posted by Neil
The hardest part of having a wife on a rock tour is when something like today happens. Amanda had a gig tonight in Christchurch, with our friend Jason Webley, who was staying with our friend Hera.I love Christchurch. Amanda and I stayed there a year ago: we borrowed Hera's parents' house (they had a copper bathtub in the bedroom, unconnected to anything, which puzzled me a great deal), and went for long walks along the beach, and talked and talked and talked.
And then, suddenly, a couple of hours ago, everything changed. An earthquake in Christchurch -- less powerful, but more damaging, than the one last September. Amanda's plane, about to take off, was grounded in Napier as they closed Christchurch airport. Jason and Hera were unharmed per Hera's twitter feed. But per http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10707997 there have been ten aftershocks so far, and entries like the following are really worrying...
Meanwhile, Amanda is having to figure out how to get to Auckland for tomorrow's gig. And many people in Christchurch have had their lives and world shattered.
You can make donations to the New Zealand Red Cross at http://www.redcross.org.nz/donate
...
Michael Zulli gave me, as a 50th birthday present, a copy of his book THE FRACTURE OF THE UNIVERSAL BOY. It was a special limited edition he had had printed up, and was really beautiful, moving, strange and harrowing.
Here are a couple of panels. Michael is trying to raise the money on Kickstarter to self-publish it. There's a write up about the book, and many more pages, (and the fact that Michael will even draw Batman for people who support him with $2,000 or above) at http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/02/19/michael-zulli-will-even-draw-batman-to-fund-new-graphic-novel-the-fracture-of-the-universal-boy/.
He's already raised over $12,000 of the $17,000 he needs. You can support it (and pre-order a copy of the book for yourself into the bargain) at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1151517311/michael-zulli-the-fracture-of-the-universal-boy.
...
Dear Neil,
I thought I would submit a favorite blog moment. It's not my absolute favorite but it rather sticks out in my mind as something that made me smile.
I'm thinking it was a few years ago that you were at some lovely restaurant whilst on tour and you ordered some soup that came to the table with a dollop of cream artfully swirled into the concoction. You took a picture of it and posted it on the blog because the artful display of cream-on-soup looked just like a sperm.
I used to k
And then, suddenly, a couple of hours ago, everything changed. An earthquake in Christchurch -- less powerful, but more damaging, than the one last September. Amanda's plane, about to take off, was grounded in Napier as they closed Christchurch airport. Jason and Hera were unharmed per Hera's twitter feed. But per http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10707997 there have been ten aftershocks so far, and entries like the following are really worrying...
2.51pm
Police say multiple fatalities have been reported at several locations in Christchurch CBD. They say two buses were crushed by falling buildings.
3.14pm
The Provincial Chambers building is reported to have collapsed, with people trapped inside.
Meanwhile, Amanda is having to figure out how to get to Auckland for tomorrow's gig. And many people in Christchurch have had their lives and world shattered.
You can make donations to the New Zealand Red Cross at http://www.redcross.org.nz/donate
...
Michael Zulli gave me, as a 50th birthday present, a copy of his book THE FRACTURE OF THE UNIVERSAL BOY. It was a special limited edition he had had printed up, and was really beautiful, moving, strange and harrowing.
Here are a couple of panels. Michael is trying to raise the money on Kickstarter to self-publish it. There's a write up about the book, and many more pages, (and the fact that Michael will even draw Batman for people who support him with $2,000 or above) at http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/02/19/michael-zulli-will-even-draw-batman-to-fund-new-graphic-novel-the-fracture-of-the-universal-boy/.
He's already raised over $12,000 of the $17,000 he needs. You can support it (and pre-order a copy of the book for yourself into the bargain) at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1151517311/michael-zulli-the-fracture-of-the-universal-boy.
...
Dear Neil,
I thought I would submit a favorite blog moment. It's not my absolute favorite but it rather sticks out in my mind as something that made me smile.
I'm thinking it was a few years ago that you were at some lovely restaurant whilst on tour and you ordered some soup that came to the table with a dollop of cream artfully swirled into the concoction. You took a picture of it and posted it on the blog because the artful display of cream-on-soup looked just like a sperm.
I used to k
0 Comments on In Which I am worried by an Earthquake, and Memories of a Reproductive meal in Warsaw as of 2/21/2011 9:35:00 PM
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By: Neil Gaiman,
on 1/5/2010
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: more snow, dog photograph, Jason Webley, Evelyn Evelyn, Add a tag
posted by Neil
I'm home.This is the weather the dog likes: crisp, cold, weather that puts him in mind of wolfish ancestors hunting on the steppes.
