Thursday follow-up

All of this stuff refers to this morning's Gazz section and my contributions.

John Legend - Not much to add. He wasn't particularly engaged and not exceptionally talkative. He wasn't evasive, just didn't have much to say until we got onto the subject of his charity, then he lifted off.

Ben Kweller -A genuinely funny guy and possibly stoned when I spoke to him. It was hard to tell with the easy going Texas drawl and the way he spun out his stories. The main thing I wanted to know was how he convinced his parents going to Europe with Faith No More was a good idea. The general idea was he was like a frog in a pot of water. The temperature built up and nobody noticed the water was boiling before it was too late.

Dave Alvin -He was a last minute addition. I didn't plan on talking to him, didn't really know who he was and staggered into the interview under prepared. However, we still managed to find some decent common ground and I was able to stay away from the things I did know about him that weren't particularly important: Alvin was one of the founders of The Blasters, a punk rockabilly band from the the early 80s, sort of a forerunner to a lot of things I got into like Mojo Nixon and the Reverend Horton Heat. The Blasters were also in the movie Streets of Fire, which is mostly crap, but has a couple of cool songs on the soundtrack.

Anyway, none of that really meant much in the context of his new band. So, we didn't talk about it and still had a pretty good time.

Bobcat Goldthwait -I love this guy. Who I think is cool is very different than who other people think is cool. I've thought Bobcat was funny for as long as I can remember (The Twisted Sister Videos, even Police Academy). We had a good conversation (in a normal, even tone), but I got him to laugh. He joked with him about getting a job directing the next Harry Potter film or possible product tie-ins for one of his movies. I have really bad ideas for a 7-11 slurpie cup for "Sleeping Dogs Lie" and a happy meal for "World's Greatest Dad."

It was fun.