{"id":752,"date":"2015-04-24T19:24:47","date_gmt":"2015-04-25T00:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/?page_id=752"},"modified":"2015-04-24T19:37:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-25T00:37:21","slug":"an-interview-with-brian-parker","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/books\/an-interview-with-brian-parker\/","title":{"rendered":"An Interview With Brian Parker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Freshman Brian Parker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was fortunate to come across this interview with Brian Parker from the Wauwatosa East High School student newspaper. The article ran in the paper\u2019s final issue of the school year, about a month prior to his trip to Europe, and it reveals Brian\u2019s mindset before his adventures in The Boy Who Knew Too Much.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> You\u2019re one of the lucky students going on the World Language Club\u2019s European trip this summer. Are you excited about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> Very excited. I sold a lot of candy bars to help pay for this trip.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Rumor has it you and Tim Gifford were literally eating into your profits.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> (Laughs). Yeah, Tim can be a bad influence where chocolate is involved. But that was only the first few days. Once my dad saw I was, uh, sampling my inventory, he straightened me out. He\u2019s an accountant, you know.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> I thought he was a lawyer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> He\u2019s an accountant for a law firm, on Wisconsin Avenue right by the river.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> What\u2019s the itinerary for your trip?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> The first part of the trip is in the Alps. We start in Salzburg, Austria, then go to Innsbruck. After that we cross through this tiny country called Liechtenstein on the way to Switzerland. The big place we\u2019re visiting in Switzerland is Lucerne \u2013 we\u2019ll be there a couple of days \u2013 then we head to Germany, staying overnight in Stuttgart and Frankfurt. From there we go to another small country, Luxembourg, to look at castles, I guess. And then we cross into France and end up in Paris.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> What city are you most looking forward to seeing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> Oh, Paris, definitely. I can\u2019t wait to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It\u2019s probably a good thing Paris is the last stop, because if we started there everything after it might be a letdown. But I\u2019m looking forward to Salzburg and Lucerne and Frankfurt, too. I just want to see Europe, you know, to visit these places I’ve read about in books.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Foster Blake books?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> Not just Foster Blake books, but yeah, that\u2019s the big thrill for me. A Whisper of Death <\/em>takes place in the Swiss and Austrian Alps, and Hotel Noir<\/em> takes place in Paris. And the short story \u201cClandestinely Yours\u201d takes place in Germany\u2019s Black Forest. We\u2019re supposed to drive through there.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Too bad you have to go to Europe to visit locations from Foster Blake books.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> Not really. I’ve been to St. Louis.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Oh, come on! Foster Blake in St. Louis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> Yeah, in To the Point of Insanity<\/em>. The climax takes place on the Gateway Arch.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> That\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0in the movie.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> No, they changed the ending to the London Eye. The book was written in 1979, so I guess the movie producers wanted something more contemporary. The movie came out a year after the London Eye opened, so it was a big deal then. Well, I suppose it\u2019s still a big deal. I\u2019d go on it if I went to London.<\/p>\n

Q<\/span>. Sure, because it\u2019s in a Foster Blake movie.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> Yeah, I guess you\u2019re right about that. (Laughs)<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> So how did you get to be such a big Foster Blake fan? Everyone says you\u2019re probably Wisconsin\u2019s biggest Foster Blake fanatic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> I don\u2019t know. There could be a bigger Blake Head in Baraboo. Anyway, I became a Foster Blake fan about four years ago when I was flipping through channels one Sunday afternoon and saw that Clandestinely Yours<\/em> was about to come on HBO. So I watched it. And the moment Foster Blake drove his Jaguar into the Rhine River and it turned into a hovercraft, I was hooked. I swear that was the coolest thing I had ever seen. And back then they had to do all that without CGI.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> I forget they still show movies on HBO. I thought they just had shows like The Sopranos<\/em> and Deadwood<\/em> anymore.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> My dad tells me that when he was a kid, HBO was a big deal because you could watch movies about a year after they were in theaters. They didn’t have DVDs or even videotapes back then. Can you imagine, waiting an entire year until you could see a movie at home?<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Pretty soon they\u2019ll be releasing movies in theaters after<\/em> you can watch them on cable or satellite \u2013 or your laptop.