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The pleasantly vibrant, under medicated shades of Jennifer Robin
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I refuse to disclose the age when I first experimented with drugs. Lots of drugs. Different drugs. Mind altering drugs. Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! However, I will admit that I thought I was more creative than I actually was…back when I was killing any kind of human cognition. But that’s another story. Now I’m a crabby, old fart who lives vicariously through other artists. Preferably drug-free….but not completely restricted, because sharing is caring. And I care.
I’m proud to introduce you to Jennifer Robin….whom I believe to be a “sober” artist (I suspect she drinks on occasion, but I‘m unconfirmed at that). Oh yeah, and she’s hilarious. You really should read on!
Q: Where are you originally from? And if you moved elsewhere, what brought you here?
A: “I moved here from upstate New York, rustbelt capital of New York, once a bastion of General Electric executives and well-heeled politicos…now a home to plaintive cab drivers, hair extension professionals and soccer moms on Tipperary Hill who still send petty cash to the IRA. I remember it fondly; perhaps too fondly, in a way that only a child raised by shut-ins can. Much of my nostalgia is documented in my novel about high school misfits - Mundowski High: Sweet Land of Puberty, which I recently posted to the online blog-spot and HarperCollins game show, Inkpop. What took me to Portland was a whirlwind yet beleaguering 3 month camping trip, with a drum-circle beatnik and a psychedelicized Physics major who was convinced I was his guru. I was supposed to teach him something, and he didn‘t know what. I am a devout skeptic; and thus the pressure nearly drove me schizophrenic - but the canyons, the aspen and the hikes were legendary.”
Q: You are so multi-talented…what or how did you start?
A: “I may well have started in the womb. I started writing my own books at 3 - I should stress they were heavy on the illustrations, and involved characters climbing into stars, running from cars and jumping into swimming pools full of mud. They appealed to a primal sense of vulgarity, a need for the chase, which would make these same plots appeal to sex-starved fifty-year old men the world round. I mean, who can resist a car chase and a woman jumping into a swimming pool full of mud? By the time I was a teenager, I was writing full time - skipping school and becoming completely nocturnal, where I would put in a good ten to twelve hours work on short stories and attempts at novels. When I’d get burned out on the text, drawings and paintings would take over. These are the sorts of activities pursued by a misfit who has no social life. Art provided me entire communities of crazed psychopaths, anti-heroes of every stripe, and lovers who do what lovers do. This is what a misfit with no friends did pre-internet. I had to make a better life up FROM SCRATCH.”
Q: Please explain your art(s) that you pursue…
A: “I write novels - confessional tales of teens, artists, mad scientists and time travelers. I had a novel published in 2000 - Bouzi - but that is ancient history to me, compared to the four I’ve written since. I am deadpan, ferocious, can spit out post-modern babble like nobody’s business, but prefer to write through jagged eyes. My favorite people in the world are neurotic and isolated characters. I suppose that means everyone.”
“This leads into the shorter pieces I perform, usually in costume. I appear solo and with accompaniment from several local musicians. From 2000-2008, I led and performed in the Groop--a project that was a mix of improvised electronic music, deeply offensive character sketches, progressive rock and screaming. I would come up with a theme for us to explore each week - from Bad Lovers to Roman Mythology - and we’d run with it. I called it a ‘cultural exorcism,’ we were my in-studio band for my radio show, Night of the Living Tongue, which aired Thursday nights on KBOO from 1999-2008. I would be escorted into brimstone-smelling boardrooms and chastised with whips and FCC indecency manuals that weigh the tonnage of a young sperm whale. In other words, I was usually guilty of the double whammy of nepotism and brutal honesty. Otherwise, my show would feature live experimental musicicans and personalities from all over Portland - from street corner buskers to mainstays at Holocene. I also paint - see photo!”
Q: What are your current plans?
A: “In the past 2 weeks, I have started posting my novels to the HarperCollins websites, Inkpop (teen lit) and Authonomy (adult lit). These are sites which function to give blog-space to aspiring writers, and up to entire manuscripts can be posted. Members of each site vote for five a month to get publishing contracts. It is highly competitive, and is perhaps the first ‘Publishing Reality Show.’ The best aspect of this (book contract or not) is that my novels can be viewed by anyone with an internet connection - on the planet. These can be viewed at: Inkpop, and Authonomy. I have one up on the teen site, and hopefully will have several on the adult site in the next 2 weeks.”
“Now onto music. For the past year, I have performed with the Dead Air Fresheners. They are a group of electronic noise-makers who have invited me to read with them, while they, in their own words, provide ‘soundtracks’ to my text. These are examples of their earlier recordings on this site. They are in the process of editing and putting up the work which includes my writing: Dead Air Fresheners. I recently performed on KPSU, doing stream-of-consciousness characters and reading some of my more ‘formal’ work accompanied by Spirit Duplicator. The link is below, and I warn you - as with any live radio appearance, there is announcement and sound checking for the first five minutes, but after that, we really get rolling!”
Q: What motivates/inspires you as an artist?
A: “Questioning why the human race has to exist, why we torture ourselves so, and wondering what we’d become if we could stop dumbing ourselves down to pleasantly vibrating, highly medicated shades of beige. I also think that existence is stunningly rich on every level - from the molecular to the vastness of space - which gets us back to the molecular again. I like to stress that beneath our ‘complex’ society and all it’s formal routines, we are dirty monkeys wanting to do things with our bananas. I think of how black drug lords who die in shoot-outs at 23, have names like, ‘Smurf Pony’ and how young, white male musicians try to grow beards, wear gypsy scarves, and appropriate whimsical names like ‘Smurf Pony’ for their guitar feedback albums. I think about how culture is On demand, and what it really means to Collect Them All.”
“Because I was raised by shut-ins, I grew up with a nearly-mythological desire to experience what was mundane to the average kid - the crust on the whisker of every bum - the bubbles in every pool of street corner vomit - the snot of a janitor and the throne of a Pope - anything that was NOT ME became fetishized in my head into a state of extreme mythology. Yes, a gang of Labor Ready workers would be seen as incredibly virile, powerful, like constellations in the sky, to child whose mother threatens to call the police if she walks out the door after 4 PM. In my good moments, I can revive this sense of mythos and fuse it with the anger and despair I have experienced as an adult.”
Q: What are your current shows?
A: “I will be reading with the Dead Air Fresheners, at Legong Gelato, Novemeber 13th, at 7 PM (w/Passengers & Derek M. Johnson). Legong Gelato is located at 8712 N. Lombard, Portland, Oregon 97203. Cost: FREE.”
Q: Is there anything else you would like me to mention?
A: “I am a stream of consciousness-personality. I can’t tell you what I will be at any given moment in the future, other than a person who still thinks she’s fifteen, but now requires a lot of caffeine to convince herself of this ‘fact.’ For me, art has to be funny. I like to explore the line between suffering and comedy. Of course, I beat myself up over what is ‘worth expressing’ to the world, but then I usually lapse into doing what I please, even if it isn’t ‘commercially polished.’ I am a perfectionist who still can’t follow the rules and write a ‘mainstream’ novel. This will either lead me to a premature grave or make me a cult leader at 64.”
To fetishize Jennifer Robin properly, please visit the following links:
Her novel on Inkpop
Myspace (Jennnifer Robin’s personal page)
Myspace (Jennifer Robin's music page)
Myspace for Groop
Jennifer Robin's page on Authonomy
Dead Air Fresheners
Jennifer Robin's appearance on KPSU
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