Friday Afternoon Interview with Hollywood

P2: Hollywood, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for my Friday afternoon blog. You work in the exciting field of motor sports. In fact some say the sport you work for is the most popular in the United States at this time. What are the three lessons you have learned from working with NASCAR?

Hollywood: Thanks for chatting with me P-to-the-P.
NASCAR's popularity figures were calculated by Enron. It's huge, but it's not what it claims. But three things I have learned in my four years of racin' would have to be:

1. There's a reason it's popular: Simple Is As Simple Does.
2. One size doesn't fit all at a race track.
3. Southerners will eat anything deep-fried. Fried Twinkies, Oreos, dog turds -- you name it. Just put it on a stick.

P2: Has it been four years already? Wow. Has this lead you to believe that some people are better than others?

Hollywood: Actually 4 1/2, but who's counting:(

I don't think "better" would describe it. Some folks are more easily entertained than others. -- Racin' can be complicated and can be appreciated on a few levels, especially the technical and strategic sides (more so in open wheel racing like F1). But for the most part, and for the average fan, it's easy to follow their favorite car and/or driver around the track. You don't have to be a genius to enjoy the basic on-track aspects.

I've met some really good people through my job. Then again, I've come across a LOT of ignorance through my work too.

P2: I have noticed from your blog that aside from fast cars you like good music. And you are one of the few people I know who are still buying CD’s (which I respect because you still have an excellent point: to read liner notes and see artwork.) Here we are almost half way through the year – what are the three CD’s I should go out and purchase from 2006?

Hollywood: Music has got to be my true love, before sports and film. I just purchased the Red Hot Chili Peppers' and The Black Keys' new discs Tuesday. RHCP's is a double disc and has been hogging all my listening time, so the Keys have been a little neglected. But the Peppers album is really good -- the funk of years past is back, and the mellow tunes are terrific.

Besides the Chili Peppers, two more albums I like that have come recently are Arctic Monkeys and Eagles of Death Metal. -- Not trying to plug my blog entry on them, but they happen to be two discs I really dig enough to write about.

P2: That’s okay, plug away! So we covered fast cars, and we went over fast music, you live with two guys in Ferndale (the questionable community of Detroit) do you like fast women?

Hollywood: I'm secure enough to live in the "questionable" community and dumb enough to be on 8 Mile (no neighborhood break-ins or car thefts in the past month!)

I appreciate women of all speeds. But I think I prefer the highly-engineered ones with fast on-board computers and good stereos compared to the ones with big engines and performance tires these days.

P2: I did not know they came in that style. Thank you very much for letting me interview you for the Friday Blog. Any parting words for my avid readers on cars, music, women, or for that matter Monkey Men?

Hollywood: P2, thanks for being The Ambassador of Blogging. This interview made me cry more than the one I did with Barbara Walters when I was married to Mike Tyson.

You can read more about Hollywood’s favorite music, movies, stories of life in Fashionable Ferndale, along with his cutting and insightful wit on current events at the “pet rock” he calls http://wwwjetblach.blogspot.com/