Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
P.S.  I hadn't known Rickman directed, too!

I've started watching the _Neverwhere_ series.  Very cool.  And I know
that, as a teen, I would have had a huge squealing crush on that
adorable fellow playing Mayhew.
  

    



Jouni Koponen writes:



Just wrote this E-mail to a friend and then realized that this information
has to be shared with the world...

Read on, THIS is important...

...

I have known this for years... but was reminded about it again (doin' an
illustration)

There is an object that is almost impossible to draw/ paint/ scratch/
whatever well.

No, it's not a castle made of dragons breath, or a world in a glass orb, or
even a head filled with cold porridge.

>From all things real and imaginary...

it's...

(a drum fill)

... a plate.

Yes, the thing-you-put-your-food-on-before-you-eat-it.

It is damn nearly impossible to make a picture of a plate LOOK LIKE a plate,
and not just some weird, flat, roundish object...

Just thought you should know... ;-)

Jouni

PS. Also wanted to point out that I'm live and functioning although I'm
havin' a seriously sore throat and I currently sound like Barry White...
  

    



Holley Nowell writes:


Mary, Thanks for the suggestions, I'll check those out. During the move thang
I was being careful to not spend money or time on obsessions. I get obsessive
about a star and go to the Imdb and collect everything I can find they've
done. I did that with Tim Matheson. It's amazing how long that man has been
around and how many truly stinkers and just ho-hums he's been in. He did a
lot of made for TV movies. So, I guess Rickman is my new obsession now I have
the time and some money starting February.

Tinymonster. Whoa! Robin Hood? I've got that on tape. Of course! He was the
bad guy right? Was he? I mean, I vaguely remember it. What a good excuse to
try to find all my tapes and discs and watch a good movie again. But I did
say, I'd never NOTICED him in things. Wasn't the right time I guess.

Went to the allergist today. She says my asthma is doing well. The food
allergies are ok BUT I am now allergic to my cat. Sigh. Have to clear out the
bedroom. Vacuum and change the bed and not let the cat in. Also have to wipe
her down more often with wet rag. She hates that but the last time I tried
bathing her I got my nose pierced.  I'd like to give her away to a new family
but that's hard to do with an adult cat and I am NOT abnegating my
responsibility and taking her to one of those pet shelters. So. There. Will
just have to put up with the itchies.
  

    


Holley again:

And went to look at imdb for Rickman. It says he was chosen to play Snape
after Tim Roth backed out. Went to look at imdb for Tim Roth. Man, what a
stupid move! But great for us. I so much prefer Rickman in the part.
  

    
Greetings from the shadows. Just thought I'd mention that 411 got it's
first public reading last night. We had a decent crowd for a staged
reading, including our highly esteemed Miss Mousey and her boy. It went
really well, and I'll only be making a few minor adjustments to the
script before pursuing performance venues for later this year. Whoo
hoo!
  

    
I wanted to go but last night didn't turn out to be a night that I could--
  

    
Holley-- I highly recommend half.com if you're going to collect
Rickman.  Some of that crap you *do not* want to pay full price for. 
Much of Robin Hood doesn't hold up, but I stand by my original
review--I want to see the movie Alan Rickman was in.  The one Kevin
Costner was in was sort of boring.

I do the same thing.  Lately it's been Ben Kingsley--I *love* that
man--and I have for years collected all films Day-Lewis and Fiennes
(Ralph).  And I need to catch up the Branagh, and hunt up some of the
more obscure Brian Blessed, and oooo, you said Tim Roth......

Shoot me.

Mary (who can no longer avoid averaging grades and grading exams,
dammit)
  

    
Ooops, darn, forgot to say--whooo-hooo!  Dan!  You rock! 
Congratulations!  
  

    
Wow!  I log off for a day and there's a relative avalanche!

Aww, poor Jouni, I hope you feel much better today.  Thanks for
stopping by with that vital artistic information!

Congratulations, Dan!

Mary and Holley -- I've done that, too, although I usually don't
actually buy the movies, just tape them off TV or, if I have a
movie-watching buddy who's game, rent them.  I've done it with Jeff
Goldblum and Martin Short, and I had a major run on Bruce Greenwood. 
(He's a terrific actor, but he's been cursed with a string of Lifetime
movies.)  I watched _St. Elsewhere_ for the first time, fifteen years
after the fact, just for him (and got to see some early Denzel and
Mandel in the process!).

Neil -- Oogh, that poor cat!  Maybe that's why he was so
infection-prone; some general illness mucking up his immune system.  I
hope it's something that can be fixed, and quickly.  Please do keep us
posted.  (And I'm very glad you're taking good care of yourself, too. 
<hugs>)
  

    


Holley Nowell writes:


Exactly! That's how it is. Yes, I taped a lot of Tim Matheson too. He did a
lot of Lifetime and Bravo movies as well. The most recent was playing the
husband of Martha Stewart.  Or the most recent I'd seen.  And I started
watching West Wing in order to see him on it and got hooked so I had to watch
all the reruns and buy the series as it comes out. I looked on Amazon for
Rickman and there's actually some decently priced ones of his. Also
skinnyguy.com is a good source for used movies. And I am amazed, looking at
his list and being reminded of it, at how many of the things he's been in
I've actually seen and not especially noticed him in.
  

