colour me read: episode 2 - Emmett Plant

Episode 2 of the colour me read podcast features the hugely entertaining and highly interesting Emmett Plant, a writer, composer and producer who joins me for this podcast from Phoenix, Arizona. From Emmett's life growing up and his musical heroes, to performing on stage with Pink and his love of Star Trek, this episode covers a lot of different topics.

The podcast is available on both itunes and Soundcloud, links below, and an extract of the interview is also included below too.

*warning* There are a few uncensored swear words in this podcast.

Stay tuned to the end for a podcast extra. *correction in the podcast extra, I said H.G. Wells when I meant Orson Welles*

colour me read on itunes.

Emmett Plant on his career: "My career is really strange, because I sold my first screenplay when I was 19 years old. I thought that's just what happened. I didn't know that that was an incredibly difficult thing to do. I didn't know that that was an almost impossible thing to do. Because I was dumb enough not to know what the industry was or how it worked. And that has always been a huge benefit to me."

Emmett Plant on two of his idols: "I wish I could do sound design like Ben Burt does, I think he's an absolute genius. I wish that I could write music the way that Mike Post does. I think he's fucking brilliant."

Emmett Plant on Star Trek's depiction of social issues: "I think on the broad brush, Star Trek absolutely did a lot for LGBT folk. Because it's compassionate at it's core. Not necessarily to a specific genre or a particular lifestyle, but in just recognising that those are differences and that those differences make us stronger."

Emmett Plant on diversity: "I'm a small business owner and a woman runs my company. And it's not because she's a woman, it's because she is extraordinarily talented. I think one of the problems we have is that women aren't recognised as being extraordinarily talented so women don't tend to be in those positions. And I kind of come from the view point of: if you can kick ass and take names, I don't care what's in your underpants. I do not care, it's not important to me."

Emmett Plant on politics: "I'm a liberal democrat so it's really hard for me to find a Democrat that I really want to vote for. I think Obama has done an incredible job in the time he's had. The economy has turned around, unemployment is down, people have access to health-care that didn't have access to it before and in an inexpensive way. And that's fantastic. And I know people are going to try like hell to say number one, that's a bad thing, and number two, that whatever he's done is bad, but that's fine. I don't really care. I try to live in as much of an objective reality as possible. But I know that's pretty funny coming from a liberal democrat."

That is just a very small selection of the topics covered in the podcast. Below are the answers to the final three questions on the podcast. Listen to the show to find out why Emmett made his selections.

Favourite book/book that has changed his life:
Dune by Frank Herbert.

A quote that describes him:
"Wake up and smell the cat food in your bank account.” from They Might Be Giants

Emmett's favourite colour:

Pantone Reflex Blue

colour me read: episode 1 - Father Kyle Sanders

For the first colour me read podcast, I spoke to Father Kyle Sanders, a Catholic Priest from New Orleans in The United States. The podcast is attached and below is a small extract of some of the issues we covered on the show.

Father Kyle Sanders

 
colour me read: itunes  

Father Kyle Sanders on himself: "If you were to meet me, I would remind you of one of two things: Either a Hobbit, because of my height and girth. Or Zach Galifianakis. I would prefer a Hobbit."

Father Kyle Sanders on important childhood moments: "On the sadder side, I was very affected by my grandmother's death at the age of 13. (it was) the first time I experienced a death in the family, I was very close to her."

Father Kyle Sanders on abortion: "We believe it is a taking of a life. And so as such, thou shalt not kill. Not matter the situation."

Father Kyle Sanders on evolution and the Bible: "There are some Christians who believe that God created the world in exactly seven days, in exactly the way that Genesis speaks. I think that's intellectually naive."

This is just a very small selection of some of the topics and issues covered in our conversation, the full interview is available on the podcast.

At the end of each podcast I will ask each guest for 3 things which are individual to them: A book that has changed their life, a piece of music, painting or quote that best describe them, and their favourite colour.

Here are Father Kyle's selections. Listen to the podcast to find out why he chose them.

Books that changed his life: 
Karol Wojtyla (St. John Paul) Love and Responsibility

Pope Benedict God is Love (Deus Caritas Est)

A quote that describes him:

“I have my doubts about all this real value in mountaineering, in getting to the top of everything and overlooking everything. Satan was the most celebrated of Alpine guides, when he took Jesus to the top of an exceeding high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth. But the joy of Satan in standing on a peak is not a joy in largeness, but a joy in beholding smallness, in the fact that all men look like insects at his feet. It is from the valley that things look large; it is from the level that things look high; I am a child of the level and have no need of that celebrated Alpine guide. I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help but I will not lift up my carcass to the hills, unless it is absolutely necessary. Everything is in an attitude of mind; and at this moment I am in a comfortable attitude. I will sit still and let the marvels and the adventures settle on me like flies. There are plenty of them, I assure you. The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.”

And Father Kyle's favourite colour:

Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-peki (blue)

colour me read: an introduction

 











Colour me read is a new project I, Simon Heptinstall (SirHeppe), am taking on to try and learn more about people from all walks of life and to understand our odd little species a little better. This project will involve a podcast, and complementing blog post, with a new guest on each episode, where I'll ask them a variety of different questions so I can get to know them and their views a little better. It's as simple as that.

I'm doing this because I have always been interested in people and how their point of view may differ to mine. It's never been enough for me to have one point of view on something, I've always wanted to know why other people think and feel differently to me. Because of this natural curiosity, I like to think I've changed and grown over the years by trying to understand people a little better. I really hope these interviews can be a place where people open up without fear of judgement.

Colour me read will see me talking to people from all walks of life, from students to teachers, sex workers to priests, scientists to poets. I want to try and get as wide a take on a whole range of topics as I possibly can. Once the interviews have been conducted, I'll upload them to Soundcloud and then embed it on here, along with a transcribed version. So think of it as an interview podcast that will try to include as many different topics in each podcast as possible. From science and technology, to sex and religion. There will be no wrong answers, but hopefully there will be a chance for people to talk openly.

The point of colour me read is to get people talking about a variety of subjects. Yes I'll be asking people questions that relate to their specific field of work, but I'll also be trying to find out how they feel about other subjects too. From God to Star Trek, sexuality to pumpkin spice lattes, I hope nothing will be off the table.

Now I must acknowledge that I won't be able to interview everyone that I want and I won't be able to interview a truly wide spread of people across the world, mainly because I only speak English and that limits me to interviews in my own language. And while I hope to include people of all races and ethnicities, there is a chance that I will end up talking to unequal amount of white people. But I will try my best to seek out diversity in all forms. I also don't claim this as a new idea or a particularly inventive project. Instead I see this as a chance to document some conversations with people who I normally wouldn't get a chance to speak to.

I'm also aware that because I'm conducting these interviews online, I'm limited to those with are active online and who have the time to speak to me. It's my hope that in the future I'll be able to spread my reach wider to those offline. Be they homeless,elderly or simply not interested in holding a conversation online with me.

Hopefully over the coming weeks and months I will be able to piece together an interesting tapestry of interviews with a cross-section of society. As I said above, I don't do this to be original, inventive or champion anything more worthwhile that my own curiosity. But I hope by doing this I am able to learn from people with different backgrounds, opinions and view points to my own and to let people say in their own words how they feel about a whole range of issues. These conversations won't aim to be ground breaking, but I hope they prove to be interesting.