Inkwell: Authors and Artists

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

    
By the way, the journal blogger is currently down, over at
Neilgaiman.com -- I'm trying to catch up on some FAQs (as that's still
working).
  

    

Happy anniversary, Neil!  Since it's also my birthday, I now will never 
forget your anniversary.  Happies to both of us!

Maure - I'm so sorry.  %^(

So, it looks like we have arrived at a consensus of sorts:  Neil Gaiman 
and His Goldfish Swapmeet?
  

    
E-mail from Jouni:

About the hypnotists  (Is that a real word?) -- I was just wondering how do
you become one? I mean is there a school of some sort for hypnotists?
('Morning kids. Today we are going to hypnotize a person into believing he's
a chair. Harvey?... OK, whoever is making Harvey do that, snap him out of
it. That's disgusting...)

About the new topic -- It would be pity if the conversation would end now.
If I'm allowed (even though I'm just a wannabe Weller...) to suggest a name
for the new topic, it would be something like...

'The barking lot - a meeting place for Neil and the mob'

Jouni
  

    
Erynn and others - Good point about the name thing. I cast another
vote for Mad Mike's suggeston of Neil Gaiman Goldfish Swapmeet
Although, having almost lost my dad to a major heart attack this last
year, I think that I'll not put him up for swap for even two *hundred*
goldfish.

Jade - take my silence for the respect it is, and not for
non-acknowledgement

Neil - Happy Anniversary. Congratulations.

Linda - Happy Birthday!

In other natterings: I finished reading Startdust yesterday to the
person I'm currently dating and she loved the story and especially the
ending, which made her happy and sad at the same time. We also watched
my friend's copy of Eddie Izzard: The Definite Article, which he had
converted from PAL to NTSC. All his other Izzard videos are still in
PAL, so they can only be watched in his living room.
I liked it, but I see why people say that his diction has gotten much
better over the years.
  

    
   Neil -- Re Terry's poem: wherever you are, you are very tired,
causing you to gravely mistype NOW WE ARE SICK, right?

   But happy anniversary at any rate.

   I should probably riff on stumbling late into a Japanese restaurant
and ending up next to a wandering Voltaire ("I disagree with this
salmon-skin roll, but I will defend to the death my right to eat it,
even if I never said any such thing," or some similar wossname), but,
well, it would only inspire Longfellow to come over here.  For it snows
on my apartment, by the poorly lighted Lyndale, slick and lightly
sanded Lyhdale, and all these expiring goldfish might inspire him to a
bouillon (yes, a smoothly piscine bouillon), and he'd come a-softly
knocking, like that other melancholic, just to borrow cubes of Maggi,
that the soup stock might be sturdy, with some leeks and orrichetti.
    But I suppose everyone's having a day like that.
  

    

I know I am.
  

    
Mike. Re Now We Are Sick. Argh. Yes, that was what I meant to type but
didn't.

And that felt more like Poe than Longfellow. (And more like Cabellian
"contrapuntal prose" than either.)

Everybody I know is having one of those days. If the work wasn't going
so well, I'd be having one of those days too, but it suddenly moved
into fourth gear and the world is a good one...
  

    
Jade,  the last time I was in the WTC was to pay my rent - my landlord
worked for Putnam Publishing, and if I was too late to send the check,
I'd run it over there to leave it for him. Sometimes I think about how
bothersome it was for me to go there, and how much it irritated me.
And then there's this ugly ache, because I'd spend every day of the
rest of my life being irritated by the subway trip there to have it and
all of those people back, if a trade like that could be made.

Neil,  hmmm. I'm afraid that bit of poem brought me chuckles, not
comfort. Most of the time that's what I prefer, anyway, so thank you
for reciting it. It would have made a fitting elegy when I tempted fate
by flushing my poor Ru. I was sure she was too big to go through, but
had no idea what else I could do with her. Somehow she was spared the
final indignity of being the cause of the toilet overflowing. Thank
goodness. With that charming image, I wish you a very happy
anniversary.

Linda,  thank you very much for your sympathy.

