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A few observations.
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May. 17th, 2008 @ 08:00 pm
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- Altitude sickness is a bitch. It's not crippling, just like having your life force subtly drained out of you and replaced with it with weakness, headaches and the shakes.
- From the air, the mountains from Lima to Cusco look like they're made of dusty chocolate. Everything is that same shade of brown. Everything. The clouds spill over the hills like cream in your coffee.
- People eat guinea pigs. They cook them and eat them. Here. In this very city. It's happening right now. How you feel about it is probably related to your experience with class pets in Kindergarten.
- The Catholic Church has some amazingly beautiful and amazingly bizarre works of art. Massive, twenty-foot high altars of statues, oil pantings, silver and gold leaf. One painting features the last supper. Jesus is dining on a guinea pig. I'm not kidding.
- The Catholics and the Incans have been intertwined in this place for a long, long time.
- The kids on the street are the most tenacious street vendors you'll ever one across. One talked me into buying three finger puppets. One Spider-Man, one Batman, one llama. The potential for drama is obvious.
- Did I mention altitude sickenss is an insidious bitch?
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not really about anything...
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May. 18th, 2008 @ 12:15 am
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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/not-really-about-anything.html Let's see -- spoke at Maddy's school yesterday, to about a hundred 13 and 14 year olds. Survived. The pear tree and the cherry trees are coming into blossom too. Tomorrow, without the glorious leadership of Bee Boss Sharon Stiteler, I get to inspect the Kitty hive and go and see how the queen is doing...
I'm currently spending most of the time in the gazebo at the bottom of the garden, alternately writing a sort of outline for something and proofreading The Graveyard Book. This is the US edition of The Graveyard Book, and now I'm taking all the corrections and fixes I did to the UK manuscript when I was in Australia and transferring 90% of them over to the US version (only 90% because I'm letting a few Americanisms that my UK editor had problems with stand -- particularly the ones my otherwise wonderful UK copy editor and I butted heads over. )(There's me at two in the morning on Skype muttering, "Look freak out can't just be a newfangled Americanism -- it's in Fanny Hill, for heaven's sake...") [For the curious, http://fiction.eserver.org/novels/fanny_hill/09.html five lines from the bottom.]
....
If you're on the upper East Coast and sad that you won't get to see me at MIT as all the tickets have sold out, you could -- and should -- down your sorrows in Cory Doctorow. As you will learn over at http://www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000357.shtml you can learn all about it....
What: Cory Doctorow Benefit Reading For CBLDF
When: Sunday, May 25 at 5 PM; VIP After Party at 7 PM
Where: Comix, 353 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10014
How Much:
General Admission: $20/advance $25/day of show;
VIP Admission: $100/advance only, includes preferred seating, copy of the book, & After Party with open beer/wine/soda bar
Tickets:
General Admission tickets available at
http://comixny.com/event.aspx?eid=416&sid=1302;
VIP Admission available at
http://store.fastcommerce.com/prod_cbldf-ff80818119f1676e0119f2fbcdc91642.html
You should go.
...
I know that David Tennant's Hamlet isn't till July. And lots of people are going to be doing Dr Who in Hamlet jokes, so this is just me getting it out of the way early, to avoid the rush...
"To be, or not to be, that is the question. Weeelll.... More of A question really. Not THE question. Because, well, I mean, there are billions and billions of questions out there, and well, when I say billions, I mean, when you add in the answers, not just the questions, weeelll, you're looking at numbers that are positively astronomical and... for that matter the other question is what you lot are doing on this planet in the first place, and er, did anyone try just pushing this little red button?"
There. Thanks. Sorry about that.
...
This came in from Laurel Krahn -- I've already mentioned Fourth Street Fantasy on this blog, one of my very very first American conventions, the one at which I first discovered the joy of talking to Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden (amongst others) and failing to argue with Steve Brust:
Any chance you could mention the return of Fourth Street Fantasy Convention in your journal/blog thing? We've extended the pre-registration date from May 15th to May 31st to give us all more time to plug the convention, it also gives those who haven’t registered yet a bit more time to gather the funds together to do so.
June 20 - 22, 2008 in Minneapolis, Minnesota with Guest of Honor Elizabeth Bear.
