The normblog profile 228: Anna Lowman
Anna Lowman was born and raised in South Yorkshire, and graduated from the University of York with a BA in English in the summer of 2007. Her passions include the theatre, beautiful music, and high quality TV (mixed in with the odd bit of trash), and she writes reviews for TVScoop and MusicOMH. Anna is currently applying for postgraduate journalism courses, and spends a ridiculous amount of time blogging at Theatre Is Life, Film Is Art, TV Is Furniture, under the name Anna Waits.
Why do you blog? > I started because I've always enjoyed writing non-fiction, and just wanted somewhere to put reviews of plays and gigs. I carried on because I found I absolutely loved it, and came into contact with some wonderful, like-minded people.
What has been your best blogging experience? > My first comment was special, and I have to admit I was pretty pleased when Katie Lee invited me to write for TVScoop.
What has been your worst blogging experience? > I've been very lucky, but a certain group of Terry Pratchett fans were rather unimpressed with my critical review of a TV adaptation of Hogfather.
What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? > Just be enthusiastic about whatever you're writing about, and try not to leave it too long between posts.
What are your favourite blogs? > I barely go a day without reading Lisa's Rullsenberg Rules, Rob Buckley's The Medium Is Not Enough and not-so-Struggling-Author Marie Phillips's new blog The Woman Who Talked Too Much.
Who are your intellectual heroes? > Phillip Pullman, for refusing to talk down to children, more than anything; and my A-Level History teacher Trevor Jenkins, who spent as much time talking to us about literature, current politics, and the media as he did covering 'the curriculum'.
What are you reading at the moment? > The Cranford Chronicles by Elizabeth Gaskell (inspired by the superior BBC adaptation).
Who are your cultural heroes? > Arthur Miller for the words, The Mighty Boosh for the laughs, and Ben Folds for the tunes!
What is the best novel you've ever read? > Charlotte Brontë's Villette. I did declare it 'the dullest book I've ever read' after a couple of pages, but quickly changed my tune.
What is your favourite poem? > Emily Dickinson's 'There's A Certain Slant Of Light'.
What is your favourite song? > This is very hard, but Ben Folds Five's 'Underground' never fails to make me smile.
Who is your favourite composer? > Away from the Lennons, McCartneys, Wainwrights and Folds of pop music, Sondheim is the master.
Can you name a major moral, political or intellectual issue on which you've ever changed your mind? > I haven't even made my mind up on many of the Big Issues yet, so I'm afraid it changes all the time.
If you could choose anyone, from any walk of life, to be Prime Minister, who would you choose? > Bill Watterson - as long as he agreed to govern using the world-view espoused in Calvin and Hobbes.
What do you consider to be the main threat to the future peace and security of the world? > A shortage of empathy.
What would be your most important piece of advice about life? > The aforementioned Mr Jenkins said that you should look deeply into the subjects that fascinate you, but that a bit of superficial knowledge about lots of things will always see you through. He's not wrong.
Do you think you could ever be married to, or in a long-term relationship with, someone with radically different political views from your own? > I really doubt it, unfortunately.
In what circumstances would you be willing to lie? > I think we need very little excuse to lie about the little things, but I'm not good at lying about anything big. I can't handle the pressure.
Do you have any prejudices you're willing to acknowledge? > I suppose I'm prejudiced against people who float through life without really caring about things. Care about something, anything!
What commonly enjoyed activities do you regard as a waste of time? > I don't think that anything that's commonly enjoyed could really be considered a waste of time - they should be treasured.
What, if anything, do you worry about? > Oh, too many things to list, probably.
If you were to relive your life to this point, is there anything you'd do differently? > I'd not want to change anything in case I wound up in much less happy circumstances.
Who would play you in the movie about your life? > I've always fancied Audrey Tautou playing me for some reason - I'd gain a lovely French accent, I suppose.
What would your ideal holiday be? > If I could transplant the Edinburgh Fringe to somewhere with warm weather guaranteed, and a lovely, empty, sandy beach within walking distance, that would be perfect.
What do you like doing in your spare time? > Going to the theatre and live gigs.
If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to? > Anna was a nice, easy name to learn how to spell as a kid. Maybe I would stretch my sophisticated spelling skills with Siobhan, or Consuela or something. I do like Anna though.
What talent would you most like to have? > Like most people, I wish I had learned to play the piano while my brain was less full of rubbish.
Who is your favourite comedian or humorist? > Tom Lehrer is an absolute genius (though not quite so cool as Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding of the Mighty Boosh, of course).
How, if at all, would you change your life were you suddenly to win or inherit an enormously large sum of money? > Bizarrely, the first thing that always springs to mind when I'm asked this is that I could buy a box-set of a TV show without knowing if I liked it yet. Perhaps bigger changes would come from giving lots of money to my loving, supportive parents, paying off my brother's mortgage, and buying myself a flat in central London.
If you could have any three guests, past or present, to dinner who would they be? > Tom Lehrer, Russell Brand and Rufus Wainwright. How much fun would that be!
[The normblog profile is a weekly Friday morning feature. A list of all the profiles to date, and the links to them, can be found here.]
