Today we’re talking to the one and only Bozzy. If you’re not familiar with this ex-MIT teacher and his amazing blog, well then I hope I can help you get acquainted. Check it out and I hope you enjoy!
Bozzy’s Answers
What’s the most memorable drink you’ve ever had? (toast at child’s wedding, birth, on a trip, whatever)
You know what? When I read this question all of a sudden I remembered a night I didn’t think about for a long time… Maybe I shouldn’t try to find something else and tell you that story: I was in Islay… November 2009. My first whisky trip, I am all by my own and visiting the distilleries, hiking and spending one of the best weeks of my life. There is a pub close to my B&B in Port Ellen called Ardview Inn. They carry so many amazing bottles from all of the distilleries on the island and I am trying to taste as many as I can and afford. One very cold night I was sipping something delicious again at the counter of the pub and the guy standing next to me who was probably 10 year or so older than me said: “So, you like whisky..?” I said yes, we started to talk and after a few minutes he showed the tumbler he was holding in his hand and said: “Can I buy you a drink..?” Without knowing what it was I said yes.
He called the bartender and ordered a Scottish Leader for me. He pointed the shelves and said “All those bottles are too fancy for us. We cannot afford them but I like my Scottish Leader. It also has wee Bunnahabhain in it…” He was so nice, so sincere and sweet. I felt kinda bad with the Glencairn in my hand at that moment. I saw his pint being low and ordered two new pints for us and we started to talk. For hours I didn’t drink anything else but pints of Tennent’s and Scottish Leader. His buddies arrived, we continued to drink together and eventually got drunk. They walked me to my B&B made sure that I was safe and then left. It was an incredible night…
What’s the most transformative moment in your career?
Ok, this is easy… In 2003 when I was 31 years old I accepted a job offer from a theater company (The Wooster Group) I could only dream of working for (I was a fanboy..!) to be their production manager, ended my life in Istanbul while I was making pretty good money at that time, packed whatever I can fit in two duffel bags and moved to NYC to live with a salary of $27K/year. And all this happened within three weeks. Best decision of my life…
Do you have a favorite artist? Writer, painter, pottery maker, etc? If so what draws you to them?
This is an extremely hard question to answer with one name only for me… Instead of my favorite artist(s) let me bend the question a little and answer with the name of a few artists which had the most influence on me: Jean Cocteau, Jean-Luc Godard and David Bowie.
I think I could have chosen different names as my favorites but these artists are the ones who changed the way I look at art and how I interpret it. Maybe they are more like mentors than my favorites.
What about favorite movie or book?
Another hard one… Let me at least change “or” with “and”. I will choose “Wings of Desire” (Himmel uber Berlin) by Wim Wenders and “The Man without Qualities” (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften) by Robert Musil.
What’s the accomplishment you’re most proud of? (career, life, hobby, whatever)
Although my work stayed more or less the same I managed to start a new life in four different cities… I always felt bad about leaving my friends every time I moved to a new place but now I feel like I am blessed with life long friends in four different corners in the world.
Let’s say you had to give up your current career and you had the resources and time to start over pursuing any career you wanted. What would you do?
Historian/Archeologist or a museum curator…
Do you have any hobbies, obsessions or collections that extend beyond the booze world?
Studying non-stop history, consuming crime-fiction like an addict especially tartan-noir. And music…
What’s your typical Friday night look like?
Because actually Fridays and Saturdays are the busiest times for people in performing arts world (Well, at least they used to be in pre Covid world) a “typical” Friday night would be a work night for me but let me tell you about my “ideal” Friday night instead: Walking into my favorite neighborhood bar relatively early for a Friday night, around 6:30 – 7:00 PM… I would sit at the counter (counter is a must, table is not an option) order a pint of beer while waiting for Teresa to arrive.
I would chat with the bartender and with folks around me sitting at the counter mostly about the game on the TV we are staring at and would watch the bar fill up slowly. Teresa would arrive, we would order food… Pints would follow others maybe even one or two glasses whisky towards the end. I don’t like to be very late on Friday nights anymore because I don’t want to ruin my Saturday mornings. We would leave before 11PM, go home, brew a double espresso maybe another glass of spirit to accompany, listen to music or watch something while we are doing that and then sleep.
What’s your favorite non-alcoholic drink?
Coffee..! Followed by tea and water. Seriously, I love water by the way..!
What’s the most memorable meal of your life?
Another long answer if you don’t mind: While we were touring constantly with The Wooster Group Teresa and I would find the “No Reservation” episode of the city we are traveling to and re-watch that episode (I still have all the seasons on DVD), take notes and make a list. That’s what we did again one time before we travel to London… I don’t remember exactly now what year it was but on our first night off we ended up at Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver’s St. John Restaurant like Anthony Bourdain suggested. Despite of its worldwide fame it was incredibly accessible, affordable, unflashy and honest.
It was dominantly white, plain and simple. The place was stripped of everything that can catch your attention and distract you from the food on your plate. And the food was out of this world… It was just perfect. We simply lost it. Fun fact: Incredible food can make me cry and I wasn’t able to control my tears that day. It was so moving… Now after years St. John is still our favorite restaurant in the world. Every time we are in London we eat there… It’s been a couple of times we intentionally booked our layovers in London on our trips and added an extra night just to be able to visit St. John again. I think no one should die without tasting a food cooked by the one and only Fergus Henderson.
2 openers and one headliner; what’s your dream concert?
Can I have one jazz and one rock concert? Please… Ok:
Jazz: Dexter Gordon and Return to Forever opening and Miles Davis Quintet headlining
Rock: Oasis and Frank Zappa opening and David Bowie headlining
You have 30 days with nothing to do and an unlimited budget, what would be your dream vacation/travel itinerary?
A tour starting from Outer Hebrides, heading to Shetland, Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. Then Newfoundland and ending in Nova Scotia… I am not sure if 30 days would be enough though.
Finally, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given (life, career, whatever) that you’d like to share with folks?
One of my heroes in this life is Joseph Campbell… I read everything he wrote and everything written about him. His most famous quote (It sounds pretty cheesy nowadays but…) is: “Follow your bliss…” Whenever I tried to decide something important in my life I always heard that phrase in my head. That’s how I left all my life and came to US. I was insecure, scared shitless, thought that I was ruining everything I built in my career and life but I did it. Pretty simple but good advise if you ask me.
I hope you enjoyed getting to know Bozzy a bit better, and if you haven’t already, check out his site.
