Colby Buzzell Interview

My first encounter with Colby Buzzell was “The Making of the 21st Century Solider”, an exerpt Esquire ran from Buzzell’s popular blog. What started as a few minutes of late night before bed reading turned into eagerly awaiting the next installment each month. Last fall,Colby Buzzell’s book My War: Killing Time In Iraq was published challenging many people’s assumptions about the war, he provided an embedded insight into military life by putting a face on those who serve. Colby’s work has appeared on This American Life, and he has continued to write for Esquire. Recently, I got a chance to interview him via Instant Messenger.

Colby Buzzell: Hey what’s up man?

Tim Hennessy: Not much just finishing up packing. Heading to Seattle tomorrow. You spent sometime in Seattle, know of any great places to hit? I want to check out Hendrix’s grave.

I think Hendrix grave is like a 45-minute drive from Seattle, the cool places to hang in Seattle is an area called (I think) Capital Hill my favorite bar there is called the Cha Cha Lounge.

Okay, cool.

You can find the place if you Google it, its pretty cool. I’m not sure what day of the week it is, but you can buy a 40 oz at the bar. Yea, Cha Cha was where I liked to drink in Seattle, but I really liked to drink in the bars in Olympia, Wash. Oly is pretty cool.

Now that is great! I’ve only stumbled into one place like that here in Wisconsin, which is kinda odd. How long were you stationed in Washington?

I was there for a little over a year. Seattle’s one of my favorite cities, in small ways it reminds me a little of San Francisco.

I’ve never been to San Francisco but really want to check it out. Do you still keep a journal?

Yea, I still keep a journal. I don’t write in it every day though.

Do you find yourself more self-conscious writing in it, after having had some of your journal stuff published?

Not really, I still write the same way as I did before, and that’s with no thoughts at all of it ever being published.

How long did the transformation from blog to book take?

A couple months.

How did the book end up getting published? Did you seek out the opportunity or did it just sort of seek you out?

I just started blogging, and then people started emailing me when I was in Iraq asking me if I was interested in writing a book about the experience some day, and since I didn’t really have any other plans after the Army, I said, “Okay” and one thing led to another, and the next thing I know I had a book published.

How has your family reacted to your book and the experiences you’ve written about? Does the Army still have a favorable opinion of it?

My parents are cool with it. Not sure what the Army thinks about it.

Are there any autobiographies or memoirs that you’re a fan of?

Autobiography of Malcolm X: As told to Alex Haley is one of my favorites. I have a lot of respect for Malcolm X because he was self educated, and he died for what he believed in.

I know you’re also a pretty big Hunter S. Thompson and Bukowski fan, how did reading their stuff influence you?

I just liked reading their stuff, some books I can read, some books I can’t. Those two I can.

That I can totally see, I’ve only sorta starting dabbling in their stuff. What of there stuff would you say is a must read?

All of it. It’s all good stuff.

I’m really enjoying Post Office right now.

Cool.

My first exposure to your work was with the Esquire pieces. How did that opportunity with Esquire come about?

I was one of Esquire magazine’s Best And Brightest 2004, and like after that I wrote some stuff for them.

That’s right, the Bill Murray issue. You were among a few other military blogs and things.

Yea.

What has working with Esquire been like? How receptive have they been to the ideas you’ve pitched them?

I’ve never pitched an idea to Esquire.

So they’ve basically been like “Hey we’ve got this thing we wondered if you’d do?

Basically, its like they call me, and ask me if I want to write a thing for them or something, and I say, “sure”.

Had you ever heard of Banksy prior to being sent to track him down for a profile?

No. Had no idea at all who or what he was.

I really loved that piece.

Thanx.

After I finished it I was like ‘Oh shit, I gotta find out more about this guy.’ And after some Googling and a few months now I’ve got a print.

That’s awesome, I’m actually looking at the Banksy print that I scored out there right now, it’s framed and up on my wall behind my desk.
The Bomb Hugger one?

Yea. It’s I think my favorite print by him.

I really like that one and the one with the girl and the balloon. I ended up getting the one with the soldiers painting a peace sign. Have you stumbled upon any of his work here in the US? I remember reading that there was something he painted in San Francisco.

That’s awesome! The soldiers with the peace sign is great. Yea, there’s a gallery over by where I live, in Echo park that I saw was selling some Banksy Canvases, and I’ve seen like show flyers for punk shows here in LA that has his artwork on it. Now that I know what his stuff looks like, I see it around every now and then.

