Interview: The Heavenly States

Name:
Ted Nesseth

Introduce yourself in one sentence:
My name is Ted Anigo Montoyo Nesseth, you killed my father, prepare to die.

Age and Occupation:
33 Guitarsmith or Guitarsmyth. I'm not sure which one.

Home Town:
Owatonna, MN

How long have you lived in the Bay Area and Where
11 years in North Oakland. Love it here, because I know what love is.

Favorite place to spend time online
www.dailyaffirmation.com - "with new hope one must assume the role of the jedi."

Favorite local business:
Pet Rental www.flexpets.com - I swear to the gods.

What I'm currently Reading:
The Puppet and the Dwarf

Name:
Jeremy

Introduce yourself in one sentence:
Me play drum.

Age and Occupation:
Sexy and seventeen.

Home Town:
Great Falls, VA

How long have you lived in the Bay Area and Where
9 years in Temescal neighborhood of Oaktown. Why-for the coffee.

Favorite place to spend time online
www.generalmills.com

Favorite local business
Peet's Coffee

What I'm currently Reading
Interview questions.

Name:
Genevieve Gagon

Introduce yourself in one sentence:
Genevieve Gagon prefers anonymity.

Age and Occupation:
See above.

Home Town:
Undecided.

How long have you lived in the Bay Area and Where
Long enough to fastrack way to poverty, undertake period of reconstruction, formulate five year plan, and reformulate five year plan. Why? I’m not in charge here.

Favorite place to spend time online
www.bravenewfilms.com, www.ask.com, huffpo… I add that these are not necessarily places where I enjoy myself.

Favorite local business:
Creative Growth Art Center, AK Press (it comforts me to know it’s there), Mitchell’s Ice Cream (it comforts me to know it’s there), Cancun

What I'm currently Reading:
Fast Food My Way (Jacques Pepin)
Just read: Natural History (Dan Chiasson) and The World Without Us (Alan Weisman). Looking forward to reading: David Buuck’s unfinished forthcoming book and also the latest poems from Brook Bannister -- both Bay Area poets

Name:
Masanori Mark Christianson

Introduce yourself in one sentence:
Sweaty Driver

Age and Occupation:
32 and Philanthropist

Home Town:
Owatonna, MN

How long have you lived in the Bay Area and Where
Two years in North Oakland, for street cred.

Favorite place to spend time online
I don’t have a computer.

Favorite local business
Any legitimate ma and pa shop will do.

Best Deal in San Francisco
Ted: oxycontin 3 for 1 on the corner of eddy and jones
Jeremy: Seeing live music.
Genevieve: Free and available parking at the…. I just can’t give up this information.

Favorite mode of transportation
Ted: thought
Jeremy: feet
Genevieve: book, bed and train
Masanori: bicycle

Best Band or Musician to come out of the Bay Area
Ted: I can't go down the road your asking me to go.
Jeremy: Too Short

Favorite Bay Area Stereotype, and whether or not you buy into it
Ted: We have no stereotypes. We're so hella above that.
Jeremy: Alpine makes pretty good stereos but I haven't bought one yet.
Genevieve: beach blanket pitbulls and nothin’ but net (internet, that is)
Masanori: That asian drivers are bad...i didn't want to believe it because I am asian, but every time i am mad at a driver i look and it happens to be an old asian lady.

Favorite local hangout
Ted: venues with green rooms, cool staff and great sound rule. Locally our favorites are Bottom of the Hill, The Independent, Cafe Dunord and The Rickshaw Stop
Jeremy: My apartment.
Genevieve: Don’t forget the Hemlock and Thee Parkside
Masanori: Ocean Beach

SF has the BEST
Ted: Rentable pets
Genevieve: bay vistas and classic consoles
Masanori: tigers in the world

You've never lived in SF until
Masanori: you've been to the "power exchange"

Favorite Bay area politician of past or present
Ted: Favorite politician? Is this the Iowa basics but for people?
Genevieve: There’s no San Fran without Milk of course, but we also like Newsom’s plastic bag initiative.
Masanori: Too Short

You can tell someone is a local here IF
Ted: they have a blog
Genevieve: …and that blog can turn water into wine
Masanori: you can see their parents’ house on google satellite maps

SF would be soooo much better if only
Ted: …it was on casters.
Genevieve: …the burbs were better served by trains and trolleybuses. San Francisco would be better if you didn’t need a car elsewhere.
Masanori: If only I weren’t in Oakland.

Best Burrito
Ted: My mom. Not that she's a burrito. The ones she makes.
Genevieve: Cancun.
Masanori: La Playa in Outer Sunset

Best Restaurant
Ted: Dunno. Any tips?
Genevieve: Not “best” but I always liked Ti Couz.

Best movie scene filmed in or about SF
Ted: The drive to Rolling Stone in Where the Buffalo Roam.
Masanori: car chase scene in "Bullit" w/ Steve McQueen

Favorite artist to come out of the bay area
Ted: Jello Biafra
Masanori: Like, come out of the closet?

Favorite author to come out of the bay area
Ted: all my favorite authors are slovenian
Genevieve: Since one person doesn’t come to mind immediately I must not have a favorite but of course there’s Robert Duncan, Philip K. Dick (sort of, right?), and Norman O. Brown who didn’t come out of the bay area really but left by way of it. Of course I’ve forgotten everybody…. like Ron Silliman and Lyn Hejinian for example. I can’t do this.
Masanori: I think isabel allende lives here now. do immigrants count?

Place you always tell visitors to check out
Ted: the junk in my trunk and or my badonk adonk
Genevieve: The hike to Bass Lake, especially for people who have never seen the ocean, or foxes and coyotes.

Favorite Bridge in the area
Ted: The metaphorical bridge from my heart to you.
Genevieve: The one that isn’t falling down, falling down, falling down.
Masanori: Golden Gate

You have two hours and $15 bucks to kill in SF, what are you going to do?
Gen: I don’t meet either of these criteria. If I did, I might go see a movie at the Castro. With snacks.
Masanori: If it's anything like oakland, try to find a nice sized crack rock and chill

I have found/sold/bought the following on craigslist
Masanori: 7 apartments to sublet my first year in oakland

I want all the SFists out there to know
Masanori: My deepest secrets

Question you'd ask if you were doing this interview
Masanori: How much can you bench press?