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As a regular contributor to BillieDoux.com, I was invited to participate in a series of lighthearted interviews to help maintain the site’s hit rate throughout the summer. Billie’s questions turned out not unlike those that used to flood my e-mail inbox back in college.
1. What’s your favourite television show of all time (okay, top five will do if you can’t narrow it down to one)? What was the first show you fell in love with? What show would you consider to be your guilty pleasure?
Chances are I’m forgetting something, what with my DVD collection in another province, but in no particular order: Lost, Gilmore Girls, So You Think You Can Dance, Firefly, and The X-Files. The latter was definitely my first TV love. I had the magazines, comic books, and everything. At the moment, my guilty pleasure is Disney’s The Wizards of Waverly Place.
2. Who’s your favourite male television character? Same question for female. Favourite television theme song?
Kim Possible is, in my opinion, the greatest female character ever to grace the small screen. She can do anything! My favourite male character, on the other hand, is Alan Shore from The Practice (as opposed to Boston Legal, which featured the same lawyer, except not really). He’s such a romantic protagonist, a self-destructive humanist whose sardonic wit hides a profound appreciation for human nature in all its frailty.
As for theme songs, my favourite is Mark Snow’s piece for Millennium. Ominous yet melancholic, it embodies everything I loved about the show.
3. What character do you identify with the most and why?
I guess that would be Lorelai Gilmore from Gilmore Girls. We both left home at an early age, made a whole bunch of mistakes in life, take great pride in what we do, talk fast, formulate our thoughts in long streams of pop culture references, and have a profound affection for stupid puns and self-defecating humour.
4. We love movies, too. What are your top five movies?
Just five? That’s cruel. Off the top of my head: Stranger than Fiction (2006), The Joy Luck Club (1993), Magnolia (1999), Blessing Bell a.k.a. Kôfuku No Kane (2002), and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991).
I suppose I should mention as well I’m a huge horror film enthusiast, and my top five today (I’m fickle) consist of A Tale of Two sisters a.k.a. Chang-Hwa, Hong-Ryon (2003), Scream (1996), Creepers a.k.a. Phenomena (1985), the original Dawn of the Dead (1978), and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994).
5. We love books, too. Who are your favorite authors? What are you reading right now?
At the moment, I’m reading Dennis Lehane’s Prayers for Rain, Ann Brashares’ The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Rosalind Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabes, and a whole bunch of X-Men comics.
As for my favourite authors, there are just so many to choose from: Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, Richard Matherson, Fred Wah, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Guy de Maupassant, Amy Tan, Laurence Sterne, René Goscinny, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fizgerald, Jacques Ferron, Leonard Cohen, etc. On the subject of writers, I should also mention Scott Rosenberg, who inspired me to take my craft and make it my livelihood, which eventually got me confused, as I made it my life instead. Sad, really.
6. When did you realize you were a hopeless geek?
I’m still in denial about it actually. I suppose it all started that day I was eating cotton candy next to a bearded lady. Some frat boy asked me whether I’d mind biting the head off a chicken to entertain his date, and I said, “Well, that’s going to cost you a buck fifty, buddy!”
7. If you were an animal, what would you be?
Naked.
8. What’s your sign?
You can’t see it, but I just flailed my arms and legs about in a very specific manner. Send us your contact information, and we’ll make sure to fax you the gesture.
9. What’s in your iPod or MP3 player?
Lyrics tend to distract me when I write, so I’ve got a lot of classical music, instrumental jazz, and movie scores in there. As a proud Canadian, I also listen to Fiona Apple, Chantal Kreviazuk, Jean Leloup, and Leonard Cohen. As an embarrassed Canadian, I occasionally rock out to some Alanis Morissette.
I’ve got some Dave Stewart, Aimee Mann, Radiohead, and Lenka too, but right now Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck without You” is sort of stuck on repeat. I’m not proud of it, but then I’m not particularly ashamed either.
10. What’s your least favourite chore around the house?
My only chore around the house is mowing the lawn. Get it? Around? Never mind.
11. What’s your favourite flavour of ice cream?
I’m lactose intolerant. I think ice cream flavours should try not being ice cream, return to their own country, and stop stealing our jobs.
12. Cats or dogs? Sam or Dean?
I prefer cats because, in a long-term relationship, I value independence and pooping in a designated area.
Finally, I don’t watch Supernatural. I kept getting confused whenever Jared Padalecki, who played Dean on Gilmore Girls, would call the guy from Dark Angel Dean, and rather than stop typecasting the actor, I decided to change the channel.
