RELOCATING

So, as I expected, I got really lazy and didn’t do anything with this blog. I realized I like the idea but not enough to fully dedicate myself to it. I’m too all over the place. But there’s a chance I might do more interviews. So, in an attempt to maximize my blogging output, I will be creating a new blog called “thefictionaledwardsaeid” (because some chump took the address). You can find it at orientalorientalist.wordpress.com.  I’m not sure what this new blog will look like, but I’m thinking of consolidating all of my previous blog efforts (interviews, poetry, music, jokes, blah, blah, and blah) in this one place. We’ll see how it goes. Holler!

METAVIEW

Boy Crisis “L’homme”

This is great. I tell you I have problems conversing with people and you ask me to interview you. [both laugh]

I think that’s a great way to start. Um, yea so…

Uh, ok, well I’m Yasi, your cousin.

Alright, I’m Saeid, her cousin. [both laugh] Or your cousin. I don’t know who I’m talking to.

Okay so I’m a one-time interviewer.

Perhaps.

Perhaps. Umm—

Who knows.

So…you’re starting a blog.

Yea.

And…it’s gonna be about what?

It’s called Innaview—I N N A V I E W—I think I spelled that misspelling correctly. Um, and it’s gonna be about, I dunno if, it’s gonna be about people probably, or the interview itself. It’s gonna be a bunch of interviews, each post will be an interview, um, and, there’s gonna be a very basic format: there’s gonna be a title to each interview—I don’t know what the title to this one is yet—um, but, there’s gonna be an audiofile that goes with it, —actually, first the title, then an image that the interviewee picks, it could be a picture of them, it could be something else, um, and then a song or audiofile,—let’s see… I’m under pressure right now, I’m forgetting what I need to say—um, and then the interview itself. Uh, I’m open to changing all of this, but I would—or being flexible with this and playing with the form—but the interview, I would like for it to be written. And then at the end of the interview I’m gonna put two little paragraphs, um, one about my relation with the person—this one might be a little weird, maybe I’ll make Yasi write it—and the second one, the second paragraph, will be about the composition of the interview. Cuz I’m trying to conceive of this like it’s, like it’s an art project. Not to make it sound too pretentious, but, you know, looking at the interview as a literary form—sortof.

Okay, that’s good. Now, the people you’re gonna be interviewing are they, like the cool actors and celebrities? [both laugh]

Umm…

The cool people.

Uh, yea, exclusively cool people, but not celebrities. Um, no, the point of this is, um,—I mean, I dunno, I’m not that interested in celebrities. I also, like, don’t really know any, and I don’t know how I’d go about interviewing celebrities. But, I think, um, it’s about, like, making a good interview. And I think people are interesting. And like I was telling you a little earlier, um I think it would be more about not finding the right person who does something really flashy and impressive, but, like, talking to people and seeing if I can get them to talk about something about themselves that’s interesting, or to just get a good conversation going.

Okay…

Um, and, and, yea, something I wanted to say that I was telling you about earlier as well, is that I want this—like each post to be a collaborative effort. Um, in the sense that—like we were brainstorming earlier—um, that like I talk to the interviewee and we can, um, like kindof like talk about what we would want to talk about—just said “talk” three times—um, and, and make plans a little bit about how we want it to look, like, talk about the image or the song they want to include, um, how much we’re gonna mess around with the interview form—um, I forget what I was talking about, but…

I forget too

Yea so [inaudible]

Um, what kind of people do you want to listen to your, uh, blog—I mean, well, to read your blog? Like, are you going for more…your own friends, and their friends, and that age group or, like, any—

I dunno. I would like for whoever’s interested to read it, um, like—

I guess you can’t be too picky. [both laugh]

Yea, I mean—[laughs] who am I to, like, even talk about my audience at this point, but, you know, um, anyone really, my friends, my family, um. I dunno, I might not tell all of my family about it cuz it’ll be too explicit, you know, I still want to have like fun, raunchy conversations.

You’re gonna have ridiculous comments if you tell them.

