Being Interviewed and Photographed
Had my interview today for the Richmond Hill Liberal. Had a photo session about an hour later, too.
Met the reporter, Mitchell Brown, at a Tim Horton's near my home. He set up a tape recorder, clipped a little mike to me and off we went. I'm pretty sure I didn't say anything that I would be too horrified to read in the paper :).
(note all photos in this entry were taken by John during my newspaper photo shoot)
Mitchell had never heard of filk before coming across the UT website so we started there. Favorite question, eh, fellow filkers? What is filk? From there he asked more about UT- how we met, how we balance music and careers, how we've stayed together for 11 years, about our trips, songs, CDs, what our future holds. He asked a bit about my past- how I discovered science fiction, how I got into music, when did the two combine, whether I ever use filk in the classroom, how I met John.
He was interested in the image of the sci-fi fan, how it tends to be looked upon as geeky young guys or folks with plastic Spock ears and if I find that stereo-type frustrating. He wondered how a teenage girl happened to get interested in sf, and beyond that, if there were a lot of women involved in filking. He thought maybe UT was quite unique in that we are three women in filking. I told him that wasn't so, with the ratio of men/women filkers being about 50/50.
Mitchell wanted to know how a young person in Richmond Hill interested in writing filksongs could connect into the community, so I told him about our local housefilks and the United Filkers of Ontario webpage.
I gave him a "Sushi and High Tea" CD and handful of useful URLs and we said our farewells. From the interview he sent me to a park a bit further north where I was to meet a photographer to get my picture taken. See the notes under the photos for impressions of that experience.
Interesting sidenote- I did a search on Mitchell Brown at the Richmond Hill Liberal, mainly to see what he looked like for meeting him. The search took me to his professional writer's website with several samples of his journalism work. More amusing to me was the link that took me to a hobby webpage of his- a detailed history of comic books. Kind of reassured me that he might be more open to my forays into the science fiction world than I had feared :).
Asked Mitchell what the turn-around is on such profiles, when I'd be likely to see my profile in the newspaper. He told me it was his goal to have it in the next issue, which comes out next Tuesday.
Heh, next Tuesday. That's the first day of school and that newspaper will be dropped on most Richmond Hill doorsteps that night.
Mum: So, Jimmy, what's your new teacher like?
Jimmy: Well, she's... hey, she's right here in the newspaper!
Next Wednesday should be interesting...
Met the reporter, Mitchell Brown, at a Tim Horton's near my home. He set up a tape recorder, clipped a little mike to me and off we went. I'm pretty sure I didn't say anything that I would be too horrified to read in the paper :).
(note all photos in this entry were taken by John during my newspaper photo shoot)
| Photo shoot: getting ready for my close-up... Actually, I spent an hour getting my hair ready for these photos and, of course, I was immediately taken to a windy hillside. But I think the photographer liked that look, the wind-swept folk singer. | For the first set of photos he asked me to climb up onto this rather high, rather lumpy piece of rock. He then handed my guitar up to me (telling me that I wouldn't need the strap). He took a series of photos shooting upwards, which is why he needed me up high. |
Mitchell had never heard of filk before coming across the UT website so we started there. Favorite question, eh, fellow filkers? What is filk? From there he asked more about UT- how we met, how we balance music and careers, how we've stayed together for 11 years, about our trips, songs, CDs, what our future holds. He asked a bit about my past- how I discovered science fiction, how I got into music, when did the two combine, whether I ever use filk in the classroom, how I met John.
He was interested in the image of the sci-fi fan, how it tends to be looked upon as geeky young guys or folks with plastic Spock ears and if I find that stereo-type frustrating. He wondered how a teenage girl happened to get interested in sf, and beyond that, if there were a lot of women involved in filking. He thought maybe UT was quite unique in that we are three women in filking. I told him that wasn't so, with the ratio of men/women filkers being about 50/50.
| The photographer took a lot of test photos of me from that angle, especially interested in getting the light right. The sky was very blue and he was really pleased with the contrast of the blue sky and my red hair. The photo printed in the Liberal will be in colour. The photographer kept asking me to look down at the camera, so that's why it looks like my eyes are closed in so many of John's photos. | For the second series of photos, he had me walk halfway up the hill. I was just holding the guitar casually as I waited for him to be ready, but he liked that pose and we kept it for the rest of the pictures. Again, he was very keen for the sky, sun and light to be just right to showcase the sky/hair thing. John, of course, stayed back quite far to take these photos to be out of the shots. |
Mitchell wanted to know how a young person in Richmond Hill interested in writing filksongs could connect into the community, so I told him about our local housefilks and the United Filkers of Ontario webpage.
I gave him a "Sushi and High Tea" CD and handful of useful URLs and we said our farewells. From the interview he sent me to a park a bit further north where I was to meet a photographer to get my picture taken. See the notes under the photos for impressions of that experience.
Interesting sidenote- I did a search on Mitchell Brown at the Richmond Hill Liberal, mainly to see what he looked like for meeting him. The search took me to his professional writer's website with several samples of his journalism work. More amusing to me was the link that took me to a hobby webpage of his- a detailed history of comic books. Kind of reassured me that he might be more open to my forays into the science fiction world than I had feared :).
| Since the photographer was going for an artsy look, in the first set of pictures he kept having me hold my guitar in strange ways (that would look cool from an upwards shot). He'd often angle my hands so that John would have to hold the guitar from the bottom, too :). | I suspect it's one of these second set of shots the photographer will use to go along with the profile, but we'll see. They will also be publishing a promo photo of Urban Tapestry which Mitchell had already downloaded from our website. |
Asked Mitchell what the turn-around is on such profiles, when I'd be likely to see my profile in the newspaper. He told me it was his goal to have it in the next issue, which comes out next Tuesday.
Heh, next Tuesday. That's the first day of school and that newspaper will be dropped on most Richmond Hill doorsteps that night.
Mum: So, Jimmy, what's your new teacher like?
Jimmy: Well, she's... hey, she's right here in the newspaper!
Next Wednesday should be interesting...