The writer, director, actor and comics lover talks up his best-selling new book, My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith.

“Believe me, there are people who don’t enjoy me or the minutiae of my life,” says the creative force behind Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy. “I’ve dealt with them on the Internet quite a lot.”

Listen to Smith’s interview here, then check out his site at Viewaskew.com.

The link’s a bit hard to see, so just look for the “Listen” icon at the top of the NPR page. The interview is all book-focused and runs around 9 minutes in total. The interviewer even reads right from the book, which we loved. You’ll also learn where the “uncomfortably candid” came from. Part II is on the way tomorrow – We’ll let you know when and where to find it.

AN INTERVIEW WITH RYAN SHORE

BY CHRIS GRAVES

Chris Graves: For those who do not know, what is your background? When did you first get involved in music?

Ryan Shore: I was born in Toronto, Canada and moved to Florida when I was 3 years old. I starting learning music and the saxophone when I was 11 years old in middle school, and then in high school I also took up the piano, clarinet and flute. In addition to playing, I also had a great interest in all aspects of music — composing, arranging, orchestrating, conducting, music theory, etc. — and so I pursued private lessons and summer studies for all aspects throughout high school. After graduating high school, I moved to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music where I majored in film composing. When I graduated, I moved to New York City to begin my career.

CG: Did your uncle, composer Howard Shore, play a significant role in your early career plans?

RS: When I was growing up and getting into music, I was definitely aware of and inspired by my uncle Howard. He gave me a keyboard for my 13th birthday, and then later suggested going to Berklee for college. After graduating, he offered me one day of employment, which turned into four years, and I worked with him on all of his projects during that period. He definitely played a significant role in my early career plans.

CG: How were you introduced to the world of View Askew and Kevin Smith?

RS: My first introduction to View Askew was around 1997. A friend of mine was making a movie, and he set up a meeting with Scott Mosier to ask for advice. My friend asked if I would come to the meeting as well, so that was my first introduction to View Askew. A few years later, in 1999, I co-orchestrated Howard’s score for “Dogma”, which is where I met Scott again and Kevin.

CG: You attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston. What was the Boston experience like for you?

RS: I loved Boston, and it was a great place to go to for college. Berklee is an amazing and unique place. There are so many talented students and teachers that I learned from, and being submersed in a music environment 24 hours a day, 7 days a week was an incredible time. To me, geographically speaking, the fact that Berklee is located in the city of Boston was almost a side note, since I spent almost all of my time inside the school — in the rehearsal rooms, classrooms, studios, performance halls, dorms, etc. It’s almost as though those few city blocks that Berklee is on could have been on an island in the middle of the ocean, and I would have had a pretty similar experience. I loved it.

CG: How did you become involved with Dogma? What were your thoughts on the controversy surrounding the film?

RS: Prior to working on “Dogma”, I had been working with Howard on all his projects for about three years (“CopLand”, “The Game”, “Gloria”, “eXistenZ”, “Analyze This”, and others.). I became involved with “Dogma” when Howard asked me if I would co-orchestrate his score with him. I was aware of the controversy, but was mostly watching from the sidelines. I was really happy to see it have the proper release that it had.

CG: You produced the music for the Saturday Night Live Studios theatrical logo. How did this come about?

RS: Howard composed the music for it and asked me if I would produce the recordings. In addition to producing, I also performed most of the instruments on it. It first premiered on the film “Superstar”.

CG: Can you tell me about your relationship with Elmer Bernstein and the Elmer Bernstein Scoring Award?

RS: Elmer was a great supporter of mine and it was truly an honor to have known him before he passed. I first met him at the 2001 Woodstock Film Festival where a film I scored called “Cadaverous” was premiering. I knew that Elmer had an award in his name at the festival, and he was also going to be giving a masterclass as well. The masterclass and the award ceremony were both on the last day of the festival. On that day in the afternoon, I attended the masterclass and I introduced myself to him. He was very nice and cordial, but he didn’t give any indication that he had heard of the film I scored or recollected my name from the submissions. So after meeting him, I was a hundred percent certain that there was no way I would be winning the award later that night. Then during the ceremony, after he stated what his criteria was for his judging, and just before he gave the award he said “…and the winner is going to know I can keep a secret”, and then he gave the award to me. It was one of the biggest honors I have ever received — being recognized by one of the greats in the industry, and by someone for whom I have so much respect. I will always remember and appreciate it because in a business which is filled with so much rejection and one which can have all it’s ups and downs, it’s very inspiring to have the support of someone for whom I have so much admiration and from whom I’ve learned so much. We kept in touch until his passing, and he used to tell me, “…if you are ever up for a job, and you need a recommendation, feel free to have them call me”. He was a true inspiration for me.

