Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Neil--Many hippo birdies to you. I may just get this in under the wire
due to that pesky international date line. Hope it is a wonderful day,
even if you aren't feeling your sparkly best and you are away from
loved ones.

Dan--I have a picture somewhere about the place with an overweight
gentleman sitting on a cooler. The photo is taken from behind and his
pants are riding somewhat low. The caption? Just say no to crack.

Incidentally, I tend to say 'crack-addled' or 'smoking monkey-crack'.
Because, of course, everything is better with monkeys.

JaNell--Told your Matrix story to a dear friend of mine who is a
Matrix fanatic. She is still chortling at her desk as I type.

Jo--You simply must come and visit, just so you can introduce your
amorphous fuzzy blobs to my platform, faux leopard skin slippers and my
bear feet. The ones I wore in hospital once with a very long robe and,
as I was wandering around leaning on my IV pole, I explained to a
quizzical passing nurse that it was a full moon the previous night and
I hadn't quite changed back yet.

Will--Chocolate covered, caramel filled crack? Here in Australia, we
call them Tim Tams.

Tree
Who would like to register a complaint that three weeks from summer,
she has to wear a thick woolly coat and get rained, hailed, lightninged
and thundered on as she walks to work. Grump.
  

    
Tree, Jo~
Stop with the fuzzy slippers! When I packed to move last spring, I put
my wonderful hot pink zebra print flannel jammies and the violet
leopard print flannel jammies into their own clearly marked box, along
with their matching fuzzy slippers...
The box even had a star on it to indicate how important it was.

The box is missing, along with all my finished jewelry and fused glass
beads.
Wood floors get cold, even here.
*whimper*

But, it's been so warm this past week that even long sleeves are too
much during the day, and the nights are crispy clear...
  

    
Oh no!
I hate it when the important things go missing when you move.

even the unimportant things are irritating - three weeks later and I
still can't find the oven gloves. I have tried twice to buy new ones,
but I cannot bear to own the ones I've seen in the shops (I refuse to
own Christmas oven gloves ick ick ick).
  

    
O.K., it's the last update from a very successful and much better
organized Humanities Festival.

Today's event was a comics panel moderated by Michael Chabon, with
Neil, Will Eisner, Scott McCloud, Ben Katchor & Chris Ware.  It totally
rocked.  Chris Ware is hilarious.  Michael Chabon's questions covered
everything from their first experiences with the medium to where they
think comics is going.  There were some excellent questions from the
audience, too--the place was full (I'm guessing between 200-300) and
the questions were all well-informed and thoughtful.  Chris Ware got
mobbed in the signing line, perhaps by people who wanted to reassure
him that his work is wonderful--he is *the* most self-deprecating
person.....Neil said he got some rest last night & is feeling quite
well.  He's headed home tomorrow morning.

Tara, Alia & I decided to go see Monsters, Inc. afterwards.  It's
*really* funny.

This was such a cool weekend--I got to go do things with friends--see
movies & panels & watch videos like a real person.  I took 2 days of at
my part-time job to do it.  Now I'm spoiled & don't want to go back to
my normal 60 hour work week, where I get to socialize about once a
month.  Bugger.  :)

I have got to find one job that pays me enough to live on.  Or win the
lottery......   M.  
  

    
Will - *chuckle*... neither would I. I somehow think that the psychic
energy at that show would keep me from getting too in touch with my
personal associations with the songs.

Jinx - You have big fuzzy bear feet too? Yay! I've had mind for about
a decade now... the soles are awfully thing, but they're still soooo
warm.

Mary - please win the lottery and then be a patron for us poor
struggling artists so that we don't have to work day jobs either... k?

On the Tori front... just got back from the show, which was
phenomenal. Wide range of songs, from current covers, to random covers,
to great songs from her own stuff, to one tune that went all the way
back to Why Can't Tori Read? I'd go on about it, but I just did a whole
long journal entry about it on my site and really want to get some
sleep.
I didn't get a good look at her shoes, although they didn't look
overly scary.
  

