The Ross Eliot review!

Ross Eliot is what you would call a triple threat. He’s a steely eyed tough guy that’s not afraid to get his hands dirty, he knows how to handle himself, and he could eviscerate you in a debate without ever laying a hand on you. He also has some fearsome chickens and a rather deadly cat as well. Ross also would make a very convincing War boy too, giant black truck would be at home in the Mad Max universe. It just needs some spikes or a 

Tell me a little bit about yourself please.

 Well, to sum myself up, I'm more or less exactly who I wanted to be when I was a kid. I grew up in a religious family with television very restricted and preferred books to people. My early favorites were The Odyssey and Beowulf and my literary role models were Thor Heyerdahl and Felix von Luckner. Yet I also loved the outdoors and always enjoyed building a tree house or running around in the wilds. My favorite stories were about people who went out and had adventures, traveled, discovered knowledge and fought for their values. Once I grew up, those remained my goals and I feel are more than adequately in progress at least.

Have you lived in Portland all your life? Were you born there?

I was born in Portland but was raised in Seattle, plus spent much time based out of Sitka while commercial fishing in the Gulf of Alaska. Other than that, despite traveling extensively, the only other place I've really lived was Berlin back in 2002. 

There are people out there that say they are a jack of all trades but I get the feeling that you are the real deal! Can you tell me what sent you out on that path? I mean writer, fisherman, roofer, plumber, dj, forklift operator. It is an impressive resume!

It's funny, at one of my jobs a few years ago, some co-workers made a game of trying to guess what professions I DIDN'T have experience in. Taxi driver was one winner; I've never driven a cab. But that's been much of my life pattern, always wanting to learn more, travel when possible and keep from getting stuck. There's been some close calls. I was part of the original amazon.com warehouse crew back in the mid 90s when they just had one building in south Seattle. If I'd kept with that outfit, the money might have become too good to leave and I'd still be there. I can grow that list of things I've been paid to do: dishwasher, auto mechanic, go-go dancer, public speaker, moving company owner, eldercare, delivery driver, groundskeeper, barista and telecommunications supervisor. Currently I'm working for a housing nonprofit doing electrical, plumbing, remodeling and all kinds of other facilities upkeep.

What was life like in Portland in the 90's? 

I didn't move back to Portland until 1998, when I was 22, so I missed much of the days people feel nostalgic about. Still, it was an amazing time. Wages were much lower than Seattle, but rent even more affordable. For example, I was able to work several months making terrible money at a particularly awful and dangerous forklift operating job, then quit and live off my savings for 6 months while sharing an apartment and taking community college classes full time. Credits were $12 each. There's hardly any way a kid could live in Portland now like I did then without a trust fund. All the people I knew worked just enough to pay 100 bucks or less rent in a shared house and spent the rest of their time starting bands, making zines, forming political collectives, art projects, or whatever folks felt like. Our housing crisis the last several years destroyed all that. 

Probably the biggest cultural shift is that Portland is loosing diversity. The NW in general has had an extra high White population for a long time, but as rents rise and rise, local peoples of color are the first forced out. For a while in 2003-4, I actually lived just off the intersection of Rosa Parks street and MLK Blvd, part of historic Black Portland. By the time I left, there was just one Black owned home left on the street. The 2nd biggest difference is all the facial hair. Around 2005, the Bay Area mustache craze moved north and expanded until now you can hardly order a drink without some software engineer who just relocated from LA accidentally dipping their lumberjack beard in your beer. The thing is, Portland in the 90s wasn't cool and that's what made it awesome. You didn't brag about being from here. That would be absurd. People could drop the social pretenses and just concentrate on being themselves and furthering their own passions. Want to be big shot? Move to New York or Chicago with that attitude, nobody cares here.

You have a very impressive collection of records, when did you start collecting? Did you get your love of music from your parents or a relative? 

I started buying records as a teenager. At the time, everyone thought vinyl was a dead format so records were crazy cheap. A CD cost 15 bucks, but for that money, I could pick up a couple LPs, a bunch of 12" singles and maybe a 7" 45 or two. It wasn't until late 1996 that the slow resurrection of wax began.

