pretty vacant

In my quest to give you things to read while I'm off scribbling things, my old schoolfriend Geoff Notkin (you can find him not going to prison here and being taught by Will Eisner here) was recently seen hunting for meteorites on the Discovery Channel's Cash Or Treasures. He writes about it on his website at http://www.aerolite.org/cash-and-treasures.htm. (If you own a copy of Sandman:The Kindly Ones, you can see a photo in the back of Geoff -- and me, and Graham K Smith -- as punks in 1976.)

And for the readers in the Philippines (and there are a lot of you)... Kristin writes to say that We're organizing a two-day literary convention--the Read or Die Convention 2007--which will be held on February 3-4 2007 at the Hotel Intercon, Makati City. It's to promote reading, support for Filipino readers, and more public awareness of Filipino literature. The event is non-profit and all the proceeds will be donated to AHON Foundation, an organization which refurbishes public elementary school libraries. The event is supported by the National Book Development Board, the Department of Education and UNICEF.The convention website is here: http://read-or-die.org/rodcon/

and she adds

We'd also like to solicit donations from people who live abroad, if that's possible, in order to supplement the amount which will be donated to our beneficiary (and we hope that we can still earmark some funds left over--if there will be any leftover money--for other organizations which need it. We've just learned, for example, that Books For The Barrios (http://www.booksforthebarrios.com), a group based in America which organizes book drives for the benefit of our public school libraries is in danger of closing its operations due to lack of support. The vice-president got in touch with us via RodCon and asked us to help).

and something for you to look at (if you haven't seen it already)...

Have you seen this? Ron Mueck is this incredible artist who makes shockingly realistic sculptures of people. Either that, or he kills giants and embalms them. I hope you enjoy it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2005/12/29/GA2005122900888_index_frames.htm?startat=1

Labels: cool but disturbing photos of giant people, Meteorites, Notkin, Philippines