About Andrew Cusack
Writer, web designer, etc.; born in New York; educated in Argentina, Scotland, and South Africa; now based in London. read more
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Plumbing Cusackian Depths?
Robert Harrington recently insisted on interviewing me, taking many of his questions from a previous interview years ago which had been available at andrewcusack.com but which has since inexplicably disappeared into the ether. (Such are the mysterious ways of the internet). Mr. Harrington unconvincingly insists that the previous interview provided an interesting insight into the mind of Cusack, and no doubt he hoped to gain further useless insights with this period of interrogation. We will leave it to the reader to judge. What follows is an only barely edited version.
You’re known as an architecture fan. What’s your favourite city?
Edinburgh. Finest city in the British Empire.
Finer than London?
Oh, I’d say so. London has a great deal going for it — better clubs, for example — but it’s become incredibly vulgar. And foreign. Edinburgh is ten times as beautiful. What is more beautiful than an Edinburgh sunset, with the waning light reflecting off the stone buildings and the various spires and towers? The topography of the city is its saving grace, but can also be an incredible hassle. If you want to walk along George Street or Princes Street or the Royal Mile, you’re fine. But any perpindicular perambulation becomes a matter of climbing hills and stairs and such. Yet it makes the city all the more worthwhile somehow. It’s very striking.
Your favourite building though, the old Irish Parliament (now the Bank of Ireland) is in Dublin.
Dublin also has a great number of brilliant edifices, great buildings. Not just the Bank of Ireland but Trinity College, the Castle, the Four Courts, the Custom House, the King’s Inns and Henrietta Street and all those Georgian buildings. And two medieval cathedrals! But no, Edinburgh is still finer, and unsullied by republicanism.
But the ugly Scottish Parliament building is in Edinburgh.
True, true. A recent goiter upon an old friend though. Surgery can remove such things, if the patient is willing and a surgeon can be found.
Who are your cultural heroes?
I suppose saints are the best cultural heroes, aren’t they? Saints, reactionaries, curmudgeons, and stubborn peasants.
What is the best novel you’ve ever read?
“Flamingo Feather” by Laurens van der Post. Or if not the best, then it’s at least my favourite. Miklos Banffy’s Transylvanian trilogy is probably second.
What is your favourite poem?
That’d have to be a tie between Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” and Peter Simple’s “To a Fishfinger“.
What is your favourite song?
The first thing that leaps to mind is Patrick Cassidy’s “Vide Cor Meum” for some reason. I love the Radetzky March and the Kaiser Quartet and Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, as well as his “Air et Danse Baccanale” from Samson et Delila. And there’s so much Wagner to love.
And favourite hymn?
Chesterton’s “O God of Earth and Altar”
Set to “King’s Lynn” as Vaughan Williams preferred it?
NO! It HAS to be set to Llangloffan. Llangloffan gives it the sense of sorrow, urgency, and supplication that Chesterton desired. King’s Lynn makes it sound like boring Anglican twaddle.
What philosophical thesis do you think it most important to promote?
Sanctity?
What is your favourite piece of political wisdom?
Falkland’s great line “When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change”.
If you could choose anyone, from any walk of life, to be Prime Minister, who would you choose?
James MacMillan, the composer. No question about it. Ricky Demarco and Gerald Warner would also have to be part of the junta, er, cabinet.
They’re all Scots.
Oh, right. Jamie Bogle too, then. And Lord Alton.
All Catholics. Wouldn’t you care to add a Protestant or two for good measure?
No. Both P. K. van der Byl and Ian Douglas Smith have gone to their eternal reward.
Do you have a favourite Protestant? Not a politician, that is, just in general.
Bach.
What do you consider to be the main threat to the future peace and security of the world?
Evil.
Do you think the world has already passed its best point, or is that yet to come?
Hmmm… we have had some pretty good times so far, and they’d be hard to top. Still, you never know.
What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
Be good, kind, and right.
What do you consider the most important personal quality?
Not asking stupid questions like that one.
What personal fault do you most dislike?
Lack of a sense of humour.
Do you have any prejudices you’re willing to acknowledge?
Well I hope I have all the best ones. But which am I willing to acknowledge? I am prejudiced towards the tried & true, and towards the things I like, but I should think everyone else is as well.
What is your favourite proverb?
“Slow and steady wins the race.”
What commonly enjoyed activities do you regard as a waste of time?
Watching idiotic shows on evening television. And stupid modern dancing. There are some people who treat you like you’re a war criminal if you refuse to dance with them. Stick to ceilidh dancing, I say. Ordered chaos.
What, if anything, do you worry about?
The salvation of souls and what’s for dinner.
If you were to relive your life to this point, is there anything you’d do differently?
Probably.
What would you call your autobiography?
“Tales from the Viceregal Palace” perhaps?
What is your favourite movie?
Probably “Bon Voyage“. It really is such a superb film. It combines beauty with history and adds a dash of light-hearted comedy, and of course romance. “The Gods Must Be Crazy” has to be up there too. I am fan of “The Big Lebowski”, but then so is everyone else.
Who would play you in the movie about your life?
Kieran Culkin?
I’m not sure he could manage the role of Cusack.
Well no one else comes to mind.
Who is your favourite actress?
Honeysuckle Weeks. Or that Scottish girl; what’s her name? [Kelly Macdonald, we later established.]
And actor?
