Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Dan,  heehee, thank you for the retraction. I'm not rich by any means,
but I admit I get a little defensive; it comes from being in the
minority too often, and being expected to defend very unpopular
opinions too much. ;)

Adriana,  Ok, I've only had time to listen while driving to and from
work, which amounts to about 2 listens all the way through. However, so
far, I really, really like Requiem, a lot. I think the only time I got
to devote all of my attention to the music was on Requiem (sporadic
traffic), so maybe that's why I like it the best so far. I promise to
invest more time in it this week, and I'll let you know what I think
more coherently. Are you planning a full length album anytime soon? 

Everyone else - Grumpy Ghost is a fabulous EP. For what it's worth, I
heartily recommend it.
  

    
Dan--Told an LotR geek friend of mine about the DVD. I thought the
poor boy was going to wet himself with excitement. You made his day.

Linda--I see numbers in colours, and only the digits, not the words.
As a little girl, I thought everyone did. What do you mean you don't
see 5 as an autumnal orange bordering on bad 70s laminate orange?

Martha--$15,000? That's nearly AUS$30,000. Holy cow... [thinks about
the signed softcover copy she has and blinks rapidly, considering she
paid less than cover price for it] Not that I could bear to part with
any of my Neil-abilia. But perhaps I need to insure the collection
better...

Tree
Who has decided, after two seriously sprained fingers, that sport is
not for her. Ow... typing... ow...
  

    
They're asking.  That doesn't mean they'll get it.
  

    
Sorry, that last one was Tree, not Jinx. Forgot to fix the pseudonym
thingie, just to add to the confusion.

Tree
  

    
Maure - *smile* At the root of my statement was a general resentment
at the historical evidence that there are a great many cultural
opportunities afforded only the rich... and when the rich don't
appreciate their privilege I get a little snotty about it.
Granted, meeting Neil is something anyone who wants to trek to a book
signing can do... so my rancor was a bit off in lots of ways.

Tree - I keep waiting for someone to go into that conference and say
"Oh, sorry... big mistake. It's not happening after all."
But nobody does... so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's true...
  

    

Now that I'm thoroughly confused about whether I'm responding to jinx or 
tree, let me say that I always did see numbers in colors, but I thought it 
was because of my childhood affinity for paint-by-numbers kits.  Number 1 
is black, five is red, three is yellow, eight is brown, etc.
  

    
Martha -- I assume that's the copy I signed this weekend in Stuart. It
was, for the record, the only hardback copy I've *ever* seen (I never
had any, and although it was listed with a hardback ISBN I'd thought it
mythical...

Dodge, I got, what, maybe ten copies of the paperback in 1985. Gave
them away to people who had helped with research. Realised they'd all
gone, and shrugged as the publisher was going back to print and I'd get
another box soon enough...  and then a week later there was no second
edition and no publisher.

The one I wish I'd bought extra boxes of was GHASTLY BEYOND BELIEF,
which I kept one copy of, and have since picked up another. 

As a result, I'm good these days about keeping back copies of things.
Or I mean to be, anyway.

Linda -- but of course numbers have colours. SO do days of the week. I
remember the astonishment with which I learned that other people's
days of the week were different conlours to mine. 
  

    

That's what so interesting about it!  Everyone's colors are different.  
I'm afraid that I don't see the days of the week in colors, though.  And 
now I'm really curious about how they taste.
  

    
The bookseller said you'd signed it something like "This is the only
hardcover I've ever signed and the only one I've ever seen."  They must have
been happy you documented that right on the book!
  

    
Martha -- I still don't think it's worth anything like that; but I
suspect that the bookseller in question (who is also a collector) has
priced it high enough he can keep it on his shelves for the rest of his
life while still having it "for sale".

As regards rarities -- in my basement I have a few copies of a pulped
edition of the Sandman:Book of Dreams that Harper UK did, which lists
Stephen King as a contributor (for some wonderful reason they sent me
my contributor copies pre publication, rather than the usual several
months after) and I was able to point out to them that SK's name
shouldn't be on there. There's a benefit coming up for Frank Muller
which Steve King and Peter Straub are going to be doing stuff for, and
I thought I'd dig a copy or so out and send it off to the auction.

Linda, if it's any help, Monday's blood red, tuesday's puce,
Wednesday's an orangey scarlet, thursday's a warm brown, Friday's
white, Saturday's a yellowy orange, Sunday's yellow.
  

    
I'll be curious how much those misprint paperbacks go for!
  

    
I guess I associate Mondays with purple, but that's because purple is
David's favourite colour, and he runs Death Guild, and that's on
Mondays. Other than that, nothing gets associated with colors that
isn't usually...

The Palm Pilot is officially dead for the time being. I'm hoping to
resurrect it in the next week and maybe (crossed fingers) it will go
back to working... or at least that's how my daddio fixed it after he
dropped it in the pool last year. 

Um, it's cold. Not really anything to complain about in most other
parts of the country, but it's annoying that it's this cold *inside*. I
have no heat in the bedroom. I woke up at 4AM because my chattering
teeth bit my tongue. It shouldn't be this cold inside. 

re: Duran Duran book... (stunned silence)

squeaks, who meant to be in bed hours ago.
  

    
Tree, Linda, and Neil,   when you see colors for numbers or days of
the week, do you actually see colors, or is it just an association? I
mean, do you see 8 or Thursday and just think of a color, or do you
really see it? If it's that you actually see colors, how do you see
them? In spots? Or blotches? Or is your entire field of view tinted for
a bit? How does it work? I am fascinated. I would love to taste music.
I think that would be incredible. 
  

