Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I'm so supposed to be doing homework right now, but I've been horrible
about being online this week and the though of catching up with
friends who are actually posting is much more enticing a prospect than
cutting up negatives and scanning things for 3 hours. 

So, my thoughts:

Martha's right, Marin is ... different. I don't think I've ever been
to a Neil signing so "intimate" since the thing I went to at DreamHaven
in 1998, before Stardust (the novel) was out. And it's amazing to me
the difference 15 miles can make. Go to a San Francisco signing and I
know 10% of the people there. North to Marin and I only knew 5 people,
2 of whom arrived with me. But the sushi dinner before the signing was
yummy and a good evening was had by all.

Seeing Serenity later that night only made things better (except for
the f*ckwit browncoat line-nazis that needed to go away, which wasn't
all of them, but several - grrr, aargh). Any Firefly fan, and most
non-Firefly fans here need to go see that movie. So great.

Friday I got to an afternoon viewing of MirrorMask and while I didn't
think it was exactly *perfect*, it was better than I think I imagined -
and I imagined it being very very good. I walked away happy, and
wanting to see it again, and again, and possibly again. Dave McKean put
so much *stuff* onto the screen that there's no way I could see it all
even if I watched the movie 10 times. Actually, I think that's my only
real complaint with the movie - too much cools stuff to see and not
enough eyeballs and neurons to process it all in one go. ;)

Cody's was fun, but I really really missed seeing my friend Scott
there. He was supposed to be working the event, but ended up having to
open up Cody's San Francisco store (which I think is opening any day
now). And considering Martha and I didn't hit downtown SF until just
after 2AM, I'll agree with a 5-5.5 hour signing line assessment.  I
really thought he was going to fall over at the end of it. I don't know
how he does it. Definitely an author-shaped pile of goo, and barely
holding that shape in the end. Still, the whole thing was fun for me
because I got to chat with Martha and madman, and to poke fun at Dan (a
favourite hobby of my husband, who called during the signing), and to
visit with a bunch of people who only ever turn up at signings,
including a few people I had lost touch with, so yay! :)

Oh, and for those of you who are in the SF Bay Area, is anyone
planning specific dates to attend Martha's... 'scuse me, "Nebular Award
winner, Martha Soukup"'s play this month? I'm leaning toward going on
the 14th or 15th, but I still have to confer with my boy.
 
*Fun* bit about getting home. Got to Market Street. Found dozens of
cabs, all occupied. Got nearly all the way to Union Square before one
was free, and then spent 1/4 of my ride arguing that Turk really isn't
the most direct route to the Haight and couldn't he please take Fell so
that I wouldn't be spending his potential tip money on the wasted time
waiting for lights (Fell, for non-locals, is a timed-lights street).
Clearly the cabbie didn't get it and was starting to get argumentative,
and I gave up. So instead of taking just under 10 minutes to get from
downtown to home (which is usually how long it takes me - and I drive
slower than local cabs), it took over 15 minutes, and the cabbie got no
tip. 

Right, suppose I should get back to homework. 
  

    
I walked a block the other direction to Mission, on the offhanded
chance a bus would come and take me to within a block of my place for
$1.50.

Bizarrely, there at 2-something a.m., a bus was coming, and I had to
jog most of a block to catch it at the next stop.  By the second stop
after that the bus was too jammed with human flesh to let any more
passengers on--the driver skipped stops nobody was getting off at. 
Still, it took long enough for people to squeeze on and off that it
wasn't exactly an express trip home.

But, $1.50.  I was ready to hail a cab.  Leaving downtown at 2 a.m. is
apparently a busy, busy time.
  

    

Tormenting Dan is, indeed, a wonderful pasttime.
  

    
We even pick on Dan in the Midwest, whenever possible.  ;-)

I saw MirrorMask Friday and Sunday.  I loved it.  Both times.  I'm now
dying to ask Neil if there really was a Pinky and the Brain reference
in there......it had to be.  And from now on, every time someone asks
me, "Will you think I'm weird if...." I am answering, "Yes, probably."

*Loved* Valentine.  Stephanie Leonides is marvelous, and so is Gina
McKee.  

So, yeah.  Fabbity fabbity fab.  I can't wait for payday so I can get
the children's edition of the book.  I actually waited and didn't read
my illustrated copy of the script, and I'm really glad I didn't.

OK, on with the paper-grading........
  

    
I'm still waiting for Mirrormask to come to Philly - or for someone to
sneakily pass me an extra weekend that they aren't using so I can
travel to it.
  

    

Is it playing exactly a week everywhere it's playing, or does it vary by
theater? I checked and it seems that both San Francisco and Berkeley are 1
week exactly, but I have a friend who will be in Philly on the 31st and we
were wondering if she'd have a chance to see it. Does anyone know? I'm
finding that my google-fu is insufficient for this task.
  

