"This is the last wake up text of the tour" said the text message from Elyse, my publicist and tour organiser, ten minutes ago. And she's right. It's happy and sad. It suddenly occurs to me that if I hadn't been [and here I had to decide between posting this unfinished or missing the plane. And we came ridiculously close to missing the plane anyway] someone who kept his phone on silent for the whole tour, Elyse's wake-up texts might have made a noise and woke me up, instead I looked upon them as a friendly good morning wave. (But I'd have the iPod, the phone, and sometimes an alarm clock as well. And on the one morning when I had to wake up call at 5:30am, I also had a cheerful call at 5:07am, to let me know that the car to take us to the airport at 6.00am was already waiting...)
Here -- and at http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=8 -- is last night's reading. The second half of Chapter Seven. You may want to watch the first twenty seconds, even if you haven't been watching these things.
Now, home next. Well, via Saint Paul’s United Church of Christ at 900 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul at 7.00 pm tonight. See you there?
In Boulder, Colorado
I did indeed sleep on the plane.
Let's see...
I heard the first week's sales figures on The Graveyard Book, and they're terrific and wonderful. That's good. I'm also getting lots of emails from people who simply can't find it -- their bookshops don't have it or underordered, or eventually turn out to have one copy mysteriously filed under "fly-fishing". That's not good.
Some Barnes and Nobles seem to have it properly displayed, and up on New Releases and so on. Many don't. Borders seems a lot more problematic -- I've heard from Borders managers who got only a fraction of the copies they ordered, and who are having trouble getting re-orders filled.
(I've also heard from a few people who have misbound versions, missing or repeating a "signature" of pages it was misprinted, on pages 248-217 the pages are backwards (which is why I listed the numbers backwards) upside down, and cut off, tragically everything bad that could happen to a book in printing as one correspondent sighs, and pages 217-248 are missing and in their place are pages 249-280 printed twice. I am hoping that this is just a fluke in the time-space continuum, but perhaps people should be advised to double check to make sure those pages are there as another points out. So check your books and if it's misprinted, then return it to the bookshop for a correct copy. (If you got a signed copy that's misprinted, I'll do what I can to make sure you get a signed one to replace it.)
A Graveyard Book review I read and wanted to link to at Tor.com (as it's the first online critical article on the book that isn't simply a plot-summary-and-why-someone-liked-it), and kind words over at bookslut.
A Terry Pratchett article in the Daily Mail. It was hard to read, but wise.
Oops. I'm late. Now to sign books for Boulder.
Let's see...
I heard the first week's sales figures on The Graveyard Book, and they're terrific and wonderful. That's good. I'm also getting lots of emails from people who simply can't find it -- their bookshops don't have it or underordered, or eventually turn out to have one copy mysteriously filed under "fly-fishing". That's not good.
Some Barnes and Nobles seem to have it properly displayed, and up on New Releases and so on. Many don't. Borders seems a lot more problematic -- I've heard from Borders managers who got only a fraction of the copies they ordered, and who are having trouble getting re-orders filled.
(I've also heard from a few people who have misbound versions, missing or repeating a "signature" of pages it was misprinted, on pages 248-217 the pages are backwards (which is why I listed the numbers backwards) upside down, and cut off, tragically everything bad that could happen to a book in printing as one correspondent sighs, and pages 217-248 are missing and in their place are pages 249-280 printed twice. I am hoping that this is just a fluke in the time-space continuum, but perhaps people should be advised to double check to make sure those pages are there as another points out. So check your books and if it's misprinted, then return it to the bookshop for a correct copy. (If you got a signed copy that's misprinted, I'll do what I can to make sure you get a signed one to replace it.)
A Graveyard Book review I read and wanted to link to at Tor.com (as it's the first online critical article on the book that isn't simply a plot-summary-and-why-someone-liked-it), and kind words over at bookslut.
A Terry Pratchett article in the Daily Mail. It was hard to read, but wise.
