Sumsinnow interviews Erasure25
A first for Sumsinnow: braving into a first ever interview, and Today's most worthy subject is Erasure25. Erasure hails from America's west coast where when he's not busy slaving away for the good of the country can be found at the local Coffee Bean and Tea Leaves sampling some fine espresso and delish Carrot Cake.. but more on that later.. on with the interview..
So, Erasure, care to tell us your name, age, birthday, serial number?
Hi, thanks for having me. My name is Alan, I am 27 years old. I suppose my serial
number would be 202-633-820, my UCLA Student ID when I was a student there.
How did you come upon your LJ user name and do you use it elsewhere?
I've had this user name for quite some time, since high school. It was used for
my first AOL account. I remember sitting in my friends room. There were 3 of us
(2 were female) and we went into an AOL chat room, pretended to be a spicy female,
and started talking dirty to men. Someone commented, "Wow, you're good at this
Alan."
Anyhow, this user name started out as just being a music group my good friend
introduced me to but now it's come to represent my gay self. I use it everywhere.
Plus I'm a fan of music with strange electronic beeps and twinkles in them.
Speaking of Erasure, what was your least favourite album by the group
and tell us why?
I actually did not like I Say I Say I Say that much. There are like 2 songs
I can stand: Always and Take Me Back. I think it was just his voice in that particular
album. To me it sounded like a tranny on drugs.
You seem to be a strong supporter of a clean environment, so with that
in mind, tell us, why do you still need a vehicle to get around in your fair city?
Along with that, tell us in your opinion what it's going to take to get to a point
where inexpensive, efficient and expansive public transit is the norm? Or are
we just too mind set on sprawl?
Possessing a vehicle in Los Angeles, or in California for that matter, is about
as necessary as toothpaste. And it isn't just simply a cultural or a convenience
thing. Sure, I can take the gold-line to Pasadena, where I work, but I would have
to travel through parts of Downtown. It's not something I would want to do at,
say 8:00 PM at night, after a late night at work. Also, I do drive a clean and
fuel efficient car. My car is rated ULEV (ultra-low emissions vehicle) and gets
about 35 miles per gallon up to 38 miles per gallon. My car is certified by the
California Air Resources Board (CARB), which is the state agency tasked with air
pollution regulations. And CARB is by far the leading agency in the entire world
when it comes to regulating air pollution emissions. It was formed before the
U.S. EPA and is the only agency allowed by the Clean Air Act to make more strict
regulations regarding car emissions separate from the EPA. Other states can choose
to adopt CARB regulations, but cannot create their own. Thus, CARB adopted regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars, the first law of its kind in the world. Of course, the auto-manufacturers are suing CARB. But I digress...
Owning a car is not contradictory to being an environmentalist. This being my
first car I have ever purchased, I think I made the best choice possible given
financial circumstances, credit and such. Given more money, I would buy a hybrid.
Also, since I am technically a consultant, I do some light traveling for work
and a car makes that much more feasible.
As far as public transportation, I am all for it. I love the subyways in Washington
DC and New York. In order for it to work in Los Angeles, first they would need
to build more routes. The current trains just don't go enough places. I think
after you get enough routes developed, you can get a critical mass walking to
subway stations and riding them. And the more people you have walking around on
sidewalks, the safer they become. Frankly, I would not want to walk to the nearest
subway stations at night (they are located in Downtown). Also, people need to
get over their "not in my backyard" mentality. In regards to the LA subway, people
in Beverly Hills didn't want a stop at the Beverly Center, so the red-line was
not extended westward. They felt it would bring in too many transients (a.k.a.
poor people). This line of reasoning is illogical and quite bigoted.
Let's move on, shall we? Why did you decide to go ahead with this interview,
not knowing what questions I might ask?
I thought it would be fun, and a bit of self-soul-searching when answering unforeseen
questions is nice. Plus, I'm sure you, like the entire quadrant of this galaxy,
are dying to know stuff about me. LOL.
With that said, what is one thing you hope to achieve in 2006, that you
didn't manage to do this year?
Many things... but if I had to pick one, its apply to graduate school.
Would you consider yourself a shameless kind of guy, if so, describe a
situation you've experienced in your life where you stood your ground, regardless of how right or wrong you were.
Sometimes I can be shameless. A good friend of mine took me to the closing night
of this gay club, Universe, in San Francisco. We had coupons so we got in free.
We ransacked this table and I was drinking any drink in front of me regardless
of the owner. This one guy kept buying me drinks. My friend and I had to pee really
badly, but the bathroom lines were so insanely long. So we devised a plan. We
went out into the street and found a nice corner. I would go pee while he watched
for cops and vice-versa. We did this all night, maybe like 5 or 6 times.
Ok, so that guy who kept buying me drinks... well, I was smashed like jam and
was making out with him. According to my friend, he was missing a tooth. I'll
take his word for it I guess. We ended up going to my car so that he could give
me a blow job. My friend was wondering where I had dissappeared to for 20 minutes
or so. After being coy and shy about it, I let him know what had transpired. My
friend was a little disgusted, mostly because he didn't think the guy was all
that attractive. He kept mentioning the missing tooth. But, by that time I was
very relaxed and quite pleased. It was a fun night, missing tooth and all.
Okay, quick - what was your very last thought?
It's been several weeks since I had a real good pounding.
It's been reported that you have a cocktail or two on Friday nights, what
is your drink of pleasure and how do you go about consuming it?
My drink of pleasure is an apple martini, dirty martini, raspberry martini, vodka+tonic,
and lemon drop. Ok, that's 5 drinks. Those are my usuals. I'm fairly good at knowing
when I'm buzzed or too buzzed. I prefer to consume them earlier in the night so
I can sober up, if need be.
Who makes your skin crawl?
Honestly, Ann Coulter makes my skin crawl. She is either an extrememly misinformed,
lazy, and ignorant liar or just a huge bitch.
What did you have to eat today?
Today, I had 1 oatmeal-rasin-cranberry cookie, 2 chocolate chip cookies, hot green
tea, a turkey-avacado-BLT sandwich on sourdough, unsweetened ice tea, side of
pasta salad, side of fresh fruit, water, a peppermint latte, half of a Tombstone
pizza, and a Corona. Whew, and that's just for breakfast! Hahaha, just kidding,
that's for my entire day.
Okay, well, that wraps up this wonderful interview, Erasure - do you have any final thoughts for the audience?
I'm such a nerd. I'm thinking about doing Cosplay here: http://www.ffxifestival.com/
Thank you Alan, it's been a pleasure interviewing you today.