CG: How did you become involved with Vulgar? What was your first reaction to the film’s content?

RS: After completing “Dogma”, Kevin, Scott and Monica Hampton told me about the film “Vulgar”, which they were making, and asked me if I would be interested in scoring it. Bryan Johnson, Scott, Monica and I sat down at their offices to watch the film together and talk about the music. My first reaction to the film was that it felt like the antagonists (the Fanelli family) were legitimately intimidating, however, Bryan, Scott and Monica were really laughing at everything. So I knew from that moment that although things seemed frightening on camera, the reaction that they wanted was for people to ultimately laugh, but in a very dark comedic way. We approached the music with a jazz score, which would provide a license to laugh, but a dark jazz score in order to tailor to the arc of the film and of Brian O’Halloran’s character.

CG: What were your experiences like on the movies Cop Land, Ransom, and Analyze This?

RS: Copland was the first studio film which I worked on, so it was very exciting to be part of it and see a score progress from the beginning of the process to the end. Howard wrote great music for Ransom and it was fantastic to hear the orchestra play it during all the recording sessions. I had a great time on Analyze This. Orchestrating music while watching Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal work together on the screen was inspiring. That was also the first studio film which I orchestrated for, so it was especially exciting to be a part of it.

CG: Have you ever been in any bands or musical groups?

RS: I played saxophone with Matchbox Twenty in their horn section on tour for the “Mad Season” album. We played on David Letterman for a special street performance, which was a lot of fun. I’ve also performed with Natalie Cole, Oleta Adams, Clark Terry, Gerry Muligan, The Uptown Horns, Bob Brookmeyer’s Big Band, and some other artists.

CG: Do you have any new projects coming up?

RS: I have 5 films coming up: “Numb”, a romantic comedy starring Matthew Perry and Mary Steenburgen; “Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer”, a horror/comedy starring Robert Englund, which I recorded and conducted with the 91-piece Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra; “Shadows”, a supernatural drama written and directed by Milcho Manchevski (Milcho’s prior film “Before the Rain” received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film); “The Girl Next Door” based on the best selling period novel by Jack Ketchum; and “Made for Each Other”, a comedy starring Bijou Phillips, Danny Masterson and Patrick Warburton.

CG: What is your favorite View Askew / Kevin Smith flick (Dogma / Vulgar excluded)?

RS: “Chasing Amy”

CG: And finally, do you still keep in contact with anyone from View Askew?

RS: I speak to Scott Mosier and Monica Hampton on occasion, and I bumped into Kevin and Bryan (Johnson) not too long ago.

As always, a fine job by Chris with the Q and of course, much thanks to Ryan for the A. More Graves interviews coming soon!

Alanis plays Sylvia, first seen in one of Nick’s (Jonathan Scarfe) visions as a glamorous, phenomenal singer, who shows up in real life as an ordinary woman looking for a secretarial job. Recently declared in remission from lymphoma—which has puzzled her doctors, who thought it would be fatal—Sylvia gets a job at Nick’s record label as a secretary, where her spirituality and visions soon make her a soul-mate with Nick.

Commenting of her first dramatic lead role, as a mysterious woman with prophetic visions and a beautiful singing voice, Alanis says, “I am a big fan of Philip K. Dick’s poetic and expansively imaginative books. I feel blessed to portray Sylvia, and to be part of this story being told in film.”

We wish her luck and hope to see her back in a Smith film one of these days, as well.

Casting – Kevin claims to have selected his ideal Zack and Miri — However, we’ve yet to see any deals signed that confirm anything at all. Kevin will likely post the moment something’s in ink, as Variety tends to catch wind of that stuff fast as well. We’re expecting news on this within a week, two at most. With a shooting schedule just months away, actors will need to start clearing schedules.

The IMDB page for the film currently titles the film just “Zack and Miri”. Kevin is aware and says they have it covered. Only two cast members appear so far: Jason Mewes and Jeff Anderson. In a recent post, Kevin also confirmed that the upcoming Hollywood strikes will not affect the film, since it’s writer-related and the script has been completed for some time now. No worries there.

Many folks have asked about the chance to be extras in the film, much like the Dogma shoot many years ago where we had the pleasure ourselves. At this point, we can’t say how much background work will be involved in the film, however, given the need for snow, that tells us outdoor scenes. So yeah, there will probably be some chances. We’re just not sure if that will be handled by the same agency as last time, who coordinated the efforts of recruiting folks from the boards, etc. Of course, we’ll let you know, as we can certainly understand how exciting it is to have a chance to be in the flick. We’ve loved it every time we’ve been given the pleasure of appearing as well. Stay tuned for that.

