Inkwell: Authors and Artists

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

    
Shawn - I've learned it's not Saar Klein, but the guy who did the
*actual hands on editing*. So, we're not getting name recognition, but
we're getting experience and skill... and that's just peachy keen with
me!

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, belated, forgotten or
otherwise. *grin*

Speaking of trips and Chicago, I'm planning on doing a Chi-town visit
in October. There should be a gathering of some sort, methinks.....
  

    
Regarding the location of KK-crack around the world, you can find
store locations here:
http://clients.mapquest.com/krispy/mqinterconnect?link=find

Squeaks: I thought the pools were gorgeous - we saw the Neptune pool,
and the Roman pool where people used to go for drunken trysts behind
Hearst's back. He never approved of drinking, and would send people
home if he caught them at it, but they would often sneak off to this
place to have all kinds of fun. Some of the stories that come out of
that place are just fascinating - especially the guest list!!

We probably will be in England sometime 2003, but I don't know when
yet, or what all we are going to do.
  

    
E-mail from Jouni:

Hullo all

Been awhile, eh? So let's just say I've been busy and/or out of reach and
leave it to that, shall we.

I'll once again do the great injustice (due the lack of free time) and
ignore the past 100-or-so messages posted here and hope I won't miss
anything too cool...

So...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to everyone who've had one during my absence. I turned 30
15th of june and have been wonderin' since if I should be/feel more ADULT
now somehow...

Neil -- Yay! Got my copy of Coraline. Read it. Loved it. Dave's art is (once
again) great (the close-up picture of the other mother reminded me of Ralph
Steadman's illustrations)... so congratulations to you both!

That's about it, for now.

Jouni
  

    
E-mail from Johanna:

information for anyone curious about tim-tams but who isn't planning
on visiting a country which sells them any time soon... they can be
had online at https://www.aussieproducts.com/
  

    

There is a crac..uh..Krispy Kreme shop on 23rd Street & 8th right
across from Chelsea West Cinemas.  
  

    
Neil - Just got finished reading your FoodPorn interview, and I also
love making omlettes.  You mentioned using yogurt, have you ever tried
sour cream?  It also makes a very light, fluffy omlette. And what is
your favorite filling?  Mine is definitely goat cheese and chives.  

And don't be embarrassed about owning George Foreman's Grilling
Machine, it was rated one of the top kitchen appliances by Consumer
Reports Magazine.  Of course this is not an admission that *I* actually
own one. *grin*
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
(Sorry about the scribble - e-mail fu)

E-mail from Christy Smith:

Wow, you guys were prolific over the last few days!

Mary -- Hooray for fishies and snails!  ><>  <><    @`    ><>  <><
And what's this about a possible job in Connecticut?

Orange -- Thanks for the well-wishes about my mom.  She finds out in
another week whether the fix is going to stay put, but so far, the doc
says it looks good!  And the Bards are from Austin, so if you've just got
a local band, it wouldn't be them.  And I'm glad you liked the Irish
quote.  There seem to be quite a few of us Gaels on this board.  :)  LOVE
the Carlin quote!

Oh, my gosh, I hope I catch that _Simpsons_ episode with Christopher
Walken someday!  (Have you ever seen Jay Mohr's imitation of him?  
Hilarious!!)

Dan -- I guess I should have been trumpeting about Mike Gaiman's birthday
on Sunday instead of yours!  Glad I was in the ballpark, anyway.  :)

Jouni -- Happy, happy 30th!!!  And as for "adult," well, you passed that
milestone over a year ago, "Daddy"!  ;)

On speed-reading or not -- I've always been a slow reader, because I tend
to digest and picture everything in such detail.  That said, I did finish
LeGuin's _The Lathe of Heaven_ in record time!  Can anyone tell me if she
wrote anything else that was set on planet Earth?

Krispy Kremes -- Ugh.  Too greasy, and too sugary.  Even the name puts me
off.  ...  And that was your controversial thought for the day.

Miz "Post #900" Rocky -- Yes; the week AG came out in paperback, my B&N
had a bunch of them towards the front in their "new releases" case, and my
Border's had a big sign or two advertising it.  Now Border's has a
good-sized _Coraline_ display up.  Way to go!  :)

Speaking of our own Nel Gurgle, it was good to see him stop by to check on
us again.  I hope he saw my few sentences about how much my family likes
him and all.

And I do hope he enjoys the notebook.

Erynn -- Break a pencil!  "...the muse finally showed up and took a dump
in my head...."  Err... is that the sort of imagery we should be expecting
when the book comes out?  ;)

Maure -- When do you find out about the apartment?  How exciting!

Neil -- A belated Happy Birthday to Mike!!!

Christy,
who is considering what kind of a pseud "Muse-$#!+-for-Brains" would make

P.S.  Earlier today, my mom finished _...Goldfish_ and immediately called
me at work to tell me how much she loved it!
  