I'm actually having a marvelous day. It is just beautiful outside, and
everything seems to be going so well. 

Today one of my fifth graders was (as usual) digging around in the
heap on my desk, and he found my CBLDF card. Immediately, the kids
wanted to know what it meant, defending comic books. I told them that I
am a member of an elite international network of defenders of comic
books. "Why do you have to defend comic books?" he asked. They expect
me never to tell the whole truth, so I met their expectations and
explained that comic books are delicate things, and that sometimes a
brutish thug will treat his abusively, at which time I step in to take
the comic book away from him and give him a sound thrashing. The kids
thought this was marvelous, and want to be members of the CBLDF too. 

Tomorrow we learn about the trial of John Peter Zenger, so I think
I'll explain the true purpose of the CBLDF then. Nearly perfect timing,
actually.
  

    
Neil --Happy Anniversary!  Congratulations to you (and your wife!)

Linda--Happy Birthday!  <<sings>> And many mooore!

Maure--Very sorry about Rusalka.

Terri--*love* the jokes.  The first time I went to Ireland we stayed
in Clontarf for the first few days.  There's a restaurant on the
Clontarf Road, Fisherman something-or-other, where I had the most
amazing grilled salmon.....

Just sat in a rather good fake pub, downstairs at the Fitzpatrick
Hotel, and listened to a trio play traditional.  If there hadn't been
so many Americans talking at the top of their lungs (we are a *loud*
bunch) I might almost have thought we were in Dublin.  It was a work
function, but a good time.  The hotel's lovely, and the people that
work there are delightful.

Must go back to studying geometry & algebra.    

Mike--hee-hee.  It's ....snort...ha-ha....that was.....hee-hee.  This
is basically what I sound like after one of your posts.  It reminded me
of Poe as well, but now I'm trying to remember Hiawatha in my head.

<<goes off chuckling, muttering Gitchiegoomee >>
  

    
Maure- I'm sorry about Rusalka also:( And thanks for the crossing of
fingers.

Neil- I don't think anyone minds when you fall off the Earth for a few
weeks, especially after reading about everything that you're working
on. I, for one, didn't expect you to say much of anything when I first
joined here, so when you said: "Hi Erynn, welcome to The Well..blah,
blah." I nearly melted. I would have been forever content if that's all
you'd ever said to me. But then, I'm a geek. Happy Anniversary! 

Jouni- Yes, it's a real word. I have no idea how they do it. I'm going
to the library this weekend to check out some books. After that show,
I felt lightheaded and entertained...but there was this dull, heavy
feeling in the pit of my stomach as well. So I did what any weird
person would do: when I got home, I jotted down a rough story outline.
I'm about four pages into the story so far. The idea of a hypnotist
abusing his powers and corrupting the world while traveling with a
circus, and a nine year old boy trying to stop him; it all grabbed me
that night, for some reason. So I'm gonna go with it and see where it
takes me. 

Linda- Happy Birthday! 

Jade- That's eerie. I can't even begin to imagine the feeling....
On a completely different note: You're friends with Voltaire?! That's
*so* cool!

Mary- Good luck!

I vote for the Goldfish Swapmeet title. It makes me laugh. 
  

    
Maure - my condolences hon :(
the Pratchett book in question - if my memory serves and frankly it's
been a bit unreliable lately - is Reaper Man - which features my 2nd
favourite incarnation of Death (no prizes for guessing my ultimate fave
;)  No doubt I'll be corrected fairly quickly if I'm wrong! :)

Neil - I'm sure we could persuade customs to let you in, disreptuable
though you are.....Oh and:
Q. How can you tell when a northsider is having an orgasm?
A. She drops her chips... ;)
And many happies too :)
Oh and what's coraline?

Mary - Clontarf is Northside too - but the posh bit by the sea.  If
you're over again, try and make it to Johnny Foxes - they do GREAT
seafood! 

I have Eddie Izzard's lip print hanging on my wall.  Uuuummmm yesssss
- true story!


