Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Sorry, got all excited there about an email that turned out to be
about Tori's cover of the eminem song... a sign for sure.
(musing)
Maybe a whole differant jaNell is what's needed...
  

    
JaNell, well, I'm pleased that was you. I took your 'me too' and 'he
just doesn't love us' to mean that you hadn't got in or something.

Ah well, that's what I get for reading the well at the body equivalent
of 6.00am. 

Bill -- what happened after I got off the chat, then?
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
Neil: You actually read my posts?
  

    
I don't know why "My grandmother is on fire" is so much funnier in
French, but it is.  I almost woke my neighbors up laughing, Will.

The only thing I can think of that spurs my creativity is being left
alone to finish a thought.  I don't multitask.  I started to say that I
don't multitask well, but realized that that one was up for the
Understatement of the Year award.  Since I work 55-60 hours per week, I
never have time for anything.  I don't do anything creative anymore
except solve disasters that crop up in my life. (OK, work.  I don't
have a life).

So I guess it could be said that expediency sparks my creativity, too.

Keanu Reeves dans l'autobus.  Sandra Bullock dans l'autobus.  Jeff
Daniels....Jeff Daniels est deja morte.

Mary (*loved* Moab is my Washpot, and about to start a book by An
Author on This Forum)   
  

    
Tara -> Happy Birthday to you!

Mike & Will ->  "This is not my egg (intrinsic) and "Et toi" is
French, and so you're a crack muffin. [It's late and I'm howling. Thank
you!]

Pam -> I'm currently reading "Sea Dragon Heir" by Storm Constantine. 
A gift from the friend I gave a signed copy of "American Gods." 
There's a blurb from you-know-who on the back. Can you say parallel
lives?

Had a horrible incident with high school French my first trip to Paris
back in 1976.  While on a tour of the Arc D'Triomphe I asked, "Where
is the toilet?" What I really said was, "Is this a toilet?" Almost
caused an international incident. Later, I accidentally picked up a
gigolo. Can't remember what I asked some nice looking guy while hanging
out in the gardens at Versailles, but all of a sudden I was in
negotiations for sexual favors. Or at least that's what my sister told
me when she ran over to chase him away. I'll say this, he was cute, but
evidently not cheap. C'est tout. ;)
  

    
JaNell- Robert Anton Wilson intentionally tries to drive people
insanely paranoid. It always takes me a while to recover from his
stuff. 

When I write, I listen to mostly instrumental stuff, because words
distract me too much. Lately it's been Brian Eno (ambient) Massive
Attack, Enya....
But I'm inspired by music everyday, more so than other people's books,
I think. I write the most in the fall and winter. A LOT of my stuff is
inspired by Type O Negative. Probably because they're one of my
favorite bands, but I can only listen to them in the fall for some
reason, and fall is my main inspiration season. It's like Peter Steele
is some kind of muse or something. He also makes me want to work
out...with him..eh hem...la la la.

Ack. I don't know no French. 

Later, Erynn
  

    
E-mail from Tori Bat:

Kelly~ I am not a fan of glitter gels... I guess part of it has to do
with coverage. I dont like dustings...I like to be covered in it...
*laugh* although that gel pen sounds very interesting!  I'm sorry to hear
about your technical drain on your creativity~ I feel like I'm in the
same boat. if it wasnt for all the academic junk I need to do right now
I'd be doing tons of artwork.

What triggers my creativity? I love going to art museums. and
volunteering/working at the museum here is great! every chance I get I go
walking around the galleries and being in the gift shop I have tons of
great books at my grasp! I am very visual so movies inspire me. the last
one that forced me up to my studio to draw was Basquiat (Sp?) with the
fabulous David Bowie as Andy Warhol. I recomend everyone see it.   I also
have a great group of friends and each of us is and/or a
artist/writer/etc... so its fun to work off each other~ which can
sometimes be intimidating/frustrating but for the most part we surprise
each other!

Since the majority of my work is brought about through my intense
emotions...my inspiring musik reflect that. and each really fits a
certain mood.
I would have to say my most frequent ones are U2, and NIN (and the other
Tori of course!)

