Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
(Actually, I hate basements, but this was strange and shiny and I had
to have it.)

Jinx: I’m so glad that your mom is doing better.  Hope you’re not
working quite so hard, lately.

Kelly/Madman/Linda: crossing my fingers for you all

Rocky: Thanks so much for the sock puppets story!  I’m glad that Sifl
& Olly live on in your dreams.  (I regret that I missed them--they
sound very funny--because I'm one of those exceedingly weird people
without a TV.)

I appreciated what you said about communication.  I really like what
Moore said about “communication between equals.”  And I agree with what
Neil said that the format can impact that quite a bit.  But I also
think it’s about what people bring to it.  No slight to Neil, but the
coolest celebrities I ever met were the astronauts from the space
shuttle Endeavor.  I met them when I was working in TV, so we certainly
had more time together than you might at a signing, but they behaved
similarly with audience members.  I wasn’t in fangirl mode and they
didn’t seem to be aware of themselves as anything more than “working
boys,” I think.  So the communication was really normal.  But they
still blew me completely away, ya know? 

Neil: I hope that Eddie and Alan do indeed sell more FROM HELL.  Neil
reviews are sparkly, too; post ‘em here.  And I feel very happy to be
part of a cheerful democracy; it’s my favorite form of government.

DanW: I completely agree with you about the “prism” effect; very well
said.  RL’s ex?!?  Huh.

Kelly: I’m much more careful about words in Real Life, too.  I don’t
know why it seems so much more... significant when the air carries
them, than here.  Especially because memories fail, but the WELL
archives live forever, as Linda once warned me.  Maybe because the
response is so much more immediate.  Also, I’m really hoping that the
universe will “smile on me because I finally Got It,” in my Real Life,
too.

Martha: Yay!  She plugged her brilliant self!  (DanW, hold off on
throwing anything at her just yet.)  Yeah, post ‘em here!

Kelly: Congrats to Mars, on his piano.  Madman: my mother keeps
threatening to ship theirs to me (IL to CA), despite *repeated*
statements by me that it won’t fit in our house, because she can’t
stand that I’m not playing it.

Jen: Don’t leave us completely!  Emails to Linda are a must.

Miss Mousey: Hiya!  We missed you.

Rick: I like the more “personal” feel of ALL, too.  My first reaction
on hearing the whole thing was, oh! they’ve gone back to Irish pub
music!

Madman/<streak>: Wow, that was a trip.  I think I know your mother, by
the way.

Will: Good luck and bon voyage!

-Pam
who would love to read Mike's reviews of just about anything,
including (but not limited to) cereal boxes and elevator permits
  

    

I think the basic problem with fanboy/girl behavior is that you only have
a very few seconds in which to communicate the impact the celebrity in
question has had on your life so there's no option other than to spew it
all out in the time it takes them to sign your book and then stand there
and stupidly grin while they say thank you.  It's like there's this
intense desire to connect and you only have a few seconds in which to
present yourself as a human worthy of connection and it's truly hard to do
with dignity.

We're fortunate here to have had the chance to get the blithering out of
the way and to also have common experiences on which to remark, which in
itself elevates us from those who haven't had these chances and
experiences, leaving them no option but the blither and spew in step one,
above.
  

    
slipped by pamela!
  

    
Speaking of elevator permits, an amusing story.  (Well, amusing to me
at any rate.)  In college I lived on the "Edens quadrangle".  The
permit in the elevator listed its location as "Edens Quadranger",
though.  Thence sprung the myth of the Edens Quadranger, the illusive
masked man who rode his trusty steed through the quad late at night,
protecting those on late-night trips to the library, the intoxicated,
and all others slinking back to their beds at ungodly hours.
  

    
That's *Great*!
  

