Julia Doctoroff is a junior creative writing major, as well as the department’s rep. She has worked for the Cat in the Cream for three years, conducts interviews for The Grape and has recently started a band with her editors. In this week’s Off the Cuff, she sat down with the Review to talk about the musical life, the writing life...and laminating.

Julia, although you normally conduct interviews and write for The Grape, you asked to be interviewed for Off the Cuff. What compelled you to switch into the interviewee’s seat, and for The Grape’s rival paper?
I like promoting myself; I like seeing my picture in the papers. I was in the Review twice [last] week, so this week I’ll have a feature about me. I was interviewed for the [Review’s] creative writing article and for the article about the Main Street reading series. I’ve noticed that you’ve interviewed some students for Off the Cuff and I think I’m just as legitimate as those people. Me and my editors [fifth-years] Walker Evans and Joe Kimmel [for the commentary section of The Grape] like to be represented in the Review...in Off the Cuff and letters to the editor.

As an employee of the Cat in the Cream, you are very involved with musical events on campus. What has been the most exciting musical event in your career at the Cat?
The second time I saw the Jug Band, before I was working there. [Junior] Benji Whatley, who was also not working at the Cat at the time [but is now], put me on his shoulders. I really liked the Jug Band when they were here. Everyone would dance a lot at those shows, but there doesn’t seem to be as much dancing anymore.

The most exciting non-musical event?
I guess I would say two things. This year [sophomore] Lena Dunham has been arranging readings where people like myself can perform and it’s given a lot of people an opportunity to read their poetry. The other thing I liked this year — it was sort of musical but sort of not — was the Tranny Road Show. It was put on by a number of organizations. It was several trans artists, and it was so neat because sometimes you feel like the crowd is humoring the performer, but this time the crowd was really with the performer. There were a lot of different issues, and the performers were really gracious and really nice to the staff of the show.

What is it like writing for The Grape?
Writing for The Grape has been one of the best things I’ve done this year. I’ve mainly done interviews because I really like writing down people’s actual dialogue. I haven’t really interacted with that many people on the staff besides Walker [Evans] and Joe [Kimmel], but they’ve been very supportive of my physics column with [senior] Mark Stockett. We’ve also started a band, and it’s a band that The Grape helped to form. It’s called 8 Seconds of Simulation, and it has a non-Grape person in it. His name is [junior] Wes John-Alder.

Julia, you are constantly trying new things. What have been your most recent endeavors?
I’ve been very passionate about two new office things I have discovered, one being laminating. I like to laminate postcards, pieces of paper, and photos and collages and envelopes. Next year I plan to have a laminated art gallery in my room. My second hobby began when my two wonderful housemates for next year, [juniors] Rubu [Robyn] Dahl and Mary Elizabeth Grace Critchlow went to CVS and got me a label maker that has various colors that you can use, so I’ve been labeling everything. I have one more passion, which is instant oatmeal, which I eat every day.

You are the creative writing department rep. Can you create a spontaneous poem describing the department?
Creative Writing Haiku:Talking about wordsaround a table in RiceI watch snow falling.

How do you perceive that your newfound fame from being the subject of Off the Cuff will affect your immediate future?
Well, I was Obie on the Street this year, also at my request, and that didn’t really change my life too much other than me telling people I was in the Review. I think probably people that don’t know me might be interested in meeting me, because from my interview they can probably tell I’m a truly remarkable person.