Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
i give Pamela's serfdom frustration a hearty seconding.  what more can
i say? *groan*

you know, i am starting to get totally, TOTALLY fangirl about lord of
the rings.  i can hardly stand it.  i can't go to book soup tomorrow
either, as i will be retreating to Lake Arrowhead to see if i can't
write an entire album in three days.  it could happen, right?  

i hear tell the McKellen will also be at some screening of the film
tonight in Westwood, but i can't seem to get any info on it.  does
anyone know?  (i don't know WHY you'd know, but SPILL IT if you do)

GO Ned von Leuke!  that's a very fine resume.  i can't wait to see
myself on imdb.  seriously.  
  

    
Okay.  Because I really can't resist an opening to be TOTALLY fangirl
about LOTR, either...

Here's my blog "review" of FOTR.

* WARNING: The Society for the Preservation of Kewl has determined
there to be a hazardous concentration of fangirl geekness within a
radius of 2.385 miles from this site. *

http://www.pamela-birdsnest.net/contentlatest.asp?user=Pamela_bird&fid=1&tab=r
eviews&bflag=
  

    
Adriana - Ah, but you know how it is... no matter what you're doing,
you want to be doing more of it and doing better quality of it... 
I don't take it for granted. It's nice to be in the position I'm in...
I just wish that half the work I did wasn't for free....

Richard Seyd said that there's the work that you get paid for, and the
work that you pay to do. Rarely do they meet.

Maure - does he miss the stage? I'd love to get a little of both...
I've done very little film, but enjoyed what I have done.

Speaking of Lord of the Rings geekdom... over inthe LOTR conference a
rumor has popped up that the DVD will have a 4.5 hour version of the
film.... all the stuff (except Bombadil, of course) that was cut will
be included. Gimli and Legolas' bantering, the attack of the goblins
and orcs when they near Lorelien, etc. etc. etc.

I really, really hope it's true.
  

    
Mary- Wow! How strange....I *just* finished reading Finder. Amazing
book. 

Jen- Hi. Weird. You're writing in! I stay away from online magazines
mainly because, for me at least, it's too easy to click the attach
button on the e-mail and send stuff. There's something about printing
it out in the standard for and mailing it that makes it feel more
official to me. But then again....I'm weird. Not very many things on
the internet feel legit or real to me. Then again, I'd be happy if my
stuff got published *anywhere* right now. Getting closer, though.
Rejection letters are getting friendlier.
Good luck.

Adriana- I'll probably be buying your cd once payday comes around:) 

Ack. Gotta flee. I'll be back later
  

    
Adriana, Entertainment Weekly lists Sir Ian's official website as
<mckellen.com/cinema/lotr>   maybe you can find some information there.
 And...just looked at the time, and the "tonight" part, and realized
this info might be a bit late to help.

And Jade, I very much agree with your idea for Constantine.  It's
James Marsters btw, and the only other thing he's been in so far as I
know, is the reporter with Lisa Loeb at the beginning of The House on
Haunted Hill.  And I know these things because I am Buffy fangirl.
  

    
Pamela - serfdom is right, and I agree. I'd rather have Neils problem
than my own.   :-)  

Erhm, it's late. Lovely day with many different people. The briefly
odd synopsis included relating a dream a friend had about Roger Zelazny
(brought on by a collection of his books ona  table) - he had visited
her in the dream and instructed her to make eggnog "like his mother
made", and proceded to give her the recipe. It was called (wait for it,
wait for it),... a Zelaznog. (And yes, she wrote down the recipe the
moment she woke up, and will be trying it.) From there we skittered to
other authors, including the few haunting this forum, and a discussion
about the merits of juicing books and CDs, and which we would juice. It
ended with dinner at a German restaurant that actually ended up being
Tyrol, which is an area of Germany/Austria/Hungary, and most of the
food was Hungarian. I sat down, saw the menu, which was first in
Hungarian, blinked, and then asked my friend "do you know this isn't
German, but Hungarian?" (They were highly amused by my reaction to the
drink menu, which was all imported wines and beers,... )

Anyhow, lovely day. And roundabout thanks to Neil for providing hours
of entertainment via the juicing concept.  :-)

Oh, and Squeaks - is it the version of Eleanor Rigby that I
undoubtedly hear every weekend? ;-) And have you heard of Doll Factory?
Specifically, have you heard their remake of "Hit Me Baby One More
Time"?

-Kelly
  

    
Dan Guy - It's definitely up there as one of my favourite Beatles
songs. And I think the people who cover it tend to be aware that it's a
really powerful song, because I've yet to hear a cover of it that I
don't like, tho' I definitely like some versions over others.

Kelly - You're probably thinking of Godhead. The one I'm hearing is by
a group called Dissonance... I'm not even sure if it's out yet. One of
my friends is friends with the band.

DanW - Must not have been important, as I have no idea what it was, or
that I was even going to say something (until I re-read my post). 

squeaks, who is watching an infomercial for an 80's music collection
because she's awake and there's nothing else on.
  

