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NW
word
nerd
By RYAN HUME
7RWH>WԥݜW@
verb
1. to carry, lug or haul,
often something heavy
noun
1. Tote bag: a large bag
with a handle carried by
hand or over the shoul-
der
2. Fishing: a container
of any size and material
— wood, plastic, metal
or fiber — used to hold
today’s catch on ice. Also
used in the commercial
transport of frozen fish in
lieu of the cost of boxing
the individual products.
Origin:
First introduced as a
verb in 1677. Of unknown
origin. A longstanding
myth that “tote” was in-
troduced in the 17th cen-
tury from a West African
language through the
African slave trade by
way of Virginia has been
debunked by the Oxford
English Dictionary for
lack of evidence (See the
Kikongo, tota, meaning
pick up, the Kimbundu,
tuta, meaning carry or
the Swahili, tuta, to pile
up). Tote bag first ap-
pears at the turn of the
20th century, following
the word’s first appear-
ance as a noun in 1884.
“A fish tote is where the caught
fish are stored before processing. ‘In
the Tote’ is an on-line anthology of
work by fisherpoets who have partic-
ipated at the FisherPoets Gathering,
collected and edited by fisherpoet
and photographer Pat Dixon.”
— fisherpoets.org
Submitted photo
“Leaving” by Adam Selzer.
Five Minutes With ...
ADAM SELZER
Q&A by RYAN HUME
Spend some time getting to know Adam Selzer, author, musician and founder
of the Portland recording studio Type Foundry. The former frontman of Norfolk and
Western will be reading (with live music) from his recent multimedia story collection,
“Leaving,” at the Sou’Wester Lodge in Seaview, Washington, at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb.
21. His current band, Alialujah Choir, recently released a new album, “Big Picture
Show,” on Valentine’s Day.
Could you tell us a bit
about the inspiration
behind the story “Art Gar-
funkel’s Old People,” which
you will be reading at the
Sou’Wester?
It’s a story about a guy in
his mid-to-late 20s, which is
an age when people start to
realize what seems feasible
and what is fantasy. There
are a lot of books and mov-
ies chronicling the coming-
of-age period but not as
many about this age. It’s
basically about coming to
terms with one’s own real-
ization regarding talents,
desires and expectations.
I think that may sound
somewhat pretentious, but
I’m not sure how else to
say it.
Not at all. Were you
conscious of this in your
late 20s, or did you have
to get older to look back
on it and see it as a trans-
formative age?
I was definitely con-
scious of it ... and the older
I’ve gotten, the easier it
gets to come to terms
with some of those things.
That’s one benefit of aging.
I don’t worry about things
as much as I used to, and
I’m much better at appre-
ciating the little things. I
used to get really down
about not living up to my
own expectations about
how I wanted things to
be that were out of my
control. But now I’m much
better at appreciating
what I have, and I don’t get
disappointed when things
don’t live up to ideals. It’s
a much better place to be
for me.
Switching gears a
little: Your last book of
prose, “Ami, Go Home,”
was a graphic novel.
This new collection of
stories, “Leaving,” is
accompanied with two
CDs of you reading the
stories against ambient
soundtracks. What does
injecting other mediums
into these stories do for
you? How do you hope it
affects the audience?
The “Ami” book I always
envisioned as a graphic
novel. I never felt like the
story would work as well
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with just the written word.
For the “Leaving” collec-
tion, I just thought it would
be more interesting to add
another aspect to the book
because as an unpublished
writer, putting something
in print into the world, I
felt like it could benefit
from having something
else, another element
involved. Somewhat of a
“something-to-hide-be-
hind” concept. It makes it
not just about me, which I
like. But most important-
ly, I have such talented
musician friends, when the
idea came about, it seemed
like an obvious choice to
try and make it happen
because I knew those guys
would make some amazing
music. I’m really honored
that they are involved.
So how did the idea
come about of providing
a soundtrack to each
story?
I recorded a project
with the writer Rick Bass
and Sellarondo a few years
ago ... They came into my
studio, and Rick read short
stories while the band
played behind him live.
It was a really interesting
idea and made the stories
come to life in a new way.
So, I sort of stole the idea
from that, but I wanted
the musicians to have free
reign and surprise me; so
I recorded myself reading
the stories and handed
them off. Each person’s
music is completely differ-
ent from all the rest, which
is so great. Also, I listen
to a lot of radio programs
and am always fascinat-
ed at how much music
can enhance a mood; so
I suppose some of the
inspiration came from that
as well.
I can definitely see
old radio programs as an
influence to this project.
Since the book and CDs
are released by Jealous
Butcher Records, do you
think the experience of
releasing a book on a
record label was differ-
ent than working with
a traditional publisher?
How so?
I’ve never attempted
to publish before, and the
thought of sending out
stories to literary journals
seemed way too daunting
and overwhelming. I know
to be a serious writer that’s
what you need to do, but I
just don’t have any expec-
tations about writing. I
just wanted to put this out
before I got too sick of it.
It didn’t even occur to me
to try and find a traditional
publisher. That seems too
legitimate for the scope of
the project. I wanted it to
be low-key, and, truth be
told, I find it highly unlikely
that anyone would want
to publish these stories in
this form from an unknown
writer. I like the idea of it
coming out this way, and
hopefully it will find a small
limited audience, and, if
not, that’s totally fine with
me. I guess it goes back
to the earlier questions
about expectations. I’m
fine with releasing this
in such a low-key manor.
I’m not trying to make it
anything more than just a
small independent release.
I just want to have fun with
it playing these shows and
having a reason to write
and spend time with my
friends who are playing
with me.
What’s on the horizon?
My band Alialujah
Choir is released a record
Feb 14; that’s the most
exciting thing. And we’re
doing some shows with
Neko Case in April. As for
writing, I haven’t been
doing much of that. I’d
love to do another tour
with the graphic novel (I
did some shows for that
in Australia last year). I’ve
been pretty busy record-
ing people in the studio,
so that’s where most of
my time is going.