No idea why he wanted me to use this picture…
I’m sitting on the third floor of an evening. The powerful figure of Ryan Caira sits in the chair opposite me drinking red wine like a noble Ancient Roman. Terry Craven reclines decadently on the sofa with his Ancient Greek beard, devouring some particularly delectable roast beef he’s found in the fridge and occasionally offering titbits to Kitty.
Terry:
(to Kitty)
It’s edible, douchebag! Tumbleweed Correspondent – are you doing it? He knows you’re doing it…
Ryan:
Yeah
Terry:
BEEF!
(laughs)
He says, giggling.
What drew you to Shakespeare and Company?
Ryan:
First time, cause I’ve been here twice? Uhm, the first time I was looking for –
Terry:
Oh Kitty!
Ryan:
A like-minded community and some English speakers…
I liked the idea of being surrounded by books, it motivates me to read a lot, last time I read and reread a lot.
Terry:
What did you read?
Ryan:
Last time, last time I brought a lot of books I thought I hadn’t done a good job of last time, so I read Portrait of the Artist, Old Man and the Sea, Great Gatsby… so I read all these books I read in high school
Terry:
Are there any biscuits here, more importantly?
Ryan:
The first book I bought here was Tropic of Cancer which was quite interesting as I’d walk about during the day and come back and found he’d done a lot of the same walks as me. He’d talk about how inhospitable it was during the winter and that was very much my experience.
Terry:
(Leaving the apartment)
I’ve got three baklavas which I’m going to bring up with me in a minute…
Ryan:
I came here so I could read and write with people who were interested in doing just that. And the second time I came back ’cause I liked the people here.
What is your favourite thing about tumbleweeding?
(bites his upper lip)
(looks into bottom left corner of vision)
Maybe I should’ve prepared some, not prepared answers, but thought about what you might ask me. Uhm… I like that because I have to be here throughout the day every day, here and there, I end up spending time with everyone that passes through the store so I see the full spectrum of personalities and all their moods, well, that they bring to the store; in the morning, in the busy hours, during events, at closing, sometimes after closing for a drink or something. I like the unplanned events.
(Enter Terry)
Terry:
Oh yes, three! Uhm,…Charlotte says there’s Comte and Brebis in the fridge in the writers studio for you.
Ryan:
There’s what?
Terry:
Cheese in the writers studio.
Ryan:
That looks fancy, would you like some wine?
Terry:
I’m ok thank you. Tom do you want some?
Yes please
(a short intermission in the interview as I eat baklava)
Terry:
Please let it be noticed the Tumbleweed Correspondent took a break. I think he’s getting lax in his old age…
Ryan:
I liked your interview with Nina…
Terry:
Did you record that I thought you were being lax in your old age? Yes, he nods. See how I’m narrating back your own actions in a downward spiral of narration. Tom grins.
Ryan:
Terry narrates, Tom records Ryan recording Terry’s narration…
Terry:
Whilst Kitty watches on, plotting Tom’s demise. How derivative!
[in-joke alert]
Ryan:
Ok, another question! I want my interview!
Terry:
See – he’s getting old, missing his questions. So, what’s the best thing about being a tumbleweed?
SHUT THE FUCK UP!
(Ahem, Our Tumbleweed Correspondent wrenches back control of the interview from the clutches of Craven.)
What is your least favourite thing about tumbleweeding?
Ryan:
(smiles and twiddles thumbs)
I have to be careful because I know you’re going to record even my qualifying statements. I find it harder to schedule my day around a shift that we determine in the morning because I tend to plan my day the night before…
That’s it for me really cause right now I’m all about – this is going to sound so bad in writing – I’m not going to finish that sentence.
Terry:
Next question, maestro!
Who is your favourite member of staff and why?
Terry:
Pfwhhhh!
Ryan:
Kitty’s pretty great.
Terry:
Oh, Kitty! Karolina has got to be – have you met Karolina much?
Ryan:
Yeah, she came after I left. The people I met last time were you, Linda, Sylvia, David, other David and Charlotte. It would be easy for me to say the people who are my favourites were the people I knew last time I was here with them.
Terry:
That’s very diplomatic. You should ask him something about James Joyce because that’s what he knows about. Ryan and I celebrated Bloomsday two years ago.
Ryan:
That was a lot of fun reading the passages
Terry:
In fact Tom sang at Bloomsday this year…
I’m going to tell you about it next time when it wont get boring.
Ryan:
He’s going to edit this though, right?
Terry:
No.
Ryan:
Best part of the interview, Terry, right?
Name your three favourite songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6S9oqJRclo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO3gWIGzH3A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4v-_p5dU34
The most recent innovation in Our Tumbleweed Correspondent is the addition of Craven’s Corner. I’d like to invite you to send a poem to Terry in his corner to warm his cold and flinty heart.
Into my own by Robert Frost. It’s the first poem in his first book. I could recite it if you want…
Terry:
He couldn’t type it down fast enough.
I’ve got Google.
Into My Own
One of my wishes is that those dark trees,
So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,
Were not, as ’twere, the merest mask of gloom,
But stretched away unto the edge of doom.
I should not be withheld but that some day
Into their vastness I should steal away,
Fearless of ever finding open land,
Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.
I do not see why I should e’er turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear.
They would not find me changed from him they knew–
Only more sure of all I thought was true.
– Robert Frost
Anything else?
(bites tongue)
The last time I was here I was a volunteer, now I’m obviously a tumbleweed –
Terry:
Moving up in the world
Ryan:
Exactly what I feel, its like an upgrade. It’s a much fuller experience. I feel more engaged with the shop, although I don’t know – it seems like the volunteering thing has sort of changed, there are a lot more, I know I was here at a weird time in Shakespeare and Company history so I did have, I think, an exceptional experience as a volunteer because I was enlisted to help out in a lot of ways that I don’t think volunteers are usually used to help out – what do you think?
Terry:
I don’t know
Ryan:
Like all this was happening last year
(he gestures to the third floor, which was being completely renovated around the time Ryan volunteered)
Plus everything last year was moving every week
Terry:
I remember that Sisyphean task
Ryan:
That’s another of my favourite books, the myth of Sisyphus. Don’t put that in the interview it wont make sense.
Terry:
That’s going in the interview.
Ryan:
You have to contextualise that
Terry:
He wont
Our Tumbleweed Correspondent 