Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

squeaks- I think so far you're the only one taking pictures... though I've
got a roll I'd really like to use up so maybe I'll bring it next time...
  

    
Maure--yeah, he was living in the Blue Line tunnels.  Apparently was
discovered to have some dangerous chemicals or viruses stashed down
there....

Are you going up to Evanston on Thursday?  I'll be there (laughs at
bogus shocked look on Neil's face), and I *think* Tara & Debbie will
be, too.

Whaddaya think, Uisgejack?

Mary (reading I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action-it's amazing)
  

    
Squeaks - My hair will be silver and shaggy until May 1st, I think...
and then it will get cut into what has been described as "short cute
boy cut" with bleached tips until it grows sufficiently to cut those
off as well.
This, of course, presupposes that i don't get cast in the new X-Men
movie as a young Magneto for flashback purposes.

I haven't taken any pictures *lately*, but I'll give you what I have
from the first couple of poker nights.

Tracey - Pardon my denseness.. but are you talking about Evanston as
the small town that you moved away from? 
(btw, for those confused by this sudden discussion of Evanston, check
out Mr. Scary Trousers(Gaiman)'s website at http://www.neilgaiman.com)

Dan, who wonders if his writing were compared to an instrument, what
instrument that would be... and if he has a style yet or if it's still
in flux.
  

    
Dan - I don't know. I think a young Magneto might have enjoyed the
occasional bleach-tipped hair style. An world domineering mastermind
must be fashionable after all. How else will his minions respect him?
:)

Neil - THRILLED to hear that you'll be in Evanston signing as my
girlfriend attends Northwestern University, so the library is probably
no more than a few blocks from her dorm. It's a very interesting little
town, apparently populated largely by older, wealthy women who are not
thrilled to have college troublemakers running around. Very pretty
building though.

Since I missed Aggiecon because I had to drive her to Austin to see
her brother, my gf will hopefully be more than happy to go to the
signing for me, with my copy of Sandman #50. She'll be the short black
girl with the beautiful smile, saucer eyes and a tendency to giggle
nervously.
  

    
spell check

previous post should be "pretty buildings". Wasn't meant to infer that
Evanston has one single, serviceable building.:)
  

    
Michelle,  so glad I made some sense to someone! I buy hardcover books
a lot without prior reviews, which works out to my advantage
surprisingly often, and doesn't work out as much as I'd like, ideally.
I have a terrible habit of ignoring advice and recommendations, and
then regretting it later when I realize how right the tipsters were. In
the meantime, I spend money on books I've never heard of because I
like the synopsis or the cover or the quotation on the title page, all
of which can be really really misleading. Then I berate myself when
I've bought a terrible book and have to siphon funds from other
much-needed things (like music, and travelling (or rent, school, or
food)) to buy a book I want from an author I trust. I'm a victim of
advertising - good cover art can sucker me in every time.

Jinx,  what's going on? You ok?

Mary,  I hadn't heard of that. That's really weird. Possibly, I'll zip
up to Evanston on Thursday. I don't know how likely it is that I'll
get there in time to get anything signed, though. Rush hour has just
been killing me lately. It's either getting worse, or I'm getting more
impatient.

Neil,  I gave Quinton the books you signed to him (who, like the boy
in your blog, is also 11). He asked me a zillion detailed questions
about Stardust, wanted to know if Neverwhere was set in Canada (you'd
written "Mind the Gap" - I guess where he used to live, the subway
stations say the same thing), and asked me how long he had until he had
to return the books to me. When I pointed out where you had written
his name, he bounced up and down for the rest of the day. His mother
told me today that those books are all he's been talking about for the
past two days, and he hasn't even started them yet. (He's finishing A
Wrinkle in Time first). I think I'm a hero because of you.
  

    
Dan,....lived right outside Evanston as a kid, my mom taught there for
a semester or two.

Jinx who really did think it was cute 
  

    
Maure -- if you need to convince your inner accountant, just point out
to her that it'll all go on baby food and diapers right now.

Miss Mousey Michelle -- well, Lisa seems to be adding on the Clark
slowly.