Hmmmm… difficult to say. For some reason Don Knotts pops into my head. I was rather fond of the late John Thaw. And Ian Richardson. Of actors today, Daniel Auteuil is a good actor in both comedy and drama.
What do you like doing in your spare time?
These days I generally devote most of my spare time to recuperating from work, which means I do very little. The hammock, my books, and Scotch are a constant source of respite.
What would you like to do in your spare time that you don’t do now?
Oh I’d love to get back on the water. Rowing is such a pleasure. Row, fence, shoot, ride. See a bit of opera perhaps. Mastering languages (very important!).
What would be your ideal choice of alternative profession or job?
Baron Haussmann.
Which English Premiership football team do you support?
I have no preference, but Robin Angus supports Aston Villa, so since I’m pressed I’ll give them my backing.
If you could have one (more or less realistic) wish come true, what would you wish for?
The salvation of my soul, and those of all my family, and all my friends, and of just about everybody. Very boring, I know.
How, if at all, would you change your life were you suddenly to win or inherit an enormously large sum of money?
I would read more, learn more, write more, and do much more.
If you could have any three guests, past or present, to dinner who would they be?
Hmmmm…. G. K. Chesterton, Washington Irving, and… hmmm… hard to choose a third… Digby Baltzell?
What animal would you most like to be?
An elephant or a turtle, though I have always greatly admired the hog.
African or Indian elephant?
Hmmm… I think Indian. Oh but the African elephants have those great tusks! Wouldn’t it be great to be shot by Teddy Roosevelt? I’d have to be African then.
What is your most treasured possession?
Very hard to say. Perhaps the portrait of my grandfather on the wall in my room.
What is your favourite word?
Straßenbahnvernichtungskrieg.
I’m sure we all remember that “Straßenbahnvernichtungskrieg” is your proud contribution to the development of the German language.
For which I am insufficiently recognized.
What is your least favourite word?
Work.
What excites or inspires you creatively, spiritually, or emotionally?
Hmmm… Art, music, prayer, Mass, nature. A whole bunch of things, I suppose. A wide variety.
What turns you off?
Rudeness. Ugliness.
What is your favourite curse word?
“Crikey O’Reilly”
What sound or noise do you love?
The rain and the wind. There’s no sound I love more than the rain against a windowpane on a windy day. Also, the breeze rustling through the trees. A bit New Age, I know, but true nonetheless.
What sound or noise do you hate?
The irritating screech of subway trains braking. People talking on cell phones.
What would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
“Well done thou good and faithful servant”. Isn’t that the standard operating procedure?
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I really enjoyed this; thanks!
Hello! Someone sent me this link. I’m flattered at the name check, even if the job being proposed would be beyond me!
What an interesting site! I must check you out in more detail in due course. All my best wishes,
James
I don’t know most of the answers struck me as eminently sane.
I should clarify. Had a terrible day today and reading this made me feel human again. Loved it.
Re. Plumbing the depths, what is your favourite Cusackian?
Yes…there is a justification for [tradition] on the grounds of tradition alone: thus it is, and ever thus it has been, and ne’er has a soul come to harm because of it!
Andrew,
Thanks for this. Enjoyed it immensely. I do believe you’re channeling good ol’ Bill Buckley.
And as I’ve said here before, “Cusack for President!”…or perhaps pope. There is no Mrs. Cusack as far as I’m aware. It’s still possible!
Thank you, Andrew. Fascinating. I was contemplating asking you for an interview myself, just so that I could figure out who you are.
Neither president nor pope. If his answers are anything to go by, viceroy’s the job.
But where? I just read that East Africa is reunifying after a quarter-century or so apart. How’s Nairobi sound? Could be just like “In the Heat of the Sun”.
Could be just like “In the Heat of the Sun”.
Which, though set in Kenya, was actually filmed in Zimbabwe.
Andrew,
I’ve been wondering, have you ever written any fiction?
“The Gods Must Be Crazy” “The Big Lebowski” ??
I say, Andrew, aren’t you being facetious?
I should imagine at least one film by the great Powell & Pressburger to make your list.
I’ve been wondering, have you ever written any fiction?
Very rarely, and almost all of it now destroyed.
I should imagine at least one film by the great Powell & Pressburger to make your list.
Well, this wasn’t meant to be a list, and indeed it isn’t a list, and even were it a list, it would be a list of “favorite” films, which is not the same thing as “greatest” films. Rommel or Patton may have been the “greatest” general of all time, but that doesn’t prevent Prince Rupert (for example) from being one’s “favorite” general of all time.
Of Powell & Pressburger, I’ve only seen a few — “Forty-ninth Parallel”, “Colonel Blimp”, “A Canterbury Tale”, “The Battle of the River Plate” — but I’ve generally found them greatly enjoyable. Should such a list be drawn up, they would probably be in my Top Twenty Favorites.
You might also enjoy Michael Powell’s “The Edge of the World” as well as Powell & Pressburger’s “I Know Where I’m Going”. The latter is one of my “favorites”.
Anyway, I do agree, “The Big Lebowski” is great fun.
*
I don’t have a “favorite” general. Never even considered it. Interesting notion, though.
*
I noticed Mr. Harrington did not ask which is your favorite painting.
How about your grandfather for “Favorite General”?
Oh the musings of two of the more unusual young men i know …. I enjoyed that greatly.
And what does that word mean again? A battle between street cars? Something of that sort?