Interviewing strangers over a meal since 2008 (as featured in the Washington Post)
The 52nd Throwback Thursday took place in January 2014, when I met jazz musician Aaron Myers for dinner. Over a pleasant meal at (now closed) Mediterranean Spot on U Street in Washington, DC, Aaron shared how he turned a childhood love of music into a full-time career. He’s a wonderful…
The 51st Throwback Thursday is my November 2013 dinner with actor Richard Kiel, best known his role as the menacing metal-mouthed bad guy Jaws in two Roger Moore James Bond movies. At 7 feet and 1-and-a-half inches tall he was an imposing figure but incredibly friendly and eager to talk…
The 50th Throwback Thursday is my August 2013 lunch with Josh and Natalie Harvey at Coquette New Orleans. We talked about their t-shirt company Storyville, launched in 2009 featuring a host of city-specific designs. The company was in business for roughly 10 years, but rising rent and slowing sales led…
Expect the first of three upcoming interviews next week! For today, Throwback Thursday 49 is my August 2013 dinner with New Orleans food critic Tom Fitzmorris at the upscale restaurant Tommy’s Cuisine in the Central Business District. Tom, born and raised in the city, hosts a daily food show on…
Several interviews are in the works (I’m transcribing the 128th dinner and have two lined up for my trip to Atlanta this weekend) so come back soon to read those. In the meantime, here’s the 48th Throwback Thursday feature. In February 2013 I traveled to New York to meet goth…
The 47th Throwback Thursday interview was a joy: January 2013 dinner in London with Lorraine Bowen, also known as the Crumble Lady from Britain’s Got Talent. I met Lorraine two years before she was on the show, and at our meal she told me about her long, quirky musical career…
The 46th Throwback Thursday is breakfast with Katelan Foisy, a visual artist known as La Gitana: Mistress of Magic. We met in October 2012 at the since-shuttered Cosmopolitan Cafe in New York to talk about her creative work. She told me about her move to the Big Apple and how…
The 45th Throwback Thursday feature contains some rather adult language, because’s it my interview with gay porn performer Antonio Biaggi. I wrote this July 2012 article as a counterpoint to my July 2010 meal with gay for pay porn performer Malachi Marx (the 22nd stranger). While Malachi (not his real…
The 44th stranger I interviewed over dinner, back in May 2012, was with someone who really didn’t want to meet me. Kay Cameron was a part-time volunteer with the Washington Literacy Center, which teaches literacy skills to adults in the District of Columbia who read below a fifth grade level….
For the 43rd dinner interview, I traveled to Baltimore in April 2012 to have lunch with Ben Claassen III. He’s the charming creator of the comic strip DIRTFARM. He’s also the guy responsible for the illustrations that ran alongside Baggage Check — the advice column in DC’s now-defunct Express newspaper that…