About

I’ve always wanted to be interviewed, so instead of the usual self-serving stuff I’d put here, I’ll put a self-serving self-interview.

Q: Who the heck are you, anyway?

A: I’m Paul Butzi.  I’m the guy who wrote Art is a Verb. I’m also the guy who started Solo Photo Book Month, aka SoFoBoMo.

Q:  Are you an artist?

A:  I better be.  I’m going to be listed in the Snoqualmie Valley Artist Directory.  Cool, eh?

Q:  There’s this cool meme floating around - tell us five things we probably don’t know about you.

A:  1) I don’t like cities.  2) My pet dog is named Kodak.  Yes, like the photo company.  Yes, I’m hoping the dog outlives the company.  3) my favorite color is grey 4) When I was a kid, I learned to play the clarinet.  I can also play the guitar and harmonica, both very badly. 5) Unlike most people, I don’t mind being alone.

Q: Got any favorite movies?

A: I don’t like movies very much, but some are ok.  I liked Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, and a quirky movie titled Grace Quigley, starring Katherine Hepburn and Nick Nolte (as a conflicted professional hit man).  I also liked My Cousin Vinny. Repo Man was, well, intense. All of the Thin Man movies with William Powell and Myrna Loy were great.  How can you not like a movie where Myrna Loy says “Who’s that man going through my drawers?”

Q: Favorite TV show?

A: TV is a lot like movies, only generally not as good.  I like Slings and Arrows, a show about a Canadian theatre company.

Q: If you don’t like movies, and you don’t like TV, what do you do for entertainment?

A: I go see plays.  The big problem with movies and TV is that they’re not nearly as good as live theatre.

Q: Do any of your children have blue hair?

A: No, not right now.

Q: The famous journalist G. Pascal Zachary once wrote that you were “witty, urbane, and sarcastic.”  Is this true, and is everyone in your family also witty, urbane, and sarcastic?

A:  Yes, it’s true.  Yes, my entire family is witty, urbane and sarcastic. 

Q: How do you feel about Sesame Street?

A: I hate it.  Problem #1 – what the heck is with this “One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong” song? I hate that.  Being different doesn’t make things not belong.  Here we’re trying to build a society that’s accepting of diversity, and we’re indoctrinating our kids to reject things which don’t fit in.  No, thank you.  Problem #2 – We don’t need to be training kids to think they can prosper in the world when they’ve got an attention span only 30 seconds long.  Unlike Sesame Street, the world is not designed in 30 second sound-bite chunks.  Problem #3 – If we want our children to learn decent grammar, why does educational TV feature a character who says “Me want a cookie!”?  Problem #4 – everyone else seems to think Sesame Street is the acme of television, which is adding insult to injury.  Problem #5 – it’s TV.

Q: Can we ask more questions?

A: Yes.