Jerry Springer The Opera etc

Just woke up after sleeping for about twelve hours. What woke me up was my daughter Maddy saying good morning, then singing twenty minutes of songs from Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park With George. Which, despite the problems with the iSkin, finally sold me on the new iPod. If you have to wake up away from home, having your daughter singing "Children and Art" to you is the best way to do it.

Spent last night, as I drifted closer to sleep, listening to the soundtracks for Avenue Q and Jerry Springer the Opera.

I need to buy myself more plug adapters -- I only have one with me and keep having to unplug it to plug other things in.

Hi! Any chance of you taking a picture of the beard before it's gone? And posting it? Because Sinister Neil Gaiman sounds amusing...


Photos were taken before I left home, and given the flood of requests I may stick up a picture or two when I get copies.

Several people have sent me this story -- Denmark to recognise Worshippers of Norse Gods. Which is good news. Although I assume that the whole human sacrifice bit isn't going to make it into the rituals listed in its bylaws.

(Which reminds me. When I was last in Iceland I learned that when worshipping the Norse Gods was banned, about a thousand years ago, there was a clause that only made it illegal if you were caught. I still love that.)

Dear Neil,

I am a maskmaker, and I have been creating dark-fantasy-themed masks for several years. I don't know if the mask pictured on the Mirror Mask promo image is from the film, or was just used for the promo. But if you need masks for the film, I would be happy to supply you with several at my expense. I have followed your work and Dave McKean's work since my college days, and you have both inspired and motivated my artistic vision since that time. It would be a pleasure to give something back.

All the best,
Monica Roxburgh
www.goblinart.com

Thanks, that's very kind of you -- but all the live action stuff in MirrorMask was already shot in June and July. Some of the masks (mostly the Black Queen's) were bought by Dave McKean in Venice before the shoot, and the rest were made by Dave McKean and the production staff, and are very odd.

...

And I keep forgetting to post this: http://www.salavon.com/PlayboyDecades/PlayboyDecades.shtml If you haven't seen it, it's four photographs which "are the result of mean averaging every Playboy centerfold foldout for the four decades beginning Jan. 1960 through Dec. 1999. This tracks, en masse, the evolution of this form of portraiture."