Audiofile review The Graveyard Book audio at http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/showreview_pub.cfm?Num=39534What is needed is will and determination. The first step is to talk openly about dementia because it’s a fact, well enshrined in folklore, that if we are to kill the demon then first we have to say its name.
Once we have recognised the demon, without secrecy or shame, we can find its weaknesses.
Regrettably one of the best swords for killing demons like this is made of gold - lots of gold.
These days we call it funding. I believe the D-day battle on Alzheimer’s will be engaged shortly and a lot of things I’ve heard from experts, not always formally, strengthen that belief.
It’s a physical disease, not some mystic curse; therefore it will fall to a physical cure. There’s time to kill the demon before it grows.
Oops. I'm late. Now to sign books for Boulder.
Labels: The Graveyard Book, zoom
Live at Santa Monica
So last night's reading -- the first half of Chapter Seven -- is up at Chapter 7, Part 1 is up at
http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=7. My favourite moment was the very end: applause is one thing, but the noise the audience made to indicate that they would rather that I hadn't stopped half-way through was amazing.
(The Interlude between chapters five and six has now been separated out from the end of Chapter Five as well, and is available at:
http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=15 and embeddable from
http://blip.tv/file/1332292.)
Annaliza Savage from WIRED interviewed me about The Graveyard Book while I was at Kepler's. Her interview is up at http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/10/neil-gaiman-giv.html
And now I run for a car to a plane, promising myself I will write an interesting blog entry about everyone I saw last night and everything I did yesterday while I'm in the air. But probably I'll just sleep.
http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=7. My favourite moment was the very end: applause is one thing, but the noise the audience made to indicate that they would rather that I hadn't stopped half-way through was amazing.
(The Interlude between chapters five and six has now been separated out from the end of Chapter Five as well, and is available at:
http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=15 and embeddable from
http://blip.tv/file/1332292.)
Annaliza Savage from WIRED interviewed me about The Graveyard Book while I was at Kepler's. Her interview is up at http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/10/neil-gaiman-giv.html
And now I run for a car to a plane, promising myself I will write an interesting blog entry about everyone I saw last night and everything I did yesterday while I'm in the air. But probably I'll just sleep.
Labels: free book but this time in installments and filmed, Graveyard Book tour, what you do in planes when you go on tour
Chapter Six in San Francisco yesterday...
Last night's reading is up at http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=6 .
It's Chapter Six, and was really fun to read.
It's Chapter Six, and was really fun to read.
shipbuilding
Remember when Euan Kerr came out to interview me and help with the beehives?
The interview is now up. There's an embeddable player that I'm going to try and embed here...
-- and you can read the article, find the player and see some photos of me in a bee-suit (and a really lovely bee photo) at
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/gaiman/
So the breakfast this morning in Oakland, talking to retailers, was a delight -- I wished afterwards it had been taped or filmed -- and the Booksmith Event was really fun and fine. Great acoustics and a lovely venue. (Kepler's had a giant white spider come down from the rafters to listen, during the Q&A, though.)
Hi Neil, I just got home from the reading in San Francisco this evening (afternoon?). I was the Jack who asked why you have a vendetta against people named Jack. I was being snide, but thanks for answering anyways, and I'm glad it got a laugh.
I realized during the Q&A that I had another, perhaps more substantive question to ask you, and even though I was tempted to jump up in my seat and blurt it out, I figured it would be more gentlemanly to wait and send it to you via e-mail, so here goes:
I remember you saying on your blog that there was an American version and a British version of The Graveyard Book. I imagine that it's much like the Harry Potter books, with certain Britishisms and cultural indicators switched around to be easier to understand for American audiences. Or is it the other way around? I guess the question is, did you write a "British" version of the book and make it "American," or vice versa? Are there dramatic differences between them? Is one closer to your own heart?
Thanks,
Jack Baur
Neither, really. I wrote a book, and said in the manuscript when I wanted words changed for the different sides of the Atlantic (for example: crib and cot, nappy and diaper) and when I wanted them the same (which was most of the time). There's a sentence about the naming of ghouls in the UK version and not in the US version (because the US editor thought it was obvious, and the UK editor didn't).
