Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
N--

I agree.  Bellairs has the gift of making magic seem not only logical,
but matter-of-fact-- which is not to say that it loses its sense of
wonder.  Susan Cooper does the same thing-- when I read her books I am
absolutely willing to accept magic as a fact.
  

    
From Mary Roane by way of email:

In re: the Leonard Cohen stuff:
 
How cool is that?
 
              Mary (in the midst of reading ALL of this forum)
  

    
Len -- Ah. My wife hated Sondheim when first we were married, and then
somewhere in there came to love him. I only learned the latter fact
after going to the English national Opera SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH
GEORGE without her. ("But you wouldn't go to see Pacific Overtures." "I
didn't like him then.") I think I've more or less made it up to her
since then -- taking her to the Sam Mendes SWEENEY TODD at the
Cottesloe (well, actually she was the one who got up at the crack of
dawn to get into the line to get the tickets. But I flew us across the
atlantic.)

And nope, I'll be on tour for the CBLDF on those dates...

Elise -- I think there'll be a bunch of news very soon.

Len -- Oh yes.  Please do -- I'd love to read it. People keep
comparing CORALINE to Bellairs so i really have to read him. I wonder
if he was one of those authors who simply never made it across the
atlantic...?

Scott -- to be honest... no, I don't think we're in for a rennaissance
of illustrated books. I wish we were. I think those successful books,
whether it's dream hunters or griffin and sabine tend to be sui
generis.

I've been collecting illustrated books for years -- I wish there were
Frank C Pape's and Harry Clarkes out there right now...

Yup, the Corn King is lovely.
...

Sara -- well, it's nice to know they're there, in theory, even if
no-one will ever see them.

and Tower of Song is one of those strange songs that I can simply play
over and over and over forever.

...

Working on the DEATH movie script now, and doing stuff to AMERICAN
GODS. GOt a wonderful letter from Samuel R Delany today about the first
chapter of American Gods, from which I learned a bunch of things.

...
Am I the only person who thinks that Penn and Teller could play a very
strange Gore and Lieberman?

The VP debates are on in the background, and I'm fascinated -- I think
either of these guys would be interesting presidents. And I think both
of the presidential candidates are weird blips.

...

I'm in New York Saturday for an anime festival -- really just because
I wanted to see Mr Amano. 
http://www.scifi.com/animefestival/panel.html
has details...
  

    
Teller and Lieberman could be relatives, now that you mention it.
  

    
        Teller and Lieberman are the same person wearing slightly different
makeup.  This is why Teller never speaks on the record - can't afford
to have someone compare voices.  This is all going to prove to be Penn
and Teller's best trick ever.
  

    
Gore has that stiff, blocky upper torso thing; my impression of him is
that he's trying to walk forwards but an invisible hand is pushing his
face back.  Initially I thought of Charles Grey in Rocky Horror ("this
veep has no fucking neck"), but that monolith quality puts him in
Penn's camp.

Neil-- Sat. sounds like a good day for NYC: the guiness oyster
festival during the day, the anime festival at night?  As my
grandfather would have said: Nu?  What could be bad?
If I get to the fest, I'll bring the Bellairs book then.
Speaking of Amano, by the way, is there really an animated opera in
the works?

Open question:  apparently about a year ago, Philip Pullman, author of
the Golden Compass books (and others) made some unkind remarks in, I
think, the Guardian, about C.S. Lewis; I've seen the Lewis camp's
response, but never what Pullman actually said.  You all seem to know
about this sort of thing-- anyone have a clue what I'm talking about?
  

    
Mary--

Isn't it though?
  

    
Neil-

Very, very jealous about Mendes Sweeney-- how was it?
  

    
Len -- the Mendes Sweeney was perfect. Drama, not melodrama. The
smallest of the National Theatre theatres -- intimate and dark. Easily
the best Sondheim I've ever seen. (And better than the Mendes COMPANY,
which I saw twice -- once at the Donmar and it was brilliant, and once
in the West End, and it had kind of flattened out.)