Me, I put on long underwear and dozens of layers over that, and top it off with the sheepskin Uigur hat I haggled for in Xinjiang, and trudge in the snow behind him. It's frozen on top, so you crunch and rock and hunt for ruts that already exist. While Cabal is happy in a world filled with sharp smells and frozen rivers.
***
Many years ago I discovered (via the Fabulist) Jason Webley. I posted this a link to this song, Eleven Saints, a song Jason Webley wrote and performed with Jay Thompson...
Jason was pleased, and wrote to me to say thanks, and then, a couple of years ago, introduced me in email to his friend Amanda Palmer, with whom he was working on a project, as they worked to bring the music of two conjoined twin sisters they had discovered on the internet to the world. There were two songs out on the internet by the mysterious pair for a long time, but a new song, " A Campaign of Shock and Awe", crept out today: http://www.myspace.com/evelynevelyn. Highly recommended, and not just because of the, y'know, family connections.
...
Right. I do not want to be disturbed tonight. Maddy and I will be beginning our New Year's catch-up by watching the first part of Doctor Who 'The End of Time'.
Labels: Evelyn Evelyn, more snow,
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By: Neil Gaiman,
on 4/2/2009
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Fourth Street, Watchmen, Tori Amos, teaching me, Jason Webley, Add a tag
posted by Neil
About a decade ago we had beavers in the creek (which, pronounced crick, is what they call something bigger than a stream and smaller than a full-sized river, where I am). And then the flood came, and the beavers, and their dam, were washed away.I missed them. I even sort-of missed having to go down with a chainsaw to fix the trees they had dropped in the wrong places. (For nature's engineers, they were astonishingly rubbish about taking down trees in the places they needed them to be.)
So today, walking with the dog, I was thrilled to discover that they're back.
Down by the bridge the beavers have built a dam by an old telegraph pole (that used to be a bridge before the flood that washed away the last beavers washed away the bridge too).
Here's a very beaver-chewed and bark-stripped lump of wood...
And a dog who cannot work out why I stopped a perfectly good walk to take photographs of boring stuff.
...My plans this Saturday Night are very simple: I am going to see Jason Webley, who I discovered in 2006 when I saw the video for Eleven Saints on the Fabulist, and linked to it here. Jason then sent me lots of music (including this song), I loved it, we met briefly in London, met again on stage at an Amanda Palmer show in Camden... and in all that time I have spectacularly failed to ever be home when he played in Minneapolis.
(Me on the left. Jason Webley with the guitar. Onstage with Miss Amanda at Koko's in Camden Town.)
And -- finally -- I'm home when Jason is playing here. So I will be there. http://www.bedlamtheatre.org/display.php?event=325
and Jason is all over the place this year. To see if he's coming to your town,http://www.jasonwebley.com/events.html
Neil,
I've come to realize that you haven't made mention of the Watchmen movie here or on Twitter. I know you and Alan Moore are chums and was wondering what you thought of the movie? Have you had a chance to see it?
Regards,
Shannon
Never saw it. Kept waiting for someone whose opinion I respected or at least who has the same tastes that I do to tell me "It's amazing, you have to see it, you'll love it!" but instead I kept hearing, "Well... it's got some good bits, the opening title thing, you'll like that, and actually, the end is pretty good, you don't miss the squid... and... well, the plot's a bit all over the place and... I mean, they really pay a lot of attention to recreating scenes from the comic, sometimes a bit pointlessly and...you know they're all superheroes now, not just Dr Manhattan, I mean they can all do super stuff... and, well, it's definitely got some good bits..." over and over. I'll probably catch it on HBO sooner or later. Maybe even be pleasantly surprised.
Hi, Neil,
I wasn't sure if you had seen this or not:
http://www.contrariwise.org/2009/04/02/theme-week-neil-gaiman-day-1/
Looks like you're a popular tattoo subject!
I love the contrariwise site -- there's something so cool about literary tattoos (except, as I've said, when they're misspelled). And am fascinated to see what this week brings.
Dear Neil,
A lot of schools are pushing for young adult literature, and especially graphic novels, to have a spot in the regular curriculum. As a writer of both yourself, can you see some of your own work being taught in a classroom setting? Do you see the validity for young adult lit as a gateway into more canonical literature, or more for an entertainment perspective?
I am curious as I enter into the teaching profession myself and would like to use such works in my English classes, but also understand that sometimes a book can just be for fun. Thanks!
Allison
Honestly, I'm the last person you should ask. I've never been convinced that there's any meaningful division between high culture and pop culture - I think there's good stuff out there, and there's stuff that's not much good, and that Sturgeon's Law applies to high culture and popular culture: 90% of it will be crap, which means that 10% of it will be amazing.
I'm always pleased and slightly caught off-guard when people tell me they're teaching my stuff, but am no longer surprised.
