Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Maure, they did run Destino before Triplets, and my response to it was
oddly dissonant. I appreciate the visual artistry of the piece, the
flow, the way the symbolism of certain images is reinterpreted as
they're repeated but never loses the connection to previous
interpretation. But even while I was caught up in it, I still had the
thought--several times--to wonder how it would have been different if
the characters weren't an iconographic male-female pair, but drawn in a
less idealized style--or of the same sex. Something about the stylized
perfection of those two figures kept wrenching me right out of the
enchantment; I haven't analyzed the reaction to figure out why.
  Why not watch the awards then? Spend the evening in front of the TV
with good friends and the right Nerf projectile weaponry--it'll give
you the chance to cheer on your favorites, be immediately thrilled when
they win, improve your aim (verbal and Nerf), _and_ observe the most
amazing display of excess and tastelessness in women's dress that
you're ever likely to see (unless you watch again another year).

Pam, I do what? I do not. <g> And I don't remember that assassins
could _only_ be Evil, just that successfully playing some other
alignment required negotiation with the DM. Heh. (But Lawful and
Chaotic are opposites on the character-consistency scale, as Good and
Evil are opposites on the moral scale, so Chaotic Good is possible but
Lawful Chaotic is an inherent contradiction. Been a loooong time since
I played, though.)

Chip and I saw _W;t_ off-Broadway in early 1999, and I was crying and
shaking for a while after. I thought about watching the movie but
decided not to. I regret missing Thompson, but.

Yesterday's weather was a grand exception to winter. Clear, sunny,
mid-40s. Too fine not to, so I took the cover off the Vespa and coaxed
the engine into cranking over (which it did after a half-dozen rounds
of turn-the-key--shsphtt!--whrrrr; not at all bad, considering the last
five weeks of deep-freeze), then rode around and did errands. Whee! Of
course, today was clear and sunny and mid-30s, so the cover's back on
and I wait for the bus again. But yesterday was fun.

I'm glad to hear that Fred UBT does _not_ have a malignant tumor,
whatever else he has and does. Static cling, well, that's a different
issue.
  

    
Davey: Umhmm.  It's all about plausible deniability; I get it.  

And while I understand about the whole character scale thing in D&D, I
just don't do well with labels.  If I think that "Lawful-Chaotic"
exists, by my own definitions (and I do), no DM is going to able to
convince me otherwise.  I might sullenly agree to go along with his/her
misconceptions, but I will be... subversive about it.

And I've said it before, here, and I'll say it again: I freaking LOVE
Emma.  She kept her Oscar on top of her loo.  

Maure: That's fabulous that she's playing Trelawney!  There's not much
in the books to support it, but it'd be fabulous to see teeny little
character bits between her and Rickman.

Mary: And she was utterly *gorgeous* in _Love, Actually_.  She does
grief on screen like nobody.  I saw her a few years ago in a little
Indy film that Rickman directed (can't remember the name), and she had
a grieving scene in that one that left me shaking.  But wasn't it Emma,
too, in one of the world's funniest love scenes with Jeff Goldblum in
some film yay, these many years back?  She has that *thing*... that
flawless control of the contrast between strength and vulnerability,
comedy and tragedy, that'll knock you between the eyes when you least
expect it.

Kinda like Someone Else I could name, actually.  Maybe it's a British
thing, but I'm not so sure of that.

-Pam
playing the mouse while the cat, er, boss, is away
  

    
Yes.  The Google oracle reveals that the Emma-and-Jeff
one-of-the-world's-funniest-love-scenes was in _The Tall Guy_
(alternately attributed to 1989 and 1990).

"Google is your friend. Google loves you. Google wants you to be
happy."
  

    
I REALLLLLLLY have to see that.  I've been meaning to for years, being
in love with Jeff as I am.

Hello, I've been really bad at posting this week, but everyone else
seems to be back in the action -- including Neil!  (Your popping in on
Sunday night didn't go unnoticed, Neil, but I was sleepy and needing to
log off.)  Maybe I'll catch up over the next week, as I'm on vacation.

