Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
You can read part of our first song here:
http://www.livejournal.com/talkpost.bml?journal=maure&itemid=14644
if you want to do. 

I don't know how I get into these fine messes . . . 
  

    
Dan-- ooooh! Flash!

Maure- That's awesome! I miss being in a band....
  

    
Yay!  Maddy got colored hair extensions!  I just love that thought. 
(And good for Holly for donating her tresses.  I've got a braid in a
drawer that I keep meaning to donate....)

Has anyone else been enjoying the newish Jack Womack/Ellen Datlow
topic?  I already liked her for wearing colorful clothes and looking
like a hippie folk singer.  Now I also discover she's a New Yorker; up
with the cool points!

Dan "Chowderhead" Wilson -- Hope you feel better soon.  And I look
forward to browsing your redesigned site!

Maure -- Go you!  The name reminds me of something scary I discovered
while reading a bilingual shampoo bottle... namely, that the French use
the same word for "avocado" and "lawyer."  Make your own jokes.

Me, I've thought for some time that it would be neat to name a band
"Avocado's Number."  But that's just because I'm a geek [er, sic].
  

    
C'mon, you know that just CRIED out to be pseuded.

My brother just got back from a holiday trip to the UK, and sent his
friends and family an informative, funny day-by-day account of his
adventures that makes me wish he had time to keep a blog.  Anyway, some
of his notes from December 29th, in Edinburgh, Scotland, raised my
curiosity.  He's given me permission to quote him here so I can ask for
more information.

<cite>Additionally, little did we know that we’d arrived in Edinburgh
just in time for a massive, pre-New Year’s festival.  Although I’m
uncertain of the celebration’s name, it had pagan Viking origins, and
involved a massive torch-lit procession of thousands behind a burning
wooden boat being drawn through the city and up a hill.  At the top of
the hill, next to very old observatories and the beginnings of a
Parthenon replica that ceased construction during the Napoleonic wars,
musicians played, the boat burned and fireworks lit up the city.  It
was incredible!</cite>

I'd never heard of this.  Anyone have any background on this?  Name,
origins, meaning?  Neil?

Viking lore in Scotland... how very Shadow-esque.

Thanks,
Christy
  

    
Maybe a symbolic end-of-the-year burning? Vikings put the body of a
newly dead chieftan into the chieftan's longboat, pushed it out into
the water and set it ablaze. 
  

    

Yeah, and we even saw a recreation of that ritual minus the blaze when
Boromir was sent over the falls in his longboat in LOTR1. ;)
  

    
Yep, cream free. It's stuff I got from a local health food store. Just
add boiling water.

Still sick, but a little less so. Tried going to work today and gave
it up and came home around 3. Even so, the pattern continued of the
phone ringing right as I'm falling asleep and it being someone from
work with a question.

feh.

Still, cat naps are good for colds, right?
  

    
Erynn -- I lived in Bloomington for almost exactly ten years (arrived
just after New Year's 1974, left for NYC just before Christmas 1983). 
The College Mall was definitely there; I used to go there in the early
PM (when it was mostly deserted, since the student population was at
least supposed to be otherwise occupied), often see a movie for a buck
(cheap early matinee, because of the aforementioned desertedness), go
to the MCL cafeteria for lunch, and stay there drinking unlimited
coffee refills and writing for two, sometimes three hours.  This was
long enough ago that it was major when the movie theatre went from a
one-plex to a three-plex.  (The Mall itself had a major expansion a
couple of years before I left.)  Vaguely remember Jiffy Treet, but I'm
sure they didn't deliver in those days.

I've only been back once, about ten years ago, for a convention
(actually held up in Brown County); it looked pretty much as I'd
remembered, the student union coffee shop was still serving the stuff
we affectionately called "battery acid."  Though the Tibetan restaurant
was new; very nice addition.  (Note to anybody who goes to a Tibetan
restaurant: the tea is wonderful, but it contains butter.  Do not drink
it to excess, as it will act like a Teflon lining on what the TV
commercial people call your "lower tract.")

Glad to hear you're happy there, though not too surprised; it was a
nice town, and I suspect the combination of things that made it so --
reasonable affluence and cosmopolitan quality from the university, the
ability to live rather nicely on a modest income -- remain in effect.
  

    
Yeah, maybe it's a sort of funeral for the passing year.  It sounds
fitting.  (I knew about Viking funerals, just not in Scotland and not
on top of a hill.)  Thanks, Steve!

Hey, Soy Chowder -- When I come home sick, I employ a little trick
called "turning the ringer off."  ;)  (Answering machines can be turned
down, too.)
  

    
140 years ago today, the London subway system opened to the public.

Just happened to read that.
  

    
That's very deep!
  

    
<groan>  That's as bad as,

"Well..."

"Deep subject."
  

    
Christy - every year a Christmas my Mom trots out her old joke:

young boy:  Didn't the shepherds get thirsty?
adult: What do you mean?
young boy:  Noelle, noelle, no well, no well.
  

    
Um, it's sort of  long story, but I have at the moment been awake for
21 hours (who's counting?), so I'll be brief.  No, let me sum up--

Had an interview with a teacher recruiter yesterday morning, who
booked me for a job interview this morning, which they offered me on
the spot.  I had thought the position opened in Sept.  Wrong.  I start
teaching American Lit (hmmph) and Creative Writing (oh, *this* should
be good) a week from Tuesday.  I gave notice at my day job, which I
have held for 7 years, this morning, and they immediately called my
good friend Alia, so she gets a pretty decent gig out of this, too.  I
quit my part-time job, and will be making about $5,000-6,000 more per
year in this one job than I made working 60 hours a week at 2 jobs for
the last 4 years.