Lenny -- it was good seeing you too. Steve says that, like Zelazny, I
write in 2/4. One day I have to write a story in waltz time, I guess.

Tree -- Dianna is very wonderful, isn't she? I met her and Mark very
briefly in Hobart the last time I was downunder, and we've stayed in
touch since. (She's a much better correspondent than I am. And should
get a Well account.)

Dan -- don't rush the Lafferty. He's a sipping scotch, not a chugging
beer.

Mary -- you know, somewhere on the Well is the equivalent of The
Blindfold Test with prose -- someone posts a quote and other people
have to identify. Is fun.

La belle dame sans sqeaks -- Well, he's been Bob for me since he
bought Roger's BEOWULF script, back in 1997, so I'd forgotten that he's
Robert in real life. It's like Chip Delany -- for years, he was Samuel
R. in my head, and then I met him...

Tracey -- you'd probably be somewhere else by now anyway, he said
reassuringly.

Shawn -- tell her to practice saying "I'm a friend of Shawn-from the
Well..."

Mary -- yer a hero anyway.
  

    
Maure - I tend to do the same thing, with books and particularly with
DVDs. I like to think that a movie has to be a blaspheme to film in
general in order for me to not enjoy it on some level. I'm pretty
forgiving with most. But I have this compulsion to buy DVDs of movies I
haven't seen that are sitting over in the $9 discount bin without
asking myself why it is where it is. I've burned myself several times
doing this, but I keep at it because I convince myself that I'm going
to find a little hidden gem of a movie for $9 and the Best Buy people
will make me king connoisseur of DVD bargain hunting, maybe holding a
parade in my honor. Some far this has failed to happen and all I have
to show for it are copies of Way Of The Gun and Messenger: Joan Of Ark.
Ugh...
  

    
Shawn,  I do the same thing! Damn those seductive "Under $10" advert
signs!!
  

    
Jinxy,  I'm a moron. I didn't put your post into context at all, and
it reads very morbidly to me. I get it now (a week later . . .)
  

    
Shawn, so I haven't seen The Messenger, but I'm guessing you found it
to be a clunker?  Poor Joan, always getting the shaft...
I have the same problem with DVDs.  Luckily my last winner in this
area turned out to be Donnie Darko.  GOOD LORD, what an unexpectedly
wonderful film.   

Maure, I love hearing about your students.  Quinton (seriously his
name?) seems adorable.  
  

    
Adrianna, yes, seriously Quinton, who is seriously the most
fascinating child I've ever known. He writes stories that are complex
and full and delightful, and he's only in 5th grade. He's loopy - has
some issues, but is extremely bright. The first day he was here, he
told me this school was a children's hell. His words. It was
hysterical. I have a boatload of Quinton stories. His mother is
wonderful; I have the best time discussing things with her, and she's
very enthusiastic about the books I lend him (she likes to read them
too). I will miss this class so much after this year - they're so
funny. I've never been so happy working, and can't imagine being
happier in any job. So I think I'm quitting after this year, to finish
my schooling so I can be a full-time classroom teacher.
  

    
Adriana - The Messenger was, um, odd. I was very excited about it
because I LOVE Luc Besson, but it turned out to be a kind of Luc Besson
by way of Terrence Malick. Lots of daydreams and flashbacks without
much substance. Milla Jovavich actually has a few flashes of brilliance
but then it just goes away and she starts screaming a lot. 

I can't wait to see Donnie Darko though. It sounds disturbing and
violent and all the good things a movie should be. :)
  

    
Lenny - you didn't see anybody else from this list? Not even while you were
sitting next to me in the music party?

The thing I am most bummed about was missing Neil interviewing Rick Berry.
Not the only thing, but the most.

Elise,
who got up the courage this weekend to play her electric bass in public and
everything, for the first time, and all that. And lived through it. (Emma
has offically designated it my midlife crisis, and suggests that I get a
bright and sparkly guitar, which I am strongly considering, though I am fond
of my punk-rock second-hand bass.)