    
For me, some situations are simply fanboy.  I don't _want_ to meet people
in a dynamic where they are the Star and fans are pressing on them all
around; hence when I met a merchandise guy for Richard Thompson at a
concert and we hit it off (and dated a bit on and off for a while), and he
said after the show, "So, you wanna meet Richard?", I glanced over at the
knot of glowing people around the singer, said, "Nah, what would I have to
say to him?--he could already figure I think his stuff's great" (and he was
already detained by other strangers telling him the same) and went back to
helping fold t-shirts with someone I already knew I enjoyed talking with.

But, that's me....

(too many clauses in a sentence girl)

In a non-fanboy situation I'll swallow my innate shyness.  A couple of years
ago I recognized the director/star of a small Barcelonan film called "Costa
Brava" in my neighborhood post office.  She must have been crashing with
someone in the neighborhood while her film ran a week at the Castro; I'd
seen it earlier at a film festival.  Figuring she doesn't get bothered a
whole lot by strangers on the street, not being particularly famous yet in
the wider world, I did step up, say hello, say I really liked her film, say
goodbye, take my mail and leave.
  

    
E-mail from Kathy Li:

Neil, sorry to hear about the irritating-MERRILY production.  I love that 
show, too, partly because it was my introduction to Sondheim's work, but 
mostly because the production I saw [La Jolla Playhouse, 1985] was not only 
great, it DID fix broken things (e.g., Lapine came up with the Sputnik 
scene ending, not the original high school graduation [no Mary], so that 
Mary's wholly integrated into the full story, rather than feeling like a 
late add-on).  One wonders what Lapine's cooking up for INTO THE WOODS, now.

Pamela, I'm also hoping Eddie (as the publisher) sells lots more copies of 
FROM HELL.  I gently hinted at the Barnes & Noble that shares a mall with 
my local googleplex, that since the film was running just across the way, 
it might behoove them to carry a copy or two.

I saw the film yesterday, and while it worked, it did seem to have missed 
most of the (excuse) meat that made FROM HELL such a great read.  When a 
work is based on history and historical accounts, changing plot points, 
characters and situations  to streamline the story is kinda missing the 
point.  As does dropping all the big themes.  Ian Holm does his best with 
what's left, but it's all too little and too isolated.  But it's sort of an 
impossible book to adapt for film, Chapter 10 in particular.  The only 
filmmaker I could see successfully tackling Chapter 10 would be Greenaway 
(I'm thinking "Anatomy of Birth" in PROSPERO'S BOOKS); and then I'm not 
sure I'd want to see it.  I had a hard enough time going to sleep last 
night, after re-reading it.

--Kathy
  

    
        I quite agree.  Just came from the film, and was disappointed.  I'll
be posting my full spiel on it in the movies conf, but I did want to
mention here that it bears about as much resemblance to Moore's work
as, say, _Time After Time_, and about as much resemblance to historical
events as _Pocahontas_.
  

    
Hey all, worked 13 hours, interspaced by phone calls from Walker, the
demon, and my family. Then tracked down Walker and co., and got gas
(for the car for those who know me), got money, and went back to my job
and showed the casino off and got sushi, have to be back at work about
10 am cause I was swamped and need to catch up. He says hi 

Pam thanks for the concern. It's been a slow process, but it's getting
better. Work is lovely, I adore the new job and the hours barely
bother me cause I was working way more before.

JInx who was going to post a new story and do her nails but now is
going to sleep.
  

    
Martha, y'should get Mike to tell you his Richard Thompson story sometime.
The one involving a lapel pin for a game company.

