Good Citizen Probe
Our Fearless Reporter Asks Too-Many Way-Too-Personal Questions
By Aimee Petrin
Barbara Walters, Freud, Proust and the Peanuts are all at the same dinner party and you are the poor hapless soul cornered by this curious bunch. How would you answer their probing questions? Turn here each issue to find out how others measure up when laid out for a bit of friendly psychoanalysis…
With only a handful of recording studios in the area, Gus Zeising is a name on the tip of many a musicians’ tongue. Started in 1989 with fellow Pennsylvania native Paul Schnabel, Low Tech has been one of the mainstays of the local music scene ever since. And so has Zeising. “I’m one of the old dogs that goes way back,” je says, referring to involvement in such bands as the X-Rays and the N-Zones. Outside of his Burlington studio you can find the saxophonist ripping it up for the Queen City’s only surf-rock unit, Barbacoa. Other musical meanderings lead listeners to Zeising squeezing the accordion for the zydeco flavored Mango Jam. But it's down at Number One Main Street, the home of Low Tech Studio, that we find the legend for this Good Citizen Probe. As I pull a mini-cassette recorder out of my pocket, Zeising temples and asks “Do we really need to use that thing?”
“What is your earliest memory?”
“Sitting by a chain-linked fence on a lawn in the bright sunshine and looking at roses growing through the fence and noticing that they were these beautiful flowers with thorns.”
Finish this sentence:
Happiness is… “a warm bath.”
What historical figure do you identify most with?
“Napoleon. I have no idea why other than it was the first thing that came into my head when you said historical figure”
What kind of shoes are you wearing at this moment?
“I don’t know the brand name, but they’re leather, with rubber too.”
What do you think shows say about a person?
“I think they say whether it’s ya know, slushy or warm outside.”
What quality do you most admire in a person?
“Courage.”
What is your best quality?
“Patience.”
Your worst?
“Arrogance.”
In a restaurant, what is the first menu item you look for?
“I don’t know. I have no idea, I never even hardly look at a menu. I usually know what I want.”
If you were a tree what kind would it be?
“A maple.”
What qualities do you share with said species?
“Tons of sap.”
What credo do you live by?
“I don’t have a credo.”
What is your favorite or least favorite re-occuring dream or nightmare?
“ I used to have a nightmare of a headless soldier - back when I was little - that was a recurring dream.”
What is your contribution to the local scene?
“Well, I’m probably known as a recording guy. I’ve had a lot of fun recording music and heard a lot of great music - local music. And I’ve been a musician too, so people might know me as either one.”
What does it mean to be a good citizen?
“To take a bath and read Good Citizen, every day!”
-GC-