In this week’s Six Questions, we would like to introduce you to Jeff Beam, Labs’ Senior Layout Whisperer and resident didgeridoo aficionado (no, really).
When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A space explorer, like on the original Star Trek, or Space 1999 (does anybody besides me remember that show?) When I was a kid, everybody kept saying that we’d be living on the Moon by the time I was thirty.
Failing that, I wanted to be a comic book artist like John Romita, Jr. or Walt Simonson. Then the web came along – and now I get to use technology to create beautiful designs!
What’s one thing that few people know about you?
I’m a certified piano tuner. And I can play the didgeridoo… mostly.
Whom do you admire?
Beautifully scientific minds like Carl Sagan’s or Isaac Asimov’s.
What animal are you most like?
Wow, I hadn’t ever thought about it before. A platypus?
Nah, I’m pretty much a dog.
You’re stranded on a desert island with one book, one album, and one object of your choosing. What items do you have?
Book: Probably Strength of Stones by Greg Bear.
Album: That’s a tough one. Either a Paul Simon album like “One Trick Pony” or They Might Be Giants’ “Apollo 18.”
Object: Assuming that there isn’t electricity on the island, I guess I’d want a really good quality pillow.
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would buy?
I have this crazy desire to buy an Ikea and completely upgrade it so that all the showpiece apartments have working sinks, refrigerators, real televisions, etc., and my family and I would live in a different one every day. And of course I’d keep the restaurant and eat Swedish meatballs whenever I wanted.