...
Lots of messages from people telling me they're having difficulty finding copies of The Graveyard Book, even in shops that have it for sale -- apparently some Barnes and Nobles and Borders (and some other bookshops) haven't put it on the New Arrivals shelves but have just shelved a few copies in the children's area, or somewhere else (eg."An FYI on the new book's availability in the chain stores. I checked at the Borders in downtown Scottsdale and they couldn't even find the four copies they supposedly had in stock. According to their info, The Graveyard Book is being shelved in the Mystery/Suspense Independent Reader section.") If any Borders or Barnes and Noble people can shed any light on this, I'd love to know more.
...
I came across this and thought you might be interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRYXNk-qZAs
erick
I am. Cannot wait to see it.
What is stopmotion animation? I'm promoting Coraline to my teacher friends and have no idea what this is. I'm sure it's related to animation but what is it?
Bests,
Patricia
It's animation where you make something and then move it a little between exposures to create the illusion of movement. There's an article about Coraline at http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=26423 which may explain more. (And an interview with Henry Selick here.)
Liebe Neil,
I was looking around online and saw these two prints on a website from the wonderful Todd Klein, and was just going to ask about them....
http://kleinletters.com/BuyStuffTop.html
Are these posters actually signed by you and Alan, and are they both original prints? It almost seems like $20 for each is too good to be true.
They're originals and signed by us, yes. According to this excellent interview with Todd, he has about 100 of the Alan print left, and about 200 of mine...
......
This made me happy, and changed my mind about something...
Mr. Gaiman
I am writing you as a fan, something I must admit I rarely ever do as it feels a bit to me like I'm bothering you.
I do however feel the need to write you, to thank you for two things, the first is for your story telling. Not simply your writing of books, but your reading them as well. I love listening to a well told story, and you have an ability to keep my normally wandering mind enthralled for hours.
The second reason I write is because I watched Stardust the other night, and in the extras packaged with the DVD you spoke about feeling a bit guilty because something that was a simple idea in your head became the work of many many craftsmen.
Well sir, I write you to tell you, that you have absolutely no reason to feel even a slight hint of guilt. I am a carpenter, and while I have never had a chance to work on a movie based on one your books, I have worked others. I have built storefronts, carriages, castles, and Japanese bridges. I have made world war two bunkers, and the offices and layers every kind of hero, villain, or overworked office drone imaginable. And let me tell you, I would never want to do anything else.
If you weren't around to dream up flying pirate ships, people like me would be stuck building conservative and proper things, like little rectangles to hold books. Not that there is anything wrong with rectangles to hold books, but like every man who has ever been a 7 year old boy, I'd rather be building a flying pirate ship.
On behalf of carpenters everywhere you keep thinking 'em up, and we'll keep trying to build them.
..........
And on Monday I'm reading the first half of Chapter Seven in Los Angeles -- actually in Santa Monica. Details at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/10/neil-gaiman-rea.html
The interview is now up. There's an embeddable player that I'm going to try and embed here...
-- and you can read the article, find the player and see some photos of me in a bee-suit (and a really lovely bee photo) at
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/gaiman/
So the breakfast this morning in Oakland, talking to retailers, was a delight -- I wished afterwards it had been taped or filmed -- and the Booksmith Event was really fun and fine. Great acoustics and a lovely venue. (Kepler's had a giant white spider come down from the rafters to listen, during the Q&A, though.)
Hi Neil, I just got home from the reading in San Francisco this evening (afternoon?). I was the Jack who asked why you have a vendetta against people named Jack. I was being snide, but thanks for answering anyways, and I'm glad it got a laugh.
I realized during the Q&A that I had another, perhaps more substantive question to ask you, and even though I was tempted to jump up in my seat and blurt it out, I figured it would be more gentlemanly to wait and send it to you via e-mail, so here goes:
I remember you saying on your blog that there was an American version and a British version of The Graveyard Book. I imagine that it's much like the Harry Potter books, with certain Britishisms and cultural indicators switched around to be easier to understand for American audiences. Or is it the other way around? I guess the question is, did you write a "British" version of the book and make it "American," or vice versa? Are there dramatic differences between them? Is one closer to your own heart?
