Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Len:  Omigod, Raul in Threepenny?!?  When did that happen?  Why wasn't
I there?  All for the best, I'm sure, as I might have died happy
instead of living all these additional years in GenX angst, and then
Where would I have been?  (Opinions vary.)  

On lesser known moments of Raul musical bliss: he does this little
scene in _Tequila Sunrise_ (ca. early 80's), where he's toking,
watching a bullfight and singing some famous song I don't know the
title of, which ends with him gesticulating elegantly with a lit joint,
and crooning "Santaaaaaa Luciiiiiiaaaa!"  It's a ridiculous, adorable
scene and he's perfectly beautiful.  What a loss.
  

    
Tara-- sorry!  I just found that name to be too good a pseud to ppass
up.
  

    
Len~
I'm doubting I'll make it through _Ancient Evenings_...
I keep finding excuses to read other things...
Like cereal boxes...
*sigh*
  

    
Email from Kathy Li:

Pamela, there *was* a commercial cassette audio recording (long OP) of the
Nichols/Close/Irons THE REAL THING.  It's just swell and well worth
questing for.  Especially since Christine Baranski plays Charlotte (and
you get to hear Peter Gallagher with a Scots accent as Brodie).  The liner
notes mention how the cast loved rediscovering lines over the microphones
when they didn't have to worry about theatre acoustics, and could do lots
of tiny little things with their voices.

--Kathy (who was pleasantly surprised to see Sondheim's talking head
          pop up in the Shakespeare episode of CHANGING STAGES on PBS. I
          mean I *expected* to see Stoppard when they were talking about
          Wilde).
  

    
Thanks for the tip, Kathy.  When he's not pretending he's eating
gravel for breakfast, I could listen to Jeremy Irons for days and
days...

-Pam
Who's feeling really quite dumb for just having realized that all
those trailers running around LA movie theaters for _From Hell_ are for
THAT _From Hell_.  I'd be lost without Thingies far sharper than me.
  

    
P.S.  I just had to say it.  Once more, with feeling:

"Scary trousers."
  

    
*Please* explain the scary trousers bit.
  

    
Neil, Re: your message board screwing up, this appeared from the
~Fixin' the Board Thread~ from Grandethal:

"I think Mr. Punch has taken control of the board, and is slowly but
surely destroying it for his own purposes..."

Now, I assume someone will enlighten me...
  

    
Enlighten you in regards to what, Mr. Punch?  Or just grant you a
general sort of enlightenment for the heck of it? ^_^  If you haven't
already, you simply must read Neil's "The Tragical Comedy or Comical
Tragedy of Mr. Punch: A Romance".
  

    
Mr. Punch. And how the unproductive chaos of Neil's board would be
caused by same.


Enlightenment wends its way to me here and there, usually tripping me
up by being underfoot at the time it appears...

"D'oh!
I just squished the d@mn enlightenment again!
Eeeeeewww, now how am I gonna get that off my shoe?!"
(wipes shoe off unsuccessfully)
"Oh, great. Now it's on my hands."
(attempts to wipe hands)
"S#!+, those were *new* pants!"

Later:

"What is this stuff stuck in my hair?"
  

    
That sounds like a bad Farrelly brothers movie.  Or every Farrelly
brothers movie.

A general question to the writers, here; should something sent to
agents be double-spaced?  I knew that the manuscript itself should be,
but I thought, in my eternal dumbassitude, that single-spaced was the
way to send it to agents.  Thoughts?
  

    
JaNell:  I'd be happy to explain "scary trousers" because it's so
fabulous, but I could never do it justice.  We must implore Himself to
gift us with the story again.  

I guarantee you will Never Be the Same Again.  I honestly think that
if I never saw Neil again at a signing, con or utterly chance
encounter, I could remain content with having been at Book Soup to hear
him tell the Scary Trousers story.  It was a quintessential fandom
moment.  I get liitle fangirl happy giggles every time I think about
it.

-Pam
Who is really not kidding, and is eternally beholden to ‘Walker for
having asked the question.
  

    
Pam, we're working on that rain dance number for you.

JaNell, all purses of that size have achieved sentience.  Didn't you
notice it asking Neil to sign its copy of American Gods?

--Rebecca, who's been herding cows today and is totally sacked.  
  