More details at http://www.4thstreetfantasy.com/
My friend Lillian Edwards pointed me at the TechnoLlama blog, where over This, this and finally this post the entire matter of Dr Who knitting patterns is discussed to within an inch of its life.
I crochet, and I'm a Doctor Who fan, so I've been following the thing with the knitted pattern a little. I've always had a set of Lil' Endless on my mental list of things to eventually crochet, but now that you've mentioned that DC is a bit strict about things I think I might just keep them to myself instead of writing up a (free, not to be sold) pattern. What would your feelings be about crochet/knitting patterns of your characters? It's not just The Endless I have in mind, I've done a seven legged spider before, and there are several other characters or concepts that I think would make neat projects.
As long as things aren't being sold in quantity, DC Comics is incredibly unlikely to grumble about it.
I don't mind at all, as long as it's not commercial. I don't mind anything that's creative, and I especially don't mind if people ask nicely first.
(I mind, very much, things like people selling on ebay CDs with PDFs of the complete Sandman books on them.)
(Nobody is going to complain if a fan turns a Barbie into a Death -- although I heard that DC said no to one of those appearing in a book of photos of interesting Barbie dolls. Nobody is going to grumble if a fan puts up a "how to make Barbie into Death" guide online. If someone put up a how to guide, and then one day hundreds of Death Barbies turned up on eBay, I can see Warners lawyers trying to close it down...)
...
Had a conversation with Paul Levitz the other day about Gaiman's Law of Superhero Movies, which is: the closer the film is to the look and feel of what people like about the comic, the more successful it is (which is something that Warners tends singularly to miss, and Marvel tends singularly to get right) and the conversation went over to Watchmen, which had Paul explaining to me that the film is obsessive about how close it is to the comic, and me going "But they've changed the costumes. What about Nite Owl?" It'll be interesting to see whether it works or not... |
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Hey!
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May. 17th, 2008 @ 06:58 am
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I'm in Peru!
The hotel has internet!
F*ck all y'all!
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New NR Webcomic is up
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 05:07 pm
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Friday = webcomics, and this particular Friday is no different ^__^ for all of those interested in the illustriously free entertainment of online comics, make sure to head on over to the main digs, of NR for this week's sequential exercise!
And for everyone who's been keeping track, last week on NR, we began a series of new Wallpapers for use on handy electronic computer imaging devices, and today we have brought about the second in the series!
Otherwise, it's time for me to head back over to the site - take care all, and welcome back Seanbaby!
--Aleister |
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Hot Weather Convention
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 03:24 pm
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Well, it's 97 degrees outside, and the air conditioning has been wonky at SLG headquarters! I'm sweltering inside, but I don't envy Bryan and the other guys because they're presently carting merchandise down the street to the McEnery Convention Center for Super-Con, which is taking place there there this weekend.
It seems to be a pretty superhero-y event, but we decided to make a try after the convention organizers asked us to attend. I will not be there, but Bryan Dobrow will be holding down the table, and Landry Walker will be joining him on Sunday.
Meanwhile, I am embarking on what I hope to be a blissful week off. I have much lolling around planned. |
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Krazy Guston
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 12:56 am
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Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there. 
Listen to Art Spiegelman talk about Philip Guston. Original work can be seen at the Vancouver Art Gallery in the Krazy Exhibition. |
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Krazy Moriarty
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 12:54 am
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Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there. 
Fresh in time for a new book coming out this summer, Art Spiegelman stresses the importance of Jerry Moriarty as a preeminent artist. Original pages and paintings by Jerry, can be seen at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Krazy Exhibition. |
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Krazy Spiegelman
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 12:50 am
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Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there. 
Art Spiegelman discusses his own work during a tour of the Krazy Show at the Vancouver Art Gallery. |
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Krazy Ware
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 12:48 am
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Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there. 
Art Spiegelman explores the wonderment of Chris Ware’s Thanksgiving New Yorker covers. You can check out the originial pages as a part of the Krazy show at the Vancouver Art Gallery. |
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Krazy Herriman
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 12:40 am
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Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there. 
Here is Art Spiegelman discussing the work of George Herriman as can be seen at the Vancouver Art Gallery in the Krazy show. |
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Krazy and Kurtzman
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 12:33 am
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Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there. 
