gene morgan, poet, co-founder of htmlgiant, and designer of bear parade, lets plain wrap get to know him better. this is the thirty-fourth installment of plain wrap’s interview series in which plain wrap interviews all its facebook friends. thank you gene morgan.
1. Tell us about yourself?
1. I am a self-employed white male living in Houston, Tx. I have a wife, two children and a dog. We have a single, large automobile. We have a house across the street from a small park, and my wife has a vegetable garden in the backyard. I like my family, friends, technology, poetry, conceptual art, business, design, sports, and politics, in that order.
Literature-wise, I started Htmlgiant with Blake Butler, but don’t have a great deal of involvement currently. I designed bear parade and worked with Tao Lin for content, but have no plans there. I try to do things with Sean Kilpatrick now at Dethcicle.com, but have a hard time concentrating on literary website projects now that I’m doing so many other business-type things on my own. I write occasionally for different online publications, and have a growing collection of poems that I might try to publish in a few years.
2. Have you read any good books lately?
2. Just finished How Are We to Live?: Ethics in an Age of Self-Interest by Peter Singer. I grew up very religious, and feel the importance of leading an ethical, wholesome life without an allegiance to God or greater power. I have a desire to be a good citizen and being, and have many unrealistic expectations for the world and myself that I fail to see or live up to.
3. Why did you leave your last job?
3. My last job not working for myself was at my family business, which is an industrial spring manufacturing company. I left because my father was fired over petty, dysfunctional family drama with his brothers, and I had no desire to continue working under those circumstances. Up until that time, and the few (maybe four) years preceding it, I had assumed that I would be employed there for the duration of my life. I miss the factory and my friends there, and still hold a lot of resentment towards my non-immediate family for the way they seemingly view the factory and its workers.
4. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
4. I am opening a store in a few months with my wife and our business partner that sells American-made goods. I consider business ventures a rapid expansion of knowledge. I knew very little about retail going-in, and still know relatively little. While mistakes and frustration inevitably happen when you’re doing new things, what you gain out of working with other people and trying new things is immeasurable. I still don’t know how I come to do these things, and just take it as luck that I’ve been able to put shit together in a coherent way.
5. Tell us about the most fun you have had in life?
5. I went to Puerto Rico with my wife for my 30th birthday, and spent some time walking across San Juan with no destination. Puerto Rico is beautiful and weird.