I also need to be very connected to myself. if that makes any sense at
all. I have to feel ready... which is why I like JaNells quotes about
expression.  My artwork is pretty varied. its either very dreamy and fun
or extreamly dark and angry. looking over my work I'd have to say *I*
like my fun work the best but I think I get the most out of my angry
work. There is a painting that I've been working on-and-off for the past
8 months~ and its very intense and it takes a lot of me just to get a
little more done each time. I actually dont paint very much. I prefer
collages, charcoal and pen and ink --> I'm very into mixed mediums.

well I better go I have to get up early tomorrow and I have TONS to do.

Jen- *hugs* its ok~ I know you're around. I know having a lot of emails
is time consuming. whenever you get a chance,I'll be around!
JaNell--> maybe I'll share some giggles with you soon! are you going to
be at 11th street on friday? I'm planning on going after I'm finished at
the museum.
Sleep well creative friends!
                                       *HUGS*
                                               Tori Bat!
  

    
Neil -- Some lovely individual took it upon himself to flood the
screen with line after line of open brackets. I stuck around for about
a minute and a half of it, and seeing as nobody else could seem to
post, I abandoned ship. It would've been nice to have been able to say
"h'lo" to all of the other Wellians and Thingies out there.
  

    
Erynn -- I don't know if I would call it "insanely paranoid"; RAW just
likes to jolt people into looking at the world differently, I think. 
To term it "insanely paranoid" puts too negative a spin on it, I think.

Anyone take Latin in highschool, or are we all francophiles?  (eheu,
ardeo)
  

    
Erynn~I take it that you read 'Parannoying Cryptogrumblings', then.
Hope you don't mind being sort of quoted... and Will, too. 

I wish there was some way people from here who read my blog could
comment or sign my guest book without having to sign up for a
blogger... maybe I'll get an email address just for that, because it's
practice writing and I need the feedback badly. Let me know if you like
something... and of course the blogring for Neil's fans is already
bigger than KnoxBlogs, just since Saturday. Both are still pretty
small, but growing. I knew the minute I started the Absolutely Barking
Mad blogring, Neil's Journal would start working again.   

All Hail Contrarian Magic! 
  

    
Dan~I'm a disdainful francophobe, thank you. But it was the only
choice I had for language in High School; the year before they dropped
German, which would have been ever so much more useful than French.
*sigh* 

I still managed to graduate with only six months of language...
and a name that elicits the "are you french? question along with the
"are you Jewish?" question; the latter, I think, prompted by my last
name, and that the church I was raised in attends on Saturday,
celebrates only the Holy Days in the Bible (no Christmas or Easter),
and doesn't eat unclean food (pork, shellfish). I spent way too much
time sitting in the office during psuedo-religious holidays like Santa
Claus and Easter Bunny parties...

Oddly, I found myself in the office again with my oldest for the same
reasons (counting the cotton balls on Santa's beard is not only
offensive to non-Christians, it's also not math!), but now sitting next
to Fundamentalist Christian parents who object to Santy and Easty
because it's demeaning to the actual meaning of those holidays... and
they're right, all that cutesy is... so I found myself in an odd
partnership against religiony stuff in public schools.
  

    
I forgot: http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~mongoose/french/ 
  

    
Sorry, I *meant* "Merde, I forgot!"
  

    
Hello everyone; psychically knocked on my ass after the WTC... think
I'm more-or-less normal again.

Jinx-- congrats on new job!

Tara-- Happy b-day!

Felicitations (and condolences) to all who I've neglected.

Neil-- I get to go with Lisa Bransdorf to the MIT panel....Yahoo!!!

Re: music for creative work-- In college I spent much of my Junior
year writing papers while listening to the Talking Heads's _Fear of
Music._  Listened to it recently and wondered how I ever was able to
focus with it on... it has to be their most aggressive and jarring
album ever.  These days when I write I listen to Eno, Magnetic Fields,
the Klezmatic's _Possessed_ album. 
  

    
I commandeered (I remembered the word!  Originally, I hadn't been able
to, but, by the time I finished, I did.  I'm happy, now) a computer at
my old alma mater, and made it to the chat, and asked my question
about other titles, and then it went and never got itself asked.  d'oh!
 On the plus side, I at least saw Walker and Ninave (well, in a
sense), so that was okay.  And it was my first such chat thingy, too.

