Inkwell: Authors and Artists

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

    
I think I'm scared that I'm a 90's Bowie.

Michelle: Hope you're feeling all better, now.

Tara: Welcome back.  I missed you!  Your party sounds yummy.

DanGuy: Xander is clearly a prodigy and will support you in your later
years with his entertainment career.

-Pam
who's happy that she's finally going to see Eddi Izzard at a
friends-n-lasagna fest next Friday, so she'll finally understand all
the jokes you guys tell
  

    
Pam--I'm a 90's Bowie, too.  Its extra super scary.
And does Eddie Izzard fall amongst your friends, or lasagna?  ;)
  

    
Happy New Year!  I'm a Ziggy Stardust.  And with the exception of
being a bisexual alley cat at night, since I've been married lo these
18 years, I did own some damn scary 6 inch platform shoes, spacey
ensembles and don't even get me started on the make-up. I don't know
nuthin' about bright red mullets, but back in 1983 I was sporting a
platinum blonde afro, lived in camouflage parachute pants and stayed
slathered in silver glitter up the ying-yang.  Yes people, it's a brand
new day! Not really, but that's how I'm playing it this year. Honest. 

Tara thanks for making my day! 
  

    
Ich bin ein Berliner.

Look, it's an Eddie reference & a Bowie reference all in one.  And I
*am* a doughnut.

One of my bosses at work, who has been cancer-free for about 6 months,
is having emergency surgery tomorrow.  Think happy thoughts for
Karen--she's good folks.  And now I have to do her job *by myself* for
the next couple of weeks.  Did I mention that this is our peak season? 
The 42 calls we had on hold at one point today?  The woman who called
to let me know she had been on hold on her other line for an hour and a
half?  Please, God, find me a teaching job soon, or I'm going to Fed
Ex myself to Bali.  They won't make me ship airline tickets there, will
they?  Do they even have mail rooms there?  If they do, I'm not going.

I think I'll go eat onion soup with silly Tara instead.  Wheee!  I
can't wait!

I'm very slowly working my way through Life on Another Planet, and I
can't believe how <leroy>'s stuff gets more & more addictive.  Thanks,
Linda.  I'm blaming the dark circles under my eyes on you ;-)

Mary (still reading Figures of Earth--I'm liking it, too, Michaela)   
  

    

Let's not forget that it's also a JFK reference!

Sheesh, Mary, what kind of work do you do?  Beams to your co-worker.  Is 
the emergency surgery related to the cancer?

I'm so happy that you are addicted to Life on Another Planet.  OK, who's 
next??
  

    
Kelly - Well, I *was* talking about driving just in the rain. :)

Pam - Actually, I got over the cold, was fine for two days, and then
got the flu, which hit painfully (er, dizzyingly) hard yesterday, and
is mostly gone today (just can't breathe well through my nose).  But
I'd still like it better if I didn't have to work tomorrow night. ick. 

Berlin-era Bowie. And Rocky - no mention of the tube top? <ducks>
:P

squeaks, who just realized this month is the last that I have to make
a car payment for! Woo hoo!
  

    
Email from Michaela Klomp:

I join the group of Berlin-Era Bowies. I have absolutely no idea what
this has got to do with Eddie Izzard, though – or who Eddie Izzard IS
for that matter.. I feel like I might want to know, though.

Sounds like Neil is hanging out somewhere quite close if he is feeding
Euro coins into weird machines. That still leaves 12 countries in which
to hunt him down, so I won’t even start except maybe look at every face
in our little village, small as the chance may be ;) (I like the z and
the y where they are btw. Perfectly sensible places on the keyboard to
have them :) )

And now for something completely different: can anybody recommend a Jane
Yolen book to get started? I ran a search on amazon and was overwhelmed
by the many results. Any favourites?

Michaela – currently re-reading Lord of the Rings next to “Kaept’n
Blaubaer” .. not quite the same in league, but I like both ;) (anybody
know the Blue Bear who is a sailor?)
  

    
Neil,  are you really writing the screenplay for the Land of Laughs? 
  

    
I'm late 60's early 70's Bowie... or, as the site more deeply
describes me... a pot-smoking, hippie loser!

