I interview ... Maudie

As per my interview rules, here are six questions for Maudie. She gets major multimedia points for this one.

Name: Maudie
Age: 39
Location: San Francisco
Interview date: 8/6/07

1. What is the most satisfying thing you've done today?

For the past couple of weeks, I've been mentally planning a burrito-night Harry Potter book release party for my nieces. After the 6th book came out, we had talked about going to one of those bookstore parties for this one, but then it turned out that they were away at camp when the book was released. So my mom and I went, and it was oh-so-lame. Root beer for butterbeer and orange soda for pumpkin juice; red licorice for licorice wands; "Gringott's goldfish", which were just... goldfish; and plain cupcakes for cauldron cakes. And then the trivia questions were a joke, everyone in the store could have answered any of those questions, and it was a "just shout out the answer" kind of thing (they should have done it as single-elimination speed-rounds; why don't people just consult me on these things?).

Anyway, they did at least give away some cute stickers and stuff, so I snagged three of each kind of goody (for the two girls, and their little brother), and I started planning the menu for my own HP7 bash: I made REAL butterbeer and pumpkin juice (recipes available upon request ;) ), got proper black licorice for the wands, chocolate coins for leprachaun gold, Bertie Bott's Beans (too easy); and my own interpretation on cauldron cakes. Pictures attached.





So yes, that was totally satisfying. And then I also made a sugar-free fat-free berry/banana pudding pie (not nearly as awful as it sounds), for the less sweet sweet-toothed (sweet-teethed?) in the group. Entirely less-exciting picture also attached.



And then this afternoon is going to be a pedicure and a live in-store by the Swell Season at Amoeba, so really, this might be one of my most satisfying 24 hour periods ever.

2. What does being Irish mean to you?

You know, people have written entire books on this subject. And you saw how much I wrote for just question #1... but here goes anyway:

Being Irish means that there's a default setting for everything: music, literature, travel, politics, social activity, family relationships, etc. Everything can be filtered through or viewed in relationship to the Irish equivalent.

And perhaps more importantly, being Irish means that I'm always that one grouchy person in the bar who is pissed off at people doing phony Irish accents and phony Irish dancing on St. Patrick's Day (and don't even get me started on how "cute" drunken-leprechaun greeting cards are!).

3. What was your favorite toy as a child, and why?

My favorite toy was a rag doll named Big Dolly. Which I think is a great name, because it's like a name for a madam in an Old West bordello or something. A friend of my mom's made it for me when I was very little, which was why she was named Big Dolly, because she seemed huge to me at the time. I think she was made out of pantyhose, stuffed with foam, and she had loopy curls made of yellow yarn, and embroidered eyes, nose, and mouth. She wore a white blouse, and her pinafore, hat (kind of a beret, it sat on the back of her head like a yarmulke) and shoes were all in the same red fabric with a white and yellow flower pattern.

When I was in the seventh grade and in the intermediate school band, our uniforms were white pants and t-shirts, and green cardigans. My mom knitted a little cardigan just like the uniforms, in Big Dolly's size, and went out and bought her toddler-sized white jeans and a t-shirt. Then, she took off Big Dolly's hair (I know!) and gave her new hair, shoulder length and brown, which she tied in two pigtails with green and white ribbons. Basically, she made a mini-me (that's mini-me, not mini-Mom) out of Big Dolly. So I would play my flute, and Big Dolly would be propped up on stage at the school concerts (I know!) holding my piccolo. It was cuter and probably not nearly as creepy as it sounds (or at least, as far as I remember it). I have a picture of her somewhere, and I'm sure she's still at my mom's house. Anyway, if I can dig that up, I'll send a picture of her, too. [Editor's note: I want this picture!]

I guess that doesn't really answer the "why" part of the question, but she was my favorite doll. Does that really require an explanation? I think not.

4. If you had to live in a non-California city for the next ten years, what city would you choose?

This one's tough, as I don't think I've really visited enough places to make a good comparison. Places that I've liked on vacation or short work trips, for anywhere from a couple of days to two weeks, have been Paris, Trieste, Manchester, Tokyo, Oslo, even Raleigh, North Carolina... But it's easy to like a place when you're just there as a tourist, right? OK, to narrow it down: as much as I'd like to think that those ten years would be a great chance to live in another country and learn another language, I think anywhere I'd go in a non-English-speaking country would just make me crazy. I'd lose it after the first year, and then not be able to enjoy the next nine years. So, English-speaking places I haven't been but have been told I would love? Vancouver (hi Judy!), Cape Town, South Africa (hi Kelly!), Edinburgh (hi Sarah!).

Oh, and I'd also like to think that I would adjust to and learn to love living in a really small town or some place really isolated, but I'm pretty sure that would make me crazy, too. When I was in Tokyo, after spending 5 weeks in Saipan, I was thrilled to finally be back in a place with public transportation; and bookstores; and millions of people, but still the possibility of walking around with a sense of anonymity; and an incredible array of every possible kind of weirdness that there is (there's weirdness on Saipan, but it's a one-note weirdness, everyone and everything is weird in the same or similar ways). Yes, I like the big-city thing.

So all things considered, I'm going to take the really lame way out, and say New York. I've always enjoyed New York, and I think I can say, after having spent more time there (as a tourist, and some time for work) than in most of the other places I've been, that I do like the energy of New York. I know not everyone does, but I like the hustle and bustle, the people-watching, the living theater of the street. Plus, I wouldn't be too terribly far from San Francisco, for visiting-the-family purposes, and I'd be closer to Europe than I am now, for visiting over there, and traveling to other parts of the world. I've got some friends there, but I also think that it would be very cool to spend some real time immersed in everything that New York has to offer. Even though I probably don't take advantage of even 2% of all the amazing things going on in San Francisco on any given night, imagine if I were hitting 2% off all the great events in New York! It would be over-the-top culture overload!

5. In the Book 7 of the Harry Potter series, why do you think Grindelwald lied to Voldemort about having possessed the Elder Wand?

I'm really going to have to go back and read some of this again. I might even make a flow-chart of who had the wand when (as if I wasn't geeky enough already...). OK, so Grindelwald stole the wand from Gregorovitch, but that wouldn't be enough for him to become master of the Elder Wand. So he may not ever have actually "possessed" the wand. But then the question remains: how did Dumbledore become master of the wand? The story is that he did so by defeating Grindelwald, but if Grindelwald never actually had true control of the wand...

I sense that there is more to the history of the wand, and Dumbledore's relationship with Grindelwald. I think there is going to be (at least one) prequel, specifically regarding Dumbledore. We got no real details on Dumbledore's epic battle with Grindelwald, and I suspect there's still a lot more story to that.

6. Would you please send a short video clip of you doing an Irish dance (if you want it to just be your feet, that is acceptable) for all to enjoy?

What this is, is an 8-hand dance. These are sometimes called "ceili" dances (pronounced KAY-lee), and there are a number of these traditional dances which are done in competition. This one is the Three Tunes (because there are three different types of dances in this one, two different jigs and a reel), and we've done it in several different competitions, with a wide range of results (sometimes first place, sometimes last!). This video was taken on a small digital camera (in 2003, so quality was less than it would be on pretty much any camera today) at (I think) a Christmas party for St. Dunstan's parish. I'm in the couple on the right hand side of the frame. [Editor's note: Maudie continued with a brief self-deprecating description, but I'm cutting her off because everyone in this video looks awesome.]



I'm going to see Maudie on Wednesday, and I may request a live performance.