Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

I actually copied it to my computer off of the CD single, but you can 
watch it at 

<http://www.astralwerks.com/fbs/woc/> 
  

    
THANK YOU!  I finally saw it (albeit very lo-fi so it wouldn't crash).
 That's the best idea since Chevy Chase lipsynched "You Can Call Me
Al."
  

    
(Ooh, I got Post #777!  Coooool!)
  

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

    
And how are said children, Dan?  :)
  

    
Lemme catch some responses I owe.

Bill -- Where are you possibly moving?  Is it because of a job change?

Mike -- Thanks for the Macallan explanation (and even the definition
of single-malt!).  I'd probably head for the one with the most
Gaelic-sounding name.

Adriana -- Hugs to you and your mother.  How are things going?  Is she
having surgery?  You and your family are in my prayers.

The Last Angel Tour?  I didn't realize _The Wolves in the Walls_ went
back that far!

For anyone who was curious (read:  Davey), the Choir cover is coming
along.  I finally got the software to record, and learned to edit with
it.  So now the guitar track is done (the hardest one!), and I just
recorded the bass doumbek today.  FINALLY, the fun is outweighing the
worry.  (It helps that the guy compiling the CD doesn't have time to
work on it right now; I'm not under the deadline pressure I was before.
 I sent him a preview MP3 of the finished guitar track the other
night, which he thought was neat.)

Well, I promised a client I'd generate some files for her over the
weekend, so I have to WORK now.  Ick.  I feel better about it now that
I've gotten some recording done today, though.  Maybe I'll be able to
concentrate.
  

    
Christy--yay on the cover!  Thanks for the update.

Saw Neil Saturday.  As you can read on his blog, he read Wolves in the
Walls, Inventing Aladdin (a poem that will be in the next
Datlow/Windling collection) and Crazy Hair.  He told us that Dave
McKean says Crazy Hair should be out in January.  He also told us that
he thinks Dave McKean is mad.

He says that Wolves in the Walls is out Aug. 8, Endless Nights in
September, and the next projects over the next few years are another
novel, another children's book, and *then* the next short story
collection, which will probably include "How the Marquis Got His Coat
Back".  Um, I can't think of anything else that he said that wasn't
covered on his blog, or in previous interviews.

He looks well--not as thin as in the photos I saw from before he left
for Europe (this is a good thing), and he and Maddy seemed to be having
a good time--having Maddy along would make anything seem less like
work, I think.  The ALA poster is very cool up close & personal--he
showed us the copy that Tina brought him at the signing.  And Wolves in
the Walls is gorgeous--Dave has outdone himself again.  He
specifically asked me to give his regards to everyone here.  He says he
still reads us every day, but doesn't post as much because his
computer has stopped leaving him logged in, so he has to log in every
time he wants to post.

So we had a blast, and it was good to see him, and for once he was in
an appropriately sized venue, and we bought lots of books, and that was
my Saturday.  The End.

Mary (thought I'd give you a taste of my students' writing ;-) ) 
  

    
<waves>  Hi, Neil!  ;)

Mary -- Thanks for the report, and the congrats!  Did any of your
students come to the reading, since they'd just read _Neverwhere_? 
(How did that go over in class, anyway?)  Glad he's looking well.  (Is
it safe to say you're fully recovered yet, Neil?)  Sounds like a good
time was had by all.

And Maddy iz kewl.  But you all knew that.
  

    
It was my senior class that read Neverwhere.  Therefore, it was bloody
near impossible to get them to read anything.  They enjoyed the TV
series, though I doubt they would admit to it.  Prom was Friday night,
and from what I'm hearing, the party didn't end until sometime Saturday
afternoon.  So I didn't ask Neil to come to my school, and no one
showed up at the reading (except one of my fellow teachers, who is now
an obsessed fan, poor guy) even though I had offered extra credit.  Oh,
well.  They don't behave very well, anyway, so I was a bit concerned
about them coming.

Mostly they thought Neverwhere was weird.  I think a few of them
*might* have finished it, but they are so focused on getting out of
here (though many of them can be found hanging around the halls
*still*) that they didn't care.  Too bad.  Next time I won't teach it
to seniors, and I won't teach it at the end of the year.  And with any
luck, I'll be teaching students who read.  Most of my kids cannot and
do not.  <<sigh>>  I love the inner city.

Mary (too tired for words, going home to crash)
  

    
<except one of my fellow teachers, who is now an obsessed fan, poor
guy>

Casual contact with anything by Neil will do that to a person....

Sorry to hear that even the Dreamweaver couldn't shake your kids out
of their classroom ennui.  *I* still think you need to move to
Connecticut (Hey, Jinxie, back me up!)... but I'm selfish.  ;)
  

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

    
Nodding my head in agreement with everything Mary said. It was very
nice to see Neil again, and Maddy is a doll. A sneaky doll that plays
tricks on people when they're not looking.