    
Meg - last year Krispey Kremes started showing up in gas stations and
Targets all over Dallas, but, obviously they have to be carted there,
at which point they just sit in the little K.K. kyosks going stale. I
think I'm mostly excited just to get to see the wonderful liquid
conveyors that are in the stores! I have sworn testimonials from close
friends that they've gained weight simply by watching the doughnuts go
by.:)

Stagewalker - absolutely right! Particularly in Hollywoodland, skill
will always net you a better end-product than just a name. I'm glad to
hear the film is in good hands.

Rocky - the George Forman grilling machine is the savior of poor
college students everywhere! So easy and fast... it's funny to hear you
mention them because I was at my mothers house yesterday, and she was
trying to give me hers, but a quick search of all her cabinets couldn't
reveal it. :(
  

    
Oops, Maure, I forgot to wish you good luck on the apartment. That's
the exact thing that hurts so bad about looking for housing; even if
you can find a place you love and can afford it, you still have to deal
with getting rid of the current occupants. :( Best of luck!
  

    
Maure - May the gods of real estate be especially kind.  ;)

Christy - Sez you!  ;>
  

    
Just read the foodporn article...and suddenly am very, very hungry-
And  have a great desire to see how much like a food network chef I can
be...well I make a great sausage and herbed potato dish. (and as
that's nearly all we have in the house right now, aside from s'more
fixins and a bag of chips,I guess it's settled) I can't wait to try
that trout thingum! Although,I really don't enjoy trout nearly as much
as when I've caught it myself in a cold Montana river...perhaps the
next time I visit mom...

Maure- more apartment luck sent your way! I'll cross my fingers again
as soon as I'm done typing. ^_^

Mary- Thanks for that beautiful Bach quote- I haven't got that one in
my collection yet! And yes- Illusions is definately on of those
milestone books. (The Tao of Pooh is another one for me) It'll change
your outlook on life one way or the other.

Linda- Lots of healing wishes sent to your mom. And the Bards sounds
like a fun group anyways. Do they have any cds out? I have a soft spot
for celtic style music.


Neil- it's a shame that your tattoo-design days are over. But Kat is
that much luckier- and she's a darling so I am glad. (I had fun
marvelling over her collection on Sunday. Her husband also has a lovely
tatoo of an ankh on his neck...It's strange how many people at this
Faire end up married. I must keep my ring finger well-hidden...) She
says the next one she gets (if she decides to get another) will
probably be a ring of forget-me-nots around her wrist-Like Easter in
AG. And both of us agreed that you need never worry bout Americans
bashing that book because you're British. It's a book about immigrants
written by an immigrant. And no one who's grown up here could ever see
this country with the same clarity and imaginative wonder as you've
depicted in AG. So there ^_~

Rocky- thanks for the KK info... I've never been a great donut fan,
but everything's worth a try at least once. BTW- are we still going to
Olive Tree tomorrow?

Oh! Gotta run! There's a violent and beautiful thunderstorm that needs
my attention!!
  

    
I have also just read the foodporn article, which inspired several things in
response to foods mentioned in the foodporn article.

One is that I have never had eggplant sushi, but I have another bizarre
veggie sushi favorite that I haven't seen in a sushi place yet (we've made
our own veggie maki at home a few times, so that's how I've eaten it:)
Roasted red pepper sushi.  I think it'd hold its own as nigiri, even, but
we did maki rolls because they're much easier to assemble.

And the other is that I now have to wonder about the George Foreman grill,
because it just looks so *wrong* but I somehow, even though Neil is English,
and even though Neil doesn't do savory with fruit (!), do trust Neil's
cooking advice enough to think maybe I should stop looking askance at it in
stores.

(and as it seems so many of us are foodies, I will do the little well plug
thing and point out that there's lots of fun food talk in the cooking.
conference, for those who can venture outside of inkwell...)
  

    
Jouni - yes, the illustration did have a lovely hint of Ralph Steadman
flavor to it; thank yu for putting that into words.

My visitor from Seattle and I listened to some of Coraline-read-by-the-
author the other day. She had already read the book herself, and was
listening to get the sound of Neil reading, and the rat songs, and she
looked mightily pleased by both of them. (And those rat songs stick in a
person's mind, she and I agreed. *shiver*)
  

    
Just an afterthought- the George Foreman grill rocks and is nothing to
be ashamed of! My roomie has one that we use whenever we can. It's
compact and cooks things faster-than-your-average-grill. Great for dorm
rooms. Unless you're staying at the Stratford Arms in the Upper West
Side. (my former school-housing and famous for being the place were
Holden Caufield picked up his hooker in Catcher in the Rye. Also poked
fun at in the Simpsons once. Not much has changed- and I think some of
the old residents are still there. *shudder)You don't grill anything
there unless you want a dinner party of cockroaches.

Well- am off to paint and listen to Luciar's beautiful music. The
thunderstorm was nice- but passed far too quickly...sigh.

Orange Faerie's Quote O' the Day:
"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life
in a manner so that when you die the world cries and you rejoice." 
Native American Proverb
  

    

The George Forman grilling machine, well we've gone through 3 in my
house. In fact we actually had one before he started endorsing (sp?)
them. 

Am currently at work in out computer center (think college) and for
some reason (prolly cause it's got the word porn in it) I can't get to
the site and I won't be home tonight, but all in all that's a good
thing. No fatty foods, soda, sweets, or liquor for a few weeks.
Gallstones have taken over my life.

