more from apostrophe hell

Sarasota!

Mini MirrorMask review here: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600107916,00.html

Lovely Sundance photos of me and Dave McKean online at http://www.imdb.com/gallery/granitz/2839

Let's see. Lots of people wrote in to remind me that the ancient-proper-name-ending-in-"s" exception for possessives is straight out of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. First page, in fact. You can find an online version here:http://www.bartleby.com/141/Paul

Other people wrote to tell me that the Associated Press Manual of Style, and the Chicago Manual of Style say different things, and many e-mails from around the world letting me know that, for example, in Israeli schools we are taught that the "blahs's" combination is just bad grammar and that it's always "blahs' " . We actually get points off on tests for this.And I'm still wondering why they asked you that :)Galia

I found an excellent summary of the various points of view of the apostrophe in question in the debate on Wikipedia's house style (remember what I said about it being a house style issue?): go and read the discussion at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style and learn.

......

In doing a search on the Narnia action figures by Gentle Giant Studios I saw that they are also doing Mirrormask action figures. I have only been reading your journal for a couple of months, so if you mentioned this, I missed it. http://www.entertainmentearth.com/hitlist.asp?theme=Mirror+Mask (I am a brand new Neil Gaiman fan after hearing Coraline on a long car trip.)Dona

Not sure they've been mentioned for a while. So yes, Dark Horse are doing MirrorMask models (the ones in the pictures are early prototypes.)

Hi Neil,There's a rumor going around town that you were at a bar in Manila a few years back. A friend mentioned this to me because we were talking about the possibility of you coming to Manila for a book signing, as you mentioned in your blog a few days ago. I was wondering, have you ever been to the Philippines?Regards,Tania

Nope, never been to Manila. Never been to the Philippines either. That's why I was interested in coming (also because of the enormous numbers of people who come in to this blog from the Philippines, and the people from the Philippines who seem to show up at almost every signing to let me know that I really ought to visit the Philippines).

(As a general rule, established over years of doing this blog: if ever you meet someone in a bar or on a bus or hitchhiking or in an internet chat place who claims to be me, it's not me. Really it's not. I still can't figure out why people like pretending to be me, or why the people they are telling this to don't ever ask them to produce some kind of ID. But it's not been me so far. I don't do chat rooms, and if I'm actually in a bar I'll probably be in the corner with a notebook.)

Oops. Late for interview. Gotta run.

Aristocrats!

MirrorMask director Dave McKean and Aristocrats director Paul Provenza demonstrate "The Aristocrats" move for the world at the Sundance party. (The one gleeful eye is optional.) Dave's wristband allows him to get two free drinks, and is not an order.

For some reason the "Aristocrats" team and the "MirrorMask" team have become fast friends and mutual admirers during the course of this Sundance.

The '05 model

Me, taken on my camera by Dave McKean during the MirrorMask screening today. Yes, I look (and am) terribly tired, but am also pretty happy -- the screening today felt much better than the one yesterday in the Eccles. Despite the temperatures in the cinema being stiflingly hot, people laughed at the jokes and seemed to be enjoying it. (Last night the audience felt much more respectful, or perhaps more detached.)

Dear Mr. Gaiman,I respect you greatly as an author and so I would like to pose a question to you. My friend and I currently have a bet going on regarding apostrophe usage. I had been told that when writing the possessive of a proper noun (let's say it's Lewis), you can write either Lewis' or Lewis's and either form would be acceptable. Her professor told her that you could only omit the extra s after the apostrophe if the person was famous and dead. I've never heard of such a gramatical rule before and we got into a minor tiff about it. I fully admit that we are rather pathetic to argue about such things, but life is rather boring here. There is a dinner riding on this, and as I am a poor college student, would prefer to have her pay for it. I hope that you enjoy Sundance! I really wish I was there; I would love to see Mirrormask. At any rate, I am looking forward to Anansi Boys and I love your blog.Warmest regards, Mary Bongiovi

It's mostly a matter of "house style". I've written for publishers and magazines who liked it one way, and others who liked it the other. Your friend's professor was probably joking. I'm glad to say that, despite "Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess' Stardust" Charles Vess is not even slightly dead. *

dear neil, i'm nico and i'm coming from France.Can you put the light on the distribution of your new 'baby': Mirrormask ?It's not really clear at the moment and i wonder if this film will be updated in french version (subtitle or dubbing). despite the fact that your books have been translated in french version all the senses have been respected.i hope that this movie will be in the same way.My english is not perfect but you have all my respect.I speak english like a frog probably i'm in a fog.merci <<<<<<<<<<<<>

I'm afraid it's too soon for me to know anything about foreign distribution of MirrorMask. Obviously, I hope it'll get out as widely as possible. I certainly hope that if it's dubbed or subbed it'll be done respectfully and as accurately as possible.

