Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    <scribbled>
  

    
Hmm... still have a couple things to learn about the Inkwell posting
system obviously.

Kristin -- "Now I think I may be the only
person in the world who puts whiskey right up there with chicken soup
as a comfort food." 

Actually I have an uncle who's of a very similar mind, though to be
honest he thinks of it less as "comfort food" and more along the lines
of "dinner".


Huges thanks to everyones birthday wishes, ya'll are great!
  

    
Whiskey that is, not the chicken soup...
  

    
Hey Neil, as a singer and actress who has toured quite a bit and been
plagued by throat maladies, I would suggest (if you can stand another
suggestion) gargling with warm salt water every couple of hours.  Drink
as much water as you can humanly ingest, and breathe in some steam if
you can.  Stay away from anything with Menthol, it will only dry out
your throat.  

This is just common sense crap, which I'm sure you know.  You know we
all just want you to be well...
  

    
Erynn - well, at least if you have to bus it, it's to a bookstore. I
don't think I've ever worked more than 10 miles from my place of
residence, and usually less than 3. We've got some people here who
commute from Stockton to Oakland... which for those of you not familiar
with California geography, is a quite long ways.

Kelly - Microsoft country? Ick.
Ahhh, the Lyons across from Newpark. I spent many a night there after
shows with Stage 1, since that Lyons was damn near the only thing open
after 11pm. I was always fond of the vaguely pornographic art on the
walls involving vegetables rubbing ranch dressing all over each other
in a hedonistic hot tub orgy. (and they call it a family restaurant...)

On remedies - although it wouldn't help Neil, my favorite throat cold
remedy is a screwdriver... the orange juice gives you your vitamin C
and the Vodka will kill any offending organisms in your throat. And if
I'm wrong on this... I'll probably decide to wallow in my ignorance
since it's also a sleep aide, which I *know* is good for colds.

On famous people - I was thinking that I hadn't really met any famous
people, but that's not true. It's just a question of community. The
famous people I know aren't household words, but in their particular
fields (astrology and argentine tango, to be specific) they're quite
well known and even revered. Since I had never heard of them until
after I had started working with them on miscellaneous projects, I
never thought of treating them as anything else but average guys like
myself, and they treat me the same way. 

"Zaphod, he's just this guy, you know?"
  

    
e-mail from Claudine Chen:

Hello all,

Michelle, yes, the eye of Horus sig still exists. :) The only time I've
met thingies was when I visited you in SF; I'm looking forward to meeting
more! Thanks, Suzanne, for the tip on ordering Martha's book. Now I'm
impatient to see what your stack was, Martha. Next year we can build
"Martha's stack."

Dan Guy, I really enjoyed your Jim Henson story. That experience must have
left a mark in his mind as well. My only experience in meeting a famous
person face-to-face is Neil, and I'm afraid I fell into the shy fangirl
state. I wanted to invite him to explore the steam tunnels under Caltech,
since they reminded me of Neverwhere, but instead I mumbled a "I really
love your work...," and gave him an origami thing. After being in LA for
so long I would have expected to have had more sightings, but I don't have
'Walker's luck (I still recall your Fairuza Balk-in-Borders encounter
from long ago). Neil, if you are ever interested in exploring the
underbelly of Caltech...hmmm, maybe it's the sort of thing that only nerds
from Caltech find facinating.

Claudine
  

    
e-mail from Stone Meul:

Hi,
It said in Niel Gaiman's journal on americangods.com the if we had
anything
that we wanted to clarify(sorry about my spelling) something to send it
here.
so, this is really anal retentive of me, but it happens, on your tour
dates
you have posted the you will be doing a signing at the Barnes & Nobel in
Rosedale, MN when it should be Rosville, MN ( or it could be Falcon
Hieghts,
You might want to check that). So, I just needed to get that out of my
system, thank you.
                                                                
  

    

Claudine -- I spent many a happy hour in the tunnels under Duke, so I
now for a fact that geeks from Duke also find it fascinating. ^^

One day, when I feel I've redeemed myself for its many tresspasses, I
have to remember to tell the story of The Night I Met Neil, likely with
much apologizing and insisting that it's been years and I'm much more
mature now.
  