Or maybe I'll be too busy reading _Black Orchid_, newly purchased with
a Border's gift certificate I won in a raffle.

-Christy, off in a bit to a massage that she won in a different raffle
the previous day.
  

    
I never win anything. Well. I once won a coupon for a box of tide.
Whoooooopppppiiieedooooo!

Grumble. Grumble.
  

    
Pam- I think your Indy-movie-you-can't-remember-the-name-of was *The
Winter Guest*.  In which, yes, Emma *was* terrific.

Adriana- have I told you, lately, you're the coolest?  Because,
seriously, you are.  I can't *wait* to see this movie.  Gunna be
fantastic, I think.  WooO!

Tiny- I've always wanted *Black Orchid*.  Enjoy, and congratulations.

Dodge- Yeah.  Story of my love life (thus far, at least).  The girl
thought it was refreshing, too (I called her the day after our first
date, just to thank her again and tell her what a great time I'd had).
I thought we'd really made a connection.  We may have.  When she told
me, it was a "Look, I don't have time for this, this is my career year,
but I want to be friends."  I'm a little... well, I don't know if
anyone's ever really said "I just want to be friends," and meant it. 
But she told me to call her later that night, and I did, and we spoke a
little while, and she told me to e-mail her, and invited me out to a
concert with her and her friends (I declined; I may be a fun guy just
out to have a good time, but I'm not a eunuch-safe-ex-boyfriend).
We'll see what happens.  I'm trying to concentrate on other things for
now, and I've got lots in the pipelines.  Woo!
  

    
Believe me, Dodge, that one weekend was unusual.

Slipped by a Will!  Yeah, at your age, nobody's ready to settle down
yet.  Everybody's just getting their life started in so many other
ways, especially in more expensive parts of the country where it takes
longer to get "established."  But you've got time.
  

    
Will: _The Winter Guest_; yes!  I'd forgotten (I looked it up) that
she played opposite her mum in that.  It's a quiet little film, a
little rough around the edges, but lovely.  And it somehow manages to
*feel* a little bit Rickman without him ever stepping foot on screen
(except for a few photos of a deceased character).  I can't quite
describe how.

Christy: Congrats on your raffle prizes!

And Dodge: I feel your pain.  But... a coupon for a box of Tide?!? 
That's hysterical!  Anyway, it's a great line.  I can see its comedic
potential in all kinds of situations.

-Pam
who really has been working most of the day, but...
  

    
Oh, yeah. Work. So have I. Yeah. Hm. 
  

    
The Winter Guest scared me, because I thought it was so good that your
man would stop acting, and just direct.  Thank God for Snape.  That
image of the little boys walking off into the mist.......whew.  And the
two little old ladies who go to funerals.....just the lightest,
deftest touch with actors.  Of course, it is kind of hard to go wrong
with Emma and Phyllida, but the rest of the cast is as good as they
are, if not better.  I love that movie.

Yeah, The Tall Guy is great, too.  That sex scene between her &
Goldblum is a riot.

Has anyone seen Play, the film of the Beckett play with Rickman,
Juliet Stephenson (another actress I adore--she's the girlfriend in
Truly Madly Deeply) and.... (love imdb) Kristin Scott Thomas, another
huge fave?  I just found out about it on imdb yesterday, and now I must
own it.  He has several fairly obscure newer things out that I must
seek.

I brought in all of Neil's children's books today to loan to our
school librarian, so she can decide if she wants to add them to the
collection.  I've already strongly recommended 1602 in graphic format. 
I have several students hooked on it already.  And the new teacher
next door to me saw Wolves, and said, "Oh, I love this book!  It's so
inventive!"  She said she really liked that it was dark, but not
bleak--that there was so much hope in it.  She's a smart cookie, that
one.  So I'm bringing in Smoke and Mirrors for her next week.  

Taking over the world, one person at a time  <<evil chortle>>
  

    


Kathy Li writes:


Mary--"Play" is great, but unless you're enamored of Beckett, it might feel
like having your skull drilled open, and your brains dribbled out, only to
have them stuffed back in so they can dribble out all over again in EXACTLY
the same way.  Minghella is particularly cruel and in your face with the
edits, the delivery is non-stop-rapid-fire-emotionless-bordering-on-dementia
and the last stage direction is: "Repeat Play."  Plus, Rickman, Stevenson,
and Scott Thomas as slightly hampered by being in pots the whole time, with
makeup to make them look mossy/verdigrised.

