We're launching a new occasional feature on Open Salon that we're calling Open Chats -- short, 5-minute or so interviews with Open Salon contributors -- and we're thrilled to kick it off with the site's very own Interplanet Janet, the great Saturn Smith. Aside from the occasional email, I only knew Saturn from her blog, and had no idea what the actual person would be like. All I knew is that I'd grown reliant on her sharp and timely analysis of all things political, with the occasional foray into economics. I was thrilled to make her pixellated acquaintance, as am sure you will be, too.
(As for the Open Chats -- we'll do these every couple of weeks. It's a cool and easy way to create a video [we just used Skype, recorded it with Call Recorder, and edited in iMovie -- though I'm sure there are myriad ways of doing this]. The quality is so-so [sorry, Saturn!] but we'll learn as we go on. And I hope those of you interested will try this at home -- and let us know what works for you.)
Scott Rosenberg
caitlin shamberg
Thomas Rogers
Rebecca Traister
Lexus HS 250h
Shell
Salon.com
Comments
SS, you ROCK!
But, kidding aside. I'm glad you did this. Is sounds like she may not be around forever. Damn!
Saturn,
you seem to have a congenial life right now. Of course I can't tell how broke you are and so forth. Maybe you are concerned about getting a paid career down the road. I don't know. I always warn people about the lawschool piece. It's not really my place to advise you. Let me just say: keep an open mind about abandoning it if it doesn't seem like the right fit. It's hard to do once you put time and money and indebtedness into the law school project. Still, keep and open mind.
Cool interview.
Shall I start a petition for MTK? :)
Juliet -- heh, thanks! I actually got the thesis approved about 3 hours ago by the Big Bad Grad School, so... I'm pretty much finished now, except some grading. Woohoo! Good luck with yours, too.
Neil, that trade off of time and ease of life is totally on my mind going into law school; thanks for the words of wisdom, which I'm thinking come from experience, no?
(You can check who Grace is, if you're interested. I didn't make it up.)
Great use of the technology Kerry. Did anyone else think it was a tad ironic that ATT was the sponsor (advert) for a piece produced using Skype?
I'll listen to this later.
Thanks for this Kerry.
Denese
Kerry: This is the first ever Open Salon Skype Interview – Skype-view, we could call them.
Saturn: Nice!
Kerry: And we're launching it with Saturn Smith, who is one of our most prolific, and I think really successful bloggers on Open Salon since we launched. You started I think in August?
Saturn: Yeah, I think so. It was really hot so I was stuck inside, is kind of what I remember.
Kerry: Is that right? How did you find out about it?
Saturn: Um, I actually had heard about it through two people who I went to school with, who were part of the earlier crowd, and they were talking about it, and I overheard it at a party, and I was like, hm, maybe I'll check that out, and then – yeah, it just kind of went from there.
Kerry: I think it was your first post, was kind of a personal post about death. It wasn't even what I think most people have come to expect from you now, which is political analysis. Is that – did you join kind of thinking you would do a lot of politics, or is that something you kind of just grew into?
Saturn: Yeah, I think – no, I didn't join thinking I would do much politics. I've spent the last couple of years doing a lot of personal essay writing and fiction writing, and so, that was where my mind was focused. But, then I, I think I saw someone else was posting on the invasion in Georgia, and it just became sort of interesting to have that conversation online. And yeah – wish I had a better story, like, oh no, I set out to conquer the political world, but really, no...
Kerry: We know a little bit about you, little piecemeal information here and there. I know you were a drum-major in high school, a little personal information. But what else, what else can you tell us about you?
Saturn: Um, I'm right now, I'm a graduate student, actually in creative writing, which, you know, very highly profitable market, with political science to fall back on, so – really, how can you go wrong?
Kerry: Because you have a bachelor's degree in political science.
Saturn: Yeah, and now I'm actually two weeks away from my master's in creative writing, so it gives me a lot of time to procrastinate on the Internet, getting my thesis done, basically.
Kerry: Well, congratulations on that. What though is the goal then, with the creative writing? Do you want to be a novelist?
Saturn: I did want to be a novelist for about two out of the three years, and um now, I'm actually, next fall I'll start law school. So, uh – yeah. Everybody says, “Oh, are you quitting writing?” No, but I assume I'll have much less time to do creative-type writing.
Kerry: Any particular kind of law?
Saturn: Ah--- I'm really interested in federal regulation type law, which, you know, is just fascinating, I hear! No, um, because I have trouble sleeping, and that seems like a good cure?