Thanks,
Jack Baur
Neither, really. I wrote a book, and said in the manuscript when I wanted words changed for the different sides of the Atlantic (for example: crib and cot, nappy and diaper) and when I wanted them the same (which was most of the time). There's a sentence about the naming of ghouls in the UK version and not in the US version (because the US editor thought it was obvious, and the UK editor didn't).
...
Lots of messages from people telling me they're having difficulty finding copies of The Graveyard Book, even in shops that have it for sale -- apparently some Barnes and Nobles and Borders (and some other bookshops) haven't put it on the New Arrivals shelves but have just shelved a few copies in the children's area, or somewhere else (eg."An FYI on the new book's availability in the chain stores. I checked at the Borders in downtown Scottsdale and they couldn't even find the four copies they supposedly had in stock. According to their info, The Graveyard Book is being shelved in the Mystery/Suspense Independent Reader section.") If any Borders or Barnes and Noble people can shed any light on this, I'd love to know more.
...
I came across this and thought you might be interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRYXNk-qZAs
erick
I am. Cannot wait to see it.
What is stopmotion animation? I'm promoting Coraline to my teacher friends and have no idea what this is. I'm sure it's related to animation but what is it?
Bests,
Patricia
It's animation where you make something and then move it a little between exposures to create the illusion of movement. There's an article about Coraline at http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=26423 which may explain more. (And an interview with Henry Selick here.)
Liebe Neil,
I was looking around online and saw these two prints on a website from the wonderful Todd Klein, and was just going to ask about them....
http://kleinletters.com/BuyStuffTop.html
Are these posters actually signed by you and Alan, and are they both original prints? It almost seems like $20 for each is too good to be true.
They're originals and signed by us, yes. According to this excellent interview with Todd, he has about 100 of the Alan print left, and about 200 of mine...
......
This made me happy, and changed my mind about something...
Mr. Gaiman
I am writing you as a fan, something I must admit I rarely ever do as it feels a bit to me like I'm bothering you.
I do however feel the need to write you, to thank you for two things, the first is for your story telling. Not simply your writing of books, but your reading them as well. I love listening to a well told story, and you have an ability to keep my normally wandering mind enthralled for hours.
The second reason I write is because I watched Stardust the other night, and in the extras packaged with the DVD you spoke about feeling a bit guilty because something that was a simple idea in your head became the work of many many craftsmen.
Well sir, I write you to tell you, that you have absolutely no reason to feel even a slight hint of guilt. I am a carpenter, and while I have never had a chance to work on a movie based on one your books, I have worked others. I have built storefronts, carriages, castles, and Japanese bridges. I have made world war two bunkers, and the offices and layers every kind of hero, villain, or overworked office drone imaginable. And let me tell you, I would never want to do anything else.
If you weren't around to dream up flying pirate ships, people like me would be stuck building conservative and proper things, like little rectangles to hold books. Not that there is anything wrong with rectangles to hold books, but like every man who has ever been a 7 year old boy, I'd rather be building a flying pirate ship.
On behalf of carpenters everywhere you keep thinking 'em up, and we'll keep trying to build them.
..........
And on Monday I'm reading the first half of Chapter Seven in Los Angeles -- actually in Santa Monica. Details at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/10/neil-gaiman-rea.html
Labels: completely abandons the idea of writing lots of labels and goes to bed instead, Graveyard Book tour
talking crow
Kepler's did a lovely job yesterday -- about 600 people, or more at the reading, on a stage with a stuffed crow on it, along with gravestones and an armchair. Some problems with the sound at the start of the reading (which for the most part you can't hear, because the readings are being separately recorded with a wireless microphone), and I discovered I wasn't really comfortable reading in a chair, or at least, it took me much longer to get comfortable. Right now this is the whole of Chapter Five, and the Interlude that follows it, but I think we may break out the interlude as its own chapter...
http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=5 is last night's reading.
