Emily Chandler may not look threatening, but don’t let her deceive you—she didn’t earn the nickname “DJ Dangerous” for nothing. As a senior working on her studio art thesis that’s already over budget, she’s got plenty to do, but also finds time to artistically arrange the shelves at Weshop, make food funny, and unintentionally injure her housemates.
Wesleyan Argus: What do you think are your WesCeleb qualities?
Emily Chandler: I do a lot of things on campus that need publicity. For example, I have a radio show on WESU, and I think a lot of people don’t realize that you can listen to the radio online.
WA: I’ve heard your show before. Are you DJ Dangerous?
EC: Yeah. Julia [Simpson ’06, her housemate] named me DJ Dangerous. She was in charge of typing up the blurbs that people submitted to summarize their radio shows, and that was the same weekend that I accidentally sprayed John [Blakinger ’06, another housemate] in the face with mace. So I was doing my first show and I had just made up a name on the spot, and Julia called in and said “Why don’t you check online? I don’t think that’s your name.” And I looked and I was DJ Dangerous. And now I’m reminded of how much I hurt John every week.
[Emily then tells the sordid story of the mace incident, which involves returning to the scene of the crime and re-enacting it. In the end John wasn’t badly hurt, and his DJ name is now DJ Mace Face.]
WA: What appeals to you about doing a radio show?
EC: Initially it was really fun and easy to do with Carolyn [Wachnicki ’05]. It’s always been a way for me to keep in touch with music, because when I got to college I wasn’t really listening to the radio or buying CDs. It’s a time out for me every week to get back in touch with music.
WA: What everyone really seems to know you for is your comic, “Food Stuff.” Where do the ideas for that come from?
EC: I don’t know how I do it. It’s Sunday night and I’ve got to come up with something for 5 p.m. tomorrow. Toward the end of the semester I start getting really desperate and start asking people. I say, “I want to do something about pregnancy,” and people give me ideas.
WA: Do you tend to lean toward puns, or all sorts of humor?
EC: Puns are very easy and I try not to make it easy for myself, because then it’s not fun.
WA: I remember at the end of sophomore year you mentioned that you would switch to “Stuff Stuff.” What happened?
EC: I was worried that I wasn’t going to have any more food jokes.
WA: Have you ever considered doing anything further with “Food Stuff”?
EC: Right now I’m just looking toward the immediate future, like winter break, when I don’t have to do it anymore. At the beginning of the semester Kathy MacLeod [’06] put together a book of her comics and people suggested I do that, but there’re so many bad ones! The underclassmen would read them and think less of me.
WA: Do you think you’re at your height right now?
EC: I’d like to think so. But if I could make a profit [from a book of comics] to offset my thesis costs…
WA: What’s your thesis?
EC: It’s about time and multiples and repetition, so when I buy one thing, I have to buy a lot of it. It’s a studio art mixed media thesis.
[I take a look at the bulleted list Emily made for the interview, and notice Weshop on the list]
WA: Want to talk about Weshop?
EC: I work at Weshop and I love it. I think it’s really interesting. I don’t think I’ll ever in my life be so familiar with an environment and then be paid to work there. I already loved it there. I like stocking and doing “face-out.”
WA: What’s that?
EC: It’s when you take all the food on the shelf and bring it to the front and make it look nice.
WA: That’s so artistic! Maybe that’s why you like it.
EC: It’s totally artistic.
Leave a Reply