    <scribbled by dfowlkes>
  

    
    Folks, I feel really rotten saying this, but I just looked at
abebooks, and the volume in question is priced one nought less (as they
would say on Antiques Roadshow) than reported -- $1500.  Which is
unquestionably still a lot of money.
    Possibly the dealer misposted originally?  Or his store was being
cased by hulking men in crepe-soled shoes wearing Simon Le Bon masks?

    What's really disappointing about the revaluation is that it sours
my intention to run off a few signed copies of the extremely rare
volume of interviews I did in Paris with Django Reinhardt, the one with
the Robert Capa photographs and the introduction by Martha Gellhorn. 
You can't win.
  

    
   Oh, and if a crepe-soled shoe wearing a Simon Le Bon mask doesn't
scare you out of your trousers, your trousers aren't scary enough.
  

    <scribbled by dfowlkes>
  

    
Hrm.. rather odd homage to Neil in today's Sluggy Freelance
(http://www.sluggy.com)
I don't know how much sense it will make to anyone who doesn't follow
Sluggy... but basically it involves a psychotic-brainwashed killing
machine named Oasis (whose last hypnotic suggestion was to fall in love
with Torg) and her encounter on a bus with a girl who tells people
that she's Death.
  

    
Sorry!  I read fifteen thousand instead of fifteen hundred and now hang my
head in shame.  Assuming I did get it wrong--I got the notice in e-mail, and
didn't save the e-mail.

But it's probably a bad which is mine.
  

    

This is definately not a Sluggy story line to start with.

And Mike, I would have expected it to be easier to scare someone out of
mild, unassuming trousers than scary trousers. Besides, we know who Mr Scary
Trousers is, and he doesn't look overly concerned.
Nor, I suppose I should note, have any of the rest of us, to my knowledge,
been scared out of his trousers.
  

    
Dan--Please keep me posted. Jez (the LotR geek) keeps turning to me
anxiously and asking if anything has been posted that says differently.

Our Lady of the Squeaks--Don't even talk to me about the freakin'
cold. It's SUMMER in Melbourne, goddamit and I'm still wearing my
winter wardrobe. We have had three (count 'em) hot days since summer
began in December. I'm asking for a refund.

Not only that, but a friend went hiking in the mountains here for
Christmas and ended up celebrating a white Christmas. In Australia. In
summer.

The weather is on crack...

Maure--I can only speak personally, but it is not really any of those
things for me. I just know that particular numbers have particular
colours. It's not something I've learned (as far as I'm aware), they
just always have been. If I concentrate on a particular number for a
while, inside my head just goes that colour. It's not seeing it, it
just is. Does that make any sense?

Tree
Who just HATES coming in to work early to receive calls from US
clients only to find they have cancelled the meeting while she was
dreaming in her warm, comfy bed. Mongrels.
  

    
<madman>:  Bwahahaha!!!

The weather here is my absolute favorite on the planet: cool, clear,
bright and windy.  All the trees are writhing in ecstasy, the sky is so
blue it's sharp and every nerve in your body wakes up when you walk
outside.

I don't see days in colors.  But just about everything else is an
image.  Words aren't my native language.  I think almost entirely in
pictures, and I have to translate everything I think into something
that other people can hear.  I think that's why I talk with my hands so
much; it's a sort of halfway point between images and words.
  

    
Madman - I agree.. it's unusually dark so far, and almost joke free. I
wonder where he's going with it...

Tree - Will do. the only reason I can think of why it wouldn't be true
is that they'd have to re-score it... but that's not at all
inconceivable to do within the next nine or ten months, since all the
musical motifs have already been established. 
  

    
Fifteen hundred/fifteen thousand, it's still a bleeding lot of money!
Cripes but I could go to Australia for the asking price of that book!

Dan & Tree - Fingers crossed for lotter fotter then... and I guess
I'll be looking into big screen TVs and DVD players sooner rather than
later.

madman - I dunno. I would assume that scary trousers are trousers to
be afraid of. And if I was afraid of my trousers, I'd certainly get out
of them if I were wearing them! It's just not healthy to be afraid of
your clothing. <refraining from tasteless-yet-slightly-witty remarks
about people being scared out of Neil's trousers>

Tree - The weather is definitely on crack. It's a white Christmas in
Oz, followed by a warmer winter week in Minnesota than in California.
As for the chill air waking up my nerves, Pam, they do do that,
followed shortly after by the deadening of said nerves and the
immobility of many of my muscle groups for several minutes when I was
trying to open up the store this morning. Not that it was really worth
complaining about, but have you ever tried to count crisp and sticky
dollar bills when your fingers are frozen numb and stiff? I was getting
so frustrated that I actually tried to start up an argument with the
bills - but I couldn't get a peep out of them. :P

Okay, off to get some sleep. Long day ahead tomorrow - I've got 2 days
to put together a b-day present. I wasn't going to do anything other
than acknowledge it, but I was suddenly inspired with 'the perfect
gift' last night and now I have to put it all together. 

squeaks, who was supposed to give Sorrow her meds tonight, but ran out
of energy and patience to tolerate a mouse that utterly refuses to
take them.
  

    
Neil and all the other Brits hanging in the Well -- The New York Times
did this intriguing article on Marmite
(http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/24/international/europe/24MARM.html).
The writer, Warren Hoge describes it as having "a toxic odor, saline
taste and an axle grease consistency," It is exported from Britain to
30 countries, but apparently the only folks who will buy and eat it are
expatriates. Anyone care to share what it really tastes like? And why
is it such a British staple?

Jade Walker
--who views the days of the week in musical combinations rather than
colors