The very name James Call invokes an air of infamy deserved. What DO I know about him? Some of this is real. Some of it may not be: James Call was born sometime in the late 70's somewhere fancy in California. Once in elementary school he got hit on the head with a basketball and had a seizure. This is when everyone realized that he had epilepsy. He hasn't had a seizure in a while. His dad, Alex Call, was part of the band Clover and wrote that song "867-5309 (Jenny)." He's famous and shit. He has a wikipedia page and lives in Nashville. James hates talking about that. I met his mom. We visited her at The Pleasure Palace in Marin County where James grew up. She asked me out to karaoke and then the next morning kicked us out of her house. James's parents are divorced. James has a step dad. He is a lawyer of some kind. I think he is Armenian and has some ties to rebels in the governement. His step dad is insane, but makes a mean hummus! James is an only child, I think. Or at least he acts like one. He has some half-siblings somewhere in Nashville. He is part of the Mishap Collective, which is a long-time group made up of a lovable ragtag group of boys and oft ignored girls who still dream big. He has performed in many events that are linked to this lo-fi idea of crapcore (including several Mishap Proms, Science Fairs, etc). I know that James is a genius. I will not begrudge him that. He is an amazing comic artist with an encyclopedic knowledge of history. He is in his element when he is speaking about topics that he his informed on. Go ahead and ask him about an MTA strike or Mao. James was in a band called German Cars vs. American Homes. His current band is The Missing Teens. He also has a project called James Call and Erotic Photo Hunt. I have seen some incarnations of some of these bands play in several cities. He has a bog called "James Call: Expert." It is on the Internet. I am not sure what it about. He also answers questions asked of the dead Louisiana governor and U.S. senator Huey P. Long for the NOLA Defender, a play Internet newspaper. James loves his cats, Marcel and Cindy, deeply. He owns many military coats. Or maybe it is just that one I keep seeing him in. He likes to RELAX in lounge wear on the weekends and his days off work. He went to school for something and works for either the Port Authority or a Sports Authority. I am hoping it is the former, because i asked for a basketball and leg warmers from James for Christmas and have yet to see either. He lives in Astoria. He has no plan to ever leave NY, unless Paris will take him.

Enough about the past... let's talk about when I met James Call. When I think of him I can't help but think of that very first time. His legend did proceed him. He'd been on my ipod for months, compliments of fellow Mishap artist and childhood friend Adam Beebe. I'd spent countless roadtrips listening to James Call's Peter and the Wolf while Adam went on about James and the antics of Marin Country youth. I had often thought out loud, "I hope I never meet this guy." But holidays inevitably come, and people reluctantly return home to see their families. James's mother and step father still live at the Pleasure Palace, an epic display of too-much in Muir Beach. We met at a house party in Oakland. I remember him seeming sweet and authentic. I realize now he was probably intimidated by me and trying to calm me down. Years later on a subway ride home from a bar in Brooklyn, James told me that I was more of an extravert than him, and he had previously been the biggest extravert he knew. He told me that I scared him a little. That night I met him, I was pissed about life and a drug deal gone wrong. I was probably loud and brash and difficult to control. I was not sure how to act when I met the man from my ipod. Still that night in Oakland, all those years ago, as a mutual friend gave us a ride to the house we were all crashing at, James Call held my hand in the back seat of the car. I remember that. He's one of those people that others always say that annoying thing about..."oh, James? you'll either LOVE him or absolutely HATE him." I was, and still am, on the fence.

James is currently working on a new play called "Attaining Hawkman", writing a comic book about politics in hell and is planning an upcoming tour with his band, the Missing Teens.

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