    

It was so cool to drive by the Paramount last night and see Tori's name on
the marquee!
  

    
E-mail from Jouni:

AS PROMISED...

I'll give you two picture-updates to
http://www.geocities.com/jouniac/picts.html

First the Neil-Gaiman-birthday-card-comic-thing (hope there isn't too many
misspellings/ weird phrases/ other errors... like I have pointed out
earlier, my english is not even NEAR fluent, but if I would've written the
damn thing in finnish you wouldn't understand a word of it...) which reveals
THE SECRET OF NEIL GAIMAN. Yes Neil, you're nicked.

And second, a long since promised drawing of Joonas (and me).

Hope you like'em.

....and remember to sign the guestbook, and if you have already signed it...
well, do it again, please.

Jouni (going back to work)
  

    
Jouni~ It's great!
I've suspected that all along, and it would explain a lot...
  

    
Jouni -- I love it!  (And your English is excellent.)
  

    
Hello!  This is my first post on the well.

The comics panel last night was brilliant, as was Neil's talk on
Friday.  Has anyone mentioned the business the school kids?  Apparently
before he gave his talk he was asked to talk with some kids about one
of the Sandman collections.  They'd been given it to read so they could
discuss it.  Except that everything in it except "Midsummer's Night
Dream" had been razored out. 

I was just appalled.  I mean, it they think Sandman is too disturbing
for kids, why put Neil through the exercise?  Anyway, I really
embarrassed for Chicago.

But I enjoyed every minute of the talks.
  

    
Wombat~I'm sure that Neil was just thrilled to pieces about the whole
thing...
But maybe he used the opportunity to talk about censorship.
  

    
Belated birthday wishes to "The Neil" - thought I'd be logging on
Saturday, but spent the day re-establishing who's in charge with my
computer.  Of course, the computer is :^)  Sounds like the Humanities
Festival was brilliant - almost makes me wish I was within driving
distance of Chicago these days.

Jo - regarding living with exes (like the idea of them being
"presents" before "exes", btw), I did have that problem with my first
wife when I was in this situation.  I'm 99.9743% sure that it won't
happen this time, both due to the wisdom of time, and because the
dysfunctional nature of that part of the relationship is one of the
(myriad) reasons why we're exes.............

Mouse - hope the nose is healing well, and that you have a grand old
time in N'awlins (or however you want to spell it).  Enjoy some
jambalaya for me (not sure about philly gumbo, so we'll leave that
out).

Mary (and Tara) - sounds like you had a great weekend - much envy from
New England.  You should both stop being so amusing, btw.

Will - saw "Dress to Kill" again on one of the HBOs last night, and it
reminded me to send you my address - e-mail on the way soon!  And
thanks again for offering.

Wombat - Wellcome!  :^)  Sorry to hear about the school silliness -
it's unfortunate that zealots have gotten so much power in school
boards these days.  Okay, maybe "Calliope" would have been a bit much,
but there's not much else in "Dream Country" that I could see being the
smallest problem, especially if we could go on the assumption that
Parents are actually doing any Parenting.  Which we can't, of course,
and that's the shame of it.
  

    
haunted - thanks.

What puzzled me was why bring school kids into this at all?  Did all
the authors have to do this?  Is it funding thing -  we can't spend
money on a humanities festival unless schools get some benefit out of
it?  That's what concerned me.  

That, and the zealotry, of course.
  

    <scribbled by uisgejack>
  

    
Jouni: you are fabulously talented! Thank you so much for sharing the
delightful work with us! off to sign guestbook now...

Will: my friends refer to the local SF bookstore as "The Crackhouse." 
I refer to Amazon.com as my Dealer.

jinx: if we are every in the same city, I will have to sing the monkey
song for you. It came from the addled pates of the Aunties (Beth
Gaubatz and Melissa Tropp), and teaches children both how to count, and
how to freak out adults by singing songs about dead monkeys.

