interviewed by Jill Carnes
Page 2
JC: What books are on your bookshelf?
ST: Oh, I just moved them all
JC: Oh, no! So there's no books on your bookshelf.
ST: No, actually I moved the bookshelf too.
JC: I guess my first question should be: do you have a bookshelf and if so what books are you on your bookshelf?
ST: (joking) I don't know how to read! …Tons of art books; I have one book-shelf that's just filled with art books… classical art, art philosophy. One shelf that has lots of my books that I've gotten for school - lots of Carl Jung, political theory, and right now lots of books on military pollution and Marx. And what else? Oh, lots of books on apes and monkeys because I really like apes and monkeys.
JC: Yeah, they're pretty cool.
ST: They're really cool. I have one book on organgutans and one big book on bonobos.
JC: Bonobos? That's a kind of ape, or primate?
ST: They're kind of chimpanzees.
JC: I've never heard of that one.
ST: Oh, they're cool.
JC: You got to show them to me.
ST: They don't fight at all. They just make love all day instead of fighting.
JC: Oh, man - total peaceniks.
ST: They are, they're hilarious. If there's any arguments, they just… they're hilarious, they're totally "make peace, make love, not war" monkeys.
JC: Where do they live?
ST: I'm not sure exactly. They live similar places as chimpanzees do. For a long time, they thought they were chimpanzees. They're just smaller and they walk up-right too. They're just beautiful, they're so cool.
JC: When you were in Brazil, at the hot ocean (laughing), did you see any monkeys of any kind - maybe not by the ocean, but maybe in nature ventures or something.
ST: Actually there were monkeys that lived in palm trees on the property, in the hazelnut trees - I think they were hazelnut trees. There were actually trees right on the beach, right on the ocean. They were these little teeny, teeny monkeys that kind of look like squirrels. But then you'd look up-close and they had little monkey faces.
JC: They're as small as squirrels? Or they just resemble them, but maybe slightly bigger…?
ST: They resemble them in the way they moved.
JC: Sort of a running, hopping thing?
ST: Yeah, they were the same size though. They were little, teeny, teeny but they had monkey faces.
JC: What kind of monkey was that again?
ST: I'm not sure.
JC: That was a different type from the one you were just describing, the bonobo.
ST: The other monkey… I asked, but they only knew the Portuguese name for the monkey. So, I don't remember what it was. But they're really, really little.
JC: That makes me want to ask you another question: how many languages do you speak fluently? Or, if you don't like to use the word, "fluently," how many languages are you at least on a street level familiar with, so you can…?
ST: I'm taking Spanish right now and so I can say stuff like, "I like my mom," or "how are you doing."
JC: "Where's the bathroom?"
ST: Like, "where's the bathroom." I'm learning, so I could get by I think… not actually getting close to anybody, but getting very basic information. But that's it, I wish I knew more.
JC: I'm about the same.
ST: Spanish too?
JC: Um-hmm...
JC: Are there any books that you… say, a friend tells you that this book is really good, and by their description, because of their recommendation, you read the book, and when you read the book, at the end, or maybe you just got half-way through it, you thought, "why do they like this? I don't like this." Is there any book you can think of like that?
ST: I'm trying to think, I'm sure there have been.
JC: (joking) You don't have to say who recommended it.
ST: I'm trying to remember. I have to say, usually people give me books and if I don't automatically feel intrigued by it, I just won't read it.
JC: Yeah, I'm the same way; it has to grab my attention.
ST: I'm sure that has happened but I can't think of any right now, at the top of my head, that I actually read part of. Has that ever happened to you?
JC: I probably don't read as much as you. I'm very curious, I talk to lots of people; I learn a lot by talking to people and watching PBS or CNN. It's not that I don't read - I'm more of a short-story reader, biographies… I love biographies. And I like reading magazine articles, things that are more factual. I've never been much of a novel reader. I have read some, but that's not my favorite.
ST: I'm not either, I really need to be interested in the subject.
JC: It's too demanding for me. It's different from watching TV but it's the same as watching TV. It just makes me feel like I have to focus my attention on it and it's taking me away from what I should be doing; in that sense, it's like TV for me.
ST: I kind of agree.
JC: What music do you listen to while you're painting? What's some good Sunny-painting music?
ST: The painting music I listen to obsessively is Neutral Milk Hotel. I know so many painters who do exactly the same thing. And I was listening to your CD the other day.
JC: Oh my!
ST: I'll usually listen to things… I'll get into a phase where I listen to something over and over again. I'm listening to Erik Satie a lot.
JC: Oh, I love him
ST: A lot of gypsy music. I have such a soft spot for… I love Cat Stevens and Donovan.
JC: Me too.
ST: I love them. I used to wake up every single morning and play Donovan.
JC: Donovan… have you ever heard The Hurdy-Gurdy Man? I love that album.
ST: Yes. I have it on MP3. I have all the good Donovan songs. I just love him, so my brother went and got all the Donovan songs. Have you ever the one, "There Is a Mountain"?
JC: Yeah. (Both start humming the song).
ST: And the "I love my shirt" song and all the corny songs.
JC: I don't know "I love my shirt."
ST: It's like, "you have a shirt which you really love…" He's so cute, supposedly he home-schooled his kids and he's a vegetarian.
JC: He did? He home-schooled his kids?
ST: That's what I heard. I haven't actually looked it up, but that's what I've been told. I listen to lots of music, though those are probably my favorites… the Harold and Maude Cat Stevens. (Both sing, "if you want to say no, say no"). Sometimes I feel so corny because I listen to that and then Donovan and I'm like, "oh my gosh."
