Walking into Baiz Market, I'm blown away by the bustling indoor oasis of overflowing shopping carts, aisles, and glass cases of grub. JRC tells me he thinks it was once a Circle K, based on the general layout of the building. He orders a falafel sandwich and hummus to go, and says he'll take it to Trunk Space since he's not feeling too hungry. We pick out a table on the perimeter of the small sit-down area near the kitchen and get into the questioning.
Name: JRC
Age: 37
Occupation: Co-Owner of The Trunk Space
New Times: In one sentence, what do you do all day in your job?
JRC: The most boring description would be answer e-mails. The more elaborate, artsy answer would be to create the intersection between art and audience.
NT: What's wrong with the world today?
JRC: One answer to that is that I think we have too much reality. We suffer from an overabundance of it.
NT: Who's your favorite local band?
JRC: Oh boy. That's tough. there are really so many. I'm trying to go through my collection [mentally] and see what I've been listening to a lot lately. I don't know. We'll come back to it. [We go through the remainder of the questions and come back.] Current favorite local band? Kids Day. It's a band of a 14 and 12-year-old and they sing about being 14 and 12. They're the kids of Dena Johnson. It's really good stuff.
NT: What was the last show you attended?
JRC: That was Ty Segall on tour with Baths and Autistic Youth, and there was another one. The local on that was Chandails.
NT: If you could time travel, where would you go?
JRC: It might sound kind of corny, but since Arizona will be 100 years old in 2012, I would probably go to 1911 to see Arizona getting together its constitution and becoming a state. That would be pretty neat.
NT: What's the worst job you've ever had?
JRC: I worked at Walden Books for a few weeks. That was pretty terrible. I've had harder ones, but that was probably the one I liked the least.
NT: How good are you at cooking?
JRC: I have a handful of recipes I know how to make really well. I used to be a short order cook, so I can make breakfast and stuff like that. I'm really good at vegan macaroni and cheese or a breakfast burrito. [I ask for his recipe for mac'n'cheese, because I'm always on the hunt for a good one. He sent me his; check it out here.]
NT: Where do you go to be alone?
JRC: I stay home. If I don't have a show at Trunk Space, I'm pretty much just always at home or at my girlfriend's place.
NT: Who's your all-time favorite fictional character?
JRC: Arthur Dent from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
NT: What's the first album you ever bought?
JRC: The first album I ever bought was Peter Gabriel's So on cassette. I saved up my money for a month to get it. I still have it somewhere.
NT: Where is the best view in Phoenix?
JRC: If you drive all the way up Central, as far as you can, you end up in Sunnyslope. If you turn around and come back, that might be the best view.
NT: What's one thing you hate about Arizona?
JRC: The parts of Arizona that I'm familiar with, it seems the main reason people move here is to buy huge homes with big screen TVs and never leave them. That depresses me. But that's the only part that geographically I'm most familiar with.
NT: What's your homepage?
JRC: I think it opens Google and our Yahoo e-mail page.
NT: Do you give money to panhandlers?
JRC: No.
NT: What's your drink?
JRC: I like the iced toddy that Xanadu Coffee makes. Xanadu is Randy who used to run Willow House. We carry it at Trunk Space. It has to be literally freezing before I drink a hot drink.
NT: Who is your mortal enemy?
JRC: Time. Um, I suppose it would be the same that everybody has: my own apathy.
NT: What's the deal with Sheriff Joe?
JRC: I heard a rumor from someone who had a family member who worked in Joe's office. They claimed that Sheriff Joe kind of walks around the building, not really there. And there's this cabal of people making decisions. That's kind of terrifying if the people we're actually electing into law enforcement aren't running the state.
NT: What' would you do if you won the lottery?
JRC: I'd set up a non-profit that would be organized to distribute money to small community art projects. I'd also give grant money to writers.
NT: What's hanging above your sofa?
JRC: Nothing. My landlord is fussy about putting holes in the walls, so you have to ask permission and I haven't gotten around to it. I do have a pretty decent collection of local artists' work; mostly Camilla Taylor who shows a lot at Trunk Space. She's recently moved to California for grad school. I also have a framed poster from the film Lulu which is a German silent film starring my favorite actress, Louise Brooks.
NT: What's the best love advice you have?
JRC: It gets easier as you get older. Love is about being happy, so if you get to the point where there's less happy something's wrong. The best advice that I've gotten from others is that if it's getting to hard to do, stop. If it's getting too hard to be in love, then you're not in love.
NT: If heaven exists, what would you like to hear god say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
JRC: Welcome.
