Journal

Friday, November 25, 2005

Waking and whiteness

Woke up and snow was falling gently and slowly and continually outside my bedroom window, and I put on a dressing gown and it was my dressing gown not a hotel one, and I wandered out into the house and it was my house and there were lots of different rooms I could go into, not like a hotel at all really, and right now Maddy is using the TIVO to show me her edited highlights (with full Maddy commentary and theories) of America's Next Top Model (I have just learned how the models on the edges of the all-the-models-together pictures are always eliminated first) and my assistant just brought me an apple and carrot juice and in a minute I shall exchange the dressing gown for clothes and go for a walk. I'm glad I'm home.

Years and years and years ago, I did interviews for Knave Magazine in the UK: the deal was that the subject had to be someone I thought was interesting and so did the editor, so I got to interview an amazing bunch of people. Then, at the end, in 1986, as I was feeling pretty done with interviewing, Ian Pemble, the editor, left, and the new editor wanted sexy celebrities, and he paid for an interview with George Best. (I thought that was odd. We'd never paid anyone to be interviewed before.) Anyway, Best came in and had his photo taken and chatted, mostly about his alcoholism, or at least that's what I remember most clearly -- he'd just had some kind of Scandinavian stomach implant fitted that would, he assured me, kill him if he started drinking again, because otherwise, he told me, the booze would kill him anyway. And now, almost twenty years later, it has...


Dear Neil,
You are wonderful. Thus, I need you to write my wedding vows. I don't need them immediately, but preferably before January of 2007. Thanks for your help.

Ariel.


Dear Ariel, you are too kind. Slowly the dos and don'ts of this Blog emerge. We've already established that I don't name children, cats or rock groups. I'm afraid I think I probably don't write wedding vows, either.

I'm interested with your comment about making Thanksgiving dinner. Is it just a when in rome thing?

You mean, would I eat a Thanksgiving dinner somewhere that wasn't the US? I rather doubt it. But it's good to eat turkey and stuff, particularly with a family you haven't seen much of since September the 18th, and who you missed.

Hi, Neil! According to Google, since Sep 19th you have not talked about the foreign editions of Anansi Boys. Could you possible have forgotten to tell us any news? Or is it just like it is, no news at all?

-Alvaro Cavalcanti.
P.S.: Hey, if you could tell us specially about the Brazilian edition, it would be really nice. :o)


I've asked my agent to get the list of foreign ANANSI BOYS together for me, and I'll put it up here.

Someone called Perrin very helpfully put the Judith Clute London Walk into PDF format -- here's a zip file

ebooks.zip

of which we learn in the zip you will find the following ebooks:

- LIT = for Microsoft Reader
- PRC = for Mobipocket reader
- PDB - PalmDoc

Don't know why the LIT is so much more ginormous, altho i think it saved the map in its original res...hope this helps some folks geek it up on their PDA like myself!

P.


Also, Judith CLute has a website -- http://www.judithclute.co.uk/ -- with some of her paintings on, and an email address for any of you who do the walk to let her know how it went...

Hi there Neil

Just wanted to ask if you have had the time to get the new Kate Bush album, Aerial, and if so, what your impressions of it are?

And are you planning to come to France any time soon? With the french release of Anansi Boys?

Jeremy/When lingers


Current impressions are: I like the first CD of Aerial very much but the second one, with the Rolf Harris singing and the birdsong, currently leaves me a little cold. This opinion may change. I bought a bunch of CDs in the UK and put them on my iPod, and so far the surprise hit CD of the bunch was this -- http://www.luakabop.com/jim_white/cmp/album4.html

Not sure when the next trip to France will be, but I trust that you'll keep it nice till I get there.