I loved it. [grin]  Although I think I preferred Jeremy Irons/Charles
Sturridge-directed "Ohio Impromptu."  http://www.channel4.com/beckett will
give you the yummy details on all the productions, actors, and directors.

The DVD set, btw, is expensive ($150).  You're looking for "Beckett on Film",
which was Channel Four's filming of all of Beckett's plays.  PBS, rot-them,
took two hours, and filled it with Jeremy Irons talking about Beckett,  and
only gave us a third of the plays. (Ok, they did give us another two hours
and  WAITING FOR GODOT, but hell if there's one Beckett you've SEEN...).  I
really *really* wanna see "Krapp's Last Tape." (John Hurt/Atom Egoyan).
  

    
Just read about Julie Schwartz. I'm so bummed. I'd always thought of
him as immortal. Tho I suppose this was a great deal in part due to the
Ambush Bug Nothing Special, which featured Julie's disembodied head
still quite cheerfully acting as DC's Goodwill Ambassador in the 30th
century.

I've been having a very flash-back-y week-end actually, thanks to
re-reading _War for the Oaks_ and playing a LOT of old Boiled In Lead
albums. 
  

    
What, Julie died?  Oh damn.
  

    
Mark Evanier has some lovely lovely stuff about Julie here:

http://www.newsfromme.com/index.html

Eric, the comics editor at mediaSharx had posted a few weeks back that
he'd been hospitalised, so I admit, I knew it was coming. But it still
makes me wistful. I only started reading DC circa 1985 or so, but
Julie was a *legend* and it's just so odd to think of a world without
him in it.
  

    
Well.... I think the time has come. As of March 8th, I shall melt into
the shadows. I haven't been all that active on the Well lately, so
I've decided to stop hemmoraging money every month... well, or rather
to hemmoraging that $10 a month or whatever it is somewhere else.

I'll probably still lurk, though. And if anyone wants to know what the
hell is up with me, just check out http://www.danwilsonshow.com

You can always reach me there.

peace, dawgs
  

    

Well, don't forget that you can still read and post to inkwell even if you
aren't a WELL member. So don't be too much a stranger around here, even if
you fade away from the rest of the WELL.
  

    
stagewalker, sorry to hear you're going to close your WELL account. I hope
you come back someday soon.
  

    
how do you read/post to inkwell?  i am ignorant.
  

    

You can read it from the WELL's website, and you post here by emailing one
of the hosts of the conference, and they post your email.
  

    
http://www.well.com/conf/vue.html is a list of publicly accessible
pages.   Following the directions on
http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/ you can e-mail the hosts in order
to post.

I did it for a year before I realized that I was being a tight-wad for
nothing.
  

    
Yep. I did that for a year or two while I was short o' cash and all.
It's really very easy. Just remember (as I sometimes didn't) to let
them know WHICH topic to post to. Though they get to know you very
quickly. 
  

    

Yeah, they're good people, but it's nice to make their jobs as easy as
possible.
  

    
Say, it's been a while since we had Neil or Terry Pratchett actually
speaking on Inkwell about a book.  How do people get on? I know they're
kinda in-between right now but will they be on when their next books
comeout? I know Neil is doing the 1602 and working on another book and
TP is about to put out Wee Free Men Part 2, The hat thing which name I
have forgot. 
  

    
If you look at the other topics in this conference, you'll realize
that Neil was invited here for an interview on Dream Hunters, then he
never quite went away.  His active participation died down a lot once
he got his blog working, but he still pops in.

Topic 140 lists the various people that are going to be interviewed -
around 1 a month.
  

    
Oh, I know that. I've been here since that. I was just wondering if it
isn't time to have another official one. But it was an idle thought. I
answered my own question when I realized neither one QUITE has a book
out that's new right now. 

Off now to pick up my copy of 1602 on the way home.