Natalie Leonard

1.  Have you ever had a transcendent experience?  If so, what happened?

The most transcendent experience of my life was meeting my daughter, Gates.  Seeing her for the very first time surpassed all my expectations and the immediate and all consuming love I felt was and still is incomparable.

2.  If you had to pick one sense and lose all others, what would it be?

I love to eat and would therefore have to say that taste is the sense I would want to keep BUT if you lose your sense of smell it seems your ability to truly taste would be greatly reduced so I'm not entirely sure this is a fair question. :(

3.  What is your favorite attribute in a person?

I wish my answer were more imaginative but honestly... it is all about the honesty.  Lying is so easy and it seems that many people take the easy way out these days.

4.  Describe your happiest accident.

Missing the deadline to submit applications to most colleges.  I never had any intention of attending Sam Houston State but when I missed the chance to pursue other schools, they ended up being the easiest route to getting an education.  At Sam, I made life long friends and met my love (who, if you refer to question #1, was instrumental in my transcendent experience:) ).  I wouldn't trade that time at SHSU for anything in the world.  Some may say that it was good old fashioned procrastination rather than an accident that led me there but I will say that I am thankful that I accidentally procrastinated. :)

5.  If you had to choose one personal object to leave behind when you are gone, what would it be?

There isn't much that I have of any real value or importance but I think I would want my engagement and wedding rings to be left for Gates.  They are a symbol of the love that created her and it's endurance.  I would want her to always have a reminder of that.

Lauren Hunt

1.  Have you ever had a transcendent experience?  If so, what happened?

I once saw 30 seconds into the future for a period of 5 minutes. It was one of the strangest experiences of my life. I was about 12 and was sitting in the waiting room of my small-time family dentist looking out the window. In my mind I imagined a truck pulling into the parking lot and one of my former camp councilors getting out. I was in shocked when just a short time later that very thing happened. But it didn’t stop there. As the truck was parked and the camp councilor was exiting, in my mind I saw another truck pull next to the truck and the councilor get out of that truck too. Impossible, right? Well, imagine my shock when another truck pulled into the parking lot and the councilor got out of that truck too! (Actually, it turned out that the second councilor was the real one and the first was his twin that I didn’t know existed.) The experience was overwhelming and frightening, but it really has made me a much more open-minded person when it comes to the paranormal. After that day I knew that there were things in this world that go beyond the realm of explanation. I have never had another experience like I did that day.

2.  If you had to pick one sense and lose all others, what would it be?

I suppose I would pick hearing as music has always been an extremely important part of my life. Also, I need to be able to communicate with people and I know would be WAY too lazy to learn ASL or how to read lips.

3. What is your favorite attribute in a person?

Understanding. The world is a big place and people are bound to disagree on many points. I think it is important to listen to all sides and understand where they are coming from. Different views makes the world a much more interesting and rich place.

4.  Describe your happiest accident.

In about the spring of 1998 I stumbled into a MSN chat room on a whim. There I met a young man my age and we began chatting and talking on the phone. We would lose touch every couple of years and then pick up again where we left off. In 2008 we finally met in person after almost 11 years of long distance romance and have barely left each other’s side ever-since.

5. If you had to choose one personal object to leave behind when you are gone, what would it be?

I am stumped on this one. I don’t have any personal items that I feel deeply connected to. I guess I would choose a necklace that was my grandmothers because it reminds me of her.



Zelda Knapp

1.  Have you ever had a transcendent experience?  If so, what happened?


I've had some pretty intense experiences in the audience at a play, but am not sure that counts as transcendent. However, if it does, I remember one night in particular - it was the first performance of the John Doyle-directed revival of Company after the Tony Awards. The show had won for Best Revival, but Raul Esparza (who had been the favorite to win) had not won for Best Actor, and the producers had announced the show was closing in two weeks. On an impulse, after work I went to the box office to see if I could snag a student rush ticket to the show - I met several others there who had done the same thing, also on an impulse. Before the doors opened to let us in to the theatre, I could hear applause within. That night in the theatre, there was a feeling of cameraderie and support in the audience - we had most of us come to say "We are here for you. We wish you would stay longer," and to Raul especially, "We think you should have won." Near the end of the show, when he finished singing "Being Alive," the audience response was immediate and intense - we were roaring into applause, and it did not taper and it did not stop - for a full minute we clapped like that, and then - as one - we all stood up. This was my first time being part of a standing ovation that occurred during the show, and I think it was the first time for the cast as well - Raul Esparza was visibly taken aback, and then he started sobbing. Never before, and never since, have I felt as in tune, as connected, with an entire room full of strangers.

