Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Thank you, Michelle!

And Mandy Patankin is of course faboo.  Loved him in "Sunday in the Park".
  

    
Len--Well, I produced/directed and was Maureen in the first concert
version of Rent.  When Jonathan Larson passed away, his family asked me
to join them as an archivist to his estate.  He left behind a great
deal of wonderful music and scripts, and I have spent the last four
years trying to get them into some sort of working order.  It remains
to be seen what will be done with them.  Two months ago I finally left
the job to continue my acting career in L.A. on a sitcom that got
cancelled when I got here.  *sigh* Yay for me.  You gotta love this
business.  

I'm thinking my Man, Oh Mandy idea is a hit.  It'll be funny to me and
maybe 10 other people, 5 of which are on the Well.  I like those
odds...
  

    
Adriana-- coool... I knew good people gravitated to the Well.  Man oh
Mandy _would_ be good; we'd be at the premier.

So are you associated with the upcoming staging of Tick Tick Boom?
  

    
Michelle - Hey, the mouse haiku was quickie haiku, but it was better
(admit it) than the weird lyrics Donnel from The SM Dept. came up with
when I told him about you chasing baby mice. As for the dragon slaying,
I said 'occasional'...

I'm feeling moderately better for someone on antibiotics,
expectorants, and yummy sick-flavored Robitussin with Codine.

Neil - That Do and Don't list is bound to be helpful... but I'll leave
the ferrett at home. Might bring the frogs, though.

-- Trev / Walker--

PS: Mandy Patinkin was in 'Sunday in the Park with George' ? Well I'll
be...
  

    
Of course.  He played George.  (Both of them.)
  

    
He was amaaaaazing in that show.
  

    
adrianna - i have a weird question that you may not have any answer
to.  i was just wonder if larson or his family was aware that his case
over rent's copyright one of the very famous copyright cases that
everyone learns about in a copyright or intellectual property case.  i
only ask because that case happened to come up in one of my seminars
this week, and we began to wonder if the actual people in these cases
every realize the fame that their cases later achieve (at least, fame
in certain law school courses).  anway, just curious (and sorry to hear
about the cancelled sitcom).

angelina - yikes.  stay safe!

neil - congrats on mike's choice to go to dc.  it's a great city and
i'm sure it will be a good experience for him.  i second the question
about whether you're flying between book signings.  when we talked in
LA, you had said you were going to try to insist on trains for your
next signing tour.  just curious.
  

    
Martha - You're welcome. :)

Adriana - I'll be in the front row with Len. hee hee...

Walker - ... a monkey's uncle? :P Um, yes, the haiku was a little
better. Sort of.

Off to build a better mouse-... cage... one that the little brats
won't be able to squish out of this time!

squeaks, who hopes she can find them all now...
  

    
Let’s see – I may be missing a few but if I’ve not answered your
question, remind me.

822 – Robynne; one reason I hope that Henry Selick’s CORALINE happens
is I want to play with the toy of the Other Mother. 

823 – Reg – you were right, on the French. I was trying to paraphrase
Patrick’s e-mail without using the word Wednesday.

830 – Len. Yes, crumbulae. I have no idea what they are, of course.

831 – Mary – the prologue of Sweeney Todd was written and drawn (and
published). The rest of it was planned.

832 – JaNell - we’ll see how some of these two signings on one day
work out.

836 - JaNell – “Do you find yourself isolated from "the real world"
because you cannot possibly interact with each person (fan) as an
individual?” 

Not that I’ve ever noticed. The real world carries on. Groceries need
to be bought, cat-boxes cleaned, gardens planted and so on. At a
reading I don’t get to interact with each person in the audience as an
individual, just as I don’t get to interact with every one of hundreds
of thousands of readers as an individual. But signings seem to give
most people whatever it is they wanted from a signing, unless they were
hoping to take me out afterward for dinner or a drink.

“Do you feel comfortable just shooting the shit with some stranger
(non-fan) at stores, or on the street, or is it hard to shift into
being Joe Schmoe when you meet someone who couldn't care less what you
write, or even that you write?”

Most people have no idea at all who I am, and I’m still trying to come
up with a better answer to “so what do you do?” than “I write” because
at that point they normally want to know what it is I do to make
money, or whether I’d like a sandwich. 

“Basically, how much has all this taken over your life, or is it your
life?”

The whole signing tour thing will take over my life through June and
July. But apart from that, my life is pretty much my own, as much as
anyone’s is. The kids were grumbling that I never take them on
interesting family holidays, and I admitted that I travel too much in
the summer and my way of relaxing is to stay home, so this year I’ll
probably take them all to Spain. But secretly I’ll be looking forward
to going home.

Angelina – was there anything you wanted to know that I missed on the
Do’s and Don’ts?

Len – He’ll be going to George Washington.

Angelina – good luck with the rioting.

Michelle (855) – no, not nervous about Mike leaving. I suppose I’ll
have to learn how to be a network administrator though. Unless I can
get Maddy interested in Windows NT.