    
Opening days are here: 

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mirrormask/theaters/

But it doesn't say anything about closing days.

We finally have a release date of the 21st in Philly - so I'll finally
get to see it on the 23rd - after I sing some Cherubini.
  

    
Hope the sound is better.  I end up watching a lot of tv (movies) with
captions and I kept looking to the bottom of the screen when I
couldn't hear or understand what was being said.  One more reason to
wish for the DVD.  Besides of course the commentary and extra stuff. 
Oh and just sitting and looking at one picture at a time... Anyone
*not* familiar with _Mr. Punch_?
  

    
The sound was pretty muzzy in the Lumiere, but I was sitting toward
the back.

Wore my Mr Punch shirt yesterday, as it happens.
  

    
Martha - of *course* bus/cab traffic will be busy at 2AM on a
Friday/Saturday in SF. Bars=closed. Mind you, I was too tired by 2AM on
Friday/Saturday to think this myself. Kinda like now, not that it's
stopping me from posting too much. I had no idea there were Mr. Punch
shirts (that was during my "Neil & Dave are cool, but I'm not allowed
out of the house to meet them" phase).

I'm not an expert on sound, but I didn't notice anything wonky at the
first Lumiere showing. Later this week I'll be seeing it again with
someone who *is* an expert on sound, who I'm sure will tell me
(repeatedly, whether I want him to or not) if the sound is crap.
Crossed fingers... and hoping it lasts more than a week!
  

    

It's pretty definately just a week on SF and Berkeley... hopefully it'll
come _back_, though. I'm seeing it again Wednesday night. I'm curious what
new things I'll catch... (oh, and, sound seemed fine at the Act 1&2. If
anyone's curious. :)
  

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

    
(soukup) There are Mr Punch shirts/  Oh, well.  I would probably just
hang it on the wall.  I don't seem to get along well with stuff on
t-shirts.  But... I had this idea.  I was thinking what a virtual
hallowe'en costume would look like if I based it on Mr. McKean's art
and my favorite(s) of Mr. Gaiman's characters.
  

    
I don't get along with t-shirts much either. Make me look like a dumpy
barrel. But I buy them. and, fully plan to hang them on the wall. 

I always plan not to do a costume but then the office people talk me
into it and I'm left scrambling. Maybe after I get settled into my
townhouse I might start doing that again. I won a prize one year for my
tooth fairy costume.
  

    
In case anyone here feels like attempting it, now is the time to sign
up for National Novel Writing Month, which starts in November:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/ for more info.
  

    
Hmm.
  

    
Hmmmmm.
  

    
I don't know that there were very _many_ Mr Punch shirts.  Actually I
don't know much about them at all except that I have one.

I really wanted to see MirrorMask again, but with my play opening
Thursday, I just couldn't get back to the theater, dang it.

(By the way, Dan told me that I could post this offer on the Well:

Print out this post and bring it to the box office opening week (this
Thursday, Friday, or Saturday) and you get $5 off the ticket price. 
Plus you still get the free half-hour concert beforehand.  Such a deal!

http://www.cassandrascall.com/

and click on "Manumission" for details.)
  

    
Started the Anansi Boys night before last. I thought, hm, this is all
right, I can read a chapter a night. That was after reading just the
first chapter - the one on the website. Actually started reading the
book last night. Oops. At around 12:35 I realized what time it was and
reluctantly put it down. This is the reason I never start a Gaiman or
Pratchett book on a weeknight. 
  

    
(miss_mousey)  add my "hmmmm" to the list.  And a couple more for
friends of mine who have a novel they need to get started on...

Listened to the Radio 360 interview yesterday and was surprised that
the moderator didn't realize...Oh, wait a minute.  Did anyone else
listen to that?  He said something that didn't surprise me about the
book but that Neil intended to be surprising.  So, I'll just hush.
  

    
I slept for 12 hours straight after San Francisco. I was just that
tired. To do what Mr. Gaiman does - city after city after city - is
just incredible.

I got to watch MirrorMask in San Francisco and it was all that it
promised to be and then more. I do hope it gets international
distribution - it has to.

OK - off to Toronto.
  

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

    
I thought, briefly, looking at the list, that Mirrormask was only
going to be in Dallas and Austin. Then, aha, I see it is then coming to
Houston! Yay. Don't have to drive anywhere to see it.
  

    
(clotilde) Yay!! for not having to drive!

(dfowlkes)The interviewer was surprised by something about the Anansi
boys near the middle of the book.  Neil said it is something he does
deliberately.  I wouldn't have been surprised by it in Anansi boys,
when he did the same thing in American Gods, I was appropriately
surprised.  It doesn't have much to do with the plot or anything like
that.  Oh, he said (i think) that he was taking advantage of the fact
that a novel is not a comic book.  We can't see the characters.
  

    <scribbled>