Name: Brandon Bonine
Major: Biology
Minor: Writing
Hometown: Howell, MI
Hobbies: Writing, reading, camping, backpacking, hiking, and anything to do with music.
Favorite song (at the moment): “Frail Snail” by Justin Vernon
Favorite movie: Either Drive or Cold Mountain
Favorite Book: Tinkers, by Paul Harding
Horoscope: Aquarius
Celeb crush (at the moment): Gwyneth Paltrow (“Chris Martin, trade me places!”)
Her Campus: What is your dream job?
Brandon Bonine: Musician, there is so much energy, communication, and emotion that goes on in music, I would love to be apart of it. Just the way certain notes, lyrics, and melodies come together to evoke emotions is insane. Over the summer I saw Mumford and Sons at Lollapalooza, and as soon as they kicked off their set into “Babel” the crowd just erupted into this morphing and pulsating being, and within five or six songs they covered Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” and everything changed, there was this docile ripple of a wave that moved across the audience, bringing everyone at ease. Same thing with Bon Iver’s “Holocene”, no matter what’s going in my life; whether it be classes, or friend shit, this song always brings everything back down to Earth, I’m still alive, still breathing, and I will be tomorrow. Everything’s going to be alright. This intense sense of energy and emotion that music holds intertwined within it’s DNA is what pulls me into it, and can either have me on an emotional high, or crying my eyes out.
HC: What is your dream vacation?
BB: Backpacking from England to Australia. Obviously with boats where necessary. But I would want to be off the beaten path, I feel like the modern day idea of resorts and tourist traps sort of “singles-out” or idealizes what is beautiful about a particular place or city. With this view of sticking to what is supposed to be typical sightseeing landmarks…so much beauty and wonder is lost. It would be like going to France to only see the Eiffel Tower, but what exists two, three, four blocks off? That’s what I want to find.
HC: What is your ideal date?
BB: Anything outdoors, in any season. Canoeing, picnicking, hiking, or just lying in the grass and reading a book, it’s all fair game.
HC: What is the first thing you notice about a girl?
BB: Physically, their eyes. Just glancing around a room, I’ll make eye contact with someone, get lost in their eyes, and then have to come back to my senses because I realize how awkward I probably look. Personality wise—their sense of humor. I love laughing and I love making other people laugh, I really love it when I meet someone and in the first day, we can have each other laughing for hours.
HC: What’s the biggest turn off in a girl?
BB: Being judgmental. Everyone has their own story, their own problems, and their own things that set them off or make them happy. It’s annoying when a girl just draws conclusions based on how someone acts or looks based on meeting them for the first time. I mean, just don’t judge a book by its cover, it’s pretty easy. Don’t just assume that every homeless person on the street corner is a nothing-good-about-them panhandler, or that the “bad” driver two lanes over has no idea how to drive. You don’t know what their story is, or how they got where they are.
HC: Brunette, or blonde?
BB: Both, there is so much beauty in each and every woman that walks around, I don’t feel it’s possible to subject myself to favoring one woman or another simply based on their hair color. My prior track record would probably put me in the brunette category, but it’s all by coincidence.