Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Randi -- I *did?* (Buried memories of the Barnes & Noble in New York
in February start to bubble to the surface.) It is odd that that's the
only place those questions ever come up, though....

I think there's a difference in the quality of bitter cynicism between
a 15 year old and an 80 year old. The former has to do with idealism,
the latter, too often, with pain and disappointment.

Where on the Internet have I been misquoted? Pretty much every report
I've ever seen of a Q&A contains at least one major blooper. Never
intentionally -- people just don't remember accurately, and all of a
sudden DEATH is for Miramax, John Bolton is drawing Stardust, or
whatever. (Someone e-mailed me the other day to ask if it was true I'd
written a movie script for HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY -- they
knew it was true, they'd read it on the web...)

A reverse lemon-scented bat gesture? Well, the reverse gesture was the
second bat, not the first, and, obviously, it wasn't lemon-scented at
that point. (More details can be found scattered through the previous
1000-odd posts.)

Ambar -- you were a great guest. Sorry about the people sticking
cameras in your face all the time. Congrats on the love thing... if
congrats are in order.

Shira -- well, Michelle is my favorite stalker. I'm just not convinced
that she really is a stalker. (Heck, she only showed up at one CBLDF
stop -- how much of a stalker is that?)

Shira -- I'm sorry. It happens. Hurts most at your age too: I can
remember 15 year old heartbreaks when 25 year old ones have faded into
the scenery.

Randi -- not really much like Ferris Bueller, no. It's about a young
man who tells a small lie and watches it get bigger and stranger until
Richard Brinsley Sheriden's mounting a performance of VORTIGERN AND
ROWENA, a Shakespeare play he wrote. It's like Shakespeare in Love, but
without any of the talent. I've not yet even written the treatment --
it'll have to wait until Death is done...
  

    
Shira - if it would be any help to complain over a cuppa whatever, send me a
piece of email and name your favorite coffeehouse; this invite includes
Sarah too, by the way -- I'm a former Dreamhaven employee, and ought to buy
a cuppa for a present one, I think.

Neil, I got as far in that last paragraph of yours as "It's like Shakespeare
in Love, but without any of the talent," and my brain melted. This I gotta
see!  (I know, me and eight million others... which is good.)

Oh, and in case I never thanked you for bringing the music of Tori Amos into
my consciousness and life, thank you; I was playing some stuff over today,
and thinking of that Under the Pink concert. Ten thousand thanks would be
not enough.

Was rereading the big book Amano brought with him to the Dreamhaven signing,
and got lost in the wonderful lines and colors again.... and wondered
how you feel when you see a piece of art for the first time. Do you get lost
in it?  Does it swirl you up and make you dizzy and full of intense,
complicated happiness and sadness and yearning?
  

    
So I just applied for a room in the Ice Hotel. The Quebec one. Now I
need a nice magazine or someone to send me to Sweden to stay the night
in their Ice Hotel, to contrast and compare.

Shira -- take Elise up on her offer of coffee either way. She doesn't
bite.

& so to bed.
  

    
I knew there was an Ice Hotel in Sweden but I didn't know there was one on
this continent--
  

    
Neil--

Cool.
  

    
Sarah-- I brought in the "September Songs" the second day we did
Threepenny-- Nick Cave's version of "Mac the Knife," my kids
discovered, is just a bit different from Bobby Darrin's :)  

I had always thought that my favorite recording of Threepenny is the
one with Raoul Julia--(certainly it has the best poster.) But since
it's not available on CD, I sent away for the 1994 Donmar Warehouse
cast recording-- it's awesome!  It doesn't have the most accurate
literal translation of the original lyrics, but it really captures the
spirit of the piece-- angry and profane.

Open question-- last night I saw a production of Clive Barker's play,
a True History of the Devil, but I had to leave at intermission.  Does
anybody know what happens in act II?

(The audience was hysterical, by the way--
black-turtleneck-and-silver-clad 70's style Satanists, gossiping
occultists, and a handful of confused looking Forest Hills/New Rochelle
types.)
  

    
e-mail from Mary Roane:

The first time I read the Cinescape article, I missed 2 very important
words.  "And direct".
 
