Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Nosy Interview: Zachary Watterson

Zachary in Another Tail for Comet Garradd, © Olivier Sedan

I'm fairly certain the first meal I ever shared with Zachary was at The Wildrose, but my first memory of him is imagined, stolen from my husband, who became friends with Zachary in graduate school. They made this dinner date on a city bus, to introduce their respective girlfriends to one another--Zachary disembarking the bus, L still seated--and so, when I picture the start of our friendship, I always call up this lovely pilfered image of Zachary working out dinner plans from the sidewalk, probably holding a basketball and a book, and L calling out from the window. It's romantic like a parting train, but with a happy ending because everybody at dinner got on smashingly, and many more meals were shared.  

Please visit Zachary's web site to read his fiction and essays, and find out where you can read more. 

What do you smell like? 
It depends. If I've been working at my job as a landscaper, and if it's the sort of day when I'm swinging a sledge hammer and breaking apart concrete slab, then I smell like broken stone and gravel, sand, cement and water. If at my job I've been moving, cutting and setting flagstones for a patio, then I smell like stone dust--the nonmetallic mineral scent of rock. Sometimes when I've been working particularly hard, steam rises from my head when I remove my wool cap, and the steam smells salty and pungent. Other days, when I've ripped two-by-tens for a fence, I've smelled like cedar. Knotty untreated cedar, to be sure. Still other days, tilling the earth in the backyards of residences in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, I've smelled like the soil I've tilled and raked, which is made of sawdust, compost and mulch. If I'm driving my 1987 pickup truck, I smell faintly of gasoline, oil and grease. The man I bought the truck from, a Hungarian immigrant who moved to America only a couple of years before the Berlin wall fell, was covered in grease, and oil, from his life's work as a mechanic, and my truck has the penetrating smell of that viscous liquid derived from petroleum. I also love the fragrance of cherry blossoms opening and the almost cloying smell of honeysuckle. Honeysuckle used to grow beside one of the playgrounds where I used to shoot hoops when I was a teenager and living in New Jersey. I also love the smell of a recently waxed basketball gym floor, and the leathery smell of a basketball.

What do you like to smell?
I like the smell of pecan pie, soap and warm water, my shaving cream and my after shave lotion. I like the smell of the redwoods in northern California. I like the smell of the spruce and balsam forests in the Adirondack Mountains, where I worked for six seasons. I like the smell of a rock hitting another rock, that acrid scent of granite dust in the air. I nearly always prefer to drive with the window open or partway open, so that I can feel the air whipping in to the truck and I can smell whatever scents reach my nose from the city around me. I love the smell of green chiles roasting in the fall in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I lived for a couple of years and worked as a landscaper and as a high school teacher. I like the smell of pine needles. In the pine groves I walked through in the Adirondacks, no undergrowth lived under the giant pines and my clothes held the scent of those trees. I love the smell of roasting chestnuts in the winter in New York City. When I think of growing up in Manhattan, I remember how I could not get enough of the intoxicating smell of those chestnuts roasting on the push-carts venders parked on street corners. I love the mildly noxious smell of the subways under the city that you breathe in when you walk over a grate that gives a partial view of the trains moving underneath the sidewalk.

5 comments:

Preets said...

Hello, Zach!!! I, too, love the smell of roasting chestnuts. I also love eating the roasted chestnuts.

Ajlounyinjurylaw said...

Cozy feelings reading this.

xumeiqing said...

20160907meiqing
polo outlet
kate spade outlet
michael kors handbags
canada goose jackets
michael kors outlet online
birkenstocks
timberland outlet
timberland boots
rolex replica watches
ugg australia outlet
timberlands
lacoste outlet
hollister clothing
kate spade handbags
birkenstocks
coach outlet
discount ray ban sunglasses
nike free run
oakley sunglasses
kd 9 shoes
nike cortez red
skechers shoes
designer bags
nike huarache trainers
louis vuitton factory outlet
rolex watches
ghd hair straighteners
louis vuitton bags
basketball shoes
michael kors handbags
longchamp outlet
bottega veneta handbags
louis vuitton handbags
michael kors outlet
nike air max 90
pandora charms
ecco shoes
oakley sunglasses

Unknown said...

chrome hearts jewelry
supra
michael kors outlet
lacoste shoes
converse
dolce and gabbana
iphone cases
dolce & gabbana sunglasses
nike air max
mizuno
2018.7.13chenlixiang

Emersonsallyjack said...

I take it theses boys were raised by a pack of wolves! the acted like they dont have parents. If my child ever Fake Yeezys acted like that I would be at a loss for words. This is pure bullying with Cheap Jordans Online all the storys of bullying these days they didnt get the memo? oh not when you live with the wolves.

In Nike Air Force 1 Cheap Outlet this context, the anger and frustration that fuelled the 2005 riots has been nourished rather than quelled. Young people in Michael Kors Bags Outlet the suburbs are Cheap Real Yeezys living in the shadows of the Republic; in the banlieues the lofty ideals of Cheap Ray Ban Sunglasses the republican model are disjointed from the reality of daily life. 2007 saw another episode of rioting in the Parisian suburb of Villiers le Bel.

Katie Nguyen Another Genius of Comedy alumni (circa 2016), Katie's particular brand of comedy Coach Outlet Online Store is lovably odd, dry, and packed Coach Outlet Clearance Sale with lots of brow furrowing glares. Raised in the world of improv and sketch comedy, Katie is what's known as a "comedian's comedian" in Portland circles, and can leave audiences in stitches with one caustic glance. She's also a co host of the wildly popular Earthquake Hurricane show, and has performed New Jordan Shoes 2020 in festivals across the nation, including the much missed Bridgetown Comedy Fest.

Post a Comment