Interview With Marc Siry
By Pete Moss
May 15, 2001
Marc Siry, they broke the mold. Marc is young, handsome, suave and rides a red Suzuki SV 650 with admirable style and presence. He's married to drop-dead beautiful young Japanese-American woman named Judy and they are the center of an amazing web of friends. Marc has a dream job as the Creative Director of the Fox Family Interactive Group and works out of a corner office in a gorgeous glassbox office tower in Westwood, LA. You all know you wish you was Marc, but thanks to Pete Moss you get the next best thing: an interview.Marc: Life seems so much better when you're summarized!
Pete: Cartoon violence, does it matter? Marc: No. You learn how to deal with people from your parents- at least I did, I make their mistakes every day. I watched an unhealthy amount of cartoons growing up and I've never dropped an anvil on anyone. Now, the kids of compulsive cartoon watchers- they're probably screwed. Maybe there's a delayed generational reaction which is making it difficult to draw a clear-cut conclusion on the media violence thing? Pete: Geraldine Laybourne, Moron or Genius?
Marc: Suspecting I'd be revealing my dreadful ignorance of 18th century poets with my answer, I did a search on the Internet in order to scrounge some facts for my reply. Turns out she's a programming exec very much like my boss at Fox. As I don't know much about her nor Oxygen Media, since they inhabit a space diametrically opposed to my company's (older women vs. young boys), I'm unqualified to comment with any authority. However, since this is America, I'll make a snap yet middle-of-the-road judgment and say that while the press puff pieces make her out to be a ditz with a title, it's my experience that you need some sort of animal cunning- or, failing that, blind monomania- to climb the corporate ladder.
Pete: Hanna Barbera or Loony Tunes?Marc: Hanna Barbera saved cartoons on TV by pioneering all sorts of economical techniques for animation production (which is why Fred Flintstone always drives by the same rock and tree repeatedly). Unfortunately, their work showed it all to well - even as an eight year old I knew Warner Brother's cartoons were far superior in writing an animation quality. That's not to say that the WB didn't turn out their own brand of dreck at one point, especially when Chuck Jones grew into his shmaltzy phase. Bugs was better as a streetwise Brooklyn bunny than a bemused pacifist.
Pete: Is the net going to come roaring back in a year or so? Marc: The net will never be the same sort of fad that was inflicted upon us by the hypemeisters in '99. Really, was the idea of buying online so compelling that all users of garden implements would stop going to Home Depot for their rakes? I'm sure all sorts of stupid businesses popped up and died around every whiz-bang tech advance- school by telephone, for instance. Instead, we'll see the net slowly infiltrate more of our daily life, without the accompanying hysteria that led to the incredibly stupid excesses of last year (see: eToys masoleum on Olympic (Ave in LA)). It's already happening in the corporate world: net divisions that were spun out in hopes of a big IPO payoff are being gutted and reeled back in to the mothership (Happened to us). Right now, we're another department, like Accounting or Human Resources; within a couple of years, even that distinction will be gone- it will just be a job description. Luckily, you didn't ask a broad enough question to trigger my rant about how the browser is the worst thing about the internet. Pete: Tennis or ping-pong? Marc: Ping pong- cheaper equipment. Pete: Can you see yourself playing golf any time soon? Marc: I played golf once as part of a bachelor party. I hit the ball twice and gave up at the futility of it all. It's one of those contrived activities that serves as social glue between guys who can't relate outside of sports. I'd rather not talk to those people, let alone spend four hours hanging out with them-- AND paying a shitload for the privilege! Pete: Statehood for Puerto Rico? Marc: Puerto Ricans have it good, IMO. US Citizens, no Fed taxes, we pretty much leave em alone (aside from bombing some potential Club Med property), a stable currency without having to trade American dollars on the sly. However, they are a distinct culture, and that doesn't fly so well in modern America (Hawaii got away with it due to the utter eradication of the natives). Cynics would say they already have a state- New York City. Pete: What would you name your firstborn son?Marc: I've always been partial to Thor on the theory that you grow into your name.