I'm afraid I have no idea on the Pullman Lewis thing. I've been
through my own love-hate thing with Lewis several times, first as a
reader (ages 6-11) which ended when I realised that Eustace Scrubb's
conversion to a dragon was St Paul's blindness on the road to Damascus,
and I felt suddenly cheated and lied to; and I didn't come back to the
books until I had my own kids, thanks mostly to Mary Gentle's sensible
arguments about what kind of fictions narnia is and isn't. I've read
the books aloud to my own kids, marvelled at how much of my style as an
author is taken from Lewis (who was the first author I noticed with a
style) and, mostly, enjoyed them enormously.

If it wasn't for the treatment of post-pubertal women in the books I'd
like them unreservedly. 

(Oddly, every time I get to Aslan and the witch walking off together
for their chat in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, I expect them to
make up completely, come back and kill the children and spend the rest
of the book making love, but they never do.)
  

    
I have seen so little Sondheim live.  A quite good regional production of
"Into the Woods", a reasonable production of the vexed "Assassins"; and,
years ago, a misconceived production of "A Little Night Music", played as
operetta by a local G&S troupe.  (It did not work.  It did not work at all.)

But I often listen to Sondheim CDs--
  

    
I can see Little Night Music being deadly in the wrong hands. The
weirdest thing I've ever seen, though, was a youth theatre production
of "Assassins" done by a well-intentioned, but clearly out of her mind
director.  A 12-year old John Wilkes Booth in a fake moustache singing
the words, "nigger lover?"  The horror...the horror...

Went to the NY Anime fest-- saw Neil (hi, Neil!)-- two good movies,
one substantial panel discussion (ditched the industry discussion to
get a burger at "La Parisienne" Diner.  Surrounded by fannish
culture... I don't do that often enought.
  

    
I saw the National production of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC a couple of
times -- Judi Dench starred, and delivered the only intelligible
performance of "send in the clowns" I've ever heard. She acted, she
didn't just sing the words.

Went to New York. Got John Bellairs book from Len -- which I read on
the plane. Odd, good book with strange Stardust similarities, like the
blood-sucking leaves, and the double-dactyls. I found his way of
delivering information odd, though.
  

    
Saw a reasonably good amateur production of 'Into the Woods'.  Maybe
more gusto than talent but there is a lot to be said for gusto in live
performance. By the zillionth run through it can mean the difference
between sitting quietly between cues or noisily chewing your limbs off
in hopes of mild entertainment - or death from blood loss. 

Being a stage manager I type a lot of things now with a pencil in my
mouth :P
  

    
If you want to hear something really scary - a few weeks ago I went to
a well intentioned high school production of Calamity Jane which
lasted for three hours (sadly gusto left early) only to find out after
that the Music teacher intends to tackle Les Miserables next year.  Oh
dear.  

At least I have 12 months to come up with a good excuse not to go. 
Like leprosy.
  

    
On the Bellairs FACE IN THE FROST comment about delivering
information, I realise that what I mean is: in the book you get the
information as he thinks of it: as it is invented it is put down.

And a lot of that stuff, it seemed to me, would have been happier, in
second draft, going earlier in the book, or being, well, set-up
earlier. On the first draft, you find out what happens. Second draft is
where you make it look like you knew it all along.
  

    
I was lucky enough to see the Judi Dench 'Night Music too-- waited 5
hours on line for tickets.  It was worth it. That was the first version
I'd seen live, though I've seen that weird movie version, which
doesn't work at all.  Such an amazing piece...  Always particularly
loved "Now; Later; Soon" and "Perpetual Anticipation."

When I was in HS I did some tutoring on the Upper East Side of
Manhattan.  Once, passing a window, I spied an actor singing "Later"
and accompanying himself on the cello.  That's always stuck with me as
a favorite NY memory.

Neil-The double-dactyls and the blood-sucking leaves are the reason I
was absolutely sure that you'd read the book; maybe they're some kind
of Jungian archetypes.


Don't know if anyone out there is doing the Yom Kippur thing, but if
so-- have an easy fast. (Unless you're doing it in New Orleans, in
which case, have a Big Easy fast.) 
  

    
Mary Roane e-mails:

Sent this on Friday & thought it had posted.  So here I go again-Finish
well to those of you observing Yom Kippur!    M.

