Robert Kravolec

Birthday: Feb 22, 1986 (Pisces)

Major: magazine journalism

Class: senior

Home: Sonoma, California

Before Drake: spent 2 years in France working at a bookstore, traveling, swimming, and drinking wine

Plans after graduation: to write a fictional novel in Minnesota

Title at Drake: Editor-in-Chief of Periphery

Tidbits:
-fluent in French and speaks a little Italian
-read five books this past week
-carries small beige and black Moleskine notebooks everywhere he goes. “The black ones have deeper, more honest thoughts.”

Favorite place to be: Paris Metro in France. “You get to see people at their worst and their best. You’re always shoved up against someone and they always smell- good or bad. Maybe it’s a pretty girl or maybe it’s a homeless man with knives in his pockets.”

Why you should suck up to him:
-He can teach you to salsa dance.
-He learned to cook from his dad, who is a French chef. “I love to cook.”

What he does for fun: reading, writing, playing blues harmonica, going to blues and jazz concerts, and people watching

Favorite book: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Family member he is closest with: black mutt named Jacques

Passion: typewriters- he owns over 30. “When I sit down to write on a typewriter I feel like I’ve picked up where I left off,” Robert said. “I feel like I’m home.”

If he could change something about himself: “I would have fists like Rocky Balboa,” Robert laughs. “But really, I would like to take the carpal tunnel out of my wrists.” (which he got from typewriting)

If he could change something about Drake: “I would have them fly in seafood. I would have a personal jet filled with fish.”

If he could change one thing about the world: “I would tone down technology. I wouldn’t make it obsolete, but I would definitely tone it down.”

Ultimate goal in life: “I want to feel like I have just eaten a good meal and I’m read to go to sleep.”

Where to find him: Half Price Books (Clive, Ia), Django (a French restaurant in Des Moines), or writing or sleeping in the chairs in Cowles Library

What gets his attention: “Mannerisms- how a person holds their spoon or pen. If it’s something different than what I’ve seen before it can be attractive, whether it’s something said or done physically.”

Looking for: a road bike and, of course, typewriters