Jenny-B:  You don't suck.  At all.  Keep the posts coming (worrying
about profundity only produces blocks, I think).  Concerning anger: 
I've recently discovered a very useful anger management tool.  It's
called a chainsaw.  My father's been doing some yard-work, and I got to
climb an extension ladder and take a chain-saw to some of the lower
hanging branches, and grunt in a manly way doing so (GRRRRHHH).  The
other good one I discovered several years ago, when my father decided
it was time to destroy the wooden bench on our porch, and I got to take
a sledgehammer to it (again, GRRRRHHH!).
'course, you always want a power saw (arm swings down), Nuguh-hoo-ha!

On creativity, and all- I usually have music going in the background. 
My first book was written with *You've Come a Long Way, Baby* (Fatboy
Slim), playing, while I listened to *Breathe* (Midge Ure [formerly of
Ultravox, and the track the album gets its name from was in a Swatch
commercial years ago]) and *Lili* (Lili Haydn, who is fantastic, a
violin-playing singer-songwriter.  Buy the album.  You won't regret it.
 Unless, of course, you don't like it).  Sometimes I play acoustic
music, or something hard like Crystal Method.
But what inspires me?  A lot of things, really.  Neil, Stephen King,
Nick Hornby (sometimes).  A good movie (like *The Sixth Sense*).  A
great song (there are novels in both "Bell, Book, and Candle," by Eddi
Reader, and "Echoes Calling," by Joe McKenna).
My writing career dates back to *Needful Things*.  I stole it from my
father's library when I was in sixth grade and read it in a week.  I
got to the end, finished it, and realized I was a writer.  I've never
had a second thought.  I kind of think of that as my greatest
inspiration.  And Stephen King... well, he's like Garth Brooks.  Even
when he's off, he's *decent*, and when he's on, wow.  *On Writing*?

Bill^2- Sorry about the skunk.  I'm from the suburbs, and I remember
many mornings, walking out my front door, taking the first breath of
the day, and realizing somebody had scared a skunk.

On Babelfish- you're correct.  It is bad.  But it at least led me in
the right direction, and then I went to my big-tall-French-guy
roommate.  Who laughed.  hard.  And then corrected it for me.

Len- I've been thinking of you since the WTC.  And Rocky.  <hugs>
  

    
Will: At last, someone else who listens to Lily Haydn.
  

    
Len, I will also be at the MIT talk (assuming I can get in...
LSC lectures with Cool People tend to have Long Lines Stretching
Down The Corridor hours beforehand, especially since tickets are
free...)  but I admit I don't know who Lisa Brandsdorf is.  Am
I culturally illiterate?  Or was the excitement that you were 
getting to go to the talk at all? 
  

    
JaNell- Even better is how I discovered Lili; she opened at a Matchbox
Twenty concert.  Which sucked, because she was good, and she got booed
because it wasn't her crowd.  I, however, was taken aback.  She stayed
afterward, signing CDs, and I didn't get to actually talk to her, but
I'll say this; she is as lung-collapsingly beautiful as she is
talented.  Very easily makes the list of three or four people I really
want to have a drink with at some point or another.
  

    
Will: I picked her CD up in a thrift store, just because it looked
cool, and cost a buck... that's how I discovered Imani Coppala, too.
All Hail Serendipity!
  

    
Will-- <hugs> right back atcha.  and I'm definately going to have to
look for this Lilli person.

abbe-- you're not culturally illiterate; Lisa is a friend of mine who
helped organize the event.

oh yeah-- Neil-- continuing to spread the word, I lent my copy of AG
to the head of my department... he loved it so much he gave it to his
wife to read.  I hope I get it back.
  

    
Video hounds - oy! Ok... I guess I need to do this. I'll wait until
later in the run when things are at their tightest, though... 
send me blank videotapes at
Dan Wilson
CSLA at WestEd
300 Lakeside Dr.
18th Floor
Oakland, CA 94611
(what did you barking mad loonies think I'd give you my *home*
address?? Who knows what perversities might happen then! .. actually...
no, no... I'm sticking with the work addy.)

Kelly - What sparks my creativity? Deadlines and limitations. Let me
know when a thing has to be finished by and what constraints I'm under
and neater stuff starts to happen. I'm currently having to be extra
creative....

Jenny - You should definitely change the "I suck" habit... 