.....

* Yes, I know the caption is "Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's Stardust" but that's just Amazon being sloppy. The word in the book title, visible on the book, is Vess'.

late night rambling

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mirrormask/main.html now has a current trailer up (in "previews"). No, I don't know why the apostrophe on "people's" is in the wrong place, but I'm sure it'll be fixed sooner or later.

The premiere happened. I think it went okay.

(I was slightly frustrated by the sound mix, which kept losing lines of dialogue beneath effects or music, which I was told by the producer had something to do with the way they had to prepare the sound for Sundance's specs (?) and won't be like that on the finished-finished film.)

There's a review up at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=11264&reviewer=128
and another at http://www.iofilm.co.uk/fm/m/mirrormask_2005.shtml

Joe McCabe's "Hanging Out With the Dream King" book of interviews is reviewed at http://www.rambles.net/gaiman_dream05.html.

I'm on the cover of Locus, with a photo taken at Worldcon in September. (Actually, I do have a right arm. Or I'm pretty sure I did then.)

that first day of school feeling

Quick one -- the Clarion auction has gone live. Bids by e-mail. Check it out at http://www.msu.edu/~clarion/auction/auctionpreview.html

And the second phase of the Beguiling Tsunami Auction is up on eBay -- I donated a Simon Bisley painting of Batman, done for a project that never happened, which Simon gave me about fifteen years ago. There's also a gorgeous Charles Vess painting, and the Dave Sim Cerebus Lord Julius (Groucho Marx) like-a-looks cover. http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZbeguiling for details.

Woke up, realised we have the Sundance MirrorMask premiere today, and found that going back to sleep -- on the only Sundance day I didn't have to be up really early -- was quite impossible. I'm... not exactly nervous. It's more just like every first day of school I remember all rolled into one: a sort of layer cake of emotions somewhere in the pit of my stomach made up of trepidation, inevitability, and stumbling into the unknown. (Thank heavens Dave's going to have to introduce the film tonight, and I won't have to do anything till the Q&A when it's over. God I hope people like it.)

The whole writer and director thing...

This is me and Dave McKean this afternoon, from my phone. Six days into Sundance and we're looking a bit tired. Would you buy a used movie from these men?

Son and dance

Quieter day -- interviews for much of it. In the late afternoon Dave McKean, Lisa Henson and I got our photo taken by Entertainment Weekly, then Dave and I got our photos taken in the HP centre -- and I got given my first "swag" -- a gift of an HP photo printer (and paper, and ink). (Dave will be sent an iPod.) The HP photographer also took a pic of me and Dave using my phone, which I'll try and post here. Frankly I think we look like extremely dodgy characters.

This evening saw the Reefer Madness musical movie, which was pleasant enough, but many of the songs seemed to go on for at least a couple of choruses past the point where I was ready for the story to start again -- it felt like a little judicious editing could have made it into a much sharper, faster and funnier film. (Ana Gasteyer was excellent, and I should say that the majority of the audience seemed perfectly happy with it the way it was.)

Then to the short film show, where there were a few duds, a few interesting ones, and one that I utterly loved, and a quick google tells me it's online at http://www.sundanceonlinefilmfestival.org/2005/index.aspx. The one I loved is called The Sailor's Girl, and it's a perfect little film that you should go and watch if you have the bandwidth. (You have to register, but it's worth it. Trust me.) Brett Simon, who made The Sailor's Girl, is a writer-director to watch. (The story reminded me a little of Kelly Link's fiction, which is a good thing.)

My son Mike has just arrived, and is sleeping on the sofa bed (well, he's actually sitting on it as I type this, looking at the Sundance catalogue, picking out films to watch over the next two days).