Neil, the reading thing has been like that since I was about 5, Mom
used to ground me to her room, being there was nothing I wanted to do
in there. After a pretty long weekend of being a brat I picked up
Bullfinch's Mythology and finished in a few days, just kept smart
mouthing the mother-unit to get sent to her room. Once she figured that
out, she just would tell me if I didn't behave that I couldn't go to
the library, kept me in line actually.

Tracey who now has to trundle off to work and really wants a dounut
  

    
Thank you, everyone, for the good apartment-getting thoughts. I've got
Miss Tree's "Because I said so," going for me too. We'll hear in 3-5
days. 

Because I have a weird fondness for Giant Squid stories:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/07/22/australia.squid/index.html

I don't like Krispy Kremes. At the elementary school where I worked,
parents were constantly bringing in big spreads of food in the
teachers' lounge for us. There were always boxes of Krispy Kremes, and
they'd all be gone within an hour or so. It was crazy. 
  

    
The end of the world is near. Again.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2147879.stm
  

    
God, I'm tired this morning. 
I must confess... I'm not a big Krispy Kreme fan either...
I also had a George Foreman Grill that my folks got me, and never ever
used it. My mom would ask me frequently if I'd used it, and finally
gave up in disgust.
I mean... I just don't cook!
  

    
*reeling over squid and asteroids*
  

    
heehee, Adriana, I'm in a strange mood. Squid and asteroids pretty
much encapsulate my day.

There should be a law against me cooking. However, I'm a whiz with one
of those machines that grills sandwiches on both sides and puts little
decorative dents on the top and bottom. I'm a skilled waffle-iron
handler, too. Anything that has a little light that goes off and on, to
tell you when it's done, is a friend to me in the alien landscape of
the kitchen.
  

    
Dan, what part of October will you be in Chicago? 
  

    
Maure- Sending good rent vibes to you, too.  Hope you get it.

I like the George Foreman grill.  It just rocks.  That's all.  You can
cook just about *anything* (well.  Almost.  We had filet mignon steaks
with bacon 'round once, and cooked it on there.  It was perfect for
the steak, but since the bacon was on the side it stayed pretty much
raw.  But I don't eat pig anyway, so I didn't care much).  It was
fantastic for dorm life, and single-guy-in-an-apartment-life, and I'm
sure it'll be fantastic again once I move out again.

Neil- Thank you.  I'll name-drop you if I ever get to Maynard in the
first place.  But I doubt I will.  (We got the tickets yesterday.  My
sister opened them, and there they were.  I took them down to my room,
and then later asked her if she moved them.  Her jaw dropped, and she
got really upset.  And it was funny [well, funnier after she stopped
hitting me and I told her they were safe in my room]).
And question for you, Neil-- you mentioned posters of "Blueberry Girl"
and "Instructions" a while back... any developments on either?

Maure- There *is* a law against your cooking.  Consider this a
citizen's arrest.  You have the right to remain silent.  ;)

Jinx- that's how my parents used to punish me, too.  By telling me I
wasn't allowed to go to the library anymore, I mean.  That was all I
did when I was a kid, because we didn't have Nintendo (my best friend
did, though.  Actually, the only fist fight I've ever gotten into was
with my best friend, over Nintendo.  So I never pestered my parents for
one.  They got me a Genesis for my birthday one year, but only for the
one game they also got me; *X-Men* [That game was *hard*]).

Just thought I'd share this, because I saw it the other day.  The new
*GQ* (dammit, it's *not* quarterly anymore.  I mean, it sounds okay,
but come on) (with Vin Diesel on the cover), contains an article by
Terrence Rafferty about comic-book heroes gone Hollywood.  The point of
the article is basically  "A goofy, likable teenager in a cool outfit
is probably not the hero our uncertain times require. ... Not that
Superman necessarily fills the bill.  Where *was* the Man of Steel on
September 11, anyway?" (that's in the article).
Anyway, I bring it up because it's about movie adaptations of comic
books, and how Hollywood's making a lot of them, and what it means, and
all that.  And in the second to last paragraph, he mentions the Hughes
brothers' adaptation of *From Hell* (which Moore, apparently, hasn't
even seen yet), and how studio execs are scared to take risks, and then
he states; "And I'm not even sure I'd want to see what Hollywood would
do with the greatest comic of all, Neil Gaiman's *Sandman* series
(1988-1996), which constructs and deconstructs a more evoctaive
mythology than any of our novelists or poets- or, God knows, our
filmmakers- have come up with lately."
This in an article that covers everything from *Watchmen* to *Judge
Dredd*.  The full text might be up over at www.gq.com (I didn't check,
because I have it in front of me).
  

    

Okay, that does it.  Giant squids up to 60 feet long with eyes 18 inches 
wide and a beak that can snap a steel cable?  A new asteroid posing a 
threat?  I'm just never leaving the house again.  Please leave Krispy 
Kremes (hot ONLY please) and George Foreman grills on my doorstep.  I'll 
buy the meat mail order.  Thank you.