Tracy Herzog Interview

1. I define my life in periods. If you could go back to one period of your life and stay there for all eternity, where would you go back to, and why?

This question goes against all of my philosophies about how one should lead their life. I think very strongly that one should look forward with a hope that the future is where the greatest happiness lays. However, as I said I would answer any questions that were asked, I will set aside this perspective and attempt to answer this one to the best of my ability.

I would choose to live my life in a place of limbo, so that narrows it down to childhood, High School, my time in New Zealand, my time in University and this past summer in British Columbia. Not that narrow of a field I suppose.

High School sucked. No need to be eloquent here. I think back in fondness only of the times I spent with my friends outside of those thirty hours a week.

Next I will excise New Zealand. I do this because during that time I was unhappy. I was having a really great time with someone I still consider one of my foremost companions (even at this distance) but I wasn’t in a good head space.

Now, I will discard childhood as an option. I had a wonderful childhood. There are, however, limitations in childhood that, while allowing freedom from responsibility, I find oppressive from the perspective I have at this time.

Finally, I wish to unite the periods of University and the summer following my graduation as a matter of course. They both lead from the same place and were initiated with the same spirit in mind. I find, however, that this isn’t possible for reasons that would be obvious to any of my friends from that time in my life. Schisms occurred between the two periods which cannot be reconciled even in this hypothetical arena.

So I choose University. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life. I had a strong, beautiful, intelligent partner who could make me laugh and cry, I had great friends and roommates who could talk with me about anything from Smurfs to Descartes, and I was living my life to expand my academic knowledge and my social understanding. On top of all these things I was free of many of the day to day obligations I find so taxing in ‘real life’.

In essence, I was at home in a way I haven’t known since childhood. I had gathered a new family while still maintaining my original one.

2. I am giving you an Aveo with a gas tank that is always magically full, 1 of the 12 CDs your friend recently sent you (your choice), and 30 days in one country of your choice that you have never been to before. you may fill the car with as many or few people as you want to take with you, but keep in mind it's a standard, 5 person fits safely into it car. What will you do and where will you go? Who do you bring and why would you choose them?

I would take Michael, my friend from Edmonton and we would do a coast to coast Canada trip. I realize you stated a country I’ve never been to before but considering I’ve only ben to three of the provinces I think it would be well worth the effort.

I’m not a plan oriented type person so I think that I’d like to just head east and see what develops but there are a few things in each Province I’d like to see or do. Considering that the Trans Canada Highway is 7821 kilometers long and so would take approximately 78.5 hrs to drive non-stop, easily done in less than a week, we would have plenty of time to do side tours.

I would hope to fit in a number of campouts, some farmer’s markets, maybe some fishing and, of course, a few bar nights. We would have to eat some Saskatoon pie in Saskatchewan. Manitoba would be all about heading North to see lakes like Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba. Ontario would involve checking out some hikes in the Shield and I’d like to see Manitoulin Island (the largest lake-isle in the world). Oh, and maybe go to Ottawa to put up a few protest signs. We’d spend some extra time in Quebec because Michael speaks French and I would want to sample the bagels, maple syrup and smoked meat in Montreal. New Brunswick, Reversing Falls on the St. John River. Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia. Screech and hopefully Gyn’s cousin in Newfoundland. And I’d want to go cod fishing in a dory.


3. What is the finest, most personally satisfying moment in your life so far? Describe in detail.

I’ve tried. I can’t answer this question. I can think of too many examples that I wouldn’t trade away. Sorry.

4. If you could have mad skillz in one activity/hobby/profession, what would it be and why (such as, mad b-boy skillz, mad DDR skillz, mad Pimp skillz, etc)?

I would write.

I would do this because I love literature and think that this discipline is one of the greatest that can be found in the myriad talents of humanity. I also like the anonymity of an author. You create this thing and then you let it go out into the world to see what it becomes under the gaze of others.

Music is in there too somewhere but my foremost passion is in words.


5. Because I am a fan of High Fidelity (and my fake boyfriend John Cusack) what are your top 5 albums, and what significance have they had for you (silly or serious, of course)?

Nirvana/MTV Unplugged – I don’t think the effect of this album on my adolescence could be overstated. In other words, it had as much of an effect as I think any other single piece of pop culture ever has had on me. I loved it. I didn’t sympathize with Curt Cobain in the way that many people describe their experience of this album, I just loved the lyrics and how the made me feel. It was okay to be sad. It was okay to let out anger and apathy in words.

A lot of my early writing (which, although viewed in hindsight as hugely flawed, led to what I write now) was set free by the discoveries I made listening to those songs.

A Perfect Circle/Thirteenth Step – This album is amazing. There is nothing else like it that I have ever encountered; including the other albums by the same band or the offerings of Maynard’s other group, Tool. The feel of this album is what gives it its strength; the overwhelming atmosphere that develops when you listen to it. It takes you from anger and revulsion to the quaintness of child-like infatuation. The lyrics are fundamentally exquisite.

And it entered my life at a time of rebirth and so became a symbol of that.

Metallica/…And Justice for All – Power, that’s why. This is one of the albums I listened to when I was learning to write college level papers in the library at Grant MacEwan (Among many other, earlier times). I kept rhythm to this frenetic orchestra for hours my first semester, oblivious the unavoidable and sometimes annoyed glances of my fellow students. More than once I was approached in the hall or in the campus pub and asked, “You’re the guy that’s always head-banging in the LRC, right?”

I can’t explain it any better than that. It’s Metallica.

Leonard Cohen/Best of 1975 – Great poetry, unforgettable characters and awkwardly perfect moments. That fact that Leonard Cohen cannot sing well within the standard definition of that word makes it all that much better. I’ve spent hours in bed listening to this album and, alone or not, it always makes me feel a little more disgraced for not being what I want to be. I like that.

It reminds me of my failings and drives me to rectify them.

Counting Crows/August and Everything After – It’s an amalgam of beauty and sadness distilled in a way that is normally only found in the understanding of one’s own life. It takes me to a good place and always has. Actually, it has gathered additional lucid destinations as I have shared it with others and I enjoy it all the more for that. It carries me to the past and reminds me of was has passed. I can commiserate with it, as one must to appreciate it.

It makes me happy in a sad way.