kp: Why didn't you ever do a Rock Lottery in New York?
cw: I never felt comfortable enough with the NYC music scene, and then later issues with Good/Bad made me not want to do it. Once Good/Bad was over I made some half-ass attempts to contact people at TONIC, but they never called back and then I moved to Seattle. Now I am comfortable again.

kp: How has organizing the event in Seattle been different than Denton?
cw: Seattle is a bigger city, which means higher profile acts. There are new challenges, but for the most part it has been very similar.

kp: Did you find the Denton and Dallas music community to be more close-knit, and therefore more willing to participate?
cw: Both Denton and Seattle have tight scenes that don't co-mingle as much as they should. It seems to make more sense in Seattle. It always seemed silly to me in a small college town like Denton. I think the Rock Lottery is a good tool to start bringing crowds together.

I won't even start on what I think of the Dallas music scene. Anyone who read my local music column in THE MET during the mid-90's knows that I have a Denton superiority complex and I am a little upset that you would dare to combine those cities together as if they have a linked scene.

kp: I can't believe you just tried to pull rank with your "MET" experience.
cw: Ha ha. I know - I never tried that before. Never, ever. Not even when it might have meant something.

kp: I always thought Denton and Dallas were the two congruent sides of the Golden [isosceles] Triangle, with Ft. Worth being the odd-man-out.
cw: Ft. Worth tried really hard and had amazing things happen, or almost-happen, but could never sustain it. Dallas was just complacent and boring with a few exceptions. At least when I was there, anyway.

kp: You're in Seattle, now. Why didn't you get Sir Mix-A-Lot or one of the Mudhoneys?
cw: We already have some "names" for this one, so I wanted to save Sir Mix-A-Lot for the next one. A Mudhoney was originally on our list but we had trouble tracking him down. Hopefully we can remedy that next time as well.

kp: What do you think attracts the musicians to a project like this?
cw: I think it depends on the person. For some it is the challenge; for some it is the chance to play with people they wouldn't normally talk to. For others it is because they didn't completely understand what they had agreed to do until it was too late.

kp: What happens when someone doesn't show up the morning of the event?
cw: I get sad and then make frantic phone calls and then send people to their homes to wake them up. Last year one guy was late, and finally found, still awake from the night before, drinking on his porch, and completley oblivious to what day it was, or that he had committed to Rock Lottery.

kp: What happened?
cw: He had a really long, rough day.

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