StinkFight.com

I make it a point to never turn down an interview. Ever. I tell people this in my books, and in person, and it’s a matter of pride for me. I don’t care if it’s NPR, the BBC, or some kid in his bedroom with a e-zine that no one reads, I do every interview, and take time with it.

I got a request from a guy the other day to be interviewed on his podcast. He hasn’t started the podcast yet, so essentially has no audience. But I immediately said “I’ll do it.”

The next day, I changed my mind. See, the guy had mentioned people he’s friends with that I’m friends with. (This is common, gives some legitimacy, and I have no problem with it. I do it myself when trying to get people to do stuff for me.) He mentioned three people I know. I like two of them a lot, and respect their work. But the third was an ex-sex partner who stalked me hard after I dumped her. For years.

This morning I woke up and sent the guy this:

You know what, I’m going to decline this interview.
I don’t want to think about ___________, and communicating with someone who is friends with her makes me think about her.
I mean no disrespect to you, I checked out your stuff and it’s solid. But whatever she told you that would made you think I’d respond favorably to having her name mentioned when approaching me…..whatever it was, it wasn’t the truth.

She’s a “predator posing as a house pet”. Which is not to say she’s dangerous, but she is the most annoying person I’ve ever encountered. She does not know the meaning of “You’re bothering me. Go away.” If she and I lived in the same city, I’d have long ago taken her to court and put a restraining order on her for her years of endless harassment by phone, e-mail, MySpace, and snail mail.
Good luck with your podcast,
Respectfully,

MWD

I told my friend Skip about it, and he asked me “so what’s the story? What did I miss? I replied:

I dumped this chick I had when I moved to LA. She’s in Frisko.
I had her down to LA to stay a week once. I dropped her after, because she was calling me every day after I told her to call me less.
She started calling me more. I said “Just go away”. She kept at it. I blocked her e-mail address, she made new ones. I moved. She got my new phone number. I told her about 30 times, in an escalating yelling voice “GO THE FUCK AWAY AND NEVER CONTACT ME AGAIN!!!!!”
She kept it up. she still, to this day, writes me letters and mails packages to my PO box. I throw them in the trash at the post office without opening them. She still e-mails me once in a while, all weepy with “please like me” shit in the sig line. I delete them unread and she eventually starts a new e-mail address to try to get through to me. She knows I want nothing to do with her, and knows I’m now married, and still sends me stuff.

She has systematically followed in my footsteps, becoming a filmmaker, and an advocate of DIY artists. I’m fine with that, only mention it because it seems pertinent to the story. I don’t mind influencing people, but I really value my privacy.

The chick has unresolved daddy issues from 35 years ago that have nothing to do with me, but she insists they do and that I need to help her solve them. She’s told me that.

The guy who contacted me is a podcaster in Frisko who wanted to interview me via Skype, dropped her name, along with a few of my real friends’ names, as people he knows, to get me to want to do something with him. She probably told him that I’m her friend.

I almost would have done it anyway, but he also said “I can do it by Skype or come to LA to interview you”, I thought that was very odd (it’s a fucking long drive). I imagined she’d jump out of his trunk or something when he got to my house.

–MWD

This entry was posted by Michael W. Dean on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 2:39 am and is filed under Stink Fight, WTF??. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.