Saturn: Right now, the person that I read every day and enjoy the most is actually Andrew Leonard on Salon, the How the World Works. I just – he – I like the way that he cites things, but then also offers something new, kind of, in every paragraph. That's the style I admire most, is where you're taking information that's out there, and then, you know, you do some rephrasing, but you also add your own thoughts about it.
Kerry: I guess you've kind of answered this, because you're finishing up your MFA, which would suggest lots of unstructured time. Lots of hard work, I'm not saying it's – but you've probably been working on a big project, right, which you can either procrastinate or put off. Is that why you're able to be so prolific? Because you're amazingly fast, I mean there are times when you've, you will frequently beat all the Salon bloggers on something pretty important, which is great, but hard work to do.
Saturn: Yeah, I think, um, yes, I do have a lot of unstructured time right now, and I think it's going to come back to bite me in the fall when I start law school. I hear they don't let you sit in a coffee shop for a couple of hours every morning. I'm working to get them to change that, of course, but...
Kerry: Is there a particular reason that you wanted to create this kind of character, Saturn Smith?
Saturn: I – you know, actually, the whole story is I – like I said, I knew two people, I personally know two people who are on the site, and I didn't want them to know I was there. Um because that – first because I didn't want them to know I was there, but I also, both of them were getting a lot of reads, and I didn't want to seem like I was jumping onto their traffic, kind of? So I just sort of set out to see, you know, without my name, without anybody that I know, could I, would people read this stuff? You know, it's a good way to gauge I guess, if you're doing something that interests other people. And then it sort of stuck, so now I think I'm Saturn forever, pretty much.
Neat idea & well done.
I'm not that old. I saw him do that bit on, either Jack Paar or Johnny Carson or Ed Sullivan. 1960 to 1970. IIRC, he really was an accountant.
A assumed Saturn Smith must be 100 years young.
Youth really encourage me. It was better than Fox.
A teevee has nothing to say? That encouraged me.
The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Company) Graduate School
....although my writing will never reach the galaxy you inhabit, it's nice to watch you twinkling.
Very cool idea Kerry, you da man. (and so cute!)
Waiting for the next one!
But, Saturn kinda makes me wonder what the hell I'm doing with MY life.
Congrats Saturn!
As for law school, ick. We ain't got enough friggin lawyers? Write your book! You are a remarkable talent.
and I'm guessing we all respond to Saturn's enormous heart-- clear in every one of her postings, even the really wonky ones.
What oh what will we do when law school sucks up all her time?
Saturn--congratulations on the master's degree. Given your many posts about government, I think law and federal regulation are a good fit. But, you will need to continue to have that creative outlet, maybe on OS!
Fascinating. An MFA type in Law School. Sounds like a movie script on par with Legally Blonde.
I promise to stick around during law school in some capacity -- just probably not an every day schedule. But who knows? People have done it. (Or so I hear). :)
Really, thanks, everyone, for the generous comments. I appreciate it.
Listen to Neil Paul.
Kerry - thanks for this. Excellent extension of OS. I for one was glad to see the commercial - felt like we're moving into the big time. Way to go - you're working hard for us, and I appreciate it.
This was just so cool! I know I'm not alone when in my thought "pick me, pick me!" Saturn was the perfect opening salvo for this gambit - she is exactly the sort of blogger one hopes to be - topical, intelligent, relevant, cool-headed. Well done, all around. I'm so pleased I'm here to witness and be part of this evolution of OS.
On the law school question, if you feel you really desire a career in law by all means go for it. But if you don't have a vision of putting a law degree to work somehow, take it from one who knows - its value as cocktail chatter goes only so far.
Again, this is a fun new dimension to OS and I join all here in applauding both of y'all for a job well done.
The sarcastic cartoon tire from Canada is on a quest seeking the guy that looks like Kerry King from Slayer and the blacksmith here on Saturn. With all the methane here, fuel is no problem - but how do you derive oxygen?.... and with the heat from the forge in combination with the presence of oxygen, how do you keep the smithy from blowing up?
In cartoon world and the Twilight Zone, anything can happen!
I was looking for 123 Anystreet..... Oh... Earth Third rock from the sun, got it. Damn! I knew I should have taken that mysterious sliproad off I75! There are no tree rats on Saturn and its a
balmy -150 C - that's COLD by Canadian standards!
I gotta let ya go now - there is ammonia condensing on my valve stem and my rubber is getting brittle.
You fix flats? Great! I'll remember that next time I'm near Saturn.
Y'know some of those outer rings really need paving, but there are no tree rats to squish out there so why bother?
Canadian Tire
Great idea!
Look forward to seeing your interviews of others.
"Ignore that 'girl' behind the curtain!"
Now, if I can be so bold as to suggest - Kent Pitman. Thanks!
Rated
This way, neither are nervous or comfortable at all.