http://www.pandora.com is utterly addictive -- a personal radio channel that bases itself on an artist or song you like. I just discovered The Owls.
The Skippy Interlude seems to have generated a lot of mail (including a portrait of Skippy by r.k. milholland at http://www.somethingpositive.net/skippy.jpg) along with several death threats, most of them for her.
This one made me smile....
On The Skippy Show
Come now Mr Gaiman, methinks the author doth protest too much. Certainly the Voice of Neil Gaiman dot com is that of a maundering middle aged writer with an affectation for black clothing and fountain pens, but the cast of characters has been vast, varied and well tested from the beginning. Looking back at the archives we see that the caped crusaders of the CBLDF made an appearance after only 5 days of attempted writing about the cruel world of copyediting. At day eleven we get a Penn and Teller reference, Thea Gilmore links are popping up in the first month of the Journal proper, and by 2005 we've got Lenny Henry guesting!
You may claim that none of this blog has been focus grouped, but even a cursory look shows otherwise. The Fabulous Lorraine is a long time and much loved cast member, but I think we can all see how the writers meeting went:
Ratings Consultant 1:
What can we do to amp up this "Lorraine" character?
Neil:
Well, I mean she's not a "character" as such, she's just this very nice person who.
Ratings Consultant 2:
A band! What if we put her in a band?!
Neil:
Well, really she is in a.
Ratings Consultant 1:
Perfect! I love it, but what can we do to pack in the boys? Sure we've got the comic angle, but we need more!
Neil:
I don't see, really, how..
Ratings Consultant 2:
How about the band is sponsored by NASCAR?
Ratings Consultant 1:
Hmmm, almost, but maybe, no, wait, I've got it! The band is sponsored by a corset manufacture!
Ratings Consultant 2:
Brilliant! Love it! Gotta run! I've got a meeting on the coast, Neil, see what you can pull together by Tuesday.
Neil:
Um, well..
Then there's the garrulous Maddy, a perfect hook for the tween market, the exotic Holly touring far off Italy for those gap year teens and even a computer science grad student name Mike for those of us who are, well, computer scientists. We've even seen a recent make over of the Author himself from black jacket and jeans, globe-trotting, jetsetter to dressing gown and slippers, Mini-driving eccentric. I'm honestly not sure what meeting the Arthur Dent idea came from, but let's see what the kids think! Love the blog! Love it!
...
as did this
Look what you've done! http://trend.icerocket.com/trend?query1=bitchcakes&label1=&query2=&label2=&query3=&label3=&days=90
I'm sorry. It's not my fault. I loved News Radio. (And hope one day, if I'm good, for seasons 3 and 4 to come out on DVD.)
While I'm in the UK I shall be boycotting Sainsbury's and Woolworths,with enormous enthusiasm and enjoyment. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4507636.stm will tell you why...
On the subject of freedom of speech, round two of the CBLDF auction -- complete with lots of original art and a Neil Rat -- is at http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZcbldf
And finally,
Hi Neil, I just thought you might be interested to know that I'm going to be on Mastermind soon, with The Sandman as my specialist subject. Nick Duffy
Preston, Lancs
The cockles of my heart have just been thoroughly warmed. Good luck. I hope you win.