Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Mike - Thanks for the support. I am working on it but won't be up
until next year.  (10 weeks till Christmas yeeesh!).

I envy you those tickets!
  

    
And I am in chicago and you will all have to wait until a quiet moment
to have anything answered, so please carry on without me...


(Had dinner tonight with Darrien -- who posted here and is English --
and his lovely wife Sheila, who bid and won the VIP tickets on e-bay.
And we ate course after course aftre course at a Thai place. And now I
shall go to bed.)
  

    
I hope so!  It was 12:30 in Chicago when you were good enough to post here
anyway--

(I've found out you can get really cheap tickets to Portland from San
Francisco--well, from Oakland anyway--so if any of you all are up there, you
might run into me.)
  

    
Len, thanks for the suggestions and thanks for liking my poems.  :)

Martha,

Don't expect me to be able to explain why, but you worked your way
into my dreams the other night.  You were performer in a boy band
wearing an suit from the 80's vault; big boxy shoulders, short sleeves,
thin tie.  The typical gold-studded producer type was grinning
diabolically behind a pane of glass as you rehearsed in a recordning
studio.
  

    
Amanda,

Your stuff is really terrific, lemme know when you get your site up. 
:)
  

    
Why Martha! I didn't know you were musically inclined...lol.

Sarah - Yep. No problems :P

Neil - how was the food?
  

    
Course after course at a thai place should just barely suffice... at
least, if you go to the places where I live.

Actually, one of the places where I live has an interesting design
scheme:  the women's bathroom is decorated with fans, flowers and
travel posters of Thailand; the men's room is decorated with large
posters of topless Thai women, apparently selling gas or oil or
something.  

There are very few bathrooms from which I have emerged giggling; this
is one.
 
  

    
I'm not at all musical--but I'll try on the suit.
  

    
Mike e-mails again:

Kafclown--

If you've never read any of Neil's work I would 
recommend starting with Angels and Visitations, if you 
can find it, or Smoke and Mirrors, especially if you 
like short stories.

Nicholas Was... is the first Neil Gaiman work I ever 
read and it still holds a special place in my heart.

--Mike
  

    
Hiya Neil,

Hope you get a chance to enjoy some sushi while you're in NYC. Did
somebody say Nobu? 

Mike -  Nicholas Was..is also a favorite of mine. One helluva a
surprise at the end eh?  

Len - If you ever in NYC check out Tea & Sympathy. It's a tea salon
for homesick Brits, excellent scones and sandwiches, but better known
for having the smallest bathroom on the planet.  Barely enough room to
get the zipper down!
  

    
Rocky? Is that YOU? Yup, Nobu tomorrow night...


Much much too late to say anything sensible. Did a reading. Went well,
I think. Lots of people worked very hard -- Chris Oarr, the
volunteers, the Vic staff, and Darrien & Sheila. Gene and Rosemary
Wolfe came, and I was thrilled to be able to spend a little time with
them.

New york tomorrow. My throat hurts.
  

    
Morgana/Rocky,

Heya.  This is Silth from the Thingies.  :) I think some people miss
you over there at afng... Nice to see you're still with the living...:>
  

    
Rocky!!!!!
Where have you been girl? We've missed you.

I've got a great big package of Tim Tams and sundry other items for
you all ready to send. Email me to let me know where to send 'em.

And since Neil is still here:

I was reading Warren Ellis' thoughts on the situation at Marvel the
other day and I was wondering what your thoughts were on the subject.

Are you, like Warren, putting on your best pumps and making ready to
dance on the grave of the most Dickensian of comics companies. and the
one that apparently so recalcitrantly refuses to recognise Warren's
genius?

And do you think the "Ultimate Marvel" concept will actually achieve
anything other than making them look sad and desperate? Do you think it
is possible to reheat the souffle?

For my own part, while I do not actually read any of Marvel's titles,
I find it sad that they are in such a parlous state. Whether one
approves of their attitudes to creators or not, they are a big part of
the comics industry and a part of our collective childhoods and it
would be a shame to see them wiped out by stupid business practises.

On a different note, I thought I should mention what a very amenible
city Melbourne is for film makers, and how much like New York it can be
made to look, and how there's be no-one here who'd try to get in the
background of a shot in any movie about Death. 

Well you can't blame me for trying.

Reg
  

    
Hi Neil - Yep..it's me. And Nobu was a damn lucky guess. *grin*  After
you've eaten there, anywhere else pales by comparison.  

Sorry to hear about the throat, perhaps warm lemon juice & honey might
help?  Everyone here is very excited about tomorrow night, so please
get your rest.  You know we're a rowdy bunch. ;>

Silth - Hey babe, it's nice to see Thingies in da house! I miss you
guys so much. Recently back from hell, the angels send their regards.
My mantra has become.."What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger." 
Sure it's overworked, but it fits. 

Reg, milk chocolate Tim Tams?  Damn...probably just gained another 5
lbs by mentioning them. The horror... *grin*  

The phone company was on strike this summer, so I only had internet
access via analog...a process akin to watching hair grow...and no
access to alt.fan.thingie at all. DSL is finally being installed on
Friday, so I'll be back at Thingiedom in a few days. 

Re Marvel:  Their demise is too painful to watch. And isn't Stan Lee
working on a Superman project for DC? Did anyone ever think this would
happen in our lifetime?  
  

