JAL TRIVIA

Band: All time fave? Led Zeppelin. Recent faves? I’m kind of loving Wet Leg and Jesse Welles.

Color(s): Orange and gold, probably.

Drink: Green jasmine tea. That’s as wild as it gets these days. I have maybe one or two beers a year. I do like a nice IPA.

Movie: All time? I seem to get something new out of It’s a Wonderful Life every time I watch it. I love Hollywood pre-code and screwball comedies (like My Man Godfrey). The Station Agent with Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale is another random fave. Love animation, like The Triplets of Belleville or Spirited Away or anything by Nick Park. Used to love going to Spike & Mike’s Animation festivals.

Cuisine: I’m adventurous. I’ll eat anything well-prepared (if I’m not allergic to it). I might be partial to Thai?

Time of Day: The golden hour, around 4:30 p.m. And I like the wee hours of the morning—I remain very much a night owl. Frequently awake until 2 a.m., especially if I’m on deadline or have a good book.

Smell(s): When you bury your face in your cat’s fluffy side and take a big whiff. Mmmm…that’s the stuff! Onions cooking in butter. That green sagey (I think it’s California sagebrush, but it might be a blend of green things) smell you get near the ocean here on the CA coast is heavenly perfume. A lot of California smells are my favorites: piney woods, wildflowers and long wild grass in spring.

Sounds: The trilling sound cats make when you wake them up from a deep sleep. Flapping sounds, like sails and flags in the winds and bird wings and cat and dog ears when they shake their heads. That huge, beautiful chord on the bridge of Led Zep’s Ten Years Gone. I think it’s a back-strummed D6add9. Any happily singing bird.

Hobbies: I used to play in San Francisco bands, but I unfortunately lost all of my instruments in the Camp Fire in 2018. I had three guitars: a Fender Strat, a 1962 Epiphone Melodymaker and an Alvarez acoustic. I can play drums and piano a little, too. I’m sure I’m very rusty. I recently bought a mini keyboard so I could more or less accurately compose a silly little song I featured in AFTER DARK WITH THE DUKE. :) (It has clapping in it! IYKYK.) Hope to own guitars again one day. I might treat myself to a full-sized keyboard soon.

I’m getting better at watercolors (which I love) and drawing. I’ve learned how to knit basic things. I’ve also become a bit of a chess nut. I follow grandmasters like they’re K-Pop stars. :)

Favorite watercolor shades: Lately it’s Quinacridone Gold, Perylene Green and Winsor Red.

Favorite Authors: I read across lots of genres and I have dozens of faves, whom I love for many and varied reasons, but just off the top of my head: Julia Quinn, Loretta Chase, Jane Austen, A.S. Byatt, Lois McMaster Bujold, Ursula K. Leguin, Marian Keyes, Marjorie Sharp, Laurie Colwin, Barbara Kingsolver, Alexander McCall Smith, Terry Pratchett, Tana French, Ruth Rendell, Richard Osman, P.D. James. This list feels woefully incomplete so I’ll likely add to it over time.

Photo by Stephanie Herzer