Neil,I'm sure others have already informed you of this, but if not, there's an interview with Alan Moore conducted by Stewart Lee (creator of "Jerry Springer: The Opera") online:http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/networks/radio4/aod.shtml?radio4/chainreaction. Comic Book Resources also has a transcript of the interview, for those who can't stream it:http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=4737 It was quite entertaining and funny, and Alan certainly doesn't come off quite as mad as we've all been led to believe. Hope Sundance has been treating you well. All the best,dave golbitz http://1031productions.blogspot.com

Alan's the smartest person I know. He's also one of the nicest, possibly the funniest, and has always struck me (and we've been friends for about 18 years) as very sane indeed, at least as sane as anyone with a cherub vortex on the wall upstairs can possibly be. If anyone attempts to lead you to believe otherwise I would suggest you view them with deep suspicion.

The Chain Reaction show will be up on the BBC site for a week, and then for a week from next Thursday it's Alan Moore interviewing Brian Eno.

g'night.

I'm Sundancing as fast as I can

Back in my hotel for a more-or-less-early night (i.e. before 1:00 am) (it's another high school screening early tomorrow morning). Only about 150 e-mails to read before I can go to sleep. I'm getting a bit behind on e-mail currently.

This morning Dave McKean and I saw Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza's remarkable documentary "The Aristocrats". It seems, on the face of it, rather unlikely that a film in which a hundred comedians talk about and tell a particularly obscene joke, of the kind that comedians tell other comedians rather than the public, could be a really beautiful meditation on art and personal style and individual magic and what it means to be human, of boundaries and what it means to cross them, but that's what Paul and his editor have made out of the hundred hours of footage they taped. It was astonishing, and Dave and I walked out of the screening just happy. I think it just edges out "Kung Fu Hustle" as my favourite film of the festival so far.

Then more interviews. This evening a few of us went to see Hal Hartley's "The Girl From Monday" which may have been good, but I can't tell you, as the whole lack-of-sleep-and-sitting-in-a-warm-dark-place thing caught up with me, and I dozed through it, a bit guiltily.

Friday night is the MirrorMask premiere, in the Eccles Theatre. If you're at Sundance and you want to see it, judging from the other premieres at the Eccles, I think you'll be fine: just do the wait list thing. It's a huge cinema and neither "The Jacket" or "The Girl From Monday" were actually full. (I suspect the same will be true of Saturday in the Library, but I might be wrong.) Dave and I will be answering questions afterwards.

...

Incidentally, I'm trying to organise (well, I'm not actually doing the organising) the promised signings in the Philippines and Singapore before or after the Melbourne convention and Australian book signings this summer. The signing in the Philippines looks like it's happening, but I'm not sure about the Singapore one, as originally I was going be brought in with Dave McKean by the British Council, a plan that was scuppered by MirrorMask, and now I'm not really sure who to talk to. (If anyone in Singapore has any bright ideas, feel free to let me know.)

...

I know I ought to write something about the two Salt Lake City screenings last night, but I think I'm too tired, so here's something that came in from someone in the audience:

I just saw Mirrormask here in Salt Lake City at the Sundance festival. It was an amazing movie and I would recomend it to everyone. I wanted to say something about Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. This was the third showing of the film and it was in Salt Lake City rather than Park City. This means that the two of them had to drive about 30 minutes down the mountain on I-80 in order to have a question and answer session with the audience at the screening. In my experience as a long time resident of Salt Lake many filmmakers only really put in 100% effort for the premiere and then they are more concerned with the parties or networking and deal making. By the final showing of a film you are sometimes lucky to get an unknown supporting actor to show up at the screening. Neil and Dave were different. Besides the effort they had to make to get to the screening they were also very entertaining. They did not give lukewarm canned answers to audience questions. Instead they were funny and informative. They would frequently elaborate upon a short answer and turn it into an amusing story concerning the process of making the film. Finally, after the official Q&A session they were willing to stick around for some informal one on one time with the fans. I even managed to get Neil to sign a couple of books for a friend that was unable to make the screening (I was the guy in the wheelchair with the half a dozen annoying questions concerning the state of various projects). Even though I am sure he has done this tens of thousands of times Neil was warm and gracious while he was signing the books. He made eye contact, small talk and put you at ease. Tickets to Sundance films are incredibly hard to get even for locals. The personal treatment and the effort and respect that Neil and Dave showed to the audience made the two hours plus of waiting in line outside the theater in the cold with just the hope of possibly, maybe there being a small chance you might be able to get a wait list ticket entirely worth it. I did put a mini-review of my first impressions of Mirrormask on my blog at http://wessel12.blogspot.com/ I have only been doing this (blogging) for a couple of weeks but the half a dozen or so friends who actually bother to read it will know that I thoroughly enjoyed Mirrormask and highly recomend it.
Jason

and here's another, from the wonderful Olga: http://www.fabulist.org/archives/2005/01/_mirrormask_pre.html

and I was just sent a link to an Ain't It Cool News review: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=19254

and I think I'm going to skip the 150 e-mails, and hope there aren't too many emergencies waiting, which will mean 300 to try and deal with at some point tomorrow, I suppose. Good night.

hurrah...

