Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

Well, Mary, I hope you mean it's like crack in that it's completely 
addictive!  If you do, then yes, indeed, I'm happy.

squeaks, you can have your name back now, my voice has completely 
returned, although it did get a bit creaky in the final hour of my all-day 
talkfest yesterday on my annual visit with my best friend.  (And I don't 
know when marvy took that photo of Tori, but it is die for, fully of 
happiness in your heart when you do so.)

Since my best friend also makes jewelry, we determined we would spend the 
day visiting LA-ish beadshops, and chose to visit one in Redlands, 
completely unaware of the traffic nightmare that faced us on the 91 
freeway.  Ohmigod.  We crawled.  But, if it hadn't been for the horrendous 
traffic I never would have stopped at the Mission Inn in Riverside to use 
the restrooms, and I never would have had the chance to show my friend and 
Mike all the nooks and crannies I discovered when I lived there and I am 
SO happy to report that Aunt Alice is still there in all her 
still-unsolved mysteriousness, even though the place has been thoroughly 
renovated.  

We got back from LA about an hour ago. Belated Christmas happies to all of
you and best, best wishes for a wonderful 2002!
  

    
E-mail from Jen:

Ninave - Thanks, but the cancellation is probably a permanent thing.  Even 
when I had the money to be a member I didn't post enough to topics to justify 
the expense.  I found myself going to fewer and fewer conferences and then I 
looked up one day and realized I'd pretty much gone back to just lurking at 
this one.  

Lord of the Rings - Saw it last week and really liked it.  Probably would 
have loved it but I never did manage to read the books when I was younger, 
read too many ripoffs instead, so I didn't get to watch it with the same 
anticipation and hope that most of my friends did.  I am going to read them 
after seeing all the movies though.

Neil - I just need to check and make sure you've seen Sherlock Jr.  Everyone 
needs to see that movie.  Now.  ::squints at everyone in what she hopes is a 
menacing way::  Oh, and as long as we're on the subject, got any silent film 
recommendies of your own?

Golden apples - That made me start to write a little playlet thing.  So far 
Neil hasn't said much and Aphrodite got saddled with the name Bob.  I thought 
of posting what I had so someone else could continue but it wasn't worth it.

I just read To Say Nothing of the Dog and really liked it and I can't for the 
life of me remember how it got recommended to me in the first place.  Was it 
discussed in one of the incarnations of this topic once upon a time?

Why is it that when I decide to shut up I suddenly can't stop talking?

Jen, who is sickened at all her "I" statements, and is going to practice 
reading out loud some more.
  

    
Jen-Hah. I name everything either "Bob", "Fred" or "Herman". The cave
crickets that constantly invaded the bathroom in the trailer we lived
in were "Hermans" (the stripey cactus we rescued at an estate sale is
called that, too); the small purse that my father gave my mother as an
engagement gift (alligator skin, with a real stuffed baby alligator on
it, eeeewwww) is named "Fred", whenever he gets a showing. My old
computer's hard drive was named "Bob"...

Silent Movies: don't get me started. A huge section of my library is
books on movies from the getgo 'til about the forties....
  

    
Michelle,  re: 1253, take your time - do whatever
evil-laughter-inspiring things you want to do to it! That only makes it
sound more fun.

Regarding LotR, I liked it even more the second time. The first time I
watched it was the very first showing, at 12:01am Wednesday, after
having worked for 9.5 hours at school and having been awake since
5:30am the previous day. I didn't fall asleep during the movie, but I
think I was so overtired that I lost the thread now and again. Seeing
it a second time did wonders for me. 

Our Xmas tradition used to be to get up at 5 in the morning and to try
to wake our parents. They'd get up at about 6 (after spending an hour
hiding under the covers, telling us to go away, pretending to be
asleep, and Dad, pretending to be dead), and we'd rush into the living
room and crowd around the tree like vultures. Those were the days!
We're all older now - the youngest is 18, but we do not sleep in and
open presents later. Oh no. We open them all on Xmas eve. None of us
wants to wake up early, but we do want to open our presents. Everyone
goes home for Xmas eve, Dad still plays Santa, and we open all our
presents there. It's fun. 

This year's holiday season was delightful.

Jen,  I'm not Neil, but I would recommend any of the silents with
Lillian Gish. There's something about her that fascinates me. And don't
worry about "I" statements - there's nothing wrong with them. 