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> But it wouldn’t be much fun to watch a Foster Blake movie on a small screen for the first time. Some movies should be seen in theaters.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Who\u2019s your favorite Foster Blake?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> Brett Simmons.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Swimming against the tide there, hey?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> I think I connected with Brett Simmons because the first Foster Blake movie I saw was Clandestinely Yours<\/em>, and it\u2019s still my favorite. He\u2019s just so suave, yet so deadly. And it\u2019s not that I dislike the earlier films with Owen Taggart, but I just get so sick of the older fans who think Owen Taggart is God, you know? He may be more menacing, but Blake could be smooth in the books, too.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> What do you think of the new guy, Anthony Wren?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> I like him a lot. Lightningrod<\/em> is right up there with my favorite Blake movies. He plays it tougher than Brett Simmons, but I think that was a necessary switch. We\u2019ll see how he does with his second movie.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> What\u2019s the title of the next movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A<\/span>. Who Will Find My Yesterdays?<\/em> It\u2019ll be released next summer, and they start filming it in July, right around the time I\u2019ll be in Europe.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Will you be able to see them film any of it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> No, they\u2019re going to be filming most of it in Hawaii and Australia.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> So you\u2019re heading in the wrong direction.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> I guess so.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Are there any Foster Blake movies you hate?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. Well, hate is a strong word, but easily the worst one in the series is Silver Mind<\/em> \u2013 an Owen Taggart movie, I must point out. Everything that could go wrong with a movie in the 1980s went wrong with that one. I don\u2019t know what they were thinking when they hired John Landis to direct, and to top it all off they got A Flock of Seagulls to perform the theme song. I can\u2019t listen to that one. I mean, it\u2019s on my Foster Blake iPod playlist, but I usually skip over that song at the first synthesized note.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> What is your favorite theme song?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> \u201cDying on Borrowed Time\u201d by Roberta Flack. And Gwen Stefani\u2019s cover version from a few years ago really rocks!<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> I understand you and Tim Gifford will be looking for spies while you\u2019re in Europe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A<\/span>. He told you about that, did he? Yeah, we came up with a game called \u201cSpot the Spy.\u201d We\u2019re going to see if we can spot anyone who looks like a spy while we\u2019re in foreign cities.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> What do spies look like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> Well, that\u2019s tricky. Lately I’ve been reading up on real-world espionage and watching shows about the CIA on the Military Channel. Real spies are supposed to look as ordinary as possible because they want to blend into a crowd, you know, not stand out.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Like Foster Blake.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> Yeah, like Foster Blake. So I know he\u2019s not realistic. But I suspect when we\u2019re playing our game Tim is going to be looking for Brett Simmons or Owen Taggart while I\u2019m going to look for George Smiley.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Who\u2019s that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> He\u2019s the hero in John Le Carr\u00e9\u2019s spy novels. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy<\/em> and all that. He\u2019s just an ordinary-looking little man in glasses. Someone you wouldn’t look at twice if you saw him in a caf\u00e9 or bus.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> So you don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to spot a spy in Europe?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> If I did I probably wouldn’t know it. But don\u2019t tell Tim or he\u2019ll automatically proclaim himself the winner.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> No excitement for you in Europe, then, hey?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A.<\/span> Oh, I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be exciting. Simply walking around Salzburg or Paris will be exciting. I just don\u2019t expect anyone will try to kill me.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/span> Let\u2019s hope not!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"IM000513.JPG\"<\/a>
Hail, Alma Mater!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was fortunate to come across this interview with Brian Parker from the Wauwatosa East High School student newspaper. The article ran in the paper\u2019s final issue of the school year, about a month prior to his trip to Europe, and it reveals Brian\u2019s mindset before his adventures in The Boy Who Knew Too Much….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":6,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"nosidebar.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-752","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P5foza-c8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":762,"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/752\/revisions\/762"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}