FirstWord RYAN DAVID JAHN
Last time you cried At a funeral earlier this year. I hate funerals. The next one I attend will be my own.
First thing you do when you’ve got time off work Find more work to do. Last great meal you cooked Spinach salad with bay scallops and baked apple slices topped with a home- made vinaigrette.
Last extravagant purchase you made I don’t really make extravagant purchases. The last thing I bought other than books or food was a sweater. If I ever own a house, though, I’d like to put together an upside-down room with upside-down pictures and furniture bolted to the ceiling. I like the idea of walking into that room.
First crush Helena Bonham Carter. implementing a universal healthcare system.
Last book you read Savage Art, a biography of Jim Thompson. Last meal on earth – what would it be Coq au vin.
One of America’s most exciting young writers, Ryan David Jahn’s debut novel, Acts of Violence, has led to favourable comparisons with James Ellroy and Bret Easton Ellis. Here he reminisces about Bambi and first dates
First record you ever bought I ordered three at once from a mail-order catalogue. The Beatles’ Revolver, Nirvana’s Bleach, and Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet. I didn’t exactly buy them, however: when the bill arrived I ignored it.
Last time you were chatted up At a bar a couple of years back a flirty woman asked me at least half a dozen times if she recognised me from TV, and each time I insisted she did not she became more certain I was being coy. Finally her boyfriend dragged her away. First film you saw that really moved you Bambi. I watched it again last year and it holds up.
Last lie you told I don’t remember. But I’ll probably tell another before I’m finished with these questions.
First great piece of advice you were given Always obey your parents, when they are present. Last time you were star struck Taking an elevator down to a parking garage with Oliver Stone.
First song you’ll sing at karaoke Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’. I would have said ‘A Clean Break (Let’s Work)’ but karaoke selections tend to be rather limited.
First time you realised you were famous February 13, 2016. Last time someone criticised your work About a week ago when I talked to my mom on the phone.
First movie you ever went on a date to So I Married an Axe Murderer at a drive- in theatre. My date’s older sister drove us. First thing you’d do if you ran the country ‘The country’ for me is the United States, so the list of possibilities is endless, but I guess I’d start by
WeLike The things making our world just that little bit better
First three words your friends would use to describe you Obsessive. They’d say it three times. Last time you made an impulse buy and regretted it I bought an unfortunately flavoured packet of gum a couple of days ago.
First concert you ever attended The Flaming Lips. They were opening for someone else, but I can’t remember who.
Last time you bought someone flowers For my wife. About two weeks ago. ■ Acts of Violence by Ryan David Jahn is published on Fri 6 Nov by Macmillan New Writing.
■ Between extreme pumpkin carving (oh yes, we’re deadly serious: www.extreme pumpkins. com) and working ourselves up into a
two-months-too-early Where The Wild Things Are frenzy (the soundtrack! The iPhone app! the adult-sized snuggle suits!), emotions 2 THE LIST 22 Oct–5 Nov 2009
have been running rather high round at List Towers. We’ve been calming ourselves
down by admiring these nice Mexican candles from new Edinburgh shop Caoba, keeping up with The
Flaming Lips’ lunches (Michael Levins is
blogging every meal of their tour, here: www.flaminglips .com/blog) and digging out retro boxsets.
Favourites in the office this week are Twin Peaks and This Life – next stop My So Called Life. Speaking of
glorious eras of the 1990s, we’re quite interested in Scottish Opera’s 2010 production of La Boheme, as they’re setting it amid the hipsters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It’s either going to be brilliant or really, really odd. Man.