I got an almost full night's sleep last night, which is a wonderful thing at this point in the tour, and the first for many days. Although in about a minute Elyse from Harper Collins will knock on my hotel room door and tell me it's time for me to go down to the independent book retailer breakfast at which I am going to be talking.
People shouldn't talk at breakfast. Well, not apart from "Pass the marmalade", anyway.
http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=5 is last night's reading.
I got an almost full night's sleep last night, which is a wonderful thing at this point in the tour, and the first for many days. Although in about a minute Elyse from Harper Collins will knock on my hotel room door and tell me it's time for me to go down to the independent book retailer breakfast at which I am going to be talking.
People shouldn't talk at breakfast. Well, not apart from "Pass the marmalade", anyway.
Labels: breakfastry, free book but this time in installments and filmed
if this is saturday I must be in the bay area
I'm posting this in the back of Booksmith's on the Haight, to tell you that the Booksmith event tomorrow is SOLD OUT. http://www.booksmith.com/gaiman.html. If you were hoping to go, but you don't have tickets, there aren't any more. Come to the Kepler's event tonight (saturday) instead: http://paclteens.blogspot.com/2008/08/neil-gaiman-is-coming-to-palo-alto.html for details. (It's also a free event and seats 950 people.)
So it's Palo Alto Saturday evening, San Francisco on Sunday afternoon, Santa Monica on Monday evening, Boulder on Tuesday and then Minneapolis on Wednesday. So far all of the events have been full, but none of them had got to the turning people away point (last night in Seattle we had about 850 people in a church that held 900).
Seattle was great. For the first time on the tour I felt like everything was really working, even though the chapter was the longest of all of them. You can watch it at http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=4
A very late, very short, dinner with Neal Stephenson, who had just finished his tour for Anathem.
Michael Swanwick is a brilliant writer of fiction and of non-fiction, and he talks about the event a few nights ago in Philadelphia at: http://floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2008/10/neil-blows-through.html (with a great Kyle Cassidy photo of me, Michael and famed editor Gardner Dozois).
And here's the embedded reading of Chapter Four, "The Witch's Headstone"...
So it's Palo Alto Saturday evening, San Francisco on Sunday afternoon, Santa Monica on Monday evening, Boulder on Tuesday and then Minneapolis on Wednesday. So far all of the events have been full, but none of them had got to the turning people away point (last night in Seattle we had about 850 people in a church that held 900).
Seattle was great. For the first time on the tour I felt like everything was really working, even though the chapter was the longest of all of them. You can watch it at http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=4
A very late, very short, dinner with Neal Stephenson, who had just finished his tour for Anathem.
Michael Swanwick is a brilliant writer of fiction and of non-fiction, and he talks about the event a few nights ago in Philadelphia at: http://floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2008/10/neil-blows-through.html (with a great Kyle Cassidy photo of me, Michael and famed editor Gardner Dozois).
And here's the embedded reading of Chapter Four, "The Witch's Headstone"...
Labels: free book but this time in installments and filmed, Graveyard Book tour
In Seattle
Lots of complaints from people that they simply can't find The Graveyard Book in their local bookshops, whether small or big chain shops... not sure what to say, other than the book should be on sale as of last Wednesday, and it should be out there. Try to find it near you. If you can't find it, well, Amazon has just cut the price even more.
I did an interview with MTV the other day, bits of which will surface over the next few weeks. The first is me talking about Steampunk, because they asked: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/10/02/master-storyteller-neil-gaiman-talks-steampunk-and-neverwhere-influence/
And people have also been writing in to ask me to tell them more about http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/exhibition/150, but honestly I don't really know any more about it than the info on the web site.
I did an interview with MTV the other day, bits of which will surface over the next few weeks. The first is me talking about Steampunk, because they asked: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/10/02/master-storyteller-neil-gaiman-talks-steampunk-and-neverwhere-influence/
And people have also been writing in to ask me to tell them more about http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/exhibition/150, but honestly I don't really know any more about it than the info on the web site.
