Keith Spillett: The Enigma

Lots and lots of them. I always liked the old Borsht Belt comedians like Henny Youngman when I was younger. Really quick one-liners grab me. I also get a kick out of surreal humor like Kurt Vonnegut's writing. There is a great deal of humor everywhere. People are really funny when you forget that you are one of them.

I was the annoying kid always doing impressions of Ronald Reagan in 3rd grade. Nobody really knew what the heck to make of me. I'm pretty sure I wasn't very funny, at least intentionally when I was younger, but I have always been a bit strange. Humor has helped me try to explain the way the world looks to me to other people. It lets me feel connected. Humor has come with the ability to be able to articulate how things look to me.

Yeah, I was an odd duck. I used to wear those glasses that looked like they were for welders. I even went through a stretch where I grew one sideburn....

My family always liked music, but were never crazy about it. We always had oldies radio on. My dad was into some Johnny Cash and some cool soul stuff like Junior Walker, but mostly I got into music on my own and really in my teen years. I liked radio more than plain music. I listened to Casey Kasem's Top 40 Show every week when I was a kid, mostly because I liked listening to stories about the groups.

I ran into some very cool folks who listened to heavy metal. My friend Rick Donato got me into all sorts of crazy stuff. I remember he was telling me all sorts of whacked out band names and I asked him, kidding, whether he liked "Death and Pestilence." A few days later he played me the bands Death and Pestilence. I was a bit confused by the music at first, but I really connected to the energy of it. Then, when I started college, I got a college radio show and I was totally hooked. I can't imagine a time when I didn't listen to metal now.

I'd like to say I'm apathetic about that, but I do care very much. It's a terrible thing to know about yourself, but honestly, I do worry about what other people think. I just realized that I really have no clue how to be any other way so regardless of what other people think I am going to be what I am. The funny thing is, people are often much more accepting than I give them credit for. Also, people are so into their own internal world, that it's very likely they don't see me at all and vice versa.

Yeah, I've messed around with it a bit. I have a hard time with that whole "having rhythm" thing. I always have some weird project going that exists near the realm of music. My current project exists in the genre of unMusic. My band E.T.A.F. (eats things that aren't food) doesn't record music. We create song titles and allow the listener to mentally create the music that fits with the title. It's a purely cool medium (in the Marshall McLuhan sense). Pure involvement. The audience creates just about everything and is, thus, fully connected to the material.

I started the blog in October of 2010. I hadn't written in years. I wrote a lot in my early 20s and reached a point where I felt like I didn't have anything worth writing so I stopped. It was all hideous poetry and random insights that didn't do anything for me but give me a hand cramp. I started thinking about doing some writing again a year ago and I figured blogging would be a good way to find other like minded freaks. I have gotten to know some awesome people through it and have gotten to exchange really valuable ideas. It's a blast when someone on some different part of the earth reads your stuff and gets something from it. The feeling of connection to the world that blogging provides me with is remarkable.

I read a lot between then and now. Reading great writing has helped me a lot. Tom Wolfe, Garry Wills, Philip Roth, HL Mencken, David Mamet, Hunter Thompson and a cast of other strange characters have been the best tutors I could ever have. I still don't have what I would call an original style, but I have borrowed a lot of elements from people who really know what the heck they are doing. I also have experienced a lot of things that have helped me to understand that my feelings are unique and personal, but have a great deal to do with others. My writing got better when I realized I wasn't alone. When I was in my 20s, I didn't really think anything I wrote could actually mean anything for another person and, subsequently, I wrote that way.

Music tends to bring out visceral, genuine reactions in people. Sometimes when I'm at a concert, I turn around and watch the audience watch a band. When things are really popping and the band is on, you see this amazing look in people's eyes. It's like looking into a giant wave of emotion. That's what I like to write into. People can be so alive when they hear music. I want to connect to the part of the audience that is totally consumed by passion and on fire.

Thanks, Sarah. That's the goal. There are conventions to every genre. I try to understand what the conventions are, then pull as far away as I can from them while still acknowledging that they exist. Most people who have read a lot of music reviews know what is supposed to happen. The goal is to meet that knowledge, then alter the formula so that they can go somewhere even more wonderful. This is experimental and with all experimental things there are going to be some monstrous failures, but on its best day, the review can tell the story of the place where the creative exuberance of the musician meets the undying enthusiasm of the audience and explodes into a magnificent orgiastic burst.

A bit difficult. My wife and I have two wonderful young children who require a good deal of love, patience and time as well. It can be overwhelming, but I have carved out some places and times for writing. I went through a stretch where I wrote exclusively between 4 and 5 AM in the YMCA parking lot waiting for it to open. I keep a tape recorder in the car with me and sketch out ideas on the ride home. My wife is also very supportive of my love for writing and gives me time when I need it. I hold myself responsible for 3 roughly 2,000 words a week, which isn't all that much, so I am able to stick with it. If it ever feels like too much and it's not fun for me anymore, I am fine stopping again for a while. It's a hobby for me. The minute it really becomes anything more than that, I probably need another hobby. My three main passions in life are parenting, being a good husband and teaching. Those are the priorities for me. Writing finishes a strong but distant fourth.

I don't know where that 3 came from! Strike it immediately!

Mind reading...another skill I learned in the public schools of New York.

I love sports. My father was a football coach and I grew up going to practice with him. Most of my early memories are sports related. It's always been a major part of my life. I have been coaching basketball for 9 years now and I love every minute of it. Coaching has opened up a whole new level of love and appreciation in me for athletics. The first day of practice is always my favorite day of the year. I have gotten a chance to work with and really know so many awesome young people as a coach. I'm really lucky to have found it.

The tape recorder is my savior. I used to lose a lot of good ideas during the day or would lose my mind trying to remember things. Now, I just spit anything that comes to mind into it. Usually, once I say it into the recorder it stays with me, but I find good ideas buried on there from time to time (along with some completely unworkable silly ones). The trick for me is to be open to ideas all the time. Then, when I sit down to write it really flows. It usually doesn't take me all that long to write something if I am consistent with the recorder. The only thing that takes time is getting up the nerve to hit the "publish" button.

You're really asking great questions, by the way. If the Russians had you back in 1945 they would have had the A-Bomb a lot sooner!

Genre, I'd say psychological thrillers. I've watched an obscene amount of Twilight Zone episodes and nothing makes me happier than a good hook ending. I love having a film shake my beliefs and expectations. In terms of a film, I'd have to pick Network. Everything about that film is magic. The dialogue in that film is on a whole other level. I learn something new every time I watch it. I used to love it for the "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" speech that is really what it's known for, but the forces that conspire to use up Howard Beale and spit him out are really what blows me away watching it now.

I'm still trying to figure out what it is...what it could be is a whole other ball of yarn. I would like to learn a photoshopping program so that I can put famous people's heads on animals. I've had this weird idea about what Speaker of the House John Boehner's head would look like on a rhino. I can't get it out of my mind. I'd like to walk down the street and have someone stop me and say "Hey, didn't you put John Bohner's head on a rhino once?" I mean, everybody has a dream, right?

No, I think the thing about the rhino is probably where I should stop. This has been a whole lot of fun.