Well, I spent all day yesterday at the theatre working on animation
sequences for We Can Get Them For You Wholesale... the idea has always
been to have the faces of the people's Peter is going to have "removed"
appear on the screen. First Archie, then Gwennie, then his list of
ten, and then have the screen fill up rapidly with countless
"wholesale" items...
And it freaked the hell out of the production team. It pushed the
piece over the edge. All those faces on the screen literally brought
someone to tears. Everyone agreed that if we had opened the show two
weeks ago, it would have been a great visual. But people are just too
raw right now. It was too much like all the media coverage of people
holding up photos of their loved ones. So... I'm pulling the
animations, and now I also need to do some new visuals and reblock some
things to compensate for the loss. And we only have one rehearsal
left, we're giving the actors a break tomorrow night before opening. 
I am soooo looking forward to getting this show on its feet. I took
the week off work to clean my house and get some rest, and I'm spending
almost all my time at the theatre doing last minute alterations.
Speaking of which.. I need to get back over there.

Dan
  

    
*blinks* Sometimes, coming into the Well first thing in the morning is
like jumping headfirst into a wirlwind... you don't know which way is
up, down, or where you're going to land.  :-)

JaNell - I was very disappointed I didn't get to bother Neil with the
rest of you. Moderated or not. ;-)  (I had tons o'fun harassing him
during a TalkCity chat for Stardust a few years ago... working there, I
could push the moderators to let my questions float to the top. And I
won a copy of the book, too, hehe.) Oh well... I guess the majority of
those folks don't get to bother him here, so I'll take my comfort in
that.

My workplace is haunted. I don't know how else to explain it - once
there is only one person left here, the building starts shaking, loud
thumping noises (that intrude over the music) occur, and perhaps
creepiest of all, the windows and glass doors vibrate. Like someone is
pushing/hitting/pulling and shaking very hard - you can see them moving
(even tho the trees outside aren't moving from wind) just like someone
is trying desperately to get in. I'm not the only one who's noticed
this, either. It's really creepy... I can generally handle about 30
minutes of being alone here at night, and then I literally run out of
the building. And the most annoying thing is, I don't believe in
ghosts...

DanW - I shall certainly get a tape off to you soon. Hafta wait til
payday (Friday), and then I'll find one. 

ToriBat - yeah, I generally like to be covered, too (it's why I like
the frosting effect on my hair so much. One layer of glitter, then
hair!) The glitter wand is great - a nice thick application of silver
glitter. The reason I liked the roll-on gel so much was because it gave
so much coverage, and evenly. Wish I had thought to buy more than one.
I've tried spray glitters, but those don't get much coverage and are
stickier than anything, too - ick. The biggest problem I have with just
applying loose glitter is that it tends to bunch up in certain areas
(like on top/around my chest). How do you manage to avoid that?

Okay, I have to make a flow chart, set up a new eMail account, create
a web page that links to said eMail account, write up a how to use
document, find where our VSS server disappeared to, and all before
noon. I shudder to see this afternoons schedule. Ciao!

-Kelly
  

    
(I've never met that egg in my life, an' you can't pin nothin' on me.)

Neil, here's the list with direct quotes or intros: Jonathon Carrol's
_The Wooden Sea_, Kelly Link's STH, Emma's _War for the Oaks_, our very
own Martha's WALLS and Dunsany's KOED--all purchased within the past
couple months.  I also consider Mike's LHT and Nalo Hopkinson's
_Midnight Robber_ guilty by association, for Lo! Mike appeareth! and
there was much merriment and spitting of drinks onto monitor screens,
and because I noted (right about the time I ordered her book) that you
met Nalo (or she met you) in Canada on your tour.  (I think.  I'm
pretty sure that was in the blogger at some point.)

The sense of inundation is somewhat enhanced by my Saturday night trip
to Barnes & Noble.  I grant you that it was late, and I was a bit
wined-and-dined, but after about half an hour in the SF section, I
decided that the entire field had become a War of the Cover Quotes
between you and Robert Jordan.  Every other book I saw or picked up
seemed to have been blessed by one or the other.

At the time, I felt that I had achieved some profound enlightenment
out of it all, but it's faded, since.  And I'm sure that if I went back
to B&N to check my sources, they'll all have mysteriously disappeared
into the spaces behind the books at the back of the shelves.

-Pam
Who's got nothing against quotes.  In fact, I've got something of a
quote fetish.  But they make me jumpy when they sneak up on me and then
pop up out of neverwhere.
  

    
Neil: And Tori's SLG, of course.

But if you show up on the new Bob Dylan CD I'm gonna buy--"An American
God," Neil Gaiman--I expect that I'll do an impression of imploding
fembots on the spot.