Pavement: a date with inkblots

from Sally Tomato

When Pavement hit Los Angeles this past February (1997), I was lucky enough to interview Bob Nastanovich and Mark Ibold at the Roxy. I'm sure they were sick of talking about Brighten the Corners, so I thought it would be fun to have them analyze inkblots that my pal Anna and I made. And even though Stephen Malkmus didn't participate in the interview, he still mentioned it in Spin. By the way, Stephen is the only person ever to refuse a self-portrait. "No one ever turns out looking good in them." Duh, that's the point. Instead, Anna took his picture cuz I was too scared of him.

Bob: It looks like 2 Italys

Mark: And 2 pork chops.

Bob: Yeah, 2 Italys and 2 pork chops. It's an advertisement for an Italian pork restaurant. It also looks like ears.

Bob: That's kind of like a mushroom cloud.

Mark: This can almost be an eagle here without the head.

Bob: Or 2 angels with pointy noises floating over a large leaf of some sort. These look like cute little baby chicks (points to the 2 round things at the bottom). These look like chicken mcnuggets. (points to 2 things at the top)

Mark: Actually this kinda looks like a one-piece bathing suit with some wings on the back.

Mark: this sorta looks almost like a roadkill rabbit. You know the weird thing is with these tests, if this was done with a psychiatrist, I would probably start worrying now because every time I look at one of these I'm seeing some kind of animal.

Bob: Yeah, me too. Or food. To me it looks like a bull-frog that's been flattened out.

Mark: But without a head. Oh God, I'm in trouble. It almost looks like Mothra, some monster from a Godzilla film. This could also be a bottom of a weird old table without the table top.

Mark: This almost looks like the head of death. These would be the 2 eyes, the nose, and the mouth. Sort of that Edward Munch face.

Bob: "The Scream?" These looks like shark teeth to me. These look like shark teeth to me. Those look like the things that come off of oak trees (the 2 things at top).

Mark: You're identifying individual marks, whereas I'm trying to figure out an overall picture.

Bob: Immediately I thought it looked like some sort of island chain.

Bob: Oh, it looks like a goat or a rooster. The thing in the middle throws you off, you're sort of drawn to that cuz it looks like a little spaceship inside a blob of gum.

Mark: I was thinking sort of like looking at the camel's face from the front. Almost a cartoon character of a camel.

Mark: This one is similar to the old camel.

Bob: With ear plugs.

Mark: This sort of looks like a weird fish from the front. now it's all faces. I think I started feeling guilty for seeing all these headless bodies.

Bob: This also looks like an eagle with spread wings on the top.

Mark: Let's turn it around, shall we? Nothing.

Bob: There's a good one. Back to food, this one looks like little pieces of broccoli on the deli tray. Cauliflower . . . this is mayonnaise and mustard, little dipping sauce cups.

Mark: Uh-oh, this is a solid blot.

Bob: Ooh, that could almost be a skull.

Mark: It almost looks like the front of a skull. It's gonna be all heads from now on.

Bob: This looks like figure skaters or dancers jumping in the air with their backs arched. Or gymnasts at the edge of their vaults.

Mark: Doing the belly slams.

Bob: Down here looks like a cobra coiling below the beautiful dancing.

Mark: Oh my god. Well, tell me what that looks like, Bob.

Bob: Like some kind of alien coming at us with an open book for the face!

Mark: It's the "Reading is Fundamental" monster.

Bob: Yeah, it looks like he's got some kind of snow shoes on.

Mark: That's a nice one.

Mark: Those are peas (points to the 2 round spots).

Bob: It looks like some kind of logo.

Mark: Could be the Pavement crest. After a few washings.

Bob: It's on the doors of the exclusive Pavement club.

Bob: This is very insect-looking to me, like an upside down beetle struggling. There's its antennae... you'd have to fill in his body.

Mark: It could be the underside of a manta ray.

Bob: Its kind of evil looking in a way.

Mark: This one's a little bit more solid. It would sort of look like a turtle.

Bob: This is part of the turtle series.

Mark: That's definitely a turtle head.

Bob: Oh, that looks like this Virginia pizza chain, Pascualies (sp?) Pizza. It's an Italian chef. He's really proud of his pizzas.

Bob: I don't have a word to say about that one.

Mark: This one really upsets me.

Bob: These are hearts. It's a third grader's Valentine's Day card. Or it's a mushroom with hearts hanging off it. "I love mushrooms."

Bob: That's very torso-ish. A very powerful looking woman in a tutu. She's got a football player's neck. And somebody's throwing chicken mcnuggets at her.

Mark: That's right. That's exactly what's happening there.

--from Sally Tomato, 1471 West 153rd St., Gardena, CA 90247.