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.

Jim Swimm

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

~ This is probably not the type of answer you're looking for, but...the closest to 'transcendent' experience I've ever had was the funeral for my friend, Earnest Straughter, while I was in college. Being amongst hundreds of people, sharing that sadness and mourning, escalated my grief to such a level that I nearly lost consciousness.  It was awful to go through but thoroughly cathartic.

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

~ Sight.  While the thought of living in a world with no sound or taste is absolutely miserable to me, I think living sightless would be far more difficult and an overwhelming challenge.

3.  What is your favorite attribute in a person?

~ I'm not really into picking a 'favorite' anything, for something like human attributes especially.  There are so many wonderful characteristics mixed up into a unique blend in all of us.  Picking one above all others just seems...pointless.

4.  Describe your happiest accident.

~ I don't know if it counts as an 'accident' but I sure wasn't looking to fall in love so deeply with my dog, Louis, on the day I found him.  I wandered into a pet store, held him for five minutes, and instantly decided I would fall over dead on the spot if he didn't come home with me that very day.  And I couldn't be happier that it happened.

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

~ Honey...if I'm gone, then what the hell do I care what object is left laying around without me?  Of course, I don't give much of a damn about 'objects' while I'm still here, so I guess I would say that, wouldn't I?

* Please forgive the heavy use of the single-quotation marks.  I don't know 'what' got into me.

Lindsay Sadowski

HEY!!!! I cannnot believe I forgot to interview you...again. Will you do homework for me? Can u text me answers to questions I text you tomorrow? Thank you for a wonderful weekend. Xo


lol I knooooow!!!! Yes I can


Yay!!! 


Hello there lovely. Question one: have you ever had a transcendental experience. If so, describe it. :) 


I don't know if I ever had a transcendental experience but I can say If I did ever have one I would hope its one I can learn something from. 




Ooo good answer. 2: if you had to pick one sense and lose all others what would it be? 


I'm torn between sight and touch. But sight def. takes the win. I'm an artist i love the beauty of the world and without that I'd probably go crazy. 




Awesome. Lindz ur an eloquent texter. 3: what is your favorite attribute in a person? 


Honesty. It's a hard attribute to find actually. People tend to not be true to others and themselves which is frustrating. 




Yep. I'm with ya. We are so similar. 4: describe your happiest accident. 


I do believe everything happens for a reason. I wouldn't be with my boyfriend Vinny of almost 5 yrs now if the series of events before him hadn't had happened. There's more... 


Good keep typing. :) 


So my happiest accident would have to be that I am happy to be with who I am with now and the "accidents" were worth every moment and I don't take them back. 




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


I suppose if all other traces of my being were wiped away I would want something beautiful left if only one. So I'd have to choose an artwork of mine. 




YES!!! Perfect. I love your answers Lindz and I love you. I hope you have a good week. Give Vinny a hug. 

Anonymous

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

no.

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

as much as I love music, i'd hate to lose sight.

3.  What is your favorite attribute in a person?

self deprecation (self defecation) It displays a lot of other attributes.

4.  Describe your happiest accident.

I was the first guy to put some chocolate in some peanut butter....and a new junk food was born....

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

Nothing. We've polluted this planet with WAY too much material shit already.