I know. Oh my god. You know them—whatever, they’re gonna find out about it.

You’ll eventually know our family.

They’re gonna find out my dirty secrets and, whatever, it’ll be fine. Umm, so yea.

Okay, so, um—

Sorry, real quick, I would like to make it very accessible. Or, or—well, it depends, that’s a complicated idea. But you know, um, I know, I have an interview lined up with one of my friends—Eric—and he, he’s gonna be, he’s really into like a lot of like contemporary theory and also medieval studies, and I want him to talk about—

Those people are interesting.

Interesting people. Um…and, I want him to talk about it in a way that like, you know, that someone who doesn’t know anything about that stuff can like, you know, could pique their interest—

So it’s a blog for basically everything. Anything and everything.

Yea, I mean, I think one of the cool things about interviews is, like, you get a, like, sneak peak into someone’s life.

And is there anyone else that you think you might be interested in interviewing?

Um, honestly, I already talked to Hamoon and Achille. Um, I think I’m gonna talk to Achille about gadgets and, like, technology, cuz he’s like a technerd in a way. And, I’m gonna, I think I want to talk to Hamoon about telling stories.

SATs.

Yea, and maybe SATs too. But telling stories mostly, cuz he tells really good stories.

I’ve known them forever. I didn’t know that about them. Interesting.

Really?

I didn’t know that about either of them.

Okay.

Um, so…are you gonna cook for everyone you interview?

Uh, I dunno. If I get good interviews—

You guys could share a meal.

Unless, like, I want to get like a really hostile interview…

Or you could make them cook for you so you get a free meal out of it.

Yea, I mean, actually like—I’m cooking some pasta sauce—what else would I be cooking?—um, right now Yasi and I are about to have lunch after doing this, but, um…I dunno, I’m also interested in using the interview, this project, as an excuse to do different things and to meet people and talk to them in different contexts, cuz, it could be—like this is a cool setup we have right now—we’re in my kitchen—um, but like, what if I was just like, you know—well, I don’t want to give it away now but I just imagine there being a lot of possibilities, like, messing around with—

Or you should do an interview in a different place, like every time.

That’s what I was saying. I don’t want to give away the place, cuz, um,—

Yea don’t give it away.

What was I gonna say?

I think this might happen a lot during this interview.

Yea, cuz like, I just—I’m so excited for this, I hope I’m not talking it up too much.

Uh, okay, so I guess what every person that reads your blog wants to know is a little more about you. Where you’ve been—

OBVIOUSLY.

what you’ve done. Tell us about Saeid.

Alright, well, I’m twenty-two. Uh—

God you’re old.

Uh, yea, I really am. I was talking to my friend—Achille—yesterday, and, you too, like fuck, I’m done with college, you know. And now I’m making a blog. That’s what people do when they graduate. Um, I was born in Tehran, Iran—uh, a country that’s been having a lot of news recently, um—

Up until Michael Jackson died.

Yea. Not to talk shit about Michael Jackson, but—

No.

yea. Uh, that’s how those things work. Um, I moved here to the States around when I was three. Um, and, what else can I say? Uh…

What did you study?

Uh, I studied in this program called College of Letters. Uh, I’ll just put a link up on the—

Or you could have a bio section on your—

No, I don’t think so. I mean I think this will be the bio.

Oh okay.

It could be cool cuz it’ll be, like, more interviews.

So, uh, you left out one really important thing. What’s your favorite color?

Oh, blue.

Blue?

Yea…I dunno if that’s a boring answer, but like—

That’s like everyone’s favorite color.

Well, here, I have like an explanation. The thing with—it used to be purple for a while, ‘cuz I was like, it was when I was really getting into Prince—

Uh oh. Purple. Purple? For a boy?

You know, like, some of my readers are gonna be Wesleyan students—

Oh I’m sorry.

and they’re gonna be very offended—

No, as long as it’s not pink I’m okay with any color.

Um…

Is it a specific shade of blue?