Art Spiegelman gushes about his admiration for the strip Corpse on the Imjin by Harvey Kurtzman as part of the Krazy show at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
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Krazy Seth
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 12:11 am
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Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there. 
Here is Art Spiegelman discussing some pages from Seth’s George Sprott story, as part of the Krazy Art Show. |
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More Krazy
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 12:08 am
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Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there. 
Today was I got to go see the Krazy show in action at the Vancouver Art Gallery. As a member of the press, I got to go on a tour of the Comics section with special guide Art Spiegelman. As a bonus for you folks, I recorded the tour. So please enjoy the following posts that will cover a look at the art of George Herriman, Harvey Kurtzman, Jerry Moriarty, Seth, Chris Ware, Philip Guston, his own work, Kim Deitch and more.
Here are the opening remarks by Bruce Grenville, Art Spiegelman and more. |
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Drunken air part two
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 06:35 am
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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/drunken-air-part-two.html This is a film that Sharon Stiteler took yesterday of our bees buzzing around in my plum trees. I actually started wanting the bees because of the plums, because there were never any bees when they were in bloom...
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Yep…
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 12:09 am
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Drunken air
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May. 15th, 2008 @ 11:06 pm
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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/drunken-air.html Under the plum trees, covered in blossom before they get leaves (so they look drifts of snow) the air is so thick with the scent of plum blossom that it's like walking through wine.
[Edit to add: this is what the plum tree looked like yesterday -- film courtesy of the birdchick, who was filming our bees.] |
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A gleam of light.
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May. 15th, 2008 @ 03:59 pm
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The news from around the world has been horrifying lately, so it is good to get a gleam of good news: the California Supreme Court has overturned the ban on same-sex marriage.
Kate Evans, a professor at my alma mater and one of the directors of the Center of Literary Arts, reprinted on her blog her essay "Spouses for Life," which she wrote after marrying her partner, Annie, when Gavin Newsom allowed San Francisco City Hall to marry same-sex couples in 2004. It's a lovely read. |
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I Feel So Safe
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May. 15th, 2008 @ 03:27 pm
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Walking into Tokyopop yesterday, we had this conversation with the security guard at the desk. He stands at a security station that, for the past 5 years, I thought was just a valet station.
Me: The elevators don't seem to be working for us. We need to get up to the 20th floor.
Guard: Are you a visitor? Visitors can't use the elevators unless that have clearance. I'll need to see your IDs.
Tavi: What? When did you start doing that?
Guard: Oh, Mam that's a measure that's been in place since September 11 (2001).
Me: Really? We've been coming to this building almost monthly since 2002 and we've always used the elevators.
Guard: No this has been a standard policy of the entire Los Angeles area since September 11.
Tavi: No it hasn't. We've never been stopped before.
Guard: Yes, Mam. Where are you going?
Me: We're going to Tokyopop.
Guard: Tokyopop, Tokyopop ... I don't see your names on the list of expected visitors.
Me: Well, if you call them and tell (giant list of Tokyopop people) we're here, they know who we are.
Tavi: We've never had a problem entering before.
Guard: We've had this in place for some time. I wouldn't feel safe in a building that didn't do this.
Me: Since when did you start this? We've been coming here since 2002 and never have we been stopped.
Guard: Well, uh, in this building we started March 3rd of this year.
Me: So you felt pretty safe until March 3rd of this year?
Guard: Um, I'll call them and tell them you're down here.
Tavi: Tell them two terrorists want to see them.
Guard (instantly severe): Mam, we don't joke about that here. If my supervisor were here, he'd ... well, I'm calling Tokyopop.
Guard (on phone): Hello, this is security. I have two people requesting entrance. Tavisha and R -- oh, okay. I'll send them up.
Guard (hangs up and escorts us to the elevator): Well, thank you for being decent about this. Some people end up crying when they're stopped.
Tavi: Crying? People cry?
Me: Oh, we never cry. Our first reaction is to always be horribly confused by security.
Guard: Hah! Yeah, have a god day!
-RikkiCurrent Music: Team America World Police |
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May. 15th, 2008 @ 02:56 pm
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Fairest of All is polished and sent off the editor. I go out into the sun now and enjoy the day with my Sarah. |
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garbage day.
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May. 15th, 2008 @ 02:24 pm
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