Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
        So, Neil, you're dressing as Britney Spears for Halloween?
  

    
I hear Britney's doing covers of "Banshee" and "Yeti" for the new
spoken word CD... ^^
  

    
whuh?  Britney Spears?  huh?

Neil-- had this image of you on the tour (can't wait to see Bottom
Line show, btw, and congrats on the review!!!) as a runner in a
marathon, and I got to wondering-- is there anything we can bring you
at your readings-- in the manner of people who hand Gatorade and
bananas to runners in a race- that would make the months of schlepping
any more pleasent?  Any psychic gatorade?
  

    
Len - excellent idea for the psychic gatorade! Neil??

Neil - What about that erotic story in Smoke and Mirrors that made you
blush every time you went to write it? That could be interesting (if
for no other reason than the outtakes it might result in).

Interesting side note: I was telling our Artistic Director/Producer
last night that I was probably going to take a show off and not direct
anything for the October show, and he said he understood that and it
was cool. Five minutes later he turns to me and says, "You know, I
think that the October show needs another Gaiman adaptation. Got any
ideas?" 
Manipulative bastard....

I refuse to even contemplate the Brittany Spears thing...Although I
just got a flash of her as "Desire"
"Ooops, I did it again!"
Please... make it stop.

Dan
  

    
Oh geez.
  

    
Snow Glass Apples. And I'm glad to see The Wedding Present in there.
It's disturbing, but I really like the story.

In other news, someone checked in a collection of tapes entitled
"Sacred Elephant" read by Heathcote Williams. They're still trying to
figure out why I'm giggling at every mention of it. 

squeaks, who has refrained from yelling out "Oh no! Not elephant spunk
again!", but mostly because it will start a coughing fit.
  

    
neil - i second a call for snow glass apples.  and speaking of
elephant spunk - that would be a real fun one to hear.  and congrats on
the review!  the first of many good ones, i'm sure.

weird weather - driving down the 5 from san fran to la, and on the
right side of the road, there were dark clouds, and massive winds, dirt
flying everywhere, and some rain.  and on the left of the car - blue
sky, sun, fluffy clouds.  it was like we were on ground zero for a
coming war between heaven and hell.  totally weird.  and then a bunch
of rainbows started popping up - 3 or 4 - and they were some of the
brightest and fullest rainbows i'd ever seen.  we decided that heaven
must have won the fight.

  --  s
  

    
Dan -- Britney as Desire.  Ew.  
  

    

I love that image, Seth!!  It reminds me that I dreamed about some
rainbows the other night:  two intersecting complete rainbows that were
three-dimensional and each one had pots of gold at both ends!!  I loved
that!
  

    
e-mail from JaNell:

Neil- Have you been paid for the editing gig yet? Or did you have to
sign over all those checks to Britney for the piece she's doing on weird
weather for your new spoken word CD?

And, does the clone thing explain how you can do signings so close
together on one day in different towns?

Are these clones going to be marketed, or just auctioned off for
charity?

JaNell
  

    
'ey, Neil - Congrats on the Kirkus review. It's not helping me
practice a sane level of patience before the book comes out, but I'll
overlook it. I've been waiting for this book since Thanksgiving '99, I
can wait a couple more months I suppose.

Oh, and sorry for ruining the Britney surprise. ;P

squeaks, who wonders how much a Neil clone would go for on ebay
  

    
Damn you all.  I'm about to go off to bed and I have Britney Spears in
my head...grrrrr...B.S. as Desire is just about as appealing as having
Keanu Reeves doing Dream.  Ewwwwww!

Its nice to know that I can check in here and see that everyone is
just as busy, if not more, than I am.  Bussiness loves company.  Or
not.  Whatever.  If attendance were the only requirement at college, I
would be one happy camper.  I'm good at listening to lectures.  Its
everything else I'm bad about.

Michelle--I wonder how much Neil's clone's coat would go for.  Is
Neil's clone a good clone or a bad clone?  Would it do bad things like
a duet with Britney Spears?

You know, the more I think about it, the grosser apple butter seems to
me...
  

    
Oh!  And Neil, congrats on the star!!

That'll teach me to post before reading the American Gods journal...
  

    
Streak -- I thought she'd be dressing as me, actually.

Len -- good question. Not really. The main thing for people who wind
up in long lines is to keep the people in the lines around you happy,
so if you want to  bring a bag of sweets or whatever for the people
around you, go for it.

Dan -- once things are written, I don't get embarrassed by them.

