1 - Tell us how your project(s) were started.
It was started in the spring of 1998 in the magazine form. The record label was started two years later, both in Ithaca, New York. Law of Inertia was founded with the intention of bringing idealistic, integral, exciting music journalism to the forefront of the punk rock world. The record label was started because we had some money and a modest dream... to put out cool records.
2 - What does music, in it's entirety, mean to you?
Um, music means the sounds that one hears every day. Even though I love music and hear music in everything I do and everywhere I go, I don't want to be pretentious and say, "music is life, bro" because music is far more simple that. Music is sounds that make you empathize. Plain and simple. Good music is an entirely different subject.
3 - What does art, in it's entirety, mean to you?
Art means aesthetics. Anything people find to have some sort of aesthetics is art. In other words, art is everything. Go study Andy Warhol or Duchamp for a more complete/intelectual answer.
4 - Who is your favorite author, and why?
Finally a good question. I have a few favorites. Lately, Tom Wolff (for Bonfire of the Vanities, Radical Chic, Mau-mauing the Flack Cathers, and The Electric Cool Aid Acid Test) for what he has done for American journalism over the past 4 years is incredible. He blurred the lines of journalism and literature better than anyone since Truman Capote. And the end result is that his work could work as well in novel format as it could in the City section of your local paper. Which brings me to my next favorite: Truman Capote. This little man with the booming voice gave such an incredible account of violence and how it can affect people in In Cold Blood better than anyone I've ever read. Philip Gourevitch's book We Wish to Inform you the In the Morning We WIll Be Killed WIth Our Families is incredible. Anyone interested in mob rule, genocide, unbridled violence, and how hypocritical the United Nations is should read this book about mass murder in Rwanda. This book kicked my ass. Just and Unjust Wards was pretty amazing, I forget who that was by, but I just read it. Right now I'm reading Rivethead about life on the assembly lines at Flint, MI's old General Motors Plant.
5 - As your best friend, describe yourself.
An intense and loyal friend who would do anything for those he loves and who love him, an interesting, intelligent guy, and an incredible lover.
6 - As your worst enemy, describe yourself.
Brash, abrasive, hasty, anxious, hyperactive, tenacious, moody, difficult, hypocritical, condescending, stubborn dickbrain.
7 - If you were immortalized as a cartoon character, who would it be?
Um, a cross between Daffy Duck and Foghorn the rooster.
8 - Do you think there are conspiracies against the "everyday person"?
I have no clue what you mean. If you're asking, "are the powers that be [i.e. the government] trying to use mind control to convince us of what they want us to believe?" Sure, yeah, I think to some extent if you've ever studied the Cold War Media experiments, experimental mass marketing in the McDonald's and Coca-Cola age, the Tuskegee Experiments, the past acts of the US Department of Energy, and The Bush Administration, then one would have to conclude that, yes, there are conspriacies against the every day person. But, this is such a broad question that asking it here is like trying to get a carpenter to write a treatise on nuclear physics in one paragraph.
9 - What do you do with your spare or free time?
Read, play music, go to shows, go to movies, museums and galleries, ride my bike, play baseball, hang with my girlfriend, sample the best beer Brooklyn has to offer, make digital art, write, dream, sleep, eat, and community service. I work for the ACLU and Seeds of Peace in my spare time too.
10 - Please give us your interpretation of "the meaning of life".
Love. Plain and simple.
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