I really enjoyed this article by Tim Martin in the Telegraph about How Comics Became Part of the Literary Establishment (made, for me, slightly more amusing, because the person who prompted the "lady of the evening" quote was actually a long-retired Telegraph literary editor).
Tori's new song "Welcome to England" is up with glorious video at Pink Is The New Blog: http://www.pinkisthenewblog.com/2009/04/first-look-tori-amos-welcome-to-england/
...
And on the subject of things I want to go to, there will be a Fourth Street Fantasy convention in Minneapolis this year, in June. It'll be a convention without a Guest of Honour, which just fine for a convention that is, after all, all about the conversations. At previous 4th Streets I've been to, panel discussions continue in hallways and conversations in hallways spill over to become panel discussions.
I've said I'm not going to any conventions as a guest this year, apart from Worldcon; but if I turn up at 4th Street, I'd not be a guest, I'd just be part of the conversation....
...
...
Neil,
I've come to realize that you haven't made mention of the Watchmen movie here or on Twitter. I know you and Alan Moore are chums and was wondering what you thought of the movie? Have you had a chance to see it?
Regards,
Shannon
Never saw it. Kept waiting for someone whose opinion I respected or at least who has the same tastes that I do to tell me "It's amazing, you have to see it, you'll love it!" but instead I kept hearing, "Well... it's got some good bits, the opening title thing, you'll like that, and actually, the end is pretty good, you don't miss the squid... and... well, the plot's a bit all over the place and... I mean, they really pay a lot of attention to recreating scenes from the comic, sometimes a bit pointlessly and...you know they're all superheroes now, not just Dr Manhattan, I mean they can all do super stuff... and, well, it's definitely got some good bits..." over and over. I'll probably catch it on HBO sooner or later. Maybe even be pleasantly surprised.
Hi, Neil,
I wasn't sure if you had seen this or not:
http://www.contrariwise.org/2009/04/02/theme-week-neil-gaiman-day-1/
Looks like you're a popular tattoo subject!
I love the contrariwise site -- there's something so cool about literary tattoos (except, as I've said, when they're misspelled). And am fascinated to see what this week brings.
Dear Neil,
A lot of schools are pushing for young adult literature, and especially graphic novels, to have a spot in the regular curriculum. As a writer of both yourself, can you see some of your own work being taught in a classroom setting? Do you see the validity for young adult lit as a gateway into more canonical literature, or more for an entertainment perspective?
I am curious as I enter into the teaching profession myself and would like to use such works in my English classes, but also understand that sometimes a book can just be for fun. Thanks!
Allison
Honestly, I'm the last person you should ask. I've never been convinced that there's any meaningful division between high culture and pop culture - I think there's good stuff out there, and there's stuff that's not much good, and that Sturgeon's Law applies to high culture and popular culture: 90% of it will be crap, which means that 10% of it will be amazing.
I'm always pleased and slightly caught off-guard when people tell me they're teaching my stuff, but am no longer surprised.
(Nor is Scott McCloud.)
In the early years of this blog, someone asked if there were any colleges that taught any of my books as part of the curriculum, and we got about 60 replies I think. It's probably a bit more than that now.
And as long as it doesn't ruin things for people that they might have otherwise enjoyed, it doesn't worry me at all. (I remember reading Matthew Cheney's piece on teaching "Bitter Grounds" with enormous pleasure, though.)
...
In the early years of this blog, someone asked if there were any colleges that taught any of my books as part of the curriculum, and we got about 60 replies I think. It's probably a bit more than that now.
And as long as it doesn't ruin things for people that they might have otherwise enjoyed, it doesn't worry me at all. (I remember reading Matthew Cheney's piece on teaching "Bitter Grounds" with enormous pleasure, though.)
...
I really enjoyed this article by Tim Martin in the Telegraph about How Comics Became Part of the Literary Establishment (made, for me, slightly more amusing, because the person who prompted the "lady of the evening" quote was actually a long-retired Telegraph literary editor).
Tori's new song "Welcome to England" is up with glorious video at Pink Is The New Blog: http://www.pinkisthenewblog.com/2009/04/first-look-tori-amos-welcome-to-england/
The alchemy of collaboration makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts, wildly different from either part, and scorchingly beautiful. To read this book takes but a few minutes, but if you can't meditate, this book offers peace. It offers a bit of joy and redemption and is likely to make you forget for a few minutes the details that might draw you down. When you return, you'll feel refreshed. You'll feel rewarded. There's not a lot I need to say about this book. It will make a fine gift for any young girl you know, for any woman or family you know or indeed, for yourself. Turn away from the world, just for a moment of solace. When you look back, the world will look better...
0 Comments on Apparently if you just write BEAVER! people's minds head straight for the gutter as of 4/6/2009 1:11:00 AM
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