m still trying to become god


13. do you have any depressing stories about your life? 
my life………..


14. who are your favorite authors? 
michio kaku, george orwell (1984), tao lin (due to the number of times his books have made me laugh), etc idk

15.what will you be doing ten years from now?

 ten years from now, i will either be homeless or famous.possibly both.

•  22 August 2012  •  52 notes

name. hannah fantana

age. ~17

occupation. writer/ illustrator/ student

1. what is your present state of mind?

nervous, about to go on cam for my first spreecast

i’m also watching curb your enthusiasm which always makes me really anxious

i just went outside, very nice/calming

2. where were you born? 

san diego

3. where do you live now? 

san diego, moving to san francisco soon for college

4. where would you like to live? 

san francisco/ portland/ seattle/ not san diego

5. do you think you’re interesting? 

yes, i think i can be really funny/cool (wow did i just say that)

sometime people say ‘wow your life is cool’ or ‘that’s crazy, that never happens to me’ which catches me off guard

i guess, i think i’m interesting, but i don’t think other people really do

6. how is your love life? 

was decent this summer/ got bad last week/ now is just ‘eh’

i sexted with taylor retzios about jorts last night if that counts

also i am painfully in love with james ganas

7. what were you like as a child? 

i guess i said really motivating things to my parents

i asked my mom to marry me when i was really little

just did cute shit/ hung out with my dog/ was naked all the time

8. what did you eat today? 

an almond croissant, a popsicle, orange juice, another popsicle, pad thai, tofu vermicelli, more orange juice, ginger ale, cheesecake

9. have you ever created culture or art? 

yes, i believe that i do that every day

i believe that i create a culture every time i am doing creative/beneficial things with other human beings

i believe that i create art whenever i am doing something beautiful that i love and that other people get to experience as well

10. do you like drinking alcohol or using drugs? 

i enjoy drinking more than doing drugs, mainly because i like to be in control of things all the time

also, i really like being ‘me’ and feeling like ‘me’ and drugs make me not feel like ‘me’

haven’t really done enough drugs to know, maybe ask me again in a few years

11. what kind of people do you hate? 

people who are angry all the time and genuinely are not positive human beings

it makes me sad and angry

not sure if that would be ‘hate’ but probably the closest thing to it, for me

12. what are your goals, if you have any? 

my big goal right now is to put out my first chapbook (it’s called ‘i love you, lets play frisbee golf’, keep a look out)

it’s already done, i just need to figure out who i’m going to publish it with/ if i’m going to publish it by myself/ really don’t know what i’m doing

next goal is to get a job/ finish classes to get my license/ go to college

13. do you have any depressing stories about your life? 

one time someone on omegle said ‘fuck you’ to me

14. who are your favorite authors? 

i really love peter orlovsky

henry david thoreau 

georges bataille

obligatory tao lin inclusion

15.what will you be doing ten years from now?

in ten years i will be doing something related to art/music/literature

being around human beings that i love and doing things that make me feel happy/fulfilled/satisfied :o)

•  18 August 2012  •  6 notes