Pam and I are off to Vegas! this week -- me on Wednesday, Pam's coming
in Thursday. I'm sort of nervous -- I've never been there, have no
idea what to do there, but Pamela and I will muddle through. I still
want to see Penn and Teller. That's really the only definite thing I
can think of wanting to do. Except indulging in margaritas and girl
talk, of course.

Anyone have any suggestions?
  

    
Hey!  Have a good trip!  Stay safe and don't lose your wallets.  <g>
  

    
Neil!!  Congratulations on the Stoker award!!!  Here we go again....

Now you have *two* little houses with doors that still work.
  

    
Happy happy happy!!!  My local library has two copies of the
_Coraline_ CD set, and I just checked one out!!  I'd been hoping they'd
get one in, but for a while there, I thought I'd have to go calling
ILL to find one.  Now I will have something to occupy me when I drive
up to Pittsburgh in a couple of weeks to attend a friend's wedding. 
(In case anyone was wondering, my library also has _American Gods_ on
tape.)

Neil, thanks in advance for making the drive a pleasure.

Maure -- I hope that whomever Maddy was playing the tricks on wasn't
using power tools!  She's been warned, you know.  ;)
  

    
(Also very happy that they have automated checkout stations, so I
didn't have to wait in line.  <g>)
  

    
    Maure -- I would suggest that you call the Rio box office in
advance for Penn & Teller tickets (which you can pick up at the
theatre).  I don't know how often they sell out, but Security is Good.

     You didn't say where you were staying, but there's a free shuttle
bus from Harrah's to the Rio every half hour or so (the Rio is about
half a mile west of the Strip).  The bus stop is in the parking ramp --
go to one of the service desks and ask for directions.  If you're
staying there, or at the Palms or Gold Coast, it's a walk, but not
really otherwise.

     Our favorite place for breakfast is, by a wide margin, the
Bellagio buffet.  It's $12 (the most expensive buffet in town) but the
spread is astonishing -- piles of smoked salmon, omelets to order,
amazing baked goods -- you could very easily skip lunch.  But we also
stay at Caesars, right across the street -- you might not want to go a
long distance.  (The Mirage buffet is also quite good, and the Golden
Nugget has the best buffet downtown.)
     If you're near the Forum Shops (at Caesars), the Stage Deli is a
great, inexpensive place to eat.  There's a 10% discount if you belong
to Caesars' players club.

     Gambling advice (apart from Set A Limit And Don't Go Over) is
hard to give, since all the games with a small house edge -- mostly
blackjack and video poker -- require study.  Do join the slot players'
club wherever you're staying, and at any place you choose to play slots
or VP, even if you only run a few coins through a nickel machine.  It
gets you on the mailing list, and sometimes there are good offers even
if you've hardly played at all.  Caesars has a large number of 9/6
Jacks or Better machines (if you've studied the game, that will make
sense to you) at the quarter level and above, one of very few Strip
casinos with VP that good at that price level.

     We don't go downtown much, but it's worth going one evening to
see all the lights on Fremont Street (Glitter Gulch).  The digital
light display over the street is huge, and worth seeing, but, eh. 
There's also the Neon Museum, a set of great old salvaged signs; it's
on a side street, outdoors, and free.  City buses run up and down the
Strip to downtown -- the express is a couple of bucks each way, which
is a lot cheaper than a cab and not much slower.

     Free stuff: The pirate show at Treasure Island has just changed
format (more dancing girls, apparently) -- haven't seen the new
version, but it's still free.  The Venetian has some good street
performers who work the halls of the shopping mall.  The Dale Chihuly
ceiling at the Bellagio front desk is, well, a great big Chihuly, and
the conservatory is a few steps from it.  In the Forum Shops, by the
"Race for Atlantis" ride, is a lovely big aquarium; the fountain puts
on an animatronic show with a lot of fire and steam effects, that's
worth seeing once.  The lion show at the MGM is neat, if you have a
taste for lions and remember that they aren't really "performing"
critters.

   If you have the stamina for walking, I suggest that you start at
the Venetian (or Treasure Island across the street) and just move south
on the Strip, walking through everybody's lobbies and casinos,
watching the action.  Doing this after dark is both more dramatic and a
lot cooler.  Important: stop when you get tired, pick up another time.
 Best lobbies overall, north to south: Venetian, Mirage, Caesars,
Bellagio, Paris, Luxor.
  

    
Mike,  you are invaluable. Thank you so much. I took notes. We're
staying at Treasure Island (for some reason, my family thinks I am
obsessed with pirates, and thought this would be the best way to get me
to go to Vegas). Hooray for more dancing girls. I do need to see the
Chihuly and take a photo of it for a friend, so had planned on that. I
checked P&T tickets this morning, and none of the nights we're there
were sold out, but I will take your advice and call them right when I
get there. I don't have any interest in gambling, and have no idea how
to go about it (then why are you going to Vegas, you may wonder), so
I'm thinking of this as more of a people watching expedition.

