Bruce recently held a record release party for the new Snow Ghost album at the Pizza Hut in Worcester’s Webster Square. There was no beer, but people drank a fair amount of coffee.
In this interview, we also complain about the local press and discuss mastery.
Pie and Coffee: So Bruce, you had your record release party at Pizza Hut the other day.
Bruce: That I did.
P: What inspired you to choose Pizza Hut as a venue?
B: It’s the only place that I’m really that familiar with.
P: How was it as a place for a record release?
B: As far as wrecking is concerned, I guess having a record release party there was pretty good!
P: And not only did most of the people there have pizza, but many of the people there had coffee, which was surprising to me.
B: I didn’t realize they had coffee there, but you learn something new every day.
P: How was the coffee?
B: Very good.
P: Well, that’s more than I would expect from Pizza Hut.
B: Wasn’t burnt, so, I mean . . . .
P: So it had that advantage. Do you think it’s worth going to Pizza Hut just for the coffee?
B: No, I don’t think so.
P: What kind of pizza did you have there?
B: Ah, I think the pizza I had was what’s in front of me. It was the cheese, and, ah, mushroom and black olive.
P: Very good.
B: Can I have some cheese please?
P: A good vegetarian pizza. I used to be big into pepperoni back in the day, back when I was a pizza eater. You have any other comments about Pizza Hut and the coffee there?
B: Overall, it went pretty good. I did kind of expect a little more enthusiasm.
P: Well, I mean, it was kinda low-key. Some of the people there were people who had their apartment catch fire the night before.
B: Oh really?
P: Yeah, there was an article in the paper. It was a weird article. They didn’t take it very seriously that their apartment caught fire, and they were giving the reporter a little bit of a hard time, and of course it’s the reporter’s decision whether to allow that to be part of the story, but the reporter did allow that to be part of the story, which I thought was a good and interesting choice.
It was a notable story especially because it was the only time I saw in the Telegram the phrase “karma shield.”
Basically, as mentioned in this reference, something caught fire in their house, like a lamp, and the fire started, and then it melted the solder on one of the water pipes, and the pipe started spraying water everywhere, which controlled the spread of the fire.
B: Ah.
P: And their fire detector’s battery was dead. So they didn’t even know that there was even a fire. They were very lucky this thing with the pipe happened, or the fire might have kept them from being able to escape, and they might have all died of smoke inhalation or been burned alive.
B: Ah.
P: So I know that that might have cut down on some peoples’ evergy level, having woken up in the middle of the night to escape a fire. [Ed. note: They actually slept through the fire.]
B: I understand that.
P: My feeling is that a bunch of adults hanging out at Pizza Hut is going to be a low-key thing. Except for that moment when those two brought their dog in, and ran around carrying their dog until the waitresses started chasing them. That was kind of entertaining.
B: I mean it’s like, half the stuff that the reporters put in the paper is not true anyways. It’s like when Channel 3 reported about the Mustard Seed closing down for a week, they basically called everybody there addicts. Not everyone there is an addict or has alcohol problems.
P: Well, this is true. And there have been Telegram articles that quoted me correctly, but literally half the time I’ve been quoted in the Telegram, it has not only been a misquote, but a misquote that distorted the whole meaning of what I was saying. So it’s very frustrating to deal with that paper.
I thought this was actually a good article. I would say, “Kudos to the guy who wrote this article.”
B: The reporter wants to put what he wants to put in the newspaper, so they can sell newspapers.
P: I don’t know to what extent that drives the reporters. I think to a certain extent it’s not the reporters trying to manipulate the facts, it’s the reporters not being that excited about doing a good job of reporting.
B: I don’t know much about reporting, but I do know for a fact: If you’re going to be a reporter, get your story right. Because by writing a story that isn’t true, it’s going to damage a lot of people. It’s their job to get the facts down, not to expose peoples’ lives.
P: Y’know, I’m reading this book by George Leonard called Mastery. And I know that you’re often called “The Master” or “The Master of Originality.”
B: I got a new answering machine message.
P: What’s it say?
B: Call it and find out.
P: Okay, I will call it and find out. I just want to say, though, he has a section called “The Five Master Keys.” Which are: Key 1, Instruction; Key 2, Patience; Key 3, Surrender; Key 4, Intentionality; and Key 5, The Edge. I wondered if you have like five steps towards being The Master.
B: Yeah, “Live Life Hardcore,” for one. And just give something a big kick in the gut. The third one, I would have to say, is that “Whatever I am creating, or anybody’s creating, aspire to give that something a big kick in the gut.”
P: So you only really have a three-step program of mastery.
B: And “Imagery” is part of it too.
P: “Imagery” would be number four. Like, “Imagine yourself giving something a kick in the gut”?
B: Yeah.
P: So you have a four-step program.
B: Yeah, do this. No drugs, no alcohol, and no tobacco.
P: So you have a five step program.
B: Yeah, and don’t live life as a bum. Live a life as a hermit, a wizard. And theoretically speaking . . . the end.