2.  If you had to pick one sense and lose all others, what would it be?

This one kills me, as the loss of any breaks my heart. But I think perhaps sight - I'm a very visual person, I save pictures in my memory of past events, of art, of people - and I'd hate to lose that faculty.

3.  What is your favorite attribute in a person?

Integrity. I think it encompasses a lot of other attributes as well - like honesty, self-awareness, intelligence, loyalty, consistency - Integrity - someone who is fully him/herself, without contradiction or apology.

4.  Describe your happiest accident.

Not exactly an accident, but - on a school assignment, several people from my class were at DIA, exploring the roof exhibit - Judy, one of my classmates, and I discovered that the cyllindrical glass enclosure on the wooden deck had a hidden door that rotated open. We both crept in and lay on the deck in the sun, like cats on a summer day. We stayed there for maybe two hours, just talking, and eventually ended up going back to my dorm and watching Talented Mr. Ripley together and getting food. She's now one of my best and most important friends.

5.  If you had to choose one personal object to leave behind when you are gone, what would it be?

I don't want to leave! I would like to leave something good behind me - something I made, something that's worth something, something someone will care about. A book maybe. But you wanted a personal object. Perhaps one of my notebooks - I had these hard-bound notebooks that I would collect lyrics, poems, quotations, funny things people said, and postcards and pictures - I made twelve of them through high school and college, and still carry some of them with me in New York.

Stephen Gracia

1. Have you ever had a transcendent experience? If so, what happened?


I’ve had a few; sitting in the audience, listening to some one speak words I wrote for the first time (I may have taken leave of my physical form), and the night there was a Mayan temple in my shower (a story for another time) leap to mind, but I would say my first transcendent moment was my first time seeing live music on my own. It was Suicidal Tendencies at L’Amours, (an old Brooklyn Rock club), I was 16 and right up against the stage, surrounded by what seemed like every Brooklyn Punk and Metalhead-- all older, bigger, and drunker than me. The lights dimmed, feedback filled the room, and Mike Muir said: “First off-let's take it from the start; Straight out, can't change what's in my heart; No one-can tear my beliefs apart….”

I knew right then that my life would be filled with small, filthy clubs and Hardcore Punk.




2. If you had to pick one sense and lose all others, what would it be?


I’ve thought about this a lot, since I have a family history of blindness, and the fact that I may lose a sense is a very real concern.

I would say that the one sense I couldn’t do without is hearing. The thought of never experiencing music is terrifying.

I could make due as a sightless writer. Milton did it. And he didn’t have a Mac with voice recognition software. He probably just had an urchin with a quill pen.




3. What is your favorite attribute in a person?


A sense of humor. Hanging around me can get a bit tiresome, as I am constantly making up stories, songs, and noises, not to mention grabbing props, doing shtick, and commenting on Every. Single. Thing that goes on around me. If you don’t find at least some of that funny, our friendship just isn’t going to last. I love people who can make me laugh, who are natural storytellers, and who can mercilessly attack my own personal foibles. 




4. Describe your happiest accident.


I sometimes think that everything I’ve ever written is a “happy accident” as I’ve never sat down to write with anything approaching an outline. I put two people in a room and let them talk and eventually, something psychotic happens. Often, it takes me completely by surprise.




5. If you had to choose one personal object to leave behind when you are gone, what would it be? 


The photo of a 14 year old me hanging out backstage with Poison’s Brett Michaels. It’s goofy as hell and not at all Punk Rock, and it’s impossible to look at it without laughing hysterically. 

George Hirst

1.  Have you ever had a transcendent experience?  If so, what happened?

watching a scene I wrote transformed by the improv of the players involved.  I love good writing, and I love my writing (may I be blessed with the two converging with greater frequency) but this was something special - for all it was a dark and terrible scene, I sat mesmerized.  I started that night with a pocket full of seeds; I ended it with a garden.

2.  If you had to pick one sense and lose all others, what would it be?

whichever one is appropriate to the moment - surrounded by beauty, let me see; in a concert hall let me hear.  At dinner let me taste, and in love, let me touch.  The experience may not be as complete to my mind now, but to experience your everything as the one thing I should think would be quite different.  Later on, let me look or listen or taste or touch and know what I might've missed - again, one at a time.

3.  What is your favorite attribute in a person?

humanity.  We spend so much time in our lives dedicated to the rote and the mechanistic, to processes that satisfy other processes, all of which have exactly zero to do with our humanity.  Those who embrace their humanity and create for no more reason than it's what they Must Do, are truly special.

4.  Describe your happiest accident.

A steak pan sauce I once made with a Special Reserve bottle of Cognac.  Trust me, it had religion.