Adriana – My wife’s a big Mandy Patinkin fan, and I took her to his
one-man show. I love his version of “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”
When you do your one-woman one-man show, do that one.

Trevor – get well. My favorite haiku was discovered to be a haiku by
john Cooper clarke

Please do not ask for
Credit, as a refusal
Can often offend.

Erynn – you can see why Martha’s been nominated for Hugos and Nebulas
and things. And even won one.

And Mike’s going to study computer science. 

Tona – the tour doesn’t go to Nashville, alas. But I’ll be in
Lexington, which in “You won’t believe how far I drove to come to this
signing” terms is practically next door.

Michelle 870 – Yes. Actually nobody’s ever brought a ferret to a
signing that I know of, although one young lady had a rather sweet
brown rat. 

Len – the thing about the new Follies was that... well, in the old
one, Ben doesn’t Earn his breakdown. But love laugh live is a better
song than ‘make the most of your music’...

VIOLENT CASES actually was put onto the stage, many years ago, adapted
by a good, smart director named Eric Jarvis. It didn’t entirely work,
and I learned more about the differences between media (and what it
takes to bring something from one medium into another) by figuring out
why it didn’t work than I would have done from an unqualified success.

875 – Angelina, that would work. But I’m pretty sure they’ll be
driving me between Dayton and Lexington.

Seth (882) – maybe the next tour. This one they want me to sign as
much as possible in as short a time as possible.
  

    
Neil-- Re VC adaptation-- my wife and I always say that you learn more
from a show that doesn't quite hit the mark than from a complete
success. 
  

    
One more post before I go to DC...

Adriana-- of course you'll have to include some Yiddish songs from
_Mamaloshen_ 

Michelle-- I'll save you a seat.

Neil-- George Washington... very nice.

Just fell completely in love with a picture book, Max Makes a Million,
by Maira Kalman... hipper than hip and very funny in an Upper West
Side-mixed-with-Pinkwater kind of way... get copies, all of you!

And speaking of the Upper West Side, my fridge currently holds a pound
of Irish smoked salmon that I bought at Zabars for my friends down in
DC.  And right now I'm jonesing for that salmon and thinking... they're
not such hot friends anyway.  Get thee behind me, salmon!
  

    
Neil - funny thing about the "you're a writer? Can I buy you a
sandwich?" response.. 
When I tell people that I act (which pays about as much as writing for
most of us), the response is more along the lines of "when you make it
big in Hollywood, can I say I knew you?"
My landlord is convinced that I'm going to be a big star, and he's
*never* seen me perform.
Two artistic endeavors, with similar success rates (many people doing
it, only a few doing *well* financially at it) but with radically
different public perceptions...

Michelle - how many mice do you *have*? And what will you do with them
once they've grown up? Or do you plan on having a house full of
squeakers for the long term?
  

    
Neil - Suddenly, bringing mice to a signing doesn't seem so out of the
realm of expectation. ;)

Len - Read "pound" as "pond" and somehow wondered if the smoked salmon
were floating or 'swimming' in your fridge. I think I need more sleep.

Dan - At this very moment, **13** (2 of which are still scurrying
annoyingly around the apartment!). With any luck, by the end of the
weekend I'll be down to 5. Snack and Lunch are going back to the pet
store (since their previous owner can't take them back, and they aren't
very good as pets), and almost all of the babies (mostly boys) are
being given away to anyone who will take them (pet shop as a last
resort). Why? Want a pet mouse or two?

squeaks, whose pets are named Sorrow, Dolores, Door, Jess, and Evie,
if anyone was curious.
  

    
Michelle - No, I'm not home enough to have pets. I can barely take
care of my plants. I'd offer them to my sweetie, but I don't think that
things would go well between them and her cat. (I'm actually surprised
that the hedgehog is relatively unmolested, but then again... she's
prickley)

Then again.. mice named Snack and Lunch might make wonderful playmates
for a cat....
  

    

Meanie.
  

    
Len - Wow, Max.  I vaguely remember reading Ooh-la-la (Max In love) in
my best friends first apartment.  Everytime someone says Ooh-la-la I
always say "max in love" and then get momentarily confused as to why I
said it.  I need to go and read the other Max stuff.  

I'm pretty out of it.  Just colored easter eggs, this really messy
sponge kit that made the eggs end up looking like mini abstract
paintings.  Interesting, but messy and aggravating.

Jen.
  

    
When I was in 7th and 8th grade I got some pet mice and thought it
would be cool if they had babies. Little did I know they'd have
thousands.I mean there was a new litter every other day! I couldn't
even count them anymore, so many of them ran free. around christmas I
bought them some cruelty free little santa hats and antlers. One
morning I heard my mom screaming "ERYNN I"VE HAD ENOUGH!" I guess some
santa hat clad mice jumped out of her closet at her. I tried giving the
males away to pet stores but some of them decieved me and grew things
after it was too late. I'd look at a new litter and go "Now how did
this happen?! And when did you get that?" The pet stores wouldn't take
them anymore because I had given them too many as it was. Soon though,
they all died of brain tumors. It was very strange. I've had my share
of squeaks. I think I'll stick to things that are easy to spay from now
on. Good luck to you. 

