Journal

Thursday, September 15, 2005

in which ingenuity charges a phone

I never seem to have a phone charger, because I always leave them in hotel rooms.

Tonight, in a hotel room, with a dead phone, I thought if I do it, maybe other people do as well... So I phoned the concierge and asked. It turns out lots of people leave phone chargers in hotel rooms, and I got to take my pick of Nokia chargers, and my phone is now charging. Yeah, I know. It's sort of obvious. But I still feel bizarrely pleased with myself.

There's an interview with me in this week's Hollywood Reporter.

MirrorMask is one of the eight films picked to represent New British Cinema at the London Film Festival -- details at http://www.lff.org.uk/films_details.php?FilmID=774 -- For his marvellously entertaining first feature as director, acclaimed comic-strip artist Dave McKean has co-written, with frequent collaborator Neil Gaiman, a rites-of-passage fable that triumphantly takes its place alongside such fantasies as The Company of Wolves, Time Bandits and The Wizard of Oz. I'm not sure that it does, but that's lovely company to be put in.

I've been asked to remind you all (well, all "legal US residents") to vote in the Quill Awards, and to suggest that you might want to vote for Jon J Muth's book Zen Shorts as best illustrated children's books. Beyond that, vote for whoever you want (anyone in the graphic novel category would be a decent winner. And why do they call 1602 "1602 Volume 1"?).

(And the description of 1602 on the Quills website -- In total, it reads "Things in England become chaotic after Queen Elizabeth's death, and Nicholas Fury, Otto Von Doom, and the other superheroes must decide whether to stay in England or emigrate to America with a young girl and her Indian protector. " is the kind of thing that gets written by someone who didn't bother to read the book they're describing...)

And in closing, a scientific experiment -- http://www.jossresearch.org/special/tecnu.html.

Bed now. Yes.