Apropos of fanboy/fangirl/fanthing behavior and all that, I read something
on a certain WELLbean's weblog that sent me to the following site, which is
an amazing commentary on the subject by somebody who should know. Go thou
and read. (And thanks to pnh, whose weblog hepped me to it in the first
place. Very cool indeed.)  Janis Ian, getting nervous about going to her
first science fiction convention, and how she wouldn't be able to talk to
all these people she was in awe of.  (This, mind you, is somebody who
majorly influenced my life, so to read about her being all flustered at
meeting Lois McMaster Bujold, for example, who *is* incredibly talented and
a very interesting person but who also is regularly seen around my living
room during critique sessions and is therefore just another Incredibly
Talented Regular Person... well, I had a point when I started this sentence,
and I *think* it was something that boils down to: a lot of the best folks
are sometimes a little nervous (or sometimes even a *lot* nervous) about
meeting people whose work means a lot to them, but this comes from (I
think) one of the common traits the best ones possess, which is that they
aren't into either exalting or abasing themselves or the person whose work
means a lot to them.  They just let whatever interacting happens,
happen. A "thank you for writing this book" might be the perfect sum total
of what they can get into words, and wise the ones who neither need to
tell an author (or in Ian's case, a singer) their life story, nor make her
tell them hers.

Anyhow, here's the URL:
http://www.janisian.com/news-oct2001wc.html
.
  

    
Oops. Left off a parenthesis, there.  Here it is:  )

And all those things about learning to be balanced, about neither exalting
nor abasing, well.... those things took me a while to learn, and I still
have some major wince-worthy memories. (Oy, do I.) But life's a lot better
now, for me and for the folks what winds up on the receiving end of whatever
"thank you for writing this book!" I do. Heck, if I can learn, anybody can
learn. <rueful grin>  Thought I better 'fess up. Been there. Done that. Hid
my face in the t-shirt and slunk home.
  

    
Anything to do with Scrabble, lioness?

I'm happy to tell anyone I like their book/songs/movie/whatever, but in that
weird setting that is backstage/signing line/whatever--I say one thing and
I'm off.

Like, I bought the Chieftain's newest album when they opened for BNL a
couple of months ago, and they were signing over intermission so I got their
autographs, and I said "I was really pleased to find out you guys were
opening for BNL".

"So were we!" said whichever one it was who answered me (I dunno, they look
exactly alike).  Then I left to go back to my seat and let the 80 people
behind me get on with it.
  

    

Thanks for the URL, Elise!  I love the idea of Janis Ian going all
fangirl, and at a con, no less!  (Although why she shouldn't is behind me,
as I've done it myself.)

I also have an elliptical Janis Ian story.  Maybe elliptical isn't the
right word - it's about a dinner she didn't go to - that led to a great
adventure.
  

    
OK, Rick wins the "Reading Mary's Mind" trophy of the day.  I just
sent the link to the Eddie quote generator home so I could post it here
today, and the 1st post I read when I logged in was "Where is it?" 
O.K. it's at:

www.izzard.co.uk/quotes.htm 

Enjoy!

I'm interested to hear why folks didn't like From Hell.  I have not
yet read it (dying to, now, pun fully intended), so I walked in with a
clean slate.  Don't know that much about the Ripper murders, just dug
the hell out of the mood, tone & performances--Coltrane, Depp, Holms,
Richardson.  I thought the filmmaking was pretty faboo,
too--cinematography in particular.

I didn't read it on purpose--I always enjoy books more than movies,
and I didn't want to spoil this one for myself.

Uh-oh.  Yammering.  Le sange est fume une pipe!

Mary (reading The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman) 
  

    
That is a wild URL, elise, thanks for passing it on!

In my estimation, reviews of From Hell seem to fall into two camps:
those who have read Moore and Campbell's work tend to feel let down by
it, those who have not tend to like it for its mood and performances.
  

    

(um, that should be "beyond me" not "behind me", of course)
  

    
I kinda like "behind me," castle. And I will note that your post #177 said
all the stuff I was trying to say, only better and more succinctly, on this
topic.

