There are times in your life when you meet someone and instantly feel a connection and fall into a report so natural that it feels like you've known each other all your life. I am lucky to have that with Robbie McCown. From the moment we first exchanged emails, it was clear we not only had a lot in common but our personalities fit together nicely. Although I'm sure he would deny it, he is kind, thoughtful and sweet, which is evident in graciously agreeing to be interviewed here.

BRIAN: First things first. This isn't some puff piece. This is serious investigative journalism, so be prepared for some hard hitting questions. Alright?

ROBBIE: (laughs) No problem. I'll answer as truthfully and candidly as possible.

BRIAN: So you are allergic to egg whites. What's that all about?

ROBBIE: Yes I am. I'm not sure why. All I remember is that I was in kindergarten one year and apparently they served all the kids eggs for some kind of breakfast. The next thing I know, my mother has been called because I was breaking out in hives.

BRIAN: But just the whites? Not the yolks?

ROBBIE: Not the yolks. In fact, I love deviled eggs, but generally pass the whites to someone who will eat them.
Strangely enough, even if I weren't allergic, I don't think I'd eat them. The smell of scrambled eggs makes me wanna... well, you know.

BRIAN: So, pound cake yes, but meringue no?

ROBBIE: It's all hit or miss. Sometimes cookies, cakes and pies are okay because there are so many ingredients that the egg white is pretty diluted. But French toast is a bad idea.

BRIAN: Mmmm.....French toast. When did you start your first journal? Was it online or paper?

ROBBIE: My first journal was on a spiral notebook, but I had difficulty sticking with it. That and no matter where I decided to hide it, there was always that chance someone would find it.

BRIAN: When did you first start writing online?

ROBBIE: September of 2001. I had read a few blogs/journals online and thought, "This is a great idea!" I didn't mind that anyone could read it, since I ultimately decided how much I wanted to reveal. And it wasn't tangible; I never had to worry about someone finding it in my room.

BRIAN: And was that More Teeth Than Wisdom (MTTW)?

ROBBIE: Yeah. It all started with MTTW which I eventually closed after roughly two years of posting. Then I took a bit of a break of posting, only to resurface with The New Pink.

BRIAN: What does "More Teeth Than Wisdom" mean?

ROBBIE: It was actually taken from a lyric found in Veda Hille's "One Hot Summer". "There is so much beauty that I don't believe in, but god knows my mouth holds more teeth than wisdom." I liked the double meaning.

BRIAN: Did you write differently in it compare to the spiral notebook?

ROBBIE: Definitely. I was probably more open and honest in my notebook than I am/was online. I'm still struggling with losing any reservations I have about being brutally honest in my blog. When I know someone is reading my words, I instantly feel judged. With a pen on paper, I felt pretty comfortable with my thoughts. I'm working on getting better.

BRIAN: You gained a certain amount of popularity with MTTW, didn't you?

ROBBIE: I wouldn't necessarily call it popularity. But I did find myself surrounded by an array of higher profile bloggers. I remember I had a conversation with one of them. We were comparing certain bloggers to television channels. One would be MTV because of his or her 'young and hip' writing style. One would be Lifetime due to their stories about women's issues, etc. When I tried to figure out which channel applied to me, I was told that I was most like PBS; low-profile, but quality programming all the way. That was probably a good analogy.

BRIAN: That's funny. So after two years, why did you shut down MTTW?

ROBBIE: I suppose I was just getting burned out. Not to sound dramatic, but I suddenly felt like I was writing for an audience rather than for myself and it was effecting my entire reason I started a journal in the first place. So I started posting less and less. I began changing the site constantly in terms of aesthetics, but I eventually closed the site entirely and took a break.

BRIAN: Which sucked for me because I had just discovered MTTW about two weeks before you shut it down.

ROBBIE: Yeah, sorry about that.

BRIAN: You are so funny for apologizing for that. What inspired you to start The New Pink?

ROBBIE: It had been a few months since I closed MTTW and I simply wanted to write again. So I started The New Pink. I figured enough time had gone by.

BRIAN: Is there a difference in the way you write or what you write about on The New Pink compared to MTTW?

ROBBIE: Not too much, I guess. There's definitely a slight maturity in The New Pink, only because that's to be expected. I write less about relationships in the new blog as I did in MTTW. I guess the biggest difference is my realization that I don't have to try to be funny or sarcastic in my posts to get someone to read them.

BRIAN: But you are naturally funny and sarcastic. Do you think that maybe you are holding back on The New Pink?

ROBBIE: Oh, I definitely am. And admittedly, it's all due to comfort zones. I think time is the only thing that will ultimately change that.

BRIAN: In addition to blogs, you've built fan sites for your favorite singers. How many have you made?

ROBBIE: Many. Some that never went online. I used to run "The Slick Divide" which was a fairly well-known Liz Phair fan-site. Then there were others, of course. I've made them for Heather Nova, Dido, Aimee Mann, etc. Soon, I'll have one for Sam Phillips online.

BRIAN: Hmmm...Sam Phillips, Aimee Mann, Liz Phair. Never heard of them.

ROBBIE: Yeah, right.

BRIAN: Obviously we bonded initially over our love of the same kinds of music. Did you ever feel like you just a big ol' lesbian for liking chick singers so much?

ROBBIE: Either that or a big ol' faggot. My friends used to constantly tease me about my musical interests.

BRIAN: Mine too. I had a friend who joked that I was a gay man, but somewhere inside the wiring was wrong. "You are supposed to like
Cher and Madonna, not the entire Lilith Fair line up." I sent someone my Amazon.com wish list and they said "You big
dyke!"

ROBBIE: Glad you brought that up. I seem to fit into some of the gay stereotypes, but I never understood the whole Cher/Madonna/Barbra/Judy Garland obsession.

BRIAN: Me either. I think stereotypes are ridiculous. I hate when people generalize others and don't look at them as individuals. We could bitch all day about society and the gay community, but let's talk about something more important — me.

ROBBIE: Okay.

BRIAN: I'm kidding. How many bloggers have you met?

ROBBIE: Roughly I'd say about ten.

BRIAN: Did any of them surprise you or seem completely different from how they wrote.

ROBBIE: Definitely. Which just goes to show that no matter how well you think you know someone based on how they write, you don't really know them.
BRIAN: Do you ever think it's weird that you and I are friends, but we've never met?

ROBBIE: I would have thought it weird if it were 10 years ago. But the Internet has changed the dynamics of relationships considerably. There are several people that I know only from the computer to whom I consider being some of the best people I've ever known, even though I've never officially met them. It's an amazing thing.

BRIAN: Good answer! It's time for the Final Four. Whom do you admire most? In what way does that person inspire you?

ROBBIE: I admire my mother a great deal. She's just an extraordinary person. She had an extremely rough childhood and could have taken so many disastrous paths in her life, but managed to become one of the most successful and caring people I know.

BRIAN: If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one ability or quality, what would it be?

ROBBIE: Telepathy. That way you could tell the liars from the sincere. You'd know who your true friends were.

BRIAN: For what in life do you feel most grateful?

ROBBIE: My talents and all the ways they seem to manifest themselves.

BRIAN: If you were guaranteed honest responses to any three questions, who would you question and what would you ask?

ROBBIE: Well, if there is a god, I would ask him why are we here? Where are we going? Why couldn't you have made me 6 feet tall?

BRIAN: (laughs) How tall are you?

ROBBIE: 5'9".

BRIAN: So do you feel like a wee little man?

ROBBIE: Only in height. (smiles)