Happy St. Patrick's Day folks :)
  

    
Terri -- well immigration in Ireland always let me in very doubtfully.

Coraline is a novel for gravely disturbed young ladies of all ages and
genders which will come out in June on Audio, July as a book in the US
and August in the UK (and I suppose Ireland)although the UK version
isn't illustrated. Audio book music by The Gothic Archies, a Stephin
Merritt incarnation. And because it made me smile, this was forwarded
to me by my editor at harper Childrens -- it was an e-mail they got
from a rep named Richard Starke after he read the book:

"Just finished Neil Gaiman's CORALINE (Fall02). Dang, that's a good
book! NG pays homage to the masters of Horror and Fantasy; but as the
cat says "I'm not the other anything. I'm me." Gaiman's writing appears
effortless; but we know it took him ten years
to write CORALINE. Young readers will have that sense of Delicious
Fear they remember from early childhood; adults will remember what used
to set them scurrying for parental protection. The characters are
cheeky and supremely self-possessed; some are just possessed. What
would be a genre piece in another writer's hands, rises to the level of
Literary Childhood Scary Classic in CORALINE."

There.

Happy Ides of March, everyone. Happy march of ideas.
  

    
Morning all,...
Since BosKone I've worked something along the lines of 60 hours a week
at work and maybe if I'm lucky have had a day off here and there.
I'm tired, and therefore highly susceptible to the giggles, Phang the
wonder Phish just reminds my of the bratchilde I call a sister's last
boyfriend,...Phrank,...who actually looked like one of those fighting
fish.
We've never been big fish people in my house, mostly due to two
reasons, cats and the fact that my father is a comerical lobsterman,
and fish are dinner or bait,...not pets. Of course my sister would name
dinner and or race dinner on a regular basis but that's another story.


Neil~ are Ides ideas? Cause it's one of those things that I always
wonder about for about a month then forget sometime around St. Pat's
day.

I've been to see a hypnotist on a few occasions, it was interesting
and didn't work to keep my from smoking, and I didn't go under at all
the other few times, but it's interesting to watch.

Mary, Drunken Master 2 is (IMHO) way more fun then the first one.
At one time I had the biggest collection of bootleg Jackie Chan movies
in New England,...the best parts are the out takes at the end.
However, Black Mask with Jet Li, not the released in the states
version but the original is my all time favorite.

There was more I wanted to mention, but I'm out of tea, and therefore
unfocused.

Jinx who needs a nap or retail therapy
  

    
It's not been one of those days, or even one of those months, it's
starting off as one of those years.

I'm a week away from pitching several stories to a few local papers.
It's uhm, frightening. :-) I keep thinking of Elise every time I work
on the one about ghost towns,...

Anyhow. "Hello, sorry to hear that, happy anniversary, happy ides if
it can be happy, it's March already? I think that too, sometimes. You
need to stop making me snort water out my nose,... you're not safe to
read while consuming liquid!" Please apply as appropriate.
-Kelly
  

    

Jinx - I quit smoking after one hypnosis session.  I didn't want to quit, 
but I was under a lot of pressure from a lot of people who felt that I 
should, so I've never been able to attribute it to anything other than the 
hypnosis.  It surely wasn't because I secretly wanted to!  

On the other hand, hypnosis to deal with the subsequent, and now permanent
weight gain, was much less successful.  I've always thought that it's
because the hypnotist used this very powerful and disgusting image of an
extremely fat and slovenly woman as an example of what I DON'T WANT to
look like, but I think my mind saw it as simply an example, neither good 
nor bad, and has been mapping me in its image ever since.  I even went to 
another hypnotist who helped me send that disgusting woman to Jupiter, but 
she seems to have left her twin sister behind.  Ugh.

Neil - what a great comment about the book.  I'm definitely looking 
forward to Coraline.  Who got to have the pleasure of recording the audio 
version?
  

    
Jinx--According to Dictionary.com and my 10th grade English teacher,
Ides apparently is a the 15th day of March, May, July, or October or
the 13th day of the other months in the ancient Roman calendar. Eight
days in each month often pass by this name, but only one strictly
receives it, the others being called respectively the day before the
ides, and so on, backward, to the eightth from the ides.  It's those
dang Romans.  

