Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Jinxy~I'm a bit homicidal today, too. I introduced two friends who hit
it off so well that they're hip-linked; problem is, one of them was
supposed to do the ConCat website... oh, well, almost done with it now.
By the time they come up for air, it'll already be up. 
  

    
And what a fitness expert you pseudonymously are!
  

    
"Er?" she asked, confused.
  

    
Heh Tree - you know, I wish I had gotten a photo of myself in Friday
nights getup... I put the makeup on drunk, and was afraid it would look
bad, and instead got compliment after compliment all night. I'm
setting up some professional photography sessions in the next few
weeks, and I'll make sure the fetish mermaid is one of the outfits
photographed...  ;-)

-Kelly
  

    
Neil:   Whistlestar, from the Numbers album, the song that inspired
me to publish a fanzine by the same name (I admit sheepishly).  I
wouldn't mind hearing some of the ones you mention.

Trying to remember the song for 4.  Working on a "Banapple Gas"
editorial, now (and hoping they don't sue fanzine    
publishers for grafting song titles into their narratives).
  

    
It looked like something fun to put up there.

Angelina - I thought of posting here to see if anyone else was going
but it was a last minute decision to go and there wasn't enough time to
coordinate with everyone.  Next year though.  :-)  I'm highly
disappointed in the prices for everything.  While it would have been
amusing to chuck squishy tomatoes at the insult guy I just didn't think
three tomatoes were worth two bucks.  "I can do that at home to my
little brother for free!"  And the vendors make me nervous.  They're
too polite when I say I'm not going to buy anything.  I wish just once
one would say "What the hell ya wasting my time for?!  Bugger off!" 
-sigh-

referring to interesting/odd deaths, I now have a story of mine stuck
in my head which isn't nearly as fun as having a story of someone elses
stuck in there.  yargh.

Jen, avoiding homework.
  

    
E-mail from Douglas Spadotto:

    Ok, if you need me for the "Neil Gaiman Pirate Site, by Neil Gaiman"
(this name would pass unnoticed with your publisher, wouldn't it?), just
call. And just because it's quick, doesn't mean it's dirty.
    I'm more than just enjoying American Gods, I'm loving it!
    And about my english, you could put some credit to American Gods and all
of your other works that I read in the original. So, if you never received
this adjective for your work, here it goes: it's "dictatic", or
"educational". (at least for a brazilian who has the patience to read a book
with a English-Portuguese dictionary on the side).

    Thanks for posting,

    Douglas Spadotto
  

    
Doug- I really am impressed. Most of us had to read AG with one hand
on a computer mouse aimed at Google, and the other fearfully clutching
a Britlish/Amlish (British English/American English) dictionary, just
in case Neil started pottering around...
  

    
Tree -- I love that copyright notice, as well as the notices in each
of the four Books of Magic original issues.
     (And as for the cover scan, please do!)

Neil -- I emailed AuthorsOnTheWeb a nice little note volunteering to
assist in maintaining your site, as per your blogged suggestion.  If
nothing comes of that, perhaps Douglas will let me assist him on the
"quick & dirty pirate" site.
     I once heard a rumour that Mr. Gilliam was bandying around the
idea of doing Watchmen as an 8 hour trilogy or mini-series.  Well, I
can dream.
     "Good Lord" was pretty much my reaction upon first viewing of
GMZ's visual bibliography.

Douglas -- If it's a pirate site, will it have a little picture of
Neil with an eyepatch on that says "Aaarrrr!" when you click on him?
  

    
Email from Douglas Spadotto:

    goldennokomis - Yeah, the English/Portuguese dictionary was (or is)
only the beginning for me to. I'm also reading a book about archaelogy
(with emphasis on gods), and my web browser has the strangest History
folder of all time.
                               
  

    
1. Stood in line to pay for breakfast this morning with Pierce
Brosnan.  He's tall.  Alot taller than you think.  Maybe 6'4".  One
learns to become very cool about these things in L.A. lest one look
like an idiot, but I couldn't help thinking that I've seen him (mostly)
naked.  Or keep my hand from shaking, just a wee bit.  I put my coffee
down before I spilled it on him.  And somehow out of this completely
random combination of things, I finally came to a decision _not_ to cut
my hair off.

2. 
so much depends
upon

the red 
begonias

beside the white
picket fence

on the green, green lawns
of Beverly Hills.