    
Wow - there really are an awful lot of May babies around, aren't
there? (Happy birthday to the rest of you, too - hope yours has been as
fun and drawn out as mine!)


Michelle - oh, I *do* pity you. Hayward. <wrinkles nose> Let's see,
Kat Edwards doesn't ring a bell, but I do know a few Kats (none of whom
I talk to anymore). Did you frequent Eugene at all between, oh, 1996
and 1999? (I lived in Eugene from 97 - 98, above Sy's Pizza, and was
back a lot in 99.)

DanW - yeah, Microsoft. They're right there. <points to the right> I
actually slaved there for a year - a great learning experience, and I
emerged mostly unscathed. 

As for Lyons, I was always particularly fond of the pornographic
carrot image on the back wall, myself. Imagining just what these
veggies were saying to each other certainly helped pass the slower
graveyard shifts. (I always wondered if they were vaguely embarrassed
to be hanging on the wall in the first place.)

DanG - I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one with an embarrassing
Night I Met story.  ;-)

-K
  

    
Stone -- I just checked on the signing. You're quite right. I think
that it's the Rosedale Shopping Centre, Roseville MN, which is where
the confusion must have come from, but I'll e-mail Jack Womack at
Harper and point it out to them. Thanks so much.

Michelle -- I should point out that I'm really not being funny, or
even exaggerating for comic effect, on the food in Argentina. A typical
menu gives you dozens of meats, sausages, organs, and steaks. The side
dish tends to be fries, although some places will also offer boiled
potatoes. I had Merluz, a fish, for lunch today. Last night's
restaurant -- a big one, with half a pig roasting over a charcoal fire
as you come in -- offered nothing but meat and chicken.

When I was a meat-eater, it was the best place for meats I've ever
been. Now it's more problematic.

All of you -- my thanks for the remedies. Am drinking ginger tea and
honey which I'm making in the hotel room coffee maker, and most of all,
not talking.
  

    
Claudine -- were you the one with long dark hair at Change of Hobbit
who gave me the cool origami thingie? (Or am I thinking of the wrong
person?)
  

    
I've met lots of vaguely famous people... and a LOT of working actors,
having gone to conventiosn for years and years. When my family and I
moevd to Spain, we took the QE2 over and Terrance Stamp was onboard,
promoting his 2nd autobiography. One day my father kidnapped him, and
we all had drinsk in the bar while my folks and Mr. Stamp talked about
living in London in the 1960s... It gave me an interesting perspective
when I saw "Pricilla, Queen of the Desert" anyway...

I've interewed a lot of writers and actors--but other than Neil, I
wouldn't say they were famous exactly...  I was amused to note a while
back that I've met either face-to-face or via email and/or interviewed
every single "Angel" tie-in author to date, except for Dan
Passarella... And I'm vastly looking forward to uying Tom Sniegoski a
drink at ChicagoCon this August, since I still remember him as "Tom who
writes Vampi" from the 1996 ChicagoCon that mostly involved me closing
out the bar every night with Bernie Wrightson and his then-girlfriend,
and drinking a LOT on DC Comics tab...)

The first time I met Neil face-to-face, I was utterly petrified. It
was November 1992 and I was 19 years old. I'd been writing to him for
about seven months when he did a signing in Chicago and I took the bus
up from Urbana where I was at school at the time, and was so nervous I
took my father with me, 'cause I figured well, 2 ex-pats will always
have something to say to one another...

Over the last 8 years, I relaxed a little. :) 
  

    
Roseville/Rosedale should be fixed now -- apparently the wrong
information came directly from Barnes and Noble. Thanks again, Stone.

Tara -- How is your Dad?
  

    
Stone-
I'm glad you brought that up.  I would have waited vainly for the
reading in the HarMar B&N in Roseville, not knowing that there was
another B&N just down the road at Rosedale Shopping Center.
  

    
I've never visited South America, but that description immediately
brings to mind two excellent restaraunts here in Dallas, Fogo de Chow
and Texas de Brazil.

The fact that they are thriving here (Dallas is murder on restaraunts
that can't cut it) is a little baffling to me, not because they aren't
good, but because they both opened here within a month of each other,
and they are virtually the SAME restaraunt.

