http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/07/then-tomorrow-was-another-day.html

Yesterday I did a panel with Richard Price, and then I signed for (according to the newspapers)about six hundred people for five and a half hours. Normally I try very hard to be as nice to the people who've been waiting for hours as I was to the people at the beginning, but I think I may have been ordering the people at the back of the line around a bit just to make sure I finished before the Tom Stoppard talk started at seven. (I finished with 25 minutes to spare.)

The crowd was lovely, and all amazingly good-humoured given how long they were standing around.

Anyway. Five and half hours, which is about five hours and ten minutes longer than anyone else here, which meant that I was suddenly peered at suspiciously, as if revealed as some kind of odd alien being, by other writers with whom only that morning I was sharing jokes and food. I think they have now forgiven me.

[Edit to add, that was a joke, and the other authors were remarkably nice about it all. Tom Stoppard, who stopped in during the signing, thought it hilarious.]

After the Stoppard panel, which was marvellous, like a master class, (I'm typing this on the computer in the hotel lobby, and was just tapped on the shoulder by a Newspaper photographer who wanted me to come and pose for some shots, and seemed a bit baffled when I pointed out that I was working) -- one of my favourite moments was when asked how he would direct a Hamlet, and he took the (odd) question and talked about what he wants from actors, "Clarity of utterance." Then I went to dinner with one of my Brazilian publishers. I hadn't really eaten since breakfast over twelve hours earlier, and I discovered that when you are given a very large passionfruit caipirinha after a five and a half hour signing and on an empty stomach, you know it's working because your feet go numb. Possibly the feet simply went away. Luckily, my feet returned before I had to walk back to the hotel, but it was extremely odd.

Today it's the end of FLIP and the Desert Island Books panel, and I will read a bit from James Thurber's The Thirteen Clocks.

There's a health food store I stopped in with Priya a few weeks ago, and I was thirsty. I went to their drink section and they had peach juice and apple juice and OH WHAT'S THIS? LEMON JUICE. I love citrus!

Anyway long story short it was actually pure lemon juice and by the time I read the label on my sour sour refreshment, I had drunk about half of it. According to the label, that was the equivalent of 40 lemons! I accidentally drank 40 lemons.

It was really sour you guys and yet I have no regrets

There are two good things about the fourth of July. One: no work. Two: the patriotic themed cookies Chris bought at Econofoods. Everything else is lame. My body hates me (but my cholesterol is down 19 points so I am not going to die at 35 and I no longer have the cholesterol of a 50 year old man...both of those lovely tidbits are things my doctor here told me, thanks my doctor here) and I am regretting going to bed at 8 PM because now I've been awake for three hours reading the carleton parents email list and watching High Fidelity which never really seemed to have a point. I kind of wish it were time for my East Coast trip, or Japan, or something, because nowhere in the midwest is particularly interesting right now.

Anyone in Northfield want to go to the Chinese buffet this weekend? I'm craving shitty Chinese food and it seems nobody in my house shares that sentiment, and since I never leave my house except to go to work or buy groceries or sometimes see a movie it is hard to find someone, and I don't really have a problem eating at restaurants alone except there's something really depressing about doing so at a buffet, you know?

This isn't coherent. Maybe a nap could happen now.

Also this. I can't decide if I hate John Cage or think he's great. I might hate him.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/07/with-still-milion-things-to-say.html

Today the Arcadian idyll turned into something an awful lot more like work. TV interviews all morning, press conference all afternoon. Oh well.

Neil,I'm in Campinas-Brasil, and it's a 5-hours-car trip to Paraty. If I get there, most likely on Saturday, where can I find you since I don't have a ticket to Flip? I really, REALLY would love to have you sign one of books. I, like many in this sunny country am a major fan of yours. I REALLY love your books! And I'm dying to get my hands on Graveyard Book and Neverwhere...Thanks for the attention Livia

Let's see... first of all, you don't need a ticket for FLIP. You do need a ticket to get into the main tent where the authors are talking, or to sit down and watch the overflow screen -- but you can watch the interview without sitting down or listen from anywhere near where the big screen overflow place is. Richard Price and I will be talking at 11:45 am. As for signing, there will be a signing at about 1.00pm on Saturday in the signing area, which will undoubtedly go on for a while. We will probably have to limit the number of things I sign (so for heaven's sake don't hitchhike or drive carrying all the Sandman books plus another set for a dying friend -- they won't get signed. It will be two, maybe three things are most). I'll stop signing at 7.00pm when Tom Stoppard's talk starts, because I want to hear it.

I'll also be on on Sunday at the DESERT ISLAND BOOKS panel at 5.00pm -- there's no signing planned after that, though.

