Jorge Cortez

Favorite book—now and when you were a kid?
I used to collect Goosebumps books like they were Pokémon cards. Today, my favorite book is probably Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.

First album or single you ever owned—how old were you, and what was the appeal?
I distinctly remember begging my parents to buy me The Slim Shady LP by Eminem. My mom realized her mistake roughly three tracks in.

Who would you invite, dead or alive, to your fantasy dinner party?
Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo, Rasputin, Diogenes the Cynic, Howard Hughes, Emperor Caligula, Nikola Tesla, and Hunter S. Thompson. Just pure chaos and eccentricity, where the goal isn’t harmony but spectacle and possibly a historical incident.

If you could learn anything instantly by downloading it into your brain Matrix-style, what would it be?
Easy: every language to ever exist. Mostly so I could eavesdrop on literally everyone.