Basically in each of them, you are seated and given plates and roaming
waiters approach you holding giant skewers of meats. Each waiter has a
differently prepared slab of beef, chicken pork, sausage or
practically any variation you can imagine and you just ask them to
slice off part of what you want. This is basically the entire menu, and
it is all deliciously prepared.

They're really both fantastic, but an entire diet in that direction
would turn me into a cattle conservationist pretty fast out of sheer
self-preservation.
  

    
I just called the bookstore, the signing is at the B&N at HarMar, not
the one at Rosedale.  I'll probably try to get the book throught
DreamHaven anyway as I'd prefer to go through a local business, just
thought I'd post and let folks know.

I am now going to go read the latest _GloomCookie_ which just came in
the mail.  Yay!

Happy B-day to all the May babies.

Neil, I hope you're on the mend
  

    
jack WOmack should be e-mailing me the complete corrected info on the
Roseville signing & I'll post it here.

Kristin _- I am a silent thing.
  

    
Not talking is very very wise right now, but how are you able to get away
with that under the publicity circumstances?
  

    
I was just reading today's Variety section of the Minneapolis Star
Tribune and was surprised to see an article mainly about Harlan Ellison
fighting internet piracy of his work titled "Top Sci-Fi Author Is
Creating Science Friction" (ha. ha. ha.). Since I thought it'd be
interesting to lots of people who read this discussion group, I decided
to scout out the online version of the article, but unfortunately, the
Star Tribune has a HORRIBLE and completely un-useful website. Oh well.
Anyway, if anyone local is interested, check page E4, right above the
article about how chastity belts aren't old-fashioned anymore. Ack!

Oh... Neil, thought maybe you'd be interested to know that my younger
brother's reading group at school (made up of mostly 7th graders) is
planning on reading Neverwhere if time permits. I found it amusing (not
to mention pretty cool), at least. This is one of the things that goes
on at my school that I like to take full credit for. <evil grin>

Also, I highly recommend the Moulin Rouge soundtrack to EVERYONE,
despite the fact that Walker didn't like it.

I'll be quiet now...

-shira
  

    
Well, I had a blast getting my head shaved.  I came in 4th place
(There were 8 or 9 of us...not too bad.)  And it looks wonderful.  yay!

However, I did get my purse stolen, which is a major birthday bummer. 
grrr.  I have to get a new SS card, debit card (don't worry, I already
canceled it) passaport, lip gloss, etc.  Thank god for birthday money.

And thank you for the birthday wishes, everyone!

~~With all the talk about Harlan, I decided I really should read some
of his stuff....can someone recomend to me a good starting point?~~
Angelina
  

    
Shawn - That style is also very popular in Rio. I went to a restaurant
 that fits your description exactly when I was down there last year.
It was called El Porkao, or The Big Pig. I felt like I was royalty
(royalty in danger of cholesterol poisoning, admittedly). A
co-traveller pulled out a cigarette, put it to his lips, and before he
could reach for his lighter a waiter had lit his cigarette for him.
It was fairly obscene, and I wondered why this style wasn't big in the
U.S.... and I guess it is in some places.

On the topic of eating, I just had my first acupuncture session, and
was firmly instructed that I had to give up cheese in order to
alleviate my allergy issues. This was quite possibly the last thing I
wanted to hear. I've given up various foods over the last couple of
years. (drinking milk, hamburgers) but this one is going to be painful.
*whimper*
  

    
Just came across these rather curious things and thought you folks
might be interested:

http://www.binaryfreedom.com/towelday/

http://animutation.mixnmojo.com/anim/pika.swf

Must get back to packing..*ack!*
  

    
Shira - would love to see the story you mentioned, but complete
searching of the Star Tribune web site lead to nothing. (Grrr.) And I
agree about the Moulin Rouge soundtrack - I have it in my car, highest
volume I can without blowing out my speakers. Cannot *wait* until June
1!

-K
  

    
Towel Day - I love it - thanks for the link!
  

    
<velvetraisin> - Harlan Ellison is required reading.  If you wanted to dive
right in, I'd say go get _The Essential Ellison_.  It's a huge book, but
it's well worth the twenty bucks.