Other than that, not much to say! We realize that this post doesn’t shed a lot of new light on things, but that’s the way things work around here. Kevin and Scott are great at keeping things under wraps as long as they want, typically. Once they’re ready for news to break, they’ll be the ones to break it. And we think that will be very, very soon.

Oh, one more thing — In case you missed it, the film is targeted as a Fall 2008 release right now, however, a lot will depend on the end result. Clerks II was bumped up due to fantastic test screenings and reactions from Bob and Harvey. You may very well see that happen again. Kevin’s the king of editing as he shoots, so we’re betting on a first rough cut in the Spring. Exciting? You betcha.

Stick with us at News Askew for all the latest breaking news on “Zack and Miri Make A Porno”.

SModcast 34: Jersey Justice League –

The Heroes of the East convene for a special Jersey roundtable, featuring epic tales of early friendship, “Star Wars” summers, a fecal tooth and a mother’s love, a fecal ring quest and a decided lack of love, a friend’s betrayal, how old is too old to attend a high school party, how to creep out an elementary school class whilst proposing to your wife, and the misfit zoo. TECHNICAL NOTE: Due to malfunctioning equipment, the sound quality may be a bit wonky – but the stories were just too good to lose.

Kevin’s been saving the best newsworthy stuff for the blogs, the boards, and here at News Askew — So we haven’t been posting any summaries of the casts themselves. By now, we hope you know where to go, every Monday, or that you have your podcasting software of choice already auto-grabbing each new file. SModcast remains the funniest and cheapest podcast in all the land, and you just don’t want to miss a single episode.

Kevin’s been enjoying mixing it up with Bry and Walt, but promises that the original SModder Mosier will be back in just two weeks. Also in the works: An appearance by the great Jeff Anderson on the show. We can’t wait.

SModcast, exclusively available at Quick Stop Entertainment, brought to you by View Askew Productions.

Um… this is kind of a big deal for me

Apparently, I’m a NY Times Best Selling Author….

Number 32 on the Non-Fiction Papberback Best Seller List.

Wow. Not bragging about it or anything, but that’s something I never expected to be. I figured I’d be thin before I’d ever make it on that list. But there I am (or, rather, there the book is). And I’m still fat.

Anyway, yay me and my dopey non-book.

We’d like to wish Kevin the most sincere congratulations on this honor — As we said, most writers only dream of hitting this list, never to make it. Kudos and congrats.

Want to hear more on the book? You should own a copy by now, but if you’re on the fence, this Hollywood Reporter article should convince you otherwise, and give you some insight to the contents.

Here’s the text:

‘Silent Bob’ speaks up about Pittsburgh film

By Jolie Williamson

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Director Kevin Smith, whose controversial movie “Dogma” was filmed in the region in 1998, might be headed back to Pittsburgh for another shoot.

Smith appears set to shoot “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” in the region, according to posts on his news Web site, which reports that the shoot will be 40 days in studio and on location in Pittsburgh.

Smith wrote Monday on his blog that he is discussing “the Pittsburgh trip and at what varying stages all of us will head east to Western Pennsylvania. We’re now 12 weeks out from the start of shooting, so this is the point where logistics start taking shape, vis-a-vis dates, where the family will live, whether or not the dogs will come, etc.”

“I’m hearing they’re going to start in January,” said Ming Chen, Web master for Smith’s main Web site. Chen expects the production crew to be in the area for two to three months.

Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, said she has not received official confirmation of the film shoot, but said production representatives for Smith were in the area Friday scouting locations. Neither they nor Smith could be reached for comment.

“We’re thrilled they’re considering shooting here again,” said Keezer, adding that she believes legislation that took effect in July offering additional tax incentives to filmmakers appears to be directly influencing more filmmakers’ decisions to shoot in the area.

Keezer said she has not seen a script for Smith’s upcoming film, but that despite its title, the film is not pornographic.

A description on Internet Movie Database said the film is about two 20-something friends who decide to begin an amateur porn studio — “a knockout story for their upcoming high school reunion.”

Smith’s films, including the raunchy 1994 comedy “Clerks” that started his career, usually feature cutting-edge humor and provocative subject matter. Such was the case with “Dogma,” which starred Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and featured rock singer Alanis Morissette as God.

His Web site said casting announcements for “Zack and Miri” could take place in about two weeks.