I'm actually pretty excited about the Neon Museum...
  

    
     If you go over to the Rio website (harrahs.com and a number of
further clicks) there's a printable coupon for $10 each off up to four
Penn & Teller tickets.  You have to show a Harrah's slot club card
(which is good at all their properties, including the Rio) with the
coupon, but joining costs nothing and takes maybe five minutes. 
Coupon's good through sometime in August.
     Okay, Treasure Island is across the Strip from the Venetian
(there's a pedestrian bridge) and north of the Mirage, which is
connected to it by a shuttle train (free, runs frequently and all
night).  Harrah's is across the street -- there's a ground-level
pedestrian crossing with signals, but be careful, some drivers don't
notice the red light.  South of the Mirage are the Forum Shops and then
Caesars proper, and then, across Flamingo Rd. (pedestrian bridges
again -- you can't cross the corner at street level), the Bellagio,
where the Chihuly glass is.  Note that this is a long walk, though
Elise and I have done it without too much strain -- Vegas distances
tend to be long, and because the ground is very flat and the air
usually very clear, that big thing in the distance (you know, the fake
Eiffel Tower or the fake Empire State Building or the fake volcano or
the fake Godzilla stomping Tokyo -- no, wait, they don't have that one
yet) can look a lot closer than it is. 
     Across the street north of TI is the Fashion Show Mall, a huge
shopping center.  This may or may not be of interest.  North of the
Venetian is where Steve Wynn's building his new joint, Le Reve (not due
to open till '05).
     And should you be interested, the Star Trek Experience is at the
Hilton, a long block east of the Strip.  It's probably a cab ride.  The
audience for it has faded a lot, and I don't know what the current
ticket price is, though there's no admission for Ye Olde Futuristique
Gifte Shoppe and Quark's Bar, which has some amusing drinks.
     One more thing, which we haven't actually done: at the north end
of the Strip is the Stratosphere Tower, the tallest man-made thing
(1149 ft) west of the Mississippi.  There's an observation deck and a
revolving restaurant.  There's a charge for the elevator up, I think
about eight bucks, but I suspect the view, especially at night, is
pretty amazing.  It's not hard to spot -- just look north from about
anywhere outdoors on the Strip, or south from downtown.

    Oh, and before I forget -- have a lot of fun.
  

    
Again Mike, thank you. My father gave me his Harrah's slot club card,
but if they mention that I don't look much like a Robert, I'll get my
own. I've got coupons printed, a page full of notes. I do think this
should be fun. If nothing else, there *are* pirates. Ok, fake pirates,
but one takes what one can...
  

    
My favorite thing when I was out there was Mystere, the Cirque du
Soleil show at the Treasure Island.  I heard great things about O, but
haven't seen it.

My friend PC, whose parents live there, says to tell you the
temperatures are averaging over 100.

And Hoover Dam is pretty cool, too, if you have a car.

Have a great time!
  

    
Well Maure, I don't think you'd want to meet real modern pirates. 
They aren't quite as romantic as the ones of old.
  

    
And the ones of old probably weren't, either, back in the "of-old"
day.
  

    
"O" is wonderful, though quite expensive.  There are two more Cirque
shows coming, but the first one won't open until mid-August.  We liked
Lance Burton's magic act -- it doesn't blow out the walls like Penn &
Teller, but it's an excellent old-style show.

Speaking of magic, in the Venetian's shopping mall, next to the magic
store, there's a small collection of Houdini memorabilia.  If you're a
serious Houdini fan (as Elise is), this is worth the two bucks.

The Tropicana has an interesting collection of casino-history stuff --
ignore the "15,000 items!" hype, as about 14,000 of them are chips,
but it does have a lot of odd stuff, like cancelled paychecks from old
headliners (Sammy Davis Jr,, etcetera), some Liberace outfits on loan
from the Liberace Museum (which we haven't yet been to), a bucket of
heat-fused chips from the Hacienda fire.  It costs $4, but there are
various places that hand out free or half-price coupons.

And I'm sure it's going to be hot.  One reason I suggested taking
walks after dark; deserts can get quite cool at night, though the
fountains and air conditioning along the Strip have done strange things
to the microclimate.

There are, or were, lots of tour buses to Hoover Dam, but my
understanding is that tours have been suspended out of fear that
someone will bring in a nuclear device inside a hollow tooth.  (They're
finishing up a highway bridge that will bypass the dam, so driving
over it will probably be forbidden very soon.)
  

    
I just went to neilgaiman.net and pre-ordered Endless Nights.  When I
got to the part about "Special Instructions" I stared at it for a
while, then wrote "Tell the next person you see they have a nice shirt
on today".