    
Pamela-- Raoul was in a production of Threepenny at Lincoln Center in
the 70's; I think Richard Foreman directed it.  It was the first
American production that made it properly obscene and scary after
Blitzstein's translation all but entirely defanged it.

And ya know, I think Raoul made a damn good Gomez Adams.

Kathy--  Sigh... I had a teacher who used to have that audiocassette
of TRThing, but that was long ago and I should have jumped on the
chance to make a recording.  Now they've released a CD of Copenhagen,
which I think I will have to get.

Utter non sequitor:  I saw the best damn rerun of Northern Exposure
yesterday.  It was the one where Chris goes to a friary to experiment
with monastic life, while at the same time the town of Cicely is
experiencing a wave of health and Joel has nothing to do, so he has an
existential crisis.  It's been so long since I saw an episode of NE--
I'm glad it's as wonderful as I remember it. (except for the last
season.)

Finally-- Open Question:  Has anyone here been in a serious romantic
relationship with someone who didn't like to read?
  

    
I was.  I was engaged to her, even.  I somehow managed to convince her
to read STARDUST, but the only reason she finished my novel was
because I basically read it to her.  Wasn't the reason we fell apart,
but, well, it surely didn't help matters any.
My sister just ended a relationship with a guy who doesn't at all
read, but who went to the Borders signing anyway.  He ended up asking
Neil about pumpkins, and then getting a fish signed.
It's hard, I found.  I write, and so read pretty much voraciously. 
Some books I plod through, like DRACULA and LITTLE, BIG, some I blow
through, like STARDUST, or HARRY POTTER, but I still read a lot.  This
month alone I'm up to ten or fifteen already, and that's not including
magazines and the Internet.  Point is, they're a big part of my life,
and it seems I get along best with someone who shares that.  I was
dating a girl recently and invited her to a performance of MIDSUMMER
NIGHT'S DREAM, and she responded "Help me out here.  Is this a play?" 
Not the reason things didn't work out, but it was a sign of just how
compatible we were.
  

    
Will said, "That sounds like a bad Farrelly brothers movie.  Or every
Farrelly brothers movie."
Hey, watch it, that's my life we're talking about here. :D

Pam, me asking Neil anything is only inviting trouble in for coffee.
And I'm already Not The Same because of him, and only hope to have
returned the favor.

Rebecca, I was *wondering* how that got signed...
  

    
E-mail from Kathy Li:

Len -- well, being out here in the boonies :-), I tend to keep an eye out 
for recordings of stuff 'cause that's all I'll ever get to see.  If it 
weren't for PBS and Jac Venza, I don't think I'd love or know stage work at 
all.  The only really great theater-going-coup I've managed to land out 
here in San Diego was seeing INTO THE WOODS when it workshopped. (And I 
still think the death of the Baker's Wife is just wrong, dammit.  She's 
*supposed* to die from Snow White's poisoned apple! :-)

My favorite Northern Exposure episode is probably "Cicely." ("...and that 
was the day Franz Kafka came to town...")
  

    
   Len -- I saw Raul Julia many years ago in a touring production of
"The Passion of Dracula."  It wasn't really a great play or production
-- it had obviously been put togethter to compete with the
Langella/Gorey DRACULA (which is not to say that Balderston & Deane is
exactly a masterwork either), but Julia was dynamite.
   And yeah, he was a swell Gomez Addams.  But those movies were, it
seems to me, exceptionally fortunate in their casting, from
Anjelica-and-thank-God-not-Cher to Christina Ricci.  (I would have
loved to direct Ricci as Ophelia, having her be smart and happy until
the breakdown, and then go creepily, horribly, dead-soul quiet instead
of galloping loony.
    But then, I studied stagecraft, not directing.
    But then but then, i studied systems analysis/numerical methods,
not literature.  I would hunt guidance counselors for sport, except (as
John Steed might say) there would be no sport in it.

    I don't know that I've ever had -any- kind of really significant
relationship with anyone who actively didn't like to read, except for
family members, and we all know the difference there.  I would like to
think this isn't judgemental on my part, but I wouldn't trust that
view.
  

    
To me, saying that you "don't like to read" is almost as
incomprehensible as saying that you "don't like to breathe".
  

    
Len --
Yep. Had about the same experience as Will, except she wasn't even
willing to go so far as reading Stardust. The phrase "life-sucking
b!tch" comes pretty close to the truth. But, as they say, "I got
better!"
  