Labels: MTV, sorry about this, steampunk keyboards
The Tivoli and the Hounds of God
Chicago was last night -- it was fantastic. What a wonderful place the Tivoli is. The reading is already up at http://mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=3 and at http://graveyardtour.blip.tv/#1324430.
Hello Neil,
I've been having trouble with the mouse circus video readings. They seem to stop about 4/5 the way through and won't play the last bit.
The one of chapter 2 you embedded in the journal worked fine.
I thought maybe I wasn't the only one having these problems and maybe some bright cookie out there had a fix for it.
I was using firefox (most recent update) on a pentium 4 machine with windows XP. (beggars can't be choosers, but at least it's not Vista).
I hope there's some help for this. I'm really enjoying watching you read. It's a great idea to post it for all who can't be there.
Thanks so much! Naomi.
The problem was at our end: mousecircus.com just wasn't set up for the astonishing numbers of people we've been getting to watch the videos. Harpers have been mirroring and spreading them about a bit (the embedded ones are from different servers and systems), and I got an email this morning to say they've now moved the mousecircus videos to dedicated video servers, so wherever they are, they should play without problems. (Let me know if problems continue.)
Hi Neil,
I like to sew things and whatnot and find that listening to audio of people reading a story or talking while I'm making something is a nice distraction. I started with the chapters of Graveyard Book that are up, and also listened to some of the Edgar Allan Poe read by Basil Rathbone (I love his old villain roles). Do you have any other favorite audio collections you'd recommend?
Well, there's the Gielgud-Richardson Sherlock Holmes series, and I love classic radio comedy, both English (Hancock's Half Hour, Round the Horne) and American (most of all The Jack Benny Show from around 1941 on, but also things like Burns and Allen). Let me point you at http://www.otr.net/, the Old Time Radio website, where you can listen to amazing amount of radio for free, or http://www.otrradio.com where you can pay a pretty nominal fee and buy CDs filled with MP3s.
More from Seattle tonight.
Hello Neil,
I've been having trouble with the mouse circus video readings. They seem to stop about 4/5 the way through and won't play the last bit.
The one of chapter 2 you embedded in the journal worked fine.
I thought maybe I wasn't the only one having these problems and maybe some bright cookie out there had a fix for it.
I was using firefox (most recent update) on a pentium 4 machine with windows XP. (beggars can't be choosers, but at least it's not Vista).
I hope there's some help for this. I'm really enjoying watching you read. It's a great idea to post it for all who can't be there.
Thanks so much! Naomi.
The problem was at our end: mousecircus.com just wasn't set up for the astonishing numbers of people we've been getting to watch the videos. Harpers have been mirroring and spreading them about a bit (the embedded ones are from different servers and systems), and I got an email this morning to say they've now moved the mousecircus videos to dedicated video servers, so wherever they are, they should play without problems. (Let me know if problems continue.)
Hi Neil,
I like to sew things and whatnot and find that listening to audio of people reading a story or talking while I'm making something is a nice distraction. I started with the chapters of Graveyard Book that are up, and also listened to some of the Edgar Allan Poe read by Basil Rathbone (I love his old villain roles). Do you have any other favorite audio collections you'd recommend?
Well, there's the Gielgud-Richardson Sherlock Holmes series, and I love classic radio comedy, both English (Hancock's Half Hour, Round the Horne) and American (most of all The Jack Benny Show from around 1941 on, but also things like Burns and Allen). Let me point you at http://www.otr.net/, the Old Time Radio website, where you can listen to amazing amount of radio for free, or http://www.otrradio.com where you can pay a pretty nominal fee and buy CDs filled with MP3s.
More from Seattle tonight.
Labels: free book but this time in installments and filmed, radio
Why Stephin Merritt wants to destroy the world...