And a cute boy seems interested-ish, and I have tickets to the Goodman
for Sunday ("Rose Tattoo").  I now know why I didn't go to Italy (the
last of the troops returned today--the ones who added on 5 days in
Londinium to see Antony Sher with the RSC.  Had I gone, I'd be with
them).

Um, Neil--someone changed my writers.

:-)   :-)   :-)  :-)  

Mary (most likely in a sleep-deprivation-induced hallucination)  
  

    
Go Mary! Go Mary!
  

    
Yay Mary!! This is fantastic!!!
  

    
Mary, what incredible news!  New job, more money, less hours and a
cutie on the horizon?  It couldn't have happend to a nicer person.  And
you were so bummed about Italy...seems the universe has plans for you
sweetie. Enjoy the ride! :D
  

    
Mary, does this mean you're not going to Connecticut?
  

    
Oh, and a message from Tara for Neil --  apparently, you were telling
us about a show called the Office at some point, sometime, somewhere.
Tara wants you to know that it is airing on BBC America soon. I looked
it up (because I didn't know what she was talking about), and more
information is here:
http://www.bbcamerica.com/genre/comedy_games/the_office/the_office.jsp

and Tara says hello to all of youse!
  

    
Tinymonster, might that celebration be Hogmanay?
For info, check out

http://www.hogmanay.net/hogmanay.htm

Elise,
wishing she could be at Up Helly Aa some year.
  

    
Glen's Mom's Attempt at Wit -- That reminds me of those Christmas
cards that say "Noe" on the front and then, inside, "You know -- No
'L'!"

We always had these individual angel-shaped candle holders, each in
the shape of a letter from "Noel."  A few years before he left home, my
brother took to rearranging them while my mom wasn't looking.  (Dad
has since acquired similar letters, to which Ben also lends his, er,
editorial skills.)  We'd turn around and see our Yuletide decorations
spelling "LEON," or "LONE," or my personal favorite, "LENO."
  

    
Mary -- All RIGHT!!  Congratulations!  That sounds SO much better than
working 60 hrs/week, for less money, in something that isn't teaching.
 Congrats to Alia, too!  Hope you enjoyed "The Rose Tatoo."

I've been amused by Neil's "new writers" theory, partly because that
was sort of the theme of that <i>Twilight Zone</i> episode with
Christopher Titus I saw a few weeks ago.

Hi, Tara (via Maure)!

Neil -- Glad to hear that the so-called "Round II" worked out well for
you.  (Congrats also on being pseuded by two different people in one
week!)

Did you notice that your "momentarily" pet peeve was also addressed on
the page you linked to explain "curate's egg"?  It's under the heading
"Quality Time," and it certainly surprised me.

And there may not be a word yet for the suffix-mania described under
"Thonatosis" on that page, but I'll bet John M. Ford could come up with
a good one if he wanted to....

Elise -- I think you're right!  Thank you!!  It seems to have been the
"Hogmanay Warmer-Upper" procession.  I'll forward the link on to my
brother.

Off to a late lunch.

Christy
  

    
And good luck to Neil on the Shadow story, though if he's a good boy,
he won't read this until it's done.


This Silverberg has a way with words.  :)
  

    
Uh, I'm still not really here. I'm really doing work-related online
research - not playing around and surfing Neil-related sites and boards
and newsgroups. Nope. Not me!

But, in passing (had to take the 'scenic route' to the insurance
site)...

Tara has a spiffy new do!

Dodge - you know you want a bug. My Beetle's just turned 2, but I have
my heart set on finding an old one and doing it up into a Mad Max bug
someday. And <<<hugs>>> about friends like that. I barely even talk to
one of my dearest friends from school just because we started wandering
in opposite directions and never really felt like wandering back, even
for each other.

Erynn - my comic shop is like that. I think they actually go out and
buy Neil's non-comic endeavors because they know I'll buy them. That's
why my comic shop is way over there on the other side of the bay. :)

Maure - Yay to fruity abject humiliation and absurdity! You must keep
us all posted. I miss singing, but I don't miss my bandmate much - will
have to get to work on music with the boy one of these days...

Dan - hope your feeling better. As for 'cat naps' somehow I read that
as something about needing a cat to take a nap... can we say feline
withdrawal? (with no offense to my squeakies, as they can be quite
cuddlesome too)

Mary - Yay! That's so wonderful! Now go hit the books and prepare, dag
nabbit. <does a little dance - oh wait, I'm not here... uh, pretend
you see me doing a little dance>

In other news - Q: How long before doctors actually believe you when
you say you're 'hypersensitive to medications'? A: When a 1/6 dosage
taken on Thursday evening results in a headache that is still throbbing
noticeably on the following Monday evening. Or at least I hope he
takes me seriously this time. I see the doc tomorrow AM. If he's not
significantly understanding and helpful (with a touch of apologetic
thrown in for good measure), he'd better hope HE has good insurance... 

Incidentally, I'm fine - which is more than I can say for the doc
tomorrow when I get through with him (insert evil laughter here).

squeaks, wondering how many people she can infect with the word 'feh'
before it gets entered into the OED.
  

    
Hey Dan (and anyone else in the bay area this weekend) - Rosin Coven
will be playing at the 3rd annual Edward Gorey Ball this Saturday at
the Cat Club (Folsom at 8th). It's the same evening I'm going to the
opera with the boy, but I'm trying to talk him into swinging by the
club afterward to say hi to friends and check out the decor (and I get
to wear a swanky dress).

squeaks, the not-so-stealthy