    


Kathy Li writes:

Rickman-wise, whatever you do, skip CLOSET LAND. Rickman as emotionless
torturer.  Not good for the sleeping. (Anybody mention his Tybalt and Anthony
Andrews's Mercutio in the BBC Romeo & Juliet? ;-)

And on other British actor fronts, did want to mention that next Wednesday
(2/4) on CBS, there's a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie about a guy with AIDS
going home to Ireland for one last visit to meet his grandmother, mother, and
sister.  The women are played (respectively) by Angela Lansbury, Dianne
Wiest(!), and Gina McKee(!?).  Hallmark has a lot to answer for.  But it's a
good chance to see Gina McKee (if you weren't following the Forsytes on
Masterpiece Theatre) so you can imagine the Queens in MIRRORMASK.

--Kathy.
  

    
<<Picture me screaming>>  He played Tybalt??????  Aaaaaagggghhh!!!!! 
I must own it yesterday.  I have a growing collection of Shakespeare
films, and that's the obscure Blessed I want--I think he has a Lear. 
Squuueee!!!!

Imdb is a bad, bad thing.

Mary (who was caught up last night, and would like to know what
happened in the last 24 hours, please.  I hate exam week)
  

    
Um, I really dug him in Closet Land.  I liked Madelaine Stowe, too.
  

    
Mary--I thought he was brilliant in CLOSET LAND.  I just didn't get
much sleep for a week because he was so brilliant.  And yes, he was 
Tybalt.  He's also somewhere in SMILEY'S PEOPLE for about five
seconds, I'm told.

BTW, I did want to plump down firmly on the side of pro-Gambon for 
Dumbledore.  Love watching that guy.  And, like Rickman, he's too
rarely seen playing a hero and darn good at acting one.  I'm firmly
hoping for one of his huggable-bearlike-goodguys, like the Storyteller
in the Henson GREEK MYTHS series, his zookeeper in TURTLE DIARY, or
Harrison in LONGITUDE.

--Kathy.
  

    
Even people who haven't been here a while are coming out of the
woodwork!  Hi, Kathy!

Mmmmm... him and Anthony Andrews together?  That'd be worth a look. 
(Not that I've seen Andrews since around 1985, but still.)
  

    
..."been here IN a while," I mean.
  

    
Upon discovering that _Enterprise_ was a repeat tonight, and having my
dinner all ready to eat with TV, I turned to _Smallville_ for the
first time in a couple of seasons.


And discovered that I really don't have any idea what is going on
anymore.
  

    
The first time I saw Rickman was in the theatrical release of "Closet Land".
While the film sort of fell apart at the end, I was hugely, hugely impressed
with him.
  

    
Hey, Michelle -- at least your kitten doesn't do this: 
http://www.top-greetings.com/N.py?P=20040124
  

    



Holley Nowell writes:


I went digging in boxes to find some movies and found Dogma and watched
Rickman in it. He was really very good as the voice of God. And, you know,
that movie is much better the 2nd time around than I thought it was the
first.  You have to get past the excessive use of the F word.

I also watched Smallville. And I guess I've seen it more than I thought
because I actually knew some of what they referred to. It's getting wholly
weird. Nobody can be trusted any more. You never know what agendas each
character has going. I did notice one thing though. They are using the Pete
character less and less. He barely showed up in this one. Pity.
  

    
Martha - It would have been so fun to see you there. Thanks for the
thought at least! When we do a full production, maybe you can make it,
eh?

Mary and Christy - Thanks!

Hrm, excessive use of the F word? But it's the only word that can be
used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, an exclamation AND a
conjunction. 
  

    

Actually, to quote myself and the conversation I spawned: "F*** and Smurf 
are the only words that can be used as any part of speech."
"Fan-smurfing-tastic."
"Let us never speak of this so-called smurf again."
  

    
Hey, Neil -- Just wanted to say that I am really enjoying those Father
Brown stories to which you posted a link in your Journal.  It's
actually the first Chesterton I've read (AFAIK), though I've heard
about him for years.  Thanks for the pointer!

Hope you're feeling better.
  

    
I think my favorite Chesterton is _The Man Who Was Thursday_.
A very curious novel.
  

    
Man, I've gotta catch up on this Rickman/Roth conversation.  My sister
and I are huge Rickman fans (my favorite Rickman story relates to
*Dogma*, and you need to watch the *Evening with Kevin Smith* DVD, if
you haven't already, to hear it.  Well.  You need to watch it, if you
haven't already, anyway, because even if you don't like Kevin Smith
it's three of the most entertaining hours I've seen.  The man can tell
stories like nobody's business).  I just caught him in *An Awfully Big
Adventure*, which was shown on Bravo not long ago.  I still don't know
how to feel about it, but he was great in it.  I rented *Rasputin* not
long ago, which didn't hold my interest, but that certainly wasn't
Rickman's fault (or McKellen's, for that matter.  I really wanted to
love it, too).

For Tim Roth, two of the more overlooked movies are *Deceiver* and
*Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead*; the former was him with Renee
Zellwegger, in which he plays an epileptic.  It's been several years
since I last saw it, but I remember enjoying it a lot.  The latter, of
course, is an adaptation of the Stoppard play directed by Stoppard. 
And the whole movie is him and Gary Oldman.  How can you go wrong with
that?  Seriously.  I just bought an import copy of eBay, it probably
wasn't the most legal thing to do, no, but, well, until some major
distributor picks it up and puts it on the shelves at Best Buy, well,
it'll just have to do.  I certainly wasn't going to miss it, I know
that.

Oh, and Brannagh; I only recently came to his work.  I'd never seen
enough to be impressed by him, and then a class I was subbing watched
his adaptation of *Hamlet*.  Jayzs.  I never liked Hamlet before I saw
it, and it just blew me away.  His *Much Ado* is really quite good,
too.