When I read Jarrett Walker I feel like there is always just a light breeze and he is explaining it all with a martini in his hand. — Trip Planner Mag (@TripPlannerMag) May 15, 2013
Personally I've never gotten martinis. I'd rather people visualized a handmade ceramic mug of black coffee, or maybe chai. What in my writing style do I need to change to update this impression?
UPDATE: Yes I know it's a compliment, because James Bond drank martinis, while lots of cranks drink coffee. But if I had the necessary refinement to be a connoisseur of all the ingredients of a martini, I wonder I'd have room in my head for transit planning, languages, urbanism, natural history, philosophy, coffee, gardening and all the other things that seem more important …
In any case, if you need to visualize me with a martini, please go right ahead. Perhaps I'll do a very posed photo with one sometime.
Shaken or stirred?
More stress and a certain, on-edge wildness, if you’re going for ‘coffee’, I’m afraid…
Jonathan,
but what of Agent Dale Cooper? He was a master of cool in the face of the terrifying (if at times prone to on-edge wildness) and very often holding a mug of black coffee.
Then again, you wouldn’t catch Jarrett expressing Agent Cooper’s love for rural life in a place we are to presume completely devoid of local transit.
Perhaps feature a hipster on a bike for your next cover. That would take care of this problem.
I’m still caught up on that “light breeze” part. Not bad for a Portland writer, hey.
To give you the “Martini Look” you would need to borrow one of Sean Connery’s wigs and tuxedos. To me you are more of “Tea, Earl Grey Hot” person a la Jean Luc Picard.
Maybe it’s his stint in Oz, but Jarrett’s dome reminds me more of Peter Garrett (Midnight Oil’s frontman) than Patrick Stewart.
Or as I suspect he tells the replicator in his quarters: “Beer. Bridgeport. Cold”.
🙂
You do know we’re counting on the local distilleries to revive our urban centers now that beermakers have lost the anti-gluten crowd. But Martini’s – meh. Cognac is made for writing.
I don’t know, I love a good cup of coffee. It makes me feel engergized and it elevates my mood! We need to stop the negative stereotypes of coffee drinking, like TRANSIT! See, it all comes together.
It makes me feel energized and engergized. Why not.
EngineerScotty. Inside I’m much more like Patrick Stewart than Peter Garrett, but I do tend to bounce around in some speaking settings, which is admittedly a Garrett trademark.
It’s the profile pic (greenery, dappled light) and the voice…