P.S. Neil, did you get the trinkets from Iceland?  Do you like the card with
the troll and the puffins? I had to get an extra copy for myself, because it
was just... endearing in a great big hulking sweet troll sort of way. With
puffins on top.

P.P.S. Have you ever tasted Brennevin before?
  

    

Elise, I think you must get a metal flake candy apple red bass to fully 
celebrate your mid-life crisis, then get a Cadillac to match.  While 
you're at it, your hair should be metal flake candy apple red to complete 
the ensemble.  I'd pay to come to Minnesota to see that.
  

    
E-mail from Kathy Li:

Neil, re: blog.  Omigod.  You got to have ice cream with Jerry 
Juhl?!  [celebratory dancing].  That's *so* cool.  I remember my sole 
consolation when Jim Henson died was that we still had Jerry 
Juhl.  Man.  For some reason this weekend, I was watching a bunch of 
FRAGGLE ROCK episodes, and I remembered an interview with Juhl where he 
said that the remarkable thing about Jim Henson was that he could gather 
everybody into a room and say "Let's make a show that will bring about 
world peace."  And that you'd reply, "Ok."  But what's always gotten me 
slack-jawed is that after that Juhl rolled up his sleeves and actually wrote it.
  

    <scribbled by dfowlkes Tue 3 Jul 12 10:14>
  

    
Ooohh... is Fraggle Rock available on video or DVD somewhere? I was
talking about it with my friends the other day and I realized I haven't
seen a single episode since its original run :( New task for me.
  

    
Tracey-Jinx – Evanston is very cute, a really lovely area. I directed
my first full length play there... actually, it was the first full
length play I had written at the time. By and large a good experience.
A church-based theatre group put it on... not terribly stunning
attendance (but what do you expect from a small church theatre group
with a totally unknown author?) but very happy audiences.

Neil – I just started Lafferty's short story collection "Nine Hundred
Grandmothers.".. and I'm sipping the scotch... I must say though, that
so far I don't find him as whacked and weird as I've been led to
expect. I keep reminding myself, though, that he wrote before you and
Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett and Jonathan Carroll and all the
other people I love to read who do odd and unusual story twists...

Maure - We need more enthusiastic and passionate teachers. Yay you!

Elise - you played in public! Yay you!

Dan, who was delighted that some people who have seen him on stage
numerous times didn't at first recognize him as Einstein last night...
  

    
Dan, after  "Nine Hundred Grandmothers" try "Arrive at Easterwine" so you
can ponder how The WELL or even just Neil Gaiman's Goldfish Swapmeet are 
like Epict, a most unusual machine.
  

    
Dan -- ah, but 900 Grandmothers -- and the Strange Doings collection
-- (and the first three novels Reefs of Earth, Space Chantey and Past
Master) are only a stone's throw from normality, and a good place to
start.  It gets more and more eccentric the further it goes.

Kathy -- he was SO cool. He twinkled. 

Elise -- I did! Mike gave me the stuff and I came looking for you to
say thank you but you were on a panel or something, so I took Mike off
and fed him sushi instead (along with many others).  have not yet
tasted the contents of the little bottle...
  

    
Dan,  heehee, thanks. We need more passionate and enthusiastic
students as well. Sometimes I think maybe whatever the first video game
was is the worst invention of the 20th century - although I admit I
was a Pitfall fanatic on Atari . . .

Neil,  re: your blogger request:  I have a 1992 issue of the Comics
Journal, with a McFarlane interview. I don't know whether or not it'd
be any good to you - it's fairly incomprehensible, really. But he talks
about why he left marvel, and how he thinks Jack Kirby should have
been treated in payment for his created characters. I'm trying to skim
it now, but there aren't a lot of completed thoughts, so skimming is
difficult. I hope your information gathering is going well so far. 
  

    
Dear god, Neil! There's a teacher at our school who has been playing
the recording of those kids singing - the langley thing - non-stop
since Christmas. It's really really weird, and sometimes really really
bad. I had no idea anyone outside of the people in our hallway even
knew it existed. I don't know whether I should be frightened and
confused or just amused.
  

    
Maure -- well, I'd try for a mixture. There are some very strange
moments in it...