Martha, if there's a Mike and RT Scrabble story, I know it not. But I'd like
to. (Or was Scrabble in reference to something else? And now I am musing on
a wild goose theory that RT is God. <grin>)

Mary, I'm hoping to see From Hell sometime soon. I've read it, but a few
years ago, and it's in the back of my memory, not the front, so it's more of
a palimpsest than a memory, at this point. (Or do I mean pentimento?
Suddenly feel like the Dowager Duchess of Denver; must make a note to have
Franklin find my copy of _The Stars Look Down_. Will suggest Franklin look
in drawing room by Ahasueris' nest of laprobes, where she puts things --
Ahasueris, not Franklin. Peter probably right about my grammar and
fortuitous circumstance of having detectives handy to discover strayed or
missing objects direct.)
  

    
I just know that Richard Thompson is a Scrabble fiend, is all, having named
one of his tours the Two Letter Words tour.  So it would have been the
obvious board game--
  

    
Ooooh!  I just realized that Mike has his own conference, now.

<scoots over on the electronic bench>

I’m just back here to stick a little tongue out at Neil.

I see now that if you want an answer to the “why fantasy” thing, you
need to invite pnh to ask it, 'cause you can't say no to pnh.

Maybe we should invite him to ask it again, over here.

But Mike answered it so gorgeously, it’ll cover you both.

-Pam
"I write fantasy because it's there." -Patricia McKillip
  

    
Martha--if Richard Thompson isn't God, he should be.
  

    
Man, I hope not!  I wouldn't want to be in the same room with God!
  

    
Oh boy, lots of posts to sift through....

Where to start...

Neil- I read the FAQ on NeilGaiman.com today. I have come to the
conclusion that the person who wrote the pleading letter begging you
not to give away the Forgotten God was written by you (It's only a
hunch. My husband just informed me that it's rude to assume, and I
certainly don't want to come off as rude) ...though I don't mind,
because it hinted that we *can* figure out who it really is if we look
hard enough, meaning that he is real and not something you
invented...so I'll continue searching. 

...Yes, from what I hear Harlan would be a wonderful person to call
when you're bored. An aquaintance of mine tells me that once her
Literature class in college got bored, and, coincidentally, the
proffessor knew him personally. So he calls him on speaker phone.
Apparently, Harlan enjoyed talking to the class so much that they
couldn't get him off the phone. 

Will- I'm not surprised. I haven't used Hotmail in ages. It's become a
cesspool of junkmail. I'll e-mail you shortly. I've tried to edit my
bio, but I can't figure out how. 

Dan- congrats on the shows. I really wish I had the means to go. 

Martha- Yes, write more. Reviews. Philosophical Commentary. Fiction.
Whatever. I'd be happy with anything.

Muholland Drive...Hmmm... I thought that was supposed to be a new TV
series by Lynch that got canned by ABC. It's going to be a movie? How
exciting! I liked the story line, and was disappointed when I heard it
wasn't going to happen. 

Re: Neil working with David Lynch. That would just be too good to be
true. 

Streak- I'm so glad you're back. I was about to ask what happened to
you, but no one else was asking, so I figured they knew something I
didn't. Jess and I have been talking about moving to Portland for a
while now. I hear it's expensive because of all the Calafornians moving
there. Is that true? I also hear that it's "the place to be" as far as
art, music and culture goes. I think it's up there with Berlin. I
haven't been there in years, but I want to live in a city (and it
doesn't have to be huge.) near nature, mountains ect...so it sounds
pleasant.
Tell me what you honestly think of it. 

I'm going to see Tori tomorrow! Hurrah! I hope she plays "Flying
Dutchman", though I'll be happy with whatever she plays. I haven't seen
her solo and a long time. It'll be intense, nostalgic even. I'll try
and pick up a tourbook too. 

Okay. Bye-bye.
  

    
Erynn -- I'd never make up an FAQ letter. So no, that one came in,
like all the rest of them, from an anonymous punter. There's around
2000 of them currently in the in-box, which means that there's no point
in making one up:someone's already written it (today's FAQ questions
rec'd included "Will you marry me?" and  "I have never eaten sushi. 
You seem to eat it a lot. What is the best thing to try if you are
nervous?" and, bizarrely, similar variants on both of these have come
in before, more than once. And then there was our Tree making a
hypothetical about my school days, and getting it right, and a dozen or
so others.)

