emperor_norton

My ex bought I Am Charlotte Simmons, and made it about half way through. I picked it up on the can one day and read two pages. That's all the Tom Wolfe I expect to read. Ever.

Your response in the 'Would you date me?' thread was uproariously funny. Well done.

Do people in Phoenix really call themselves Phoenicians? That's fucking ace! When Cali becomes an Island, you have to find a nice little inlet in what used to be the desert and call it Novo Novo Cartago.

Cat people terrify me.

Roxy Music is a band I've heard very little of but have always intended to hear more of.

1.) Fucking awesome.

2.) You've actually swayed me the other way. Now that I've considered the idea of "Mr. Whisker's Complaint", I have to support the cat people until that novel is written. I must must must read it.

3.) Thanks for the suggestions. I'm a relatively big Eno fan, (which is how I got interested in Roxy to begin with) so I'll follow your advice and try the early stuff first.

So are you primarily a punk/new wave fan now? Or was the SLC punk thing misleading?

Don't fool yourself. You don't write journal entries, you write chapters. However, you write rather well, much better than I do, to which I have to say: Thank God I'm not attempting to write novels as your superior writing skills and our apparent nearness in age would otherwise be a discouragement. As it is, screenplays can get away with so-so writing here and there as long as the dialogue is good.

With regard to cinema, you have a good point, but you neglected to consider how heavily advertised most Hollywood films are. Of the "indie" examples you mentioned, only Napoleon Dynamite (and even then, I might have just not seen it) weren't advertised. Thus, gems like Thank You For Smoking, to name a recent example, pass relatively unnoticed as much because most people never hear about them. Then again, you might be able to pin that one on the public as well. Working at a movie theatre this past winter, the patron's exclamations of delight upon exiting Cheaper By the Dozen 2 and The Benchwarmers certainly swings the argument in your favor.

A'dam = Amsterdam and Reims is in France... (within the Champagne region) going there to visit a Champagne house, specifically Vueve Cliquot. I should be in Amsterdam for three days, Reims for 1.5, then Paris for the rest of the week. Since its such a short time, i'm trying not to have too many expectations and really just want experince what ever happens in the moment. I have tickets to a football match in Paris, so that should be fun... I have reservations at Veuve Cliqot, as well... otherwise, there isn't much planned and that is how I like it. =)

Thx.

I just read your advice column. You are the cleverer, to be sure. I was glad to read your review of Brook's new book as I have not had time to pick up a copy myself. I'm in the process of writing a character-driven zombie screenplay and heard that Brad Pitt's production company had picked up the movie rights to WWZ, but as long as his story doesn't infringe upon my vision, then I think I have little to worry about (little being attempting to sell a moderately expensive to make screenplay about zombies to someone who actually has a shot of getting it made as compared to doing the same above with something similar already in the works elsewhere). What a neurotic life we lead.

Fantastic journal, browski!

Two confessions that are more or less on topic here:

1.) I've never done meth, but I've done a few other recreational substances, and under the influence of most of them I suspect I'd find that Lautrec/Anarchism book mighty entertaining. Don't know if that says more about meth, or me. Ahhh tweakers.

2.) As a middle schooler I loved Michener. Well, I only read three of his that I can recall: The Source, Chesapeake, and Poland. The first one I loved, and by I'd finished the third I knew enough to be done with him. But back in '93 I was into that crap. Also: Ken Follet. I didn't know any better.

I don't think you'll regret it. I have a cousin in Phoenix. I stopped there on my way out here. He has an extra bedroom. If his girlfriend didn't prefer a half a dozen sugar gliders to me (they are kind of cute, but really what could she be thinking?), I could have lent you my copy. As it is, I pay a king's ransom in rent only to spend most of my time writing, making my ass poorer.

I'm not sold on Science of Sleep. I have the utmost faith in Gondry's ability to wow me visually, but this looks like it has the potential to enter dangerous romantic comedy territory...

I hope to god I'm wrong.

It's definitely a rant. As such, I won't comment. Hope it felt good to get it off your chest. The Rocky Horror amused me.

I remembered something I forgot to write after getting to the end of your essay. I recently watched the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica at the behest of a friend. While I doubt I'm anywhere near as enthusiastic about it as she is, it's pretty good as far as hour-long television dramas are concerned. However, there's something that one of the main characters points out in the first episode that appears to be one of the show's continuing themes (if the writers for the week get around to it that is), that something being "When we fought the cylons, we did it to save ourselves from extinction, but we never answered the question 'why.' Why are we as a people worth saving?" It's a damn good question and it's one that I've yet to come up with my own personal answer to.

Y is great. I really appreciated as an aspiring writer because while the story was top-notch from the very beginning, the dialogue in the first few trades left something to be desired. Eventually though, he seemed to get the flow, which gave me hope in spite of my first dismal attempts at the art of conversation. I wrote Vaughan an email saying as much and, to my great amusement, he wrote back thanking me for the most honest compliment he's had in a while.

Love the moniker by the way.

It's amazing how many comic writers have their email address out in the open and how quickly they respond, at least in my experience. I also wrote Jamie Delano - the first guy on Hellblazer - a while back with some questions and both he and Vaughan responded within like 12 hours of my original email, a lot better than most of my so-called real-life friends. I know Warren Ellis is huge on corresponding with fans, although I've never had a reason to write him myself (other than the generic "You're awesome!" email which I tend to avoid - I'm sure he gets enough of that without me adding to the pile); in fact, he appears to run the biggest virtual enterprise I've seen outside of webcomist, but I guess with his emphasis on creator-owned comics, you have to work it a lot harder.

Haven't read Fables, but I'll check it out. As I'm currently unemployed, I've been avoiding comic shops like syphyllis. I suppose I could check the local library to see if they have it; that's where a friend found some copies of The Goon, which is phenomenal if you haven't read it. Also, I really like how Phil Foglio tells his story in Girl Genius which he has huge parts of online as a webcomic of sorts at , if you haven't come across it before and would like to check that out.

In other news, you've probably heard that they're doing a Y movie and giving Vaughan first shot at writing the script. Still, I'm only slightly less dubious about fitting that storyline into two or so hours than I am about them doing the same to Watchmen. Why can't they leave him alone? Hasn't poor Alan suffered enough at the hands of Hollywood? Of course, I want to make movies too, but I'd like to think I'd have the decency to leave what can't be made into a movie (or what the creative forces behind the film can't make into a movie, as was the case with V) as, well, not a movie.

Sorry for the length, I've been loquacious since my nap. I only wish my own projects were this easy to write...

I know you, you know me.

;-)

see our movie yet?

I'm with you on the Woody Allen fans hatred track. Yet I've always counted myself among them. I guess as a non-Jew it's my version of self-loathing. Bill Hicks is a worthy hero.

i was just *this close* to getting rid of a bunch of my playstation games as part of a whole "cleaning out the closets" purge. but they made the cut after all.

your writing is phenomenal; tell me you've been published.