Well, the new year is off to a bang. I'm stepping into a small role in
a friend's production of Steambath up in Napa (opening in two weeks)
and I just got cast in a production of Ubu Roi that'll be opening in
San Francisco the week after Steambath closes. Between that and two
major conferences for work... I think I may have gotten myself in over
my head. Still, if I can just hold on and make it through February...
I'll be just fine.

Whooo!

JaNell... sorry to see you forced offline by financial necessity. 
Squeaks ... sorry you're sick, and that you have to work tonight. 
Everyone else ... sorry for something or other, just on general
principles...
  

    
Michelle, I have no idea what you're talking about.  ;>
Sending you chicken soup wishes, get well soon. 
  

    
Hey! I was psueded! *flattered*

I too am a 90s Bowie,... not that a matter, and he WAS my Goblin King
- mmmm.

Okay, serious(ish) question here - I could use some tips for something
romantic but not cliche to do this week,... Thursday makes a Four Year
Anniversary, and yesterday he suggested that we not wait until our
ceremony/party to put our rings back on,... that we do so Thursday.

I had already been thinking about something fun/romantic/not cliche to
do - and had come up with hot air ballooning. Something where I can
blindfold him, toss him in the car, and have a surprise.

Only,... hot air balloon rental would cost me well over $300, which
would be hard to afford, and he'd kill me, to boot.  :-( Does anyone
have _any_ idea on something to do? 
-Kelly
  

    

I don't know if you and your sweetie would like something like this, but 
if you are anywhere near Bellevue, or if you might be likely to make 
Bellevue or its environs a destination for your romantic getaway, you 
might go to the Build A Bear Workshop.  I got Mike a gift certificate at 
one local to us for Christmas and he loved it.  You choose a bear or other 
animal to make, and you give it a little red satin heart that you make a 
wish on before you put it in the bear.  Then you stuff it with love and 
kisses and kindness and whatever else you want.  You can also dress it up 
in an amazing variety of clothes and accessories.  But it seems like you 
could choose to make your bear very personal and symbolic.  Just a 
thought.

Squeaks, hope you feel better.  Sounds like I gave you your name back just 
in time!

Stagewalker, I love Steambath!!  Are you gonna be dressed in a towel or do 
full frontal or what?  Who gets the female lead?
  

    
I forgot to mention one thing - it has to be a single day event, due
to his work constraints.  :-(

Linda - that sounds interesting; I'm not sure if he'd be into it, but
I'd like to check it out futher - do they have a web site?

-Kelly
  

    
90s Bowie.

Michaela, Pam, and anybody else who hasn't been exposed to Eddy Izzard
yet - you are in for such a treat.  Easily the funniest, smartest
comedian I've seen in a long time.  I should finally be completing my
collection of tapes this week, after which I will probably have my very
own Eddie Marathon.

Miss-Mousey - do get better, will you?  Very clever modification of
your pseud, btw.  I immediately knew that you were still under the
weather - reminded me very much of Bilbo Baggins' "Thag you very buch."
  

    
Michaela, on Jane Yolen: Just on personal preference, I'd suggest
Sister Light, Sister Dark. The follow up to that is White Jenna, and
they can be found together in The Books of White Alta.  It is told at
times from a historical perspective, with quotes from a textbook on the
history and lore of the story told in the book.  For more info, try
www.janeyolen.com.  She has a really great website, with resources for
everyone from kids to writers, and has notes on all her books.  Of
course, I still prefer the website of Himself. ;)

And Rick slipped!
  

    
nearly human again - looks like the 24 hour flu bug went away, but
left me with all this extra goo in my sinuses that just got comfortable
and didn't feel like leaving. (*sigh...)

DanW - Geez, I stopped doing everything and you started doing
everything! Happy juggling?

