Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Neil-- re: Gravity's Rainbow. I thought that by providing annotation
(title, author, page)I'd be in the clear.
  

    
Len -- cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of fair use... 

I don't think that providing annotation lets you off the hook, from a
copyright point of view. Any Well people want to jump in?

And a hasty google search provided one of my favorite poems/comments
on the subject - here of poems, but it applies to a lot of stuff -- by
Wendy Cope (my favorite living poet).

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/minstrel/archive/1997/1132.html
  

    

Len's was a long enough post that it should probably be hidden, if nothing
else. I think it is a bit large for fair use, but I Am Not a Lawyer, nor a
conf host.
  

    
Ok, consider it scribbled, and my apologies to all concerned,
including Mr. Pynchon, if he's out there.  And not only do I stand
corrected but I got to read a cool poem too.
  

    

From the Cambridge Dictionaries Online:

humbug (SWEET) noun [C] BRITISH 
a hard sweet made of boiled sugar and tasting of mint, usually with strips
of two different colours on the outside 
mint humbugs
  

    
 Len~ I just had a mexican (I think) beer last night that have
chocolate in it and after 2 it tasted like drinkin a hot fudge
chocolate ice cream dish.

Mimi- ie: Shoujo Kakumei Utena, I've seen the bootlegs and the
Americanized versions are nowhere near as good. Isn't it by the same
people that created Sailor Moon? I just got a friend into Card Captors,
he'd seen the Fox tv series, but really enjoys the eps. I have on
tape.

Neil, I think it was the Florida con, and then I saw you a few months
later withe the broken ankle. 
I was catching up on my comics reading tonight, and a question occured
to me, I don't think you've been asked this anywhere I've seen. What
do you think about Warren Ellis' appearance in Powers as himself? 

Jinx who got the nickname then the repercusions
  

    
        Neil, I'm surprised to learn of the word anorectic.  I believe you,
it's just I'd always seen anorexic, which is apparently also a word. 
I'll be damned.
        And incidentally, I very much enjoy Wine Gums.  I do, however, have
the decent to be embarrassed about it. :-)
  

    
Jinx -- er, dunno. Why, is this something I should have an opinion
about?

Streak -- always a pleasure to add to the world's store of words.

Linda - now you need to find out what bullseyes tastes like.
  

    
Daniel--Didn't mind the banner ad personaly, so don't worry bout it. 
No problem here with a little nudity every now and then.

So, I just finished reading a lovely "Chick Tract" (those Christian
comic booklets that people leave all over the place.)  This one is
called "Doom Town, The Story of Sodom" A few of these are left
regularly for the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Alliance group I go
to at school.  I seriously can not imagine someone reading this and
being influenced in any way by it, but it can be pretty good for
laughs.  My favorite line: "I became a modern day Sodomite because my
teachers said it was a harmless alternate lifestyle.  They lied through
their teeth, so now I'm doomed to hell!!"  And I love how they used a
bible passage on beastiality to condemn homosexuality...you know how
that's the same thing and all.  :)  
  

    
Neil - Lucky!! *hearts* Now I'm *really really* jealous.

Linda - *those* are called humbugs? Never knew. Thanks!

Angelina - That *is* a good line. *sigh*

Jinx, and anybody interested - Not surprised that the fansubs are
better... there *are* a couple groups who do really good subs to the
point that it's better than any commercial release. And last I heard,
the commercial release got stuck at ep 12 and hasn't come out with more
episodes. Have you seen through all 39 yet? *trauma!*

Ikuhara directed some episodes of the Sailor Moon anime but he wasn't
the only director. He did set some of the tone/direction that the SM
anime took, and technically, yes there are artistic staff, script
writers etc. who had worked on both SM and Utena... but my peev about
the 'From the creators of Sailor Moon!' on the American Utena release
is the story of the SM anime was based on the manga, which Takeuchi
Naoko wrote, while the story and ideas for Utena came from Ikuhara and
the 4-person (including Ikuhara) group, 'Be Papas'. So, I call that
false advertising. Rarr.

And Card Captor Sakura? I do remember hearing that it might air in the
States... how's the dubbing? ^_^ The manga's even better, imo. Created
by Clamp, a group 4 of women who are just, well, insane. They do
manga, and then their stuff gets animated... Rayearth, Tokyo Babylon, X
are probably better know in the US... they teeter between warm and
happy and blood and trauma, depending on the series. ^_^;

Now back to your normal broadcasting.

-- Mimi, anime freak ^_^;
  

    
.... speaking of which (or not), how's the book tour planning going?
When do things get finalized and a schedule is out?

-- Mimi
  

    
Angelina - Chick has a website, www.chick.com  It's really funny until
you realize "waitaminute, people _listen_ to this guy."  (I've met a
couple)  I love his one about the evils of halloween called The Trick. 
Those silly satan worshipping druids.  

Jen
  

    
Email from Tuomas Masalin:

Sorry for replying so late, but I just found this place...

Re: flyin-- doesnt anyone fear that after the first flight you would spend
some time being poked at in a military lab? And a guy who installs
cellular stuff in high places says that people dont have vertigo in
heights over 50 meters, and thats why its so cool in CN-Tower and the
likes -- so that wouldnt be a problem.

KEBAB is the real turkish word, others are just americanisations -- if you
were talking about the oriental sheepsnack.

And now also the Academic Bookstore in Helsinki has ordered American Gods,
so theres demand from outside the US too.
  

    
Do people who aren't already crazy fundamentalists listen to the Chick
tracts? I can't imagine that tehy actually convince anybody, though they're
awfully funny and I sent e-mail to questions@chick.com telling them so.
  