There is a difference between phoning Harlan and telling him you're
bored, and phoning Harlan with an audience on the speakerphone.
Audiences are his meat, his drink, his manna and his modelling clay.

-- hasty dash through from Neil who has been installing the two-way
satellite direcpc system all day and ought to go to bed
  

    
E-mail from Johanna:

lioness: oh!  i was just re-reading "busman's honeymoon" last night.
and i've been having a very dowager duchess sort of week.
though when i'm incoherent i doubt i'm as entertaining and erudite
as she was.
so nice to run across other people who like those books... :)
  

    
        Portland is nice.  It's got plenty of good restaurants, it's
extremely walkable, drivable, and navigable, and yes, it's got lots of
art, music, and culture.  The Oregon Ballet Theater is nationally
respected, even if it's at present the ego-toy of a self-impressed
choreographer named James Canfield.  The local music scene is
supposedly awesome, though I'm far too unhip to know a local music
scene from a punch-drunk monocular surfboard designer.  The weather,
yes, involves rain all autumn and winter, but I happen to like rain so
it's cool.  The oddest aspect of Portland is probably the local
culture, which is just about exactly 50% unreformed hippies and 50%
out-and-out rednecks.  There is of course a large middle ground, but
it's the extremes you notice, and they do provide an essentially
workable model for understanding local culture.  Every election year
the Oregon Citizen's Alliance proposes an outrageous anti-gay ballot
measure, and every year it's defeated by around 51%.  I attend Reed
College, which is one of the best and most eccentric colleges in the
country, though it does poorly in rankings because it refuses to
participate in them.  It adds a nice layer of young genius stoners to
Southeast Portland.
        Now the real question: cost of living.  By the standards I've been
used to in most urban areas, Portland is dang cheap.  Throw a rock
anywhere in this town and you _will_ hit an available house or
apartment.  I'm currently paying $750 for a three-bedroom place that
I've dubbed the Winchester Mystery Duplex, which will make sense if you
see it.  It's very damn weird, so I'm getting a good deal on the rent.
 However, it's a pretty straightforward matter to find a house to rent
for around $1000-1200, and apartments are still less.  Finding a
1-bedroom for $600 would mostly entail asking for one.  If you're
willing to tolerate a neighborhood that's far out, seedy, or otherwise
sucky, rents fall lower.  Eating in Portland is as expensive as you
make it.  There are a lot of very tasty midrange restaurants (La
Carreta is particularly recommended; superb Tex-Mex and wonderful
frou-frou drinks) and if you're willing to go looking for higher-end,
you can find Lemon Grass (Thai food so hot flames _will_ shoot out your
ass) or the Heathman Hotel (30-year Laphroaig at the bar!) or some of
the other places I can't really afford to eat.  Portland is also
blessed with a very potent sex industry, and has all the strip bars,
porno shops, and "lingerie modeling" places you could ever hope for. 
The best place for selection is Castle Superstore (more toys than you
knew existed) or for specialty or leather items Spartacus (beware the
"I'm so cool for working here that I don't feel like actually helping
you" attitude in the staff).  Portland also has Powell's Books, which
is on anybody's short list of the best bookstores to grace Earth.  The
only place _remotely_ contending with it in my personal ranking is the
Shakespeare and Co. store in Paris.  So, yes, there are lots of places
to blow your disposable income, and lots of legal video-gambling bars
and diners to just plain waste it. (These have spawned strong support
industries of pawnshops, cash-advance agencies, and car-title loan
joints)
        Well, this is quite a bit longer and more irrelevantly dicursive than
I'd intended.  Ah well, screw it.  It's two in the morning and I'm not
in a trimming mood.