Rocky - Damn! And I never did see those photos you once told me
about... more reasons to drive 3000 miles, I guess. :P

And a random question because I'm far too awake to go to bed just yet
- Does anyone have a favourite Japanese food that has no fish in it? I
was trying to come up with a bunch of Japanese meal ideas together for
a friend of mine who hates fish (and who tends to not be fond of
generic Japanese soup bases, as they often turn out fishy). I've
already done the tonkatsu thing, and plan on making sukiyaki next.
Vegetable tempura, onigiri and yakitori are also on the list, but I'm
looking for other main course type dishes and am drawing a blank. And
I'm not counting anything slathered in teriyaki sauce - too generic for
my taste. Um, that's it.

squeaks, who would rather be sleeping than working tomorrow
  

    

Oops, sorry Kelly, here it is:

http://www.buildabear.com/

I also have no idea how far Bellevue is from where you are.  I thought I 
was lucky to find one in the same state!
  

    
     Kelly (#1299, sorry about the delay) -- CASTING FORTUNE, which
came out from Tor, oh, a while ago, and is long out of print (it also
had an SFBC edition, but I think that's o.p. too) has two reprints from
the Liavek anthologies ("A Cup of Worrynot Tea" and "Green is the
Color") and a novelette, "The Illusionist," that isn't available
anywhere else.  The stories don't form a series or pseudonovel, though
there are a few characters that recur, in the usual shared-world
fashion -- the reprints are there to fill out book length. 
("Illusionist" was supposed to be an anthology story, but ran too long,
and didn't really want to be padded into a novel.)  There are copies
around; I'm reasonably sure Dreamhaven has some.
     I think it's actually the only non-anthology Liavek book; I don't
remember anyone finishing a novel, though I may well be forgetting
something extremely obvious.
  

    
These aren't really main dishes, either, but you can always make veggie maki
rolls, and I love inari, which is rice wrapped in thin sweet fried tofu,
though you'd probably need to figure out where you can buy the tofu stuff.
For main dishes, maybe you could come up with something involving edamame?
We also like cooking with mirin, but that starts becoming Japanese-inspired
rather than classicaly Japanese as we just make it up as we go along and
make stuff with a mirin, garlic, and ginger sauce and serve it over rice.
  

    
Linda, I'll be in a towel. (I've yet to do full frontal in a show...)
I wouldn't get overly excited, though. This is definitely an amateur
production. Very much a favor to a friend. I'll be promoting Ubu Roi
much more than Steambath.
they've got a 17 year old playing Meredith, and they've gender
switched Tandy.

Squeaks - missed you last night... but as it was 20 people showed up
to the game night and one couple that I don't really know brought their
baby... which kind of made the attempt to watch Princess Mononoke
afterwards rather, um, challenging.
  

    
Rocky: Thanks for the fabulous mental image of you, from 1983!  

Mouse: CONGRATS on paying off your car!!!

<Velvetraisin>: Yikes!  No Eddie Izzard lasagna!  We'll just be
watching him on video.

Michaela: I second the BOOKS OF GREAT ALTA recommendation, to start
with.  

<stagewalker>: Good to hear from you again.  Congrats on the casting,
and good luck with the shows.  At least it's a "good" busy.
  

    
YAY!!!  "Very, very good" response on CORALINE!

*bounce, bounce*

<Waiting.  Waiting.  Biting nails.  Sigh.>

Neil: I appreciated the explanation about the wandering "referring,"
because I thought maybe you'd lapsed into some odd Brit lingo that I
was too dense to grasp.
  

    

I am very impressed that squeaks was able to pay off the car in one year!  
We bought ours around the same time, and I still have 4 and a half years 
to go!
  

    
Hi Mike,... *grins*
I had read "A Cup Of Worrynot Tea" before, but not the other (and
obviously not the last). Unfortunately, I've never been able to get the
entire set of Liavek books, and at the moment don't own any. I know I
could buy them online from various places, but I have a hard time
buying used books without being able to see them - my idea of good is
going to vary from others, I'm sure. 

I did a bit of hunting and didn't find any other referrences to full
length books, which is a pity - I really, really loved the Liavek
stories. 

For the record, CASTING FORTUNE was great; I had to force myself to
read it over three nights (as did Mars), and we left wanting more.
(Which means some lucky used bookseller will probably get my money
soon,...)

Thanks for taking the time to respond; no worries on the delay (I
still bounce around when anyone actually responds to me at all).
-Kelly