alexexpressions

Six Degrees of Waffle House

I recently got an assignment from my editor at timesquare.com asking me to interview a jazz musician named Joe Alterman. I said yes, but I was shaking in my boots a bit. I am nothing close to a trained journalist (or any kind of journalist for that matter). I decided instead of approaching it as a writer who knows nothing about giving interviews, I would put on my thinking cap and just go balls to the wall. However, that involved several minor freak outs. Thankfully, my fiance Nate has had some training in that area, and I definitely didn’t want him doing my assignment for me, but he did help me a great deal (aka saved my ass*****).

My research showed me that Joe Alterman was a 22 year-old recent graduate of NYU from Atlanta. “Ok, he’s from the 2 and a half hours from my hometown, let him know that from the start of the interview so he knows we have a similarity, and  if all else fails go back to that,” I thought to myself.

I tried to keep my cool before I did the interview, which was over the phone. I decided that I would not drop the ball under any circumstances and would remain insanely professional even if I lost my footing. That went out the window, but for a great reason. Joe turned out to be so personable, and as soon as I told him I was from Greenville, he exclaimed, “Waffle House Crew!” So we ended up talking about Waffle House in all its glory before we proceeded with the interview, which I believe turned out to be successful because we ended up talking like two 22 year-olds who found out they had a quite a bit in common (in fact, we found out after it was published that we have a mutual friend!).

I’m so happy the interview was successful, even if I did forget to record out of my speakers….really? headphones kill the sound output if you don’t do that (I totally know that, but pretending I don’t makes me feel a little bit better about my mistake)? The interview was so memorable that I got much of it in writing verbatim once I realized I didn’t have the audio. It was quite a crazy ride getting there, but here’s the link to the finished product

*****I noticed that when writing about yoga I feel much more inclined to watch my mouth, but when writing about writing (heehee that sounds funny) and most other things, my typical Alex sarcasm switch flips on