Whooo-hooo!  Congratulations, Neil!
 
Mary Roane
  

    
I wasn't able to access the Cinescape article... but the project
sounds amazing!
  

    
Ok, I was able to access it this time... WOW!  It sounds fascinating--
how did you come across this guy?
  

    
Something strange just happened... My younger brother was reading
through an old Fantasy Empire that once belonged to my older brother.
To make a long story short, there's an article that begins:

'Science fiction has nevr been totally serious, but I wonder if it
will ever full recover from a new assault on its very foundations.
FANTASY EMPIRE contributor Neil Gaiman and fellow writer Kim Newman has
unleashed upon an unsuspecting world "Ghastly Beyond Belief" (Arrow
Books). "Sterilize yourself with fear..." runs the blurb, and it might
well do that...'

(etc., etc.)

Anyway, just wanted to share how nifty it was to all of a sudden come
upon a review of your first book.

-shira
  

    
Just got in to Chicago. Tomorrow starts with a talk to some high
schoolers who've been reading SMOKE AND MIRRORS, then my Humanities
talk on Myth, Dream and Stories -- and a reading of some bit of
American Gods I've not read before. Then in the evening I introduce
Princess Mononoke.
  

    
And sensible replies to other posts will be put up when I get a
second.
  

    
Lucky high schoolers.
  

    
        Geez, yeah, why didn't I go to that high school?  Our usual guest
speakers were inspiring people with terminal diseases, because high
school isn't depressing enough.  The coolest presentation we ever got
was how to put a condom on an eggplant, a skill I've never needed
since.
  

    
I hope the kids understand how lucky they are.
Will you publish your Humanities talk?
  

    
An eggplant?  An eggplant??
  

    
Yeah, I thought you were supposed to use bananas.

(not that I would know, I've never had a proper sex ed. class!)

-shira
  

    
Was it to prevent the eggplant from getting a terminal disease?
  

    
Elise - I'm not sure if I responded to your offer, but I visited that
amazing website.  Thank you.

Shira - Sorry to hear about the breakup babe, 2000 seems to be rife
with heartbreak..think of me as your sister-in-sorrow. 

Len - Maybe I'm misremembering..but didn't Sting star in Threepenny on
Broadway?

Streak - Um..an eggplant?  How daunting!  Unless it was the Asian
varity..but normal folk tend to use zucchini squash.  Then again, you
haven't lived until you've been taught sex ed. by Catholic nuns.  And
please note.. my high school was called Immaculate Conception.  'Nuff
said. ;)


Neil - High school just got way cooler, they could have ended up with
poor Streak's guest speakers.  [An eggplant?!]  
  

    
        A fairly narrow eggplant.  No idea why they didn't get a banana. 
Eggplant jokes dominated the student discourse for the rest of the
year.
  

    
Rocky--

Yeah, I saw Sting do it.  Strangely, however, I can't find a single
recording of the performance.  Not a tremendous loss-- Sting was cool,
but I don't remember being blown away by the production.
  

    
Mmm... I made some mushrooms fried in butter for dinner and thought of
Stardust.  "The likes of me treasures a good mushrump."  Indeed.
  

    
Alas, most of the high schoolers were stuck in traffic, so about six
young people and their teachers got to monopolise me. Had a good day.
More when I get that second I mentioned somewhere earlier.
  

    
By the way, Rob Elder from the Chicago Tribune was my host (along With
Alice Bentley from STARS OUR DESTINATION) today. He wrote an article
about the CBLDF tour which you can read at:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/leisure/tempo/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV-00
11030028,FF.html

There's a weird glitch in the middle where I'm talking about a very
shoddy Washington Post article which specifically blamed the Trenchcoat
Brigade Comic, and Dark Knight, and Watchmen, for the COlumbine
Massacre, and that paragraph was copy-edited out, so it's rather hard
to tell what I'm talking about.

On the good side you are spared the hellish photo of me. 
  

    
Impossible.