It really is amazing how his stuff gets around. I even saw something in Madison that was inspired by his stuff. If he’s managed to infiltrate Wisconsin, he’s nearly gotten through to much of the world then.

His stuff is all over. It’ll be interesting to see how big he gets and what direction he goes with his art in the future.

Yeah. Truly. His stuff alone is one of the reasons I want to go Europe to visit some friends.

Will you be doing more stuff with Esquire? I know you were in this last month’s issue—catching up with some of your buddies that you served with. How have they enjoyed seeing themselves represented in your work?

I don’t really know, I guess, I don’t know.

Your last article in Esquire was about your friends have gone on to do other things and some of the small changes since. How have you changed since you left the Army?

Ummm.. I’m not sure how I’ve changed, I guess I’ve changed but I’m not really sure how much, I get asked that question a lot and I’m not sure how to answer it.

Yeah, that somehow seems like the kind of question everyone would ask. With what you’ve seen it’s had to have an impact, was it easy to get back into civilian life once you left?

Yea, I guess. Writing a book definitely helped out a lot.

It would be, being able to put it into a context.

Yea.

Does being in combat ruin watching war movies for you? Which movies have the experience right? Any favorites?

I still watch Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now. Those movies are just great movies and what I think are works of art.

Did you see Jarhead?

No.

Not as good as either Full Metal Jacket or Apocalypse Now.

Jarhead doesn’t even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence.

No it doesn’t. Not a fan of the book either I take it. I still haven’t finished it and who knows if I will.

I read his book, and the whole time I was hoping that he got killed or better yet lost his arms or legs. I was let down that he didn’t get blown to bits in Desert Storm. My boots have seen more combat than him.

Hahah. That is very true. I actually kept waiting for something anything to happen and it never did, no matter how great a writer you might be you something has to happen.

One of the aspects of My War that I enjoyed was that it wasn’t driven by a political agenda, but by day-to-day events. Do you think that putting a few years between your war experiences would have strengthened the book or weakened it? Why?

It would be like if I wrote a book about high school. If I wrote a book about high school while I was in high school, a lot of those emotions and feelings while I was still in high school would be in that book. If I wrote a book about high school ten years after high school, it would probably be a whole different book.

With the number of military memoirs out, that’s been a criticism of some of them, but I find it hard to believe that time would do anything but cloud those memories.
Lots of people assume that when you volunteer to be in the military you buy into the whole package—-agreement with the mission, respect for the leadership, etc. How did you find yourself able to follow military orders even when you didn’t agree?

Basically, you don’t have to like it, you just have to do it.

You’ve had to sacrifice for this war. With the many forms of media that complain and question why we’re in Iraq, how does it make you feel that they haven’t had to sacrifice anything to have those opinions?

It doesn’t bother me; people are going to think whatever they want to think.

Awhile back, Kurt Vonnegut mentioned how arrogant the US was to occupy a country without knowing how to speak a word of their language and just expected them to “get” democracy. How do you feel the Iraqi people received the US presence?

I don’t know how the Iraqi people felt about the US presence, whenever I asked them about it, they’d always say a bunch of shit in Arabic to me, and I didn’t really understand what they were saying since I don’t speak a word of their language.

It often feels like that for 90% of Americans the war in Iraq is an R-rated Movie edited for network television. What can be done to better convey why America is in Iraq? For that matter, why do you think we’re in Iraq?

$$$.

Ha-ha. Sad, but seems to be true. One of the best parts of traveling is coming home and viewing where you’re from with new eyes. After being in Iraq for a year how do you view America now?

I view America as a bunch of spoiled brats.

Did traveling to other countries help form that opinion?

Yea, like you go somewhere, and then you come back and see how much we’re obsessed with pop culture here. Its actually pretty fucking sad. Like, people care more about Jessica Simpson, and Brittney than they do about the war in Iraq.

Yeah, outside of the US they have reality to deal with in a much bigger way. The US seems to funnel more energy into ignoring things like poverty, violence and ignorance.

Exactly.

Okay, so last question. What’s the most important thing you learned over the course of your military career and through writing the book about it?

I learned that not everything is what it appears to be.

Okay, cool. Thanks a lot for doing this.

No prob man, have fun in Seattle, and definitely check out the area round the Cha Cha Lounge, lots of cool bars and stuff in that area.

I will. With a week of nothing to do, drinking will be on the agenda for sure.

Awesome.

 

tags technorati : Colby Buzzell, My War:Killing Time In Iraq, Esquire, Banksy, Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski, Jarhead