Melissa Tucker: The kids got a special matinee reading. I think that
the humanities festival has always involved school kids--with as many
speakers and such as they can manage. Chicago's just like that. Daley
is obsessed with the school system. Which can be a Very Good Thing or a
Very Bad Thing, depending.  (Seeing as how my best friend teaches as
Jones Academic magnet school, and they have temporary digs all in one
place ratyher than scattered over 3 university campuses while the
proper building's being refurbished by the city, I'm rather pro-Daley
right now.) 

The concern I believe was that one of the kids would take home a copy
of "Dream Country" and an unsuspecting parent would see a drawing of
naked people, and flip out and cause an Incident (along the liens of
"How dare you give my child a book with drawings of naked people and
cats in it!). Seeing as how I was in high school when I read those
issues, it did make my brain go "whuh?" yet I can also understand--tho
I'm not wild about--the overly cautious razoring. Plus the reader in me
is just horrified that anyone would mutilate a book. I like books.
(Except for "The Sheltering Sky" which I seem to remembering flinging
off a Madrid rooftop after being forced to read it at age 18.)

Rick: must I? Darn... and just when I thought I had a career in
stand-up...
  

    
Hmmm, become a hermit for a couple of days and come back to 90 posts. 
And yet I still have nothing to say.

Many happy belateds Neil.

Miss Mousey - hope your nose is okay and the blood came out of the
carpet all right.  I've got annoying spots all over mine.  One of those
stupid moments where I was walking, cut my toe open on something that
shouldn't have been on the floor, and for some reason kept right on
walking.  Must've been on crack.

Jouni - You're just amazing.  I loved the Neil thing and I just went
all "awwww" at the drawing of you and Joonas.

I'm sure there was other stuff I was going to say.  Can't think of
anything else besides the obvious Martha you rock, and I want to read
more stuff by you and I don't care if you write about something that
has already been said because you would say it just so much cooler.

back to boring, boring homework.
  

    
(slippage)

Jouni, I love your new pics :)
The one of you and Joonas is especially cute.

Re Monsters Inc. Sigh. That is one of the hassles of being in one of
the far corners of the earth. For the country that veiws the highest
number of movies per capita, it certainly takes a long time for movies
to get here. 
Except for Lord of the Rings! Which we are getting before everyone
else (I guess hours count <wink>) cos it was made here. Yay!
  

    
Hello everyone.  Back from seeing my grandmother in Albuquerque.  She
is days away from passing.  I was able to tell her I love her, and I'm
so glad.  Has been a fascinating week of family dynamics, and how the
different members deal with illness and death.  I thought I was doing
fine until this morning on the way to work, hearing about the plane
crash.  It's just too much, you know?  Heavy hearts.

That said, I also find so much joy in life lately.  For instance,
Jouni, your art is so beautiful.  Thank you for sharing it.  

Neil, many happy retroactive returns on your birthday.  Sounds like
you had a good time.  What is Endless Nights?  I think I missed
something. I have to say, I too use "Move On" as a motivational kick in
the ass now and then.  

Seeing Tori on Thursday.  Can't wait.
  

    
Meant to say, thank you everyone for your kind thoughts about my Nana.
 :)

-Adriana
  

    

More beams to you and your nana.

And Wellcome to barking mad insanity, Melltucker!
  

    
cool, a co-worker has an extra ticket for U2 tonight and she's just
flat out giving it to me.  wheeeee...
  

    
Empathy about your Nana, Adriana - I've lost all four of my
grandparents now, and the last was the hardest for me. What's going to
be worse, tho, is Mars losing his grandparents. He's not lost any, and
two (one on each side) have just become that Very Sick which means it's
not long before they pass on,... it will be hard.  :-(

And Neil - what is it about people insisting those with green eyes
have blue? I got into the weirdest argument with my inlaws, who
insisted I have blue eyes (they're green, damnit,...)

-Kelly
  

    
Neil--*are* your eyes really green?  I thought they were
brown....uh-oh.  I may start burning down wagons....