It's scary. Last night's video is up before I had a chance to blog about the event it was filmed at (I slept on the plane this morning), so you can watch me reading Chapter Two at:
http://mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=2
And this is it embedded (I hope):
...
i saw you yesterday in nyc reading ur first chapter from your new book. no i'm not the girl you hugged, i watched you from above and it was brilliantly done. i haven't read all your stories, yet but i do hope you keep writing as its inspiring for us. Come back to new york, but don't go to the beauty bar. i thought you to be too cool for such a pretentious place, cosmo and a pedicure? lol...have fun on the tour!
Is that what the Beauty Bar is? I thought it was cool, because Stephin Merritt was DJing there, and I had a chance to talk to him about his Coraline Musical and other stuff, and any chance to talk to Stephin is a cool thing, and any place you can talk to Stephin is, by definition, a cool place.
The Magnetic Fields is, simply, my favourite band, witty and intelligent and wise, and The Gothic Archies is wonderful too, and so are the Future Bible Heroes and the Sixths (all of these are Stephin Merrit driven or co-driven musical entities). There's a marvellous interview with Stephin (about the new Magnetic Fields album, and the Coraline musical, and whether the French should send him some of the shoes they have named after him) I just noticed at http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2008/10/interview_magne.php , and I shall quote from the ending:
(If you're in the US and you want to see the Magnetic Fields, which, honestly, you should, check out http://houseoftomorrow.com/calendar.php for their October tour.)
There is a wonderful interview with and reading from Eddie Campbell up at http://www.bookslut.com/features/2008_09_013473.php And if I'm going to get lunch I'm going to have to stop writing this now and do another post later about what happened in Philadelphia and seeing Gardner Dozois and Michael Swanwick and Kyle Cassidy and suchlike luminaries...
food. food good. right.
http://mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=2
And this is it embedded (I hope):
...
i saw you yesterday in nyc reading ur first chapter from your new book. no i'm not the girl you hugged, i watched you from above and it was brilliantly done. i haven't read all your stories, yet but i do hope you keep writing as its inspiring for us. Come back to new york, but don't go to the beauty bar. i thought you to be too cool for such a pretentious place, cosmo and a pedicure? lol...have fun on the tour!
Is that what the Beauty Bar is? I thought it was cool, because Stephin Merritt was DJing there, and I had a chance to talk to him about his Coraline Musical and other stuff, and any chance to talk to Stephin is a cool thing, and any place you can talk to Stephin is, by definition, a cool place.
The Magnetic Fields is, simply, my favourite band, witty and intelligent and wise, and The Gothic Archies is wonderful too, and so are the Future Bible Heroes and the Sixths (all of these are Stephin Merrit driven or co-driven musical entities). There's a marvellous interview with Stephin (about the new Magnetic Fields album, and the Coraline musical, and whether the French should send him some of the shoes they have named after him) I just noticed at http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2008/10/interview_magne.php , and I shall quote from the ending:
Have you seen the line of footwear supposedly inspired by you?
I've seen it online. I haven't actually obtained it in person. Because...Oh these French people, they haven't sent me anything! If I named an album after their shoe line, I would send them the album.
They haven't sent you a single pair of shoes?
They haven't sent me a single shoelace.
That's despicable.
Yeah. You know, I'm supposed to be honored that they named some shoes—a whole line of shoes—after me, but they don't send me anything? Nuke Europe!
That seems like a great place to stop. Thank you for talking to me...
Sure.
...Unless you care to clarify that latter comment?
Smash the European Union.
Great. Thank you Stephin.
I want my shoes. Destroy the world. Goodbye.
(If you're in the US and you want to see the Magnetic Fields, which, honestly, you should, check out http://houseoftomorrow.com/calendar.php for their October tour.)
There is a wonderful interview with and reading from Eddie Campbell up at http://www.bookslut.com/features/2008_09_013473.php And if I'm going to get lunch I'm going to have to stop writing this now and do another post later about what happened in Philadelphia and seeing Gardner Dozois and Michael Swanwick and Kyle Cassidy and suchlike luminaries...
food. food good. right.
Labels: free book but this time in installments and filmed, Graveyard Book tour, Magnetic Fields, shoes????, Stephin Merritt