arbitrary constant

Simon Pearson grew up in a small Welsh town where the teeth were buck and the life simple. Brought up on a diet of mammy's soup, free milk and custard creams, he mostly wore brightly coloured shorts, had big round gold-rimmed glasses and played piano far too keenly. Suffice to say he wasn't big on the social scene.

After a stint of cleaning out the pic 'n' mix and being a spotty till boy whilst picking up a few A levels, he moved to the South, where his accent was ridiculed. Dividing his time between studying music and engaging himself with all things internet, his university experiences included writing seldom-read reviews of obscure albums, wearing a Viking hat during the highly unpopular radio show Thick and Thin, and a proposition from film composer Gabriel Yared.

These days he works relentlessly as a webmonger for the company affectionately known as Auntie (though thankfully his boss refrains from that familial trait of wiping dirt from his face with a hanky). Through it all, he blogs at Minor 9th.

What would your Mastermind specialist subject(s) be? • I know for certain it would not be 'the location of The Socks Which Have Gone Missing In My Life', all 581 of them. It would probably be something along the lines of The Life and works of *Björk Guðmundsdóttir, or This Life Seasons 1 and 2 (classy). However, I'd be so terrified of farting in that swanky leather chair I'd be rendered speechless. I bet it'd be all creaky and noisy if you accidentally let one go, and then the whole nation would know about your flatulence.

Europe or America? • Well there are basically four ways to look at this. Geography, demography, cultural centres, food. I think Europe is enriched far more than America in the latter three categories, so if I had to choose one to explore for the rest of my life it'd have to be Europe. However if I was going for a dirty trashy weekend I'd go to New York, dance all night and stuff myself with burgers.

What book(s) are you currently reading? • The last two books I read were The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, which I enjoyed immensely because I saw parts of myself in Christopher. Also A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway which made me feel hollow and empty. I'm now reading We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver which is filled with possibly the densest and most deftly-written prose I've experienced in a long time. It's the literary equivalent of eating Soreen, except that it's more palatable.

What news sources and/or websites do you consult on a daily basis? • BBC News, Guardian Unlimited. I like to dress on the left.

Are you happy with your Body Mass Index? • Body Mass Index is, as widely reported recently, a whole load of rubbish. I am however happy with my weight (67kg) and body fat percentage (12%).

Which television quiz do you most enjoy? • I'd be lying through my bum if I said it was University challenge, as I can only answer the odd Physics or music question on that. I don't particularly enjoy any television quiz as I think they're all artificially slow and hence infuriating. If I had to choose it'd be Countdown. It's raw and appealing and I love doing the numbers round.

What is your favourite building? • The one I live in. It has bright, airy rooms, it's warm enough and the sun peeks through my window just before sunset, casting a gorgeous orange glow through the slats of the blinds above my monitor. I admire other buildings — predictably the Gherkin, the V&A museum, but basically I see buildings as functional objects and I like them best when they work well for me.

Whose art means more to you than just paint on a canvas? • Lots of people. I'm a bit of a fan of minimalism and postmodernism and I do find Rothko very calming. I also think that Banksy is a bit of a modern-day hero.

To which magazine would you most like to have a subscription? • At the moment, Runner's World.

What relevance does politics in the United Kingdom have to you? • My interest peaks and troughs. At the moment I'm in a trough as from my point of view it seems nothing pressing is happening other than the ongoing climate debate, out of which nothing particularly positive is happening anyway, which makes me sad.

What is your favourite font? • I'm not especially fussy — if it's sans serif then I like Arial or Lucida sans. Otherwise it's Palatino Linotype and under no circumstances Times New Roman.

Due to an unforeseen error the Internet vanishes overnight. What do you do to pass the time? • Cry. Then read books and play the piano.

OK Computer or The Bends? • How dare you ask this? it's so difficult. Let's tackle it in two ways. If I go to iTunes, where I have rated every track on both albums, OK Computer has a total of 44 out of a possible 60 stars, or 73%. The Bends has 48 out of 60, or 80%, so The Bends wins.

And generally I think I agree with these numbers — I've always felt that as a piece of work in and of itself, The Bends is a damn cohesive and impressive listening experience — complex enough to be rewarding after a million listens but also instantly accessible. OK Computer still throws up the odd counter-melody which I've never noticed before some nine years after its release, and whilst the production holds the album together, it's more adventurous and hence more diverse and hence demands a more involved listen.

I'd go with The Bends if I'm busy, and OK Computer if I want a bit of brain fodder.

(An introduction to the friends in e-places feature, and a list of all those that have appeared in it, is available here.)

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