Michelle -- I'm not doing Snow Glass Apples at this point, because the
dramatized version with Bebe Neuwirth will be coming out on CD at some
point this year. So I rather feel that Snow, Glass, Apples is kind of
covered.

There are people who think that I made up the stuff about elephant
ejaculate feeding an ant-hill for a year. Honest there are. But it
wasn't me.

And talking about ebay, the number of american gods proofs on there is
ridiculous. I suspect that by the time the book comes out all the
people who wanted it will already have read it, at $60 a book...

Seth -- BEING AN EXPERIMENT... is the hidden track on WARING:CONTAINS
LANGUAGE (and will be unhidden on the reissue). It's also on the CBLDF
video.

JaNell -- yes. no. I hope so. 

Angelina -- Keanu as Dream might be kind of fun. They could take out
all the Morpheus dialogue and replace it with "Whoa."

& Thanks.
  

    
Oops I forgot. I meant to say what I DID record tonight...

The Price
Shoggoth's Old Peculiar
The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch
Harlequin Valentine
Daughter of Owls
The Sea Change

Yesterday was

The Wedding Present
Instructions
A Writer's Prayer
Boys and Girls Together
Martha Soukup's Poem
  

    
You recorded.

My poem??
  

    
Yes. Although I may see if I can find a live recording of it out there
we can use instead, cos I quite like what live audiences bring to it.
Do you mind? (I think it's on the Portland video, BTW -- but I only did
it then as you were in the audience...)
  

    
I don't mind at all.  I'm just a little shocked out of my mind.
  

    
        Martha, everyone loves the Martha poem.  I mean everyone.  Look at it
this way, it's enticing every foaming-at-the-mouth completist geek in
the world plunk down money for your book.  Sooner or later they're
likely to have to read past the introduction, at which point you've
either got 'em, or they're idiots and who needs 'em?  I remain utterly
tickled by the payoff of "Things Not Seen", but I wanted to ask: The
MIT Ditch Day story at the center of it was once reported to me as
true; is it?  Or did you hear it as a legend too and just recycled it,
and who knows if it ever happened?  Or did you make it up entirely?
  

    
Neil -- Congrats on the star! I'm going to the library today with
plans to chain myself to the reference desk until they agree to order
some copies of _AG_; I'll bring a copy of the review too, as that
should help make my case.
     I'm really looking forward to these new spoken word CDs.

Angelina -- The lecture parts I wish I could keep attending for the
rest of my life. Like you, it was the rest of it that plagued me. For
the first month after I graduated I woke up every morning with a smile
at the realization that I would never again have to take another
biological anthropology exam or write another dry computer science
paper. Those were my only two real sore spots; as a cultural
anthropology major I got away with turning in novellas instead of
research papers (you have to love a "science" that includes the concept
of ethnographic fiction) and most of the time as a computer science
major I just got to play around and turn in little programs. Those bio
exams though, ieeee. I'm thankful every day for having completed my
formal schooling, at least for now.

Martha -- First you made mod for tv. and now this! What a week. ^^


re:Keanu -- Just picture it:

"You are alive. 
 So whoa."

"Delirium: His madness... His madness keeps him sane." 
 Dream: Whoa." 

"Chroronzon: I am anti-life, the beast of judgement. I am the dark at
the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds... of
everything. And what will you be then, Dreamlord? 
 Morpheus: Whoa."
  

    
Neil - WOW! That's fabulous about the review. Time will not move fast
enough until June 19th...

Funny tech thing: I'm using OmniWeb for OS X to do my web browsing
now, and when it loads a new page, it says "Loading (page name"
So when I go to American Gods, my machine announces that it's 
"Loading Neil Gaiman"

there's that clone thing again.

On Keanu... We've all seen dream lists of actors we'd love see play
our favorite comic book characters. But what about a terror list? Who
is the absolute worst person you could see getting cast in Sandman
films? Britany and Keanu as Desire and Dream are a good start... but
what about the others?

Rosanne as Despair?
  

    
ok, so apparently i need to go listen to warning:contains language
again, as i never noticed any secret tracks.  and here i am in
california, with my cd 3000 miles away for the next week - bugger. 
well, at least i've really got something to look forward to when i get
home.

the track list for the new cds sounds great!

  --  s
  

    
I am wishing all the Neil Gaiman completists were busy buying my book!  It
would make me feel relief on behalf of the publisher & all.
  

    
I'll buy your book, Martha!  Why, I'll do it today!
  

    
Louie Anderson as Destruction.
Jean Cleaude VanDame (sp?) as Destiny.
Nicholas Cage as Superman.  oh, wait-

Martha -- As will I.