New Year's is coming up - hope everyone has plans to spend it with
people they love. 
  

    
Neil - ok... that's just damn silly. 
I have, of course, forwarded the url to friends who appreciate such
silliness as much as I do. *grin*

Linda - glad you're feeling better. Isn't the Mission Inn beautiful? I
stayed there once on business, years ago. 

Jen - do you mean Young Sherlock Holmes? Or is there something called
Sherlock Jr.??
  

    
Silents:
Lillian Gish is good for drama, Dorothy Gish for comedy; both are in
"Orphans of the Storm". Um, Griffith is a good place to start
(http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/BTC/direct5.htm). Look up Eric Von
Stroheim for the controversial films. Mack Sennett for slapstick.

try: http://www.silentera.com/

Oh, don't forget SF/Horror: Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Le
Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon), *Metropolis* (Gorgio Morodor
version)

"Greed" is good, but grueling to watch, and ZaSu Pitts was normally a
comedienne, and had difficulty getting people to take her seriously as
an actress (the name didn't help)...
I have the book that one is based on, "McTeague".

Look for Buster Keaton movies, and Marion Davis (...rosebud...);
Harold Lloyd (stuntman). Theda Bara (vamp movies).

See, I got started.
  

    
Hello all! I've been a lurker here since about September, and thanks
to Christmas, I finally got an account!  I got money from both sets of
grandparents; how amusing that people who have never been on the
internet should fund my new account!  
     I don't have much to say in the way of introducing myself.  I was
Viciouskitty on the Neil Gaiman website board, back before I got bored
and faded away.  I have a blog on Xanga, I don't know the exact
address but I'm on the Barking Mad blogring.  I live in Montgomery,
Alabama, which is a little slow in the way of culture, but has an
amazing Shakepeare park, art museum, and theatre.  
     I hope everyone had a great holiday! I'm sooo happy to be here
finally!
  

    
Yer silly, VK, it's www.xanga.com/ViciousKitty
  

    
Neil: Oh.  My.  God.  I will never, ever be the same.  That had so
many moments of pure platinum that I can't even prioritize them into
favorites.  Except... Nope.  Can't do it.  THANK YOU!!!  Thank goodness
it's the holiday week, and nobody's here, because I was yelling, "Oh
no... No!" at my monitor and laughing so hard I cried.

I will now propagate this to the known universe.

Mary:  Wow.  I'm so jealous!!!  Did you see all those shows in
Chicago?  I have to admit that I didn't really care for Jacobi's
Hamlet.  But I'd *love* to see him do Cyrano.  Actually, I have to
admit that I've yet to see a Hamlet that really turned me on.  There
was one in Chicago that I think would have been it, but I missed it. 
*sigh*

JaNell: There is something about you with your mom's
Fred-the-alligator-bag that just makes me happy. ; )

Jen:  "I" away!  Go for it!  We think you're interesting.  Keep
emailing!

Vicious Kitty: Hail and welcome!  One of my favorite nephews lives in
Alabama.  I remember it as a place of much kudzu and the lake where I
learned to water ski.
  

    
I've decided this is tangentially on-topic, in the ways of the Mob.

I have this tendency, when I'm really tired, to get less and less
sleep.  We were just talking about comfort books, but really it's just
*reading*, for me.  Any kind of books, even if they screw up my head
and keep me awake all night, fall under the category of "comfort books"
by virtue of the basic fact that I read them.

I'm tired and stressed out from the past month of holiday craziness,
so last night I just wanted to sit in my living room in front of the
twinkly tree and read "just a little bit."

So I grabbed Jane Yolen's _Sister Emily's Lightship and Other Stories_
off the shelf of "currently reading" because I thought I was in less
danger if I were reading short stories.  You know: just one or two and
then toddle off to bed.  But the first story was "Blood Sisters," which
is a story about two characters from THE BOOKS OF GREAT ALTA.  So, of
course I had to grab *that* off the shelf to track them down, and
remember exactly who they were and how their story played out.

So I ended up rereading the *entire* BOOKS OF GREAT ALTA last night. 
Instead of sleeping, I was up until 1:30, late as hell to work this
morning and I'm even more tired than I was last night.  And I'm
tripping Jane Yolen on repeat in a mental fugue state.

And it's all good.

God, I love reading.
  

