1/ Is truth in fact stranger then fiction? What do you believe?Yes - we expect fiction to be weird. It's the very fact that something really happened that makes it seem more unusual.
2/ What is the strangest, yet truthful, thing you can think of? (does not have to involve you, just be truthful to the best of your knowledge)This is a story I heard on http://www.newsoftheweird.com/index.html but can’t find a link to the actual story. It seems that a woman worked for some headquarters of the KKK (for a while, as I understood it). There was going to be a big rally at a distant location, and she petitioned to be allowed to go, and asked if she could stay with one of the higher up officials. They told her no. The problem? She was African-American. That’s just weird.
3/ What is the strangest, yet fictional, thing you can think of? (again, doesn't have to involve you)(If you'd like to rethink your answer to the first question after looking at your answer to the second and third I won't stop you)This is a really, really tough one as I’ve read a lot of science-fiction and fantasy, and am immune to “weirdness” in fiction. Of course, you probably aren’t referring to written fiction only, so I’ll turn to the cinema. David Lynch’s movie “Eraserhead” is one of the weirdest I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen a lot of “experimental” movies! It wasn’t so much that it was just gross or horrifying, although it had those elements. You’d have to see it to know what I mean. I saw it for the first time about 12 years ago, and still don’t know how I feel about it.
4/ What is the strangest thing that has happened in your life? (either to you or to someone else that you witnessed)This is also hard. I actually remember saying the phrase “that is the weirdest thing I have ever seen” but I can’t for the life of me remember a specific story.
Oh…I just remembered. I was in graduate school making a short film. Being an “artiste” I had to go waaaay out in the desert to film a scene. There is a place out past 29 Palms, California where there are a bunch of two room “homes” that have been abandoned and are falling apart. The wind blows mostly from one direction, and these homes have been sandblasted nearly away in the years they have been sitting lonely in the desert. Perfect location.
Picked an abandoned house to shoot outside of. Arrived at 8 am with my actress and cameraman – just the three of us and a cooler full of snacks. While the cameraman and I struggled to load the film (we were beginners), a car pulled up. My cameraman Joe said, “We got company”.
I hustled myself out there to greet the newcomer and pull out the permits I had gotten for shooting – I assumed they were there to make sure I had permission. The being that extracted herself from the car on that hot and windy day looked like beef jerky – dried up and leathery.
“Hi, I’m Mary” she said, offering her hand. She was as personable and professional as anyone I’d ever met wearing a suit, for all that she looked homeless. “What are you guys doing here?” She was smiling in a friendly way.
“Oh, we’re making a student film.” I said. “I have these permits…”
“Oh no, that’s fine”, She said cordially. “I was just checking. I’m with the neighborhood watch.”
Neighborhood? Watch? I realized that some of these ‘abandoned’ houses were not empty after all.
She proceeded to tell me how people would sometimes drive out to this area with moving vans, beat up or murder the people who lived in a house and then steal all of their stuff. I didn’t tell her I couldn’t imagine why anyone would steal the stuff…didn’t seem wise under the circumstances. She also told me that most people around here now had guns to protect themselves. It dawned on me, as she kept talking, that she was telling me that a) she had a gun and all of these not-so-abandoned houses around here had people with shotguns standing at their windows and their sights were on us.
And yet, she was as nice as can be. She wished us luck and wished us well and left us to go about our business.
She could have been lying about the guns. It didn’t matter; I didn’t care. It is a sad fact that when you are caught up in making a movie – no matter how insignificant – all other considerations (like safety) fall away. I only realized later than we might have been in some danger. There was no one around for miles, except us and the people in those houses. But I always rely on the kindness of strangers, and Mary was wonderfully friendly. I wish now I had turned my “work of art” (note the quotes) into a documentary. Would have been much more interesting.
Probably not the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me, but it was what came to mind.
5/ How honest do you think people are going to be in their answers?I think pretty honest, actually. Maybe I’m a sucker, but at least in this matter dishonesty gets you nothing extra!
Oh, thought of a couple other weird things. Mormegil and I worked with a guy named Keith who was like the "Tim-the-toolman-Taylor" of construction. We worked in a sign shop and used exacto knives regularly. His coworker put a new blade in Keiths knife and rolled it back across the table to him and Keith, in his wisdom, thought to himself "if I hit that with my hammer I can stop it".
Hammer hit knife, which then flew up into the air and after a couple of turn managed to lodge itself in his chest, sliding between the ribs and nicking his aorta. Guy Stabbed himself in the heart with an exacto knife. That was weird.
Also we used to work at the Renaissance Faire in S. California. Costumes are very big there. Occasionally people would show up in Star Trek uniforms pretending they were having a holodeck experience. That was weird.
I'll add more as I think of them. I just felt a lot of pressure from the initial question.