    
Mimi -- I thinkt he moment there's a schedule it'll be up on
americangods.com (I put a big blogger entry up today in the journal).

Angelina -- I got a great book at Dreamhaven books
(www.dreamhavenbooks.com)on Jack Chick tracts and the philosophy and
worldview behind Chick stuff, and a checklist of all Chick tracts
issued. It's a wonderful skewed view of theology, in which babylonian
baby-murdering is really still going on in full view of the world in
the catholic church today, and so forth. If anyone's interested, drop
dreamhaven a line and see if they have any copies left.

Tuomas -- oh good. I've left it at kebab in the UK version and kabob
in the US one.

...

I saw on the Dreamhaven site that they are now advertising Play Each
Morning, Wild Queen, the new Flash Girls album, for sale when it comes
out. Please order one and make my assistant happy. And rich. I'm not
making it up. Look:

Forthcoming in June (maybe sooner):
The Flash Girls - Play Each Morning, Wild Queen CD (2001) Emma Bull
and the Fabulous Lorraine present us with 13 new songs, including some
written by Neil Gaiman. Performers on the CD include Steven Brust, Todd
Menton, Lojo Russo, and Adam Stemple and Robin Anders of Boiled in
Lead. Cover art by Michael Zulli. And, according to Lorraine, "The CD
has both a backwards message and a volcano, as all the best ones do."
$15.00 
  

    
oops. That's www.dreamhavenbooks.com of course.
  

    
Neil, It was an interesting read, but I was just wondering what you'd
thought of the reality mixing with the comic aspect. I enjoyed it but
it smelled strongly of a marketing ploy. Especially when it wasn't
needed as the book itself is a very strong read.
And lastly Margret will be so pleased,....:running to mail her, dig
out the credit card and trying not to trip over her own feet:


Mimi, I am a strong believer that a fan sub will be an americanized
comercial release every time. I think that I've seen all the eps, but
then again I'm sure I've seen a lot of things and always surprized when
I do.
I do tend to favor older anime titles, like "Ghost in the Shell", and
"Armitage"

Jinx who is back to her *right* name now
  

    
Jinx -- I've not read it. I don't think there's anything very new
about the idea though -- who can forget the 1970s Flash where Cary
Bates goes to Central City? Or the Animal Man in which he goes to meet
Grant Morrison? 

Dave Mckean put me in Violent Cases as the narrator (and made Mike me
as a small boy), which I found unsettling at the time, but now just
look at and marvel at how young I was, and how well-drawn. 

And then there were those people who put me in their comic with some
sexy vampire or something... forgotten the name of it now. for some
reason they live in my head alongside the woman who goes around
claiming to have modelled for all the Death covers (who Dave McKean has
never met or heard of)and goes and does signings claiming to be the
real Death.
  

    
"who can forget the 1970s Flash where Cary
Bates goes to Central City? Or the Animal Man in which he goes to meet
Grant Morrison?"

Er that's Animal Man who went to see Grant Morrison. Not Cary Bates.
  

    

Well, Mirriam Webster was no help at all:

Main Entry: bull's-eye
Pronunciation: 'bul-"zI also 'b&l-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural bull's-eyes
Date: 1825

1 : a very hard globular candy

And the Cambridge dictionary declined to weigh in at all on the subject.

What's fascinating to me is that this is the first, and therefore most
common definition.  (Isn't that what the first entry means?)

The second definition is:

2 : a circular piece of glass with a lump in the middle formed at the end
of a glassblower's pipe

and we *still* have not arrived at what I always thought it meant:

3 a : the center of a target; also : something central or crucial b : a
shot that hits the bull's-eye; broadly : something that precisely attains
a desired end

The perfectionist who lives inside me and nags me all the time insists
that I also list the last definition:

4 : a simple lens of short focal distance; also : a lantern with such a
lens 
  

    
Email from Margret:

Re: Flash Girls...You're right Jinx, I have been waiting for this since
Neil mentioned it at ConCat.  Good thing I wasn't holding my breath.  I
don't look good in blue.  I was really bummed that I missed seeing them at
Convergence.  I was listening to Maurice and I just this morning, and even
considered sending an email to find out about the new one.  I guess I have
my answer!  Thanks!  Now I just have to figure out how to get a copy of
their first album.  Any chance of a reissue?

Margret
  

    
Margret -- they don't want to bring out the first album per se, as
there are too many bits on it that make them wince. When last I heard
they were thinking of taking the album and rerecording the wincemaking
bits, and reissuing it as "the Return of the return of Pansy Smith and
Violet Jones". Not sure how far along they are on this path...  But
they are planning to spend some time this summer recording a new album
in Robin Anders' studio, and they might well do it then.

Linda -- well done. But we still don't know what they taste like...
  

    
Only six days until it's only a hundred days until publication.  You
learn things like that from having a countdown on the americangods.com
website. 

Also watched in amazement last night as the novel clambered up to
about 1,000 on the Amazon.com bestseller list (I went on to get some
Twinpalms press books -- ParkeHarrison's The Architect's Brother, which
reminded me, from the pictures I've seen so far, of Dave Mckean's
BLACK AND WHITE LIES, and the Henry Darger book, and  a few others, and
went and looked).

Is there anything out there that explains how the Amazon ranking
system works? (As the book went from 8,000 to 1,000 I had to remind
myself that that was probably four or five people buying the book at
most... But it sounds good.)
  

    

I found this URL containing an analysis of the ranking system from a
similar discussion over in the news conference:

http://www.fonerbooks.com/surfing.htm
  

    
        Congrats on the ranking, Neil.  What's the highest they've ever had
for a book that's not yet come out, I wonder?  Probably the most recent
Harry Potter volume.