Linda- I'm pretty sure Neil himself recorded the audio Coraline, which
is why it will Rule.

Vuhhhh....I can't shake this cold and I've been dreaming about
corpses.  Lousy Smarch weather.
  

    
Today is my "I'm having a day" day, as thus far I have 

a) not finished the DVDs reviews that are due tonight (tho I actually
got around to watching two of them, "Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice" and
"What About Bob" which prolly fulfils the Goldfish Portion of The
Post) and 

b) managed through consummate *skill* to delete 300 megabytes of
PhotoShop files off my laptop by accident (and for a second, I had
tremendous fear that the JeffMariotte.com redesing files were among
them, but I apparently had the presence of mind last week not to save
them where I usually save them) and c) *still* have 4+ hours of Three
Stooges to plough through tonight because I was an IDIOT who went out
to the Hopleaf last nigth with my co-workers, and didn't get home until
10:15pm, at which time I checked email, call the backflip boy, and
then fell dead to the world asleep without touching the DVD player.

Neil: happy anniversary one day late, and happy Ides.

John M. Ford: You are a silly silly man. Thank you.

Mary: I still have your "Love's Labour's Lost". I *suck*.
  

    
Linda -- I recorded the audio of Coraline last week. It'll be 3 Tapes
of 3 CDs, and will be out in late May. And it isn't abridged at all.
  

    
Yay for the Goldfish Swapmeet! I'm actually starting to consider
getting fish now... a large un-knockoverable tank would be a great
entertainment center for my feline familiars.

Maure- that's so neat that you're getting the stories from the kids! I
wonder if that's one of the saddest downsides to increased literacy-
we don't really tell each other stories like that anymore. You get
things that start out that way, but sooner or later they get trapped in
writing, and someone starts calling them authoritative and then
they're not nearly as fluid as they used to be. Is this all bad? Am i
just pessimistic? One of my goals in life is to learn to tell a good
story... 
   And I'm so sorry to hear poor Rusalka died... losing pets always
stinks. But isn't it funny how humor helps? Okay, everyone's going to
think i'm a sicko, but when my grandfathers died, and my Da as well, we
had each of them cremated. For some reason (i think in imitation of
one of my grandfathers after the death of his wife), we shook each urn
to see if it rattled. They all did, and it was terribly funny at the
time. Well, it kinda still is, to me at least... :)

Happy (late) Anniversary, Neil! Happy (late) Birthday, Linda!

John-Mike- wow, what a lovely beat... that was fun to recite out loud.
i have this thing for words with rhythm, which at its worst extends to
classical poetry... Vivamus mea Lesbia quaemaemus! (i think i just
spelled something wrong there, oops.)
  

    
Adriana - and here I was complaining about the Smarch weather
yesterday! Tho' today it seems pretty seasonable.

Linda - Happy bee day (late)

Neil - Happy anniv. (late) Can't wait to hear Coraline! Hooray for
sock monkeys! and... hrm... forgot...

Maure/Jade - Hugs. Sending happy thoughts both your respective
directions.

Me - happy first day off in 10 days!

re: new topic title - does this mean I have to go and get goldfish to
swap with y'all?

squeaks, who is meant to be in Menlo Park just now... 
  

    

Does this mean we should play poker for goldfish instead of chips?

Just a thought...
  

    

Live or crackers?
  

    
I think the goldfish in question are notional. maybe it should be a
notional goldfish swapmeet. (Nearly typed swampmeat. Sigh.)
  

    
   The goldfish certainly were meant to be notional (the only ones I
have are cheddar and pretzel).   Much as a good deal of the material on
the Antiques Roadshow is far fram antique; today's episode saw another
outbreak -- by no means the first -- of violins, their owners positive
they were in possession of a hundred thousand quid on the hoof
(orcatgut), labeled "Stradivarius -- Made in Czechosolovakia."