    
Dan,  Ned is such a ham, and stagework has always appealed to him
most. But he has a little one on the way, and I think his commercial
work and random television work pays better.

Squeaks, whenever anyone forgets something and says , "It must not
have been very important then," it reminds me of Steve Martin. He had a
bit in one of his shows where he said that when someone says that to
him, he replies, "Ah yes, I remember! I'm radioactive!"
  

    
Maure - As I tend to forget things often, most of which turn out
unimportant when I do remember them, it's a phrase I use a lot. A
couple of other people have mentioned that Steve Martin number - I
should go looking for it someday.

Erg, rarr, grrrr, and other such grumblesome roary noises! My stupid
Palm Pilot is refusing to stop trying to synch with the computer (or
turn off, or be at all useful for that matter) and keeps interrupting
my typing. Between that stupid contraption, my mental day yesterday (no
reason, it's just something that happens every now and again), and a
mouse coming down with pneumonia, my week is going just spiffy. Not
looking for sympathetic responses. Just needing to (AARRH! damned thing
tries to synch again!) vent.

-squeaks, who is about to chuck the contraption through a window!
  

    
*hands squeaks the duct tape*
  

    
Unplug the connection from the computer to the dock.  It won't sync if it
can't sense the docker.
  

    
Back from a couple of days in florida, at a library event. The
reading/Q & A/ signing was fine and fun. The following evening al the
authors had to go to a "meet the authors" event, in which the movers
and shakers of the town and the authors buffeted at the house of some
wealthy members of the library foundation, and that was odd: a hundred
or so well-dressed retired townsfolk and a dozen scruffier authors and
poets who gravitated together.

"I suppose one just has to understand that we're the petting zoo,"
said one lady author to me, under her breath. "We're the little lambs
and the goats."

"I wouldn't mind," I replied, "but nobody wants to come and pet us."
Or even, really, to say hello. But it was interesting. Nice to have
some sun. Good to be home...
  

    
There's a great scene in a .... Stephen King novel  The TommyKnockers... 
which describes that scene pretty well.  

And I think Reuben, Reuben also has some very good authors at wealthy 
party scenes.

I once went to a Vaudeville Festival function which was exactly the same.  


Social climbers think they want to meet artists, until they actually meet 
them!
  

    
How very odd... to have such a delightful chance to talk with you lot
and then to ignore you.
Well, it just goes to show you that opportunities like that are wasted
on the rich.
  

    
Re: the juicer dream:

Do you suppose the taste of the juice would depend on the quality of
writing, or on the story itself? Say you juice a horror novel that is
truly horrific and extremely well-written - would the juice taste
horrible, being the essence of the story? Or would it taste good, being
the essence of the writing? Can you imagine what it would do for
critics and readers if the taste correllated with the quality of the
writing? They could go over all the highly rated high literature, it
would give them a completely different sense with which to judge the
quality of a novel. Maybe they'd find out that The Sun Also Rises is
actually bland and thin - they'd have to re-evaluate all of their
praises and all of their criticisms. I mean, taste is still as
subjective whether it is taste in literature or taste in food. But
still.

Can you tell I have the day off and have too much time on my hands?
  

    
Dan,  Ooo, watch it with the blanket derision of the rich! Rich idiots
would be no worse than poor idiots, if the group of authors found
themselves gathered in a "social event" for people who couldn't care
less what they do or who they are. I think many things are wasted on
the unaware, rich, or comfortable, or poor. 
  

    

There was a TV news magazine piece just this week on synesthesia, a
condition in which people's senses get mixed up, resulting in a real, 
unique sixth sense.  So, some people saw music, and some people see words 
as colors, and some people taste words.  One guy was talking about what 
things taste like and said that he'd been dating a girl named Tracy, but 
had to break up with her because her name tasted so awful.

So, maybe we get that guy to read the story and say what it tastes like...
  

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

    
Maure - Good point. I retract my overly classist statement.
  

    
So a dealer linked to abebooks.com is selling a signed hardcover of the
Duran Duran book for fifteen.  thousand.  dollars.  Is somebody really going
to pay that?
  

    
(envisioning Neil digging up a box in his basement and making a quick
half a million bucks signing and auctioning on eBay: "but I'll give it to
you for only ten. thousand. dollars... no, it's very unique, I just happen
to have fifty of them in the basement..." )
  

    
Don't think such a box exists....
  

    
What. He doesn't get a box of promotional copies? I assisted Walter
Irwin (Best of Trek editor) and his wife in moving a couple of times
and he used to keep at least a small box of each issue. Hm.
  

    
The reason this book is so rare is that the publisher went out of business
pretty much simultaneously with the book going into print.  Many things did
not happen.

I have a signed copy of the paperback which cost me several orders of
magnitude than these people want for the hardcover (which could be, for all
I know, one of the only hardcovers that wasn't sent to a dump or something).
But it doesn't get sold, of course, unless, as Neil says, that's the way I
have to pay the rent.
  

    
"less than"