3. So I found myself wondering this morning where in the world the
term "shindig" comes from, and whatever does it really mean?  Because I
wonder these sorts of things.  Turns out it apparently comes from a
Scottish game looking quite a bit like ice hockey with a wooden ball. 
From the Gaelic "sinteag," meaning "a leap or bound."  Apparently a
rough game, during the course of which legs were frequently broken, in
the old days.  And after which, to ease the pain, everyone drank a
great deal of whiskey (the winners’ prize).  So I guess that’s why it’s
come to mean something of a party, now.

-Pam
who is attending Adriana’s swingin’ shindig on Tuesday, preferably
*without* any clubs or wooden balls
  

    
Well, things got way too interesting down here today: 
http://webcenter.newssearch.netscape.com/aolns_display.adp?key=200110030712000
150486_aolns.src.
That link is just beginning of the story; last I heard, there were six
confirmed dead...
people are hoping it was just a random old school nut job...
jittery, sad, sick-feeling *sigh*

JaNell, slightly envious of Pamela... yummy!
  

    
A better link to the bus thing is at
http://dailynews.netscape.com/mynsnews/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=51180&id=2001100
31434000165623

Douglas~my bookmarks have gotten very weird this summer...
  

    
    Pamela-B -- It happens in NYC, too.  I was on my way to Tower
Records when my sugar started to drop, so I ducked, entirely at random,
into The Place With The Fries That Shall Not Be Named.  Found myself
in line behind Al Franken, who was elaborately trying to order The
Chicken Components That Shall Not Be Named.  I said "Nice job election
night," this being not long after that, and he said "Thanks," and we
went about our proletarian consumption.
     There's probably a story in the idea that the Plain People Space
and the Celebrity Space really are on different quantum levels, and You
only really see one of Them when the barriers have gotten thin, or
someone like Norma Jean Baker flickers between, uhm, excitation states.
     {And yeah, I -have- read American Gods.}
  

    
Mike- Do you live in NYC?

JaNell- I heard about that this morning.  My first thought was, "Well,
there goes my rides home (I take Greyhounds to South Jersey)".  My
second thought was "Isn't JaNell down around there somewhere.  I hope
she's okay, and she stays that way".

On celeb sightings- I was in HMV yesterday with a friend, and the
monitors were playing *High Fidelity*, and so I said, "John Cusack!" 
My friend thought I meant he was there, and we laughed a lot, and then
I realized, dammit, I haven't had many good celeb sightings up here,
and I'm just about to leave.
Ah, well.
  

    
Will~ I'm a little freaked out... that's way too close, even at two
hour's drive or so. I'd been contemplating taking Greyhound to MadCon,
or Boskone, since I've never flown, and now doesn't seem to be a good
time to start... *sigh*. It didn't help hearing a rumor that there was
a job fair in Knoxville today recruiting for people to re-instate the
Manhatten Project in Oak Ridge, which of course would move us up from
the second level of targets to the first. I sincerely hope that's just
a rumor.

Celebrity sightings - I've not really run into one out of context, but
my friend Miss Nancy was sitting in the Pickle Barrel in Chattanooga
when the Stray Cats were recording up on the mountain, and said,
"wouldn't it be wonderful if Brian Seltzer just walked in tonight?" and
he and his manager did. She has that mojo, I guess... after a U2
concert in Atlanta she went clubbing and met Bono and the Edge... and
my friend Shelley was eating at Kashmir's here in Knoxville and noticed
that the only other patrons were Anthony & Flea from the Chili
Peppers...
  

    
Mike: Yep.  It's like the Levee here, with none of the glamour.

JaNell: It's wrong, utterly wrong, that your friend met Bono and Edge.
 Just as wrong as my Norwegian cousin meeting Sting in an Australian
bar.

Neil: I'd like to email you a question, if I may.  What's the best way
to do that?
  

    
Will-- referring to this w'end's post-- aren't hookahs the best?  In
my neighborhood there are a number of Middle Eastern joints where you
can order a couple of waterpipes, tea and a backgammon set.  Bliss!  

Margret-- Thanks for the tip- I'd love to attend.

Celeb sighting-- happened to a close friend; he sat next to Sondheim
at the Lincoln Center Festival prod. of Four Saints in Three Acts.

Non Sequitors--
1) Reading _Angels in America_, which I saw years ago and hadn't read
since.  Struck again by how much it's like a comic.  Thinking that Jill
Thompson or Chris Bachalo or someone ought to approach Kushner to
adapt it, since a film version doesn't seem to be in the works anymore.

2)  My general emotional bleahs has congealed into a nasty sinus
infection; will stay home tomorrow and take Zithromax in hopes of 
making it to Boston on Saturday.
  