Well, I finally finished reading the backlog.  It was ALL fun reading.  I
now have another list of books to look for :-)
 
A couple of quick things-WAAAY jealous of the Sam Mendes "Sweeney".  Are
you going to get a chance to see anything in NYC while you're there for
the reading tour?  I want to see "Coriolanus" & "Richard III" so
badly.....O.K., I admit it's mostly because of Ralph Fiennes, but it DID
get good reviews in London.
 
I live in Chicago & if any of you folks are coming for the reading I'd
love to meet you.  Also if I can be of assistance, please don't hesitate
to let me know.  My e-mail address is mroane@ttgonline.com (please don't
bombard me, it's at work).  I was raised in the South & the habit of
hospitality is not one I want to get out of, so if I can help y'all find
a restaurant, a place to stay, a bookstore, etc., just ask!
 
Way back, Neil, you asked about the origins of the phrase "that's all she
wrote".  I could have sworn it was biblical, some story about the
Crucifixion.......now it'll bug me all weekend!
 
Have a great weekend, all!     M. 
  

    
Mary--

Have you seen the Steppenwolf prod. of Ballad of Little Jo?
  

    
Mary -- no, I won't get a chance to see anything. I'll get in to NY,
and then go and have dinner with the auction winners. (Originally the
way the CBLDF had planned it, they were just going to come out to
whatever all night diner the mob of us stumble out to after the show,
with me sitting in the corner and Not Talking Much. But when people
started bidding into the thousands for the dinner, Chris Oarr made it a
Real Dinner the night before.) Then the next night it'll be My Show.
Then away.

Len -- I can't imagine that Double dactyls are jungian, although I'm
sure the bloodsucking leaves are, although Moorcock did them before
either Bellairs or me.

Just did a long, fun late-night radio interview on WGN about the CBLDF
and the Chicago reading on Monday night.
  

    
Neil--

After the show, the mob of you should stumble to Uncle George's in
Astoria for barbecued lamb.  Open 24 hours and retsina on tap-- how can
one say no?
  

    
(I don't want to sound pushy-- I'm just very pro-Astoria.)
  

    
Hiya-

Neil, I just saw the photo of you and Mr. Amano on the Slush Factory
website and I must say that your hair looks pretty nifty.  It is, um,
short.

Someone mentioned Yom Kippur...  We drove down to Rochester last weekend
for services at the synagogue there.  I played the second Kol Nidre.  I
think it was awful... I couldn't get my violin to stay in tune and it was
making funny wobbling noises.  No one else seemed to notice it, but I did
and that's all that really matters.  I'm going to perform it again at a
master class at the studio where I take lessons.  Hopefully it will be
easier then.

I didn't fast for Yom Kippur at all.  Basically, I don't consider myself
Jewish.  I know that's something I'm really not supposed to say, etc, etc,
etc.  I had a Bat Mitzvah almost a year ago (13 Nov. 1999) but I have
changed a lot since then and I simply do not agree with Judaism anymore.  
My parents think I am an awful person for this but I can't change the way
I think, or at least I don't want to.

-shira
  

    
Oops, forgot to say... that was emailed by Shira....
  

    
Shira--
My brother-in-law is a confirmed athiest, but he plays trumpet at
church services all through the Xmas and Easter seasons.  That's where
the money is.  It's made him see the experience of organized religion
as theatrical, rather than spiritual.

Come to think of it, my collaborator is also a confirmed athiest.. and
he works in the music publishing arm of a major Christian
organization.  
  

    
Shira -- well, it's not actually quite as short as it looks in that
snapshot, honest.  And I must be the only person who gets red-eye
through dark glasses.

The trouble is, that deciding not to be Jewish any more is part of a
fine old jewish tradition, and merely moves you from one box to
another. And being Jewish is so much about culture, cultural history,
and tradition -- not to mention that it's not something you necessarily
get to pick for yourself. 

I was astonished at how many sites there are out there listing all the
prominent Jews in entertainment, I assume to make sure that, if they
ever get the camps going again, they'll know where to send William
Shatner, John Stewart and me. I doubt that my saying "I don't consider
myself to be Jewish' would get me off those lists -- and if anyone goes
to the trouble to put me onto one of those lists, I'd hate to give
them that satisfaction.