I got into music on my own as a teenager. This was pre-internet so it took a lot of work. Dave Voorhees, who owns Bop Street Records in Seattle, which still exists, became my guru. I'd come in asking about some subculture bands and he'd say, "I got that. But what about Throbbing Gristle? Have you tried Severed Heads?" Then you could just spin stuff until you found out what you liked. 

How long have you been writing Ross? 

I've been writing since before I could write. My mom kept stories that I would narrate to her as a child and she would jot them down or sometimes bind them up as presents for the grandparents. Actually, just recently, I came across a typed 2,000 word short story about astronauts visiting Mars that I wrote in 2nd grade. By the time I was in middle school, I'd already composed a 100 plus page manuscript that was intended to become a sci-fi epic. 

Most of my writing has been political. That got the most attention with my zine American Gun Culture Report which I edited and published from 2005-2010.

How long did it take for you to get your book, "Babette" published? 

That's complicated. I had some interest from publishers around 2012-13 as the manuscript was getting finished, but I felt reluctant to sign away my rights on a crappy contract. Therefore, I elected to just go through a local micro-publisher called Heliocentric Press in 2014 which allowed me to keep complete control but also meant I was on my own as far as promotion and so forth went. The title went on to receive good reviews, besides winning three international awards, which opened the door to getting an agent who represents me now. Because he is still in the process of negotiating a new publishing deal, the original version has been deleted and is no longer an available. I know some copies turn up on eBay and there might be a way people can find the digital copy as well, but in general, that first edition has been laid to rest. 

How long did writing "Babette" take for you? 

I started seriously working on it in 2010, after American Gun Culture Report became too problematic to keep up. Being gone fishing in the Pacific made it difficult to maintain a periodical, but I could work on a book just fine. However, it wasn't really finished, as I spent a couple weeks last year in Southern France researching some of the really bizarre parts of Babette's story and uncovered enough new information to comprise a significant afterward to the upcoming new edition.

You must have Matt Murdock's radar sense man! How on Earth did you get that awesome at parallel parking? Did driving a forklift give you an edge on the other drivers? 

My dad had an old '79 Volkswagen bus that I learned to drive manual with on the hills of Seattle. Once I figured that thing out, I could operate anything. Plus, after my auto industry careers, I've driven most every kind of vehicle so that gives me a pretty good instinct for how to park. I don't think the forklift background helps because the wheels are so different. Lift trucks have rear wheel steering, as opposed to front in cars.

Your lovely wife said most of your apparel is older than you and that she married a time traveler, Is it true? Are you a rivet head time lord? Also what era would you like to visit if you could travel through time? 

Thank you, my wife is indeed quite the beauty. I sometimes feel we are both time travelers in a way. As for myself, being a militant socialist, I take style advice from the early 20th century working class. I don't actually wear vintage, but possess significant patching and mending skills so whatever I have on is usually well worn, to say the least. If I could, I'd love to visit the late Miocene epoch of the Pacific Northwest so I could watch saber-toothed salmon head up river to spawn, those creatures got almost 10 feet long, that must have been amazing to witness.

When did you know that Rivethead Culture and Industrial music was your thing? Do you have a specific band that opened your skull up and showed you the way to this genre? 

I got into industrial music through metal as a teenager. One day a friend played me Ministry and it was a life changer. I never went back to metal and eventually started appreciating more electronic and experimental sides of the genre, not just the aggro-guitar projects. Besides Ministry, some early favorites were KMFDM, Cabaret Voltaire and Seattle locals, Kill Switch...Klick.

When did you start owning chickens? I just had to know this one. Got any funny stories about them?

I became obsessed with chickens in 2002 because the family I lived in Berlin with kept them. I found hens so delightful that I decided I wanted my own flock as soon as I had a house with a yard, so it's been almost ten years now. Chickens are weird. I once found about 20 eggs hidden under a bush where they'd been hiding them. If I could think of the most idyllic experience possible, it might be sitting in my backyard with decent weather, a good book, a delicious beer and just watch the hens go about their lives.

Thanks Ross for participating in this! 

No problem. 

You can follow Ross on instagram @rosseliot

 Check out his book at www.profellsworth.com 

 And read his blog at www.occupy2a/wordpress.com