There's a "raw" review of the Chicago Stardust over at http://wayoffloop.blogspot.com/. The show looks interesting. The review was, overall, positive, but there's a line in there "My theatre-going companion complained that too many things were played as funny. I partially agree - I think it all would have been more effective and funnier if everyone had taken their fairy tale problems more seriously," which reminded me a little of the reading of Chivalry on the Symphony Space audio, where I wanted to take the reader aside and suggest that if she did Sir Galaad completely straight (rather than "big" and comedic), it would have been funnier and work better.
It's like the one directorial piece of advice one wants to give actors is "Er, you know that thing you do...? Well, don't do that." And of course, it's a useless piece of advice, just as the single worst piece of editorial advice I ever got was "er... well, it's not as good as I was hoping it would be. Can you make it better?"
Was sent a link to http://www.bstv.tv/ which amused me enormously, but left me with no particular desire to see a whole TV show based on parodic reality TV concepts (given that my reaction to reading about any new reality TV show is normally a "they have got to be joking" anyway).
...
I'm not really a proper foodie, not like, well, DocBrite (who recently emailed me to let me know that we're going to be eating at The Flower Drum in Melbourne in July, and when Poppy tells me to go and eat with her I always do, because it will always produce a) amazing food and b) an anecdote that nobody else will believe when you tell them), but I was fascinated by this article on the top fifty things foodies should do, which range from the interesting to the "er, no, I don't actually think so".
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,9950,1481375,00.html
Hi Neil,
Just a quick question. I am reading Good Omens and was wondering what "cor" meant and if it is a British word. I take it to be slang and along the lines of "Damn" but just wanted to be sure. Thanks for any clarification you can give. I did do a search first on your website and while I did find cor references, there was no explanation of the word. Thanks, Barry
Remember, Google is your friend. I googled "Cor Slang" and came up with
http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml and then found a British-American online dictionary at http://www.davidappleyard.com/english/vc.htm where you will learn that the American for "Cor" is "Goodness". (Bizarrely, in the 13 years I've been in America, I've not yet heard anyone use "goodness", as an exclamation.) It's used as an expression of pleased astonishment, or at least it was when I was a boy.
Which reminds me,
..Is the aforementioned night gown black too or is it white or some shade of baby blue/pink well complimented with a cap too? :P (Get better soon!) Steph
Thank you, and I hope I shall. But it was "dressing gown", not "night gown". Which is, probably rather disappointingly, just English for "bath robe" (http://www.davidappleyard.com/english/vd.htm)
Hi Neil,
So now you've mentioned "ShockHeaded Peter" and "The Wolves in the Walls" opera and a stage adaptation of "Stardust" in the past two weeks, and I have to ask again: Have you ever written anything specifically for the stage? And if not, do you think you'll ever? What do you think it'd be like?
(I know some of your stories have been adapted for the stage, though I'm not sure which.)
And for your readers in Canada (or, I suppose, anywhere that Chapters will ship)(or, I suppose again, anyone who couldn't afford "Wolves in the Walls" for whatever reason): "Wolves in the Walls" has gone on some sort of super-sale on the Chapters/Indigo website: (Here's the link.)
I wish this had happened sooner. I would've saved enough money to buy another Sandman trade.
And thanks for doing all your writing stuff. It's a boost to the imagination to see someone using their imagination so well in their stories.
Cheers,
Greg Carere
I'm writing a play in my spare time. I've been writing it for a couple of years. I'm only on page nine, mostly due to an acute shortage of free time, so do not hold your breath.