13 posts tagged “neil gaiman”

As always, Neil says it best:

I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

So I took the train up to NYC this past weekend to visit some friends and to see the play The Wolves in the Walls (based on the Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean book of course).  My friends and I thought it was absolutely freakin' amazing.  I thought how they did the sets and lighting was worked really well and all of the actors (human, wolfie, and stuffed) did an excellent job.  Lucy's pet pig puppet was a big hit with our group as were the toaster, rollerskating wolf and vacuuming wolf.  The New Victory Theatre was very pretty inside and our seats were great (Orchestra Right row H). 

It makes me a bit sad that the rest of my Neil Gaiman adoring friends won't be able to see it as I know they would've loved it as much as I did.  So if you're in NYC, I would highly recommend going to see it while you can.  Because know what they say -- if the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over . . .
 

A fun little book meme I "borrowed" from Fattypants . . . I also left off the tag part so go for it if you're interested . . .

1. One book that changed your life:  Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams.  It was the book that led me to the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the library and I haven't looked back since . . .

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: If I like a book, I'm very likely to read it more than once.  So a randomly picked one is The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery . . .

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:  Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy (and yes it counts as one book . . .)

4. One book that made you laugh:  I thought Waltz with a Vampire by Maggie MacKeever was quite funny . . .

5. One book that made you cry:  Most recently Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.R. Rowling (lots of sobbing there . . .)

6. One book that you wish you had written:  I've never had any interest in writing but if I did, I would hope it would be something like Moira Moore's Resenting the Hero

7. One book that you wish had never been written:  Nothing comes to mind as I tend to avoid books I know I'll hate and I can't say I wish something had never been written without reading it first.

8. One book you’re currently reading:  I'm currently between books.  My current library pile includes The Mislaid Magician by Patricia Wrede & Caroline Stevermer, Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn, Scent of Darkness by Christina Dodd and The Top 10 Myths About Evolution by Cameron McPherson Smith and Charles Sullivan.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:  I have a whole list.  At the top of it is probably Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman . . . I just haven't gotten around to it even though I do own it . . .

* I'm fairly settled into the apartment.  My bedroom teeters between clean and a complete disaster.  The office stays a disaster.  At this point I think I need a couple days of nothing else going on to get things straighten up.  Don't see that happening anytime soon . . .

* Work is work.  Last Friday was the one month mark.  We had the annual conference and second part of training on the application last week.  Both were interesting but exhausting.

* I saw some of my relatives this weekend while at home for my best friend's birthday party.  We went to the beach.  I'm pretty sure I hadn't been down to the beach since I worked at Arby's between freshman & sophomore years of college.  It was crowded and the sand was hot.  I wasn't in the right mood to enjoy the beach so it was more of a hassle than anything else.

* I saw Stardust (based on Neil Gaiman's marvelous book).  While I loved the 2nd part (starting when the unicorn appears), I wasn't as enamored of the first part -- it seemed slower than necessary to me.  The changes they made I think worked well.  And Robert De Niro was a hoot.  It's on my "DVDs to buy" list.

* When I saw Transformers I was quite unimpressed with the movie previews they showed (with the untitled 1-18-08 movie being the exception).  I think I want to see almost all the moves they showed this time including The Golden Compass and The Spiderwick Chronicles.

* I have tickets to see Wolves in the Walls (based on another of Neil Gaiman's marvelous books) in NYC in October.  I'm very much looking forward to it and hanging out with hollychrome again.  As I saw the adaption of Stardust a couple years ago in Chicago, seeing Wolves was high on my Want! list.  I'm still miffed the Neverwhere adaption in Louisiana closed before ALA New Orleans started.

* I saw a local professional production of Into The Woods last Thursday.  I loved the first act.  The second act didn't seem to fit with the first one so it was jarring.  I wasn't also expecting so much death in it.  Not something I'm likely to see again.

* I had ice cream with a friend I met at a summer program between junior & senior years of high school.  We had kept in touch but hadn't seen each other since that summer.  It was nice to catch up on each other's lives.   I also had dinner with a high school friend I hadn't seen in 6 years.  Being closer has its perks and disadvantages.

* The VA Opera is doing a production of Pirates of Penzance.  While I love it, I've already seen one of their productions of it (it was set in WWII London and Pirates was a play within the play -- it was good but not what I was expecting).  The upcoming production is suppose to be traditional.  The Opera Columbus production I saw a few years ago was just perfect so I'll probably pass on it.

The Guardian did their own version of the Wired 6 word short stories.  I have to agree with Neil -- I like the Wired ones more.  But I think these were well done:

"It can't be. I'm a virgin."
Kate Atkinson

Set sail, great storm, all lost.
John Banville

Dad called: DNA back: he isn't.
Helen Fielding

"Apple?" "No." "Taste!" "ADAM?" Oh God.
David Lodge

He didn't. She did. Big mistake.
AL Kennedy

They awaited sunrise. It never came.
AS Byatt

What's one of your favorite quotes? 
Submitted by Georgie-boy. 

I can't do just one!

From Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.

From Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest:
Algernon: It is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read.

From Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens:
God moves in extremely mysterious, not to say, circuitous ways. God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, [ie., everybody.] to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

From The Princess Bride:
Vizzini: He didn't fall? Inconceivable!
Inigo: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

If you could write like one fiction author, who would it be?
Submitted by Marilyn.

Neil Gaiman . . . duh!  :-)

Following Jp's lead (and to test out this group thing) . . .

Graphic Novels & Collected Comics

• Sandman: The Dream Hunters

• American Gods
• Anansi Boys: A Novel (signed)
• Coraline
• Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Good Omens (signed)
• Neverwhere
• Stardust
• "The Monarch of the Glen" in Legends II : New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy
• "Sunbird" in Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel...

• A Short Film about John Bolton (DVD)
• MirrorMask (DVD)
• Where's Neil When You Need Him (CD)
• Various downloaded stuff he's mentioned on the blog . . .
  

You're trapped in a (temporarily) out of order elevator - who would you like to be trapped with? 
Submitted by tbtissimus.

I will be completely predictable and say Neil Gaiman . . . :-)

I will make my own holiday cards and they will have the following on them because it's perfect:

Happies. Merries. Jollies. And love.
 -- Neil Gaiman, 28 Dec 2006