    
Well, I'm back home from Detroit.  Glad to hear that everybody seems
to have had a nice holiday.  Honestly, it's hard to imagine how mine
could have been better.  The fact that it was Christmas was almost
incidental - it was just the reason that everybody got together.

High points - sitting and talking with my grandmother and
great-grandmother (who I probably haven't seen in 20 years - she turns
94 in February), and just enjoying holding their hands as they talked. 
My grandmother, in particular, is in failing health - she's always
been a beautiful (and vain, quite honestly) woman, and spent too many
years living on cigarettes and coffee in order to maintain her beauty. 
Over the last 3 years, things have started going downhill,
particularly because she's had to take steroids for the last 30 years
to help her breathe, but that's exacerbated an existing case of
osteoporosis - her bones can no longer support her body.  I'll probably
be back in town in August, but it was nice to see them and enjoy their
company.

On top of that, I got to spend a lot of time with my dear friends
Kathleen and Liz.  It's been difficult to keep in touch with Liz lately
(Kathleen and I are "racing buddies", so we talk all the time),
primarily because she works nights (she's the overnight DJ on the local
public radio station), but she's in a really great place in her life
right now (great new apartment with her boyfriend - seems like a great
guy - plus a big raise from the station last year which allows her to
live on one job) and made lots of time to spend with me.  It was great
to re-strengthen that bond.  It was also pretty cool to have her
wishing me a safe flight on the air as my dad drove me to the airport
at 4am..............

I also got to spend some time with my favorite cousin, who has had her
first child since the last time I saw her.  He's teething right now,
so he was a bit of a "velcro baby" during the family get-togethers, but
she and I got together for chai yesterday and talked for an hour or
so.  I'm so proud of (and pleased for) both her and her brother - they
had difficult childhoods, with plenty of good excuses for not making
much of their lives.  To their credit, they've both really pulled
things together in the last few years - he has his own
construction/remodelling/maintenance business, and she teaches art in
an elementary school.  It's amazing to see this person who I remember
as this cute little girl really growing into an accomplished, vital
woman.

To top things off, I saw LOTR two more times (once with my dad,
sister, and brother-in-law, and once with my mom), for a total of three
times in the first week - I'm running neck-and-neck with Pamela, it
seems.

On the third viewing, the pacing didn't seem quite as rushed.  It
still seems to me that the book, which is anything but action-packed,
has somehow been changed into a high-intensity action film.  It's like
the pacing of the book looks like a sort-of irregular, mostly-flat EKG,
with very occasional peaks, and the movie only has the peaks.  This is
particularly evident during the first two hours, which seem to lack an
emotional center - as one review said, it feels a bit "one damn thing
after another" at times.

(Mild SPOILER alert - but really, it's not like you haven't had time
to read the books!)  However, the last hour *really* makes up for that.
 For me, the shot that really sells the whole emotional core of the
film is just after the Fellowship leaves Moria, and Frodo has gone on
ahead of the rest - Aragorn calls out to him, and there is a cut to a
closeup of Elijah Wood as he slowly turns back toward the camera, his
eyes welling up with tears, with a majestic, mountainous background in
the distance.  That one shot just encompasses, so simply, the enormity
of the task they've set out to accomplish, and the price that they're
paying.  Really a fabulous film - I'm still stunned that they pulled it
off so well.

Okay, enough of my yackin'!
  

    <scribbled by dfowlkes Tue 3 Jul 12 10:14>
  

    
Dan--Oh, that was so sweet of Lori!   ah.  I will be touched all day
long now.

Angelina.
  

    

I love stories about SOs who do that!

And a note to whoever it was who complained about not being able to find 
AG at Barnes and Noble:  it's so totally typical.  About three topics back 
I posted about my attempts to get my local B&N to host a Neil reading for 
AG and how totally rudely they treated me.  I don't do business with 
Barnes and Noble if I can help it.
  

    
That was me, Linda. I guess I'm spoiled by my local B&Ns - both the
ones I frequent are a much better standard than what I experianced down
here. The staff are generally friendly and helpful, some know me on
sight, they know their books, and things like that. I generally get
better treatment there than at any of the other local bookstores. 

Actually, curious - does anyone else do this? I have certain stores I
go to for certain books; they're generally all chain stores (my one
trip in to Elliot Bay Books wasn't a good one), but I've found they all
stock different things. The downtown Seattle B&N is great for
history/cultural studies books, the downtown Borders has a good
magazine selection, and music section staff who know really diverse/non
mainstream stuf. B&N Redmond is the one to go to for human sexuality
books, Tukwila Borders has the best science fiction fantasy section
I've seen (outside of Powells, and is probably better for new stuff),
and the Redmond Borders has the best international music section.