There may be more signing, there may not -- probably not, as the organisers haven't planned for it. I may sign stuff if you bump into me on the cobblestones or in the town square and ask nicely or just hold something out and smile (I have been so far, but it'll depend a bit on how many people try and whether I need to get from place to place) especially if you can do it without making it look like I've suddenly decided to do a signing in the street.

(yes, my icon IS a reference to Teen Girl Squad :D)

It's not really anything to post about but in the latest issue of "EGM", they mention Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People. Is anybody else going to get it when it comes out?
 

Prompt #23: All dressed up

Sorry this is late, but since my last post got a grand total of 0 comments, I don't think many of you care. But here we go anyway.

First we have The Format with The First Single off of their first album Interventions & Lullabies. Unfortunately, The Format only put out one more album before going on hiatus. They make great pop music, and this song is suitably catchy and poppy. And danceable! Which is always a plus.

Next, we have another Yo La Tengo song, this time off of I Heard the Heart Beating As One, which I'm pretty sure is up there with Painful as one of their best album. This song, Stockholm Syndrome, is sung by James, their bassist, and it's a sweet pop song. James voice is very innocent sounding, made better by his apparent lack of range, and that just makes this song even better. Add in a great guitar freakout by Ira, and another great Yo La Tengo song reveals itself.

And this song, an achingly beautiful, sad song, ends this dear post. Rupa and the April Fishes usually play fusions of Spanish and French music, sung in those respective languages, but this song, Wishful Thinking, is a haunting waltz filled with accordions and chimes, sung in English. Rupa's voice is absolutely gorgeous, and the rest of the instrumentation is romantic to fit. A fantastic song.

http://whatclaudiawore.blogspot.com/2008/07/moment-with-kim-this-just-in-luna.html

A Moment with Kim: THIS JUST IN

Luna Lovegood = Claudia Kishi's wizard counterpart.


Two words: radish earrings.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/07/morning-found-me-miles-away.html

Still in Brazil. Still with Miss Maddy. Still having a lovely time.

Bought lots of books in the Paraty Festival bookshop today -- and saw many beautiful Brazilian editions of my stuff I hadn't seen before.

My favourite article read on the plane, incidentally, was the wonderful The Magic Olympics -- with tricks explained! by Alex Stone, in Harpers, which you can read online at: http://harpers.org/archive/2008/07/0082095 (my second favourite was the Gopnik article on Chesterton in the New Yorker, but it's not online, and I think he missed the boat about Chesterton politically). [My mistake. The Harpers article is only readable for subscribers.]

Hi Neil,You wrote a lovely story, told by Abel (I believe) about crows sitting in judgment on their storytellers. Somewhere along the way, this story became fact in my head. I was wondering if there is any truth to the myth, or if it's just myth. Maybe you could pass the question on to the Birdchick?Thanks!MRM

The description of corvids sitting around one of their number, cawing back and forth, and then sometimes killing it and sometimes flying off is something I've run into in old bird literature (and more recently as well -- since Sandman 40 came out I've read an eyewitness account of it in the Smithsonian Magazine). As to why it happens, I don't think you'll find any bird people who claim to know.

I should mention that the collective noun for rooks is not a parliament (which is actually the collective noun for owls) or it wasn't until I wrote Sandman 40, anyway. Mostly it's a building or a clamour of rooks. Sometimes it's a storytelling of rooks, which sounds like something I might have made up anyway...

Does Neil have an official myspace page? If so what is the adress?

No, I don't. There's an unofficial one, or more than one out there. I keep meaning to set up official myspaces and facebooks, but really tend to feel that keeping this place under control is more than enough for one author, and it never happens.

Hi Neil--Not really a question for you, just comment. You mentioned Tom Stoppard in your blog today. They say you should never meet your heroes, but they never say how cool it is when some of your heroes meet each other and get along so well. You seem to get along well with just about everyone. What just makes me smile is that so many of them are heroes of mine (Dave McKean, Roger Zelazny, Tom Stoppard, Philip Pullman,... ).Good luck growing up to be Mr. Stoppard. You seem well on your way.Have fun!
Geoff

Actually, you should never meet your heroes if you want to keep them as heroes. They may wind up as friends or as disappointments or as pleasant surprises, but once you know them they immediately stop being heroes. (I've turned down several opportunities to meet Stephen Sondheim socially, because he's practically all I've got left. Even David Bowie, who I've never even met, has managed to transmute in my head most of the way from DAVID BOWIE ZOMG!!1!* to my friend Duncan's dad.)

But then, I'm not sure about heroes at the best of times. I wrote about it at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2004/10/whatever-happened-to-sancho-panza.asp
and still feel pretty much the same way now.

The most remarkable thing about Tom Stoppard (leaving aside the whole him-being-a-genius thing) is he's twenty years older than me, and he has my hair!

This gives me hope.



.......

*correct !!1! punctuation assistance here by Maddy.

http://www.homestarrunner.com/baloneyman.html

new short :D