Neil- Do tell us about the AG photo incident. We're all dying to know.
Come on. You know you want to. Tell us! Tell us!
  

    
Erynn - Um, Santa hats I've seen... but antlers? Cute, but I don't
think my critters would keep them long before chewing them off (or
getting them caught in the bars).

Neil - Seconded. Tell us the story! :)

squeaks, who *thinks* she has trapped them all in the bedroom
(finally)
  

    
Michelle - a friend of mine once lost 2 dwarf hamsters.  She
eventually gave them up for dead but about a month later found them
living quite happily in a big potted plant in the living room.  

Neil - thirded.  :-)

Jen.
  

    
Ah spring has arrived and the flowers are in bloom...finally.



Michelle- Yes, antlers. But the Santa hats worked better. Most of them
wouldn't keep them on very long. Just long enough for pictures. Have
you checked the couch? 
  

    
This column will be going to England for a couple of days in a week,
and will become Unreliable.

....

Dan -- I wrote a very grumpy letter to my son's school when he came
home with a booklet on careers advice. It gave the typical income for
an athlete, for a hotel manager, for a writer, for a poet. Poets earn
$25,000 a year it said. Athletes earn $50,000,000 a year.  Writers earn
$60,000 a year. I forget what actors earned, but the whole thing was
enough to get me to write a sputtering "how can you fill their heads
with nonsense" letter to the principal. Who, probably quite sensibly,
never replied.

Jen & Michelle & Erynn -- when the time is right, I shall tell it.
  

    
Neil--The do's and don'ts list was lovely.  I remember reading "Gods
and Tulips" (or was it "Tulips and Gods?"  sorry if I got it wrong. 
I'm a bit tired.) and wondering "Well, now I have an idea of what to do
if I'm a store manager....what on earth is it going to be like for
me?"  And now I have a much clearer idea.  Tra lala.

Re: mice multiplying at horrendous rates...I once had a similar
problem with rabbits.  We bought two females when I was seven, and
about half a year later I opened the bunny hatch to find about 20
hairless tiny ones.  I ran into the house screaming "Its a MIRACLE!!!!"
 I thought god had decided that we needed more bunnies, and allowed
two females to have bunnies.  I guess that I was in favor of gay
parenting from a fairly young age.

Riot update:  Cincinnati has an 8pm curfew now, and has for the past
two days.  I live just outside city limits, so I can still go out, but
there is absolutely nothing to do unless I go into the city.  The video
stores are very busy right now.  (And Skyline Chili just before curfew
is full of people trampling over each other for their coneys.)And even
with the curfew, the windows to my favorite coffee shop have been
broken.  

But even more sadly, there is now a strange uncomfort that I've never
felt before when talking to a black person.  I grew up in a part of
town that had more black people than white, and never experienced any
discomfort around them before.  Now I live in a sickeningly white
neighborhood filled with soccer moms, and feel weird being in such a
predominentley white area.  A black man came into Skyline for carry
out, and I went through this inner dialouge "Okay, be nice so he knows
you aren't racist.  He has no reason to be angry at you.  Wait!  You
are being too nice.  He'll think you are being nice to cover up racism.
 Just act normal...how is normal?"  It was very aggravating and made
me feel racist.  :(

Just needed to get that poo off my chest.

Thanks to everyone who has wished safety upon me.
  

    
Neil - Although you've stated that the story will come in its own
time.. I'd still like to quarter.. or is it quattro.. or quatrain the
motion. 

<rant>I'm not as astonished as I should be by that booklet that your
son brought home. What makes it even more ludicrous than the idea that
there are standard rates for *any* of the professions listed, is that
athletes have any more of a chance of being carreer-successful than
writers or actors!! I would imagine the ratio has to be pretty similar.

Of course, writers and actors can often continue doggedly pursuing
their craft as long as they have voices and fingers, whereas athletes
tend to have a shorter productivity period.

Augh. Hot button for me... there seem to be more and more of those
lately. I must be getting in touch with my inner pissed-offness or
something.

Maybe I should write a story where a school cancels all it's athletic
programs and builds a huge theatre and the musicians and actors and
artists become the arrogent rulers of the schoolyard while the jocks
struggle in pursuit of their passion despite diminishing support from
the system.

Not that I still carry any resentment from my school days... of course
not. I'm beyond all that now.
</rant>

On antlers on mice... I keep thinking of the Bill Murray's suggestion
on how to get antlers on mice in the film Scrooged: "Do whatever it
takes! Use a staple gun!"

Dan
  

    
Poets earn $25,000 a year and other writers earn $60,000?  They must mean
tech writers....
  

    
(and, I guess, tech poets)