Just did the Mirrormask DVD commentary, came out to find our very first proper review is up:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000771375

I'm not sure how long the article will be up and available. But they liked it.

running

A couple of follow-ups (follows-up?) to past posts. Then I have to run down to the press centre for a morning of MirrorMask Interviews.

Dear Neil,

A few posts back, you'd expressed interest in hearing about tonight's benefit for 826NYC. I was there assisting Eric Bogosian and thought I'd fill you in as best I can.

Cynthia Nixon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Rockwell, Justin Theroux, Kristen Johnston, Bob Balaban and Martha Plimpton all participated. I was running around taking care of a couple of things and so didn't hear everything read. Martha Plympton read an excerpt from JM Barrie's "Peter & Wendy" and Justin Theroux read something by Oscar Wilde (both of which I was sorry to have missed). Philip Seymour Hoffman read a darkly funny story by George Saunders, about a man with an inordinate amount of fear, and the effects of that fear on his life and family. Sam Rockwell and Justin T. did an hysterical staged reading of Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" (in the end, Justin did try those green eggs, in case you're wondering). Kristen Johnston read a poem by one of the students who'd participated in an 826 writing workshop, Bob Balaban read an excerpt of your story "Sunbird" (the last half or the last third--from the description of the barbecue pit through to the end) and Cynthia Nixon closed out the night reading several of Shel Silverstein's poems, including one about a pirate (I didn't catch the title, but enjoyed her pirate impression a great deal), "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and "If the World Were Crazy" (which drew an awful lot of knowing laughs... as though the world CURRENTLY seems crazy to some people. Go figure).

Things went exceedingly well. The audience seemed to have a lovely time, as did the performers, and the 826NYC folks were quite pleased. Mr. Balaban mentioned how much he enjoyed reading your story; I though he did a really excellent job of performing it. The members of the Epicuriean Society were very colorful (great names too). I noticed everyone who'd been working in the front of house at Tonic snuck in to hear it read.

It looks like McSweeney's is publishing an book that includes some of tonight's stories, but I didn't really get a good look at it and don't know any of the specifics, including when it might be published.

I was taking care of a few different things during parts of the reading, so I'm sure you're not getting the complete picture here. I hope someone else who got to see the whole thing has written you with the details. And I hope my account isn't too scattered.

All best,
Sarah Bisman

PS Eric kept telling people that you are my favorite writer (this is true). I used to assist him on a regular basis and often raved about your books, particularly American Gods, which I got him to read as well. I'm really looking forward to Anansi Boys and Mirrormask, and enjoy your blog a bunch.

Thanks Sarah. It sounds wonderful. (Sarah followed up by pointing out that of course I'd said the story would be in a children's anthology that McSweeneys would be putting out, and she was very tired. And she was of course right, and I was just grateful that she'd write at 3:00am to let me know.)


Neil,

One of my readers pointed out a few days ago that my blog post on British comics was (a) stupid, and (b) incorrect. I had that horrid feeling of having put my foot in it: he was right. I yanked the post and put up a correction, whereupon another reader emailed this morning and said: "Too late, Neil Gaiman's already read the first post." ... Gah!

I'd have known better had I given the subject even a little more thought.... It was a boneheaded post, and I hope you'll forgive it. Should I ever meet you or your colleagues, any rounds at the pub will surely have to be on me now.

All the best,
Paul

Which I stuck up here because I thought it was astonishingly gracious. A side effect of wittering on about stuff in public is that every now and again you're going to say something stupid or wrong (I know I've been guilty of both here since 2001).

And anyway, it gives me an opportunity to plug the excellent Collins Library books. And rumour has it he'll soon be reprinting a Harry Stephen Keeler...

oops. gotta run.