ACCOZZAGLIA

1. Which musical genre would you say is your forte in terms of knowledge and taste? And if you had to teach a beginner’s class about that genre, what album or albums would be on the top of the syllabus?

it doesn’t really qualify as a genre, because the nebulosity of the name itself is misleading. but it would be underground dance music from the late 1970s (the antithesis of disco) to the early 1990s. i don’t like using “retro” or 80s music”, cos both are misleading and aren’t properly encompassing. not in the least. and even thought my expertise in in the dance content, i have a pretty strong feel for several genres from that block of time.

but what albums? that’s a tough one, cos it’s subjective. plus, the era spawned more groundbreaking singles than it did albums. but if we’re talking academic here, i’d have to put my tastes aside and list the following:

–> Propaganda — A Secret Wish, all iterations
–> The Church — Of Skins and Heart, Heyday and Gold Afternoon Fix
–> the first couple of OMD albums in tow with the first China Crisis projects, to compare and contrast
–> Depeche Mode — Speak and Spell
–> Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft — Allez Ist Gut (where Nitzer Ebb’s sound originated)
–> the entire Matt Johnson discography
–> the Johnny Marr discography
–> the Paul Weller discography
–> a special unit on Japan and David Sylvian and why Duran Duran never would have existed without them
–> the Bryan Ferry era from 1978 to 1988
–> the entire Simple Minds discography
–> the entire Microdisney dicography
–> the entire Love & Rockets discography
–> the entire Vince Clarke career
–> the entire Trevor Horn career
–> time spent on American po-mo (including Violent Femmes (whom i don’t like), R.E.M., Rubber Rodeo, 415 Records, the Del Fuegos, Aimee Mann, Michael Penn and Timbuk 3)
–> a day spent on Shep Pettibone (much as i can’t stand him), Phil Thornalley and Pascal Gabriel, along with other producers
–> the entire Alex Sadkin career
–> the story of Linn Records, Factory Records, Kitchenware Records and the evolution of Virgin Records (and the Dindisc, Circa, 10, Siren and Charisma subsidiaries) as a small indie label-turned-corporate powerhouse (and why this was both good and bad)
–> New Order — the entire discography, with emphasis on Power, Corruption and Lies and Low-life
–> a unit on sleeve art, which was as important as the music for conveying and encapsulating the mood then (emphasis on Peter Saville, Mark Farrow/3a, Assorted Images, Icon, Trevor Key and so on)

this is only touching the surface and is highly disjointed.

2. What was the first Bollywood movie you remember seeing, and what sparked your love for Indian cinema? What do you think of the new more “risque” trend that’s been reported on?

though it wasn’t the first, the first that stuck with me was Sagaar, or The Sea. it’s a classic from the early 1980s that is a must-see in the annals of Bollywood.

i think it was the ever-mainstream Lagaan that hooked me in. it was like watching the Star Wars of Bollywood cinema in terms of epic story, suspense, production costs and quality of the finished product (mind you, i’m not ordinarily a big fan of overblown budgets in filmmaking, cos even a highly-polished turd is still a turd).

i fell in love with the music and suddenly began making sense of a lot of things. and mind you, this film came out in summer 2001 in the quieter Bollywood film circuit, which is when i saw it. meanwhile, most of the blonde people here in the states didn’t even hear about Lagaan until the limited “art house” release of it occurred in summer 2002.

i feel that the more “risque” trend of desi filmmaking, which certainly got its roots a couple of years ago in the incendiary (to put it mildly) release, Fire, is an inevitable product of that big bugaboo, globalisation. because exo-Indian culture has been a part of the scene in India due to imports from Europe, America and elsewhere, it’s inevitable that a whole new generation of directors and producers are willing to challenge their elders and test the limits of cinematic tradition. moreover, because the market for Bollywood cinema in India has found its youth market share flagging slightly — a sign of the times, maybe — the move to more controversial and daring plot concepts seem to at least try to make overtures to that segment of the market in ways the traditional boy-meets-higher-caste-girl-who-likes-boy-buit-is-slated-to-marry-a-pre-arranged-boy-in-her-caste plot alone cannot any longer.

though i love Bollywood now, there still a universe of material i haven’t seen yet. as soon as i get upright, i wanna start changing that in a real hurry. i’m certainly no expert.

3. The magical shoe gnome appears and tells you that he will make one pair of shoes you own completely indestructible, permanently comfortable, and eternally new-looking (but not too new). Which pair of shoes do you pick?

well, if i could have worn them, my pair of Steve Madden mary janes from 1999 which are allegedly 11s, but they fit like 9 1/2s. it’s cos he’s a bloody shoe Nazi.

as far as shoes i can and do still wear and hope they never disappear? my Diba zip-up black leather boots i’ve had since 1998. despite two major overhauls on the heels and soles, these three-inch block heeled boots that reach my upper calf are extremely comfortable, make me extremely tall, make me look dangerously good in jeans and have stood the the test of fashion times: versatility in the face of changing trends and eras in fashion. if i could somehow keep the finish from getting scuffed, then they’d be perfect.

4. As a designer, what is your favorite combination of two colors?

hmmm. tough one. i think it varies with my head space and my prevailing mood that the time i’m thinking about it.

5. If you had to pick one object from your bedroom to be placed in the Smithsonian with your name under it, without any other explanation, what would you pick?

this’ll count my bedroom as i knew it in my old flat, cos 95 percent of it is in storage right now: my “Tom’s Diner” glazed clay sculpture i made in September 1990.