Get To Know Your FiPS Writers: Chinae and Amanda

Ever read a great FiPS post and think to yourself, Hot damn. I'm in lurrrve with this writer (see also: I fucking haaaate this writer). We've been giving you an insight into the writing staff here at FiPS, and we're winding down to our last few. Contributors were paired together and asked to come up with some burning questions for each other so that you guys can learn a little more about the minds behind this FiPS-tastic blog. Because when it comes down to it, we're fucked in Park Slope JUST LIKE THE REST OF YOU SUCKERS. 

So far we've given you ERICA & URSULA, BEN & JESS, JUSTIN & MIKE, ROSHOW & MEREDITH, KERRI & SHAWN, Thomas and Vee. Next up: Chinae and Amanda!

What is the most embarrassing thing currently in your DVD collection?

Chinae: The most embarrassing thing in my DVD question IS the entire DVD collection, considering it's made up of 3 titles and 3 alone. Teen Witch, Elf and all seasons of LOST. Don't worry, my Netflix cue is riddled with serial killer flicks, social commentary documentaries, and a borderline worrisome amount of Morgan Freeman.

Amanda: My DVD collection is like a window into insanity.  For one, there are way too many romantic comedies in there for someone who is so grumpy and cynical all of the time.  Then, there are a frightening amount of serial killer documentaries and deeply, deeply depressing dramas that center around either genocide or child abuse or both.  Both of these facts, however, don't prepare you for the most embarrassing thing in there, which is the complete first season of Murphy Brown.  I think me and Candace Bergen (and maybe Joel Regalbuto?) are the only two people who bought it, because they didn't release the rest of the seasons due to low sales of the first season.  The only thing that can save this: the fact that I own every single season of The Golden Girls.           

If someone held a gun to your head and asked you to sing the complete lyrics to a boy band song, what would you sing?

Chinae: Easy. "I'll Make Love To You," Boyz II Men...but the truth is, no one is going to need any sort of weapon to make me sing this song. 

Amanda: It's a bit frightening how many boy band songs I know the complete lyrics to, but I was a TRL kid, so I'm excused, right?  I'd pick "All or Nothing" by O Town, because it is a great ballad and also because "Liquid Dreams" made me so uncomfortable that I blocked out its existence completely until this exact moment. 

Why God why did you decide to live in Park Slope?

Chinae: I was previously living across the street from the Private Eyes "Dance" establishment in Hell's Kitchen and one building away from a crack den....so babies, sensible footwear, and organic-vegan food seemed like a worthy adversary (although faux bacon still scares the living shit outta me) Also, let's be honest...I was single when I moved, and there were lots of hotties around the hood.  

Amanda: After college, my knowledge of Brooklyn was limited at best.  I had heard the people at my internship talking about two places in Brooklyn: Williamsburg and Park Slope.  After a pretty terrible experience looking at apartments in Williamsburg (my girlfriend, who is intent on convincing me that Williamsburg isn't a shithole, is convinced I was looking in Bushwick), I found my way to Park Slope and never looked back. 

When you're trying to convince people that Brooklyn is cool...what's your "go-to" activity/place?

Chinae: Greenwood Cemetery, Prospect Park (obvi), Brooklyn Farmacy, Brookvin, Alchemy, Applewood, Union Hall (only on weeknights) and all the 5th ave. girly boutiques.

Amanda: Unfortunately for Park Slope, my "Brooklyn is cool, really, I mean it" activity is centered completely in DUMBO.  I call it a "tourist lite" experience because it still feels New York-y along the waterfront, but it isn't nearly as obnoxious as going to Times Square or having to wait in line for the Statue of Liberty.  First, I take them to Brooklyn Bridge Park to hang out.  After, we swing by the Brooklyn Ice Cream factory, and then completely bypass the suckers waiting in line for Grimaldi's.  Then, we'll waste the rest of the afternoon drinking approximately 40-50 beers at the bar at Superfine, before stumble over to a table for dinner. 

You're about to be executed...what's your last meal look like?

Chinae: Absolut on the rocks with two limes, steak fajitas, and an embarrassing amount of chips and queso. Yeah, I'm from Texas. 

Amanda: A six-pack of Post Road Pumpkin Ale, sweet potato mash, braised short ribs, and mac and cheese.

Best Seventeen Magazine Trauma-Rama moment in your teen years?

Chinae: My first day of womanhood was spent in the third floor bathroom of my junior high frantically thinking I was dying of ebola (I read it in a book) and then convincing Ms. Lane, my 5th grade teacher, that my leg was bleeding and that I should circumvent going to the nurse and power walk straight home. Funny that when you say you've lacerated an appendage, they don't want you to just take your Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper and bust on out of the building.   

Amanda: My teenage years weren't as dramatic as most people's, mainly because my parents were mostly indifferent to anything I did as long as I had good grades.  There was really just one time that my father snapped out of it to throw a fit, and that was during my "punk stage," which is ridiculous for me to even type out as I'm sitting here in a Ralph Lauren button-down shirt and pearl earrings.  I had one of those mirrors that most teenage girls seem to have; you know, the one that makes them think they look cool and edgy when really they look like a complete jackass.  I had a blue beanie that I decorated with one-inch buttons from pop-punk bands and large safety pins around the trim.  The hat was ridiculous on its own, but when paired with my extremely large, Charlie Brown-round head, I looked like a cross between the Gorton's Fisherman and Andy Milonakis.  My father forbade me to wear it, and I screamed and yelled and cried until my father became completely terrified of the kind of exhausting, crazy emotions that can come out of a teenage girl.  "Fine, you can wear it, but you look like an idiot," he said.  He was right.

You can learn even more about Chinae here and Amanda here. Their respective blogs are pretty fantastic.