a month of interviews

it's Opening Day, of course (today's weather cast a certain amount of doubt despite the fact that there was baseball on television), but also the last day of the month.

and March started with a welcome assignment, the live performance of Big Star's Third album for the Village Voice, and so on March 1st, 2nd and 3rd I interviewed band leader Chris Stamey (formerly of the dB's), electric guitarist Mitch Easter (the leader of Let's Active and the co-producer of R.E.M.'s Murmur among many other albums), singer Tift Merritt, orchestra conductor (and Lost in the Trees leader) Ari Picker, saxophonist Lisa Lachot, pop guy Matthew Sweet, R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills and original Big Star drummer (and Ardent studio manager) Jody Stephens.

after that I transcribed for quite a while, and then I transcribed some more and then some more after that, wrote a bit, edited a bit more, turned the piece in and did some minor edits after that, and so in the first nine days of March I interviewed only one 49 year old, a lovely woman I knew way back in elementary school (hey Laura).

but starting on the 10th of March I interviewed writers David Gessner, Kathryn Harrison, John Blair and Lori Handeland, seismologist Susan Hough, architects Joseph Tanney and Dan Meis (he designed Milwaukee's Miller Park, pictured above), Iowa state senator Merlin Bartz, artist and inventor Michael Joaquin Grey, college administrator and scientist Catherine N. Duckett, human rights epidemiologist Les Roberts, comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer, psychology professor Robert Josephs, musician Kevin Seconds, drummer and author Jacob Slichter, author and editor Eric O’Keefe, former Florida congressional candidate Jay McGovern, Eastern Michigan University basketball coach Charles E. Ramsey, composer Jake Heggie, political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins), literary critic and professor Ilan Stavans, DoubleClick co-founder Kevin O’Connor and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jeff Brazil.

every single one of those folks was 49 years old when we talked. and every single one of those folks had a few stories to tell and I was fortunate enough to be on the other end of the phone line (or webcam or across the table) when they did so.

it's been a good month.
hello April.