Matthew Blood-Smyth

Matthew Blood-SmythWhat is your current state of mind? Right now, I would say I am nervous about these questions.  Overall, I am thankful to be busy and have different avenues to explore my art and to be surrounded by good friends who support me in my life and dreams and that inspire me both personally and creatively.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? I am not sure that there is a state of perfect happiness, I mean as a goal or way of life.  I have had moments of great joy, meeting my nieces when they were born, seeing the mountain sunlight through my my straw hat on my lovers face and my arms holding her or times when my bar in Prague was full of good friends.  But these things pass, as they should.  A perfect happiness would remain, so perhaps the memories of these moments or when we are aware that we are living them right now them are that happiness.

What is your greatest fear? That's easy: to lose the love of those who love me and to never find someone to share my life with.

What historical figure do you most identify with? That is a more difficult question to answer.  I draw on archetypes of figures sometimes, both in my daily life and when performing.  But, the people that remain in our books are generally either too great or too foul for me to identify with them very strongly.  So, Conan the Barbarian it is.

Which living person do you most admire? I must say these superlatives are hard for me to manage.  Most is a serious word. 

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? My capacity for wrath is in close competition with my propensity for self-deception. 

What is the trait you most deplore in others? Their recognition of my faults.  Just kidding: duplicity.

What is your greatest extravagance? I probably shouldn't buy near-strangers drinks just because I feel like having shots.

What do you most value in your friends? I like my friends like I like my bicycles, with a generous heart and a sunny disposition.

What is your favorite journey? The one that takes me to people I can't wait to see.

What is you most treasured possession? My most treasured possession is the folding knife my father used to gut trout up at Brush Creek when I was a boy.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Faith is definitely the nastiest of the virtues.  Give me evidence any day.

On what occasion do you lie? I am lying right now in answer to this question.

When are where are you happiest? When I am in love, of course.  Except for when it makes me miserable.

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? My profoundly disorganized nature troubles me, that and the procrastination are two things I certainly wouldn't miss.

What do you consider your greatest achievement? Staying close with friends I've had since I was five or six is probably the thing I have done of greatest worth to me personally.  Keeping a bar open in a foreign country for about eight years gives me a sense of pride as well.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Um, well so far getting dumped on the same day I moved into a squat in Brooklyn because I couldn't make rent or find a job.  Not a good day.

What is your most marked characteristic? If your talking about my face, I will go with my cumbersome lips.  If you mean my personality, it's clear my Id is usually at the reigns.  I say weird things and give in to goofy impulses.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction? If I say The Little Prince I will sound like a wuss, so Conan the Barbarian again. Or, maybe CJ from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

How would you like to die? Dying in any way in which I don't notice that it's happening and doesn't leave a big mess would be preferable.  Nobody wants to clean up Matthew stains.

What is your motto? Crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their women.  Obviously.