    
Neil--[silently hands you the alphabet glue] The Dagon? You mean the
one you signed in Kentucky for me? The one that says "Tree--I won't
even ASK how you got this one..." That one? It's the one with the
story.

And your post perfectly illustrates why I'm only collecting your
fiction. Just when I'd think I'd have it all, you'd post something like
that. Although your fitness writing may be entirely fictional...

Oh, and I believe I need to drop Maddy an email about child labour
laws and not letting Daddy eat into her profits. :P

Kelly--Don't forget to be drunk for the photo session or you won't get
the makeup just right!

JaNell--It was ME being homicidal, not the Jinxer. Sorry to confuse
you again. Although with what's been going on in your world, I'm not
surprised. :(

And if you really want to read AG properly, I would suggest holing up
in Rocky's spare bedroom. She has SHELVES of mythology books. I'd read
a paragraph and then dash across the room to look up the references.

DanGuy--Ooooh, I hadn't noticed the warnings in BoM. I need to go
check it out. And I believe there is a thingie t-shirt out there with
Neil with an eyepatch. Perhaps someone could scan it in for the pirate
site?

Apropos of nothing, I was rather bemused to walk onto the platform at
my train station and see a honking great Terry Pratchett billboard.
There were mice and a teacup involved.

Tree
Who needs to steal the copy of Knave in her uncle's bathroom which has
Neil's review of 'Labyrinth' in it.
  

    
   Will -- not now.  I did a number of years ago, and after moving
away had two Significant Others who lived there (commuting to your SO
is an interesting lifesubstyle).  The Franken Encounter was on a visit.

   JaNell -- reinstate the Manhattan Project?  Did we forget how?

   Len -- hey nonny sequiturishly: in the Fifties, Joshua Lionel
Cowen, the guy who founded Lionel Trains (and Eveready batteries), gave
his controlling stock to a distant cousin . . . Roy Cohn.  Cohn then
brought in Shorty Medaris, who had worked with von Braun on rocket
development (after von Braun came over here, that is), and Medaris
militarized Lionel -- missile-launching freight cars and so forth -- a
weird sidetrack (you'll pardon the expression) it took them decades to
recover from.
  

    
E-mail from the Other Glen:

Tree wrote: 'And I agree with you on the Jane Siberry thing, but "I
Kissed A Girl" makes me dance.'

I feel it is my duty as a subscriber to Happytown [the Jill Sobule
mailing list] to point out that Jill Sobule wrote "I Kissed a Girl"
and that you should run out and buy her album "Pink Pearl" (right
now!) - so you can see my name in print (as well as owning a spiffy
album with the line "Sometimes, I wish that I was a wrestler/A
mexican wrestler with a red vinyl mask").

- The Other Glen, who has noticed his recent posts have almost
nothing to do with Neil
  

    

Pamela - see my response #1780 for info on how to find someone's e-mail
address.  Neil's bio actually has one, unlike some other folks we know and
love.
  

    
Tree~sorry. My bad, confusing homicidal Thingies.

Pamela~see my blog entry on time for more Miss Nancy...

O. Glen~"I Kissed A Girl" is wonderful, as a song and as a video...

Pamela, Linda, anyone else who's looked in vain for my email ~neener,
neener~ :P

Mike, you said "reinstate the Manhattan Project?  Did we forget how?"
Smart (*discretionary stuffing of fist in mouth*)!
I'm SO glad I'm not expecting any Big Strong Man comfort around
here...
  

    
But I bet you went and checked on that first, Linda... ;-)

*blinks*
Mike, talking with you (or, in this case, listening to you talk)
reminds me an awful lot of that BBC series "Connections"...

-Kelly
  

    
Okay, I just have to say that anyone who can call themselves the Edge,
and get away with it, rocks.  That's instant Rock Star status.
Like Sting.  I'm not a big fan, but, well, the man's name is a verb,
present-tense.  He's not Stinging, and he's not Stung.  He's Sting. 
And his real name is Gordon Summers.  I always wonder how that
conversation went.
"Hey, Gordon.  How are you?"
"Actually, Will, if you don't mind, please, I've decided to go by
Sting from now on."
And I thought I had a problem switching back to Will from 'Bill.'

And, in honor of "I Kissed  A Girl," I nearly changed my pseud to
"Dumb as a box of hammers, but he's such a handsome guy."  Recently, I
was told it's a good thing I'm such a hottie, because otherwise I'd
have *nothing* going for me, which was strange, since I was the geek in
high school, and still pretty much consider myself one.