It, no, not really—it’s like blue, in a way, as an idea, in terms of like what that color—that color can be a lot of things, um, obviously it has that kindof melancholy connotation—

Sad.

and I like that—Not sadness, but, like, I mean—I think Milan Kundera, I read—he was talking about it a while ago—he was talking about it a while ago, he was talking about how blue’s really awesome. I think it’s just that it has a lot of really, has a lot of range. Like, it’s a color that can do a lot of things and suggest a lot. Um, I’m sound really pretentious, but like, um, I dunno green is kinda annoying, yellow’s annoying, red’s annoying—

My whole family likes green!

I mean you’re wearing a green shirt. Is green your favorite color?

No…I think it’s orange.

Orange?

I like every color.

I mean yea, obviously, it’s like what, I dunno—I feel like I’m talking about it in a way that I’d like to eliminate colors and only see blue, um, but, uhh…yea I dunno.

Wow this is way off topic. Okay, um…

You were going to say something way off topic?

No, that, just that—just the whole color thing.

No, it’s great. I guess like people know everything they need to know about me now, like they could infer from that little commentary on blue.

Okay.

Blue’s Clues? That rhyme is, is crucial.

Yea that guy got like, like Blue’s friend, got, like, arrested for, like, something.

Drugs?

Yea…those kids’ shows people are really, uh—

Yea.

different.

Alright, so who are you? What’s your deal?

Um…

How old are you?
I am—

Where were you born?

Eighteen. Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Um, I…just started college, so I’m getting a lot of good advice from Saeid. Who not to talk to, what not to do…good stuff.

Don’t talk to anyone.

Yea.

Don’t do anything.

Uh, I’m pretty uncomfortable around people so it’s weird that I’m doing this interview I guess. Um, what else? I want to go into accounting hopefully, and, I guess, I’m really enjoying trippy, powerpop music right now.

Like what?

Just like, I guess—

“Trippy, powerpop music”…

But, like, you know how MGMT is a little trippy…

Sure.

Boy Crisis—once it get’s out there—is awesome. Uh, Alphabeat, just really weird music that nobody else likes but I find very comforting.

Okay…well what do you mean “nobody else likes?” Cuz I know a lot of people who like those bands you mentioned.

Well, yea, cuz those are the big ones, but I like, I like the music that hasn’t been found yet is basically what I like.

A little hipster, huh?

Yea…yea, no, because when bands go big sometimes it’s sad to know—you see people you don’t like and they like that music and you’re like Nooo.

It kinda like takes the charm away from—the magic away from—

Yea, it’s like your own little secret. But it’s fun to introduce someone to a new band.

Word. So, uh, if you had to pick a song for this interview—

Oh god—

what would you pick?

I’m gonna have to put a lot of time into thinking about that. I can’t tell you right now.

I’m gonna make you pick it.

Uh oh…

Relational: I, the interviewee, am Saeid. I am the “author” of this blog–we’ll see how that goes. Yasi, the interviewer, is my cousin–my mom’s sister’s daughter. I’ve known her since she was born, and our families have lived very close to each other since then. You can find us in central Jersey.

Compositional: The picture is our cousin Saman wearing goggles while chopping onions. No real reason why it’s there aside from the fact that we both think it’s pretty funny. I used a digital voice recorder to record the conversation we had in realspacetime. It lasted twelve minutes and twelves seconds. I then transcribed the audio recording into Microsoft Word. I made some edits for clarity and stopped included “[laughs]” because it got tedious. the laughter’ definitely continued, though. The transcription took a while and was much harder than I thought it would be. I think the difficulty is attributable to a lot of factors, but I don’t feel like getting into it. Some things I noticed is that I don’t speak in what most people would call “sentences.” I intentionally included the many “uhs,” “ums,” and “likes.” I’m not sure why, but it seemed like the right thing to do. I’m not going to do that for every interview.  I also noticed that there was a lot of non-verbal communication: intonation, the speed with which we spoke, non-verbal sounds we made, etc. OH MY GOD LANGUAGE IS SO COOL.