5.  If you had to choose one personal object to leave behind when you are gone, what would it be?

God willing someday I'll be published - after that day, it'll likely be my stories.  Until then, I don't have terribly personal objects, so I'll check that 'organ donor' card, and hope someone can get some miles out of what I leave behind... though you might want to pass on my liver; just sayin'...

Eric Kritzler

1. Have you ever had a transcendent experience?  If so, what happened?

a.       Not sure about this one. I had an out of body experience once when I was playing in a Jazz Band competition in Niagara Falls, It was hot and I was playing tenor sax. At one point I completely stopped thinking about what I was doing and started to see myself playing detached from actually thinking about the music. I marveled at how I could do that and sound good and then I drew further and saw myself and the band from above. I wondered how I would get back to myself for a moment and the song ended, and I lingered. I actually thought I might be dying but I shook my body and all was back to normal. Never had that happen again.

b.      As for actual transcendence, I often feel life is VERY karmic and see it happen all around me often. I do good things for others because it makes me feel good (which is good-selfish) and in turn I feel that the universe does good things for me. I am reminded how lucky I am everyday and sometimes it is a little overwhelming. I remember once I went to go walk my dog, Jake, one night and it was a 65 deg night, clear and beautiful. I sat down on my back stoop, he sat next to me pressed tightly and I had an overwhelming sense of how lucky I am to be alive, and there at that moment.  

2. If you had to pick one sense and lose all others, what would it be?

a.       I would have to pick smell as although it would highly impact taste, it would be the least intrusive of senses to lose. Sight is so important, Hearing is losing things I love, Touch is critical for my mental and physical health, Taste is crucial to enjoyment of food (even if I lose smell).

3. What is your favorite attribute in a person?

a.       Besides a smoking hot body, you mean? LOL. That is a tossup between sense of humor and desire for truth and knowledge. Honesty is really up there as well.

4. Describe your happiest accident.

a.       I suppose that many of the things that got me to where I am were accidents in their own right. Surely, Luck favors the prepared and I’ve been preparing for the last 40 yrs, but being here right now, typing this email is my happiest accident.

5. If you had to choose one personal object to leave behind when you are gone, what would it be?

a.       If you were to ask me this question 10 yrs ago, I’d say it was my old Porsche 914 as it defined me in many ways. However, since the birth of my daughters, Although they are not objects, they are what I am most proud to leave behind. Cliché? Yes, but it is so true. Each one is a wonderful human being.

Eric Hunt

1. Have you ever had a transcendent experience?  If so, what happened?


i used to have them all the all the time.  at least those kinds of moments where i felt a deep connection to life and the universe as a whole.  when i first moved to the city and had little to no money and wasn't getting work, i'd go on many artist's dates, as they are referred to in the book the artist's way(although i hadn't read it yet), and these solo trips around the city would often find me having to stop and sit down or prop myself up against a wall while i blissed out.  it was like a drug.  maybe i was just starving.  money was pretty tight.  i don't have those as often these days, or maybe i do and, like any drug, the effect begins to wear off as you grow accustomed to it.  or maybe im talking about something else entirely.  semantics.




2.  If you had to pick one sense and lose all others, what would it be?


hearing.  but does losing one's sense of touch mean you can't do things like pick up a glass or open a door or brush your teeth?  maybe i'm approaching the question too pragmatically.




3.  What is your favorite attribute in a person?


self-awareness.  when someone understands who they are and how their actions can affect others, they tend to be more honest and open minded and just decent, overall.  or they are complete assholes, but know it.  which i appreciate because then i can dislike them and not feel guilty about it.




4.  Describe your happiest accident.


meeting my fiance.  she was visiting my sister.  i was home working.  we flirted when they stopped by the house before going out.  and if my sister hadn't come down sick, i might have never seen my future wife again.  but she did get sick, and keely had time to kill in a big city all by herself, so i spent the afternoon with her applying my charms.  we ended up spending most of the rest of her week in town together, she eventually moved to nyc, and we are getting married in a few months.  being a man over thirty who spent a year living with his two sisters and three cats, this happy accident probably saved me from a life of animal hoarding and muttered conversations with myself on the subway.




5.  If you had to choose one personal object to leave behind when you are gone, what would it be? 


i have no idea.  there isn't really a physical object that i have given that sort of power or meaning.  i think i gave up any sort of deep spiritual connection with any of my belongings after a fire destroyed everything i owned shortly after moving to nyc.  there were things lost i could never replace, in particular tape recordings of my grandfather reading me bedtime stories like he did so often and well too.  but losing the artifact did nothing to diminish my memories of those actual times. maybe without the tapes, i hold onto them even tighter.  i certainly replay them more, which enhances their power.  so yeah, i can't think of anything i'd leave behind...besides a trail of stories, fond memories and times i'd share with those i've known.