Withersin’s Damned Interview with:

 

Catherine Black

I have been an actress for over 10 years. My current project of love is a feature film called "The Donner Party", written and directed by TJ Martin. I star opposite Crispin Glover, Christian Kane, and Mark Boone Jr. The film is based on the infamous dark and true events of the 1846 Donner Party tragedy.  It just had its world premiere at The Austin Film Festival, it is off to The Puerto Vallarta Film Festival and despite my prayers for a theatrical release, will be available on Netflix at the end of January.  I grew up in Northern Ontario Canada. Currently, I'm living in Los Angeles languidly preparing oil paintings for my next art exhibit, acting, singing, writing, producing music video for my friends and generally just trying to create and liberate.

 

List some of your works (stories, books, poems, songs, albums, movies, etc):

My last collection of paintings entitled "Benevolence" upcoming films include starring opposite Crispin Glover in The Donner Party, Stay Cool with Chevy Chase and Winona Ryder, and many more films, TV shows and theatrical productions including American Psycho, Odessey 5.

 

Your website: http://www.catherineblack.com/

 

How can you be contacted? See website or go to my blog: www.thescienceofliberation.bogspot.com

 

 

In your own words, define Withersin.

An interesting doorway into great works of art that may otherwise go unnoticed.

 

If you were a sideshow act, what would you be?

Fire eater/breather

 

What is your greatest non-literary influence?

My Grandmother, Marjorie-she taught me how to cook and be a woman, my 20 year old cat who just died in my arms-she taught me about true love, the snow-stillness, knee surgery-patience, water because we can’t live without it, “still waters run deep”, and because of the many forms it takes on, plants- if you pave over a garden it will just grow sideways and find a crack in the concrete up towards the sun.

 

Describe your most irrational fear.

Losing my freedom

 

How about your most guilty pleasure?

Reading in the bath with music blaring and candles, Jameson Irish Whiskey, sleeping for 16 hours in Montreal, lots of chocolate and massages

 

Name the most disturbing nursery rhyme/fairy tale you can recall.

Even as a child I thought Snow White was crazy disturbing, with the evil step mom trying to destroy her and the living with the 7 dwarves and then the prince saving her.  It was just all wrong.  Also, The Handless Maiden and Blue Beard make me really sad for humanity.

 

Do you eat meat?

I am a vegan 98% of the time, but I eat blue rare steak once in a while. I like to know where my meat comes from. I think it is important to have very little between you and the food, especially the meat that you eat.

 

What were the skies like when you were young?

Clear and blue

 

Name your favorite garden tool.

My hands

 

Name your least favorite color, first job and worst job.

-         I love all colors, but if I had to choose, beige does nothing for me

-         acting in a commercial when I was 5

-         the ones where I got screamed at and paid little and being an assistant to a party planner

 

Favorite:  Author, Movie, Music Group, Song, and Quote.

-         Elizabeth Smart, Neil Gaiman and Gabriel Garcia Marquez

-         Like Water For Chocolate, Leolo, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Lust Caution, Dr. Zivago and The Wizard Of Oz

-         Tom Waits, Wilco, Nick Cave, Nico Case and Her BF’s, Hawksly Workman, My Bloody Valentine, Joy Division, The Cure, T-Rex, Andrew Bird, Beatles, Fiest, The Dahls

-         “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone

-         "To make people free is the aim of art, therefore art for me is the science of freedom."- Joseph Beuys

 

If you were a loaf of bread what kind would you be?

Rice Bread

 

Weirdest news you have read in your local newspaper:

About a Russian drinking contest where the first place winner died and the second place winner was in critical condition

 

If you have a message to the people of Earth, tell us what it is:

Please stop consuming everything and polluting everything and please stop wasting the water because we will run out.  Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth and don’t run the water when you wash your dishes.  Just little things like that can make a huge difference.  Understand that we may run out of resources like oil and fresh water in our lifetime if we don’t make changes now.  Reuse, recycle, compost, question if your community is taking care of the environment; like is your recycling actually  being recycled??? Don’t buy stuff that is over packaged, don’t use plastic bags and find alternatives for oil. Little differences actually make a huge impact.  Educate your friends and community. Buy local food and educate yourself on the products you use, your community, your economy and your government, and do it all with a spirit of love and community and for the future of your children. Check out http://www.garbagerevolution.com/

And finally, a question you can take anyway you like:  But Why?

A flirtatious way to say goodbye

 

Here’s a photo titled, “INEDIBLE NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN FOOD” 

You have 112 words.  Go.

Just over a year ago a truck driver, somewhere in the mid West, was hired to drive a truck full of gasoline to an Arco only a few miles away.  He never made it and was only discovered 3 months later in the Mojave Desert.  Both the driver and the truck were burnt to an indistinguishable crisp.  An entire forensic team in Southern California later discovered that the driver had consumed the majority of the gasoline causing an explosion that could have destroyed any life within a 50 mile radius.  As a result, all trucks delivering gasoline in California, are now required by law to advertise on the truck, that the contents are not intended for human food.