    
I'm married to someone who doesn't (or didn't, rather) like to read.
It wasn't that that he didn't find the idea of literature
interesting..he just prefferd I read him the story or tell him about.
He *can* read, technically, I think it may be that he has a short
attention span, or maybe it was because no one in his family reads...so
he just wasn't exposed to it. 
Don't know. American Gods was the first book he read all by himself
(since I've been with him, anyway.)I couldn't believe he finished it.
Now he's into Sandman. He finished the first two books in three days.
He's halfway through Neverwhere...and is reading it as I speak. I said
to him the other day "I know Neil's the shit and all...but there are
other good books and authors out there too. Try reading this one..."
He got ten pages into it as far as I know. *sigh* Baby steps I guess.
There's just *something* about Neil....

To all of you who are not Tori fans, I apologize in advance. I am
about to be a dork. If I get annoying by my rambling on about her let
me know (I do suppose she's kind of on topic though...since Neil has
something to do with the new album) or just ignore me.
That said, I'm so excited! I just read the Alternative Press interview
thingy. Fucking great, can't wait, can't wait! I've only heard a
sample of "Happiness is a Warm gun", and I liked it. But then I read
about the perspective in which she's singing....I think my jaw dropped
and I just stared into nothingness for a long time.
Stunned. Intrigued. I can't find the words... now I'm obbsessed with
the concept and songs that I've heard. I'm driving everyone around me
nuts...making them watch the video and talk about it...checking The
Dent everyday. Yes, as much as I've made fun of them in the past...I
think it's safe to say I'm one of *them* now. (if only Tori had her own
topic on here... hint, hint) The brilliant songs coupled with Neil's
brilliant stories. It's all too much....fucking genius.  And then after
the tour there will be another new album!
Can't find the words...
 Weeee! 

Sorry. I'll go away now.
  

    

I'd love for Tori to have her own topic here, but I gather she doesn't do
computer unless she absolutely has to...still haven't given up completely
on the idea, though.

Do you have the URL for that interview?

And Raul Julia is positively snacky in everything, but my favorite is "One
From the Heart" directed by Francis Ford Coppola and co-starring Teri Garr
and Frederic Forrest.  It also has Lainie Kazan, Nastassja Kinski, and
Harry Dean Stanton, with a little tiny glimpse of Rebecca De
Mornay.  Music by Tom Waits.  I love that movie.
  

    
E-mail from Jo Simons:

Hey all,

Len - I've never dated someone who didn't like to read (as far as I 
know that is). Luckily my partner is as crazy about reading as I 
am, and we even have similar tastes (definately saves on money, 
given how many books we still end up buying). 
One of my friends did date someone who didn't like to read. He 
was gorgeous, smart (they were doing the same Masters course) 
and reportedly great in bed. However, apart from required course 
reading, the only thing he read was the autotrader paper. She just 
found that gradually, they ran out of things to talk about, and they 
broke up.

Jo/sparrow

PS on Punch - I found Neil's story good but disturbing, but then I 
really have trouble with puppets and clowns. Clown puppets being 
the worst.
  

    
Erynn--I am getting SO excited too!  I was intrigued by the new album
at first, but now its like.......how I felt right before American Gods
came out.  I know I could get just about all the songs online, but
something is stopping me from hearing more than I've already heard.  I
want some suprise and suspense, damnit! ...but another new album?  Did
I miss something?

Angelina.
  

    
Angelina- I allowed myself to listen to samples of the songs (Man,
talk about torture. I wouldn't recommend it) and the promo tracks, but
nothing else. I too want to hear the album with the pics and stories
with a bottle of good wine in full stereo sound...not coming from my
computer in that mp3-fucked-up-like sound. 
The AP article said that after a short tour she will be recording an
album of new material (I wish I had the quote on hand...) I don't have
a URL, but I'm sure it will be posted on the Dent any day now.
(Mikewhy's actually behind! What's up with that?)
I'm not a journalist, so I don't really know how journalists are
supposed to do things...but in a lot of her interviews she has a lot of
cool things to say and the interviewer is all like "and this is what I
think about what she just said blah de blah de blah." Rhetorical
speculation and what not. I like the interviews where they just let her
talk. But this one is good. The pictures are interesting too. 

Linda- Do keep trying to get her here... I know it probably won't
happen. But still. Please?