Please don't tell me I'm the only one who's that persistently,...
obsessive about her bookstores?  :-)
-Kelly
  

    
Will someone please explain to me why women are invisible to car
salesmen?
  

    
JaNell, no worries. Last time I went into a car dealership, I got
utterly ignored for a good fifteen minutes when I first walked in.
I'd've walked right back out again in half that time if I wasn't
interested in making money off of them.
  

    
No, there are worries; the salesmen stood right there talking only to
Cam as if I had nothing to do with it. We have three cars, one we can
use (clutch out in one, the other off insurance), all sticks, and Cam
has knee surgery coming up this month, so we need an automatic, or
actually two, as I can't clutch properly since that accident last
year...

Being broke doesn't help, but at least we have cars to trade. And I'll
not buy from some sexist jerk, so we're eliminating sources fast. Once
I actually had a guy refuse to sell a Mercedes standard when he
realized that my (ex) husband didn't drive; he believed that women
shouldn't drive stick shifts...
  

    
Ah, well, in that case, you're going to need a little help from Cam.
My ex was car-shopping with me, and it seemed that the only way to get
the car salesman to talk directly to her was for me to look away any
time he looked in my direction. Eventually he got the point.
  

    
Neil, someone from your message board has figured out patterns for
Sandman characters made from Legos:
http://www.neilgaiman.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000348.html

And I thought *I* had too much untapped creative energy...
  

    
I just came across something that might be of interest to those of you
who have enjoyed artist Michael Zulli's collaborations with Neil over
the years.  He is currently illustrating "Delicate Creatures" a modern
day fairy tale written by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. 
Check it out:  http://www.comicon.com/ubb/Forum13/HTML/000082.html
  

    
JaNell, I sympathize about the car salesmen.  I look about 14, so you
can imagine the attention I get.  Bill's right though.  It helps to
have your partner help. Try a Saturn dealer.  At least then you get to
kick the door panels until someone helps you! ;) (Note: they're bendy.
The salesmen kick them themselves.)

Kelly, I'm that obsessive about bookstores too. Of course, we only
have the two large chain ones and two small mall chain ones, with
miscellaneous used ones, so probably not the ordeal to visit all of
them as it would be for you. 

Well, I just found out that a book which somehow migrated to me that
my aunt had when she was young, is selling for up to $200 in mint
condition.  Now, my book is stained and the dust cover is split, none
of which is my fault so it isn't worth anything, but really! At least I
know mine has been read.  The book (A Walk Out of the World, for those
curious) was published in 1969, and I just don't see how someone can
keep a book mint after 30+ years, especially when they couldn't have
known it would be worth so much.  Unless they didn't read it, which is
just a shame. 
     On a lighter note, in my local Books-A-Million today, I saw a
bookmark with Boromir from Lord of the Rings.  It has a fairly weighty
gold metal ring attached to the tassel, with some engraving.  The
reason I had to buy it, was for the warning on the back.  "This product
is not recommended for very young children, as rings can present a
choking hazard."  This just attracts my sense of the absurd.  The One
Ring!  The ring which draws immense evil,which many people lose their
lives trying to obtain, is warned against being a choking hazard!

Ok, maybe it's just me.  _I_ thought it was funny, anyway. I'm
slightly loopy right now, due to Tylenol PM.  I don't know why I take
the stuff just to fight against the sleepiness when it actually starts
to do what I took it for.  Oh well.
  

    
Jenifer~ was it a Brass Ring? And I'm glad to know that someone else
gets loopy easily; I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago who
started staring at me because I was stopping in the middle of a
sentence and starting back up a few minutes later. She asked what I was
on and laughed when I said "Tylenol Allergy-Sinus". She told me I'd be
a cheap date. ; >

Neil & Maure saw me at MadCon after *one* drink and I'll bet that they
were amused, too. Down I go...
  

    
Best New Years wishes to everyone, and Best Car Salesmen wishes to
JaNell... 
  

    
I have books that will be mint 30 years from now. THat's because I buy
two of any book I like. One to read. To lend. To re-read. And one to
go on the shelves in the living room. So if I completely destroy the
first one, I've got the second.