Answers to more questions.

David P. Welsh brings food-related questions, kind of:

Being staunchly pro-dessert, I have to ask: what have you got against cake? Looking at your exceptions, I would guess that it's a texture/moisture issue, which I can certainly understand.

I just generally don't like sweet things, although the texture/moisture issue is something I hadn't considered. Carrot cake and coffee cake aren't particularly sweet, and even that level of sweetness means I need a cup of black coffee to get through it.

The exception is cheesecake (which I don't think is technically cake), but I don't know why I can take that, as it really can be sickeningly sweet.

As a follow-up, what are your feelings about pie? If pro-pie, do you have a preference between fruit- and cream-based alternatives?

I'm pro-fruit pie. I can eat cherry, blueberry, apple and other fruit-based pies. I don't eat any cream-based pies.

Lastly, how does your anti-cake position influence your likelihood of picking up Antique Bakery, which will likely feature both cake and hot guys totally doing it?

I don't have to eat the cake, so Antique Bakery might be something I'd watch for, and "hot guys totally doing it" is never a bad thing.

Shane asks a lot of questions:

1)What's the difference in styles between early dance music and early hip hop. Weren't they both about repetition of beats, some sampling, and just getting people in a groove?

When you say "early dance music," you mean early electronic dance music, right? I'd say they both have the same general background (music for streets, clubs and parties), and the only real difference (if you're talking the mostly wordless but sometimes toast-driven proto-hip hop type stuff coming out of the early- to mid-'70s) would be the cultural influences and a different aesthetic.

2)Why do you identify with hip hop so much? Do you identify with any other kinds of music or scenes as much?

The lyrical possibilities and the way that the music is made--making something new from old and new stuff combined in interesting ways. I do also identify with jazz music a great deal--lately I've been listening to much more jazz and standards than hip hop.

3)Graffiti, crime, art, or both?

I think it really comes down to a few factors. What's the intent of the graffiti? Is it to make art, or is it to just deface property for kicks? How well is it crafted? I'd lean towards both, with intention, craft, and other factors placing it somewhere specific on a linear CRIME---------ART line.

4)3 wishes, can't wish for more wishes and all the wishes have to be for you and no one else. What would they be?

Hmm. I'd probably wish to be more financially comfortable, to have this irritable bowel syndrome thing go away, and to have a way to step out of time and read everything worth reading ever, some kind of weird library of the mind thing.

5)If you could change something about the comic book industry as a whole what would it be and why?

I'd get rid of the "big fish in a small pond" thing. I do think that if more people were making comics, and it was more appealing (financially or otherwise) to a larger ammount of people, we'd see less crap and more good stuff.

6)What artists/writers/books do you think are underappreciated?

Too hard. I think a lot of independent books are too underrated in the mainstream, and a lot of mainstream books are too looked down on by the indie crowd, and every other this-or-that grouping that can be made. I'd say the converse is also true, that many things are overrated.

Pressed, I'd probably say either Rick Smith's Shuck comics, Brandon Graham's Escalator or anything by Gabrielle Bell.

7)Do you have any regrets?

My choice of undergraduate education, either in coursework or the university I attended.

8)If you could change one thing about your life what would it be?

One thing? Shiiiit. I'm not very satisfied right now, although I think I'd rather be living somewhere more urban.

9)If you could have lunch with any person alive or dead who would it be?

Tough one... Cole Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mos Def, Charles Mingus, Oscar Wilde, Dorothy Parker...

I'll pick T.S. Eliot, I think.

10)Do you think you're normal? What is a normal person to you? I'm always interested in what different people constitute as normal.

Normal isn't something I think about. Not to get all "we're all perfect, different snowflakes" or whatever, but I think that considering any state of whatever as "normal" is kind of useless. I mean, I'm normal to me, but maybe not to you.