Rick--thank you. Tara does have a career in stand-up.  I'm just
silly:)

Wombat--Arf!  We *are* barking mad!  Are you from Chicago?  Tara & I
were the stalker types who showed up at Neil's every appearance (and
gave people Chinese yo-yo's)  We are our own traveling party.  Our
friends Debbie & Alia, who were with us,  are much more dignified (oh,
yeah, riiiight).

Adriana--I'm so glad you got to see your grandmother.  I'll keep you &
your family in my thoughts.  Hope the U2 show helps--it's pretty
cathartic.  Let me know what you think.

Adriana, Kelly--what is it with grandparents?  2 of my friends are
going through this right now, too.  So sorry!  I'll keep Mars in my
thoughts, too, Kel.

Dan--you have so got a deal.  I'd love to be able to be someone's
patroness (including my own!)

What Tara said about the razoring out of the stories in Dream Country.
 I thought Neil implied that the teacher was none too happy about
having to do it, but we should probably ask him.  I'm just glad that he
got to actually *see* the kids this year.  Last year their bus broke
down, and it wound up being Neil in a large room full of food. (They
had laid out a buffet lunch for them all).  Apparently they were all
too intimidated to ask questions this year, so I think the enthusiastic
question askers at the forums were probably a relief.

Did I mention the fact that the piece he & Gene Wolf are writing for
World Horror Con rocks?  Out loud?  'Cause it does.

Mary (off to finish Miracleman)

(and check out Jouni's new stuff.  Yay!)
  

    
Nope I have no bear feet, that's my alter ego Tree,....who also has
this weird thing for monkeys. I just bought her a sticker that has a
picture of a money on it and says,....(brace yourself people) I Fling
Poo.
I have purple furry feet,...well slippers. The ones I had that made
noise broke from running around the comics store I used to manage.

I have lived with an ex, and frankly it was the worst. It was an
unfortunate situation and I left it as soon as I could. No civilness,
no seperateness and no privicy. It blew big fat harry monkey chunks.

I don't happen to have my copy of Dream Country in front of me, I
loaned it to a friend and he doesn't answer his phone this late. But I
sort of recall there is a nude in Dream of 1000 Cats, and that my be
the reson for the razoring. Showing it to minors could be illegal.


Journi, very, very, very, wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

Jinx who is begining to wish she was Tree
  

    
Yup, the teacher was miserable about having to do the razoring, and
the nudity was the concern. 

I wished they'd talked to me about it. I would have suggested a
different book.

Apart from that, it was all excellent. And there was breathing time,
which was something that Madcon didn't have.

I'm now sensitized to this kind of thing. When I was told that my
pproposed saturday schedule in New Orleans was a 5.00 reading followed
by a 6.00 signing followed a 7.00 celebrity thingie, I said no, I
wouldn't be doing the 7.00 celebrity thingie. Instead I would be going
off and eating. See? I learn, slowly...

I'm about a million posts behind... let's see. Starting randomly at
#483 (so if you asked a question before then that I haven't answered,
please ask it again)... Madman, yes, that's from Inuit/Northwestern
Indian lore.

JaNell -- I didn't open it, as I was waiting for my birthday. Now I'm
waiting until probably tomorrow when we're doing the present opening.
(Probably as Holly can't be there and is lobbying for me to postpone
the present part of the birthday for an extra day or two.)

Isn't that from Only the End of the World again?

Kelly -- i think I was lucky to get to the Boston show. Nobody shouted
anything, except for a guy who shouted "Daisy deadpetals".

504 - Mike -- would that be an anthology where we don't write
anything, but get so sleep in the time we would have spent writing the
stories instead?

Mary -- I got through a whole birthday and nobody sang anything.

Jinxie -- I did, thanks...

Erynn -- Faery isn't the english way of spelling fairy --
traditionally, it's the name of the place. (despite the Froud/Lee
Faeries book.)

Jouni -- I wish.

Adiadne -- it's the Endless hardcover I'm working on. Short stories
drawn by lots of great artists.

Mary -- they're hazel. But they're mostly pupil (thus the red-eye in
all photos).