    
Glad to hear you are back from Hell Rocky.

And oddly enough, we seem to have spent much of the Northern summer
watching hair grow here, or at least reading a running commentary, and
it's been fascinating.

Reg
  

    
Nobu...mmm...  Went there with my wife last summer for our anniversary
during Restaurant Week.  Not the hugest sushi fan in the world (my
wife has that distinction,) but if all sushi restaurants were Nobu, I
would be.  Bon Appetit.

Rocky-- love Tea and Sympathy.  Too few places in nyc know what to do
with a currant.

Theatreheads-- went to Michael John LaChiusa show last night at Joe's
Pub.  Great stuff, though I'm not sure it all works in a revue format. 
I may go back next week.

Good bartender at Joe's Pub.
  

    
A reader, identified only as mrheck@att.net, e-mails:

Rocky--

Stan Lee is writing a series about what if Stan Lee 
created Batman, Superman, and other DC heroes. Very 
suspicious that just as Marvel may go under the greatest 
Marvel creative mind ever heads to DC. Anyway, it should 
be interesting, except that now instead of Gotham Batman 
will live in Brooklyn and be able to fly using anti-
gravity technology he built as a college student and 
Superman will live in LA and instead of being from 
Krypton he'll be from the post-apocalyptic Earth future, 
but I'm looking forward to it all the same.
  

    
And Mary Roane e-mails:

The Chicago reading was brilliant.  Get tickets to the other readings, no
matter what you have to do.   DO NOT miss this. 
 
P.S. Neil-thanks for the Shatner story.  That's hilarious! 
  

    
...and Stan's doing SANDMAN as well. Lord only knows what his Sandman
will be.


The last thing I heard we were down to about the last 30 tickets at
the New York Reading, so if you or anyone you know is wavering BUY IT
NOW as there may not be be any walk-ups left.


Portland has tickets left, and Los Angeles now has LOTS of tickets
left as we've moved to a new theatre which has double the room that the
old one did....  so tell people to come....
  

    
PS: I really will answer questions posts etc when the tour is done.
  

    

Neil- how much say did you get in the Sandman's appearance in JLA a few
years ago? How did you feel about their treatment of him? And in particular,
the fact that he refered to himself as "Sandman?"
  

    
..um..Stan Lee is going to do Sandman?  Just boggles the mind. Btw,
forget Batman in Brooklyn, I want to know what Dream thinks of Hip Hop
culture!  Hehe..

I've been imagining the kind of fun Neil has been having with our
American Gods...this book can't be finished fast enough. 
[Apologies..to Neil..there's no need to rush. *grin*]

-- Len, I caught the owner of Nobu visiting Japan with Martha Stewart 
one morning.  It was so cool..they visited all these open air fish
markets in Osaka where there are grades of tuna fish that cost well
over U$150K. It was amazing. He even visited the small sushi shop where
he learned his craft.  He and his mentor prepared a sashmi dish for
Martha, and even on TeeVee it looked mouth-wateringly good. Whenever
I'm lucky enough to visit, I usually stare at the plate for a long
while before digging in. ;>

-- Mr. Heck..they don't call him Stan "THE MAN" Lee for nothing!  I'm
excited at the prospect..even if I do think hell has frozen over. How
the heck can I, "Make mine Marvel!" if it ceases to exist?  *sigh*

Reg - Re the hair: Can you imagine the stampede over at eBay? ;p

I'm still bugging out at the price of "The Jacket." 

  
  

    
From Jen:

The chicago reading was amazing.  I'm so happy I went.  I am looking forward 
to American Gods more than ever now.  Pretty out of it, went to greyhound 
after the reading and from there to school. just now got home.  Hope your 
throat feels better Neil.

Jen.
  

    
Scott Conner e-mails:

I'll jump on the "Welcome Back Rocky" bandwagon too....you've been gone too
long.  At the very least, Walker's pictures of the wasabi Cthulhu should
amuse you.

The earlier poster who was asking about Miracleman....I think you were
thinking of the title Mr. Miracle, which indeed did have a escape artist
protagonist and connections to Kirby's New Gods title.

And Marvel.....very underimpressive for a *long* time, to put it nicely.
Now I hear that Matt Wagner, Mike Allred, and P. Craig Russell will be
working on some of the Ultimate line.  I would've never thunk it, but this
might be enough to entice me into checking it out.
  

    
Rocky--

I caught Martha Stewart on TV talking with the guys who do the big
shellfish plate at whatzitcalled...Balthazar.  Looked good, thought--
maybe it's worth the splurge with a friend, so I checked the NYTimes
website for a review and prices.  They utterly dissed the shellfish
plate-- called it waterlogged, etc.  And way too expensive.  I'll be
sticking to the fish store across the street from my apt-- they  sell
oysters for 50 cents apiece.

Neil-- news from word of Follies: They'll be using the most recent
Papermill Playhouse version of the book-- Sondheim and Bobbi Goldman
(James's wife) thought that the UK version was ultimately too upbeat. 
However, they'll be replacing "the Ballad of Lucy and Jessie" with "Ah,
But Underneath," which I think is a good idea (though the
Ritz/Schlitz/Fitzroy rhymes will be missed.)