Kate Carraway is a freelance lifestyle and culture writer based in Toronto, Canada. The epitome of a Burner babe, she’s worked for publications that range from Vice to the Globe & Mail to Jezebel.com, and her weekly column as Senior Writer for Eye Weekly, Thirtyish, is side-splittingly funny and insightful to the point of being frightening. An old soul in the body of a savvy, saucy, smart-ass, take-noprisoners downtown kind of fairy princess, Kate is basically the thinking man’s dream girl and the thinking girl’s dream bestie. Here we ask her some questions about writing, dating, friendship, feminism and fun. Trust us: hers is advice you’re going to want to take.
throughout high school, and the song came on while she was whipping around a corner. I associate the song with the lighter blue of the car’s interior, and with speed, and with my cool, pretty sister, whose CD (tape?) it was. Soon after I bought myself a cheap stereo and joined Columbia House and ordered every Hip CD (and some other, equally now-embarrassing records). Hearing “Courage” was without question the first time I felt like a humanperson independent of my parents and of childhood.
SM: Most visceral memory you have to a song?
KC: Black Flag. My writing really depends on an interaction between a formal, sometimes-nearly-academic style and a very guttural, slangy, teenage sensibility. I was really prissy and serious before I turned 13 and found out about punk, and the influence that Flag (and SoCal punk more generally) has had in transforming my life and desires has been enormous.
KC: The most visceral memory I have of music generally is of hearing “Courage” by the Tragically Hip in 1992, when I was 11. Their album Fully Completely had just come out and my sister was driving me somewhere, in the same navy-blue Toyota Corolla with flip-up headlights that ended up being my car
KATE
SM: Band/musician who you feel has been integral to your development as a person and/or writer?
SM: Best kind of music (genre-wise) to write to, if any? KC: Nothing. Silence.
cARRAWAY words by Sarah Miniaci
SM: Warning signs via a glance at a dude's record collection that's he's: a) emotionally retarded / b) psychotically possessive / c) a disaster / d) a dreamboat KC: a) Nickleback / b) Nickleback / c) Nickleback / d) Any record by a girl or a gay. ! SM: Should you judge a potential friend's worth by their taste (or lack thereof) in music, good or bad? Why or why not? KC: No. Because that would be retarded, narcissistic, self-defeating, boring and incorrect. ...and now, the 'hypothetical' advice portion: SM: I'm a crybaby 20-something who needs to grow the fuck up and take ownership of my life. What songs should I listen to help me in my quest to start kicking ass? KC: “Pursuit of Happiness” by Kid Cudi “Straight A’s” by Sleigh Bells “Work” by Ciara “Tell Me Why” by MIA “Stillness Is the Move” by the Dirty Projectors really motivates me, for some reason.
SM: I've recently hit the 30-something wall and feel really bored, confused, uncool. How do I steer this gross, old age-dom process back into F-U-N? (P.S. MTV scares me)